The corridor was always so silent and serene… always so white… And as I placed a step after another on the polished floor, the clicking of my heels reverberated continuously through the empty passageway, a soft click… click… so detached that it seemed to sound from a hollow tunnel far away…

I hated the familiarity of the place, hated the fact that I was tracing my footsteps of yesterday…

How long have I been walking down this passage?

How long have I left the way I came, with bitter tears coursing down my cheeks?

I didn't want to walk through this blinding white path again, not again, please…

The door at the end was white. White was a pure and innocent color; I suppose, it would complement Kira well if he hadn't been involved in the war…

With quivering fingers, I reached up to the brass knob and twisted it silently, pushing open the door of the ward slowly. The room was large, but it seemed small with the bulky hospital apparatuses. This wasn't right, Kira wasn't supposed to be here…

I turned my gaze to the still figure asleep on the bed… and approached slowly… hesitantly… lowering myself in the chair by his bed.

I ran my gaze down his body; studying his brown hair, watching the locks fall across his handsome face. He needed a haircut, I mused bitterly. His eyes were closed. I missed the glint in those amethyst orbs… His cheeks and lips were pale, their pink tints lost with his health… The oxygen mask was strapped tightly to him, thin mist appearing with every ragged breath he took. I watched his chest rise up and down, up and down, a sign to show that he was alive… I turned my faltering gaze to his muscular frame, glancing at the IV tubes that pierced his arms and wrists and the bag of liquid nutrients which hung above him, its tube leading down to his right wrist and puncturing his skin, marring his beautiful body…

How could you be here, Kira? How could all these needles tarnish your skin? How could you endure so much… pain?

His eyelids twitched slightly as his eyes rolled in their sockets. I reached towards his face gently, stroking his hair and cheek.

Did he know how much pain he was causing me?

Pain that had engulfed me six years ago, ever since that devastating news reached us…

I remembered when Kira talked to me about his father… Ulen Hibiki… I had wondered if it was right to experiment on your biological son; but I was thankful, thankful that Kira was a successful experiment.

Until three years after the Second Bloody Valentine War, Kira's health began to fail. We thought he was merely weak but we didn't know that his genes were beginning to mutate from the pressure he had endured in the Bloody Valentine Wars. The day he fainted had to be the worst day of my life, when I received news of his gene mutations and when he began his stay in the hospital. There was no cure and every time his genes mutated, part of his system failed and we watched as apparatus after apparatus were attached to his body to take the place of his failing system. He was moved from room to room, until he was placed in the room in the far, abandoned area of the hospital, where none but his doctors and we would visit.

Six long years… I wondered how much longer it would take for me to snap. The doctors had encouraged me to let him rest in peace, instead of lying in bed where pain prickled through his body with every breath he took.

I remembered the thought that had plagued me for nights. Would he be better off resting in peace? Was I forcing him to live in agony?

Kira's face contorted in pain for a moment but he didn't wake. I felt a pang of intense guilt. I felt like his torturer…

I bit my lip as tears slipped down my cheeks. I couldn't watch him suffer anymore… I wouldn't…

I rose from my chair and left the room silently. I used to wait till he woke up and he would be able to see me everyday, but this time, he wouldn't see me… I couldn't let him, or the feelings that I had managed to slam into the box at the back of my heart would come tumbling out… and I would never again be able to come to the decision that I had made…

I will not let you suffer again, Kira…

Author's note: How do you find the story? Please review. I will accept criticism on how heartless I am because I am prepared for that. And I apologize if this has been very distressing for you because it was for me when I wrote it. Please, please review…