Chapter 6

Kurosaki Hisoka knew there was something wrong before he even opened his eyes, but his sleep dazed mind couldn't figure out what.

Slowly, emerald green eyes blinked open to a dark room.

Déjà vu washed over him and he blinked again until the room around him came into focus. He was back at Muraki house, the same room he'd woken up in only 24 hours earlier. Cursing, he threw back the bed covers and started to climb out of the bed, only to stop dead as memories of the night before flashed across his mind. Tsuzuki's voice, the buzzing of the dial tone, Tatsumi, the four strange men, hands, lust, white and darkness.

Hisoka pressed his face into his hands, breathing heavily.

A long moment longer, more composed, Hisoka got to his feet, shuddering at the feel of silk sliding across his skin. He looked down to find himself wrapped in a thin, aqua green yutaka. A feeling of vulnerability swept over him and he scanned the room almost desperately, relieved to see his clothes draped across the back of a chair.

Dressed in his jeans and a sweater that he did not recognize, feeling less exposed, Hisoka slipped silently out of the room.

Pausing at the head of the stairs, he reached out with his senses, but could not find the slightest hint of life. He crept silently the stairs, careful inspite of the apparent emptiness of the house.

He reached the front door and took hold of the knob.

"Well, look at what has come into our territory… A pretty little boy's come to play with us."

"It won't be like that!" Hisoka hissed to himself through gritted teeth as his hand tightened convulsively on the door knob.

Lust, anger, sick desire… Hands… "Yeah, we'll touch you alright…"

Hisoka turned and ran for the bathroom as his stomach rebelled.

XXX

Tsuzuki signed his name across the bottom of the page and pushed it away. That was the last one, there was no more. He had completed every piece of backlogged paper work he had. He stood up crossed the room to a large file cabinet, carefully avoiding looking at the empty desk across from his own, and pulled down a pile of expense reports. It was mind numbing work, but it would keep him from thinking, and at the moment, that was all he wanted.

He didn't want to think.

He didn't want to think about what might be happening to Hisoka at this very moment.

He didn't want to think about what Muraki had said to him in the children's ward.

He didn't want to think about his betrayal.

Or whether Hisoka believed it.

That thought burned the worst. Would Hisoka believe that Tsuzuki betrayed him? How could he not? Even Tsuzuki believed it. But if Hisoka believed that Tsuzuki would turn his back on him, would it make a lie out of everything they had gone through together? Everything they had suffered, every victory, every word that had bound them together?

Tsuzuki threw himself back into his chair and dove into the expense reports with uncharacteristic zeal. For now he would bury himself in numbers and words until he was too tired to think, then he would go home and sleep.

Maybe tomorrow he would be able to figure out what to do next.

Maybe he would even find a way to get back what he had lost.

XXX

Muraki stood in the rolling evening fog, eyeing the dilapidated warehouse in front of him with evident distaste; both for the building itself, and the unsavoury people he knew were waiting for him within. He made a small sound of annoyance and moved into the shadows, moving unseen into the building despite the pristine white of his suit and coat.

In a dimly lit room, decorated in 'early industrial', four men converged. Using crates and large cable spools as chairs, they sat and muttered to each other, casting wary glances around themselves all the while.

Muraki felt a mild satisfaction that merely anticipating his arrival had made them apprehensive. He moved silently out of the shadows, and suppressed a grin at seeing the men's shock when they noticed his arrival.

"Muraki-sensei," Muddy-eyed, and scruffy, the tallest member of the group got to his feet and moved towards Muraki, his hand extended.

Muraki let his gaze rest impassively on the offending appendage before raising his eyes and cocking a brow in distaste.

The man hesitated, and then let his hand drop.

"Oi, Muraki-sensei!" Another man called out, drawing the doctor's attention. "You owe us some money!"

Muraki's gaze cooled as it travelled over all the men, finally coming to rest on the outspoken one. "Do I?"

"Yeah, you do," the man informed him, his aggressive tone belied by the tremor in his voice. "We did what you wanted, we kept the kid from contacting anyone, and we didn't let him get away."

A slight, humourless smile turned up the corners of Muraki's mouth. "Yes, you did fulfill the conditions of our deal." The smile fell away, and in a heartbeat Muraki had crossed the room, pinning the man to the wall, one hand tight around his throat. "But I don't recall giving you, or any of your… friends, permission to touch what is mine."

His eyes still locked with those of the low-class ruffian, Muraki raised his free hand and snapped his fingers. The smile reappeared on his face at the horror that spread across the man's rough features; and the sounds of screams, and roaring, and frantic flight behind him. The menacing, and slightly maniacal smile widened as blood splashed against the wall to his right, and his prisoner began to struggle under his grip and gaze.

Too soon silence fell, and Muraki could sense his summoned creatures approach. Part lion, part bird, part insectile in appearance, his demons stopped at his flanks, awaiting his orders.

"So, what do I owe you?" Muraki asked the man, who had once again fallen still under his hand, his eyes constantly flitting over Muraki's shoulders, wide with terror.

"Nothing," he gasped through his constricted windpipe. "Nothing at all, just let me go! Please let me go!"

"Let you go?" Muraki asked, "Of course."

Releasing his captive, he took a step back.

The man sagged against the wall, rubbing his throat.

Muraki took another measured step back, and still smiling, turned to leave. "You are free to go." He walked calmly out of the room as his demons started growling. "If you can…"

He closed the door behind him on the sound of screaming.