Disclaimer: I do NOT own this. Blah blah blah. Here you go!

Explanations

POV Kurogane

"Dammit!" What the hell was wrong with that witch? I didn't believe that she had that much magic in the first place, up until now. But if she was that powerful, why didn't she just get rid of the thing now? Why was she so willing to die, dammit? Just earlier today she told me to live and that she had to too. So, why the hell was she just giving up?

"Hypocrite," I muttered, kicking at the water. It didn't budge a bit, only tightened its grip on me. I growled.

"I guess you don't like what I'm doing," said the thing letting go of the witch and walked towards me. I glared.

"Let her go!" the kid yelled and a huge wave of water covered his mouth. He squirmed screaming muffled insults and I couldn't help but make a small smile. He had fire in him. If we wanted to live (and, somehow, save that stupid idiotic witch,) that could come in very handy.

"Hell no," I said as she walked towards me. She reached out her hand and put it on my face. I flinched. It was so cold, like ice except harder and worse. She smiled at my glare.

"I like you," she said stroking my face. "You smell nice too, like cedar and," she giggled slightly moving her hand to my neck. She leaned forward a bit whispering the last word in my ear.

"Blood,"

I couldn't hide the surprise on my face. But then it did make sense. I had killed so many, felt their blood on my face and on my hands. I smiled. I had never felt better than those days.

"You bet there is," I growled.

She looked surprised and with that humanly look, she looked so much like the mage. I felt some of the bloodlust drain out of me and I swore.

"After that girl, your next," she said smiling evilly and I just glared back.

"You promised!" River screamed. I looked up at her. She looked horrified and she struggled against the water. Light blue symbols started flying out of her hands and she started muttering an incantation. Finally puckers up and fights! As the words started to swirl around her, they faltered and started to fade back into the air. The witch starred at them and then back at her hands. The thing only smiled.

"Your far too weak to call up a spell like that," she said, gliding over to the witch's side. "Just give up already, or do you have something else you want to say before you all die?" She stroked the River's neck and she shivered.

"Liar!" She hissed thrashing against her bonds. The thing only smiled in return. I didn't know what the hell I was supposed to do. I looked over at the kid who was starring at horror at the scene a few feet away from us. I heard a gasp and snapped my head to where the witch was. I felt my stomach tightened and my heart falter.

"River!"

-0-

POV River

I will never forget that feeling. The feeling of fangs in your neck and you blood slowly being drawn out of you. It's hard to explain. I think it might feel different to different people but to me it felt like a sharp stab.

I gasped and squirmed under her grasp as she continued to suck the life out of me. It hurt. Worse than my back actually. It felt as if she was alternating the flow of the little blood I had left. My body getting weaker along with my attempts to throw her off and I felt her lips curved into a smile on my neck as bit down deeper. I scream, sounding like a strangled cat. I started to go limp and I felt myself thinking that this wasn't so bad and now that I had stopped struggling, it almost felt good. It felt like, someone was removing my physical bonds, like the feeling after you fly or have the most amazing dream. I wanted to dream. I was so tired of this life and to sleep sounded good. I completely stopped fighting against her and gave in. This wasn't a bad way to go actually. I heard Kurogane dimly yell something at me but I couldn't understand what. I felt the vampire let go of me and I drifted finally into my wondrous dream.

-0-

I woke up in a small room with many faces looking down at me worried. I squinted and saw something familiar about one of the faces. I groaned pulling the cover's of the couch over my head.

"Oh, no. It's Arashi!" I muttered and I heard many laughs go around. I felt someone pull the cover's away form my face and I felt their furry paw on my hand. I smiled.

"Hello Mokona!" I grinned trying to sit up and groaned as my blood left my head. I fell back against the pillows and frowned. I was still alive but how?

"It's good to se your back in the living, River," said a slow, luxuriant voice. I turned my head a bit to see the speaker and gasped.

"Yuuko?"

She frowned and shook her head. "I have no idea how you know my name," she said and I felt my stomach tighten. "I never told you it,"

I felt the happy aura of the room vanish and many eyes bore holes in me. I cringed, wanting nothing more than to disappear. Mokona shifted uncomfortably and Syaoron went to check up on Sakura. I turned my head to see Kurogane who glared back at me. This time, I didn't bother with a smile.

"Well, you wouldn't believe me if I said it was a lucky guess, would you?" I asked, licking my lips nervously.

"There is no such thing as coincidence, there is only inevitability. And it was inevitable that you would know who each of your traveling companions are before you even met them," I saw Syaoron gap and Kurogane muttered something under his breath. I noticed that Arashi and Sorata had left the room to give us privacy and I gulped.

"Would you care to explain what you getting at?" I asked putting on a fake smile.

"I believe you own these three… or four, if the Princess counts though she really is just asleep… an explanation," She finished smiling warmly but all I could feel was two cold red orbs wanting to strangle me and I shifted uncomfortably knowing Kurogane was really pissed.

"Do I have to?" I asked dropping the smile. I had no idea how those words came out of my mouth but they did. Yuuko only nodded yes and I sighed.

"Everything?" I asked praying that she would say no.

"No," and I sighed with relief. "Just tell them why you left your country," she smiled smugly. And I felt like screaming. That's almost telling strangers everything about my freaking life! I was so damn stupid of spilling that information in the first place. Stupid f**king me!!

"Well, thanks fro narrowing it down," I growled sounding more like Kurogane than myself.

"Your welcome," she smiled mockingly and I used all my self-control to stop myself from sticking out my tongue. This was so damn serious and I was just not used to it.

"The place I come from is called Celes. There really isn't much to tell about it," I sighed putting my hand to my face. "It's just a huge frozen waste land with nothing but snow for miles. There was a small town in the center of it guarded by a magical field. It made the people able to grow and farm," I explained seeing that I had everyone's attention. " There was a castle for royalty called Luval. The palace of the king and her highness, the princess. Basically, me," I said and I saw Syaoron gap again, his eyes darting from his own princess to me. "I was adopted and my father the king was the greatest man alive on that world. Up until a point," I paused recalling the memories. "There were attacks on the townsfolk. People were being slaughtered everyday," I said sadly and Mokona sniffed. "I asked permission to investigate the area, but each time, King Ashura," I let the words roll of my tongue. I loved the way the 'r' rolled and how the 'sh' sounded like someone soothing a crying child. "Forbid me to go. I finally couldn't take it anymore and ran to one of the crime scenes. It was horrible," I said and I felt my eyes water. I wiped the tears away angrily. "That thing had ripped them to pieces. Killed everyone in the town. Not one child was left alive and the animals weren't spared either." Mokona's tears splashed on my face and I hugged it. "I ran back to the castle and screamed, 'I can't take it anymore! I will find that beast and kill it even if I die in the process!' I saw the ground littered with dead bodies and my father soaked in their blood. He only smiled and replied, 'Then you'll have to kill me'," Syaoron was crying as well now, but Kurogane was just listening quietly. No emotion whatsoever. "I blamed it on me. If I hadn't gone to Celes in the first place, none of that would happen in the first place. It's really all my fault that those people died. I'm a murderer," I cried and I just broke down crying after that. No one talked while I was crying. As I started to regain my control, Yuuko broke the silence.

"That is true. If you had ever gone to Celes, those people would not have died," I sniffed at her words and was unable to speak for quite some time.

"But, the King had killed them. Why blame it on the witch?" Kurogane asked and I started to cry again. Why were they all so much like Chi? So damn ignorant?

"I'm cursed with the worst luck in all the world's. Even that vampire," I spat the words. "Had better luck than me. I was known as a child of misfortune where I was born. There were many attempts to kill me as a child," this was half true. I left out the part with my twin so that I wouldn't break down and cry. "Everywhere I go, people get hurt and die. That's why," I sniffed pointing to my back. "I put this tattoo on me in the first place. It's supposed to turn the curse's affect only on me so bad things only happen to me," I sniffed a bit more before regaining enough of my control to finish my story. "Well, after the King had killed human and animal in Celes but me, he turned to my best friend. She wasn't human. I actually made with my magic," I explained getting looks of shock from the clone. "He tried to kill her but I didn't let him. I sealed him away in a block of ice and he now is sleeping in a ice-cold pool filled with poison that could kill a wooly mammoth," I sighed. It felt nice to get that off my chest. I looked at Yuuko who nodded to say that was enough. I sunk back into the pillows still worried of what my companions though of me.

"What is a Wooly Mammoth? " Mokona asked and I flushed with embarrassment. I had no clue how this thing didn't now what a Wooly Mammoth was but, oh well.

"It's a type of fuzzy creature that is maybe five times as big as this house," I laughed and squeezed Mokona who made a small noise that sounded like 'puu'.

"Ok, all of this makes a lot more sense," I looked up to see Kurogane not half as mad as I thought he'd be. "But I still don't get how you know about my past," I gulped. I was really hoping that he wouldn't catch that but I guess that's Kurogane for you.

"Um."

"She doesn't need to say anything else," Yuuko said coming to my rescue. I sighed in relief and Kurogane growled.

"Yuuko?" I asked. This question was really bugging me.

"Yes, River?" she smiled.

"Why did I say that stuff? You know, about Kurogane's past and almost about mine?"

"It was your payment," she said and I gasped. It almost made sense but how…? "You see, you didn't want these people to get involved with you. You didn't want them to know anything about you whatsoever," I nodded still trying to understand what she was getting at. "I took that as my payment so you would have to become close to them. For instance, telling them the things you know and things that you have done," Well, it did make sense.

"Miss witch-san?" Syaoron asked quietly. She turned to him and smiled kindly.

"Yes, Syaoron,"

"I was wondering, will River become a vampire now?" I felt my stomach tighten. How could I have forgotten that? Kurogane also stiffened; he probably hated vampires now because of that one that looked like me.

"No. Only if she drunk its blood," she said and I sighed. I wasn't dead and I wasn't the living dead. Yay.

"Also, why did it look like her?" he asked.

"In every world there is someone that looks exactly like us except they may have a completely different status in that world than in another. But the cores of their beings are the same. There hearts really." She explained and I looked up at her in horror.

"Am I really like that deep down?" I asked.

"No, that was someone related to you. I think you know who I'm talking about," I gulped. Could she be talking about River?

"Of course they could've changed their name or something but there souls are the same," she said examining her nails. She turned slightly to the left and then back to us.

"I'm sorry dears, I have to get going now," she said turning away and I raised my hand as if to grab her image.

"Wait!" She turned again looking annoyed at this delay.

"Yes?"

"When I was fighting that thing, why was I so brutal?" I asked, looking at the ground. It had really been bugging me. The witch only smiled.

"Payment. Your feelings interfered with your mind. You harbor feelings towards a member of this group and that is what made you act," My mouth fell open and I quickly shut it, blushing furiously.

"Ta-ta!" she laughed and her image disappeared. Kurogane started to walk towards me. He looked as if he wanted to say something and then decided against it. I wondered what he would've been.

"Dinner's ready guys so… Move out!" yelled Sorata from the doorway and I heard a huge clanking sound. It sounded like thousands of dishes clanging together and I grimaced.

"I am so not using magic to clean that up,"

-0-

River: (sigh) I'm not a vampire

Me: I'm not such a bad person after all

River: Right... (realizing what she just said) Wait. What?

Me: I'm not such a bad person

River: You are!

Me: hmph!

Kurogane: What's the point in writing such short chapters?

Me: Hey, they look longer on the word doc. than on FanFic! Plus I'm sick and can't be on the computer long.

Syaoron: Um. I was wondreing, when does Sakura wake up? I'm lonely.

Me: (sigh) I was hoping never...( Syaoron goes very pale) but soon. (Syaoron gives me a funny look) OK! Next chapter.

River: You give into peer pressure very easily.

Me: I know... my fatal flaw

Mokona: Mokona wants sake in teh next chapter.

Me: Making people get drunk... ( eyes River and Kurogane) that could work

Kurogane: Why are you looking at me like that?

Me: Nothing. Ok. Who votes that Sakura should wake up.

All: (raise their hands.)

Me: Ok. Fine. Be that way!

Next Chapter: Haunted Stories!! Based on xxxhoic when Yuuko makes everyone tell scary stories... Oh!! If you have any suggestions... Please review!

Ps. Thank you awesome people that did review! You all rock!