A/C - Here's a short chapter! I also wanted to give some SHOUTOUTS this chapter:

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Chapter 9 - Shadow Preachers

I was dreaming.

I knew because I was standing in the middle of the woods. The sharp, cold air bite at my skin and I had nearly forgotten how real these dreams felt. I looked around to get a sense of my bearings but nothing looked familiar. The trees were old, and tall - nearly blocking out the light entirely. Something about these woods felt familiar, I recognized.

There was movement in my peripherals and I spun around, only to be standing in front of Sara Ito gazing at me.

Up close she appeared much more delicate than I had originally thought. She was nearly half my height and far more petite. From this close, I could see that she was not Japanese. Sara's face was lovely and had sharp, exotic features such as her jawline and her chin. She was only fifteen or so, I recalled from the history on her family. There was no hiding her adolescence from her face, except her eyes…

I had never seen eyes like that before. They were large and exotically framed with long, dark eyelashes but the color was breathtaking - swirling silver and grey, as if dark storm clouds had been captured in glass.

"Sara," I said, carefully hiding the fear in my voice. "Let me help you."

Sara didn't say anything, she only gazed at me with that detached look and I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Her expressionless face, though beautiful, gave nothing away and made her look even more sinister.

"Sara I can help you -"

I stopped immediately when she stepped to the side, allowing me to see what was directly behind her. My heart slammed into my stomach and I suddenly couldn't think.

Ten feet away from us, Gene was kneeling on the ground. He was holding his side, panting heavily and, instinctively, I stepped forward - but found that my entire body was rigid. No, it wasn't that.. I felt some kind of invisible bond gripping at me, keeping me in place.

"Gene!" I got his attention, blue-grey eyes looked up at me, shocked, from a distance.

His lips curled back. "Mai, get out of here. Wake up!"

If I did wake up, then what would happen to him? A cold sweat ran down my spine and I looked at Sara, who was still watching me.

"Please, don't hurt him. He was only trying to help me." I pleaded.

"Get out of here!"

From beyond my own voice, I heard Gene yelling at me to wake up. A small part of me knew that this wasn't just a dream. It was occurring while I was asleep, an astral projection of what might be happening in the spirit world right now - which meant...Gene was in very big trouble.

I recalled what he told me about the possibility of Sara finding him and my bowels liquefied. I realized, Sara had the power to take Gene away from this spiritual world to something much more sinister.

"Please," this time, I didn't hide the tremble that shook my voice. "Don't hurt him!"

"Mai!" Gene growled and I dared another look at him as he struggled to get up. I didn't know how long he had been here, how much time had passed since our peaceful meeting - now he was hurt in some unknown way. I tried, and failed, to step forward.

Something else caught my eye in the dark to Gene's left, the trees seemed to shift and night glittered across them, morphing the shapes. Until I realized, that it wasn't the trees moving - but something lurking within the shadows of them.

"TO YOUR LEFT!" I screamed.

Gene had barely enough time pivot and hurtle himself out of distance from the attack of claws and talons.

I trashed against those invisible bonds that held me in place.

"Stop it!" I glared at Sara, panting. "I swear if you hurt him I'll -"

"You'll what?" She said in an, alarmingly, high-pitched voice.

I swallowed, hard - nervously. Her voice was, perfectly, cut like glass and still had some remnants of childhood in it. Slowly a sinister smile, too sinister for a young girl, spread across her features.

"You'll kill me? I'm already dead. Besides you have no powers, which means no control in this world. You can't stop me."

I wanted to tell her that she was wrong, that I had control. I heard a groan from Gene and snapped my head in the direction as he dodged another attack from the large, spindly creature.

"I'm begging you," I cried, looking back at Sara. "Please stop, I'll do anything."

"I wouldn't dream of stopping this," Sara said and turned to gaze at the creature.

As if being called it halted its attack, the creature lifted its oval head at her and a horrible sound coming from its mouth as it beheld her. I looked back and forth from her to the creature. Was she, somehow, the master of this horrible thing? Was she the one who controlled it, or the other way around? Sara did not seemed frightened by the creature, instead she seemed to be...admiring it. Fascinated by it, even.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Sara said. "It was created the night of my sacrifice. It's called a Pishacha."

The Pishacha was anything but beautiful. Its slender frame was covered in a thick grey hide and armed with talons and rows of flesh tearing teeth. Its face resembled the shape of a human head but the large, oval white-milky eyes on the top of it made the Pishacha all the more sinister. The creature leaned back on its large haunches, making another horrible and ear-piercing cry into the night.

"Why are you doing this to him?" I whimpered. "He hasn't done anything. If you want to hurt somebody, hurt me! I'm the one who has dodged your attacks. I'm the one you wanted to take, but couldn't."

Sara regarded me, lifting a hand gently. The snarling creature, who had managed to swipe a massive clawed arm towards Gene, had halted.

I grounded my feet, it felt like my knees were buckling so much I would topple over. Digging deep, I pushed on the invisible wall that I had been blocked by again and again. Blackness glittered over my vision as I continued to mentally slam into that barricade. Frantically, I was searching for a way to break through my powers. Any kind of control or leverage because if I couldn't...Gene would be gone.

"You tried to take me the first day I was here." I had to keep talking, had to keep pushing through the block.

I watched Sara now regarding me, as if I weren't just a trembling pile of flesh for her pet. She looked at me and something changed in her stare, she knew I was right - and I was. I had escaped her attempt not once but twice now and I didn't want to know if those had been intentional or some kind of accident.

"Is that what it is? You tried and failed twice, then - when you couldn't take me - you go after my friend. I am stronger than you."

"Shut up!" Sara growled.

My vision danced with darkness and suddenly, past the throbbing in my head, something...opened. Floodgates burst wide open and I was suddenly over-exposed to those sensitive abilities I had long forgotten. I felt everything and nothing all at once. One moment, I could feel the the sickening satisfaction of devouring the flesh and souls of the living. The next, I felt a whimper of fear and pain. I couldn't pin-point whose emotions I was feeling, just that they existed all around me. I also remembered that this world was not the human world. Things here did not have substance, did not have to follow the laws of nature. I just had to...remember how to use it.

That power arched into my touch, as if waking from a long slumber - perhaps it was. Everything within this world changed. It was no longer a dark, unfamiliar part of the woods. I could see clearly, we were on a plane of black substance which was a pocket of world within the actual one. I checked the ground and could now see the binds which had wrapped around my ankles, up to my shins. I allowed my eyesight to adjust to my new surrounds.

And they weren't binds at all holding me down. They were long, white-misty hands that sprung from the ground.

She was not the master of this world. I was able to control this world too. It was my astral plane and my unconsciousness that was drawn here. Sara would not hurt Gene, not if I had anything to do with it.

"Mai! Get out of here," Gene shouted again and I realized Sara had made up her mind. She needed to get rid of me.

Sara grinned like a canary. Without a word, the Pishacha hurtled towards me.

I slammed back my instincts to run and focused that spiritual energy. Clumsily, I sharpened that quiet magic. I had to think, fast, how to get out of these damned binds.

The idea hit me and I acted. It was insane, and impossible - but it could possibly work.

My spirit body is not solid, my spirit body is not solid... I repeated this over again in my head because I had to believe it. I had to will my, suddenly, foreign body to remember that this was not the human world.

This world, and the substance within it, did not follow the same laws as the real world.

It felt like my nightmare with Urado all over again - being stuck in that vision, with no way out. Except unlike then... I could get out.

I would will my way out.

In a moment of sheer impossibility, I felt myself become free of those bonds.

I turned into mist.

One moment, I was standing within seconds of having my body brutally mutilated by those sharp talons. The next, I misted myself towards the last person I saw - Gene.

In those seconds, I became something made out entirely out of wind and shadows. Untouchable, untraceable.

Just like a ghost.

Or at least I tried to. The bond between myself and this power was still fragile, and the world flickered when I was stood on my own two feet, solid, again. I hadn't managed to go all the way towards Gene, only a mere two steps behind the Pishacha. It was enough because when I heard it growl from behind me I didn't give Sara, or the Pishacha, the gratification of seeing me panic. Instead I ran towards Gene, using those precious seconds of surprise. He reached a hand out for me and I could see that, whatever pain he was in didn't matter, he was willing to run.

Hand in hand, we made a sprint towards the woods.

"I told you to wake up," Gene growled as we ran. He was breathing heavily, still clutching his side. In all my time of knowing him, I had never seen Gene so disheveled. "How did you do that?"

"I couldn't leave you here," I said through my panting. "And I just... moved. I don't know."

I only hoped that I could do it again if I needed to.

We narrowly dodged a tree and had to slow our pace, the moon was the only source of light guiding us through these thick woods. We couldn't stay at this pace for long because somewhere behind us I heard the beating of flesh hit the ground, the sounds of running - the Pishacha was not far. I didn't know where Sara was, maybe she was near by too.

We couldn't just keep running in these woods, we were at a disadvantage. I doubted there was anywhere safe enough to hide from -

'Go to the cabin…'

The cabin!

I remembered what Gene had told me and when I glanced at him, he nodded in agreeance.

Suddenly I saw a flash of grey and barely had enough time to yank Gene's arm, forcing him to the right instead of continuing straight. The beast, with that lethal body, missed us and flew by in a snarl of teeth and claws.

Gene grunted as I gripped his hand and began running again. There was a sensation in my gut, in my veins, that pulsed yes, yes, yes. The cabin was this way.

My legs started to burn and I didn't think my lungs would be able to handle anymore exertion. There was a coppery taste in my mouth but we did not slow.

"You're sure this is the way?" Gene said and I was surprised he didn't know the way. Perhaps that was how he ended up in this awful place - he had been lost.

And, worst, he was about to be Sara's next victim.

"It's the way," I said firmly. I was always told my intuition was sharp and I felt it, deep in my very core, that this was the way.

Directly in front of us I saw a clearing, followed by a snarl behind us. I didn't care to look back to see how far we had distanced ourselves, but the snarl sounded far enough away.

I almost sighed a breath of relief when the small single-level cabin stood, nearly, untouched in the center of the clearing. Nature had long taken hold of the home, vines and shrubs grew through the windows and up the walls. There was no way of telling that these ruins were once a lively home, not with with the thick bush that now grew around it.

There was a narrow path that lead to the door and I prayed that, somehow, it would be open because we would not have time to break it. There was a nagging sensation in my gut that suggested the door was going to be locked - even to spirits.

The same crazy, stupid idea from before hit me. I halted two feet before the door, spinning around to face the Pishacha who was still quite far behind us. We panted and I immediately felt the panic hit my system from my misguided plan. If I made a single mistake... there would be no helping me.

Gene looked at me, then back at were the Pishacha would likely exit from the forest. He looked back at the door, judging the distance and I knew he had figure out what I was going to do.

"You can't be serious," his eyes were wide. "Mai, you got lucky - do you hear me? You can't do that again, there's a possibility it won't work."

"Get inside."

I stopped listening to him, focusing on the distance between us and Pishacha. We had to hold our positions because the Pishacha was lethally fast and could turn on a hair. We couldn't let it deter until it was closer. I squeezed his hand.

"Get inside that cabin and stay there," I said under my breath, watching the creature bound across the clearing as if it were only going for a stroll. It was devastatingly graceful and had halted for a moment before catching our scents again, then continuing its deadly charge. "I'll come back for you."

Timing was everything and I held my breath as I waited five more seconds, not listening to Gene as he whispered something back to me.

The Pishacha was five feet in front of us, and it was either move now or we would be ripped to ribbons. I shoved Gene, hard, in his side. He took a staggering couple of steps, a cry on his lips.

"MAI!"

I summoned that power from deep within me, the one that connected me to this world, and felt my body become mist once again.

It filled me up with such a tremendous feeling and I radiated from it, feeling alive and light.

Something went wrong. That good feeling instantly dissipated. My timing was slow, too slow, and I felt a searing, hot pain slicing through my forearm - those sharp talons swiped at and got me.

I screamed in agony at the burning sensation now coursing, hot, through my body. Blood oozed out of the three, long, jagged, cuts in my arm and the world grew dizzy. In the chaos, there was a crashing sound as the Pishacha went through me and into the door - just as I had planned. It cried out in when it was within the threshold, as if whatever protective barrier were here had physically hurt it. I staggered to the ground, watching the monster bound back and away, into the forest again. There was a horrible cry as it disappeared and I knew it was calling to Sara.

I felt the world flicker one last time and I shoved against that barrier which kept my unconscious mind here. My arm was burning and limp at my side, gushing blood.

I needed to wake up.

Exhausted, I thrashed at that dampening presence that I knew was my unconsciousness, pushing and pushing.

This is a dream Mai, you need to wake up.

Gene was beside me, shouting and swearing. He checked over my ruined arm and looked like he was about to be sick.

Wake up, Mai!

I ground my teeth, sucking in air and panting. I couldn't think past the blinding pain in my arm and the rush of blood in my ears.

This isn't real. Damnit, wake up, Mai!

My vision became spotted, glittering shadows darted around me, I felt my eyelids get heavy but I slammed on the door to my unconsciousness. Slammed and slammed until -

My spirit tumble back into my physical body.

I distinctly heard the echoes of my screaming and sat up quickly, wiping sweat from my brow. Sweat and blood -

In a fast movement, I lifted my arm out and in front of me. There was no blood, my flesh was not cut...but I felt that burning sensation as if it were under my skin, festering. Everything became a blur around me, dizziness from my sudden movements now catching up.

I began shaking, frightened that I had made a grave mistake in leaving Gene there without me. He was hurt too...and the cabin may have kept the Pishacha out, but what about Sara? A cold sweat broke out on my body as I tried to reel myself into reality. I had pushed myself out of that world too fast, the line between them were blurred and I suddenly felt like I wasn't' completely in control.

"Breath." Naru said, in a single note. The word was a pure command. There was only one person who could wield so much power over my body. I had no idea how he was here, what he was doing in my room.

Slowly my eyes focused, my chest expanded and I slipped a bit further back into my body.

I did it again, and again and again. The soft lights of the hotel room did nothing to illuminate Naru's black hair, it only seemed to further frame his pale face. And his eyes - oh yes, those eyes of violet-blue… I remembered where I was.

As I breathed in again, my bones began to feel brittle. My stomach rolled with nausea and I closed my eyes, fighting the urge to kneel over and vomit.

The dream that felt too real began to settle over me.

No, it was real. It may not be happening on this realm but it was certainly happening where Gene was.

Panicking, I gripped Naru's arm and my breathing started to become heavy again.

"Gene," I rasped. "He's not safe."

Gene was in danger. We all were.

^.^