Witch Hunter, Soul Hunter
Chapter 1: Nightmare
By Kaen
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of support this story already had from just the prologue. Thank you very much to anyone who reviewed! To anyone who's just hanging around to see how screwed up this story will get, I welcome you to the madness. I hope you're not disappointed!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
He could feel the harsh dream seeping into his mind and piercing his skin. He could feel the negative atmosphere that darkened his already bleak and drained soul. He was aware that the cold world he was quickly joining was not his own.
The only thing he didn't know was how to awaken from it.
A shudder from the smaller body was visible though the thin layer of blankets, followed by a trembling that started slight. Before he could stop himself, he was quivering uncontrollably with some unknown fear, yet was still clinging to the very problem itself. Or, perhaps the more appropriate word for the problem would have been "himself."
"Tsuzuki…" Hisoka breathed out through clenched teeth.
His eyes clenched shut almost spasmodically and his brow wrinkled with both fear and pain as a sheen of sweat surfaced over his body. Hisoka drew a sharp breath as images and desperate thoughts entered his mind, slowly at first and then rapidly spiraling into a mess of faces, cruel words, pain… and blood. A disgusting amount of blood.
Why was there so much blood? On the floor, the window, the curtains, even splatters on the plain quilt of the bed. The whole scene was dimly lit by moonlight…
Hisoka suddenly realized what he was witnessing, even before the stream of consciousness focused on the mangled and seemingly lifeless body slouched under the window. That was Hijiri? No, that was him. Did he really look so pathetic? 'That was quite some job of protection, wasn't it?' he sarcastically applauded himself. Hisoka felt a twinge of shame then, something that exceeded his own thoughts of the revolting image. He focused his mind on it, but it was like approaching a deeply guarded secret that just slipped further and further away as you traveled down the winding path to retrieve it. And when it was almost within grasp, he saw the iron-clad wall spring up around it. Before it could even register, however, strong arms were luring him to consciousness.
'Tsuzuki… Do you always keep running from everyone like this? Did you almost trust me, and then pull away at the last second? I could almost understand your dreams, your pain… How come you still hide from me?'
"Hisoka! Wake up! Hisoka!" His body was being shaken more roughly.
Which came first, he couldn't tell, but he cracked open his hazy emerald green eyes to find himself squirming away from the heavy grasp that restrained him. A wave of fear, bordering on panic, invaded his mind, increasing his desire to escape- to escape and hide himself where he couldn't be found…
"Let go of me!" Hisoka cried without thinking, his eyes seeing something beyond the impersonal hotel room's white walls. "Don't touch me!"
His cry changed pitch halfway through, tears swelling up along the rims of his unfocused eyes. He tried to say something else, but couldn't find his voice in between the breaking sobs. The desperation finally changed into something new, something more subtle. The rough hands were taken away, but not before each single digit had slid over the skin prior to falling slack besides the frantic boy. Shields were slammed into place and the room quickly fell deafly silent. No, quieter than deaf. Dead silent.
"Hi… soka? Are you all…?" The words seems to echo of the plain walls.
He heard them as if in a dream, the kind of dream where one falls and falls. The kind where one is screaming until the very end until something disturbs you from the vision. The words sprung from his own throat, cutting off the scream that only he could hear that careened in his mind.
A gentle touch caressed his tear stained cheek, followed by an affectionate wave of reassurance and concern. It was the good type of concern, thought; unselfish and affectionate, never reproaching or disgusted. Lured by the warm feelings, he hazarded blinking the unseeing eyes and forcing them to come to terms with reality. He was pressed tightly to the headboard of the old bed, his own nails scratching obscure patterns into the wood. His trembling prevented him from balancing in the position very long, his tensed muscles giving way as the now limp body tumbled helplessly into lithe arms. Someone was holding him… But he couldn't feel anything other than reassurance and affection. He was only feeling what he was supposed to.
Hisoka lowered his eyelids again as he became remotely aware of the fingers in his hair, brushing it gently in attempt to calm his desperation. It reminded him of something from a long time ago, although he couldn't place quite what it was. Concentrating on the touch became his only goal and he racked his mind trying to find the reason behind the strange sensation.
"Hisoka?" A voice carrying a worried pitch asked. "Are you all right? What happened?"
A long pause followed the question, Hisoka forcing himself to understand the words by analyzing the meaning of one at a time. The seconds seemed to drag into ours before an explanation was offered.
"That's what happens when I synchronize with people, I guess," he answered, rather offhandedly given the situation. "I just saw what you saw and felt what you felt. It's only affects me because I can't control it, though. I don't like having other people's pain flooding me."
He narrowed his eyes irately, boring into Tsuzuki's pained ones to hide the sentence his mind had added: 'I have enough of my own…'
Another silence followed, the situation becoming more and more awkward now that they were both realizing that Hisoka was in Tsuzuki's bed instead of his own. Being held so tenderly by him didn't help matters much either.
"I'm sorry," Tsuzuki apologized abruptly, releasing his partner's still trembling body from his hold with an underlying shove.
Hisoka barely caught himself on his elbows before slamming face-first into the mattress. He blinked in confusion, unsure of what to do at the sudden loss of contact. A door slammed shut and the lock clicked into place, a small noise amplified infinitely by the tenseness of the moment. Hisoka remained in that same position on the bed for several minutes, not seeing, hearing, or even thinking. The only thing that formed in his clouded mind was the droning question, "What do I do now?"
And, somehow in the depths of his consciousness, he knew that the question was not his own. It was simply traces of his synchronization with Tsuzuki. He wasn't the one who was lost, frightened, and ashamed. He most definitely wasn't the one driving himself mad with confusion. And it certainly wasn't he who choked out his partner's name between ragged breaths and sobs.
Or was it?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Gah! I'm sorry this chapter was so miserably short. I really liked the ending it had, though. I just felt like if I went on anymore in this part, it would ruin the entire chapter. So! I plan to have another chapter or two focusing on Hisoka and Tsuzuki before the lovely little witch hunting crew gets involved. I think there needs to be some build-up before the main plot of the story is obvious, ne? I hope you agree! I'm just rambling now, though. If you actually read this, pleas review and let me know! Thanks a bunch!
-Kaen *^^*