DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Sailor Moon characters.
Chapter 9 – Shadows and Dreams
Layers of snow and ash crunched beneath his feet, leaving dark imprints behind as he surveyed the town. Empty stalls lined the crumbling sidewalks and puddles of ashen snow slithered off the beaten canvas covers that protected them from the harsh batter of winter. A gust of cold wind threatened the stalls and their wooden legs creaked and whined. Winter has cruelly stripped the trees off their splendor and they rattled like decaying bones as grey mottled branches stretched out like spindly grotesque fingers.
He rounded a dirty bend and was greeted by two rows of faded grey-plastered stone houses where the ends seemed to plunge into the heart of a black dome. The wooden doors were shut and some of the windows at the side of the houses were as pitched black as the gaping mouths of corpses, whereas some were like secret peepholes into a different world covertly guarded by the lapping shadows of flames from lighted fireplaces. The town was not entirely dead and he was guided further through it by a scent he knew all too well and craved.
He shuffled past the houses that towered over him like slanted tombstones, the ends of his long and heavy black cloak studded with snowflakes as it sizzled through the snow-filled path.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
The small face of a boy suddenly appeared at one of the lighted windows, his large blue-grey eyes glistening with cat-like wonder at what could possibly be out at a night like this. They stumbled upon a lonely figure, draped by a piece of the night sky. It stopped and started to wave in his direction. He stared as a thin veined hand drained of color swung left and right with the hypnotic sway of a pendulum. The child squinted his eyes and looked harder beyond the slow downward drifting of snowfall but the rest of the mysterious figure was much too hidden beneath the thick black shroud and where the face was supposed to be was just darkness. God forbid, he thought, that there was a walking skeleton underneath all that cloth. Just as the horrifying vision of a skeleton crept into the unguarded folds of his mind, he felt a deep uneasy chill coursing through his spine. He jerked at what he thought was the sharp tip of a nail trailing around his skin. His breaths grew harder and sharper as the onset of an asthma attack started claiming him. He clenched at his tightening chest and tried to cry for his mama but his eyes refused to move away from the shadowed face. At the second before he exhaled his last, he thought he saw two lights gleaming straight at him, like the ends of cigarettes burning through layers of black cloth.
The dead child disappeared back into the house and the hooded figure continued on his way. The veins from his hand was gone and had a new rush of color as it slithered back under his sleeve. Moments later, the cold air shivered as the sound of a mother wailing at the sudden lost of a child rang through the deadened night.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
As he left the dying town, following a different scent, a rotten wooden plank stuck out halfway from a pile of snow with the other half of it revealing, in faded ink, Welcome to Mermaid Town.
The holy fire licked the insides of the shrine as she knelt before it and while she chanted, her mind entered a cloud of dark smoke. The smoke was like a wall before her and no matter how hard she punched her fist against it, it would not crumble away. Anger raged through her. She had to get through the smoke, she thought desperately.
Behind the thick wall of smoke, she heard someone crying.
'Help me!'
Usagi! she thought. She punched against the wall again but it was useless. The smoke only stood over her, mocking her, taunting her.
"Usagi!" she cried.
'Help me!'
"Usagi!" she cried again, this time with tears in her eyes. No way was she going to let any harm come to Usagi. No way in hell! Not after all she's been through. Not after all that she's sacrificed. Usagi was for her to protect. She was the kami she had been serving her whole life. To hell with all the kami that she had prayed to before. They were nothing but stories woven from the strands of imagination and fantasy. Usagi, no, Seion is real. The golden-haired goddess who had been sent for her to guard with her life. And yes, that is exactly what she'll do. Guard her with her life.
Such thought was Rei's determination and strength that the wall of smoke was immediately pulled away by a whirlwind and she thought she heard a sound like a shriek echoing away. The view before her cleared up and she stepped forward.
'Rei!'
She ran. As she ran, she realized that she was her younger self again, her long midnight hair swinging back and forth as she ascended the path before her. Her legs were as strong as she remembered them to be and could carry her further. "Usagi!" she cried and her voice was as clear and vibrant as spring water at the base of a thunderous waterfall.
Her breath got caught in her throat as she finally took sight of a golden light. The kind of golden light that could only shine from the fine tresses of an angel. And that angel was calling for her. She gained speed, afraid that the golden light would disappear. Blue sky shone through eyes that were now gazing back at her. "Rei!" she could hear her cry.
A fierce blast of icy wind came and knocked her off her feet. When she looked up, black mist swirled around Usagi, swallowing the golden light. As she looked on in horror, her voice locked behind her throat, the black mist started to take a more solid shape. A skeletal hand appeared from the inside of a black sleeve and grabbed Usagi by the neck. Rei stared at the hood where underneath it was a doorway into an infinite darkness. The fathomless face stared back and though Rei could see nothing but more black nothing, she imagined the thing beneath the hood grinning at her. The skeletal hand hovered over Usagi's chest, its fingers spread out like gleaming claws. Usagi's face contorted in pain and struggled to get out of its grip but all that escaped her was an ear piercing scream. Rei could only watch in agony.
The pure white light of a crystal shone from Usagi's opened chest, sending Rei into a few seconds of total white blindness before the skeletal hand closed around the crystal, abruptly cutting out the light. The sound of shattered glass sent everything into darkness. And when Rei reopened her eyes, there was no hooded skeleton, no white crystal, no golden light, no Usagi. Rei sat in the darkness, listening to her own breathing and her heartbeat pounded like a brutal reminder of her failure.
Moments passed and a dark blue light began to glow in her direction. She stared at the growing orb and noticed that within it was the silhouette of a tall figure. Her heartbeat picked up its pace again but it was not a sign of fear. She recognized it as anticipation and hopefulness. The figure was distant and judging by its fading outline it would soon disappear. So she tried very hard not to blink and took in as much as she could. And what she saw was a glint of indigo shining through those deep set eyes that she knew could only belong to someone of truth, wisdom and strength.
"Who are you?" Rei asked and waited for her vision to answer. Sometimes they do, most times they don't.
The figure was fading quicker and all that was soon left were those pair of eyes. Eyes of a king, she thought and watched it disappear. But before it did, it parted its lips and Rei strained her ears to listen.
...Sei...
Rei strained some more. Sounds echoed and bounced off like in a deep well and all she could make out from it was a man's voice.
...ya...
Then it was gone.
Perspiration cascaded down her temples when she opened her eyes. The holy fire has shriveled like the bud of a flower that would never taste the kiss of a bumblebee or quench the thirst of a hummingbird. Strands of her greying hair were plastered around her face. She was back to her aged self again. She touched her forehead, feeling the fine lines that had etched themselves over the years. Her throat was parched from all the chanting and her knees ached and throbbed from all the kneeling. Her mind though, has gotten stronger and wiser. Her mental skills have been honed like the sharp edge of a sword. Visions stayed with her for longer periods of time, unlike when she was younger where they would whisk away from her memory like a foggy mist.
Her visions of Usagi and the hooded skeleton scared her as they became more and more vivid. Her hands, heavily veined and boned at the joints, clenched the folds of her dress as she rehearsed the visions in her head. What does it mean? she wondered. Why do I keep seeing Usagi dying over and over again? What kind of evil is getting closer and closer? What is that crystal that shines with such a blinding light? And most importantly, who was that?
There were too many questions and she could not gather the mental strength to seek the answers out. The last of her concentration only ebbed away and overtook by the footsteps that padded lightly behind her then followed by a voice, "Rei?"
She turned around and there was Usagi, beautiful and angelic in the fading firelight. A look of concern was spread all over her face framed by the thick cascading golden locks. Rei gazed back silently, the corners of her lips cracking to form a smile. She gestured towards her, "come Usagi, come sit with me."
They sat before each other, their shadows quivering under the firelight. "Is everything alright?" Usagi asked. Time had neither touched a single strand of her hair, nor left a trail on her fair face. Her skin was ever as soft and supple like a freshly sprouted bud at the first taste of spring. It was as if the sun lived within her. But Rei was worried. How long before darkness would come, rip the fragile roots off and eat the light away?
"I'm getting old," Rei finally said in her aged voice. "I'm getting old and I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I'll be too weak to do my duty when the time arrives."
"Duty?"
"To protect you."
"Rei..." Usagi disliked seeing Rei this way. Just when she had finally come to terms that Rei was the only one she had. For years, she had cried over a family who had all existence of her wiped out. She stopped when she noticed the white hairs and lines that were beginning to show on Rei. She stopped asking the questions that were never going to be given answers. She was not supposed to be alive. She was no longer the Usagi she used to be. She was given a second chance to life, living off in a different body, a body that looked like hers, a body that has yet taken a taste of mortality, a body that belonged to a mermaid – as crazy as it sounds, but hey, what can be crazier than a dead person coming back to life? - called Seion. On some nights, she would hear a song in her dreams and see a flash of silver floating on silent water as clear as crystal. She had noticed the pattern, that her dreams happened during a full moon. 'Maybe Seion is living inside you,' Rei had said.
"One day I will die," Rei started again.
"Hush, don't say that." The thought of Rei dying was too painful for Usagi.
"That does not change the fact that I will die one day. Listen Usagi, I am the last member of the Hino family. I have done my best to upkeep this shrine and uphold its holiness. But I have failed in my duty to continue the bloodline and tradition which my ancestors have build for centuries. I know this shrine and all its memories will perish along with me. The tree will wither away. Demos and Phobos will follow me to the afterlife. But you? Who can I entrust you to? My whole life I've trusted no one but myself to care for you. And once I'm gone, who is going to mend your kimono? Who is going to brew you herbs during the cold seasons? Who is going to bring you your favorite flowers?" Rei touched Usagi's locks, lightly brushing it with her fingers. "Who is going to brush and bun up your hair?"
Usagi's eyes started to well up. She knew what this was about and wrapped her arms around Rei's waist where she buried her tears. Rei continued stroking the blonde's hair.
"My instincts tell me that you must leave tonight after sunset when the town's asleep. I will send Demos and Phobos to watch over you till you find some good people. You will know by the signs they give." Rei began to remember a pair of indigo eyes.
"This is all too sudden," Usagi said between sniffles. She never took too long to cry nowadays. She straightened herself again, her eyes red-rimmed and painful to look at.
"That's how instincts usually work."
"Won't you leave with me?"
"Oh how I wish I could. But I'm too old for traveling. And there's one thing I must do."
"What is it?"
The greying priestess only smiled as she knelt behind Usagi and started spreading her golden locks into two parts. Usagi understood and sat quietly while Rei tied her hair for the last time.
And while the dust from the fire settled, what felt like a harmless breeze blew past them lightly. Rei brushed the uneasy feeling aside as residual effects from her visions. And because it was dark, neither of them could see its true nature: a dark wisp-like form encircling around them and the room like a prowling predator. After a while, it escaped silently through a tiny gap between the doors and trailed past the town, through the quiet streets and deep into a forest where a hooded figure stood in waiting.
The black plume of smoke hissed into the hood where the face was supposed to be and a pair of lights like eyes came to life.
