He moved toward Laena, his bones making a sickening crack each time he moved.

Laena still couldn't run. She couldn't even drool. Well, ok, maybe a little...What is that wet drip on your shoulder?!

Laena! Get a hold of yourself! Go! She screamed at herself. She glanced around, and found feeling in her legs when she spotted the tree line.

With quick thinking, she popped the flash open on her camera. It was pretty dark now.

1, 2, 3... She raised her camera right when the demon tried to grab her, and let the flash lash out- long and hard.. (You know when there's that multiple flash timer?)

The demon jumped back at the burst of REALLY bright light with a growl of rage.

Laena remembered how to move, and RAN LIKE HELL! ... in the opposite direction... For crying out loud.

She swung herself under the demon's legs, and ran.

"What the hell was that?!" she yelled. She was a few yards from the edge of the woods. She could see more sunlight, the last beams barely blinking over the hills.

Sun! Yes! She thought. And then she saw the shadow loom over her, and she yelled "NO!" with a growl.

The demon grabbed her army coat, which was practically flapping like a flag behind her, she was going so fast.

He grabbed it, and pulled, reeling her in.

She screamed out of surprise and anguish as she fell to the ground and was being dragged backwards.

Clawing at the ground for support, she tried kicking the demon away, but to no avail. The demon, being much larger than she, got hold of her by her waste, and with one hand, ran his thumb down her form.

"Mmmm..." he said as he began to turn back into the forest, "Shall I keep your skin, or feed it to my hounds?"

Her coat fell off in the struggle, and she had nothing more than a loose tank on, leaving her arms and chest bare.

She began to shiver.

The weather was cold, yes, but this wasn't the shiver for outer temperature. This was out of fear. She tried squirming out of his clamp-hold, but she was pinned. "Oh, God, help me!" she whispered. She looked up at the last ray of sunlight and thought it would be her last, with that hazy spot on the horizon.

Wait, what? She blinked, lifting her head to look again. There wasn't anything there.

And then she heard a wooshing noise, accompanied by a 'sling', and snapped her head upward just in time to see another hazy spot by the demon's neck.

"What?" she asked quietly.

Then she heard a growl, followed by a groan, that seemed to rise up from the bowels of the creature who held her captive.

Suddenly, he clutched his neck, and fell to one knee.

Finally, a terrible gargle came out from his throat and he collapsed all together.

Laena, still squeezed in his hand, fell hard, scratching her shoulder on a rock as the hand flew down.

"Uhh!" she groaned as absorbed both the pain as well as the impact.

Then, when her gaze fell towards the head, she saw a man, wait no, a midget! (Hairy midgets!) No. A short person with about 2 feet of hair appeared by the demon's head. ahem Anyway...

With one ferocious display of power, he drove his sword into the skull, finishing the kill.

Amazed and frightened, Laena's eyes went wide, and scrambled to get out of the limp hand. She hissed when she grazed her shoulder, and a thin line of blood began to run down her arm as she got up.

The man didn't even acknowledge her.

"What the Hell was that?" she practically shrieked as she stared at the dead demon.

The man only glanced at her once, and yanked his sword from the corpse, and wiped the soiled edges on a piece of cloth. Then his attention seemed to avert as he caught a scent on the air.

"You better go home." he said, still wiping his sword. "Not unless you want another encounter." (Close encounters of the third kind! 'This means something.') he said as he vaguely gestured to her bleeding arm.

Laena frowned, trying to find some kind of answer in his face, but he had a carefully neutral mask. She blinked, and glanced at her throbbing shoulder, and then looked back toward where the man was.

But the area was vacant. No trace of anyone. That is, except for the huge body of a demon. But, ya know...

Her jaw dropped, and she turned in all directions searching for her savior. The forest was dead silent.

So she picked up her camera, and scooped her coat up as she walked out of the woods slightly dazed.

Shit. She thought. What was that?

Just then, a shiver wracked her body, and she crossed her arms for heat. However, doing so made her flinch when her hand pressed against the shallow wound.

"Ow, what?" she asked no one as she looked at her cut. Great. How am I going to explain this?

"What happened here?"came the quietly calm voice of one foxy demon as he stepped under the tree. (Haha haha that was so stupid...)

"Some ningen almost got herself killed." The fire demon in the tree casually replied.

The red haired fox demon looked around. "Did she have brown hair and an army coat?" he snorted, smelling the air.

"In fact, the little idiot came out during sunset literally screaming 'kill me'." The Fox snorted again, but this time slightly amused. "So, she almost got killed, did she?" He inquired after a brief silence.

"If you want me to admit to saving a ningen, you're out of your sanity." the little fire demon snapped, not bothering to get down from the tree.

The Fox smiled, and quietly said "Thank you, Hiei." as he turned and left.

"Idiot onna." The fire demon muttered as he closed his eyes again.

Once, there was a girl who could sleep until 8:00. She could sleep, and when she woke up she felt rested, and wasn't in constant need of caffeine.

And sheep can fly.

After the very rude awakening brought on by the alarm clock, Laena sat up with a fright. The only positive thing about that wake up was the fact that Kashmir was on. So she turned the volume down, and listened as she blindly groped around the room for her lantern switch. 'Click'

"Aaahhhhhhh..." she almost yelled as her hand slapped over her eyes.

Once her eyes adjusted, she began making her bed. The song finished right when she glanced at the clock.

"5:50 is a beastly hour to be up." she quietly grumbled to herself.

Then she stumbled into the bathroom to finish what the clock began.

Exactly 45 minutes later, after her morning routine of watching music videos for 20 minutes and eating, and taking care of left over things, Laena found herself walking down the road, Foamy travel mug in hand. (5 more minutes...)

The small wound on her arm she had meticulously disinfected and wrapped. The use of alcohol, peroxide and iodine were what did the job. And the iodine finished it, that was for sure. As soon as she let a drop fall she was grinding her teeth to stop from yelling. (That stuff stings!)

Enamored in her Tool sweatshirt and a pair of boot cut jeans, she strode down the shoulder of the road, yelling at passing cars.

When she began walking across the driveway of a culdasac of houses, she noticed one door swing open on the corner house. A boy with red hair walked out in a denim jacket and denim black pants. And yes, he did have a pair of green converse.

(Oh, Kurama, in a pair of Chuck's. Mmmmm....that's AWESOME!)

He looked up at the same time Laena came into view, and his face lit up. "Hey, Laena!" He called.

Laena looked up, like she was surprised, and recognized the boy. "Hey, Suichi." She returned with a tired smile.

Suichi caught up to her, and joined in her stride to school.

"Oh, man, I should have brought some coffee." he said, noticing her mug.

"Have you ever seen Foamy?" Laena asked, indicating the cup.

"Mmmhmmm. I like the one where they go to Star Schmuck's." Laena laughed, remembering that cartoon.

"What about Five More Minutes? Isn't that one hysterical? '5 more minutesss...you're not up, I start electrocuting you with a toaster and the bath tub.'"

They laughed again (wow, this is corny) and walked in companionable silence.

Then Laena had to scratch her arm, and she ended up hitting it too low, and scratched her bandages.

"Ow." she flinched. "What's wrong?" Suichi asked, a little startled by the noise.

"Oh, I don't know, I think I had a dream that I was being chased by this monster. He was huge, and grotesque, and it was so weird because it was extremely vivid. I must have dreamt it. And this guy showed up, with this black hair, with this white zigzag, and he killed it, but then he wasn't there anymore, and... I don't know what to make of it." Laena finished defeated.

"So, how does that hurt?" He asked very confused. "Oh, when the man killed the monster, I fell onto a rock and hurt my arm. But that was in the dream. And then, when I must have woken up, I realized I had a matching gash, and I took the liberty upon myself to clean it."

"That is so bizarre." Suichi shook his head. But something sounded fake about the way he said it.

The week at school seemed interminable, but it somehow ended. Suichi was accepted as a friend, and not someone to beat up, which was plus on his part.

(Even though, Kurama could have taken her. Yeah, that's right.)

Laena came home, finished whatever homework she had, and called Suichi to make plans for the next day.

She watched a little Seinfeld, and went up to her room to listen to music and draw.

During the chorus of a Slipknot song she fell into the zone.

(Or SlipKnot if we really want to be special... phshaw... --)

In the big sketch book, and with her shading ebony pencils she managed to sketch the visage of a beautiful man, with long, slightly wavy locks. His eyes, however, held something brutal in them. A gleam of power and destruction that his face belied.

She finished the drawing with some shading, making her fingers completely blackened.

When she fell out of the zone, she stared with awe by the sheer implication that this face had come from her mind, and became tangible with her talent.

She rubbed her face in contemplation, and then added one more detail, and finally dated and wrote the song listened to in the corner .

Satisfied, she got up from her seat, and was just about to grab her door knob when she noticed her blackened fingers, and then the underside of her arm.

"Hmmm." she said as she opened the door, and went straight to the bathroom, only to see that she indeed had touched her face, and was now Smudge Girl.

Chapter 2. Maybe next time we'll have a little character interaction at the end.