Mutt: Yo. Sorry for the small delay in posting this chapter. The loading thing is really pissing me off because it won't keep some of the italics sentences.

Well, like always. Please enjoy! And I'm still thanking Gothic-Fire-Wolf for the confidance to keep writing!

It's been about a week since my arrival in this house. So far, there hasn't been any trouble between the others and me. Well, besides Hiei maybe, but he wasn't around long enough to cause trouble. He and I were kind of alike in a way. We both liked our space and we expected people to know this and respect it.

Unfortunately, Kuwabara and Yusuke seemed to have taken it upon themselves to be my babysitters or something. Every half hour, they come to my door, knock on it, and ask if I need anything. Sometimes they just come in and start rambling on about training and honing my demonic powers. I've made it a habit of increasing my aim by chucking pillows at their heads every time they so much as peak through my door.

"Keako?" There was a tap on my door and a calm voice behind it. It was Kurama.

"What?" I practically whined in response.

He opened the door and stepped in. His face was set in a slightly troubled expression. "It's been a week and all you've done is keep yourself up in your room."

"Is that a crime?" I asked while playing with a hole in one of the pillows on my bed. There was already a neat little pile of fluff beside my leg. "Plus, I've left my room plenty of times." What they didn't know was that I've been out of the house a lot. I mainly went at night so they didn't see me.

"No, but don't you think you should be training? You said there are men after you."

"If they haven't found me yet then they probably think I'm dead." Bored of picking out fluff, I got off the bed and walked passed Kurama out into the hall.

He made sure to keep a nice distance between us, but he followed me. "Where are you going?"

"Outside."

"Why?"

"I want to go swimming," I replied simply.

"Don't you have to chan-"

"I'm wearing the swimsuit under my clothes." I showed him the strap under my shirt. "See? I think ahead." Sheesh Kurama. You guys are the ones who gave me this suit. On my way down the stairs, we met Yusuke going up.

He spotted me and smiled. "Hey, where ya goin'?"

"Swimming." I didn't even stop to look at him.

"I wanna come!"

Oh god…Why did I say anything?

So now I had Kurama and Yusuke following me. Let's just hope…

"Hey guys!"

No!

Kuwabara was at the bottom of the stairs. "Why are you guys following Keako?"

"We're going swimming!" Yusuke replied cheerfully. I feel almost stupid for fearing this guy in the beginning.

"Oh! Can I-"

"Ahhh!" Fed up with this bull, I bolted down the stairs and out the front door. Far behind me now, I could hear Kuwabara's startled scream. Bolting around the back of the house I took great leaps so I didn't trip over and land on my face as I went down the hill.

All the way down I began to discard random articles of clothing. First my socks, then my pants, my jean jacket, then my tank top. Yep, I did this all while still running. And not tripping! "Holy!" The second my foot touched sand the world tripped and I was on my face eating sand. A minute later I was barfing up sand and cursing in about twenty different languages. Some of them I think I made up along the way…Huh…My brain stopped.

"Hey! Keako!" Yusuke was calling me from atop the hill. It was quite obvious they saw my face plant. Not waiting for them, I got up and ran toward the water. "Hey!" I spared a quick glance over at them before diving headfirst into the salty water.

The water stung unmercifully in my old wounds on contact, some of them even starting to bleed, but I kept swimming farther and deeper into the warm abyss. The farther I seemed to swim, the less my wounds seemed to hurt. In fact, the liquid around me began to feel…soothing. Warm. Comforting. I finally stopped pulling myself forward and just floated there for a while just above the sandy bottom. My lungs hadn't even started to ache yet.

Reaching out in front of me, I opened my eyes and saw the ocean floor. The sand was extremely soft and durable as I stirred it slowly. I couldn't help but smile, little bubbles of air floated to the surface. It was so nice underwater. Peaceful. Everything was so clear. I could see far in front of me. Actually, I could see almost as clearly underwater as I could on land. There was a really cool reason to explain that. I had special adaptations, you see.

"Keako!" I could hear my name being called. It was muffled and garbled, but I heard it nonetheless. Pressing my feet against the ground, I kicked up forcefully, glided upward swiftly, and broke the surface in seconds. I was surprised to see I swam a great distance from shore. It seemed so much closer underwater… "Hey, there she is!" Yusuke waved at me. He was standing on the beach dressed in nothing but a pair of blue swim trunks.

Beautiful. I really needed to see that. Taking another breath of air, I dove under and swam toward shore. The closer I got, I hoped the bleeding had stopped and they wouldn't see my wounds. I wasn't in the mood to explain anything more about my past. I wanted to leave that alone.

Remember. Beautiful. Secrets. Wings. Project. Remember.

Kaleidoscope colors flashed behind my eyes as an immense pain exploded in my skull. It took all I had to keep from inhaling the water and drown. I did scream, though. I remembered all the air rushing out of my mouth at once as a high pitched keening sound rang around me.

The whispering was growing louder now, but no more coherent than before. Flock. Secrets. Death. Help. Wings. Project. Why?

Someone! Someone help me! I couldn't move! My lungs were burning from lack of oxygen. The salt was stinging my ears and nose. I was drowning!

Escape. Help. Project. Remember. Why? Why? Us. Forgotten. Help.

No! I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die this way!

Neither did we, sister. I was too scared already to be shocked at hearing this.

"One, two three…"

What's?…What's going on?

"Breathe! Please breathe!"

What's pressing on me? Is someone punching me?

"Kurama, is she okay? Kurama!"

"Shut up Yusuke!"

Yusuke? Kurama? I was floating in darkness. I liked it. It felt safe in this darkness.

"Is Keako okay?"

"I said shut up!" Then the pressure was on my chest again. It was getting annoying. "One, two three…"

What did he say? Is Keako okay? Yeah, I'm okay Yusuke. Just sleeping. I'll wake up later.

"Keako! Please!" Then I felt air blowing slowly inside of me. I never realized it, but I wasn't breathing before. So, who was sharing their breath with me?

Suddenly, my body convulsed and I began to choke up a lungful of water. It stung horribly as it came out my nose and my mouth. I couldn't move for a long time so I just choked and gagged. My head ached terribly and I was still seeing flashing lights dancing before my eyes. To add to my dreary situation, I had an annoying teenager screaming at me.

"Shut up!" I choked out. It sounded more like a croak, though. My throat was raw. It hurt to talk. I opened my eyes a slit, but the light assaulted my corneas so I shut them tight again. The salt only made them sting even worse.

"Keako?" It was Kurama's voice. "Keako, open your eyes."

"No."

"Please."

"No! I hurt." I felt pathetic. No. I felt like death! I had another freaking attack underwater! I almost died!

"Keako," he pleaded.

Shielding my face with my hands, I curled into an achy ball of pain and remained still. "No. I hurt." Hands touched my body and I instinctively flinched away. "No!" The touch itself felt like a thousand stabbing needles. I didn't want to feel that! "Don't touch me!"

Get up, girl. You're making a scene. This voice was foreign to my mind. It wasn't unusual to hear the normal whispers, but this one was clear as a bell Wait, I knew the voice. I heard it only once, but I remembered these things.

Hiei? How can you get into my head? No one answered me. Fine. Go ahead. Be the moody little bastard I've come to know you as. That's me. Pathetic, near death, and still ready to dish out insults on a dime. People just love my personality.

"Keako?" Kurama and Yusuke were still looming over me. Kuwabara was blabbering incoherently in the background. Something about not wanting Botan to show up. Who in the hell was Botan?

Opening my eyes, I kept my hands over them so the light didn't burn as much. I could see through the crevices of my fingers and I could plainly see the worried expression on both Yusuke and Kurama's faces. Why did I matter to them? I've done nothing at all to gain their trust. Or their concern. "Stop looking at me," I mumbled.

"Huh?"

"Back away from me." They did as I told. They both scooted back about a foot or two. Uncovering my eyes I tried to push myself up into a sitting position, but found it to be considerably hard to do. I was very weak. "Damn it."

Kurama was at my side in a second, his arm under me, and easing me up gently into a sitting position. "Here." He gave me a reassuring smile. "You don't have to do everything alone. We're here to help."

"Yeah, ya dork," Yusuke edged in as Kurama helped me stand.

Kuwabara looked at me with tear-filled eyes. "You're okay Keako! I thought you were done for! You weren't breathing and you were bleeding and-"

"I was bleeding?"

Kurama looked at me. "Your wounds are in need of medical treatment."

Crap. My heart rate increase. This stupid swimsuit showed my back and shoulders perfectly. Of course they would see!

"How fresh are these wounds? Why didn't you say anything? They look painful." I kept my eyes on the ground so he couldn't read them. My biggest fear was looking into his. His eyes were so expressive. So clear. I could read them easily. So easily that it hurt. "Where did you get these wounds, Keako?"

I didn't say anything as I felt my wounds ignite with sparks of pain from the salt water leaking down my back. They hurt. In fact, they'd hurt even if there wasn't salt touching them. They were wounds I got from my pursuers. Long vertical slash marks reaching from my shoulder blades to the base of my spine. There were four of them. They were deep, they were ragged, they didn't heal quickly, and they bled a lot.

She doesn't trust us yet…

How did she get hurt? Was she attacked by a fish?…

I've to a lovely bunch of coconuts. There they are standing in a row…

As I stood there, I heard multiple voices filter into my mind, but I knew these voices as well. They were Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara! Why on earth was Kuwabara singing the--you know what. I didn't wanna know. Back to seriousness, how was I reading their thoughts? Was that what I was doing?

What can I do to make her trust us? Kurama's thoughts were the strongest. I listened for more. I'd give anything for her to trust us. To trust me. Why does she close herself off from us? Why?

For some reason, my heart ached severely when he said this. It was too much. No one was supposed to care for me. I was something to be looked at but not cared for. I wasn't even supposed to be with these people! But him, Kurama, he was hurting already just by me being here a couple days.

Why?

Maybe if I told him a little. Just a little. He'd feel a little better.

"Kurama," I sought for his attention., but refused to look at him. He was looking at me, though. I could feel it. "I…"

Yusuke's hands gripped Kurama and I by the shoulder. He shook me just slightly, careful of my wounds, and then pointed to the sky. "What in de hell is that?"

I was about to shove his hand off me when I looked up and saw what he was pointing at. My blood ran cold and the pain I was ailing to earlier seemed insignificant to the amount of fear I was feeling now. I could feel myself begin to tremble as I sharpened my gaze to zoom in on them. "No. No, no, no. Nonononono!"

"Keako, what's wrong?" Kurama was holding on tight to me as I tried backing away, shaking visibly now. "Keako?"

"We have to run! We have to get out of here. Safe. Somewhere safe!" Everything inside was screaming at me to run. Run far, far away and not look back. "Let go! We have to get out of here!" They were getting closer. Three of them. From the air. Their figures were growing large enough for the three here to see. "They're almost here!"

Yusuke stood in front of me with a cocky grin. "Chya. Why are you so afraid? You're with us. No one can defeat us."

"You cocky bastard! This is not the time to play hero!" I was almost on the verge of tears as I struggled to free myself from Kurama's grasp. "Let go of me!" I hated being afraid. I absolutely despised this vile emotion. It's what made me weak. And I was weak enough as it is.

"Why?" Kurama asked, his hold tightening. "Are these the guys who've harmed you?" I looked away. "Keako." I closed my eyes. "Why can't you look at me?"

"They're here," Yusuke announced. He didn't have to, though. I knew their scent anywhere. So when I opened my eyes, I wasn't as surprised.

"Hello Keako," Damien sneered, his large fangs gleaming in the evening sun. "It's time for us to take you home."

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