Hey peeps! Waz up? I'm sorry for the delay but now I'm on vacation so lots of writing! YEA!(Hopefully)

Standard disclaimers apply except for my OC's

Chapter Seven

(Hiei)

Following the girl Wainani I stayed on guard ready for anything while I silently seethed for losing and having to go and fetch the girl, Reiko. Wainani moved quickly through the vast maze of dark halls surely showing that she knew what she was doing, I wondered how long she had stayed here. Abruptly she stopped and nodded we were here as she lifted her hand as if she was going to open the door but her hand was trembling with the effort to lift it to the door. Abruptly she dropped it and turned her head to the side away from the door and away from me.

"I can't do it, I can't even touch it," she informed me taking a step back. "It's a living hell in there, the memories are still too fresh, there's no way I can help you get her out. Just stepping in there will reverse everything my brother has done to help heal me." Stepping forward to take her place in front of the door I couldn't help but notice the pure evilness that just seemed to ooze from the place like puss from a festering wound. Squashing the natural urge to step away and just forget about it I grasped the handle and yanked it open and looked down into a slime covered pit. It was disgusting; there were bugs, snakes, and other insects mingling with the slime that was made of nothing pleasant most likely feces with sludge mixed in. In the middle of it all was the barely discernable shape of someone curled up in a ball covered in the sludge and vermin, it was hard to make her out very well in the gloom, there seemed to be a cloud of darkness surrounding her.

"Reiko?" I called softly trying to get her attention but not scare her to death.

"She can't hear you," Wainani divulged from her safe distance, and I graced her with a blank look. "After a few minutes wrapped up in your worst possible imaginings with slime seeping into your very pores are unknown creatures crawl all over you biting and stinging you, you think of nothing but getting out so you try and block out everything." Without warning I hopped into the pit and instantly realized my mistake for what it was.

Screams of the dying surrounded me as I stood there dripping in blood the corpses of all those I held dear lying mangled and broken in front of me, I knew without a doubt that I had done this. Slowly and against my own will I began to examine their remains, the first I spotted was Kurama his guts ripped out and pooling around him his blood mixing with the rich soil. His hair was shorn, the severed red strands strewn around him with one of his arms ripped from the socket; the total gruesomeness of it was shocking. Next my gaze fell onto Yusuke who was impaled on a sharpened stake that went right through his heart; his face was battered to a point that it was almost unrecognizable. After him I spotted Yukina and what was left of my heart died right there. She was collapsed in a-

In a flash of bright light it all disappeared and I was back in the hole staring at the figure curled up in the fetal position shaking so hard I could hear her teeth rattling around in her head. Swallowing hard I almost didn't want to move forward but I forced myself to approach the person; the sludge under my feet sucked at my shoe clad feet making walking rather difficult. When I was right over her I crouched down and placed a hand on her shoulder shaking her slightly to try and get a reaction from her, all I got was a low guttural moan. Brushing a highly poisonous snake off of her I scooped her up and quickly closed the distance between the exit, and myself leaping up and out of there the small bundle in my arms quivering. Wainani was paler than she had been before I had gone in and I instantly knew it had been her who had saved me from the awful nightmare I had been trapped in. With a motion of her hand she motioned me to follow her as she scurried off Reiko and I close behind, as I strode through the fortress I could feel the victim's heart beating ten times its normal rate. She was shaking like a leaf but not a sound passed her lips, every now and then I would peel a leech, slug, bug or snake off of her when it made its presence known. Wainani led us to a set of rooms that had only a bed as furniture in the first room and a bathtub, sink and toilet in the second one in.

I headed straight for the bathtub as Wainani informed me she was going to go and look for better clothes for Reiko and that I should start cleaning Reiko. Letting out a sigh I didn't bother to close the door because it didn't matter, no one was there to see anything and I highly doubted there was anything Wainani had never seen. Setting the childlike girl down into the empty tub I stared at her for a moment noting how she was shivering violently and hugging herself. Taking off my cloak I folded it and set it aside steeling myself for the task ahead, what I was going to see was most likely not going to be pleasant at all. Slowly I reached out and peeled her arms away from her abdomen observing how she didn't fight but flinched and a sob caught in her throat….like she was used to this. Taking hold of the bottom of her filthy shirt I yanked it off as gently as possible doing the same thing with her pants prior to sticking the plug in and turning on the hot water. Steam rose in clouds as the water began to submerge her huddled form starting to wash away the layers upon layers of scum, with an almost inaudible moan Reiko opened her eyes and I found myself staring into their tri colored depths.

"No! Leave-" she croaked trying to get up but was stopped by a body wracking cough that caused her whole body to spasm as she brought up blood. "Don't-who?"

"Hiei," I brushed hair out of her eyes before looking around, I found some soap nearby and began to wash the crud from her body hearing every scream she let loose down to my core. It was a total of six baths I had to run before she was completely clean and the sight that was revealed was horrifying, almost every inch of her skin was covered by either a cut, bruise or scrape. After that first time our eyes met she refused to look me in the eye opting to just lay there passive staring at the wall biting her lip as I tried to clean her quickly and painlessly but it seemed impossible. Every time I so much as brushed her she flinched in pain or gasped, when I came into contact with any of her injuries she let out a muffled scream. Pulling the drain for the last time I helped her up and lifted her out of the tub and wrapped a towel I had found around her before picking her up and carrying her into the bedroom. Her face was contorted with pain and a muscle twitched in her jaw as she fought to not yell. Wainani was waiting with the promised clothes and she slid the pair of pants and shirt onto her while I supported her slight frame.

"I'm going to bathe," Wainani padded into the bathroom while I laid Reiko on the bed. I was now able to see that her hair was actually a pure white not a deep rich brown like in the picture Yukina had given me to look at, it was short and plastered to her head due to it being wet. She had a delicate bone structure that only added to making her look more vulnerable, her lips were chapped and scabbed and her teeth were biting deep into it drawing beads of blood. Letting out a breath I closed my eyes for a minute to relax only to snap them open when Reiko lurched out of the bed and headed for the bathroom. She didn't make but a few steps for she hit the floor and vomited a mixture of blood, stomach fluid and some other chunky substance.

"S-s-s-orry," she whispered as I crouched next to her and helped her up to her feet and back to the bed, laying her down she instantly fell asleep the second her head hit the pillow.

"Is she going to be ok?" I looked and saw Wainani standing there her purple hair, soaking wet in a new set of clothes. I shrugged my shoulders and continued to watch Reiko slowly breathe in and out in her sleep.


Yeah! Another chappie done! RR! PLEASE I BEG OF YOU! REVIEW!

Scorp