Title: Tainted

Rating: G

Pairing / Characters:

Word Count: 421 words

Warnings: Angry, angsty stuff

Summary: Ichigo talks to his hollow self

A/N: Also a oneshot, the companion piece to dreams of darkness, dreams of light. I like this one. I like it very much despite the fact that it might be OOC. Its angry, which is what I like about it. 

On another weird note, I seem to have developed an odd habit of ending up with fics in the four hundred word count. Don't ask me how. I honestly don't know.

I hate you.

My life was fine until you became a part of it, and now you're trying to destroy it. I may be young but I'm certainly not stupid. I wish that I could kill you, break whatever it is that ties you to me, but I can't because that means that I'll be killing not just a part of my spirit but a part of my life. You're like a leech, clinging onto my mind in the hopes that you'll be able to take it over.

Why you want me I don't know, but I wish you would find someone else's life to pick apart. Who told you that you know what's best for me? I don't want to be like you and I don't need your advice on how to run my life. You stand there, so smug, so knowledgeable, as if I'm the one invading your brain. I don't need you around, with your laughter that haunts my head and your eyes that you think see everything. I'm not a part of you, you're making yourself a part of me. Even when I'm alone I can still feel your presence.

It's like oil, seeping into my pores and wrapping me in its sliminess.

You ruin everything. The attitude of my friends towards me has changed, just because of you. When they talk to me I can see them wondering if you're going to come along and try and whisk me away. They ask me questions about you, questions that I don't have the answers to. Even when I'm forced to do things the way you want them to be done, I can still feel the disapproval of the people around me.

I feel indebted to you because you helped me out once, and now you think that just because you listen to what I say that your opinions are the ones that count. I go to sleep at night with your lectures ringing in my ears and I wake up each morning praying that it will be the day I can finally be free of you.

If I had the courage I would rip my soul apart, take my zanpakutou and cut you out of me, molecule by molecule, even if I die in the process. I would cut myself and let the blood tainted by you flow out of my veins until I'm empty of your presence.

I'll do whatever it takes to free myself from you even if I have to take my own life.