"Last Chance"

Kurama

I knew right away something was wrong. I could feel it the second I walked into my
house and tossed the keys on the kitchen table. My white cat, Crow, ran past my feet
and out the open door, her fur on end. I could see a trail of it through the kitchen and
hallway. Crow didn't scare easily and I closed the door and locked it. My eyes
surveying every corner of the house as I walked through it cautiously, my shoes still on. I heard a faint electronic buzzing from the living room and saw the television was on. The channel was fuzzy and I grabbed the remote to turn it off.

"Hello?" I called. If Shuiichi, my brother, were here he would have answered me and I already crossed out the possibility it was mother or step dad because they weren't scheduled to come visiting until next week. "Shuiichi?" I called once again, running my fingers along the wall as I made my way upstairs. The house remained quiet. I sighed, a little agitated. There was someone here and the lack of response I was getting made me suspect one of two things: There was a robber in the house or I was crazy.

I stood at the top of the stairs and psyched myself to go further when I noticed the alcohol cabinet next to me had been opened and there were several bottles missing. The thief must have found what he'd been looking for. "Damn. Those were expensive too." I mumbled to myself. Sniffing the air, I made my way to my room. I stopped about three quarters of the way there when I caught a familiar scent. Sweet and musty. Only one person went by that scent…Hiei.

"Hiei?" I leaned into my room, hands on the doorframe. I couldn't see him from my position in the doorway and I took a step inside. "Hiei are you still here?"

I stepped on something small and sharp and I bent down to pick it up. It was a bottle lid from one of the vodka bottles in my cabinet.

"Hiei, where are you?"

I ventured further in and found a familiar frame dressed in black, crouched against the far corner wall. I kneeled down in front of him and searched his face with a questioning gaze. Hiei's eyes were defiantly closed and I touched his knee to get a response. "Are you alright? Why are you here in the corOh!" I pulled my hand away when I felt Hiei's damp knee. "Why are you wet?" I asked, looking at my palm. I gasped at the thick, red liquid that stained it.

Hiei opened his eyes then, and shot me a cold stare with bloodshot eyes. I touched his cloak with my other hand. It too was soaked in blood. Only then did I notice the growing pool of crimson forming around my friend's seated body. His arms hung loosely at his sides. His eyes narrowed as he watched me examine him.

"Oh my god, Hiei, what happened this time?"

Hiei was visibly out of it and though I couldn't see any bottles, I knew Hiei had been drinking the alcohol I kept for special occasions. Hiei mumbled some protests as I began to undress him of his cloak.

"Kurama, no. Leave me be. It hurts a little…."

His breath reeked of alcohol and I wrinkled my nose at the smell. "Hiei your injuries need tending to. I'm not leaving you like this so you can paint my carpet with your blood."

"Don't touch me. I'm healing fine like this." He babbled.

I watched him pry my hands away like a child and rub his eyes afterwards, smearing some of his own blood across his eyelids. He was oblivious to this and sighed heavily before leaning back and smacking his head against my wall. He winced and looked at me with sad eyes. I was speechless, never in my life had I seen Hiei with alcohol in his system like this.

"Hiei, sit up. I'm going to need to get at your wound." I motioned for him to lean forward and he blinked at me and shook his head.

"It hurts…a little."

"Okay, but I need you to sit up anyway. Let me see you."

Hiei sat up, wincing as he did so. I helped him out of his cloak and gasped at how heavy it was. The dark fabric was literally dripping blood. "Oh Hiei…." I whispered, watching the liquid drip from my friend's coat to the carpet. Coming to my senses finally, I got up and ran across the hall to the washroom, tossing the garment into the sink. Returning with dark coloured towels and a wet cloth and gauze, I kneeled in front of my injured friend. Hiei was trying to remove his shirt without much success.

"Here, let me help." I grasped the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up. He raised his bandaged arms for me but cried out suddenly when the shirt reached his chest.

"What's wrong?" I stopped pulling the fabric.

Hiei looked down and pulled the shirt himself. I could see him trying desperately not to scream in agony as I witnessed chunks of torn flesh being peeled back away from Hiei's short. The higher he lifted, the more cuts appeared. Tiny slices, each about the length of a pinky finger riddled his torso. He looked like he had been chewed up and spit out again. The flesh was attempting to heal itself and had caught the fabric of his shirt in the process.

"You've been mutilated…who did this!" I was horrified at the sight of my friend so terribly maimed. I gently dabbed at Hiei's blood-soaked torso with the cloth. Hiei held his breath and lifted his shirt clean over his back. He flung it away, hoping I'd miss the fact that it was covered in torn skin as well as blood. I stopped dabbing and circled around him to get a better look at his back. It too, was shredded. It was a wonder Hiei had any blood left in his small body….

"It hurts, Kurama. Only a little. I took your spicy drinks to kill the pain. You weren't home…." He reached a bandaged arm to point at my open window. I swallowed a lump forming in my throat and continued to apply pressure to the most serious looking wounds on Hiei's back. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. Who did this, Hiei? Tell me!"

"It doesn't matter…not now."

"It matters! Damn, Hiei, you're bleeding to death and I can't" I pressed a towel down on him and pushed. " I can't apply pressure to every cut. At this rate you're losing way too much blood. There are too many Hiei, whoever did this to you knew what they were doing. They wanted you dead and by all rights you should be by now. Can you stand?"

"No."

"You haven't tried. Come on, you must try. I'll help you."

Hiei closed his eyes and leaned into me, I practically lifted him myself and once he was on his feet I led him to the washroom and sat him on the edge of the tub.

"Don't move. I'm going to run the water and grab the phone, okay? Please stay where you are. I'll be back in a second." I told him, running the taps and testing the water wasn't too hot. I silently prayed Hiei would get through this alive. Who would do this? Who?

Hiei

I was bleeding all over his tiled floor. The floor was white. WAS white. How appropriate that it was my blood that stained it now. I laughed. What was I doing here? Had I not been enough of a burden to Kurama? Now I had to sit here in the water-room and wait while he frantically tried to figure out a way to save me…. No. This wasn't right. I had come here for the spicy drink. I had watched Kurama hide them by the stairs. He tried to explain to me what it was but I wasn't really paying attention. All I heard was that it helped with pain. Emotional and physical. And hell, was I ever in pain. My mind wasn't as sharp as it should be, I knew. I assumed it was a small price to pay. I had drunk three out of four bottles, each one a different taste. I couldn't handle it all at once. Maybe there was a certain order you were supposed to drink them…I wouldn't know. Anyway, Kurama hadn't noticed the fact that I threw up on his bedroom floor either. Maybe that was a good thing. I heard Kurama talking on the phone below me and felt my head swim. The room was spinning slowly. I held my head in my hands, feeling the pull of caking blood tugging at my skin as I moved. I was so tired….

I found myself rubbing my eyes for the zillionth time since I had the drinks. Suddenly I was falling, the room spun and I saw white cover my vision. I fell backwards into the tub. The warm water rushed to overtake me. Water seeped into my eyes, my ears, my mouth and nose…I coughed, exhaling oxygen and inhaling unbreathable liquid. I coughed again and gasped for much-needed air but found I couldn't support myself. The water turned pink as I thrashed about the tub, my wounds stinging and my bandaged hands sliding on porcelain, unable to grip. I inhaled more water and a nauseous feeling swept over me. I felt my hands sliding down the bathtub sides, into the water as I repeated one word over and over in my head:

"Kurama!"

(Saku Note: this story is a teaser…unless the powers that be deem it worthy of continuing…that would be my fans: YOU! )