We didn't run into anyone else on the path. Just as Hidan said, we reached the road when the sun was highest in the sky. It was not a paved road, not even stone. It was just a much wider and much more run-down path than the earlier one.

"Hidan… could we please walk in the trees instead of out here in the open?… I don't want to hurt anyone else…"

Hidan stopped and held up a hand, "one moment…" He was looking straight ahead, but his eyes were glazed over, so I knew he wasn't seeing what I was seeing. He looked like he was praying. "…No. Jashin does not want you to avoid your curse. You must suffer until he says that you have suffered enough."

I looked longingly into the trees to the side of the road, but knew that something even worse would happen if I tried to avoid the curse… I had no choice…

Hidan continued walking, not waiting. I hurried to catch up to him.

No more than 15 minutes later, I saw three figures walking down the path… A father and his two children, a daughter and a son. The son looked only a year or two older than me, but the girl… she looked to be only two years old… Her father held her on his shoulders; it reminded me of when I was a little girl on my own father's shoulders…

Horrified, I looked away. "Please, Lord Jashin, please… not now… please forgive me… I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry… I'll never leave you again…"

My eyes begin to burn; they get hotter and hotter and hotter.

"No!" I cry out, "Please, Jashin-sama! I'll do anything, just please don't let this happen again! Please!!!" I fall to the ground; my whole body feels like it's on fire, I see only red.

"Child! Child, are you alright?!" I hear the father say. He is running towards me. He puts a hand on my back, "answer me!"

"Please! Get out of here! Run, RUN AWAY! NOW!!!" I feel inhumanly strong hands take a hold of my hands and pry them away from my face. A hand grabs my neck and another grasps my hair, forcing my head up so I'm facing the man.

I hear the son yell out in fear, "Father!!!"

The girl screams.

I can't make a sound, breath, anything. Just as before, I'm consumed by this fiery pain with no escape. I taste and smell blood.

Finally, it ends. I feel so weak… I slowly open my eyes, dreading what I will see. I'm lying on the dirt road, just as before. But the family isn't there… Hidan isn't there… There is a young man, my age, squatting down beside me. He has pure black eyes and raven-like black hair that sticks up everywhere. His garments are black too. He wears a wicked grin that reveals razor-sharp blood-stained teeth.

"Wake up, pretty one. Wake up." He says. His voice is like nails on glass. I flinch.

His smile widens, "she's awake… she's awake…" He brushes a lock of hair off of my face.

I hurriedly sit up, but can go no further because of a sudden wave of nausea.

"Lie down, lie down…" The boy says. He puts a hand on my shoulder, and with inhuman strength, forces me back down. He's the one who forced me to look up before…

"Who… are you?…" I ask, holding back vomit. I feel like I'm dying…

"Aw… you don't know who I am? How disappointing…" But he still wears his crooked grin. "I am Jashin, and I relieve you of your curse." He jabs his black-taloned fingers into my eye sockets, I shout out in pain.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, shaking me. "Wake up!"

I open my eyes with a start. They're whole. Hidan is kneeling beside me, the dead family is on the road, and the boy is gone. I look up at Hidan. "Where… h-he… Jashin-sama was just here! I saw him, h-he was a boy, a young man, he…"

I blink. "My eyes, are they back to the way they were?!"

Hidan pauses, then smiles, "yeah, they're back."

"Oh thank God… thank Jashin…" I'm quickly getting used to having Jashin as a god. I look down at the three people on the road, "…come on, we should move them." I stand and pick up the little girl. Her body is limp and cooling, blood covering her face. It breaks my heart.

I know it is my fault that these people died. But I'm so thankful that no one else will have to suffer… I walk past the tree line and lay the dead child in the tall grass. Hidan walks over, the father slung over his shoulder and the boy under his arm. He drops them carelessly on the ground beside the girl.

"…I don't think you have many people skills Hidan…" I roll the boy off of his father and make sure that all three are facing up. I close all of their eyelids and fold their hands on their chests.

"What the hell are you doing? You're doing it all wrong." Hidan kneels down and cuts out their hearts, one by one. He buries the hearts and says a prayer that I cannot understand.

I stand aside, taken aback. But I say nothing. I'm learning.

When he's done, Hidan wipes his hands off on some shrub with giant leaves, then rises to his feet. He looks at me and gestures at my face, "you'd best be getting that blood off your face."

I quickly wipe my face clean and then wipe off my hands on the same shrub.

Hidan looks up at the sun, "come on, we've got a few more hours of sunlight and it'd be wise to use them." He walks down to the road, I follow.