Hello, everyone!
As promised, this is a longer chapter...much longer. I hope you enjoy it. It isn't as heartbreaking as the last few, but it still has its drama.
Dedicated to: DoilyRox, heve-chan, and DarksAngelOfTheNight. Thank you all! I really appreciate your reviews!
Again, enjoy!
November 3rd (28 Days Left)
Sophie felt the grip on her pencil tightened as she tried to concentrate on the words in the book in front of her - the words that kept blurring, turning strange, dark colors, reminding her of blood, dripping down the page.
She just couldn't stop thinking about it. It just wouldn't leave her mind alone. No matter what she did, the scene wouldn't stop playing in her mind, though it was different every time...
Sophie knocking on Claire's door, getting no answer, walking in to find her friend's body cold and dead.
Claire suddenly passing out, having a seizure, heart giving out.
Sophie sitting at the hospital, all alone, the doctors coming her way with grim faces.
And...
The last was the worst. The last was the one she could barely bare to think of, the most gruesome. It contained blood and shaking and pain. It contained things that Sophie didn't want to think of, to visualize.
How was she going to get through this?
Sophie dropped her pen as her hands started to shake, staring at them for a moment, like they didn't belong to her. She tried to silence the shaking as she put her face in her hands, to weigh them down, but it didn't work, and she only shook worse, all over now.
Twenty-eight days... The words rung in Sophie's mind like a curse. At the most...
Would Claire even make it to twenty-eight days? Would she even last that long? There was no guarantee. The doctors hadn't been sure - couldn't be sure. All they could do was guess. And what if they were wrong?
What if it wasn't twenty-eight days, but ten? Or five? Or two? Or -
Sophie shut her eyes again, unable to bare it.
"One."
Sophie's throat nearly closed in on her when she heard the voice, and she looked up, knowing exactly who it was.
Of course. Why did he always seem to show up just when she didn't want to see him?
Sophie blinked at him, trying to be nonchalant as she hid her shaking hands underneath the desk she sat at. "What did you say?" she asked, feinting obliviousness, though she had heard him more than clearly.
"One", he'd said, as in: "Maybe Claire only has one day left". He'd been listening to her thoughts...
Again.
Sophie couldn't help but feel angry at that, though she knew there was nothing she could do about it, no way to block him from her mind. She wasn't an OC in a fanfiction story, who suddenly had weird powers, able to do all sorts of amazing things though it was completely unlikely. She was just normal, normal and miserable...
Mostly miserable, though.
Hiei didn't even blink as he answered her. "You heard me," he said, echoing just what Sophie had been thinking, making her glare. "You know what I meant," he grimaced, obviously thinking her attempt at being oblivious was pretty pathetic.
"Well maybe I wouldn't know what you meant if you would stay out of my head!" Sophie snapped back, and Hiei didn't even flinch, so she looked back at the book she'd been reading, ignoring him, her hands now balling into fists underneath the desk.
She was finding more and more reasons to wish that Yusuke and his friends had never shown up in her world - apart from them ruining her life and getting in the way. And this was one of them: she had to put up with Hiei, who, though he was technically her favorite character, was being very annoying right now.
Sophie found it strangely easy to ignore Hiei as she tried again to concentrate on her book, though she knew he was still there, could still feel his presence in the room. Maybe it was so easy to ignore him because he was so quiet - she couldn't even hear him breathing, for goodness sake! - or maybe it was because her mind was too focused on other things, the page in front of her starting to turn to blood again, the words mingling with one another, running every which way.
Sophie tried to swallow the lump in her throat as she concentrated harder, her fingernails digging into her palms beneath the desk. But it was no use. No matter what she did, the words simply wouldn't return to normal. No matter what she did, all she could think about was Claire, and -
Sophie looked up, finding Hiei's eyes immediately. "Stop watching me!" she growled, glaring at him again.
She didn't want him to know why she was upset. She wanted him to think that she was only rigid because he was there, staring at her, and not because of Claire, and the monstrosities that kept playing in her mind, over and over. Of course, she was sure he knew the real reason she was upset, since he didn't seem to want to stay out of her mind, but she could keep up the image of being upset over annoyance at least...
Plus, she doubted he cared much, anyway...if at all...
Probably not at all... Sophie grimaced, waiting for Hiei to answer her. I'm just a human, and this must seem all so trivial. My life is nothing like his...
Not that she was complaining about that.
"What makes you think I was watching you?" when Hiei spoke, he seemed offended, but only a little bit.
Sophie wanted to roll her eyes. "Well, what else were you staring at? The wall?" she knew she sounded sarcastic, but she didn't care.
Hiei didn't reply. He simply glared at her before looking away, down at the book she had on her desk, the book who's words refused to behave.
One point for the human. Sophie couldn't help but thinking, smiling slightly, the edges of her mouth curving up, making her smile look more like a smirk.
"What are you doing?" Sophie's thoughts were interrupted quickly, and she blinked again, realizing Hiei was still staring at the book.
Sophie sighed, hating that she had to explain everything. But then again, she'd never seen Hiei so curious about anything before, so she guessed she couldn't complain. At least he was asking her questions, and not trying to kill her.
That, and the conversation was keeping her mind from wandering back to her disturbing thoughts...
Sophie sighed. "It's homework. For college," she replied, casting an annoyed glance at her evil book. "But I guess you wouldn't know much about that, since you never went to school..."
Hiei looked back up at her, glaring. "Demons don't need school," he said, voice vehement, and...something else...something Sophie couldn't quite recognize...
Sophie's eyebrows furrowed as she stared back at him, a thought suddenly occuring to her -
She'd never really thought about it before now, but it was true - demons didn't need school. In fact, they didn't need a lot of things that humans did...well, they didn't have them, anyway...
How strange it must have been to live in the Demon World, where all you were worried about was not getting killed. There would be no use for anything that Sophie saw and relied on regularly. No schools to learn in, no jobs to speak of really. Nothing. Just running for your life and hoping you lived to see the next day.
It sounds... Sophie sincerely hoped that Hiei wasn't listening to her now. ...boring.
Sure, it might have been kind of exciting to run around and fight, to prove that you were better than everyone else, but after a while it would have gotten old. Tiresome. Doing the same thing, over and over - and what a thing to do! mess up once, and it's all over! - would have been the worst. At least in the human world, Sophie knew she had some options. At least in the human world, she knew she was safe.
Oh...Safe...Another thing to think about.
Sophie felt a strange weight weigh on her as she thought this, realizing, for the first time, that she felt sorry for Hiei (though she certainly wasn't going to tell him that).
How horrible it must have been, to live in a world where nothing was certain, where you were always worried for your safety. Sure, Sophie knew that things like that happened in her world too, to some people, but not to her. She had to worry about things like paying bills, and getting good grades in school, and finding a job, but she didn't have to worry about her life. She wasn't up every night, hoping that someone wasn't going to come and kill her. She wasn't constantly looking over her shoulder, hoping no one was there to run her through.
But Hiei was. And Kurama. And Yusuke, and Kuwabara. They all were, to varying degrees, some more than others (such as Hiei, of course, and Kurama, even though he didn't live in the Demon World anymore). It was what they were used to. It was what life had given to them, and, thinking of it this way, Sophie was beginning to think that she had the better end of the string.
Okay, so she wasn't strong and powerful. She probably couldn't even snap a tree branch in half without getting out the chainsaw. But at least she actually got to enjoy her life. At least she wasn't afraid of it.
Sophie blinked again, and realized that Hiei was still staring at her, a strange look on his face now.
Not to say that Yusuke and his friends weren't strong, because they were. They had faced things she would have never been able to face. If Sophie had been in their position, she would have opted out a long time ago. Her new friends had seen brutal fights, brutal deaths...and she was having a hard enough time trying to come to terms with Claire's prospect of dying a normal, human death. It was nothing compared to them - especially Hiei, goodness knows he'd seen enough death to last five lifetimes.
But...even so...Sophie preferred being who she was, where she was. She wouldn't have wanted to switch. She wouldn't have wanted a life like that.
Which made her wonder...did they really want it?
It was the snapping shut of her book that brought Sophie from her thoughts, and she looked down, realizing that Hiei had closed the large, college textbook, his hand still on it.
"Your wasting your time, you know," when he spoke, his voice was dead-set, his eyes strangely and unfailingly serious.
Sophie felt kind of dizzy looking up at him, and those strange eyes of his. They were just so...overwhelming. "For...what...?" she barely got the words out, kind of unable to think coherently.
Hiei looked almost indecicive for a moment, before his eyes gleamed strangely again, and Sophie got the impression that he was about to answer her, when -
Sophie jumped when she heard a loud, blaring sound, echoing through the air around her.
"What the heck was that!" she turned to look at the window, the strangeness of eye contact with Hiei temporary gone. "What..." she trailed off as she looked back at him.
He was staring now, at what she couldn't tell, his head cocked slightly, as if he were listening for something (which, he probably was). He stayed like that for a moment before he grimaced in disgust, and then looked at Sophie, eyes blazing.
"Someone's here to see you," he said, not sounding too happy about it.
Sophie stared at him in confusion for a moment before she heard it:
A yell.
Coming from outside.
Just as angry as could be.
"SOPHIE!" It said. "GET OUT HERE, YOU -"
Sophie sighed as a string of profanity followed, and she finally stood from her desk, hiding her nail-scarred hands in her jeans pockets, hoping that they had stopped bleeding. She glanced at Hiei, who was glaring at the window murderously, obviously knowing something she didn't, before she turned towards the door to head downstairs.
"Oh, great," she said, the voice from outside echoing again, suddenly feeling sick. "Like I don't have enough problems as it is..."
Sophie and Hiei were down the stairs a moment later, the latter faster than the forementioned, of course.
Sophie was shocked to see all of her new friends (Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Koenma, Botan and Keiko) standing in the living room, various confused expressions on their faces, all looking out the windows. She pushed Yusuke aside as she neared the front window, drawing the curtains back just as he had done, only a little bit less conspiciously.
"Who's out there?" the question came from none other than Yusuke, who was looking annoyed at the moment. "Who's being so loud?" Sophie wanted to laugh at that, considering who was talking.
But she didn't. She didn't even answer him as she stared out the window at the figure who was in her front yard, making all sorts of noise, standing next to a particularly expensive Ferrari. The figure wasn't particularly tall or menacing, but when Sophie saw him she suddenly felt faint, her sick feeling increasing, filling her up to the brim.
She really didn't want to have to deal with this...
Not now.
"Well?" Yusuke sounded even more annoyed now, and Kuwabara was right behind him, frowning as he looked out the window along with Sophie. "Who's the jerk with the million-dollar car?"
Sophie found herself mute, unable to speak. Maybe if she closed her eyes and wished hard enough, the man outside would go away, cease to exist. Maybe...
She tried it, and it didn't work. He was still there, yelling, screaming, making a ruckus.
"It's Sophie's rich, abusive ex-boyfriend," the words came from Claire, answering Yusuke's question, and the air in the living room seemed to charge with electricity.
Sophie turned from the window to glare at her friend, embarassed. "Wow, Claire, how did you manage to get all of that in one sentence?" she asked hotly, feeling her cheeks burn.
It was a moment before her friend seemed to realized what she'd said, and when it came to her, Claire gasped, hand flying to her mouth. The two stared at each other for a moment before Sophie broke eye contact, sighing.
She knew that Claire hadn't mean any harm in what she'd said, but...the last thing she wanted her friends to know about was this - this embarassing thing! This thing...that she'd never wanted.
She had never asked for Neil to come around. It had just sort of happened. And when it had happened, there had been no stopping it. She hadn't wanted to date him, not at all, but she'd had to, because otherwise -
"Um..." it was Yusuke's voice again, somehow quiet now, that broke through Sophie's thoughts. "Claire said 'abusive', right? Doesn't that mean...like, hitting people and stuff?" he turned to look at Sophie, but she wouldn't meet his gaze, once again looking out the window.
Instead, it was Kurama who answered him, voice cold as ice. "That is generally what the term means, Yusuke," he said, and Sophie felt herself shiver.
Great, now they were involved in this whole mess! Another reason for her to wish they were gone, that they had never showed up in the first place! Did she really need any more reasons to wish that she was just alone?
"I'll go talk to him," when Sophie said the words, they sounded like a death sentence. "I'll be right back," she started for the door, but both Yusuke and Kuwabara stopped her.
"You can't go out there!" Kuwabara was frantic, fighting with Yusuke for a chance to block the door.
"Yeah!" Yusuke echoed, shoving his friend to the side. "After what Claire said...I mean..." he paled slightly as she glared at him, tired of this game. "I should go punch his lights out!"
Sophie stiffened at that, everything in her fighting the urge to say "yes, please do".
She couldn't let Neil get hurt, no matter how much she wanted to pound him into the ground, seal his fate along with the rest of the murdered world. If he were to get hurt, then it would come back on her and everyone she cared about, and that was simply something she couldn't let happen. No matter what her family had supposedly done, she couldn't let them get hurt because of her...
That was the game that was played. That was the way it had always been played. And that was the way it would continue to be.
Sophie felt that, somehow, Yusuke understood what she was feeling, though she didn't say anything about her reasons for going outside against better judgement. She saw the fire in his eyes slacken just a bit as he sighed, but he still didn't move.
That she had to make him do on her own.
"I'll be right back," Sophie repeated, gently pushing him out of the way. "Honestly, I will..." at least she could guarantee that.
Neil may have been one of the worst scum-bags on the earth, but he would never hurt her enough to kill her.
Sophie took in a deep breath to steel herself as she heard the door close behind her, knowing that her friends would be at the windows any second now, watching, if they weren't already. She was surprised by their actions, figuring that they wouldn't have agreed to her going it alone, but...
She was glad that no one had insisted to come out with her as she walked over to Neil, who had stopped shouting now, seeing her, though some small part of her wished that she had backup, even though the greater part of her still wished that they weren't there at all.
No matter what happened, she couldn't stop wishing that, even if it was wrong of her. Her life was just too complicated as it was, and no matter how much she may have wanted to, she doubted that she would ever be able to let go and just relax, just took things as they came, and really get to know Yusuke and his friends...
Even though she really, really wanted to...
"Sophie," Neil straightened a little when he saw her, his blazing blue eyes landing on her face. "Finally. I thought you'd never come out of that trash-heap. Why'd you keep me waiting?" his hard face seemed to glare at her as she neared him, and she made sure to stay a few steps away, out of swinging distance.
Neil actually hadn't been that bad of a guy when they'd first been dating, though she'd never really liked him, only agreeing to the date because she'd been forced to. He'd been nice enough at first, taking her to fancy places, driving in fancy cars, but then...well, then he'd stopped caring about keeping up appearances, knowing it didn't matter anyway, and suddenly everything had changed, all for the worst.
But she hadn't stopped it. Not right away, anyway. She'd put up with most of the beatings for a while, not saying anything, wanting to keep up the illusion that things were alright, so no one would get hurt.
But eventually, she'd gotten sick of it, hadn't cared if everyone in the known universe were mad at her or not. She'd finally let go, had run away and escaped for a while, and she'd been happy...
Until now.
I should have known he'd come back soon. Sophie thought as she glared at Neil, not daring to answer him, knowing it wasn't worth it, that she just wanted him to go away. She would wait until he got the hint, knew that she wasn't going to answer him, before she told him to leave. I should have known...
She'd only just gotten away from him a few weeks ago, right before Yusuke and his friends had appeared at the Inn. She'd only just gotten rid of her bruises, just before they'd shown up. It had been perfect timing, really...or horrible timing, depending on how you looked at it...
"Not going to answer, huh?" Neil laughed at Sophie's silence, cursing under his breath. "I always knew you were a stupid bitch, but I didn't think you were that dumb. Guess I was wrong," he laughed again, before suddenly he grew angry, face harder than ever. "Why don't you answer me!" he yelled, taking a step forward, and -
Sophie saw the images flash before her eyes - all the others times he'd hit her - as his fist grew closer, and she struggled to breathe, and then -
Neil gasped as Sophie heard a strange crack, and she opened her eyes, seeing what had happened, though she couldn't quite believe it.
Hiei was taller than he'd looked in the anime, though still shorter than his friends, and even Neil. But somehow, at that moment he looked ten times taller than Sophie's abusive ex-boyfriend, as he glared murderously at him, throwing his crumpled hand aside like it was nothing. Sophie watched in breathless shock as Neil writhed on the ground for a moment, Hiei's firey eyes boring into him, wanting to cause much more pain than that.
"Leave," the word was a harsh command, secretly seething on the inside, and Sophie had to wonder just what it was that Hiei had heard Neil thinking. "Now."
Neil didn't have to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet in a rush, looking decidedly sloppy as he tried to get up, cradling his now probably broken (if not crushed) hand, glaring pathetically as he sputtered to himself, probably still trying to figure out what had happened. He climbed into his car a moment later, still sputtering and now shaking, and drove off, leaving the shocked Sophie alone with the still glaring Hiei.
Sophie was just as shocked as Neil had been, but when she turned to say something to Hiei, suddenly she couldn't find anything to say. He was still staring after Neil's car, looking both parts vengeful and both parts regretful (probably that he didn't just kill the git and get it over with). Sophie felt her hands start to shake again, just like earlier, as she stared at him.
She just didn't understand. None of this made sense. How could it have been happening? It couldn't have been real!
Claire was dying, would be dead in less than a month, leaving her alone.
Neil was back to his old tricks, coming around again, and he would never let her go.
Her mother was oblivious as always, still doing what she always did, never stopping to think of what was best for others.
Her favorite characters from the Yu Yu Hakusho world were living at her mother's Inn, staying in the very same house that she was.
And...
Sophie suddenly felt strange, so many confusing and overwhelming emotions swirling inside her. The light started to flicker before her eyes as Hiei turned towards her, looking more calm now, about to say something, and -
Sophie felt all of the life rush out of her then, starting at the top of her head, landing at the tip of her toes, making her feel cold, adding to her decaying sense of sight. She tried to open up her mouth to say something, but the words simply wouldn't come, and all hearing was cut off as she suddenly lost control, crippling to the ground.
In case your wondering, yes, that is an accurate description of fainting. It is not fun...at all...
Well, now we have another great fact of reality: bad boyfriends! Everyone who wants Hiei to kill Neil, raise your hand! (raises hand) More to come on Neil later. He'll make another comeback, and we'll see more about his "relationship" with Sophie, and why it happened...
Another note on Neil: Yes, he likes to curse. Sorry about that. There will be a little more language in the future. Normally, I don't agree with language (I think it just sounds horrible, and that it's completely overrated), but it fits his character. So, there will be more, to let you know, but not too much...
I don't know when I'll get to write again. I'm pretty sick this week, and only posted this because I already had it done. But as soon as I'm better, I'll be writing again (and that goes for my other story, "Brokenness", too!)...
PLEASE REVIEW! I hope you enjoyed!
