YYH doesn't belong to me and I have an important notice:
My internet went out. I am currently leaching off someone else's, which is not something I'm comfortable doing. And 2) I'm going out of town on Thursday until Monday. Moral of these little facts is that I won't be posting for roughly a week UNLESS where I'm going has 'net I can use. So please don't think I've forgotten about y'all, it's just necessary =[
An Unfair Death
"So do you believe me now?" Kurama asked the girl sitting next to him in his car. She was staring blankly out the window, and turned around startled.
"I don't know. Maybe. There's more to it than what you guys told me." Dayne said, staring at him in all seriousness. He wished she wouldn't. She could easily be pretty, if she wiped the bland, serious, polite looks off her face. Her eyes seemed so expressive, but it was mostly just the bright color.
They both fell back into silence, and when they got back to the college campus Dayne scrambled out of the car, pulling her own keys out of her bag. Before she walked away, she paused for a minute, looking at loss for words. "Will…will other demons try hurting me? Now that I know?" She asked the redheaded man, her face silhouetted from a light behind her.
"They might." Kurama weighed his words for a minute. "You can always call if something happens."
"What's your number?"
And with that, she thanked him and got into her own car to drive home. Kurama followed her home, thinking all the while. Sagaku had been right when she described the girl as slippery – she was honest and open, it seemed, but she didn't say anything she didn't need to. And her lack of emotions was absolutely infuriating! It was even worse than Hiei, because she showed flashes. It proved that she was almost continuously holding back. He hoped he didn't come off like that.
The house she parked in front of was nice but boring. Kurama waited for the girl to disappear into the house before turning around and driving home. His mom no longer expected him back at any particular time – in fact, he was sometimes gone for days at a time – but he always returned there. He was afraid of the day he had to leave, of breaking his mother's heart. Even with her husband and new step-son, he knew she spent almost all of her affection on him.
Dayne went through the motions of sleeping, but she stayed awake thinking for hours. The three demons hadn't told her much, but with the little bit they had said and her recent dreams, she was beginning to piece a huge story together. Some of it still didn't make sense, though. Where did the demons come from? Were there angels, too? But Kurama and Sagaku didn't exactly seem like demons from Hell. Hiei…well, for all she knew he could have been a devil.
The demon that had been following Dayne stood outside the house, looking at her window. The girl was sleeping, and there was no movement inside. He settled in for a long wait. Dayne wasn't in bed though, she was standing behind him and watching. There was an odd, scaly tail poking out from the back of his trench coat, and it scraped against the icy sidewalk slowly. With the feeling of evaporating, Dayne slowly began disappearing from the picture.
The house was absolutely frigid when Dayne woke up. She burrowed further down beneath her comforter. It was absolutely silent. Everything was still. It was the stillness that drew Dayne out of her bed, putting her feet on the floor gingerly. The wood floors were so cold her feet began to ache immediately. There was a little light streaming into the house from the windows, but it was early and the sun was partially covered by misty clouds.
Dayne padded quietly out of her room, pausing at the light switch. The lights weren't working. She had assumed they wouldn't be, since it was so cold inside. The electricity must have gone out. She was starting to feel shaken, though.
"Dad?" She called quietly. It was early enough that he might still be asleep, though his snoring was usually rather loud. There was no answer, although the wind whistled eerily through the front room. With a frown, Dayne went to go investigate that. The front door was cracked open. Two of the picture frames on the wall were crooked, another one on the ground. Her heart was beginning to race, color flooding her cheeks.
She turned to her dad's room, desperately fighting against panic. The door opened when she tapped on it lightly. Dayne crept inside, hoping she would find her dad sleeping in his bed. He was in his bed, and for a second she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she saw the color of her dad's lips, and realized his eyes were wide open. He wasn't sleeping.
The dresser cracked against her back as she stumbled back, sending it rocking back and forth. Papers and books tumbled from the dresser top. She couldn't breathe, her lips moving soundlessly as she tried to call her dad to wake him up. He wasn't waking.
By the time Dayne regained her senses and called the cops her hands were shaking. Her entire body was shaking, and it wasn't just from the cold. Sirens announced the arrival of help, and by the time the detectives were inside, Dayne was trying to pull herself together. She thought she had, but when one of the detectives tried saying something to her she found she couldn't focus. She couldn't do anything.
"Miss, miss, you have to tell us what happened." The young detective tried shaking her shoulders, but she only looked at him helplessly, gesturing at her dad's room with tears streaming down her face. How come she didn't see this happening? Her dream didn't warn her, she hadn't heard him call for her. Why was he dead?
Somehow she got through the day, filling out paperwork and trying to answer questions. She was icy cold still, even though one of the cops had managed to start up the electricity again for her. She wasn't sure how he figured out what was wrong with it, but she had been grateful. The words of gratitude hadn't come to her lips when she tried to express it, but he had understood and nodded awkwardly. They removed the body and left her in the house, all alone…
"I need you, mom." Dayne whimpered into her hands as she covered her face. She needed someone, anyone…in a way, she got her wish. There was a knock on the door.
Opening it, Dayne was startled to see Kurama. She had been expecting another cop with questions she hadn't been able to answer.
"Hello, I just wanted to…" Kurama trailed off, staring down at her still pajama-clad body, and stony face. Her lip was quivering with the effort of not crying. "The demon attacked?" Kurama asked before continuing, "Why didn't you call?"
"Not a demon…I don't think…no dream…" For a second, Dayne wondered if she had muttered something like that in her report. It probably wouldn't make much sense to whoever reviewed it.
"Let me in." Kurama demanded. Dayne stepped to the side, and Kurama strode in purposefully, turning his head this way and that. He stalked off towards the closed door, the one with yellow tape strapped around it. The cops hadn't been able to make sense of the fact that her dad had seemingly died a natural death and that their house had been broken into. Coincidences didn't usually happen like that. "There was a demon here. You didn't dream about it?" Kurama questioned the deathly silent girl. She shook her head, her blue eyes wide in her pale face. "It smells…metallic almost."
"I dreamed about the one following me, but he didn't come into the house. He stayed outside and watched." Words started spilling from Dayne's mouth as she stared at the spot on her dad's bed. "It was freezing cold. The electricity was out. The door was open, a little, and the picture frames weren't right. Dad wasn't answering. His door wasn't shut all the way, either, and his lips were blue…his eyes were open…" She trailed off, her pupils wavering.
"Dayne, you need to come with me. We need to report this to Koenma." Kurama stepped forward, to take hold of Dayne's arm. He was startled when her gaze shot to his face, her eyelids lowering as she gave him a look of complete disdain.
"I bet you never know quite how to act." She said quietly, her gaze flicking over him. "You go through the motions, act polite, smile. But you're off. I already reported to the police. Whatever it is you think you're going to do, it's already been done." Kurama stopped, and tried to keep from glaring at her. It sucked, getting called out on his lack of total humanity. No one ever really noticed, not even his mom. Sagaku had made a really good judgment of the girl, even prior to meeting her. Dayne's instincts were spot on.
"The cops won't find anything. It was a demon here, you think any of them know about demons? You're going to need help, and the only person you're going to get it from is Koenma." He tried to keep his voice level, even though he really wanted to snap at her. She wouldn't be so high-and-mighty if he were in his demon form.
The girl wouldn't move, instead giving Kurama a stony glare. When her eyes glazed over in dream, he took his opportunity and grabbed her. It was no coincidence that a demon had attacked the night she finally learned about demons. Not only was it not a coincidence, it was a horrible threat meant to screw with her emotions. And Kurama could already tell that he was not going to like this girl, especially when she was bitter over her father's death.
The demon with long black hair and eyes darker than black itself bent over her bed. He peeled the blankets off her, gently rolling her onto her back. With a pleased smirk, he lowered his mouth to an inch above hers, and then began to suck in air. Bright blue mist was beginning to twist out of Dayne's nose and mouth, but before the man could absorb it, green tendrils of the same substance began pulling it back in, twisting protectively over the orifices. The man straightened, a look of utter surprise on his face that soon turned to disparaging anger, and then spun out of the room.
He walked out into the hallway, turning into her father's room angrily. He bent over the man who was snoring loudly, a comforting sound that Dayne had grown up with. Pale blue tendrils, so pale they were almost grey, began spinning slowly into the air, spiraling up to slip through the demon's open lip. When nothing else came out of the man's mouth, the demon straightened.
Dayne realized her dad's eyes were open. He hadn't struggled, hadn't fought back. Why?
The demon stalked back upstairs, and stood at Dayne's door. His dark eyes never strayed from her bed as he watched, pensive and still.
