Shiori Minamino had heard the shout, too and she, too came running.
Panting, she paused as she saw a figure standing just a small distance away. His back was to her, but she recognized him. "Shuichi..." she said, then louder, "Shuichi!"
He didn't move at first.
Overhead, birds, suddenly disturbed, had taken flight.
Overhead, snow, once again, began to fall.
"Shuichi!" Shiori called again. Her son didn't turn, but she saw something suddenly slump away from him. It took her a moment to recognize him. "Hiei?"
Shuichi still hadn't turned.
Hadn't he heard her call him?
Shiori touched her chest. Her heart had suddenly began to pound.
Something was wrong.
He was still in his costume from play practice. Shiori could see Shuichi's hair, billowing like a silk wave in the wind. Moving like a red flag.
Danger.
That's what her mind told her. Danger. That person standing there, her son...
Danger.
Red.
Danger.
"Shuichi...?" she said again and started forward.
It was Hiei. He lay, his eyes closed and his mouth so slightly opened. She saw her son's classmate. His name, she recalled was Higashii...Tohru Higashii...He had saved her son's life, pushed him from the path of a car. So why, now, was his face like that, turned pale and slowly turning to her?
Why was her son's hand stained red....?
"Shuichi?" she said again.
She stood right behind her son.
His hair brushed her cheek.
"Shuichi? What's happened...?" she began, but never finished.
You see, the red haired boy had finally turned, but when his eyes met his mother's, she didn't recognize him. Where had the green eyes, so filled with warmth gone? What were these hard, cold eyes, beautiful and frightening, golden as the sun? What was the smile on those lips?
She didn't know what it was.
She didn't know.
Her heart was pounding so hard now.
Then Kurama took a step towards her.
Shiori's eyes were too wide and tears suddenly filled them. "Shuichi..." she whispered.
Kurama laughed and it was that laugh that Shiori took with her into her troubled dreams as she fainted on a field of freshly fallen snow.
"My...son...."
...to be continued...