Alice

Murucho pointed to a conference room and said, "I'm going to be in there if any of you need me." We nodded and our friend hurried inside to do yet another presentation. Dan said under his breath, "I bet you he has that speech of his memorized."

I had already broken off from the group and began looking at the museum's exhibits. It had a little bit of everything; history, science, and art. "Alice!" I turned around and saw Dan waving at me. "We're going to meet up here at three! Ok?" he shouted inside of the quiet museum.

I nodded before I could witness Runo backhand him. I ended up stumbling upon an exhibit about the history of Nippon, or Japan pretty much. Ancient samurai swords and artwork hung on the walls. Little signs explained what people were looking at and the history behind it.

A lot of the artwork looked like folklore from way back when. And most of them were about demons. I leaned on the handrail and looked up at one piece of artwork and examined it carefully. It depicted somebody fighting a demon, or Akuma as the sign called it.

I looked at the 'Akuma' and saw that the painting had its eyes a pure black. I stepped back and shook my head. No, those people couldn't have been demons. Demons don't exist…..Don't they? A flashlight beam hit me dead in the eyes.

I raised my arm to shield myself from the brightness. The light was lowered and I saw a man walking towards me. "What are you doing in here? This exhibit isn't open today due to repairs," he said. He wore the museums uniform, and had clean-cut brown hair.

The guy kind of reminded me of an older version of Dan. "I-I'm sorry. I just came across it and the door was open. I didn't know it was closed," I told him, feeling slightly embarrassed by my trespassing. The museum employee said, "It's no problem. I was actually coming down here to lock the doors, but got sidetracked on the way. Here, I'll take you to the exit."

I tried to walk next to him so I wouldn't get lost in the dark exhibit, but he wouldn't let me get within six feet of him. "Hey! Slow down!" I said and tried running to catch up. He whipped around and stopped me in my tracks by shining the flashlight on my face.

"Safety reasons," he said gruffly. Guess it makes sense. If the museum had an incident where an employee got attacked by somebody here, they would have to make a rule that would put some distance between worker and visitor. I stayed no more than six feet from him, and could not see him.

All I could go by, was the flashlight in his hands. I said to him, "Um, I don't think this is the way I came in at." Nothing looked familiar to me. Mainly cause I couldn't see anything. Where I came in at, it was dimly lit, but this was borderline pitch black.

"Don't worry. This is just the end of the exhibit. The lights need to be fixed here, and that's why everything is closed off. But it will take you back to the entrance of the museum," he told me. I kept looking around for a door or the light of an exit, but it only seemed to keep getting darker.

And I was getting scared. I grabbed the cross necklace I had been wearing since yesterday and took in a deep breath. I'm over reacting. I'll be fine. A door opened, and I saw the museum employee holding the exit open. The outside light was blinding since my eyes had adjusted to the darkness. "Thanks," I told him and turned around to face him.

"No problem." I then felt my body tense up. In the light, I was able to see his eyes. They were black and soulless, just like the pictures. The employee grinned and vanished into the dark exhibit, the door slowly closing behind him. I stared at the exit door, feeling like my legs were nailed to the ground. I held on tighter to my cross, and quickly walked back to the conference room.

Shun

The curse that was on Alice concerned my somehow. The odds of a similar curse being placed on somebody were slim to none. And I highly doubted that the Oni who cursed me, ran out of ideas when he got to Alice. They were much more creative than that.

I rounded the block that had Alice's hotel on it. Kuda was pulling on my shirttail. "Listen to me! You can't talk to her!" he kept saying. I looked around at all the people walking by. If I yelled at him again like I did earlier, then I would get those confused looks again. Along with the ones who thought I was crazy. "Why can't I talk to her? You did, so why can't I?" I asked quietly, but harshly.

Kuda growled and said, "You don't understand, Master. You can't get near her." I rolled my eyes. Even when there was some connection to my curse, I still had to be cut off from everyone else. "I'm going to talk to her, Kuda," I said stubbornly.

The pipe fox cried out and shouted, "If you would just listen to me for five minutes, I would explain why you can't talk to her!" I walked up the steps of the hotel and into the lobby. A woman at the check-in desk finished up with a customer, and was no longer busy.

I walked up to her and asked, "Is an Alice Gehabich here?" The woman tapped on the computer to look for her name. She asked, "And may I ask why you want to know if this person is here?" I tapped my foot and said, "I'm an old friend of hers. If you have her number, then you can call her and verify whether I'm telling the truth or not."

The woman nodded and kept staring at the computer. "That won't be necessary. Here she is. She's on the third floor, room 302." Kuda said the floor and room number at the same time as the desk clerk did. I narrowed my eyes at him, causing him to fold his ears back defensively.

The woman then told me, "She's with the Marakura party, but they aren't here right now. Their group should be back around five or six from what I've been told." I looked at the clock. It wasn't even two 'o' clock yet. "Alright. Thanks for your time," I told the woman and left the desk so she could tend to other people.

I left the lobby and walked back out to the street. It would have been weird if I sat in the lobby for four hours. "Now that you know she won't be back soon, will you listen to me?" Kuda asked. I sighed. Sometimes having Kuda around was worse than a fly buzzing around your head.

Except he's a lot easier to swat. "Fine. What do you want to tell me so badly?" My feet were starting to grow tired, so I walked down the sidewalk and sat on a bench that wasn't too far from the hotel. I would at least be able to see when the others returned.

Kuda told me, "You can't get near her. I'm not telling you this because you have to be cut off from them, but because you literally can't." I raised a brow and said, "You're making no sense, Kuda." In my opinion, it sounded like a lame excuse he was using in order to keep my cut off from the world.

I was doing this to help Alice and see if there was some way I could figure out my curse. I wasn't doing this because I wanted to be involved with my old friends again. Am I? The thought finally hit me. Was I really doing this cause of my curse, or was I using it as a means of getting back with my old life?

Getting involved again was out of the question. That was something I could only dream about. I hadn't even realized Kuda was speaking. I didn't hear a single word he had said to me. "Do you understand now?" he asked? I nodded, not wanting to burden him with having to repeat it again.

Alice

I made it back to the conference room, still trembling on the inside. The others were sitting around outside, and I looked up at the clock. It was way past three. Runo ran to me and said, "There you are! We were starting to worry when you weren't here."

By the looks of things, the presentation was over. The conference room doors were wide open, revealing that the inside was empty and lacking of people. "I'm sorry to make you guys worry," I said. My voice was soft and shaky.

I felt like I was losing control of my mind and going crazy. Runo placed her hand on my forehead and asked, "Are you feeling ok, Alice?" I wanted to shake my head and tell her no. I wanted to spill everything to them about the black eyes and the museum employee.

I wanted to tell them everything. But I didn't. It would only make them worry, or verify my fear that I was going insane. The others appeared behind Runo. Julie asked, "What's wrong with Alice?" Everything, I said to myself. Runo took off her jacket and draped it over my shoulders.

"She's just not feeling well. Let's get her back to the hotel," the bluenette told them. I was still clenching the cross in my hand when we got back on the bus, and all during the ride back. The bus stopped in front of our hotel, and we stepped off. It was dark now, and the many outside lamps on the building and street provided us with light.

The busy sidewalks, were no longer all that busy now that it was late. The street was about the same though. I was going up the stairs and thought somebody call my name, when a car slammed on their brakes, then blew their horn. I turned around and looked to see what was going on.

All I saw was the car get back in its lane, and turn a corner. Runo grabbed my hand and said, "Come on, Alice. Let's get you back to your room." I rubbed the cross with my thumb and followed Runo inside.

Shun

I had my arms crossed over my chest and sighed. It was getting dark, and there was no sign of Alice or any of the others. A man walked by and I stopped him. "Um, sir? Do you have the time?" He pulled out his phone and said, "6:50." I thanked him and sat back down.

Kuda had fallen asleep next to me, and looked uncomfortable on the wooden bench. I wasn't all that comfortable either. Where are they? The desk clerk had said they would be back at five or six. Well, it was well past those times, and I was growing annoyed.

Then, a large charter bus pulled up to the front of the hotel. I didn't think nothing of it, until I saw Dan and the others start to step out. A bus was not what I was expecting them to be on. I was expecting Kato and the limo.

I saw Alice step out, and ran towards her. "Al-" I didn't get fifteen feet from her when I was thrown back and into the street. I groaned in pain, then was blinded by headlights. I then remembered, I was in the middle of the street.

Quickly, I ran to the other side before I was hit by a car. A parked moving van was in the way, but when I looked underneath it, I saw Alice looking out into the street. Runo then grabbed her hand, and they went inside. I grabbed onto my side. It was burning with pain. What the hell was that?

Kuda floated across the busy street. When he got to where I was, he looked at me with narrowed eyes. "You didn't hear a word I said, did you?" he asked coldly. I sighed. "No." It felt like I ran into a brick wall, then was shocked afterwards.

Kuda rolled his eyes and said, "I tried to tell you that you can't get near her because she has a blessed cross on. But it looks like it took getting slapped with it to get that through your thick skull." He tapped the top of my head with his paw for emphasis.

I stood up, leaning on the parked moving van so I wouldn't fall over. "Alright, you go and snatch the cross off of her neck so I can get close to her without feeling the wrath of God hit me," I said. Kuda started to repeatedly hit his head against the moving van.

"You really don't listen, do you?" he said. I sighed and asked, "What did I miss out on now?" Kuda stopped hitting his head on the van and glared at me. "I tried to tell you that even I couldn't get near her. I've been around you for so long, that your demonic energy has rubbed off on me. To that cross, I'm an Akuma. Just like you."

Somewhere in the city, I heard the telltale scream of an Akuma being killed. "The hell?" I said. Another was followed by that one, and then another. The hairs along Kuda's body stood up on end. "I forgot he was here," the Kanko said. More cries of dying Akuma filled the air.

"Who's here?" I asked, feeling a nervous chill run up my spine. "Star. I forgot he was in the area. We need to get you out of here before he finds you and kills you," Kuda said urgently. More dying screams of Akuma rose from the alleys in the city.

He had to have just killed more than I had in a month, in about five minutes. I asked, "What the hell is Star doing in Wardington? Doesn't he know these are my hunting grounds?" Star hunted in Bay City, not Wardington.

He was way off from his hunting area, and he knew good and well that I hunted in Wardington. Akuma hunters respected other hunter's territory. Kuda shook his head and told me, "I don't know why Star is hunting here, but we have to get you the hell out of here before you become his next target."

Normally, I would have gone after a hunter who had invaded my territory, but this was Star. This guy didn't play around. I would be nothing more than an easy kill for him, regardless of the condition I was in.

"Alright, let's get the hell out of here," I told Kuda. We ran back to the apartment, leaving behind the screams of Akuma that Star had killed.

ah. another day, another chapter as i always say...ok. i've never said that in my life. 0.0 -laughs nervously- hehehehe. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~