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Author's Notes: Christ, after much delay, procrastinating and frustration, here it is. Chapter 6. I hope the few readers left are bloody happy, lol. I like this one. I look back at the older chapters (a YEAR!) and I scoff. Im surprised any of you had the gall to continue reading on to the next chapter. They were all uber crap.

oh!

IMPORTANT:

I updated chapter 1, it is now longer, and LOADS better than it was originally. There's more details about Reina too, if you'd like to read. I changed the begining a lot, so check it out!

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I do not own any characters from Dragon Knights, seeing as they belong to Mineko Ohkami. I am not profiting from any of this, except the own improvement of my skill and being able to read wonderful crit from my reviewers. :P

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By lUmìKüu

Chapter 6 -

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The corridors winded and twisted and went on without end. Every fork in the hall branched out into another fork and so on. There were red halls, blue halls, and green halls. Dull halls and gold plated halls. Each hall had the same amount of numerous doors, lined up, waiting to be opened. They held secrets no one would ever know.

Each and every door had different carvings in a language I did not recognize. Jagged fonts and chicken scratches behind textured frames. The doorknobs were differently shaped, differently designed, and made from different material. Some doors had no handles at all, just wood implanted on a wall.

It went on forever and ever, and I ran past them. I passed over a hundred doors, each and everyone with a secret behind it.

But I ran without a backward glance.

I ran until the breath in me was gone, and no longer could feel my legs. Then I ran some more, oblivious to the physical pain because my mental disbelief and betrayal stung and ached more than my body ever could.

My mind was peaking and I saw black spots dancing before my eyes. I tripped, clumsily and fell forward in a graceless arch. I met the carpeted floor and felt my forehead slam down onto the ground. Circles and light danced in my head, and a sick feeling wound itself through me.

Pain shot through me once more, and this time the pain came from my legs. Short but screaming stabs and jolts.

I cried out and my echo answered me, flying off the empty hallways and bouncing off closed doors, returning to my mouth and shoving themselves down my throat and back to my stomach.

It was utter madness, and I thought I would never end. I could have begged for death right then. I would have asked for it willingly. Anything to ease the betrayal and the pain. The only trust I had ever given had been thrown back into my face.

By a demon with the face of an angel.

A Youkai

The world reeled and I felt my eyeballs roll back into their sockets right before my head hit the ground again.

When you awake from blacking out, you are lost. You can't remember what has happened, who are you are, what you were doing , anything. Nothing at all until a few seconds have passed.

Those few moments are truly frightening. You are nobody, just a person in a place without a history. A speck of dust compared to everyone else. A nobody worth nothing at all.

I gaped and clawed at the air, but when reality hit me I moaned from the carpeted floor and my hands fell back to my aching sides. I wasn't sure which hurt more; My trust or my body.

I stood up slowly and unsteadily, trying to ignore the protest of my aching muscles and dizzy head. I dared look to look around, trying to gain control over my wobbly legs once more.

I knew there was no point in walking. I was lost for good. Each corridor, each hallway was the same. They were decorated differently maybe, but the design was the same. That much I had noticed while running.

I looked upwards; the ceiling was high and arched, the light came from the glass skylights above. No chance of climbing out the windows.

I let out a sigh and looked around me once more, collecting my thoughts.

I had no idea how to get out.

How ironic. I had escaped my pursuers in the village, scraped past the water demon, passed through a dense forest, had almost been killed by a demon, and battled a raging life-threatening fever and I had lived. And now was going to die lost in a huge castle.

Ironic.

I let out a laugh I did not recognize. A harsh bark, humorless and short. I swallowed my breath before I could finish the foreign sound.

What was going to happen to me? Was this fate? To be betrayed and to die alone in a demon's castle full of regrets and pent-up rage?

I absolutely refused for it to end like this.

I had always been a survivor. I never let the depression, or the sickness, or the greed get me. Death would certainly not take me like this.

Ignoring the doors that surrounded me on each side, I set myself to walking at a brisk pace while I lost myself in thought.

I cleared away doubt and betrayal and focused on reasoning. I had to think things out before anything else.

Kharl being a demon…seemed so odd. He was the same Kharl I had known for years, but now that I knew he was a demon it seemed strangely different. His sweet innocent image was dirtied because the title 'demon' was now attached to him.

Certainly I felt different about him. It was as if he had transformed into a demon instead of being one all along…he had been a wolf in sheep's clothing.

At first I thought he was an angel. His paleness and child-like smile was stunningly angelic. I had never mentioned it to him but simply noted it every once in a while. A small grin, the raise of a pale eyebrow, the subtle movements of his lips.

I blinked away blossoming tears and bit my lip.

He seemed so far way now, in every way imaginable. I couldn't help but feel momentarily lost. My mind was waging a war. On one side was accepting Kharl for who he was and the other hating Kharl for being a demon and a fraud.

I had been raised on tales of carnage and gore all caused by demons. My human instincts screamed in horror to know that he was a demon, one of them. To know that the blood of a natural born killer ran through him gave me chills.

But I would not hate Kharl for being a demon.

At the same time there was a sense of relief that had simply rested in the back of my mind. Perhaps because I had always sensed that he was not the same as I or any of the villagers but I never could tell what it was that made him different and finally, I knew. Maybe that's why I decided to save him that day in the dungeons, or why I ran away with him without a second thought. Maybe I felt slightly relaxed because I had searched for the answer and I had finally found it.

I closed my eyes and stopped walking. Hate bubbled inside me for the demon that owned this castle. This sudden mood swing made me clench my fists and I tasted blood from the lip I has just bitten through.

How dare he try and take Kharl away from me?

I let out a scream that would have put a banshee to shame. It echoed through the hallways, bouncing and resonating off stone walls.

It sounded so unlike me. So savage, so bestial. I laughed out of surprise, and my laughter too sounded like it was someone else's. I gasped, my hands flew to my throat.

What was happening to me? Was I going mad?

I was a stranger entirely on my own, and then…I felt someone tap my shoulder gently.

I whipped my head around but my eyes met the grey bricked wall. Shadows played around the ever growing darkness in the corners. The skylights showed it was getting dark.

What was that? I looked around again, turning to catch a glimpse of someone, anyone.

No one.

I started walking again, my shadow cast out far ahead of me, stretched and not at all proportional to my real body, which felt light and small.

Another tug. But there was no one behind me.

My feet stopped on the red carpet.

Tug.

I blinked, trying to understand.

My heart felt weird, like it's strings were being pulled. I put my hand on my chest, feeling my heart beat.

It was there, beating faster than normal. Another tug, and I felt my heart miss a rhythmic beat. I let out a gasp.

The pulling was inside me…it wasn't physical…it was more mental and…there was no way to describe it. Just this vague pulling, directing me.

I walked in the direction of the pull, down the corridor to a fork.

I took the left without blinking an eye, the pulling was getting stronger. I started to trot, passing silver and gold doors. My heart was coming loose, I swear I felt the veins ripping and the cardiovascular muscles straining. The pulling was more persistent and it began to hurt.

I started running again, the pain in my legs were reborn and I let out a yelp of surprise pain.

I didn't dare stop, the tugging was worse and worse. I knew it threatened to tear my heart straight out of my chest if I didn't keep up with it. Stopping was absolutely fatal.

There was a door, the source of the pull. It was gray, and blackened like it had been burnt. No time to think, I ran into it blindly, hammering it with my fists. My wild, darting eyes caught a glimpse of the plaque on the door. It was all swirly letters that I couldn't read.

I pounded the door with another fist and the door swung open fiercely. It banged the wall on the other side of the threshold. I threw myself in, complying with the now ripping force that commanded me.

Then all at once, everything stopped.

My heart flew out of my chest and I was on my knees, cradling the hole. No voice came from my throat, and there was no pain, just a sudden awareness. I was so light…A breeze might of blown me away. Everything was crystal clear for one brief moment.

And there was no blood…I took my hands from my breast and looked at them, examining my dirty, but otherwise, bloodless fingers.

Somehow they were different…so more sharpened and defined, the lines and grooves were so evident and I wondered suddenly why I had never noticed them like this before.

I tore my eyes from my palms and looked up.

A thousand of me were looking at me. In all directions, surrounding me. Crouched, like I was, a thousand brown-gold eyes widened at me all in unison. I fell backwards, staring in awe and confusion. Breath escaped me, I was so mesmerized.

I remained on the floor, in the same position. I felt it was necessary to use caution, the sight was overwhelming. Then after a minute, I staggered upwards, not taking my eyes off my clones. What magic was this? I moved towards the nearest me, only to trip and land on myself…Beneath me, I exploded into shards of light, which fell to the ground, useless and destroyed.

The spell was broken. I could look around now. The thousand of other me's were all just reflections in mirrors…Thousands and thousands of mirrors. I was too busy looking everywhere that I didn't notice the few shards that had lodged themselves near my collar bones and my chest.

Even in the dim light, I could make out the shapes and varieties. Hand mirrors that were propped up to face me, footed mirrors that were twice my size, palm mirrors, oddly shaped mirrors that looked like globs of reflective glass.

It was a bit eerie, I thought, as I walked among the mirrors. Reflections of myself met me at each turn, in each direction.

I was suddenly aware of how gangly and thin I was. How my hair was a certain dull brown, and a shimmering cinnamon when the light hit it. How it needed to be trimmed.

How my face was angular and my lips full and pink. My hands were smaller in the reflections, and I noticed I had a breasts beneath my black blouse.

I bumped into a rectangular mirror leaning against the wall, sending it crashing into millions of pieces. I stepped on them, too preoccupied with my own reflections. The dragon hide boots protected my feet from the razor bladed pieces.

Never had I been exposed to my clear reflection before. I had a vague idea of what I looked like looking into ponds and still-water, but never so clear. And to be surrounded by myself all so suddenly, I was intoxicated. I wandered about among my duplications, in a haze, so self-conscious, brushing back tangles of muddy brown hair, straightening my skirt and adjusting my collar. My image was so sharp and refined. I could smell the must in the air, sense the layer of dust coating my surroundings, see the shafts of light dancing off mirrors and into darkness. I was alert, blinking away the darkness. Everything was so clear as if it were all illuminated by the brightest sunshine. I roamed among my reflections, the only true self in the room, entranced.

And then suddenly, I came upon a mirror unlike all the others. It was a large, full-body sized mirror encased by was looked like branches that sprouted from the ground…The roots, or whatever they were had forced themselves upwards in between the cracks of the stones, elongating the cracks that separating slab from slab in the ground, some branches even breaking through the solid granite, rendering the hard stone to broken pieces, sticking up jaggedly from the ground.

I stopped and gazed in wonder at the strange mirror. I reached out and brushed dust off one of the larger branches absently mindedly, as I read the small plaque dangling from the lowest branch.

"Ruthtë" it read. And I didn't understand. I glanced at the mirror's surface one last time before I started to move on.

Then I froze.

My reflection had just smiled at me. I turned back to the mirror, mouth open. My double let out a silent laugh and tucked her hair behind her ear carelessly. The ear lengthened and grew pointed.

I frowned disbelievingly.

Her eyes tilted just a little and were now almond-shaped. Molten gold seeped into her irises and the hair that framed her face took up a vivid amber tinge. Her jaw sharpened and her nose grew more refined. She was all angles now. When she grinned, her canines elongated slightly. She grew taller, legs growing, slender and fit. Her fingernails grew into clawed talons. She blanched significantly, but it only added to her newfound beauty. Her expression remained calm and satisfied all the while.

Backing up, I stared at the reflection in horror. This beautiful demoness wore my face. She had stolen…my…

I looked down at myself…

And screamed.

My reflection had finished it's transformation…and so had I.

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I think I fainted. My mind was self-destructing, so I can't really remember what I did. I think I hurled myself from the room. There was a lot of smashing and cracking as I destroyed mirrors in my haste to get out.

When I reached the door, my imagination told me the door would be locked. I'd be stuck in here, with my freak of a reflection.

No, it wasn't me, it couldn't be. I refused to accept it. It was a trick, a nasty trick. The mirror was playing mind games with me. It was trying to force me to believe I was something I wasn't. I couldn't.

No way.

I could smell pine from the door I scrabbled at, blindly raking the smooth surface for the doorknob. I burst out, swallowing air in great gulps. Tumbling to the floor I rolled twice before jumping back to my feet.

I smelled the dust of the hallway. I tasted the staleness. I smelled the emptiness.

But that was impossible, emptiness did not have a smell. But I could smell it. My brain registered it as if I had always been aware that the abstract had a scent.

I opened my eyes wide. Details came into focus. Extreme details.

I could see mites in the carpet, see every dying ray of light, I could sense time rolling off me like raindrops. Everything was more real than I had ever noticed. It was like a damp sheet had been smothering me, obscuring my vision, dulling my senses…and had been yanked off me brutally.

I let out a scream that rattled the plaques on the doors.

"I'm not..I'm not.." I muttered, bile rising to my throat. "I can't…There's no way.."

"You are."

I whipped around.

Kharl's Master stood there, black robes billowing about as though there was a breeze.

My first thought was to run, to turn tail and just run. But my now clear thoughts quickly eradicated any impulses. It told me to wait and listen. This was important.

I waited.

The demon smiled calmly, nodding as if he were approving my decision. He took a few steps toward me, looking me up and down before he came to rest an arm's breadth away from me.

"My, that was quick. I had no idea you would find out here, in my castle." he said, black eyes boring into me like they had before. I didn't look away. I stared right back, defiantly and with wild, mad eyes. He might of flinched but I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure of anything anymore.

"Your..your mirror..it's been messing with my-"

"No." He said exasperatedly, "No, it has not, you silly girl." He touched my cheek with cold hands. I recoiled.

"This is you. You. The veritable you."

I stared at him in horror and disbelief. I began to shake my head but his voice cut across the silence.

"Child, accept it. You are a half blooded Youkai."

"No!" I screamed. I had been doing a lot of that lately. " NO! It's NOT me. I'm human! I'm not even half- no! My parents were humans! You change me back, you hear? You do it now!" I had grabbed his robes. He was much taller than me, at least by a foot, even with my newfound height.

He was silent, his face inscrutable. I felt like throwing up. I'd do it on his face. I fought the mad desire to laugh. It was all a joke, it had to be. This really wasn't happening. I was dreaming. I'd wake up, and I'd be back in that room, naked, warm under the covers. Better yet, I'd be home, in my hovel of a closet. I'd wake up and I'd go about my normal duties, feeding the prisoners and stealing a few reads of those books my master never read. I'd be wearing my normal baggy, itchy brown cotton boy clothes and I'd be barefoot, not this fine black material, not these boots. And I'd look normal, I'd be a normal, muddy-faced ragged little girl. Not this facsmile of a sham. And most importantly, I'd feel normal. Everything would go back to being muddled and obscure. I wouldn't be able to smell my own panic.

Because it was the truth.

"No.." I moaned, sinking to my knees, my hands sliding down the silky fabric of the demon's robes. "No…"

Kharl's Master did not step away, or try to remove my fists from his clothing. He just told me in a calm voice, "The mirror was merely a medium, with which you used to take on your true form." He fell silent, looking at me again. "Though you are only half youkai…it seems as though you have more demon genes than human… Many humans will find you appealing now…More the easier to entice them and to kill them."

I looked up sharply, eyes clear. The tears would not come no matter how much I felt like crying.

"I…Will never kill a human. Never." My voice was the coldest I had ever heard it. It was the stranger speaking again. Steely and callous. "Though I might..might be half..Y-Youkai- "My voice caught on the first syllable. "I am still half human. I'm still me. I..don't-won't kill anyone."

The same harsh grin slid across his face, destroying his flawless visage.

"Oh my dear, you say that now…But when you find out how easy it is…How flimsy their bones are…how slowly their minds function, how easy it is to crush the life out of them…how enjoyable it is to watch their last breath leave their lips…-" He said those words slow and deliberately almost lovingly, his malicious smile as big as ever, "-then you will see, Reina." He laughed suddenly. "Oh but you already know! You've been a human for thirteen years…You've lived among them for an awfully long time." He reached out and touched my forehead. "Surely..Surely there are a few humans in which the world could do without. You've watched them, you've seen them. They squabble over meaningless things, they destroy themselves with their own weapons and disease…"

Images had begun to surface in my mind. Memories from the village.

I was six, being pushed around my older kids who stole the food I had bought on the orders of my lady. My lady wasn't listening to my excuses, she was beating me. I was in my closet, hunger knowing at me stomach. I was seven, stopping the guards from kicking Kharl with an angry snarl on my face. I was nine, watching a crying child trying to wake his dead mother up, who had collapsed in the streets. I was ten, watching granny get mugged and stabbed in the process. I watched her die, life leaving her eyes. I felt the hate well up in me, hate for everyone who had wronged me, I had no friends. Because those people were anything but friend material. I remembered the backstabbing, the theft, the murders. The greed, the disease, the purposeful ignorance in the Baron's eyes.

The fury in me alighted suddenly.

"Yes…You feel it? Their selfishness, their stupidity. You've lived among them for thirteen years, yet you haven't trusted a single one... How did it feel to live among charlatans? How did it feel to feed those who were condemned to die. Did those few deaths matter? Did it stop the sickness? Did it keep children from having to dig in the garbage to find nourishment? Did it ever change anything?" His ebony eyes were icy cold. His logic was stifling.

"We," He continued, something like a fierce passion burning in his smokey voice, "We, the Youkai, we limit the disastrous effects of human existence. Killing them is merely a way of keeping check that they don't over-populate the world. Imagine all the murder, all the disease…Imagine the foulness the world would have to bear if humans ran free and wild all over existence." He withdrew the hand on my forehead I had forgotten was there.

"The elves, the faeries, they are too disdainful, too high and mighty to lower themselves to kill humans. But the Youkai, we do their dirty work, we do what must be done because there is no one else to do it." He was glaring now at my frozen expression of shock.

"Yes, Reina. We kill humans. And we enjoy it. If we have to do it, then why not take pleasure in it as well?" Why waste the opportunity?"

He knelt down across from me and took my face in his freezing hands. Looking into his eyes was like looking into death.

"And soon, you will come to accept that."

And he was gone.

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Author's Notes:

Lord. Im tired.

zzz