The crowd's thick hide forces the boy back. He can't reach the front to see if the terrifying rumors are true.

Just Keep Screaming

I chose this for the title cuz I think I would die screaming if I had to relive the worst part of my life along w/ the Kenshin-gumi. Just Keep Screaming so you don't have to hear the thick silence that is worse than the act of tearing apart your vocal chords.

I absolutely love Sanoske's past. He went thru a Hell all of his own, so I might pay more detail to his story more than any of the others', but it is only cuz he gets the back seat a lot of the time in the rest of my fic anyway.

This is Rooster-head's time to shine!

I hold Watsuki in the highest respect. He's a genius and I will never claim any of his work as my own.

Just Keep Screaming

The rooster-headed youngster crawls between a corpulent man's tubbylegs.The fatmankicks his tail-end.

"Hey, street-scum; what did you take?"

Sano makes a quick disappearance into the sea of people while the obese man searches for what the would-be pickpocket might've taken off him. On any normal day, Sano wouldn't hesitate to loot the fat fool, but other, more important matters weigh on his soul this morning. Master Sagara is coming back.

That man back at the corner lied. Sagara is coming back. If anyone can escape from the Hell hole they drug him to, it would be Him.

There, at the head of the multitude, was the top of Sagara's hair! Rooster-head grinned. Weaving his thin body between the mazes of outsized forms brought him closer to Master's presence. Only when the leader's face came into view did the boy falter. Why is Master so pail? they must have beat him...

"That crazed fool deserved what he got."

"Do you think the police went too far?"

"The police must keep order."

"Very true."

"Whatever it takes."

"One down...so many more to go."

The comments around Sanoske frighten him. The boy forces his way straight forward to the open space in front of the mob. In his haste, Sano trips, then hits the compacted dirt in a shower of rocks, dust, and new bruises. As the soil settles, the youth finds a pole mere inches away from his face. The post is an odd, reddish hue. It is glossy...red and still wet...? He pulls his hands from the mud surrounding the base of the post, idly wiping the new stain across his front. The crowd behind issolemnly silent. He glances back to see their horrified expressions. Why...he merely tripped...?

The pole stuck in the earth in before him draws the rooster-head's attention once more. His eyes follow up the height of aman. A square-ish platform on top bears the reason for the crimson sheen spilling off the ledge. The substancecreating the muddy puddle at the base... Is it...blood!

Sano scrambles backwards; his stomach and head are wheeling. He meets Sagara's face with his horrified eyes. Master's head sits on topof the platform, a slight smirk tingeing his frozen lips. Bile soars upwards and the boy vomits.

Decapitation...

Master's bloodall over the ground...Master Sagara's blood is onmy chest...

Sano's head fills with crumbling hope; silent screaming; his lips move in motion to the sound inside. Many millions ofeyes stare down, forcing the truth into his existance. Thegroundopens its jaws and consumes the child in its scarlet filth.

Chill fingers grasp her heart and hold her still; she stiffens like the corpses scattering the black ground around her. Tiny, white moths made of folded opium packages flutter lazily over the soulless bodies, whispering the names of the lives she took. Megumi tries to draw breath, to sob, to cry out...but the fingers of icy revenge grip her throat closed.

The dead lift themselves off the floor, various body parts are left behind. Opium moths drift into smoke and are inhaled by the monotonous, lifeless lips. Megumi is engulfed in the plodding army of rotting once-men, all petting her body, grasping her hair, tugging at her komono. The cold hands let her scream.

"We're proud of you Megumi."

She screams. Blood rushes into her head, then out ofher nose, eyes, ears, and mouth.

"We're proud of you Megumi."

LEAVE ME ALONE!

"We're proud of you Megumi."

Rats.

The sewer was Their domain, but it's the best place to hide from the police.

But there were rats.

Yahiko despises rats; and they were all over the walls, and watered floor down here. He steps off the curb into the knee-deep sewage...right on top of vermin. The beast locked below his foot scurries helplessly under the water. Yahiko startles and sets the rat free. The terrified animal attacks his bare ankle.

The boy yells, kicking the rat out of the brown water. It drags flesh from his leg as the rat is flung against a wall; then it scurries into a dark opening in the stone. Yahiko yelps once more for good measure as he shifts his leg into a lighter area to view the wound. The rat's teeth had torn to the bone. Yahiko cringes and wipes the human sludge from the wound. This isn't good. He could get sick.

He does get sick. The five year old body crawls some ways along the sewage water before it collapses in fever. His tongue is swollen large enough to fill his whole mouth. Spots of shooting lights dance in the blackness behind the closed eyelids. Small muscles twitch under clammy, tightening skin. The pain that used to come in agonizing spurts now plows onward, coursing constantly through his tiny form.

Um...read this someone.

Thanks for what was already said by the coolest ppl in the fanfiction business: the ppl that have read my story and left me words of encouragement.

Erm

I have no idea where it's going from here.

If anyone has any ideas, it would be freakishly nice to know what you guys wanna see happen now. I'm open to everything and anything...ish...

Laterz

Luvs

Tanis