Hi everybody!! I'm back! your truly, mizu17!

Well, I was inspired to write this story so suddenly so I did it! Well actually, I just turned it into a fanfic with the pairing Kanda/Lavi since I got it from a manga entitled "I can't sleep alone" that my sister bought. By the way... "Kiss Me Sweet" is currently on hold since I'm having a writer's block... but don't worry I will update it real soon!!

Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine (though I wish they are) Katsura Hoshino-san owns them and the story as well isn't also mine... (.)

Forest of Memory

Chapter 1: Forest of Memory

"Noooo! Stop it! Let me go!" yelled a beautiful young maiden as she tried to get free from her captors. When their grip on her wrist loosened, she kick the one who held her and ran out of the room into the long corridors of the mansion where she lives. As she turned around the corner, she met a dead-end. Then, her perpetrators, catch unto her and reached to grab her once more and…

"AHHHHH!" Yuu Kanda woke up; raven orbs wide frantically opened and scanned her surroundings. Lavender colored sheets met her gaze as she realized that she fell asleep sitting on the floor, resting her head on her bed. " That same dream… I wonder what it meant." She thought as she looked up and gaze outside her window that is over looking the front yard of their massive mansion. She stood up and proceeded to her door, and then she realized that she's still wearing her white dress from yesterday. " I must be exhausted that I even forgot to change my clothes."

She reached the long, winding corridor outside her room and started to walk towards the direction of the stairs. "I'm thirsty.." she thought.

"Hey, is someone here..?" she said out loud. She passed the parlor, where the guest are entertained, the piano room, and etc. but nobody's there.

" There's nobody here?" she asked herself. "That's strange.." she continued to wander around the house. "Is there really nobody here? That's impossible!" When she reached the stairs, she heard the doorbell ringing.

Riiiiing, riiiiing, riiiiing!

"Oh no! What should I do? Nobody's…" she thought as she hurriedly went to answer the door. Nervous as she is, she still answered the door.

"Creak" came the creaking sound of the door.

"Yes..?" she nervously said as she opened the door for her unexpected guest. When she looked up she saw a man, maybe the same age as she is, with red hair, an emotionless emerald eye, the other hidden behind an eye patch that seems to hide something behind them, and he is wearing a black suit. "Black?! A shinigami*?!" she thought as she tried to compose herself and tried to look calm.

"Ummm, there's nobody home… and… umm…" She said stuttering as she looked at her clamped hands in front of her, trying to look much interested in them than to her guest.

"I don't care." Came the direct, immediate reply from the stranger. Kanda looked up at him. "The one I wanted to meet is Kanda Yuu." This time, the young man leaned much closer to Kanda. 'That's you." He added and without further adieu, he let himself in, passing Kanda on the doorway.

"How does he know my name..?" she thought then she heard the sounds of bells ringing.

Cling, clang

Cling, clang

"I don't need anything else." He said again.

Before the young man could walk away from her, she grabbed his sleeve and pulled him. "Wai- wait a minute!" she said, and then again, she heard the distant sound of the bells ringing. Kanda got his attention and look up at him, straight in the eyes. Then she felt something, something she can't explain.

"Wh-who are you?" this time he also looks down and stared at Kanda's dark orbs.

"Lavi" He simply replied.

"What do I do? I let a complete stranger enter our house! Mother will be very upset if she knows that-" her train of thoughts were cut when Lavi spoke.

"Hmmm… This house doesn't feel like it's lived in!" he said as he looks at the hall. "And that's very strange for such a huge mansion like this one, don't you think?" he added as he looked at Kanda's dark orbs dangerously, as if looking into her very soul.

"What does he mean?! When this man talks to me, I feel bad.."

"It just so happen that nobody's here today." She replied defensively, still looking at man in front of her.

"Really?" he sarcastically questioned with his mysterious deep, baritone voice as he walk closer to where Kanda stands. " And I think that there hasn't been anyone here for a long, long time." He added again. Kanda looks up and stared at his blank face as he spoke yet again. "There's not a single living soul in here. It feel's like everybody's already dead." He continued as his form looms over Kanda's body as she stared at his face, shock. Then there's the ringing of the distant bells again.

"So let's suppose… that everyone here is dead?" Lavi asked as he wrapped his arm on Kanda's petite waist as she is in a state of shock and can't mobilize her body.

"Thump, thump" came the fast beating sound of her nervous, and afraid heart as a complete stranger is holding her. "What… are you saying?" she asked as she looks up and stare at his emerald eyes.

"It's alright, you can check if you want." He said hauntingly with a smirk. When Kanda saw his face, she trembled and tried to break free from his grasp. When she broke free, she ran to the nearest room.

"Someone…!" she said but the room she first saw was the dinning area. Its walls were full of cobwebs and bloodstains on the wall. "NOOO!" she shouted and stepped back, away from the room. "What… What happened here…?" she thought then she turn around, ready to run for the next room. When she turned, she saw that Lavi guy again on the hallway, looking at her directly. She became afraid and started running again on the corridor.

Kanda ran and ran until he reached her parent's room. "Who is that man..? I'm scared.." she thought as she continued to run. She immediately opened the door and saw her mother seated on a chair, facing the window. "Ah! Mother…!" Kanda rushed to her mother's side and said "Mother, something terrible happened…" she didn't finished her sentence for when she faced her mother, all she saw was a skeleton of her mother, looking at her. "KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "It can't be! This cannot be my mother!" she thought as she sank on the carpeted floor in front of the chair where the supposed bones of her mother lay seated.

" And that's not all." Came a voice which sends shiver to her spine. She looked up, scared and shock. "Lavi!" she turns around to see Lavi leaning on the door, arms crossed in his chest, and looking at her. "There's something more you must see…"

"What… What are you saying..?" she asked, a bit afraid.

Lavi lifted his hand and pointed to the direction she knows very well. "Go to the study and you'll see,…" he simply said.

"The study..? Father!!" she thought as picked herself up and ran passed Lavi as she hurriedly ran to her father's study room.

As she reached the room, she immediately opened the door forcefully and was surprised to be greeted by his father's chair, turned around, facing the window. Carefully, Kanda made, small baby steps as she neared her father's desk but the chair turn around and she was greeted by her father's already decaying body. No longer able to stand by herself, she fell, slumped and the floor with a shock and afraid expression adoring her beautiful face.

"This is dream. A bad dream. An illusion someone is showing me on purpose…" then she felt a presence behind her. She stood up and turned around "Someone is showing me…" unexpectedly, Lavi lifted a hand, which held a golden bell and rang it. It's vibrating on the walls and around the room.

"My strength is…!" suddenly, she fell, her strength leaving her body. She waited for the pain to come as she fell but it never came. She looked up and saw Lavi, supporting her body from falling by holding her by the waist and hoisting her up. Lavi reached a hand and touched Kanda's face, forcing her to look at him. "NO!" she thought as she willed her body to move. When she found her strength again, after some time, she bolted up and ran to balcony of the study.

"Yuu!" she heard her name escape from Lavi's lips. "Why did he call my name?" she thought.

"Yuu!" there it is again. "Why? When I only hear him call my name… I feel as if I've already been captured?" This time, Kanda held unto the railing as she kneeled down, panting, then turned to look at Lavi. When she turned and looked at him, he had this expression on his face that she decipher. "Is it worry? Fear? But why…?"

Lavi stands rooted on his place on the door leading to the balcony at he looks at Kanda's fallen form, clinging on the railing of the balcony. Then suddenly she looked at him with a scared look on her beautiful face. She looks afraid, terrified at him. She began to stand up when she lost her balance and fell. Lavi rushed towards her and just in time to catch her by the arm.

"Don't you want to kill me?" she asked as Lavi slowly lifted her up while she faced him and half her body is hanging off the railing.

"No! I came here to save you." He said as he lifted her up and looked directly as her dark orbs.

"Save… me…?"

"Who… are you…?" she asked; her eyes wide with shock as he look back at his emerald eyes. She lifted her free hand as if to touch his face.

"I'm the one who came here to end this nightmare." He replied as he also reached for her hand. Theirs hand touch and clasp as she was completely lifted and embraced by Lavi's strong yet gentle arms.

"To end it?… Really…?" she whispered into his ear as she closed her eyes, a single tear ran down her pale cheek.

"Yes… I'll end it." He simply replied but this time, his voice becomes much softer, huskier as if a lover's whisper.

"I don't care who you are anymore…"

Notes:*

shinigami- shinigami or god of death. In some stories, it is said that they are the one who takes or guides the soul of the deceased into the after-life.

A/N: I wouldn't get suspended by doing this right? Please tell me!!

And also leave a review... I'll really appreciate it!!

I love you ALL!