DISCLAIMER: As before, all characters and words etc relating to the characters used are owned and credited to CLAMP. Certain images and events are also credited to CLAMP. However, the interpretation of events and the story that follows is written by sakurazukamori. Enjoi, R/R.

.:Chapter 3 – The Hierophant:.

"It is the Devil's desire for his creation that allows our desire to be realised in God"

A thousand thoughts raced through his mind.

Why are my hands covered in blood?

The mark…it burnt...

Where am I?

Why do I feel so weightless?

It felt as if he were in stasis – every sense had shut down. Everything was black; all he could rely on now was the hope that he might find answers to these endless questions. The paralysis that had come over him had still not subsided; he could neither open his eyes nor move his lips, yet he still retained the ability to breathe - something or someone wanted him…alive. He knew that without the rest of his senses he had no chance of awakening or even discovering where he was. The onmyouji was in a state of internal confusion; his apartment was protected with the strongest of barrier spells to prevent spiritual intrusion, making it near on impossible for anyone with spiritual power to enter.

How could anyone possibly…

His thoughts were abruptly cut short by an all too familiar smell - a smell that had haunted him since he was a child, pervading his innocence - a smell that he cared not to experience again… the sweet smell of sakura blossom. The delicate yet alluring scent weaved its way into Subaru's distant memory, bringing forth images he no longer cared to witness. The serpentine aroma continued to infuse into his subconscious poisoning his thoughts, calling him to wake, to open his eyes…

His long eyelashes fluttered, dripping with sweat and tears as his delicate eyelids began to twitch, partially unveiling the green depths that lay beneath. The Sumeragi found that his vision was blurred: anything that lay before him was hazy and indistinct, beyond comprehension. Straining, his pupils began to dilate in an attempt to discern his whereabouts. A gentle breeze blew across his sylphlike frame carrying with it a flash of pink that fluttered across his line of sight, yet his vision was too hazy to realise what it was. Tears of anger sprang to the onmyouji's eyes as the feeling of helplessness once again overwhelmed him, diminishing all that he had left: the hope that he would find answers. Warm salty tears cascaded down the sides of his face, mingling with the stray strands of hair that had spread across his cheeks. Even with almost all hope drained from him he began to feel an intangible warmth returning to his limbs, diffusing through his muscles causing his fingertips to gingerly caress the ground on which he lay. Soon, the warmth had permeated through every muscle, taking away the paralysis and the cold, restoring to him the hope that he might soon understand why he was here.

The young onmyouji found the strength to roll on to his side, allowing him to distinguish his surroundings. Everything was pitch black in colour except a faint light that dawned about him. The constitution of the black matter was neither solid nor liquid – it was incorporeal. A void – that was all he could describe it as; a seemingly endless void. Sighing quietly, he noticed that the same gentle breeze that had passed over him and diminished before had now returned, bringing with it that familiar flash of pink.

Everything seemed to stop.

The wind died away and the pink entity lay suspended in mid air. Subaru's slender hand sluggishly rose up plucking the pastel pink entity from the silence, caging it in his grasp. Bringing his trembling hand closer to his face, he gazed into his open palm.

His eyes widened with shock and every hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He could feel his heart beat out an ominous rhythm as his eyes fixed themselves on the quivering, whisper-soft sakura petal guiltlessly lying in the palm of his colourless hand. He winced as he remembered how the same innocent, ethereal blossom that now lay in his hand fell like corrupted snowflakes on that day when he was eight years old.

"Seishiro-san," he uttered softly as his fist clamped around this perfect obscenity, refusing to let it escape - refusing to let him escape.

His fist clenched tighter and tighter until he could see the blood draining from his knuckles exposing the outline of bone and cartilage beneath. He clenched tighter until he could feel the stab of fingernails against his paper-like skin. His throat became choked with tears as more delicate pastel petals settled about him, throwing an otherworldly incandescence against the endless black void, drowning him in his past. The tension in his steely grasp slowly subsided as he began to warily unball his fist. His pupils enlarged as he watched the crumpled petal transubstantiate before his very eyes into a torrent of glistening crimson blood that splashed inaudibly on to the ground. The onmyouji's lip trembled as he brought his hand closer to his face, his eyes growing wider at the sight of the blood trickling along the pre-etched lines of the palm of his hand. The scent of the vermilion blood was overpowering – like Death, the iron-tinged aroma hung over him, reminding him…

Subaru! Subaru-chan!

His eyes broke away from his bloodstained hand as he sat bolt upright, shuddering in disbelief as that unmistakable voice cut through him like cold steel.

Hokuto-chan?

Subaru-chan!

"Hokuto-chan?" replied the young Sumeragi in disbelief. "Where? Where are you?"

The onmyouji clambered unsteadily to his feet, twisting and turning, trying to perceive where the voice was coming from. The blackness spun round him as his name reverberated around this void bouncing off invisible walls, teasing him, inviting him to remember his past – to remember what he had lost.

Subaru-chan

He clamped his hands over his ears trying to block out the sound of his twin desperately calling his name just as she had called out for him the moment she…

Subaru

The palms of his hands pressed tighter against his ears until he could feel the rapid pulse of his blood coursing through his veins.

Subaru, please...

The voice echoed inside his mind yet still he kept his hands clamped over his ears. He could hear his own breathing shakily rising and falling faster and faster. He could feel the warmth of the blood left on his hand smearing across the side of his face, branding him further. The voice had aroused his darkness memories bringing them to the surface. He jammed his eyes shut, but he saw her in his mind's eye lying there motionless on the ground showered with sakura petals. The blood from the gaping wound in her chest saturating the white shikifuku that adorned her slim frame. The ceremonial beads that hung about her neck lay scattered and bloodstained on the petal-showered ground. And then, there he stood, the embodiment of darkness; his right hand dripping with not only his sister's blood, but the blood of all the victims of the Sakura Barrow. A victorious smile spread across his face revealing pearly white teeth that lay beneath his flushed lips. The sakurazukamori's blood-drenched hand slowly reached out to grasp at Subaru, but with that one final gesture he disappeared, leaving behind an obscenity that continued to sear into the onmyouji's psyche. It tormented him, reminded him that he could not save her even in his dreams. His soul screamed in agony as her panic-stricken face burnt deeper into his heart.

"Ho…ku…to-chan," he brokenly choked between sobs.

He covered his face with scarlet-tinged hands allowing tears of misery to streak down the contours of his fingers. His chest violently convulsed as sob after sob shook through him forcing him to gasp for air. Was it really Hokuto-chan? Was he going insane or was it just some... illusion?

Sei... Seishiro-san?

"SEISHIRO-SAN!" he cried as both tears of anger and pain fell from his vacant eyes spilling onto his pale cheeks.

Seishiro. His name was like a death sentence – silencing and final bringing an end to everything. He was here and Subaru knew it. He could almost feel the slender yet muscular arms and the silken, sensual words of the sakurazukamori wrapping themselves around him, enveloping him, drawing him deeper into his past – their past.

Subaru's white overcoat began to swirl about him as a sharp wind whipped about his slight frame carrying with it the sound of gentle footsteps approaching from the distance. Could it be him? The man who had trapped him in this hellish illusion, the man who had made him relive his worst nightmares over and over again. His hands fell from his face as the footsteps grew closer…

Closer.

Closer…

…then nothing.

He knew he had to, he had to turn round. This was his chance, the chance to confront him – the source of all his misery, but the centre-point of his unbidden desires. The Sumeragi's composure hardened, his resolve flared as he felt his hand shakily reaching into his pocket fingering the ofuda that lay there. This was his only chance. Beads of perspiration formed on his brow; his whole body had broken out into a cold sweat. He could taste his own fear as he nervously licked his dry lips. Splaying the white ofuda into a fan in front of his glistening face, he prepared to turn around to face his adversary …his love.

Chapter 3 done and dusted. I haven't really added much more to this except a few sentences that I think kinda fitted the mood. I had a habit of over using '...' so I've tried to cut that down. Thanks for reading, please carry on!