I am SO sorry! cries I should have had this up LONG ago! So I made it nice and long. It was a bother to write. It's where the story takes a new turn so I've been working on it. Enjoy! Thanx for the reveiws.
Chapter 8: Curiosity Thriller
The sun that had been shining so brightly the day before was now nonexistent in the overcast sky. Great masses of dark ominous clouds hovered over the mansion and went as far as the eye could see. Strong sold winds billowed through out the forest beating against the mansion's aged brick walls. The tops of trees, too far into their years, scraped the ground admiting defeat to the winds mighty power. Deep inside the mansion walls the coming storm was barely noticed.
Two bodies were sprawled out on numerous rugs and pillows and snoring in front of the fireplace. When the two boys had lain down they had been on seperate rugs. Now they looked like some mutated creature. One leg stuck out here, an arm jutted out there. All the while they snored and Kuwabara kept mumbling something about kittens.
The only female in the room lay curled up on a couch not far from the fire. Her pink coat still wrapped around her from where she'd been too tired to do anything but fall out. A thin sheet had been draped over her to help protect her from a late night chill. She slept with a pained look on her face and that silly smile she usually wore was replaced with a frown.
The last one slumbered peacefully in an armchair; an unfinished book in his hands. He'd been the last to drift off as watching Yusuke and Kuwabara sleeping was entertainment that couldn't be passed up. He'd also made sure that everyone was comfortable, well as comfortable as they could be. They all missed their homes and loved ones, even him. Although he hid his inner turmoil for the sake of the others. One of them had to be strong enough for them all.
Hiei had taken to wandering the lower floors when everyone was asleep. His first stop was always the kitchen. He hated eating in front of them and usually waited until late to sneak down for food and other nourishment. He was currently raiding the cookie jar. He bit into one of the oddly shaped confections and made a face. Burnt, again. He would have the fox's neck if he kept letting that idiot woman cook. He'd rather eat Kuwabara's cooking. At least he didn't burn everything.
After finding something edible Hiei made his way over to his favorite chair in the western living room. He always found a small amount of comfort when he sat there. He came around the corner and found a body lying comfortably in HIS chair. There she was, again. This girl was always in the wrong place at the wrong time. The thought of removing her from his seat crossed his mind. He stood and watched her sleep for only a moment. She seemed happy. A few strands of hair lay on her brown face, covering her forehead. Hiei resisted the urge to reach down and move them. Instead he turned and stormed off to another room. Stupid onna, she was driving him crazy and she wasn't aware of it.
Nomino sat on a rock idling the time away by burning sperate blades of grass. His pets would find their pray very soon. In the mean time he still had his newest toy. The young wind master had turned out to make quite god entertainment. He walked over to one of their tents and went in. The wind demon stood shackled to a pole. His body beaten and mangled from the abuse Nomino's men had caused.He was alive but not by much. He liked it that way. When he finally got that girl on his side he would use him to threaten her into doing anything he wished. He smiled to himself, he trully was a genius.
The mansion's captives didn't sleep for too long. They were still a little weary from there outing but at least they were alive. Well most of them were a little fatigued. Yusuke and Kuwabara didn't count. The two were at it again, running around the rooms chasing each other over tiny arguments. Botan was up trying to get them to settle down and Kurama was still sleeping in the chair.
"Kurama is still asleep! Keep it down untill he wakes up!" The shrill voice of the blue haired girlrang through the living room.
"He sleeps like a rock! Look at him." Yusuke pointed at Kurama's sleeping form. He hadn't bugded an inch.
"I know that but what if you DO wake him?"
"Hey I never thought about that. Let's find out."
Botan's face paled as Yusuke slowly advanced towards they're snoozing friend. "Yusuke don't do it" Botan whispered.
Yusuke crept closer so he stood less then a foot from Kurama. He slowly reached his hand forward to inflict some form of damage to his face. Botan was beyond words and kept her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming. Yusuke's face worked itself into a devilish grin as his hand inched closer to Kurama's nose.
Kurama's green eyes flashed open and locked on to Yusuke. The shocked teen jumped back about 20 feet and hid behind Botan.
"Good morning Yusuke, Botan" Kurama's eyes never left Yusuke as he stood up and made his way over to him.
"G-Good morning Kurama. I was just about to wake you up." Yusuke smiled nervously.
Kurama took a few more steps towards the them. Botan side stepped out of the way and stood back to watch. She beamed and sent Yusuke an I-told-you-so smirk.
The other teen watched mildly interested as something in the background had caught his eye.
Kurama sighed and turned on his heel, heading in the direction of the kitchen. "I'll start breakfast, for those of us who are awake."
"Wait for me!" Botan scampered after him determined to make a meal that everyone would actually eat.
Yusuke breathed a sigh of relief as the two left the room. "Man, he makes me nervous sometimes. He's almost as bad as our attic dwelling friend eh Kuwabara?"
"Uh huh." Kuwabara's face was scrunched up as he tried to understand what he had just seen.
"Hey, Earth to Kuwabara!" Yusuke screamed. He hated being ignored and anything Kuwabara took the time to think about had to be intresting.
"I just seen Ashley sneak up the stairs."
"What! What do you mean? Why the heck would she go upstairs when she knows not too?"
"I don't know Urameshi! You think we should follow her?" asked Kuwabara who was very worried that Hiei might kill the only person who was decent to him.
The wheels in Yusuke's head(AN. probably the first time he's used those in years) began to turn. "Nah, I say we sit back and watch what happens."
Kuwabara looked at Yusuke then turned his head in the direction that Ashley had just left in. "If anything happens it was your idea."
The old wooden steps creaked and groaned under Ashley's feet as she gently walked up the stairs. Here she was going to the only place she wasn't allowed to go. Hiei had strictly forbbiden her to come up here but she'd gone on anyway.Why was she so curious about it all of a sudden? She didn't know the answer to that and didn't come up with one. She reached the top and looked around.
It was Beautiful. Well it could have been beautiful. The walls were made of a dark wood and the ceiling arched high making the hallway feel open and spacious. Large arched windows were placed evenly on one side of thehall.Thick, red rugs covered a majority of the wooden floor. She stepped on one and some lovely dust clouds rose up. She quickley stepped out of the cloud and resumed her exploration. As she turned a corner another form appeared at the top of the steps, anger andconfusion evident in his eyes. He followed herslowly keeping the distance between them.
"Wow this must have been the halls where the head of the family lived." Ashley walked from picture to picture studing the people in the frames. She came across a room with large double doors. There were lots of them but this was the only onethat had no dust which meant it had been used recently. Against her better judgement she opened the door and stepped inside.
It was early morning but you couldn't tell from inside. The room was dark, gloomy and down right creepy.The only plesent thing about the room was the strong smell of burnt wood, somrthing she'd always found comforting. The only source of light was from one of the large windows in the hallway. She used the light from the hallway to navigate around the room.
She stuck her hands out in front of her to help becuse it was still very dark inside. She walked blindly across the room untill her hands made contact with something solid. It was a window, a very big window from the feel of it. She could feel the cold air seeping in through the cracks in the window seal. Windows let in light but this one was no where near transparent. Not one ray of light was coming in through the window. She felt around a little more and discovered why. Someone had attatched a thick slab of wood to the window.
Her curiosity intensified as she tried to pry the wood off the window. After a good long struggle a large piece of the wood snapped off letting in the light. She squinted and held her hand over her sensitive eyes. When they finally adjusted to the light checked out the room for the first time.
"Oh, this must have been where the master of the house slept." Her eyes focused on the massive canopy bed that was placed up against one of the walls. The draperies on the canopy bed and over the windows were a variety of blues and greens. There was a door that led to a bathroom and a few other windows that would let in light if it weren't for the wood. One was located over the bed and the other two were french doors. As lovely as the features were the rom itself was rundown and dirty. Why had such a beautiful room been neglected for so long?
Ashley was admiring the bed post when she noticed a sword proped up against a wall in the corner. It looked pretty ordinary except for the fact that it was one of the three things in the room that wasn't dusty. The other two were a small sofa in another corner and the small wooden table in front of the french doors.
Something shiny on the small table caught her eye. She walked over to the table to take a closer look. "Oh it's beautiful " she exclaimed. There in front of her lay a small crystal like ball. It had a bluish tint to it that reminded her of a tear.She was tempted to touch it but something told her not to. She brought her hand back and a split second later a blade was embedded in the table. She whipped her head around to find Hiei holding the hilt of the aword firmly in his hands. His red eyes were ablaze with an unspoken fury as he glared at her. In one movement he wrenched the sword out of the table and had it hovering mere inches from her neck.
Ashley's heart was pounding through her chest and her mind was screaming for her to haul butt. Her body shook violently as she tried desperetly to calm herself. Her brown eyes never left his red ones. She refused to back down.
After what seemed like an eternity Hiei broke the strained scilence. "I told you to never come back. Why do you defy me?" Hiei was trying to control his rage but was losing the battle. Her only answer was to glare back at him. She knew she'd been in the wrong but she wasn't about to admit it. A low growl emmited from Hiei when she didn't reply and instead glared back at him.
"I asked you a question. If you don't answer I will not hesitate to kill you." His red eyes glowed in the low light, accenting his point. He found it very hard to stay focused on her face when the rythmic rise and fall of her chest was entrancing. He shook it off and readied his blade to strike and he hesitated.
HIs hesitation gave Ashley the chance she needed to escape. She side stepped him and took off at an all out sprint for the door. Hiei practically yelled at himself for his mistake. In his rage he threw the sword at her retrearing form.
Ashley was running as fast as she could for the door when a sword came shooting past her barely missing her head.Her near fatal attack caused her adrenaline levels to go sky high. She ran out of the room and down stairs straight into the living room.
She came into the room hardly aware of Yusuke and Kuwabara, who were slightly pale. Yusuke made a move to go to her and she bolted. He caught up with her and grabbed her arm which caused herhead to snap forward.She cried out in pain as she tried to lossen Yusuke's hold on her arm.
"Let me go! I have to get away from here!" She cried.
"what happened Ashley? Did Hiei hurt you?" Yusuke looked worried when he seen how upset and frightened she looked.
"I said let GO!" A bright light came from her hands and it sent Yuske flying into Kuwabara who had been on his way to help.
Her eyes widened at what she had just done but more so for the safety of her friends. She ran over to them and checked them out. They were still alive. Breathing hard she stood up and quickly headed for the door.
"Ashley" Kurama's concerned voice called to her.
She stopped moving and turned around to face Kurama. His greem eys full of worry beckoned for her to stop. She lowered her head and mouthed theword bye and ran out the door into the raging storm.
The Vacers that Nimino had sent out were searching for their prey. The larger one was checking out a nearby tree when a familiar scent caught it's attention. It turned it's elegant head in the direction of the smell. The smaller one followed suit. They ran off in search of their onw of a kind prey. The hunt was on.
Ashley stumbled around in the forest trying to find her way back to what was left of her village. She could travel to the neighboring one and ask about Jinn there. The blizzard was making it hard to do anything. The wind howled and the cold nipped at her exposed skin. In her haste she had forgoten to grab a coat. All she had on was her red kimono that she had come there with. She could hear something howling other then the wind. She looked around as the howling became louder. She became very aware that she was not alone. On either side of her stood a dog like creature with the markings of fire embers. They watched her intently as they closed in. Ashley was too tired to fight and too weary to run so she fell to her knees and prayed.
Back at the mansion Botan and Kurama were trying to figure out what had just happened. The boys were still unconcious and Hiei said nothingand only paced infront of a window. Kurama finally stood up and put on his coat.
"I'm going after her. If I don't return in an hour do not follow me."
Botab, who was running aroung like a headless chicken began to protest. "What will we do without youy?!"
Kurama smiled gently and placed a reasuring hand on her shoulder. "I will return."
"No you won't" Interuppted Hiei. "I'm going after her."
Kurama and Botan stared in shock at Hiei's outburst.
"I'll find her faster then you will Hiei. In your condition you might not make it." Kurama stated.
"I don't care. I'm going and that's final." Hiei crossed his arms defiantly and dared Kurama to argue.
A blood curdling scream killed the conversation.
Hiei grabed his sword and cloak and ran out the door to save the life of someone who he realized was special to him.
sigh There I finished it. I hope to get the nect one out ina timely manner. smiles