Chapter 18
TT: BEHOLD! THE REASON YOU SHOULD NEVER ALLOW ERIS TO LOOSE HER TEMPER!
Eris: :plays with fingers: I wasn't that bad, was I Kyo?
Kyo: Woo! Go Eris! That's the way to show Akito who's boss!
TT: Anyway, I'll be quiet before I reveal the entire plot of this chapter before you read it. Well people, you said you wanted me to update quickly – so I wrote this the day after I updated, I just had other things to do and couldn't put it up straight away. I'm glad I got Akito right – now, lets see how I do in this one…
Everyone, enjoy and review!
Wildfirefriendship – I switch tenses? Darn, see the thing is that when I read what I write, I read what should be there, as opposed to what I actually wrote. It's a pretty bad habit.
Dark Inu - …Now I want to deliberately make a place to put that piece of wisdom in! (too bad I don't think I'd be able to, even if you did let me…)
Peppymint – your wish has been granted (as have most people's)
The shrill screech – one that Kyo could identify as Eris' war cry, having heard it once before – was louder than any of the cries the ghosts at the cat's house had been. The lights flickered wildly, a few of the bulbs breaking. The windows cracked, before frost began to crawl up then. Furniture was knocked over, tossed around and broken, any loose or fragile objects rising from where they had lain to fly towards Akito, crashing into pieces around him. A book, which had been resting on a table, was abruptly torn to pieces, tiny pieces of paper fluttering in the sudden wind that swirled throughout the room. Akito felt a force against him, one that left him cold, and he stumbled back as if he'd been pushed, Kyo's bracelet being yanked out of his hand and hover in the center of the chaos.
The room grew colder, and barely heard over the scream was the quiet 'meowing of a single, curious cat, who walked through the one of the walls and sat near the window, watching with transparent eyes.
In the doorway, where they'd fallen in a pile, were the other zodiacs. They couldn't quite bring themselves to move. Eyes moved towards where Kyo was lying, but before they could get a good look their attention was diverted back to the flying furniture.
Ice began to coat the floor, and the air grew misty with ice particles. In the center, standing just in front of Kyo prone, crouched body, something appeared out of thin air as the war cry, at last, stopped, and leaving a ringing in everyone's ears.
And there stood Eris, her hair had escaped from her usual ponytail, and the brown locks flared in all directions from her head, as if she were filled with static electricity, her black jacket doing the same trick. Narrowed, hazel eyes burned with an intensity that few living humans could ever hope to produce, her face twisted into a snarl of rage. In one of her clenched fists was Kyo's bracelet.
Akito, stunned by the display, and unnerved by his sudden lack of control over the situation, allowed his eyes to widen, and he swallowed softly. Eris seemed taller than Akito, as she was hovering an obvious half-meter from the ground. Her body continually shifted from solid to transparent, unused to willing itself to be seen and incapable of keeping it completely solid. But that only added to the supernatural, chilling effect her entrance had had.
Eris' hand clenched around the bracelet a little tighter, the knuckles going whiter than what would have otherwise seemed possible. "How dare you!" She hissed, her voice was full of barely restrained anger, an iciness so cold it burned. "Howdare you do that to him!" Ice began to creep up the walls of the room, causing the ghost cat to meow in protest – making everyone but Eris jump – before leaping up onto the windowsill, watching the scene in front of him with indifferent eyes.
Akito's face darkened again, angered by the girl's lack of respect, towards him, and he attempted to recover some of his lost ground with his reply, "Oh please, stop acting as if it's human – the cat is nothing but a monster. And just who do you think you are?"
"Me!" Eris let out a feral grin – one that she'd probably picked up from Kyo, and mastered ahead of him – "I am your worst nightmare – I'm a monster too, the one who'll haunt your sleep for an eternity if you ever touch Kyo again." She stepped forwards until she was inches from Akito – she seemed to suck the heat right out of his skin, and Akito's fingers started turning blue, "Your dying, Akito, your going to die one day soon – and once that happens your mine forever, mine to torment until you'd plead with the devil to go to hell. And the same goes for everyone else!"
Still lying in a pile in the doorway, the rest of the zodiac jumped, and Haru – would was near the bottom of the pile – found that his hand was stuck to the ice covered floor. In the center of the room, Kyo shifted, and the remaining zodiacs gasped at the sight of the form he'd taken.
"Eris…" Slitted eyes tried to focus on the ghost, Kyo's voice laced with confusion. Kyo couldn't tell that she'd changed her form, so that the others could see her, to him she looked the same as always. This fact made the conversation in front of him confusing. "Eris, what are you doing?"
Eris' expression changed, from wild and angry, to softer and friendly, and with barely a movement she was next to Kyo again, doing her best to smile reassuringly, but it only came out mischievous, "Who me? I'm just telling Akito something he should've heard a long time ago."
Akito tried to move as the ice began to climb up his ankles, but found himself stuck. But the movement got Eris' attention back, and she turned to face him, standing in front of Kyo defensively.
"You've been warned, Akito." Eris spat out the name as if it left a bad taste – like leeks – in her mouth, her fists noticeably tightened, as her scarcely controlled rage increased, "You just… leave NeKyo alone!"
With that final shout, every remaining light bulb shattered, plunging the room into darkness. Eris' body seemed to disappear completely, and Kyo's bracelet hovered in the air for a single moment, before it fell to the ground right next to the paw that had previously been his left hand.
The cat on the windowsill let out another meow, and jumped down, walking across the completely iced-over room towards the door, and through the zodiac pile that lay there – sending shivers of cold through them all, before it disappeared completely in the middle of the hall.
Finally, able to move at last, the zodiacs desperately ran without looking back, except for Hatori and Kureno, who opened the doors wider to allow more light in.
Kureno ignored Kyo, instead walking over to the profile of the other male in the room, "Akito-sama?" Then, as he got closer, he gasped. Hatori walked over to see what was the problem, before his eyes widened.
Akito stood utterly still, a stunned expression on his face, and completely coated in a thin layer of ice.