Rewritten at the time of writing chapter seven, as I felt that perhaps the awful mess that was the previous chapter four was putting people off the rest of the story.
Thanks to Chixicub for the BETA work.
Or in my native tongue, Cheers mate!
Chapter 4 - White Noise.
The usually calm and relaxing air of the temple had dissipated, leaving only feelings of fear, anger and guilt behind. Master Fung had given up trying to continue training the dragons. The atmosphere of the temple was all wrong, and trying to meditate there seemed a waste of time.
He had begun leaving the temple to meditate, choosing instead to clear his mind by a nearby waterfall.
The dragons interpreted this as disappointment, leaving them all feeling ashamed of their actions, though none of them truly knew what their actions had been.
Raimundo spoke less, never bothering to correct Omi's speech errors, Clay hadn't changed much, his cheerful demeanour reduced to a more subtle hint of optimism.
Omi had contributed most to the new atmosphere of the temple; his cheerful demeanour had been replaced with a darker Omi, who had taken to brooding about the temple grounds. He had taken the theft as a personal blow, he had always considered himself the true leader of the dragons, and he had prided himself on his own abilities and those of his team. Yet it seemed that all this had been useless, they had been made to look like fools and somehow, it was his fault.
Kimiko was sitting, legs askew on the temple steps, mulling over her previous phone conversation with Sasha. It was embarrassing to have Sasha make assumptions about her feelings for Jack, though when she thought about it, Jack wasn't all that bad. Sure he had a small case of world domination going on, but he hadn't got any farther with his plans, and it never seemed like he was truly evil.
It seemed he had no intentions of ever truly harming her or her friends, surely if it were so then he would use that overactive brain of his to build some better robots.
She didn't really mind him. After all, and she had always admired his style, as she was deeply interested in the alternative clothing at home in Japan. Even when they were fighting he had never posed as much of a rival.
She sighed, agitated now.
All this, and yet his involvement with Wuya, the fact they were competing for the shen-gong-wu and his obvious disdain for the dragons left a bitter taste in her mouth. She couldn't really figure him out at all.
She wasn't going to risk him knowing about her possible feelings for him, at least until she knew more of his true intentions, which left her with one option - She was going to avoid him.
Forever.
She then dismissed the thought, there was no way she was going to run away just to keep out of his way, and besides - what was the harm in watching from a distance?
She was awakened from her thoughts by the sound of footsteps coming from inside the temple. She turned, expecting to see Omi heading past her, only to see an empty hallway.
Even as she stared down the hallway the footsteps were getting closer. Kimiko frowned. If it wasn't Omi, then there shouldn't be anyone inside the temple.
Perhaps it was the impostor!
Her heart paused a moment as she wondered whether it could be Jack, but then swiftly pushed that thought away, he wasn't subtle enough for a stealthy approach, what with his obsessive fetish for gloating.
Kimiko stood, now facing the temple entrance, trying to focus on where the sound was coming from. Earlier it seemed as if the footsteps were coming towards her, it now seemed as if they were retreating. Perhaps the intruder had seen her?
Still seeing nothing she made her way inside, the sound of footsteps gradually fading, the noise echoing around the empty halls.
Kimiko noted this with alarm and began to jog down the hallway, quietening her own footfalls so she could still detect the noise. The steps sped up quickly, making Kimiko break into a run to follow them. She stopped to peer around the next corner, and saw a dark shape head into one of the meditation rooms. She didn't know why it was there, but she knew for sure that it wasn't her friend and she wasn't going to let whatever it was escape. She wanted Master Fung to be proud of her again.
Wishing her friends were there to support her, Kimiko silently headed down the hall, grabbing a staff from the hooks on the wall before proceeding to stop outside the door.
She heard muffled noises from inside, and decided that seeing as she would be seen no matter what, she might as well as swallow her fear and dive in.
She gulped and did just that.
Once inside the room her mouth dropped open, for there was no cloaked stranger, but a haelin witch with a sinister smirk on her face, levitating beside a small wooden chest.
She had dropped her staff in shock, but now she detachedly realised it would have been useless anyway.
She took a deep breath, ready to scream for help, but as she did so she was suddenly wrapped in a deadly silence.
She screamed then, only to find that not even the tiniest noise came out of her throat. She tried again, screaming for help with all she had, trying to warn the others that Wuya was here.
She stared in front of her, eyes wide and fearful as she tried to cry out.
She screamed again, the fact that she wasn't making the slightest sound only terrifying her more. One more racking scream and the effort became too much. Tears ran down her cheeks as she slid down to the floor shaking her head, pausing only to see Wuya, her head thrown back in a malicious cackle.
Slowly she began to hear a low hum, the sound starting low and rising slowly.
As the blood pumped in her ears, she watched as the lid of the chest was flung open, and as the terrible noise seemed to increase on all frequency waves began to overwhelm Kimiko, she silently shrieked as a thin trickle of blood ran from each ear, and down either side of her jaw in perfect symmetry.
It was then that she noticed a low hum, the sound slowly increasing in pitch and volume.
As she began to hear the blood pumping in her ears, her heartbeat increased gradually as she watched as the lid of the chest fling open. The terrible noise seemed to increase on all frequency waves, her eardrums thrummed as the noise began to overwhelm her, She became aware of a deathly pain in her ears, the sound quiteting as the pain increased. She brought a hand to her ear and screamed as it came back stained with glistening blood. She slowly became aware of the scarlet rivers running down her neck, staining her kimono with it's taint.
A strange dark mist then burst out of the chest, waves of it rising as a tower above the chest, the flow only slowing as the tail end rose out of the chest. The mist drew back, as a cobra before it strikes, before rushing full speed towards Kimiko's bloody, screaming form.
The mist spread as it reached Kimiko, rushing into her bleeding ears, flowing down her raw throat as she feebly tried to stop it. It seeped through her very skin and shot us her petite nose, leaving the flesh raw and bloody.
Kimiko held her mouth open in an everlasting scream, never to be heard by human ears. The white noise faded slowly into a deafening silence.
Kimiko felt faint, her head throbbing as if there was something heavy at the back of her skull, continually pushing her downwards.
The last thing Kimiko could comprehend was a pale face framed by shocking red, watching from the doorway. His face a picture of horror.