Hi. Here's the next chapter of Bloody Mary. Doesn't it suck? School is about to start! No!!! I am going to try to update faster this year. Though I can't promise. I have journalism and school work, you know?

My sis and I are drawing a cover for this fic. - It looks real cool. I'll show you all when its done, okay?

Here we go!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its characters.

Chapter 11

Message in Blood

Kurama calmly walked into the small apartment, followed closely by a limping Botan. They both appeared rather pale, though Kurama held his usually calm expression. Botan however was not calm, she was quite on the contrary. Her face was sweaty and colorless. An expression of great pain clung to her and her eyes shown signs of fear. With each step she took through the door the pain became more and more vivid. She winced and gasped, her skin whiting. But it seemed that she was trying very hard to hide her agony.

Once the girl was though the entrance way, Kurama closed the door behind them.

All was quiet.

No one spoke. Kurama stood eerily quiet, perhaps thinking of what to say; Botan leaned against the wall, relieving the pressure off her leg, though she still winced at the pain; Yusuke stared drowsily at them, though there was a look of wonder on his face; Keiko also looked at them, but a look of worry shown in her gaze.

She was the first to speak. "Botan!" she shouted. "What happened to your leg?!"

Botan didn't reply at first. She stood quiet, her eyes transfixed on the ground. "I…I…" she finally managed to say. "…I really don't know what happened. W-we were skating…then all of a sudden something grabed my ankle…and….and I don't remember what happened after that…"

"It was her," Kurama finally spoke once Botan had finished. "…Bloody Mary." he added slowly.

Again silence filled the room. Yusuke was the first to break the silence.

"So…" he began slowly, appearing more awake than before. "Our enemy is back."

"She was never really gone, Yusuke," Kurama corrected him. "She was merely bying her time, waiting for a chance to strike."

Yusuke muttered something that sounded like "that bitch" and then turned his head downcast, in thought, ending their conversation.

Silence once again engulfed the room. It was only broken when Botan stepped forward, deeper into the apartment, towards a chair and gave a yelp of pain as she put pressure on her injured leg. Everyone turned to her in worry.

"Botan!" Both Kurama and Yusuke yelled, worry in their tones.

Keiko ran over to her friend, crying, "Botan! Are you all right!?" She put her arm under Botan's, in an attempt at supporting her. "Here, let's get you cleaned up." They began making their way across the room, towards the bathroom, Botan kept her leg raised off the ground as they did.

After the water of the bathtub was heard coming on, Yusuke made his way nearer Kurama, figuring now they could talk without worrying the girls.

"So you believe me now?" asked Yusuke.

"I never said I doubted you," Kurama replied after a moment. "But now I am sure that she is our enemy." He paused then added. "She called herself by that name after all…"

Yusuke looked at him curiously.

"So what exactly happened to the two of you?"

"Oh," Kurama said, bringing a hand to his lips then back down, unwilling to answer.

"And what happened to your lip? You need chap stick desperately."

"Well," he paused as his fox nose picked up the scent of alcohol on Yusuke's breath. "Have you been drinking?"

"Oh, well…" he said, looking around as if to make sure no one was listening. "Yeah," he said when he was sure no one was. "But that was early this morning. I've already had the hang over and everything." He smirked.

"All that time and you couldn't brush your teeth…or use mouth wash," Kurama said, covering his sensitive nose.

"Well I-" Yusuke began, irritated, but was cut off by two ear piercing screams, coming from the bathroom.

Without saying another word to each other both Kurama and Yusuke ran into the bathroom, worried and fearful, for they were sure of the cause of the scream.

The gushing sound of running water rung through the room. On the wall to the left was a sick, above it, on the wall, was a squared shaped area where a mirror once was. Keiko stood a few feet from the sink, a foot away from the bathtub, staring down at its contents. Botan was nearby, sitting on the toilet lid, which was down. Her wounded leg was even bloodier than before. It appeared to have been dipped, ankle high in the red liquid. There were a few specks of blood surrounding her. She, like Keiko, stared fearfully at the tub.

Noticing that both were obviously scared of something in the bathtub, Yusuke and Kurama made their way, cautiously toward it, readying themselves to attack the enemy.

What they saw sent a shiver down their spines.

Bloody Mary was not there, as they had thought. Instead gushing from the faucet was not water, but blood. It poured into the tub, filling it up.

Yusuke leaned over the tub, slowly and cautiously, expecting a hook to rise from the blood. His eyes widened.

The sight of water was seeping through parts of the blood, forming letters. The letters completed into eerily written words. The words read:

Tonight marks one's doom.

"What?" asked Yusuke. "Tonight marks one's doom?"

"It must mean," answered Kurama, his eyes scanning the words. "That tonight she plans on killing one of us."

Yusuke clenched his fist tightly together at his sides. "Damn!" he cursed. What are we suppose to do?"

"The others have no warning," commented Kurama.

"Dammit! We'll have to warn them."

Yusuke leaned over the bathtub and turned the faucet to the right, stopping the water flow. Then reached his hand in the depth of the bathtub and blood and pulled up the plug. The warning and blood vanished in a whirl down the drain. He washed his hand in the sink and dried his hands on a towel. "Let's go call that idiot," he said when he was done.

The all made their way into the main room, even Botan and Keiko, though they were still in a bit of shock. Yusuke walked over to the end table that stood beside the bed, grabbed the phone, dialed Kuwabara's number and put the phone to his ear, and waited for the other end to be answered. He heard it ring four times and the answering machine message played. As soon as he heard a beep he began to leave his message.

"Kuwabara! Answer the damn phone! I know you're th-"

"Like, hello," came a voice that was surely not Kuwabara's, as the phone on the other end was answered. Yusuke could hear music playing and chatter in the background.

Yusuke, taken a back from the voice, paused, then asked, "Who's this?"

"Oh, dude, like this is like Kaze Miyazawa."

Yusuke paused again before speaking. "And what are you doing at Kuwabara's house?"

"Oh, you like don't know? Kuwabara is like having this like awesome party. Its like so happening."

"That's nice. But, I need to speak to Kuwabara right now."

"Oh, like, okay. Can I have like, your name?"

"This is Yusuke Urameshi." There was a gulp on the other side of the phone. "Now, if you don't put Kuwabara on the phone, right now, I swear I will find out where you live and beat your ass up!" Yusuke warned through gritted teeth.

"Um…like, okay," Kaze said sounding worried now. "I'll like go and like get Kuwabara."

"You do that."

"You like just hold on."

Yusuke waited a moment, annoy edged to shock and anger when he heard a click and the dial tone. Kaze had hung up.

"Bassard!" Yusuke cursed as he slamed the phone down. "He hung up on me!"

"Kuwabara?" asked Botan.

"No, some idiot."

"Well then, I suggest we get going to his house to warn him," suggested Kurama.

"Yeah."

"Yusuke," said Keiko as the two boys made their way to the door. "Please be careful."

"Don't worry," said Yusuke with a grin and he's hand on the door handle. "I will." He opened the door. "You worry about keeping yourself and Botan safe. Stay away from mirrors."

"No," interrupted Kurama. "Stay away from anything that reflects."

Both the two girls nodded.

"Oh, Botan," said Kurama, turning to the girl. "I'll bring back some healing herbs for your ankle when we return."

"Thanks," said Botan with a smile.

"Let's hurry," said Yusuke as both boys ran out the door. "That guy's an easy target."

"Yusuke…" said Keiko quietly from the still opened door. "Please be careful."

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine," said Botan from the bed, now returning to her perky self. "He's always pulled through before."

"Yeah, you're right," said Keiko smiling slightly, but still sounding worried.

"Now," said Botan, looking at her ankle. "Do you have any disinfectant?"

Kurama and Yusuke raced through the streets, towards Kuwabara's house.

"Hey, why didn't you give Keiko any herbs…." huffed Yusuke. "When she was injured."

"It wasn't my number you called, now was it?" Kurama replied also huffing.

"We're getting close, now," said Yusuke, changing the subject. After a breath he added, "It's a good thing we don't have to worry about Hiei, too."

"Yes. And he's probably looking after Yukina."

"So the only one that needs the warning is Kuwabara. Good. 'Cause I have a killer headache."

Kurama laughed. "I thought you said you already had the hangover?"

Yusuke didn't answer to the comment.

"There's his place," he said when he saw the apartment complex Kuwabara lived in. "We'd better hurry." The two ran though the doors and down the hall, skidded at a turn and dashed up several fleets of stairs. When they finally reached Kuwabara's house they slammed opened the unlocked door. A startled Kuwabara greeted them.

He stood in front of a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, its lights winked different colors. There was red tinsel wrapped around it and silver strips of the decoration hung from the branches, along side different colored bulbs.

The room looked destroyed. No doubt from Kuwabara's party. Trash littered the floor. Some objects seemed to have been broken and there even was a jacket left behind.

"Oh, hey guys," said Kuwabara. "You're a little late. The party's over."

Yusuke looked around at the state of the room. "People actually come to your parties?" he asked.

"What's that suppose to mean?!" Kuwabara roared, Yusuke's comment had obviously hit a nerve.

"What it sounds like."

"Why you!" Kuwabara clenched his fists, threateningly.

"Anyway," said Yusuke casually. "We didn't come here for the free food, we came to-"

"Hey. Yusuke. Kurama," said a familiar voice that belonged to Kuwabara's sister, Shizuru. She entered the room with a cigarette in her mouth. "Kaze said you called and wanted me, but you guys hung up when I got up to the phone."

'Huh?" asked Yusuke. "We didn't-"

But he was again cut off, this time by Kurama. "Kaze must have thought we were referring to you when we asked for Kuwabara."

"Oh," said Shizuru. "You guys came for the Christmas party, right? My parties always rock!

"Yours? And here we thought it was Kuwabara's," said Yusuke. "Should have known."

"Anyway," he added before another quarrel with Kuwabara let loose. "We came to warn you."

"Warn us?" asked the siblings in unison.

"Remember that demon that attacked Keiko?" Kuwabara nodded. "Well, this demon, this so called Bloody Mary is back. She struck earlier today and less then an hour ago left a message saying that tonight she will kill one of us."

Kuwabara's and Shizuru's expressions changed. Shizuru's became fearful, no doubt she had heard what Bloody Mary was capable of. But instead of being scared Kuwabar looked angry.

"Let her come," he said. "I'll get her for what she did to my Yukina!"

"You idiot!!" shouted Yusuke. "That thing will kill you! Don't you get it? We've already escaped it three times! Alive! It's pissed now! It's not going to let us get away again." His face darkened. "It's not going to stop until someone dies tonight."

"Then what are we suppose to do?!" ordered Kuwabara. "Wait around 'til it kills one of us?!"

"Of course not, you moron!"

"Then what?!"

"We need to protect ourselves until we have a plan," said Kurama softly. "we're seen what running into a battle against this monster has cost. We need a strategy and we need one soon."

"But how 'bout it attacks when we're creating this master plan?" asked Yusuke.

"Simply. We won't allow that to happen. We'll barricade ourselves from the outside world…sort of quarantine ourselves from anything that reflects."

Kurama's voice became happier. "And since the only one of us that won't have any suspicious family around I say we do it at Yusuke's."

"Hey, fox boy. Incase you haven't noticed my place isn't all that big. Where're we suppose to put everyone? On our heads?"

"We can always throw some of your stuff out," Kurama offered.

"I'll throw you out if you try that."

Kurama laughed softly.

"Alright! Let's get going you two," said Yusuke. "I have a bad feeling something bad's going to happen."

"Yes, It's best not to linger," said Kurama.

"Should we bring some spare clothes or something? Asked Kuwabara.

"No!" yelled Yusuke. "We'll barely be able to breathe with everyone in my house, we don't need anyone's junk filling up the left over space!"

"Oh, all right. Then lets just go."

Yusuke and Kurama, who were still standing in the door way, turned about to exit the room. Kuwabara and Shizuru followed, Kuwabara in the back. An eerie laugh filled the apartment.

"You think you can get away that easily?" it said, laughing. "Think again."

There was a crashing sound, a scream that issued from Shizuru, and a curse from Yusuke's mouth as he and Kurama turned around once again.

Bloody Mary's hook stretched out of a right red bulb that hang in the middle of the Christmas Tree that stopped a few feet away from Kuwabara. It shot forward at him. He turned around and saw the bloody object coming towards him. A wail escaped his lips.

Yusuke starred in horror. There was no way he could reach his friend in time to save him. As strong as he was, right then he felt totally helpless.

A few feet away Kurama gasped and Shizuru yelled, Kazuma!"

"Kuwabara!!" Yusuke yelled as the hook drew inches closer to his friend's heart.

To be continued…

Finally I'm done! Hoped you liked this chapter. Please review. Oh and does anyone know of any good Keiko and Yusuke fics? If so tell me of them, please. Thanks.