Hello, everyone! So finally, an update! I have little time to write since I'm so busy pretending to study for this test I need to take in January. BUT ANYWAY. I hope you like the next installment of Spotlight! I worked hard on it, so tell me what you think!

Spotlight

Chapter Four: Nodes

The supernatural may or may not exist. But so what? All you need to do is close your eyes, believe with your body and soul, and with three lonely clicks of your heels, you'll awaken to a new world where everything you wish for has come true.

But sometimes, this doesn't work. Sometimes, despite wishing that you aren't already dead, whether you close your eyes or leave them open, the grim reaper will still be standing there.

That's pretty much what Ayaka felt as she stood there, her sore feet glued helplessly to the carpeted floor, the tiny fibers holding on to her like hands from hell. Death was too close, she could reach out and grasp its tongue, kiss its cold lips. Surely Hisoka, even in all his monstrous glory, wouldn't kill a child? But he was a wild card, wilder than most, and she knew very well that she needed to stay away. It was rather simple, no rocket science. Just turn around and walk away. But even so…for goodness sake, that boy was too small! No smaller than the children she had been watching over this past year!

"Damn it!" she muttered.

Why wasn't Wing doing anything? Wasn't he the one running his mouth about saving people from Hisoka's brutality just now? She looked around, the urge to scream building in her throat and itching her voice box to act. Why haven't people noticed them yet? Or were they just pretending?

The little brown-haired boy, eyes shut from the panic clogging his system, could only let out a tiny little cough as his pocket-sized lungs desperately tried to vacuum in air. His face was turning a ghastly shade of blue, and Ayaka knew... she just knew... He was going to die if she didn't do something about it. She couldn't let a child die. She couldn't. To hell with Wing, watching casually like that, like he was too good to get involved. To hell with the indifferent people around her, acting like they couldn't be bothered by what was going on! To hell with them all!

Her legs. They had begun to move. A slow pace at first, one small step after another, gradually getting faster and faster, a horse released into the wild!

'It will change your life,' the ad said, right?

Well, do or do not. There is no try!

"Let him go!" she yelled, her own roar vibrating in her own ears as she ran, leaving Wing dumbfounded, though he didn't show it. Her voice was pretty damn thunderous; she didn't know she could get that loud. It pulled everybody's attention, forcing them to look only at her for the first time, if only for a few moments. But a few moments was really all she needed.

"HISOKA-SAN!"

Wow, still pretty polite. She was a hopeless case.

Oh, but of course Hisoka didn't listen. Why would he? In front of all those people, he was happily strangling a child like it was a typical gesture of love. His smile grew tighter as he heard her, the skin on his lips stretching and bleeding open, and Ayaka couldn't help but believe that he was trying his darn hardest to contain the twisted joy he had so desperately caged inside himself. He was about to explode, and she was going to end up with poisonous shrapnel in her eyes.

But… he was hurting a child. A child. Who in their right mind would want to hurt a child?

And so she jumped for his arm, up high in the air like she was reaching for the branch of a tree, grabbing it with a loud slap of skin against skin. With her overworked hands, she latched onto him like she would die if she let go, and she hoisted herself upwards, digging and clawing her red nails into his beautiful silky skin. He didn't even budge! Not one inch, not even after the abrupt addition of a hundred and twenty pounds. But Hisoka... he was surprisingly warm to the touch, a feeling so electric that it gave her a flutter of nauseating vertigo.

"I think something just landed on me," he said, looking around for a flying insect.

That pissed her off. He made her so angry! She never thought for one second that she was fresh from a Victoria's Secret catalog, but geez! He didn't have to rub it in like this, like he couldn't even see her! And yet primal as she felt, shocked as she was by the high-society man, she managed to open her small mouth with a low growl, little strings of body-temperature saliva still clinging from top to bottom of her sharp teeth. She lifted her head to gain momentum. She had to save the boy. She just had to! So what if it was Hisoka she was up against?

'Why do I need to know who you are?' he had asked her two weeks ago. She didn't mind being ignored, really. She's been so used to being part of the bigger picture… but today, he was going to get an answer.

She sunk her teeth into the smooth tissues of his arm with cruel, brutal force, with hard and unforgiving calcium-rich incisors, tearing the flesh off of his compact muscular limb like a starving carnivore and... SPLAT! His blood spurted out with explosive force into her mouth, red droplets staining her already-flushed face. His arm was more tender than she had thought - so he was human after all! Blood generously burst from wound with a stomach-twisting squishing noise... like she had just bitten down on pasta al dente instead.

"The name's Ayaka. A-YA-KA," she spoke, her voice muffled and quite literally dripping with her own venom. She felt so fierce. So powerful. And yet somehow she felt like she had cheated, like Hisoka had let her bite him. Why?

The taste of sweet rust jolted the senses of her moist tongue, the strong metallic odor arousing the insides of her mouth. Meat as raw as this... didn't humans of many centuries ago feed on it? Her body shuddered, recognizing the taste of uncooked flesh, the odor of a fresh catch, and she salivated like a hungry hound successful on its brutal hunt. Oh god. What had she done in front of a child?

And she heard him. With his blue face slowly turning apple green like a threatened chameleon, the little boy whimpered the only breath of air he had left as he watched her in honest horror with his big brown eyes - beautiful innocence, the type that still burned with the zeal of childhood.

"Ooh. Do I taste good?" Hisoka cooed as he chuckled with a sinister toothy smile.

Her eyes widened at his unhidden happiness. This man was crazy! She really couldn't deny it this time, and she wondered whether Wing was watching, and whether he wanted to say, "I told you so."

"You taste like…copper."

Hisoka's face, a small-pored blemish-free canvass, twisted upwards in a curled smile, and for a moment she believed that maybe, just maybe, he knew firsthand what his own flesh tasted like.

"Wow, look at your face! You look like you want to die," he continued.

He was so close that she could smell him. He smelled pretty wild, at least that's what she thought. A strong sweet fragrance of earthy clay and honey-dipped blood, and maybe a hint of…spice? She could feel her nostrils flare, greedily breathing in more of his lustful scent as her gaze slowly trailed down to his lips... a soft pink. She... she wanted to kiss him. But he saw the nature of her gaze, and she shivered at the thought of having been caught. Her cheeks burnt an even brighter, harsher shade of red, igniting her stiff neck to follow suit. She was on fire because of him, and he knew it.

But this murky swamp of attraction towards this killer, the carnal desire was much too volatile. She couldn't bear it.

And that's when it all started.

She felt a solid block smash into her stomach, knocking the wind from her hyperventilating lungs, followed by a silent swoosh as she was thrown upwards in the humid air. She could feel her insides roughly squish themselves together like an air-tight container to cope with gravity, and she closed her eyes and waited for the pain. But boy was she lucky, because Wing caught her before she collided with the wall, or the ceiling, or whatever she was about to hit. It took her a moment to realize that Hisoka had just… swatted her away. There was a throbbing cramp beneath her chest where he had hit her, and she wondered if she had broken something. It hurt. Damn, it was like a thousand paper cuts in the insides of her right lung.

"Very odd," Hisoka said as he looked up in the air as if looking for something, his face still contorted in extreme bliss. "Mosquitoes nowadays are getting quite resilient, aren't they?"

Ayaka gritted her teeth. Hisoka's blood was already caking on her cheeks and chin from having bitten him, and she was sure, so sure, that he actually wanted her to attack him.

"Are you all right?" Wing asked as he helped her stand on her shaky knees. "Ayaka?"

Why did he look at her like she had sprouted ten heads? He looked absolutely perplexed.

"Thanks," she spat, unintentionally sounding pretty wicked as she wiped Hisoka's blood off of her lips, suddenly feeling a tightening in her ribcage. "But I'm okay! I actually… wanna do it again!"

Maybe Hisoka was right. Maybe she really did want to die.

She sprinted towards him, her tight fist poised by her head to deliver a strong blow. She wanted to hit him back. She just wanted to. Why was she having so much fun? But Hisoka suddenly dropped the child as he looked at her with peaked interest, stretching his arms out towards her as if saying, "Come!" Oh, she wasn't going to stop. She had to punch him. Anywhere would be okay. As long as she hit him. Clowns had two faces, right? She wanted to see him cry!

But her fist struck air.

"Wow," Hisoka spoke, appearing behind her instead. "Interesting nen you got there. I'm glad I gave you a dose."

And her heart stopped. For three full seconds, to be exact. And she wondered if she had died without knowing it.

Wing stood in front of her, and he was absolutely frightening. Sharp angled brows, incensed from provocation, and snake-like eyes, ready to strike! He was about to kill someone... about to kill her. Again and again, as if once wasn't enough.

"Calm yourself down, Ayaka!" he said, reaching out. "Hisoka just opened your nodes and-"

"What? What are you talking about? I'm calm! …Am I?"

Two big invisible walls smashed into her, knocking the wind from her lungs and cracking her bones with a sickening crunchy noise that made her feel an obnoxious twisting in her gut. Waves of sauna-like heat pushed her from either side, slapping her like a fish on dry land, and she could feel droplets of sweat trickling down her face, her back, everywhere! She felt a strong burn from her stomach, pulsating like a geyser exploding prematurely, gurgling, gurgling, rising higher towards her lungs, gurgling, forcing its way through her heart and reaching her throat... and bursting out her mouth. It was vomit! She was barfing! She howled deep painful sounds as yellowish brown goo splattered out, burning like boiling water forcing itself up and down her throat, brushing against the creases of her teeth and onto the floor.

"Ayaka!" she heard Wing yell. "You must focus your energy to—!"

But she couldn't see him. Or hear him. Her body tuned him out. And only then did Hisoka move, taking a casual step back when she crouched down to the ground and clutched desperately onto her stomach as the uncontrollable irregular purging continued. Splashing, gagging, disgusting letters of the alphabet put together.

UUHHHKKKKKKPPPPPHHHFFFFF!

She raised her head and gasped for more air.

KKKKRRRPPPPUUHHHFFGGGGG!

The floor drowned in it, like the drowning of plants from an overbearing water source, the lapping of liquid by chunky, hungry soil. But the carpet absorbed nothing. Air. She needed air! Why wouldn't her body listen? But Hisoka. He watched her. He just... watched her. Eyes steadily set in her direction. The beautiful monster was watching her suffer. And he was fascinated, wasn't he? She felt so much shame. Was Wing still talking?

Her body was suddenly engulfed in yellow flames, she could see it, from her fingers all the way down to her toes, but it didn't hurt. She felt warm and she felt tired. Slowly, slowly, she was drifting to sleep.

"Don't fall asleep, Ayaka!" Wing shouted, though he sounded distant, like he was on the other end of a long tunnel. And she would have run for her life, she would have never come back, she would have never thought twice of seeing anyone again had she not heard the little boy's desperate gasps of air, one big breath after another, like he was reborn. He was safe. He was safe. She had done good. She wiped her dirty mouth with her pink sleeve and gave him a desperate smile. She was probably just seeing things.

"You okay, little guy?"

She couldn't bear to look at anyone else but him. His eyes were filled to the brim with tears. Tears from choking, from seeing so much blood, from watching a woman he didn't even know so nastily puke her guts out. The little innocent boy could see the half-digested piece of soggy waffle she had eaten for breakfast.

The acidic smell made her own eyes tear up, and her nose burned like she had sneezed it all out instead. She could hear the repulsed whispering of the people around her as silent judgment was passed. They had formed a big circle around the scene, hands covering their mouths and noses, and she was in the middle of it all. She was her own enemy. Nobody else.

Her shame was cut short when Wing took hold of her shirt and tossed her onto his shoulder, her stomach roughly pressing against the bony edge. He was in a hurry. She winced from a little surge of pain in her ribs, and she was sure she had broken something after all. Wing took hold of the little boy's hand, and he obliged like a good son.

"Hisoka, I told you that Zushi isn't quite ready for you yet."

He chuckled like it was meant to be a joke.

"I was only encouraging him," Hisoka teased in reply. "When do you think he'll reach my floor?"

"Let him mature on his own. As for Ayaka, why did you-"

"Who?" Hisoka interjected, and Ayaka's bloodshot eyes grew even wider, painfully ripping away at the seams of her eyelids. "Oh, I didn't know mosquitoes had names."

"Why did you open her-"

"Oh, no reason. The mosquito looked like she wanted to kill me, so I thought, why not make it more fun? She was no good the way she was."

Wing sighed in defeat as he turned around to walk away, forcing Ayaka to face the man who had just called her a blood-sucking insect. But Hisoka... he was just looking at the noxious mess she had made instead. Being ignored like that, despite the scene she starred in, it just somehow... stung.

She was going to get fired, and she was going to switch "careers" again. Just like always, she messed up. When was her life ever going to change?

End of Chapter Four!

Well? How was it? This took me soooo long to write, since I didn't know whether to give Ayaka a special past or not, and whether to insert it or not. UGH it was so difficult to write... And with my mom breathing down my neck to study for my test... it wasn't pretty! But here it is, and I like it!

Please review! Did you know I live for reviews? Yes... yes, I do. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful holiday!