How much longer would he be able to hold his eyes open? How many more breaths would he be able to take before the Reaper would come to get him? Yamato coughed a little and he felt the thin trail of blood slowly trickling down his already cooling cheek. He smiled a little despite the stinging pain in his abdomen which he barely noticed any more. If he hadn't been so foolish he wouldn't now be lying between the cool grass and fallen leaves under the tall dark trees bleeding to death. His vision was slowly fading but he could still see the faint light of the twinkling stars through the small holes in the dense green mesh of branches, twigs, and leaves.
He really should have known better. But how could he have resisted her? How could any seeing man have resisted her unearthly beauty? She was more beautiful than any other girl he had ever met. He closed his eyes and tried to remember every detail of her beautiful face in his mind. The sweet, innocent face of his murderer.
Flashback
Why had he decided to take a path so close to the cursed wood in the first place anyway? He couldn't exactly remember the reason any more no matter how long he thought about it. Maybe he had wanted to watch the sun go down as a red fiery ball behind the seemingly endless sea of dark trees. It was a beautiful spectacle to see and he had done so as often as possible. If he had just gone straight home nothing of this all would have happened.
He had never really been afraid of the forest but he still kept a save distance between him and the edge of the wood. There was something about those old trees which had always unnerved him. He couldn't exactly put the finger on it but the whole wood had a strange air of hostility to it.
It was more this warning feeling of something malicious being hidden in the woods which had kept him away rather than the stories of the villagers. He had always assumed they were just tales with maybe a small trace of truth. Every adult and every child in the village knew them by heart. The stories about people going into the woods never to be seen again. His father had told him those stories as well when he had been a small boy. Maybe he wouldn't have taken them serious at all if the old man hadn't warned him in such a serious manner not to go anywhere near the cursed forest at all. He had even made him swear it and he had kept word until now.
Only when he had grown older had he also heard about the corpses which were found from time to time near the wood. They had been people who had been foolish enough to enter to woods despite all warnings. Most of them were horribly mutilated with their bodies ripped open and the bowels torn out or that's what the villagers said at least. He had never seen one of them himself which had made him a bit suspicious about the truth behind those horrible stories. Maybe those were just gory versions of the children's tales to scare the older ones after all.
But he had gone near the woods anyway. He had been sure it would be save as long as he didn't go into the wood itself. Many times before he had been much closer to the cursed green maze than that but until now nothing had ever gone wrong. Who could have foreseen that this would be the last time he saw the sun going down?
He had been standing on a small grassy hill a small distance away from the edge of the forest watching the sun go down behind the tops of the trees when he noticed the small figure standing in the shadows of the wood. Immediately he started running towards the person who was still standing motionless between the old tall trees. When he came closer and got a better look at the slender figure he stopped dead in his tracks.
As he had been approaching, the person who was dressed in a long grey cloak had turned around and the face had become visible to him. He recognized the gentle face of a young girl. She had short auburn hair and warm chocolate brown eyes and a smile on her lips. The sight was simply breathtaking as if an angel had come down to earth. But despite her beauty and the friendly smile he couldn't help but notice a certain feeling of sadness around her.
At first he could just stare at her. His body felt as if it no longer belonged to himself. He could neither move nor speak so he just stood there and watched her silently. He wanted to ask her for her name or where she came from but his mouth wouldn't obey his thoughts. He wanted to cry out to her to step away from the trees but not a single word escaped his lips.
The young girl didn't speak either but she gazed intensely at him and as if he had always known it he suddenly realized her name. As if a voice had spoken directly inside of his head he heard her name being whispered. She called herself 'Hikari'. But this was already the only thing he found out about the gorgeous girl.
After a few more moments of silence the girl smiled one more time before she finally turned around and ran a little deeper into the woods. He wanted to hold her back but his body still wouldn't act upon his will. She stopped once more and turned her head to look back at him. He saw her still smiling face and her waving hand and in his head he heard again the sweet enchanting voice calling out to him:
'Come!'
He heard the words and he followed their call. Suddenly he had control over his feet again and he began to follow the fleeing girl immediately. All warnings about the evil of the forest were forgotten as he ran after the mysterious girl. He tried hard to catch up with her but no matter how fast he ran he never came any closer to the slender girl who was rushing through the undergrowth like an animal of the woods. Her bare feet were gracefully gliding over the grass and the dried fallen leaves as if they weren't touching the earth at all.
He had been following her for some time and he was slowly getting tired when they finally reached a small clearing. He had never seen a place like this before. It was a small opening between the trees but the branches of the tall surrounding trees formed a green roof over the round meadow. Hikari had stopped at the very center of the clearing and was now gazing back at him. Yamato slowly approached the girl. He couldn't take his eyes from her beautiful girl's face. Her eyes were now lowered to the ground as if to avoid his gaze but he could still see the small smile on her lips.
He finally came to a halt right in front of her. He wanted to touch her face to be sure that she was real but his arms just wouldn't move. He had lost control over his body again.
Suddenly in a fluid quick motion her head shot up and she stared straight into his blue eyes. The boy wanted to scream at the sight before him but again his throat let no noise out. The girl's warm brown eyes were gone and had been replaced with two eerily glowing white orbs. The cloak had slipped from her head and her short auburn hair whirled wildly around her head as if being tossed around be the wind. He wanted to flee the frightening sight before him but before he could regain control over his legs again he felt a stinging pain in his stomach.
He looked down only to see that the girls hand had turned into a claw and was now dripping with blood, his blood. She had ripped his stomach open with only one forceful blow. Now his strength finally left him and he lost consciousness.
When he finally awoke again he saw the ghostly figure of the girl one last time. She was standing over his fallen body with an apologetic look on her face. She smiled at him one last time before her shape began to fade and she finally vanished.
End Flashback
She had looked like an angel to him. If she had had wings the picture would have been perfect. No, there was no way that he could have resisted her. She had lured him into the wood and he had followed her willingly. Deep in his mind he had known all the time that he would not be coming back again. Nobody who ever entered the cursed forest came back again.
He took one final labored breath thinking about his wingless angel and killer before he closed his blue eyes forever.
* * *
A.N.: I had the idea to this story while listening to a song. Which leads me to another idea: The one who finds out which band the song is from can request a story and I'm going to write it for you (No, this is not a threat!)! I know it's rather unlikely that anybody finds out but I'll give you a few clues anyway:
It's a German band and the title and lyrics are also in German (I guess this is the hardest obstacle ^__^ ).
If you really want to try e-mail me and I'll send you the lyrics.
Good luck!
