Author's Note

Yes, a year later…THE BYZA RETURNS. College, family and…well, things, happen.

It's a horror, romance, suspense, mystery, and angsty fic. Critters, and Killers, and Swamps, OH MY! Any mystery presented WILL be solved later.

…and that's all I will tell you. I WON'T GIVE UP ON THIS STORY. I JUST WON'T, don't worry.

Warnings: cartoon violence X3, crazy old women, creepy deus ex machina creepers, language, and GORE. LOT 'O GORE.

"It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep."

-Owl City

Lighting lit up a tree near the bayou, the light surrounding a large knot hole toward the top of the trunk, where dead branches reached up, like the arms of corpses. It seemed that no matter how the light tried, it could not permeate the gaping black that filled the inside of the tree. The minute it entered the knot, the blackness engulfed it.

This made the tree all the better for its resident, who, at that moment, was peacefully in slumber. It was not touched by light, even in the day, for the tree itself was hollow. Any form of light never seemed to be able to descend into the abyss be it day or night.

The tree hadn't always been hollow; the resident itself had hollowed the tree by its own hand. For exactly one purpose: To hide from the daylight and heat. Light meant the living would be about, and the living meant temptation. Heat meant death. A painful one. Neither were seen by said resident as acceptable by any means.

Thunder crashed and it stirred. "…" The creature sat up with painstaking slowness, testing its stiff tendons and creaky limbs. It had curled up into fetal position and fallen asleep that way, what an idiot.

It'd been gone for too long this time, if it weren't for the storm, the creature might have never awakened. Slowly and shakily, it lifted one wing, and felt the muscles in its back tense and coil, straining to lift the weight. The creatures closed eyes roved.

Tendons popped and cartilage creaked as the twitching wing finally managed to lift off the floor. After the other followed suit, the creature began the difficult task of standing up. It cracked its toes one at a time, and placed its feet flat on the floor.

Clutching at the wall with one hand and grabbing its bony knee with the other, it managed to right itself. The pain pulsating through its back was sharp and instantaneously connected with its changing from such a prolonged position. The creature took a clawed hand carefully from the wall, wincing at the stiffness in its forelimb, and proceeded to ease some of the stiffness in its neck.

At first, the feeling was pleasing. The clawed digits rubbed away at stiffness on the sides, until they moved to the back. It couldn't get to those muscles. As its hand had pressed, something foreign had been in the way. More carefully this time, it felt the base of its neck. Slowly and blindly investigating from its neck down, the objects in question could be found up and down its back.

Each was thin, stuck out a good inch from the surrounding tissue, and quite sharp. Only after a rather harsh tug, could it be confirmed that they were indeed a part of its body. Its own spine. That was the only explanation; the vertebrae on its back had broken through the skin.

Despair. Sleep was supposed to have delayed such happenings, why was it failing now? How far had it regressed? Its eyes! Could it still see? The creature finally opened its eyes, each deep and red from its own blood. Its pupils instantly dilated to the point that the blood filled irises all but vanished.

It looked at the impenetrable darkness, its swollen pupils taking in every drop of light. It could see, not well, but it could differentiate its warped hands tipped with sharp talons, see shadows of its wings as they stretched and shifted about its body So, it still had its eyes, it could still see.. That could be considered a lighter point.

A growl in its stomach interrupted its brooding. Hastily, it looked up at the hole in the tree that lead to the outside world. Lightning flashed, catching its eyes, and making them glow like embers. With something akin to a guttural growl, it began the steep ascent up the inside of the tree, using the sharp nails on its hands and feet to claw into the bark. Grunting at the difficulty, it pulled and pushed its way to the exit.

Reaching the top, it peered out into the darkness of the Bayou. It looked much the same as when it had fallen asleep. Warm rain splashed down, it had been awhile since it had gotten the benefit of such a feeling. Tilting its head upwind, it let the rain fall on its face.

As if the storm grew impatient with its enjoyment, wind rustled past its wings, catching them unceremoniously. It almost lost its balance, teetering for a moment, but it managed to right itself. Claws buried deep into the bark, it let its nose and ears tell it what it needed to know.

A squirrel ran haphazardly in a nearby tree, there was a burrow of rabbits beneath this very tree. A herd of deer was quietly waiting out the storm in some bushes nearby on a bank. Then, a scent it hadn't had the pleasure of smelling in a long while reached its nose. A fox. Tiny little vulpine creature, most likely injured based on the strong scent of blood. A small, but acceptable meal.

Cracking its neck once, it yawned, sharp fangs glinting. It decided to look up at the storm one last time, which proved to be a mistake. Lightning branched across the sky, making its pupils shrink for a moment. Instantaneously, a clawed hand covered its face, though it was a little too late. Bio-luminescent red eyes blazed across the bayou, a sure fire way for prey to spot its hunter.

Oh well, by the time it managed to locate the fox, its eyes would be fitting. It then spread its wings about it without ceremony, it was time. Time to hunt.

Sonia heard the shriek before she was fully aware of it. One eye opened lazily, almost of its own accord. "Ssssnrrrk." With a tiny snore, she awoke fully, looking around herself dazedly. Her tired eyes focused on the window in front of her. Hurriedly she sat up in her chair and peered around the room at each window. Yes. Each was closed appropiratly. There would be no need of concern there. During many a storm she had awoken in such a way due to the banging of her shutters. Though this time, each seemed tired down properly.

CRACK! Lightning struck nearby in the bayou. The resounding thunder was loud and deep. It's throngs almost deafening. Though underneath, there had been another sound, one that was all too familiar to her ears. The rumbling thunder made her ribcage tremble, but that was not what increased her heart beat. For a moment, Sonia felt a definite unease. Reaching next to her, she pulled the lamp string on the chair side table, casting a warm glow across the small entrance room.

"Mreowr?" Mr. Kim Kims meowed crankily. He did not enjoy storms, and at 14 years old, the old tom was not in any such mood for Sonia to be up and about. A change in any of his routine wasn't welcome.

Ignoring the cantankerous meow of her cat, the old thing stood up slowly, cracking her back, and wriggling her toes, as they had fallen asleep as well. With a shaky sigh, Sonia grabbed her walker.

Just as she stood up however, a heart stopping crash careened through the house.

Sonia's hand flew to her chest, clutching at her heart, which was racing. Blood pounded in her ears, yet, did nothing to stop the sounds that followed from reaching them.

The crash was followed by an odd noise, similar to a chittering. Like the half sobbing laughter of a very small child bastarized with the melody of a cricket. It was almost lost to the thrum of the rain.

Sonia paled. The sounds originated from that back room. The guest room that faced the bayou. Shaking slightly, she summoned her courage. Waddling across the room slowly, she reached her old fire place, and reached for a long oak box over the mantle.

"Kree…heheehee…heehee..hee.." The sound drifted through the house. Reaching a peak and then fading off. "Kreeehee…"

Mr. Kim Kims was no longer irked that his schedual was being thrown off. In fact the cat did not even seem to care about the storm any longer. He sat perfectly still in such a pose that you might find a black cat on a Halloween gift card. Back arched, his hackles and tail bristled to its fullest extent. His dull moss coloured eyes opened wide. Unblinking. His gaze stayed upon the door at the end of the hall from the main room.

Sonia fumbled with the Oak box on her mantle, trying to steady herself while trying to stay balanced upon the handles of her walker. Finally managing to get the box open, she brandished her hopeful saving grace. A Winchester. Three and a half feet of double barreled cold steel. She grabbed for her bullet box and successfully opened the chamber, the barrel just touching the floor. Fixing in the bullets snugley in their proper nesting place, she snapped the barrel to its proper position with a grace that could only suggest repetition.

"Kreeeheeee….heeehhhhhHHH" The sound wavered through the house. Less tentative.

Mr. Kim Kims hissed.

Sonia walked slowly and steadily down the hall. Her Winchester firmly in her grasp. The walker left behind. Fear had rendered her rheumatism forgotten. Rain beat a wild rhythm above her head, wind gusting debris into the side of the house. Yet, the storm mattered not.

The main room lamp cast a dull glow against her side. Her shadow seemed to grow longer the further she travelled down the hall. Each rotten floorboard creaked dully beneath her.

"….Kreeeeheeehhhh" The chittering seemed to leak out from under the door. From its gaps in the frame. From its very grains.

She could feel the blood, her life itself, move through her veins with each pump of her heart. Sonia neared the door, her pulse pounding. She knew what was there. What could become of her. That door was perhaps her saving grace. Just as she reached it, however, the sounds stopped completely.

Her hand sat at the doorknob for a moment before Sonia decided that it would be unwise to open it just yet. As quietly as she could, Sonia strained foreward till her ear almost touched the door. She was correct in doing so.

While the whine had stopped, the tell tale signs of unwanted guests remained. Something on the other side of the door was breathing. A deperate, shallow, wet breath as if whoever was breathing had fluid in their lungs.

A huge bolt of lightning lit up the house like a strobe for a moment. Sonia looked down quickly, and sure enough, two shadows came from under the door. Two shadows just the width apart of feet. A thin scratching sound could be heard as if whatever was on the other side of the door was trailing a blade over the grains.

"hkreeeee…" A thin whine transpired through the door.

A bead of sweat ran down Sonia's face.

Suddenly, whatever was behind the door let out a slight whimper. Sonia pressed har ear upon the wood grains, listening.

As the old woman did so, the door exploded outwardl; not a second between, a bolt of lightning struck the house. The bulb in the living room lamp shattered, pitching the entire house into darkness.

Sonia felt as if the electric shock had pulsed momentarily through her as well. For just a moment, she had felt a horrible pain in her skull, being air born, and the next laying in a crumpled heap at the opposite end of the hall. She stifled a moan and sat up slowly, a few ribs felt broken, as was her hip. Eyes, straining at the black, she felt around her for her shotgun. However, her eyes were trained to the end of the hall. That room facing the bayou.

"Kreeeeheee…" The sound scratched its way from the doorway obscured in darkness.

Lightning flashed, and her eyes were immediately drawn to a figure silhouetted in what remained of the broken door frame.

Blackness engulfed the home again as thunder roared. A creak sounded at the end of the hall, mixing eerily with the whistling of wind in the glassless windows. A slow step. Followed by another, and another.

"N-no…" Sonia felt around for her Winchester in a panic, taking her eyes off the end of the hall. "NO!" Her body hurt like fire, shattered bones burning like live coals under her skin. Unable to locate it in the darkness, she scrambled backward in agony, her useless and broken left leg dragging behind her. Her back found the door frame.

That breathing again. Slow. Ragged. Filled with fluid. A low whine started. It moved closer to Sonia in time with the steps.

Mr. Kim Kims swept across the main room, and stood beside Sonia, still bristled and growling.

Sonia reached for the door handle behind her and turned it quickly. Swinging the door open as fast as she could, she grabber the cat and scooted backwards into the room, biting her lip to keep from crying out. She reached forward, to close the door, her hip and side screaming in agony, when a whiff of hot, rancid air danced across her face. She froze in place.

The chitter started again. Not six inches from her. "KreeeheeeheeeeeeEEEHEEEEEEEEE" The chitter rose to a noise akin to a shriek.

Warm vapours ghosted onto Sonia's face like hot mist, her ears rang. The shriek hurt like hell, but still she herself made not a sound, she would use that moment of intense noise to move unheard. Moving as soundlessly as she could in the blackness, she moved backwards yet again, away from the open doorway. Dragging herself across the floor, she pulled herself underneath a large victorian bureau. From under the wooden structure, she could see nothing but the bottom six inches of the room.

Lightning flashed again, illuminating the room fully for but a moment with its cold, blue light.

The two knarled feet that were now firmly planted in the middle of the room, were viewable for but a moment in the flash. The chittering, still omnipresent was at a tolerable level, barely decipherable over the pounding rain and howling wind.

Tears flowed down Sonia's face. 'Please…' she thought…'please no.' The chittering moved about the room. Drifting closer at times and farther at others from her hiding spot. It felt like an eternity. Her heart pounded in her chest, sending painful spurts of blood through the veins in her neck, making her head throb.

The chittering stopped.

Above the roar of the hurricane, Sonia could not discern its breath. She didn't know where it was. The darkness seemed to stir up patterns within itself, to show where it could be. Oh god. She couldn't see it. Couldn't see it. The thought gibbered itself into her mind lacing her with an age old human fear. A fear of the human animal, not man: 'Alone. Exposed. Wounded in the darkness. Not knowing where or when. Who or what. I'm afraid…so afraid… afraid because I'm going to die.'

"ARGH! She could at least have put some damn gravel down!" Iruka steadied the wheel of the car.

Old Sonia's driveway was difficult, to say the least, to navigate. Actually, driveway probably wasn't the best term for it. The dirt trail stretched a good three miles away from the main road. In the rain, it had mostly become a muddy river. It petered along the edges of the bayou, sometimes even forming a bridge across narrow lagoons. It was easily fifteen feet wide at its widest and 7 at its most narrow, easily drivable. In nice weather.

In high summer, it was a beautiful sight. Many of old Ms. Uzumaki's neighbors loved the old trail. Before she'd moved in they had travelled the back roads of the plantation in order to walk along it. It was old as anyone around could remember, and children would always play along it. But as soon as old Uzumaki moved in, that changed.

That woman would brandish a shotgun at anything that moved on her property. She'd shoot first and ask questions later. At first, some teens had thought this to be all in jest, or at least not a real threat. They'd snuck up the trail, all the way to the old slave cabin she lived in on the outskirts of the plantation. Their plan was to give the old thing a jolt.

Their leader, a strapping young and high spirited boy took a large mudclod and had hurled it at a window, intending to leave a large splotch for her to be annoyed at. The group was shocked to find that the mudclod sailed right through and had splattered all over the old thing, who had been napping in a rocking chair. There was no glass or screen of any kind in her window. Weirdo.

Old Ms. Uzumaki was up in a flash. She'd had the shot gun by her rocker and, came out of that cabin screaming at them at the top of her lungs.

The teens had immediately turned tail and ran. But that didn't save their leader. A loud crack had issued from that shotgun, and a flurry of buckshot hit him right in the behind. He'd been the closest, and he'd paid the price.

She'd claimed self defense, against assault by "unruly and vicious thugs" in the court. She was aquitted of any charges, and the teens involved had been issued community service. At least, that was the local story.

Dr. Gordon agreed to most of it, but, he still had hope for the old thing.

Iruka sighed, he hoped that Dr. Gordon was right, he REALLY didn't want to have to deal with a shotgun in his face for a welcome. Now wasn't the time for such tomfoolery. Naruto was in bad shape.

The huge old plantation home came into view through the ever thickening sheets of rain. What a sight to behold, even old and in disrepair. It stood at a daunting three stories high, a magnificent porch swept around the entire front side. Where regular lattice would have been, gorgeous, hand carved leaves danced about along vines that connected wooden beams with their decorative metal supports. The front windows alone were each a good eight feet high and looked to be just as functional as doors. It had an air of aristocracy, as had the Gentleman that had built it, Monsieur Jean-Pierre Le Noir, a wealthy Frenchman of the 18th century.

However, it was not the estate's beauty that prompted joy in the man. "Thank God." The car grudgingly slid up to the once pristine estate. Turning back to look at Naruto, Iruka opened the door of the car. "Naruto."

Naruto looked up. His head wasn't spinning so badly, and his eyes were focusing easier. "Mmmyeah?" His tongue felt thick, too big for his mouth.

"I'm going to get the key, I'll be right back, ok?"

"..'aight then." Naruto watched as Iruka ran through the gale and looked under many of the potted plants on the sprawling veranda. When he pumped his fist into the air with glee, Naruto knew that he'd found the key. It felt like he'd only blinked and Iruka was in front of him again.

"I guess…we can go in now…?" He asked.

"Yes. I unlocked the door, the house is secure. I think your Grandmother is staying in a cabin on the edge of the estate."

Naruto only looked at him dumbly

"So…we will just check on her tomarrow. I'm concerned about you right now."

"Ok…" Naruto didn't really want to think about it. He didn't want to think about anything. "Hey, hey now!...stop that…" He was aware that he was being picked up. Rain splattered on his face and a bolt of lightning made his pupils shrink so fast that his head spun yet again.

"Sorry, bud, but you can't walk a lick right now." Iruka grunted.

"I…can!" Naruto began wriggling to the point that if Iruka didn't put him down, they'd both fall over. He was reluctantly placed on the ground. "Just let me lean on you, I jus'…can't balance too well, 'k?"

Iruka looked at his stubborn and slightly unfocused eyes in the lightning flash that accompanied his statement. He couldn't help but laugh along with the rumbling thunder at Naruto's ludicrous tenacity. "All right!" He said. Giggling with exasperation and exhaustion. "I give up, Naruto. I'll just help you walk up the steps. Then we'll go from there"

Naruto half grinned. His pointy canines glinting in the lighting's flares. "Mmk, Iruka…lets…lets do this." He grabbed Iruka around the shoulder, and leaned on him as his legs and feet, barely under his control, teetered up the front porch stairs.

After what felt like years, they'd made it to the top. Iruka, holding Naruto up with his left shoulder, fumbled the old skeleton key for a moment before griding it into the lock and forcing the old gears to turn. It was now or never. They needed to get out of this damn hurricane.

: 3

To be continued…

Author's Note continued

A single tear rolls down my cheek. So. Other pairings. NEED IDEAS. Who do YOU like? Because, I want my boys to be with others, too, and others with others, etc. This story is WEIRD.

SASUNARU corner

Sasuke:…that's all? I didn't even have a line. Not one spoken word.

Naruto:…hehe.

Sasuke: Whats so goddamn, funny, huh?

Naruto: Language! You are s'posed to be the classy one.

Sasuke:…I feel so dirty.