AN: Holy #$&! I haven't updated in so long! I'm really, really sorry! I still love you all (if any of you are left) and I'm really psyched about writing this chapter, so please, please, please, review!

Btw, this is the second to last chapter and I have no idea how I managed to tie up all these loose ends! I'm actually really proud of myself!

CHAPTER 15: Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying

(The title this time is from Fall Out Boy, another favorite of mine, no idea why, but sheesh, are their titles long!)

"Hi. It's me. Listen, I need your help. I know it's late… if you could just come, please. I need you."

Shinju hung up the phone and started pacing her room. Would he come?

Ten minutes later she heard a knock at her window.

"Shinju?" Kazu called quietly, "Shinju, let me in."

She ran to the window and threw it open so fast Kazu almost fell over backwards. She grabbed him and rapped her arms around him as soon as he had regained his balance. After a bit of a struggle he managed to pull himself into the room.

Shinju immediately burst into tears. Kazu's eyes went wide and he patted her awkwardly on the back. He wasn't exactly accustomed to pretty young girl bursting into tears in his arms.

"Shhhh… Calm down and tell me what's wrong," He said, patting her on the back, "I'll do everything I can to help."

After a minute her sobs subsided, but she still kept her face buried in his shirt front.

"You can't help me. I've gone crazy. No one can help me." She mumbled.

He laughed lightly, gently pulling her away so he could actually look at her, and she didn't look like she'd been getting a lot of sleep lately, "You aren't crazy. I'm sure you'll be fine soon, you just need some rest."

Shinju shook her head emphatically, "No, I don't think rest is going to make the homicidal voice in my head go away." Kazu stopped smiling.

"You're hearing voices?" He was nervous now, she could tell, "Maybe you should talk to Uncle Hatori…"

"NO!" she practically screamed, "Please, just help me! He says his name is Akito. He was the cursed child before me, and he died a long time ago. He hates Mom and Dad, and even me and Ko. He's crazy."

They both stopped and stared at each other for a minute before Shinju burst into tears again.

"Oh my god! The murderous voice in my head is crazy! I've gone so crazy I don't think even Hatori could do anything at all! You should just run now and save yourself the trouble of waiting!" She was back to sobbing.

Kazu stopped and took a deep breath, then grabbed Shinju up in a big hug.

"You can be so crazy you're in a loony bin and I'll still be here for you. I'll never leave you, Shinju. You're my best friend, and I love you." She was still crying, but now she was smiling too.

"Thank you Kazu."

He smiled back, "Now, lets figure out what to do about this "Akito"."

"Mom?" Shinju whispered, knocking gently on her parent's door. She heard movement of the other side of the imposing door and gulped. Was this really going to work?

"It will all be fine." Kazu whispered, holding her hand tightly. It was morning now, a week after Akito had first made his presence known, and Kazu and Shinju had finally decided their only choice was to go to the adults and ask for help. So here they were, nine o'clock, waiting to talk to Tohru and Yuki.

"What is it, sweetie?" Tohru said groggily as she opened the door in her nightgown. She blinked a few times then said, "Huh? Honey, are you okay? Oh, hello Kazu darling."

"Mom, I have something I need to tell you. And I think I've gone crazy." Shinju began a little awkwardly.

"Just a sec, I need to wake up for this," Tohru yawned, "Do you want Daddy here too? Because I bet he'll want to hear this."

"Yeah, and I need Ko here too." Shinju surprised herself with this request, but despite her childish jealousy, Ko was still her sister, and she deserved to hear that her little sister was channeling the angry spirit of a psychopath.

Kazu squeezed her hand for encouragement. You can do this, his eyes said very clearly.

And she did. As soon as Koharu and Yuki came over she told her family all of it. Everything Akito said, all the doubts he had put into her mind, the fear she felt, and that he hadn't tried to contact her for the last day all came spilling out.

"Well…" Tohru began, and then stopped. What was there left to say? They all stood there in silence.

Yuki paced back and forth, over and over again. "What are we supposed to do?" he said angrily.

"I don't know…" Tohru whispered through her hands. The two of them were alone in their bedroom and they were just as lost as Shinju and Kazu had been.

"He's dead! Akito is dead! I thought that we were finally rid of that… monster! Why can't he ever leave us alone?" Yuki cried, his swelled with anger and sorrow among other things, but predominantly with fear. How could he fight his daughter's demons when he couldn't even see them?

"Yuki, sit down." Tohru commanded. He did.

"Worrying yourself to death wont help her, and it wont help you. We'll find an answer. She's our daughter, and we will protect her." For the first time in years Tohru spoke forcefully, abandoning completely her sweet, loving, and shy demeanor.

Then she began to cry just like her daughter. Yuki grabbed her in his strong, safe, arms and began to cry with her.

"We have to find a way…" He mumbled into her hair.

It was night. Shinju had spent the whole day with Koharu and Kazu, both of them trying to make her happy again. Where was the old Shinju?

Now the three of them were fast asleep and dreaming fitfully of tomorrow. Only Yuki stayed awake.

"What are you so mad about?" He asked the chill night air as he stood at his old "secret base".

"What do you want Akito? Do you still hate me? Is that why you're haunting her?" Yuki knew he looked crazy, talking to nothing, but if Akito's spirit could talk to Shinju, then it could damn well talk to him too!

"I'm sorry!" He yelled, "I'm sorry you were cursed just like us. For a long time, I hated you; I hated you more than anything for what you did to me. But you know what? I forgive you. I forgive you for hurting me when we were kids, I forgive you hurting Kyo, and Tohru, and all the Sohmas! I thought we were past this rivalry."

"How can you forgive what you don't understand?" Akito's hate filled voice whispered in his ear, "I was the head of the family, I was your master, yet you ignored me. I was always alone."

"As you wanted it!" Yuki yelled back, "You want to be away from us. If you had loved us, we would have welcomed you with open arms, but you pushed us away!"

"You would not!" Akito hissed, "I did love you, all of you, even that damned Cat! I was your God; I had no choice. I had to love you, just like all the cursed ones before me."

"No!" Yuki couldn't understand it; Akito had to be lying, "You didn't love us! You hurt me, physically and emotionally; you didn't want me to have friends or a family. You want me to be destroyed."

"I wanted you all to myself. All the Sohma Zodiac members were mine. I couldn't let you go our and join them. That's why I hated that Tohru woman so much! She thought she could take you from me!"

"Tohru loves me! She helped me when I was lost in your lies. Don't you dare talk to me about her." He was mad again.

"She left you. She hurt you; you were hurt so bad that you talked to me! Don't say you can't remember! You were alone, and you heard me calling out to you. Hatori thought you were going crazy, but I knew you were just tired of being by yourself." As Akito said all this, memories Yuki had blocked years ago came back to him; Akito's voice in an empty room; the despair of Tohru leaving; the pain of being all alone.

"You became just like me! You saw everything I did, but then you forgot. I showed you just how much it hurt to know that I wouldn't live past twenty-five but that you would all live to be sixty! I showed you why I was cruel, why I was so jealous. And then you forgot it all."

'No, no, it's not true!" Yuki whispered, trying to repress the memories that kept flooding back, "You were so cruel to us! You were full of malice."

"I was full of jealousy. I want what you all had; a perfect full life with other, normal, people. I never hated you, Yuki. I envied you, I always have."

"Then why are you talking to her? Why wont you leave us alone?"

"Because you forgot. That woman came back and you pushed me from your mind. You forgot how much I suffered, and how much I loved you. Shinju is free now. I will not talk to her again, so long as you remember that you will never be alone, and that I suffered too."

And the voice was gone. Akito was gone, but his memories would never be. Loaded down with all this new pain, and fear, and ideas, Yuki went home to his family.

Loud voices floated down the stairs as Yuki reentered his home. He ran up the stairs two at a time and found the whole family gathered around Shinju's room, including Koharu's brothers, who had come back from Hana's house the day before.

"Shinju, are you okay? Shinju sweetie?" Tohru called anxiously.

"What's wrong?" Yuki aksed, running to his daughter's side.

"I… I don't know! She just collapsed!" Kazu said, "She was talking one moment then she fell over and started shaking!"

Yuki looked down at his daughter limp, shivering, body.

"She's in shock! Something's happening to her, we have to call Hatori." Yuki said in a commanding voice, "Someone go…"

But he stopped short, because Shinju had quit shivering and was lying perfectly still. Her eyes fluttered open.

"He's gone. He said he was sorry, Daddy, and he's gone," She whisepered, gently squeezing her fathers hand, "He took away all the pain too. He… says he's… sorry…." Then she fell back asleep.

Instantly her sister was at her side, trying to get her to wake up.

"Nothing's working!" Koharu signed frantically, "She cant go back to sleep! What if she never wakes up?"

"Koharu, I know you can wake her," Tohru said, "Please! Remember back in America, you saved her then in that alley and you can do it again!" Tohru encouraged her eldest daughter, afraid that if this didn't work, nothing would.

Shinju nodded; she remembered. In a slow, shaky voice she said, "Shinju, it's me, Koharu. Please wake up. I promise never to leave you again! Please! You're the only sister I have!" Her eyes filled with tears, "I love my brothers dearly, but I love you too!"

Slowly, Shinju opened her eyes again, "Ko, you can talk!" She whispered.

And then, all hell broke loose.

END OF STORY

(AN: okay, not really! Please stay tuned for an epilogue to be posted sometime next week! Hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did! BTW, I really want to know what you've thought of this story! )