The last chapter, because writing more would be pointless.

Twilight

by clover calerica

Chapter 6

The soft pitter-patter of night rain drew Hisoka to his senses. The almost pleasant sound quickly faded as moody rain retreated back to the thickly clouded sky. The air was sticky with still unprecipitated moisture. Maybe today, yesterday, tomorrow never happened.

He opened his eyes in weary protest of the headache he knew was coming.

Two pairs of blinking eyes peered from above. Each child drew a long breath as the Shinigami gradually came to his senses and sat up to rubbed his eyes. This reality felt different, clearer. The feeling akin to a hidden TV left on mute buzzing across the room was suddenly gone. Hisoka instantly knew that the dreams never occurred. He couldn't think of anything other than having never been elsewhere.

Sullen silence piled between them, each string strung too tightly to vibrate. The boy was first to speak, a cold and unforgiving sound.

"You let him wake up."

Akito glared at his sister. He was met with a stuttering answer. "But...but he told me that...I think..."

The girl's words were cut off as her brother slapped her. She looked up shocked—her eyes rimmed red. Hisoka watched at the beginning of a little confrontation as if watching TV, still a bit confused.

"Look what's you've done! It's all your fault. You know what's he's going to do." Akito pointed his finger at the still dazed Hisoka.

"I..."

"You let him wake up, put him back to sleep."

She brushed her eyes roughly.

"I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I don't know how."

Hisoka wasn't paying the slightest attention to the children anymore. A spider on the bedpost had caught his interest. It was just a brown spider, nothing special, but he kept watching it. The spider's fragile woven strings broke as its needle legs touched each strand. There was a story that drew itself to his mind. Something his father would tell him.

There was a man who didn't do a single good deed in his life except for saving the life of a spider. When he was sent to hell, he climbed the spider's thread, but it broke. And he fell back to hell.

Do you know what that man's name was?

It was Hisoka.

The spider kept destroying its web and winding the spindles into a ball. It scuttled up the bedpost with its precious bundle. Slowly, the white tangle of web was consumed. Hisoka shivered, the insect was now on top of the bed, crawling closer and close to him. He took his hand and smashed the spider then withdrew immediately fearing a bite.

The creature's thin legs twitched, the last motion it would ever live.

"But Kurosaki-san doesn't deserve this," the little girl said angrily.

"Then maybe you do."

Shaking, the little girl spat out, "You're mean Akito. I don't want to be your friend anymore. You never care about me, you're the worst brother ever." Her lips quivered. Stubbornly, she pushed her brother aside roughly and walked to the bed where she sat down and drew up her knees to her face trying to suppress tears threatening to overflow. She had cried too much that day—so much her eyes seemed to run dry.

The boy stared. There wasn't anything he could think of to do.

Hisoka stood up from his corner of the furniture crowded room and walked toward the girl but stopped in mid stride and headed toward the room's exit instead—he's had quite enough of this. The boy quickly dashed to the door and spread his arms out, obstructing the path out. Hisoka stared down at the boy.

Akito could feel the green eyes digging inside of him but kept his ground. He wasn't going to give up just yet. In his world he was invincible. He could stand up to immortal beings. He was grown up and wasn't going to be denied by some shinigami.

"Are you going to let me out?"

"No."

"There isn't a point to this, my partner is a shinigami too, and it doesn't take two to take a soul away."

"Don't you mean kill people?"

The harsh words made Hisoka stop cold. He could only focus on one thing, defending Tsuzuki.

"My partner doesn't kill people." Hisoka grabbed the boy's wrists and easily pulled him out of the way.

Akito ran up from behind determined to do anything. He wasn't fast enough—Hisoka caught his small fist as it went up. The little boy was burning with anger; he was going get this stupid shinigami, somehow.

"I don't want to hurt you, so please stop."

"You're just a stupid bully! You're not a god! You kill people. You're the ones who make people sad. I hate you. I hate you all!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

Yumiko stood up alarmed at what she heard and rushed quickly to see what the trouble was. Upon seeing his mother still alive and well, the boy ran to her side and hugged her tightly.

"Okaasan! You have to run! They're going to kill you!"

Yumiko looked at her son strangely. "Akito, don't make up stuff. They're guests and how should you treat guests?"

"They're not guests! They're shinigami! And they're going to take you away!"

"Akito!" she scolded, "Stop with this nonsense."

Behind her, Tsuzuki stood with his hand rubbing his temple. He glanced at the clock on the wall, "It's actually pretty late, I think we should go. There are obviously some problems you have to work out yourself."

Yumiko turned around. "What is this really about?"

"They're shinigami! I swear!"

"Kazaki-san, your son is right. You were supposed to die last Wednesday, but your children have caused this trouble and we have to make things right," Hisoka said calmly.

Akito hugged his mother's waist tighter in the event she disappeared right then.

The mother looked back and forth from Hisoka to Tsuzuki unable to comprehend. She shook her head. "No...I can't. Who's going to take care of them? Can't you think of the children?"

"I'm afraid I can't do that. We all have to do what is required of us."

Hisoka could tell the woman was frightened beyond conception. But a movie never rolls its credits without an ending. It was all in the script anyway.

"Come on, it has to be done Tsuzuki."

"No. No please. Please, for them, not for me."

"We only ask you to do the right thing Kazaki-san," Hisoka said plainly.

Tsuzuki reached out his hand to the woman and she placed her shaking one in his knowing her fate was now signed. Akito forcefully jerked his mother back, but it was already too late.

"Okaasan..."

Hisoka heard the broken voice of the little girl standing in the doorway behind him. She'd come out of the room only to witness the worst possible sight she could ever see. When he turned to look at her, he saw a most betrayed expression staring back at him.

The boy screamed, a horrifying sound.

"You won't get away! I'm going to kill you just like you killed her!"

Sometimes it was just easier to walk away.

- - -

They slipped out, leaving the children alone with the body of their beloved mother, a corpse that would be cold soon. Outside, Tsuzuki looked intently at his shoes. The guilt radiated from him. The boy shinigami pulled at his partner's arm.

"You don't look too well."

Tsuzuki pulled up a forced smile and patted his partner's head, "Nah, I'm fine, it's you I'm worrying about. You look terrible. Is anything I can do?"

"No, I don't think there's anything anyone can do," he stopped; his thoughts seemed to be voicing themselves without his control.

"What happened back there Hisoka? You seem so different than when you walked in."

They stared at each other for a few moments and a mutual understanding passed between them. Hisoka looked down at the concrete, yellow in the lamplight. He almost said "I don't know" but thought better of it.

"Nothing happened. Idiot. Come on, let's go home."

The pair walked in the stillness wordlessly, empty light casting long shadows behind them on the vacant streets.

You won't get away. I'm going to kill you just like you killed her.

The little words just wouldn't go away, but he still buried the thought as deep as he could.

The alarm clock beeped and Hisoka woke up. It was simply another ordinary day. But today, Hisoka woke up with the understanding that he really hadn't missed that much of life. The day you die was be the day you found no happiness left to search for, and he even though he'd lost sight of it, there was still had plenty of that.

The pale shadows still glared at him like before, but he knew better than to listen to them. There were still unresolved issues he had to deal with, of course. The strange blankness inside of him, the agony, the apathy...

But today he was determined to begin living again.

"Hisoka, would you like to eat out somewhere today?"

His green eyes looked up at his partner, considering the options. There was bound to be whining, public humiliation, and plenty of sweets involved, all of which he wanted to avoid like the plague. Yet in the end, some things could never be solved, and so the show must go on.

"Sure. Why not."

- - -

end

For those that stuck it through and read this from the beginning, I can't say how much I appreciate it. It's been really hard for me to write since I've never really been into writing much. In a lot of ways, this was my first fic...and will be my last.

The ending wasn't very satisfactory to me, but the entire story is meant to let the reader make up some of it and the ending should be no different. I hope it serves some justice. There are layers of stupid themes and symbolism I really don't care to explain. If you get it, you get it, if you don't...your loss I guess.