I am back. My life is more or less back on track and my hiatus shouldn't last much longer. So now, here's the next chapter of this fic.

Bumblebee belongs to Transformers

Chucky belongs to Child's play

Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.

I am assuming everyone knows about Harry Potter. If not...I dunno what to say.

Beta Cerice Belle.

Thanks for the reviews, favorites and alerts. Please R&R

Chapter 1

10 months later:

"Stay still, Orihime." Ryuuken Ishida's voice had a mild tinge of irritation, "I need to get the imaging done."

But Orihime couldn't stay still. She'd had enough. Between coming-to-terms with Sora's death, handling the accuses of her estranged parents who blamed her for their son's death, finding a buyer for her old house, looking for a new place to stay, getting a job and her frequent trips to the hospital owing to the head injury that she had sustained when she fainted on getting the news of Sora's demise, she was stretched thin. The past ten months had been a blur and she was eager to put it all behind and move on. She closed her eyes and told herself that this too would pass. In these ten months Orihime had grown up more than she had in all her twenty-three years of life. Sora used to lovingly call her his baby doll, and baby was exactly what she had been. However, in less than a year, she had learned three very valuable life lessons that she would never forget. One, everything in life was transient, nothing lasted forever. What was here and now was what was important and true. Planning for future was good, but believing that life would go exactly as planned was foolishness. Two, not everyone in the world was what they seemed. For some reason, a young single woman, fresh out of trauma, was seen as an easy target by a lot of men. She assumed that was because they thought she was vulnerable and there were enough douche-bags out there who wouldn't think twice before playing on a woman's vulnerability to get her to sleep with him. This led her to the third life lesson: you are what you present yourself to the world. She had realized that if you let your vulnerabilities show, you will be perceived as weak and therefor easy to take advantage of.

Sora's death had changed her as a person. For a while she had been in complete denial. She had attended the funeral only because her childhood friend, Tatsuki Arisawa had dragged her. She hadn't shed a single tear the whole time and kept asking Tatsuki when Sora would come back and insisted that he was late. Her mother had broken down at the funeral and started shouting at Orihime that she was the reason her son was dead. To Orihime, nothing of what the older woman said registered. She kept staring at her as if she was an interesting but ultimately unimpressive piece of display at the museum. When Tatsuki tried to stand up to her mother on Orihime's behalf, her father had curtly told her to take her ginger-haired friend away and ensure that she never showed her face to them again.

It was some time after the funeral, that she started seeing spots accompanied with splitting headache. When she was overcome with a bout of vomiting as well, her old friend Uryuu Ishida got worried and dragged her to his father, who was a doctor. It was there that she discovered that she had sustained a concussion, thankfully though her brain wasn't damaged. It took her some time to realize that she had hit her head on the wooden chest of drawers when she had collapsed that day on getting the call. Along with this realization came anger. Anger at her parents for blaming her for something that she had no control over, anger at God for being so unfair, anger at herself for not being able to mourn him. But most of all, anger at Sora for leaving her all alone. Had it not been for Uryuu and Tatsuki, she would have stopped having her medicines and ignored her health completely. They were persistent and ensured that Orihime kept all her doctor's appointments, had her medicines, slept properly and had her food even when she didn't feel like it.

It took her sometime to finally get over her anger and accept that Sora was actually gone. With that she had broken down completely. To her those months were a giant black hole. She didn't remember much from that time, except that Tatsuki was living with her and that sometime in those months, she had realized that she couldn't continue living in her current house and that she needed a job. So far, she had been living off of Sora's savings but now the savings had taken a serious hit and she needed to gather herself and start her life over. Finally, seven months after his death, Orihime started to put out sales ads for her house and look for a job and a new place to stay. It was during that time that she came face to face with the ugly side of the world. A couple of potential buyers had tried to get too comfortable with her, as did a few job interviewers and one potential landlord. It was her friend Ryo Kunieda who explained to her what was happening. She was a young woman, fresh out of a trauma, people wanted to take advantage of it. Sick to her stomach, Orihime had then done what she should have done a long time ago, approached a real estate agency. Not only had they been quick in finding out a respectable family who were willing to buy her house, they also found her a single bedroom apartment where she could stay.

Medically too her progress had been good and today was an important day for her. If Ryuuken Ishida gave her the O.K., then she was good to start her new job as a kindergarten teacher. She had already moved out of her old house and into the new apartment yesterday. If the older Ishida said that her health was fine, then she would finally be over the nightmarish ten months and be ready to start her new life. Therefore, staying still, as Ryuuken Ishida wanted her to, was a tough task. However, she somehow managed to stay motionless long enough for the doctor to examine her and be happy with her health. Finally Ishida senior gave her the certificate of health that she needed to submit to the kindergarten to complete the paperwork. Armed with that piece of paper, Orihime was finally ready to start her life afresh.

"Where do you want this, Orihime?" Uryuu asked her, holding up a flower vase.

Orihime looked up and with a sharp pang in her chest she remembered the time she purchased this particular vase. Sora had hated it but she loved it. The two of them had had a minor argument about the vase with him finally relenting, as they both knew he would. He could never say no to something that she truly wanted; this vase was a case in point. Swallowing the lump in her throat she pointed in a random direction, not looking to where she pointed.

Uryuu looked at where she was pointing and then to her, "Really Orihime, in the bathroom?"

She gave a smile that didn't reach her eyes, "Put it wherever you feel like, Uryuu. Better still, take it with you. I don't want to see that thing."

Despite her best efforts, a lone tear had escaped from her eyes. Quietly Uryuu put the vase down on a box and made his way to her. He cupped her face in his hands and tenderly thumbed the tear away.

"You know what?" He said, "Let's go grab a bite. I'll call Sado, Tatsuki and Ryo and we all can have some fun, just like we did in school."

Orihime smiled, gently pried Uryuu's hands off her face and said, "No Uryuu. I can't leave all this and go now. I need to finish unpacking as soon as possible. I start my work on Monday and I want to try and set up my apartment before that. However," She added hurriedly, "I will take you up on that offer sometime soon."

He smiled, nodded and got back to unpacking, carefully moving the vase away from her sight. As she unpacked, she thought back to the time in college when Uryuu had confessed his love for her and Orihime had turned him down. She hadn't been able to explain it to him that she didn't feel any romantic inclinations towards him. In fact she had never felt any romantic inclinations towards anyone in her life. She never understood why, but she had always felt a kind of emptiness within herself, as if a part of her had been missing. For some time she had suspected that she was incapable of loving anyone romantically but off late, she had begun to realize that she was actually waiting for someone. When and how she had come to realize it, she had no clue, but she was convinced that she was searching for someone.

Orihime had been heartbroken for her friend when she had to turn him down. He had been a gentleman about it and never once alluded to it. He had gone on to become one of her closest friends and had never tried to overstep his boundaries. However, in the past ten months, she had noticed signs that led her to believe that he probably still had feelings for her. It was when he did little things like this, that she became slightly uncomfortable and unsure as to how to respond to him. He was everything a woman could ask for, smart, intelligent, perceptive, mild mannered, sensitive and she could sense that someday he would make some woman very happy. Only, she knew it wasn't going to be her. She didn't know how to break it to him without sounding extremely rude and presumptuous, especially because he hadn't done anything that could be exclusively interpreted as him making a move.

The two friends spent the next hour unpacking huge boxes with Uryuu asking her every now and then where she wanted a particular thing. Orihime was crouched over a box of books, sorting the books in her preferred way when she caught a movement from the corner of her eyes. She thought it was Uryuu, but last she remembered, Uryuu had been in the kitchen, which was on the other side of where she'd caught the movement. Frowning she dumped the books back into the box and stood up facing the direction she had spotted the movement in.

"Uryuu," She called out, "Is that you?"

"You called?" the voice came from behind her.

She swivelled around to find Uryuu standing with an egg beater and a stack of glasses in his hands, looking at her with a confused expression on his face.

"Ah, you were in the kitchen," She said feeling a little disoriented.

"Yes. That's where I have been for the past hour or so. Why?"

"I thought…" She ran a hand through her ginger strands and licked her lips, "I thought I saw someone move, near the bedroom."

"Bedroom? Orihime, other than you and me, there is no one there in the house. I was in the kitchen and you're in the living room, how can someone be moving in the bedroom?"

"I don't know. I guess I am just tired or maybe it was a trick of the light." She bit her lower lip and turned to look at the bedroom again, wondering if it was really a 'trick of the light' or…

"You know what I think?" Uryuu said, cutting through her chain of thoughts, "I think you are tired and are seeing things."

Orihime scowled and said with mock anger, "Seeing things? How dare you suggest something like that?"

"With your imagination, is it so unbelieveable?"

The two friends laughed and got back to unpacking in amicable silence. Orihime however could not shake off the uneasy feeling that there was someone else in the apartment. Slowly, her wild imagination presented a horrifying possibility to her.

"Uryuu!" She called out.

The young man ran into the living room and came to a skidding halt, "What? Are you ok?"

Wide eyed she asked, "Do you think this apartment is haunted?"

"What? Where do you come up with these things?"

"Think about it Uryuu, other than us there's no one in the house and yet I caught a movement. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that this place is haunted."

The black-haired man shook his head slightly and offered, "If it's of any consolation, you are the first tenant of this apartment. You do remember that this is a new building, don't you?"

She chewed on a fingernail as she pondered on it, "Yes I remember that. But before that this was an empty piece of land for God-knows how long. What if someone was murdered here and buried without anyone knowing about it and now the ghost haunts this house?"

Uryuu sighed, walked up to his friend and playfully poked her forehead.

"That place hosts an amazing brain," he said grinning, "Only you could come up with a theory like this. Even if someone were buried here, don't you think the remains would have come out when the building was being made?"

"Yes but …"

"No buts Orihime. You are tired and hungry and your mind is playing games, stop overthinking. Anyway, Tatsuki called some time ago. She and Ryo should be here soon with a pizza and Sado will be joining shortly. They'll help with the rest of the unpacking, so right now, I suggest you sit down and take a breather."

She gave her friend a sweet smile, "Thanks Uryuu. What would I have done without you all? I am so lucky to have you all."

"Hey," he replied softly, "you would have done the same for us."

Her honey brown eyes looked into Uryuu's deep blue eyes and there she saw what she had been scared of. Before she could say anything, he slowly leaned in and took her lips in a soft, gentle kiss. Her whole body froze. She did not wish to pull away because she cared for his feelings but she couldn't let him continue either. She placed her hands on his chest and applied a little pressure to show her resistance. Immediately Uryuu pulled back. She saw the hurt in his eyes as he realized that his affections were still unrequited. He was about to speak when two voices sounded from the door in unison.

"WOW!" The two girls squealed.

"This is unexpected." Ryo said smiling.

"No no…" Uryu cut in hastily but Tatsuki overrode him.

"I am so happy for the two of you."

She gingerly put the Pizza on one of the unopened boxes and ran to hug Orihime.

"Ryo, Tatsuki. It's not how …" Uryuu started but Ryo cut him off.

"Quit being the shy guy Uryuu. It's perfectly alright. We won't interfere in your lovey-dovey moments, I assure you."

"Girls!" Uryuu screamed finally losing his patience, "It's not how it seems! There is nothing going on here, alright?"

A visibly annoyed Uryuu stormed out of the living room, leaving the three girls gaping after him.

Orihime lay on her bed, exhausted both physically and emotionally. After Uryuu had stormed out of the living room, the atmosphere in the apartment had been very tense. After a while, Orihime had gone to speak to him. To say that the conversation had been uncomfortable was an understatement. However, he did say that he understood that she didn't love him. He even apologized for crossing his limits. But then he said that he needed some time to get in control of himself and his thoughts. He left the apartment soon after. All this tension had a direct impact on their unpacking and as a result, a lot of boxes were still unopened. Tatsuki had showed every sign of wanting to stay for the night but Orihime insisted that she needed to get adjusted to living alone in this house. In reality, she had wanted solitude to get her thoughts in order and steel herself for what was coming day after tomorrow. The good thing that the next day was Sunday so she could sleep a little longer and continue unpacking. She stretched and cast a look at the lamp next to her bed, thankful that she had planned to get this with herself. She could never sleep in complete darkness. She yawned, curled up in a fetal position and closed her eyes to sleep.

She had barely drifted to sleep when suddenly something woke her up. With a jolt she sat up, staring around for the reason she had woken up. It took her a few moments to locate it; a strange clicking sound. Once again her vivid imagination took over as she envisioned a possessed automaton that looked like a love child of Bumblebee and Chucky, clicking and clattering its way to her bedroom to kill her. Worried and scared she armed herself with a heavy photo frame that was on the bedside table, ready for the mechanical nightmare that was headed her way. However what came into her room was something completely different.

The thing that had walked in was, she supposed in a way human. It had a head, long black hair, a chest, two hands and two legs. However, that was where the similarity ended. He (she assumed it was a he because it didn't have any breasts) had two horns on his head, his irises were yellow and his sclera was green. He had broad, black, tear-like marks running down his cheeks with thin vertical lines above his thick eyebrows. His skin was chalk-white. Right in the middle of his chest was a huge hole from which a blackish blood-like thing flowed out. Adding to his bizarre appearance was the fact that his arms, his waist and his legs were covered in black fur-like substance with his appendages ending in claws. If that wasn't enough, he had two huge, leathery, bat-like wings on his back and a long tail.

Orihime gaped at the thing that had walked into her room wondering if her head injury had some belated effect on her that she and the doctors were unaware of. As she watched, the bizarre figure walked around her bed as if searching for something. It looked at her sitting on the bed, studying her momentarily, but then it seemed to lose interest in her and continued to walk around in the bedroom.

"Who-what are you?" Orihime whispered, but the thing continued to walk around, its tail and wings folded carefully, ignoring her squeaked question.

"Hello?" She said a little louder. The thing looked at her yet again but then resumed its search, completely disregarding her.

Annoyed at being ignored and more than a little worried that she was hallucinating, she hurled the frame in its direction such that the frame struck the thing on its shoulder. He turned around, finally facing her.

"You can see me?" He asked in a human male voice which surprised Orihime because she had expected a chiropteran squeak from him.

"Of course I do, did you think I was talking to myself?" She asked in an annoyed voice.

"You can see me and yet do not seem scared?" He asked raising his eyebrows.

"Scared? Of you? No. Only thing I am scared of is that I have lost my mind. I am hallucinating."

"Why would you think you are hallucinating?" The creature asked folding its hands across its chest.

"Eh? Oh I don't know. Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that you have horns, wings and a tail? Oh and a hole in your chest and you also happen to talk like a normal human being. I don't know about you, but to me, that seems pretty wonky."

"I take it that this is the first time you are seeing someone like me." He stated in a monotone.

"Damn straight! Not meaning to be rude or anything, but exactly what are you?" She asked looking up and down its body.

"I am a Hollow."

"Hallow? Deathly Hallow? Like Harry Potter?"

"Who is Harry Potter?" He asked.

Orihime's eyes widened, "You don't know Harry Potter? That's nearly blasphemous!"

"Blasphemous? I suppose I am unaware of the newer saints, it's been a while since I have interacted with humans."

Orihime groaned, "Harry Potter is not a saint, it's a cult."

"A cult?" he repeated, "What kind of sacrifices does it entail?"

"Huh? Sacrifices? Why would Harry Potter entail sacrifices?"

"Then what rituals does this cult follow?"

"What rituals? You can dress up as a character from the series in a comic-con, I guess but what other ritual?"

"I did not understand a word of what you just said, woman."

"Why am I having a conversation about Harry Potter with a Hallow? What the heck is a Hallow anyway?"

"Hollow. Not Hallow. In simple human terms, I am a demon."

"Right!" Orihime said exaggeratedly, "Well 'demon', do you have a name?"

"Ulquiorra."

"Come again?"

"Ulquiorra."

"Well, Ulquiorra, much as I am enjoying this pointless chatter," She said dryly, "but the fact is, you are intruding. This is my house and so, you need to leave."

"Intruding? Me? On the contrary, woman, it's you who's the intruder. This land has been my abode in the human world for centuries. I had to leave the human world briefly for certain unavoidable circumstances and on my return I find that my abode has been encroached upon."

"So, you are telling me that you are some being from some other world that has come into the human world?"

"I am a being of the Netherworld, yes."

She sighed and said, "You know what, I don't have time for this. I am going to sleep. You go back to wherever it is that you came from."

Saying so, she fell on her bed and promptly fell asleep, firmly believing that her overactive imagination had shown her a very elaborate and bizarre dream.