A/N: Hi all! Sorry for the delay, real life decided to be in the way for me, that and I'm being a bit lazy as always. Special thanks to gtoman80 for your review, it made me very happy :D And thank you to everyone who reads my story. :)
WARNING: this chapter contains child abuse, gore and other nasty things... this chapter may very well be M rated material, but if it is, do I really have to change the whole fic rating? And don't think bad of me because of this chapter. And if you didn't read this note and gets a shock while reading, don't blame me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, only my OOC's.
Enjoy
- Chapter VII: Death of Hjouru -
It's dark… I can't see and I can't feel… There's no pain except from my beating heart… I can remember everything I did… and I feel sick. It's like I was destined to loos my sanity, from the very moment I was born, I was domed…
My mother always treated me differently from my three siblings. I still don't know if it was because of my red eyes, you see no one in my family's history have ever had red eyes, so maybe she got scared. Then the fact that I saw and spoke to things she couldn't see or hear probably didn't help me the least, it only freaked her out even more. Then what about my father you might ask, well, while my mother freaked out, he actually didn't seem to mind that much. Once we had a ghost in our house, I asked him what he was staring at, his answer "I might sound mad son, but I think it's something there." He didn't see it clearly, just the blurry outlines, but it was enough to make him realise that it was indeed something there. I told him it was a little girl named Nana and that she had been in our house for the whole week. He was shocked to hear that, but accepted it nothing less.
While I still remember it clearly, I might as well show you my past. But beware, it isn't pretty…
It all started 100 years ago, at the edge of the small village called Brooks…
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It's in the middle of the summer and the air is hot and dry. A soft whimpering cry can be heard from some water barrels next to the cottage wall, the cry is coming from a small boy, no older than 5 years. The reason for the sad whimpering was because of an angry red hand print on the black haired boy's right cheek. It had been a lot of force behind that hit to make it look so swollen, but when he heard someone approaching he willed the tears to stop falling and dried his eyes quickly. A small girl came into view; she looked to be around one year younger than the boy and had a worried expression on her face.
"Hjo-chan, why did mom hit you?" She sat down next to him, when she said this he flinched 'Why did she have to see that? And why? I wish I knew, it's not the first time she has hit me, but I know the reason for this one.' More tears welled up in his eyes despite his hard try to keep them at bay. "Sorry that you saw that, Riku. I think mom thought that I trashed the kitchen, but it wasn't me. It was one of them, he screamed that he hurt and when I tried to calm him he tore all the stuffs in the kitchen to pieces." He felt the small impact of a hug and his shoulder felt suddenly wet, he hugged her back. "Why're you crying, Riku?" He asked while removing some lose strands of her black hair from her eyes. "Because you are… why can't I let her know?"
He locked his red eyes with her violet ones, "Because that would scare her, so don't let her know what you can see, okay?" She hesitated, but replied with an "Okay." He smiled at her and dried her tears as well as his own. "Wanna play some? Mom's busy so she won't notice." This made the little girl shine up like a miniature sun "Yes!" she replied eagerly. She could barely remember the last time she played with her red eyed brother.
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You might think that it's not that bad, but this is just one of my fonder memories. I must say that for only being a 4 year old, Riku was incredible clever and caring. I wonder how she would've been as an adult, probably the best one you could imagine, and somehow I can easily picture her as a teacher. She was sweet and couldn't hold a grudge against anyone… it feels like someone is stabbing my heart every time I'm thinking of how I killed her in cold blood. Maybe mom was right, maybe I am a devil… a devil's child, yet not her own.
Every thing went down hill a few days later…
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A swishing sound followed by the sound of cleaving wood echoed in the back yard of the small cottage. It was a cloudy day with the possibility for rain later on. Hjouru had felt uneasy the whole day; even his sleep had been uneasy and he now tense up at every sudden noise. Like now when he heard a pair of small feet approaching him, but relaxed when he saw it was just Riku. "Oh, hi Riku. Something on your mind?" He asked while putting down the small axe, she shook her head in a negative gesture. "Nuh uh, Mom just wants see you at the kitchen."
He looked at her "Did she tell you why?" he asked nervously.
"Nope, but she didn't seem angry though."
"I guess I better go then…" He said mostly to himself while putting on the leather sheath for the axe and then putting it away. During this Riku had disappeared, saying something about "pulling weed" and "Kiri". He entered the kitchen trough the back door and looked around, empty. He walked to the hall and called on her, no answer. He walked back to the kitchen and there she stood, like she had been there the whole time. "You wanted to see me, mom." He asked with curiosity, it was as Riku said, she didn't look angry. In fact, she looked like she couldn't be happier.
She smiled at him, 'How unusual' "Yes, I feel like I have been unjust to you and I want to make it up for it by playing a game of tag with you." 'What's the catch? She never plays with me.' But she looked so sincere, she really looked like she was regretting something, and maybe she had finally accepted him the way he was. Hjouru hesitated a bit "You're sure? Just you and me?" he couldn't help but to be a little hopeful. Her reply was another beautiful smile and she crouched down and opened up her arms towards him. His eyes widened and he walked towards her slowly before breaking into a small run and hugged her tightly. She wrapped her arms around him and he cried softly into her chest, he finally had a mother who cared about him. Everything would be better from now on, he could feel it…
"So, how about that game now… my son." The last part seemed forced and strained, but in his moment of joy, Hjouru didn't notice, he just nodded happily with tears of joy still running down his cheeks. "Then I'm 'it' and you will have 30 seconds head start, then I'll come, okay?"
"Okay!"
"On three. One. Two. And three!" And Hjouru run out trough the door like a living bolt, shouting "You can't catch me!" with a childish glee and giggles. "Oh, run while you can, because when I catch you, you won't be running anymore you little devil." She whispered with a malicious voice while her hand closed around the handle of one of the knives from the knife stand. After 30 seconds, she chased after him into the dark woods.
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Hjouru couldn't stop laughing (or smiling for that matter), it felt like a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He laughed while jumping over rocks and while ducking under low hanging branches, he heard another set of feet that wasn't his own and figured his mother had caught up to him. He gave up another series of giggles and looked behind himself, the giggles died down instantly and his happy face turned into a horror stricken one. His eyes widened with fear and he started to have difficult to breath. Hjouru tried to run faster, but every thing that went so smooth for him before, had become a hindrance to him now. The rocks were too high to jump and were every where now. The low branches forced him to slow down, made him trip, made him fall down on his knees or entangled him in their twigs and nearly getting him stuck there.
His lungs burned, but he couldn't stop to rest or his time would stop. His vision was blurred by tears and exhaustion, but to stop wasn't an option. Everything ached, but his heart felt the worst. The betrayal had cut way too deep to be good; it was like it had been rammed with a heated knife covered with acid, acid that was now eating at the edges of the wound, widening it and deepening it. With each foot fall, he saw his mother's twisted face. With each painful heart beat, he saw her hate-filled eyes and the knife clutched in her right hand. Her intentions were clear to him, she wanted him dead, and that's why she was so happy back in the house, because she had made a decision. A decision that would now cost him his life…
He couldn't see where he was going, but he could hear the slow purling of the river. It scared him since he couldn't swim, the river wasn't that wide or deep for a grown up person, but for a five year old it was like a lake. But the chance of survival was higher with the river than with his mother's hands, so he kept running till it felt like his heart couldn't take any more stress. It was then he fell. That one small rock could change the out come of his life that much, was devastating. His chances had plunged from slim to non-existent in seconds, because of one tiny… winy… rock… He came to an abrupt stop after the fall at the edge of the river, completely covered in dirt after the tumbling he went trough. His body hurt and he couldn't stop himself from sobbing and pleading for rescue that wouldn't come, he tried to get up, but couldn't hold up his own weight and crashed back to the ground again. He could only lie there, hearing how his mother came closer and closer till she was standing next to him.
"Done running now, eh?" Her voice rung out above him with venom and he flinched by fear, what would she do now? What come next made him lose his breath, his chest cramped after the kick and the cold impact shocked him, then bubbles were every where around him. He couldn't breathe, but he needed to… but no air maid it to his lungs, only water and it only lead to panic. 'I can't breathe!' His remaining strength sipped away fast and he felt very sleepy suddenly. He started to sink, but strangely he didn't feel scared anymore only peaceful and calm. He let the darkness claim him and when he closed his unseeing eyes, one last bubble escaped his lips before every thing went still.
Liza wadded out to where her son landed after the kick, when she finally reached him the water went up to her breasts. She pulled him up and dragged him to the grass, where she let him lay like a ragdoll while she fetched the knife she had put down earlier. She looked up at the cloudy sky and felt small rain drops fall on her up turned face. The wind blow at her wet brown hair and wet clothing, she started to freeze a little. She walked back to the drenched boy, kneeled and murmured a prayer before lifting the knife high up in the air…
XXX
His eyes flew open and he immediately took a deep breath. He coughed a bit where he laid and shivered from the sudden cold. He managed to turn his head to the side, only to be greeted with small rain drops on his pale face. His breath came out in gasps, why was it so hard to breath? And why did his chest ach so much? Sure he had been kicked, but this was a different pain. He managed to rise to his hands and knees and a soft jingle was heard from somewhere beneath him. He looked down and saw a small chain connected to his aching chest, why was that chain there? He then heard another sound, it sounded like a prayer but he couldn't be sure. It came from his left and when he turned his head to the direction, he froze like a deer caught in the highlight. There was his mother kneeling in front of a small body, with the knife raised high in the air. But it wasn't that, that had petrified him, the drenched body in front of her was his own.
"M-mom? W-what are y-you doing? W-What's happening?" He shouted in panic, he was so scared that he was trembling. He looked at the chain once again, saw that it led all the way to his mother and was wrapped tight and secure around her. How come she didn't notice something like that?
What ever she had been mumbling about, she had finished now and what happened next would probably hunt him for the rest of his life. At the same time she rammed the knife in his life less body, intense pain erupted from where his chain connected to his chest and it made him scream.
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"Kiri, it's stuck!" The small girl shouted to her oldest sibling, who only laughed good natural and walked towards her sister. But before she could reach her young sibling the weed Riku was pulling gave after, thus resulting in her falling backwards and hadn't it been for Gigo's catch she would've hit her head. She looked up at her older brother and smiled, showing up the big weed with long deep roots. "It said plop!" She claimed with a big toothy grin, joy radiating from her like a sun.
"Look! Dad's coming home!" Kiri exclaimed with happiness. Her siblings reacted at once, looking immediately at where she was pointing.
When their father finally walked trough the gate, he was tackled to the ground by his kids. "Okay okay! You've missed me, I get it." He said with a smile and hugged the three children in one go. "Now, where are my beloved wife and my youngest son?"
"Last time I saw them it was at the kitchen, but mom was in a good mood, so I don't think Hjouru has done anything bad." Gigo said with a shrug on his shoulders and looked up at the drizzling sky with his brown eyes. His short, spiky, dark brown hair started to flatten out because of the rain, but he didn't really mind it.
"I think I saw him running towards the forest not long ago." Kiri added with a smile and removed a long strand of black hair from her face, "I've never heard him laugh like that, and he sounded so happy." Her brown eyes shone with joy for her youngest brother.
"That's good to hear, I was worried about him the whole morning. Well, we better go inside before anyone of us catches a cold."
"Dad…" Riku whispers frightened, this alarmed her father. What was wrong? "What is it sweet-heart?"
"Who's screaming? It sounds painfull…" she whispered once again, this time with big tears running from her eyes. Lee quickly crouched down and wrapped his arms around his crying daughter. "There, there. Everything is alright. I'll go and check it out while you go inside. Where's the screaming coming from?"
"The-the woods… straight in that direction." She pointed at the forest, the direction she was pointing to led straight to the river's deeper parts. It worried him to say the least. "Kiri, Gigo, take care of Riku while I'm away." His oldest children nodded and Kiri picked Riku up and walked inside, Gigo was close behind. When the children disappeared inside Lee ran in the direction Riku had directed him.
When he reached the site, his stomach clenched and he threw up everything he had eaten that day. "LIZA! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? THAT'S OUR SON!"
XXX
The pain was unbearable and he just wanted to die now and then where he laid, but death never came, only more pain. He wanted to scream, but couldn't gather enough air and his mouth tasted of iron. The chain connected to his chest looked fragmented, it was falling apart. With each stab of the knife a piece of the chain broke apart and it now looked like the weakest of tugs could ripe the whole thing apart. God it hurt so much… 'Please, make it stop… somebody… it hurts… it hurts!' he screamed in his own mind like a mantra.
A scream made him look up, but emptied his stomach at once. The scene in front of him was grotesque; he couldn't believe his mother was the cause of it, but he knew deep down that she was. She was drenched in his blood and the scent made his stomach clench, but he had nothing more to throw up and just dry heaved. Everywhere around her where bits and scraps of flesh scattered. The ground was drenched in blood and the light rain kept it wet and fresh. The whole clearing oozed of blood and it made him feel even worse. He casted one more look on what was once his body, it was completely unrecognisable now. It looked more like a pile of flesh and bone than an actual human body, not even the face had been spared from his mother's onslaught. The teeth's were visible as well as the bones, the eyes had been cut to pieces and the clothes shredded… You couldn't even tell that it once had been human looking.
More tears found their way down from his eyes and he wondered how much a human being could cry in a life time, his whole body shook from the cold, the pain, the fright and the grief he felt… why did he start to feel hungry? It wasn't like any hunger he ever had felt, this one was intense, gnawing at you till you ate or went insane.
His mother's lips moved, but he couldn't hear what she was saying to the devastated man not far from her 'Dad…' he remembered sadly. He could feel the rain getting heavier where it hit him on his left side. Liza, his mother, lifted the knife one more time high in the air and he caught a look in her eyes, they looked wild and insane, like she was possessed by a demon… or was it just pure insanity? Had she always been like this on the inside?
The knife fell before his dad could stop her and it was aimed for the single patch of untouched and uncut flesh, the area of the heart. The knife pierced the skin and imbedded itself deep in the body and poked out on the other side and into the soft ground. When the heart was pierced he gave up a shriek of pure agony, it sent jolts down his body and he flew up on his knees clutching his head while his skin started brake apart. The chain exploded into tiny pieces and so did his body in a flash of blinding light.
XXX
Lee fell down on his knees, crying rivers. "Why… WHY DID YOU DO IT?" He screamed in distress. "He was your son…" he said quietly, all strength had left him and left was only the sorrow.
"He wasn't my son… only one of the devil's spawn." She answered with a hysteric voice. Her dark brown hair was tangled from the river water and the blood from the body.
"What are you saying? He is… was our son… and you killed him, you killed him! He was just a child!"
"You know as well as I do that he stopped breathing for a minute when he was born! He-" whatever she had planed to say was lost to the world in a shower of fresh blood emitting from her throat. A deep claw mark then appeared on her face and chest and she fell to the ground lifeless, then something started to ripe the flesh from the body and the flesh disappeared into something long and blurry. Lee finally got his legs to work and ran like no tomorrow in the opposite direction, but what ever it was it was soon next to him. He screamed when invisible teeth's clamped around his throat and pressed down. Blood splattered to the ground as well as bits of flesh.
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"Come on, Riku, what's wrong?" Kiri asked her sister, who was hiding beneath their bed, she was still crying, but this time from fear and she was shaking like a leaf. "S-something bad has happened…" Riku whispered in fear, clutching a small cross in her tiny hand.
Gigo's voice rang out down stairs "Sis! Can you come down? Something weird is going on!" Kiri gave Riku one more glance and received a small nod, and then she headed down stairs to her brother. "What is it? Riku's shaking like a leaf upstairs you know, I wanna go back to her." Gigo just ignored her, starring out trough the open kitchen door. "Heeeelllloooo? What is it?" She asked and waved her hand in front of his face, getting him out of his trance.
"Lo-look at the forest, the birds are fleeing… and I'm getting a very bad feeling about this…" She looked and her brother was right, the birds were all fleeing, then it felt like something was with them that weren't supposed to be there. Next thing she knew she was laying sprawled outside in the rain together with Gigo, her back ached where something hard had hit her and Gigo lay slumped over a rock, bleeding from the head and torso. "G-Gigo? Can-can you hear me?" no answer, but he was breathing, thank God.
A pressure on her neck made her freeze in fright, what was it? It felt almost like a hand, but it had long talons that poked at her tender throat. The pressure increased and cut of her air way almost completely, she could still breathe, but barely. Tears escaped her eyes and she looked over at her little brother again, her eyes widened in panic as her face was meet with a spray of blood and she screamed a strangled scream.
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Riku shook worse than ever, she could hear her sister screaming before it went completely silent, only thing she could hear was her own erratic breathing… and the sound of claws against the tree floor. The thing was inside the house again and on its way to her hiding place. And then she saw it, her wide scared eyes taking in the form in the door opening.
It looked like an over grown lizard that had learned how to walk on its hind legs. Its face had visible rows with very sharp teeth and two horns on the top of its head. And small tags were leaping along the back to the tip of the tail. Its hands and feet had sharp claws and its eyes were glowing with a menacing yellow colour. It was hard to see what colour the being had, but it looked like it was supposed to be mostly white with a red pattern on the back and some of the same red pattern on the arms, legs and tail. But now it was covered in sleek blood that was dripping on the floor, leaving small puddles where it stood.
It gave up a high pitched shriek that made her blood run cold in its veins. She was dragged out in the hair by a clawed hand and she screamed in terror, trashing violently to get lose from her intimidating captor, but it was in vain. She pleaded for her mom and dad, but when the toothed mask came dangerously close to her face she caught a flash of red in the eyes of the beast and remembered the painfull sounding shriek moments ago. "Don't do this… Hjouru-nii-san…" But the creature that was once her brother didn't stop and put its strong jaws around her small head and bit down slowly, drawing out the end and the painfull shrieking from the small girl till a crack was heard and she fell limp in its hungry mouth.
The hunger had been satisfied for now and the newly born raptor looking hollow fled through a black portal, when it felt the presence of a Shinigami coming closer and closer…
Well, what did you think? Good? Bad? Acceptable? let me know.
I don't know when the next chapter will be out, I haven't written down any ideas to it yet since when I wrot the basic I din't plan on having it in, but I decided I wanted to have it. It will be called "Past in the Vast Desert"
Untill then, take care! :3
