Disclaimer: I own nothing...woe is me! I am merely a parasite, spawning off all of the good ideas coming from other guys. -_-'
Skellig:
4
Whack! Whack!Kaoru usually loved the sun.
Whack! Whack!Now she wished that it would just hide behind some clouds for a while…
Whack!Kaoru, Yahiko, and her father were out in the backyard, trying to turn it into a garden. A few hours ago they had managed to remove all of the junk from the garden, and now they were starting at the weeds, some almost as tall as Yahiko.
Whack!The mighty plant fell and Kaoru stabbed at it and the ground ruthlessly, mutilating the roots, which were hiding down there somewhere.
The flurry of leaves and dirt fell away to show Yahiko looking at her with a weird expression.
"It's just a plant, Kaoru."
"Mou!" she steamed. "Well, all these stupid plants are blocking the way!"
A yard away from Yahiko, their father was just finishing up, and Kaoru's father grunted as he seized the thorny weed and yanked it up from the caked earth. He threw it to the pile of removed weeds, then turned to his frustrated daughter.
"Kaoru, take a break, if you're going to be of no help."
Kaoru was hurt from the statement, but took it as a challenge, and grimly hacked away at more of the growth with out complaint. To show him, she didn't even go inside with the rest of them when Kaoru's mother had called out that she had some cool drinks for them. So, Kaoru was alone, battling with the garden when a cool voice called out to her, "Difficult, isn't it?"
Kaoru was surprised, and her training kicked in as she spun around quickly, holding her tool as if it were a bokken. She was greeted with a pair of calm black eyes; a girl was peering over the fence, head and arms in view. Kaoru could see that the girl was standing on something in order to see over, and Kaoru blinked in recognition, for this girl was the same one she had seen a few days before.
"Who are you?" Kaoru asked, not knowing whether to be polite or rude; didn't this girl know that you weren't supposed to spy on your neighbors?
"Yukishiro Tomoe," she answered politely. She paused, as if waiting for Kaoru to do something. They eyed each other for a while, then Kaoru suddenly realized the proper response.
"I'm Kaoru Kamiya," she said quickly. Introductions made, Kaoru searched for a topic. "You live down the street, right?"
"Hai."
More silence.
Kaoru was naturally a talkative person, so the silence was too much for her. She decided to ask a question that had been on her mind ever since she had spotted Tomoe over the fence.
"Forgive me, I wasn't spying on you or anything, but a few nights ago I saw you outside, and you hit your cat."
Tomoe looked vaguely surprised.
Kaoru became stern. "Why did you do that?"
To her surprise, Tomoe nodded approvingly and said, "You care about animals. That's nice of you." She waited for a second, then continued. "I was punishing my cat because she was trying to eat the owlets."
"Owlets!" Kaoru exclaimed. "Baby owls?"
"Hai."
She didn't offer any more explanations, and Kaoru let the topic drop reluctantly. She was about to open her mouth to invite her in, when Tomoe suddenly nodded to her in a good bye sort of manner, and jumped down from whatever she had been standing on, the flurry of hair vanishing after her.
"Good bye, Kaoru," she called over the fence.
"Good bye," Kaoru said uneasily, and she heard the pitter patter of Tomoe's shoes as she ran off.
~*~
Flashlight? Check.
Bokken? Check again.
Kaoru gripped both items hard, staring at the garage defiantly, trying to conceal her fear. The sun was still in view, thank god, even though it was past dinner. It would've been a lot worse if she only had time to do this during nightfall…
She had no idea what was inside the garage. In fact, if she was lucky, there would be nothing at all. But the back of Kaoru's neck was prickling, and she stiffened as she took a few steps forward and pushed the door open loudly. The first thing to frighten her was the spider that dropped down from the handle, and Kaoru swallowed her scream and smashed the disgusting thing with the end of her bokken.
First obstacle gone, Kaoru thought grimly, and she took a breath, then walked in.
She quickly switched the flashlight on, and she stood still, waving the beam of light all around her, surveying the cobwebs and clusters of various items. It was disgusting, but there was no living thing in sight. But that terribly eerie feeling that if you turned around, you'd see something ghastly behind you, didn't leave her, and Kaoru suddenly wished Yahiko were with her. And at that worst possible moment when her fear was at its peak, the sound of something dragging across the cement floor came about.
Rsssch…rssch…rsch-"HYAAAAH!!!" Kaoru screamed, not caring any more if her parents found out that she was in here. All she knew was that she had to get rid of that sound, that she had to vanquish whatever foe lurked in her garage. Bokken held up offensively, she darted forward around a tall pile of boxes where whatever was making that noise could be hiding, and there, the scream lodged in her throat and died.
The first thought that came to her mind was that there was a dead man propped up against the wall.
The second thought never came, because her blood froze as the so-called dead man turned his head towards her.
He was the most disgusting, horrendous thing she had ever witnessed.
His body and clothes were covered in dust and cobwebs. Where his skin showed, it looked black and wrinkly and ancient, with the texture of a crumple up piece of paper.
His face was what held her. As she had swung around into this clearing, the beam of her flashlight went right past his face, and as she trembled, it hit his cheek and his huge eyes blinked hard, watering as the light that had never reached him for so long hit his face.
Oh, Kaoru hadn't known it until the thing's mouth opened, but she was thankful that the rest of his face was covered by his hair and cobwebs. But then his mouth opened to speak, his head tilting, and the hair fell away to reveal more of himself, and Kaoru was crying in helplessness because the mere sight of him had frozen her.
"What are you doing here?" he rasped, and when he coughed dust rose from his lips. The coughing spasm shook his whole body, and the way he moved showed that he hadn't done so in a long time. His voice shook Kaoru out of some of her fear; he was seeming more human. "What are you doing here?"
Kaoru shook her head in an answer, praying that her father would come and find her so that she would be released from this monster's spell, so she could spring back to life and use the bokken in the Kamiya Kasshin, to show this thing that she would not be beaten. But she merely shook her head wildly, wanting to tear her eyes from him, but not daring to.
"Get away, child," the thing said. "Leave me in peace." And then his head lowered and he became a dead man once more, and Kaoru's heart was released from it's vice like grip and she sprang away out of the garage to the house where the people were alive and warm.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ha! Done with another chapter….Gosh, you have no idea how much I freaked myself out writing this chapter. It's almost 6 PM, the door is closed, the lights in my room are turned off, and it's dark. When I started writing about the eerie feelings Kaoru was having, I started having them myself. X_X'' Eeep!
To clear some things up, the thing in the garage isn't really dead. ^^' But can you imagine going into a dark cluttered garage, seeing this guy shrouded in dust and cobwebs, propped up with his back against the wall?? It sure looks like he's dead! So since I'm writing sorta from Kaoru's POV, it seemed she was conversing with a dead man (zombie!!) and so when she left the garage she wanted to back to her house where her family was, I described it "where the people were alive and warm". When I imagine the guy propped up against the wall, it was dark, you know, so his skin is black looking and etc. But if you compare it to her family inside…where it's all lighted, and they're all active and moving around and their skin actually looks flesh colored… I can't really explain it. @_@'' Well, anyway, that's all.
dreammaster2411: Kenshin…hrm…well, really, the true Kenshin won't be showing up anytime soon…but the role I picked out for him alters him so much he can't even really be called Kenshin. @_@' Do I confuse you? I confuse myself. Well, I promise in the next couple chapters more will be revealed about the character I'm trying to turn into Kenshin.
Pen D. Fox: Hello! ^_^' Well, actually, you might not find Skellig in a Jr. High library (it's actually a pretty short book), even though I found it in the Young Adults section at the public library. Well, hope you enjoy this chappy. ^^'
MissBehavin: The girl and the cat are revealed! Sorta. ^^' Megumi…actually, I'm not sure if she'll be showing up a lot…in Skellig, the main character (it was actually a boy) had conflicts with children at school because they thought that his neighbor was strange (hint hint). So instead of making up girls, I decided to use Megumi. I don't really want to turn her into a bad snooty girl, so maybe later on I'll try to justify her.
Well, that's all! As always, please review. It makes me so happy to know someone's enjoying this. ^^
