Hi friends, this is just a trigger warning. This Chapter will contain violence and gore as well as death.

Her head knocked back and her vision blackened, she could hear Kurapika's worried voice just as her eyes rolled back and hands began to shake. And just like that, she was no longer aware of anything around her as her mind plummeted into the darkness. In hindsight, she knew she should've warned him about the convulsions- but it was too late for that now. She allowed the remaining aura that surrounded the scarlet eyes to engulf her and pull her under.

When she opened her eyes, her vision was foggy and unclear. She could tell from the vague shapes and colors that she was no longer sitting in her shop beside Kurapika. Once her vision cleared, she found herself warm in a bed inside of what looked like a child's bedroom. Despite the darkness, she could see the crude drawings of people plastered on the walls and, from the bed she laid in, she could see toys scattered about the carpeted floor. She looked down at the tiny body that she now inhabited, the body of a boy no older than the age of six.

There was a noise from the bedside window that made the body she inhabited rise, and when the boy lifted his head to look through the curtains, she saw the nightmare play out through his eyes.

There was a woman in the grass, lying near the entrance of the village. Her body was contorted in a way that was surely not comfortable. The boy began to stand on his bed to get a better look, and Reika wished he hadn't. She felt his balance teeter as he struggled against the plush surface of the mattress. As he pressed his face into the glass, the scene became much clearer. The woman lay with the front of her body facing the ground, but her head was twisted in the other direction. Her spine was nearly visible beneath the skin of her throat, poking out of the side just barely breaching the surface of her mangled neck. Reika was frightened, but the boy simply didn't understand. He cupped his eyes against the glass with his hands and squinted. The woman had no eyes, just empty bloody sockets. The boy, ripe with innocence, cocked his head slightly.

'POP POP POP POP'

He gasped and his balance failed him, falling from the shock of the sound of gunshots. He blinked and looked over his shoulder. It wasn't until his ears were met with the screams of his neighbors outside that his body finally felt the heat of fear. Reika's vision was clouded by red while the boy's chest began to rise and fall with his quickened breath.

'BOOM'

His bedroom shook while more, much louder screams followed. There was a woosh of bright yellow light and the sound of crackling from a fire outside.

Then there were the horrifying screams of a woman.

"MY BABY!"

There was a visceral, almost inhuman wail that escaped the woman's throat.

"THEY TOOK HIS EYES!"

Reika felt a rush of feelings that the boy, no doubt, also felt at that moment. He felt a lump of fear in his throat, but he couldn't scream. No, he couldn't scream because there was something deep inside him, like a primal instinct, that told him that right at that moment, he was the smallest creature in the world and that he was surrounded by predators. He did feel small, in fact he felt microscopic compared to the absolute chaos of the world around him.

She was helpless, and so was he.

The boy called out for his mother quietly as he slid from his bed to the floor. Reika could feel him clutch a teddy bear to his chest as he gently pushed toys and books aside with his feet while he walked to his bedroom door, which he pushed open with a creak. His footsteps earned shrill moans from the old floorboards beneath his feet as he walked out into the hallway to the top of the staircase that led to the floor below.

He was too afraid to blink, and so he allowed a single tear to bubble over his red vision and eventually fall to his cheek. She could feel it run from his chin down his neck as he began his slow descent from the top of the stairs. That was when there was a cracking sound from the floor below. The boy's heartbeat pounded against his chest and ears while goosebumps invaded his skin.

"Mama?"

No response.

The boy peeked into the kitchen after reaching the end of the stairs. It was dark, and shadows of the leftover dinner on the counter danced on the walls from the flames outside the kitchen window. The bouncing light illuminated three dark figures. Two of which were moving. One of the moving figures was considerably larger and bulkier than the other, who was small and slender. The shorter one seemed to be working on a third figure, who sat unmoving and slumped at the dining room chair.

"Oh, look at that, Fei."

The two figures noticed the boy as soon as he arrived. As he looked up to them, there was another woosh from the fire. The stranger's faces became illuminated by its light. The smaller figure was a young man wearing all black. He had short black hair and asian features. He looked at the boy with cold grey eyes and spoke with an accent.

"I'm busy. You handle it, Uvo."

Another woosh lit the kitchen completely, and the whole situation was now entirely clear. When the boy saw what the man had done to his mother's corpse, he dropped his teddy bear from his arms and began to mumble incoherently. Tears fell freely from his eyes now as he was approached slowly by the taller figure, whose features became clearer the closer that he got.

Reika noticed that this man was simply monstrous compared to the boy, who was shivering and hiccuping as he cried in fear of what the taller man might do. He was covered by thick grey hair, and he bore a malicious grin that exposed a sharp canine. He looked at the boy like a piece of meat, licking his teeth with a deranged laugh. The monstrosity of a man lifted one of his giant fists-

And she pulled away- back into deep blackness. She could easily guess what happened next, and the thought made her sick. She decided not to traumatize herself further; she knew her own mental limits well. She drifted from the blackness back into the light- back into the world of the living.

Her eyes snapped open and she gasped for air. Kurapika was there at her side, holding her arm with a look of extreme worry. She blinked her sore eyes and shuddered.

"Are you okay? What the hell happened? Your nose- it's bleeding."

She swiped the dripping blood from her upper lip with her sleeve, and looked away from him, hiding the bubbling tears in her eyes.

"Yes." She gasped. "Those people that raided that village, I assume they were these, um-" She exhaled slowly. "Those 'Spiders' you speak of?"

"What did you see?"

She slid the scarlet eyes toward him, refusing to look at them. "I watched the last moments of that boy's life." She said softly. "They wanted the eyes."

"If I knew that's what was going to happen, Reika, I would have refused." He spoke sternly like a scolding parent, but he held her arm with gentleness, yet at the same time had a firm grip. She imagined that he kept her from falling from her seat during the seizure-like convulsions that took over her while she absorbed the Nen from the eyes. After initially only being exposed to his business-centric attitude, this made her feel just a little bit more optimistic about the future that she saw with him in her visions the night before. She was happy to be helping someone pure of heart.

"It's okay." She responded. Even though it was clearly not okay. The situation was dire. Perhaps even a bit more dire than she anticipated. "I've seen a lot through the eyes of the dead. Could you please tell me… These 'spiders'... how could they do such a thing?"

"They're known as the Phantom Troupe. They have no morals." Said Kurapika darkly. "They'll steal whatever for the sake of having it to themselves- and they'll use whatever means necessary to obtain whatever it is they want." Kurapika resumed his place across from her after releasing her arm and looked down onto his lap.

"They're awful… I just-" She sniffed, trying to keep it together. "It's been awhile since I've last seen a monster like that." She looked at him. He sat there with his head down with his blonde hair dangling from his eyes. He looked exhausted. And, she was too. It took nearly everything out of her to do what she just did. "Kurapika?"

"Hm?"

"I know it's early but… perhaps you should rest. I have enough information to give you a detailed reading. If I start now, I could maybe even get it to you by tomorrow morning."

"...Yeah."

The next morning, Kurapika lay in the bed that Reika had made for him the night before. He hadn't expected to sleep the whole day away, he supposed he must've needed it. As he sat up, his stomach moaned loudly. He was starving from skipping meals the night before to sleep instead. His head pounded, he figured it was from being dehydrated. As his feet met the ground, he looked from his guest bed out the open door from the room he was in. On the other side of the hallway was an open door from, what he assumed, was Reika's bedroom. It seemed untouched. It was early in the morning, nearing almost six o' clock. He furrowed a brow, she wasn't even in bed by 4am, when he had woken up to use her restroom before falling back to sleep.

Immediately, he knew something was up. He made his way quickly to the hallway and down the stairs, where he saw her sitting at the table they were at the night before. She faced away from him, silent.

"Reika?"

He made his way around the table to find her looking down, pale faced with dark circles around her eyes. She clearly never slept.

"Kurapika?"

She looked up slowly with bloodshot eyes, holding a stack of lined paper covered in cursive handwriting. He looked at her, slightly unsettled. Suddenly he had forgotten all about his hunger and dehydration.

"Yes?"

"How quickly can you make it from here to YorkNew City?"

Yo, I apologize for the shorter chapter, but I promise you much bigger in the near, near future. Please (please) Review if you enjoyed, it helps motivate me and helps me make this story as perfect as I can for you guys. I also accept constructive criticism, I am still learning after all. Thank you for reading, see you soon! xoxo - Melon