AN: Hey, I live. Okay, first things first. I realized that I didn't explain what Kaine's outfit looks like. It's sort of like a poncho/cloak. No one can see what she is wearing under her cloak. Also, this is a dark chapter and hits in on the M rating.
This by the way means scene change.
Chapter Seven"Dreams and Nightmares"
It was raining hard that night and lightning cut across the sky.
Harry was cold; the warmth that held him before, and protected him from the rain, had long disappeared. The silence was becoming unbearable. He got wet from the rain and cried out. He could hear footsteps running through the rain; the heavy splashing echoed in spite of the storm.
'Help me,' Harry cried, but only wails left his mouth. 'Help me.'
The keeper of the footsteps was yelling into the night, her voice hoarse. She sounded scared and sad. She was yelling something, something familiar.
Suddenly a figure stood over him, shielding him from the rain. Strong hands gently picked him up and held him close, giving him warmth. Through the blur of rain, Harry could make out messy black hair hidden under a cloak. Suddenly the steps were close and a voice screamed through the air.
"LET HIM GO!"
Harry jolted awake with his body covered in an inch of sweat and his heart beating at the rate of a hummingbird's. He glanced out the window only to see an inky black sky with only a few stars lighting the night.
He looked about him, finding Ron lying sideways on his bed, snoring loudly and his sheets were tangled at his feet. Neville was curled up under his covers, holding his pillow tightly as he grinned softly in his sleep, and Seamus...
Seamus was muttering loudly in his sleep with a stupid grin across his face; that reminded Harry a good deal of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.
Harry crawled out of bed, letting only the ghostly rustling of his sheets indicate that he had moved. He quickly, but quietly, dressed himself in an old, well-worn, wool sweater that had shrunk in the wash and no longer fitted Dudley and a pair of jeans, before sneaking past his roommates and down the stairs.
Harry had barely reached the portrait hole when a small, but firm, voice called out to him.
"I'm coming too."
Harry turned to see Ginny dressed and waiting in the shadows. Her black robe concealed her well, almost like a ninja hidden in the shadows.
"Ginny..." Harry began but her expression told him that she was going, whether he wanted her to or not. He sighed in defeat and smiled softly in the dull light of the dying fireplace. "You'll need a thicker cloak."
Ginny returned the smile softly.
It was cold and damp in the small room, even the dull light that crept from the space under the door, her eyes could see the droplets of murky water dripping out of the leaky water pipe.
She stared blindly as the sounds of the outside world seemed to dull down into a low buzz of noise. She felt so tired, hungry, and cold. How long had it been since she had fed?
One, two months? Her body fat was beginning to dissipate, leaving her thin and sickly looking; her once beautiful hair was now shaggy, unclean, and wiry.
Suddenly, the heavy sound of a key unlocking and accident lock seemed to scream through the in-audible buzz of noise and her eyes shifted to the light. The door opened softly, only to show a small girl with wavy, black hair and deep brown eyes.
"Em... Emily?" the woman whispered. In an instant, her gray eyes dilated and she curled up into a ball. "Oh God, make it stop."
Her mind filled with blood, as Jerusalem was flooded by the Christian-marked knights.
People were rounded up like cattle; screams, yells, and cries rang through the air, both human and animal.
To her side stood the same child as before, looking scared as the knights pointed their weapons at them. In an instant, a woman with chestnut hair and sapphire eyes, dressed only in a cloak, that hid her clothing under it, bent down, and pulled the child close.
"Emily, listen to me," the woman ordered, speaking Arabic in a calm tone. "Stay close to me, understand? No wandering off. I' shall protect three from them."
"Alright Kaine," Emily replied, only to have a tall, looming shadow stand over her.
"All of the children must come with us," a knight demanded. Kaine's eyes looked hatefully at him. "Thee. Thee aren't Muslim, nor from here."
"Nay, I be Christian, like thee, kinsman," Kaine glared and pulled Emily closer. "Why are you doing this?"
"Why art thee with these heathens?" the knight demanded. Kaine instantly hissed at him.
"Who are thee to judge those of distant lands? Tis' thee and thy men whom are strangers to this ground."
"Enough woman, the child!" with that, he tore Emily away from Kaine's grasp and threw her towards the other children.
"KAINE!" Emily screamed in terror. In an instant, Kaine rushed towards them, but two more knights held her back.
"UNHAND HER! EMILY!" Kaine screamed, forgetting to speak the local tongue as Emily kicked and screamed. The knight grew tired of her screams and slapped the child across the face, sending her crashing to the floor. "EMILY! YOU BASTARD!"
"The place of a woman tis to be seen, but never heard," the knight stated calmly. "If thou knowith not thine place, I would gladly showith to thee."
"Coward," Kaine hissed as the knight walked up to her. He took a piece of her hair and twisted it around his finger. "Who are thee to use the Lord's name in vain?" she spat in his face, scowling hatefully.
"I see," the knight muttered, but turned away. "Kill the children."
"NO!" Kaine scream. "EMILY!"
It all happened in a flash, and yet, it replayed itself before Kaine.
A fellow knight took heavy long strides up behind Emily who looked confused as to why Kaine was screaming her name. The knight unsheathed his sword, the silver reflecting the sunlight as he rose it high above his head.
The ground came closer as Kaine felt herself pushed down when she tried to run towards the girl.
Emily slowly turned and glanced behind her just as the sword slashed her from the shoulder to the bottom of her rib cage; blood splattered across the ground, some splashed onto the knights, some of it on the other children.
Kaine's eyes widened in shock as the world fell silent. It was about then she realized that the blood that was dripping off her own face. Fresh blood... Emily's blood.
The world of sound returned with an explosion of sound. Screams of terror filled the air along with yelling and barking of commands. Horses reared and cried out as the smell of blood filled the air.
Kaine's senses went into hyper drive. The light, noise, the texture of the sticky crimson liquid. Then one sound entered her ears, one sound that made her blood boil.
The knight was laughing.
"Let me out," a voice growled inside of her heard. "Let me out."
The voice seemed to pace back and forth, in the far catacombs of her mind, like a wild animal locked in a cage. Fierce golden eyes flashed in her mind.
"LET ME OUT NOW!"
Silence filled the air then, all the screams, the movement, everything stopped.
The knight stopped laughing in all as he felt an odd pressure where his heart was, only to feel a hard thrust pull out from his back.
Trembling, he turned only to see Kaine standing behind him, her eyes wild and golden, and her eyeteeth elongated and snarling. But most of all, her blood-covered hand, that held his still-beating heart.
He dropped to his knees, watching in horror as Kaine crushed the organ in her hand and licked the blood from her arm.
Then the world disappeared to them both.
When she had reawakened, Kaine found herself trapped in a cell, chained to the wall by the Crusaders.
Sealed away alive in her own tomb, she never understood whom that voice in her head had been. Cursed to live with the knowledge that she had brutally killed five people, by ripping heads or organs out of their bodies, only stopping when the children's cries distracted her.
And now, God was mocking her.
"Leave me be spirit," she whimpered. "Leave me to mine own damnation, and let me die in peace without my past looking into mine eyes."
"Razziel!" a girl's voice called. "Seth! I found one!"
"Cheshire?" a voice asked as footsteps reached her door. The outlining of a figure stood in the doorway. "Kaine?"
Kaine jolted awake with a heavy layer of sweat covering her body. The white cotton nightgown she wore, clung to her body, the material soaked, and her skin showing through its transparency.
Her breathing seemed labored and, for a moment, Kaine thought that she couldn't breathe. Her eyes were wide in horror and her jaw hurt almost as if it had really been slammed into ground. Once her breath returned, she fell back onto her bed.
'Breathe Kaine; just breathe. Just breathe.'
Her heart was beating hard and fast, thundering in her ears, stopping all sound from reaching her mind. She inhaled deeply, trying to calm her heart and get her lungs to accept air.
"Why?" Kaine whispered as she closed her eyes softly again, the back of her hand resting against her forehead. "Why are these memories coming back? After all those years? Why now...?"
"Kaine..." a child's voice asked.
Kaine eyes bolted open and she shot back up with a gasp.
There, behind her eyelids, was the image of Emily, covered in her own blood.
Kaine struggled to regain her breath before looking at the clock. A quarter past midnight flashed on the wall where she had placed her enchanted alarm clock. She smiled sadly as she glanced at it.
In her third year, Lily had given it to her as a Christmas gift, it was actually amazing the damned thing still worked considering all the abuse it had gone through.
As she walked towards her wardrobe, Kaine pulled the nightgown over her head and tossed it aside, allowing her skin to breathe in the cool night air. She reached over and pulled on her cloak, but not before looking at herself in the mirror.
Scars covered her body, mostly across her back and a star like scar rested over her left breast, while the tattoo cross graced her large neck. All of the scars were reminders, reminders of her past lives, the ones she remembered and had forgotten, and of the years of hardship she had gone through to gain the cross.
Turning away, she gently ran her fingers over the fabric of her cloak and found the small black rose embroidery that was hidden by the folded collar of her cloak.
"Roses are for remembering," she whispered. "Black is for the sins we commit upon our mortal souls."
And with that, she dressed herself and left for the meeting.
A/N: Yeah! Done. Soo sleeeeeeeeeepy zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
E/N: Me too. ZZZZZ!
