Fragile Fragments
Notes… I actually got the inspiration to write this after reading this story called Anatomy of Desire by John L'Hereux and you'd probably see it if you ever read it. I doubt you have… But you should try to find it for the sheer weirdness. I don't even know what happened in there. Robert Coover's In Bed one Night is also pretty weird.
Anyway… The point was that I wanted to write a series of Mind Screw stories- except part of the way through I ran out of ideas. At least I can write Lovecraft Anon again. Oh don't act like you're surprised I'm the one doing this again.
-Side note- I know I use the word "stupor" in a weird way but that's the point. I know what the word means before you think I'm stupid. I know what I'm doing, okay?
My hand fell off when I was going to sign the rights to buy Yu Yu Hakusho.
(0)c(0)
I.
Hiei said to Mukuro, "I want you to swallow me whole and let me beneath your skin."
Mukuro smiled and stripped down to her bare skin. He handed her a blade, hand shaking in anticipation, and watched as the blade pierced through her skin. The blade licked through her flesh as she drove it deeper without so much of a moan of pain. She pinched the skin and slowly pulled it away until all that was left was the blood and raw flesh of muscle.
He took the skin and held it in his hands, cradling it in empty hesitation. She nodded, the fleshed out woman. She nodded and he knew that it was time he went through. He took the skin and placed it over his own skin and he wore it as long as it lasted.
II.
Two figures walking in the sands, not walking with each other or away from each other. Just two figures walking aimlessly in the same general area not entirely aware of the others' presence. Two figures walking in the sand- one man and one woman. The woman had traveled from farther sands from him and she was ready to end her journey. She stopped and ripped off her head and tossed it in the sand, burying it in a couple of kicks of sand without much regret. She sat there waiting for someone to come along- but not entirely waiting for the man to come.
She saw the man rip off his head and was about to throw it in the sand when she asked him, "Can I have that?"
In return she gave him hers.
III.
A voice in his head alerted him of the tunnel nearby. It told him to walk in because what the end of it was ecstasy. Somehow he decided it wasn't worth it, even if it didn't turn out to be a lie. Instead he sat at the mouth of the tunnel, thinking that knowing it was there was enough. Not that the tunnel was begging him to go in anyway.
IV.
Hiei saw himself in the mirror, suddenly taking in what he was seeing. The man in the mirror was the one to cower and he punched Hiei in the face.
"I'm in the room," Mukuro said.
V.
Mukuro: I am in a fantasy but I cannot comprehend. I cannot comprehend but I am death.
Hiei: Death is a lie.
When I saw you I remembered that I was but I didn't want to be anymore.
In the end you and I are in a dream. It should suffice. Doesn't it?
VI.
A man offered him a tour of a factory. He didn't know the man; he just randomly appeared just to offer strangers tours of this factory, apparently. (Though from the looks of it, there were never any takers until this point.) The man claimed that, in his words, it would "blow his mind by the sheer amazement." And considering that he was at an age where it was when he should be curious about such things, he saw nothing wrong with taking it. The man took him in, practically dancing a jig as he did so, and rubbing his hands together like a crook. He didn't want to go in anymore but still he followed. The man continued to prance around once they were inside, and Hiei wanted to kill him. He stopped and looked at the surroundings.
The factory was empty.
It was always empty.
VII.
Mukuro was in pain. Clutching her wrist, she curled into a corner, using all the will power to keep herself from sobbing. Only fools sobbed in corners and only bigger fools did it when in pain. Yet she only allowed for one tear to slide out of an eye. Through the corner of her eye, she saw the vague figure of a man walking towards her. The man stopped and crouched in front of her. Hiei took a napkin out of his pocket, and after a moment of inspecting it, he held it out to her. She took it and sat there, staring at it, not entirely sure what to do with the napkin. Another tear rolled out in spite of herself.
"Don't," he said.
The evidence vanished at the sound of his voice.
"Where does it hurt?"
"Why, are you going to kiss it?" It was mostly supposed to be a joke.
His only reaction was a simple blink. "Where does it hurt?"
"There."
And he did.
VIII.
Mukuro: Well…
She uncrossed her legs and the room was filled with darkness and the air became stagnant, choking the one who had the misfortune of taking in a breath in the area. She struggled for a moment some sort of whimper escaping her throat. She stopped as though held down, eyes clenched shut, breath growing ragged. There was a sudden irritating itch in the skin that could not be ignored, an itch right where the skin was sensitive. Boils appeared at the area of the itch and the flesh rotted, falling away. It became a place where something as simple as a cold could kill a man. There was the stinging of release. Out sprung forth the slime of an unnatural mucus
Mukuro who finished her struggle crossed her legs again.
Mukuro: That's why.
IX.
"If you stay," Mukuro said, "I will give you my blood, my flesh, my breath, my life to you. And you may do as you like with it. Only if you stay with me tonight. There are no further obligations- no necessary touching or anything. You just stay with me." She sat and waited for his answer. He paused, and thought about it as he shifted his hands in his lap. He nodded. He decided then. She stared at him, hesitant to go on though she knew what she must do.
He nodded again, supposing she didn't understand his answer or possibly he was declaring his sincerity. She hesitated one moment more. She undressed and when that was done, she opened her chest up and took out her heart- her blood, her flesh, her life.
He understood that he must do the same. He undressed, opened his chest, then paused and looked at the clothes on the floor. He glanced at her, and she looked back at him, fidgeting slightly. He let the awkward air slide away and he reached into his chest and took out his heart- his blood, his flesh, his breath, his life. They reached for the other's heart and took it.
They stared at the life in their hands, the pulsing life in their hands.
They didn't know what else to do.
X.
She took an axe and struck him across the chest. She didn't know why she did it. Maybe it was something he said or something he didn't say. Or the words that he did do. When he hit the ground, she struck him repeatedly in some sort of stupor or maybe a fit of mania.
And when she saw what she had done
She sewed his pieces back together one by one.
XI.
I saw that he was shattered so I put him back together. When that was done, I realized that I was in pieces- just like I always was.
XII.
I am afraid. I am not alone. But I am afraid.
…I fucking feel good.
XIII.
She was laying in the dark on her back, legs spread in an uneasily welcoming way. Staring up at the ceiling daydreaming about daisy chains and loving touches and sunlight and walking. Daydreaming enough to keep herself somewhat sane trying to silence the voices. He was in the corner killing and erasing life after life. As soon as one hit the ground another stood up in front of him like some fucked up odd loop from hell. And he knew that if he let them take him he would spring back up like they did.
STILL
He paused and stared at her.
"Fuck this," he said. "I'm tired of this shit. Aren't you?"
"You know, all this time I done this I've never experienced…" She didn't want to say anymore.
XIV.
There was a plant in the room. It was a vine or maybe some sort of ivy. It grabbed Mukuro by her ankle as soon as she entered the room, knocking her face forward. She clawed at the ground to stop her from being dragged but it still took her to its pot. It then extended its vines and wrapped itself around her, paying close attention to the curves and crevices of her body, and it tied her to the pot. The more she struggled, the tighter its grasp was. It got so tight she was almost strangled. And she stayed trapped there for years.
Hiei entered the room and searched around. After several years of doing this, he came across Mukuro. He tried to pull her away from the vines but they cut his hands. He lit it on fire and then he released her.
XV.
"It is the end," Hiei said.
"Nothing is over," Mukuro said. "It is the beginning."
"Nothing is forever."
"Forever cycles on…"
They stopped, stared at each other and became one flesh.