**I don't own Rurouni Kenshin. Really.**
~these mean dream~
regular is out of dream
"speech"
'thoughts'

Sorrow- Chapter 1: Bad Dreams


~He was back, walking that same path he had walked so many times before, in his dreams. In his mind were the screams, her screams, other screams. Screams of the dead. The dead he had killed. So many dead, so much blood on his hands.

He felt something warm on his cheek. Blood. His scar was bleeding again. Just like it had done then. Blood coursing down his face, falling on his clothes. Tinting the snow crimson. Now the blood was coming from his nose, eyes, mouth. The blood was flowing over him, drowning him, but still he kept walking.

He walked for an eternity, the screams following him everywhere, wading through blood. His blood and the blood of others. Wading through his sins, his murders. Screams followed him, clawed at him, as if they possessed claws, ripping at him, making him bleed even more. And her screams were the loudest of all.

Finally he made it to a clearing, blood pouring from everywhere. And there it was, all as it was in his memory. A man with a sword, and behind him...

Tomoe. The man leapt at him, and he countered, just barely. He was weak, and the claws were grabbing at him, the blood keeping him back. All those lives, pulling him backwards. And just when he was about to give the finishing blow, she was there. His sword bit into her, cleaving her shoulder. Her eyes grew wide, her mouth forming into a perfect O of surprise.

"Tomoe!"

She slid slowly off his sword, fell to the ground, the perfect white snow. He bent down, crying, not believing what had just happened, though it had happened inumerable times before. And her face changed. She was Kaoru now. She reached up to brush his cheek, crossing the X with her dagger. His blood fell on her, tainting her pure form. "Kenshin..."~

Kaoru awoke to crashing in Kenshin's room. She hurried to get up, rushing out into the hallway. Kenshin's door opened, and he stumbled out, breathing hard. As he looked up at her, his eyes were wild, scared, angry. His hair was disshelved, his clothes mussed.

"K, Kaoru... you're alive." he smiled for a moment, then drew back, as if in fear. His eyes flashed amber.

"Kenshin!" She hurried over to him, then stopped in shock. "Oh my god... Kenshin, your scar..." It was bleeding, oozing crimson.

He looked up at her, and drew back, as if she were a ghost, a phantom. "Tomoe!" He scrambled back, then fell, and lay still. Kaoru ran to his side. His scar was still bleeding, staining his dark gi and even darker, more sinister color.

"Kenshin! Kenshin wake up! Oh, please wake up!" Kaoru cried. But he wasn't moving. "Yahiko! Come here now!" she called to her student.

He came sleepily, cursing and asking what the hell she had woken him up for at this hour, but when he saw Kenshin he stopped. "Kaoru, what happened, what's wrong with Kenshin!?"

She just shook her head and said, "I don't know, go fetch Dr. Genzai and Megumi, quickly!" He hesitated, staring at Kenshin, then hurried out.

Kaoru stared at Kenshin for a moment, wondering what had made him like this. What could possibly be going on in his head?

~He was battling, endlessly swinging and parrying, against endless opponents. The blood flowed, until it was a lake, and ocean of blood, rising and rising, coming higher and higher, until it was at his knees, his thighs, his stomach. And still he fought, for what reason he knew not, just that he had to fight. Fought until the darkness took him...~

**OK, my first Kenshin fic. How was it? Sucky, good, anything? And this is supposed to happen... oh, a little after the kyoto arc. Because that's all I've seen. So... review please?**