Edited on May 3, 2010. ;)

Original Word Count: 3,170 :D

Disclaimer: Yoshihiro Togashi owns Hunter X Hunter. And he's not giving it to me or to you. Sadly.

As the car silently zoomed through the empty roads, Akane's fear started to become stronger, and she started to shake in it. Killua was still tense and driver was sweating madly.

The events flew across her head like a fast slide show. The storm, the arrival, the call, the car. She remembered how a few minutes ago, the driver took his phone, murmured, grinned, then put the phone down, and put back his 'scared' look on his face.

She didn't have good intuition, but her guts were practically shouting at her that it was a trap. She wondered why Killua couldn't see that. Was he that content and sure of the threat?

Her courage was wavering. Her trust to the 12-year-old. Everything seemed to fade in the background, and all she could see was the pitch black darkness of her fears.

Looking for reassurance, she pressed her arms into the too-soft car seat. She wanted to relax, she wanted to feel fine for a change, and she started to look for something to fill that need. Unfortunately for her, that was something that was going to be staying in her seemingly expanding No-can-Dos list. Besides, she had to keep on guard, considering she had huge doubts about the situation. She had to be prepared, too. She couldn't just sit back and relax.

Not if she wanted to be a Hunter, no.

She remembered how her mother used to tell her to stop thinking of the worst and just live the happy life she had. But then again, could she actually do that? She felt that there was too much thick tension in her life to actually survive in 'the easy way' with 'the happy life she had.'

She slapped herself, a little too hard since her cheeks turned a pale, swelling pink, as she tried to shake off the dead yet painful tears of homesickness.

And he felt, in the deepest of his head and heart and soul, really unsure.

For once in his seemingly monotonous life, after something he'd done completely on his own will hoping it will be 'for the good of others,' he could say with a proud voice to his mother, his father, to the people who raised him and to the people he betrayed, that he felt definitely like he'd done something entirely wrong.

He was already rather modest to believe he'd never been doubtful of himself and of his actions. Killua, being in the situation he's in, had always been confident and sure and firm and strong. At least that's what he had believed he was at those moments, because usually his father would tell him and his 'beloved' siblings to not go if they weren't sure and confident 200% they'd be doing really good. …But then again, Killua wouldn't just sit his ass around when commission could get high.

Anything for chocolate balls.

But as his dream slowly faded into reality, the mountain of dripping chocolate ball madness started to fade away, and he was pulled back into the badness of their situation.

Re-concentrating on what he had been doing much earlier, he looked suspiciously at the driver. His sweat was dripping madly, like a sponge getting squeezed, and his face was all chilli and tomato-colored red. His hands clutched the steering wheel so tight—too tight—his knuckles had already turned white. Much white, really whiter than Killua's hair, even, if you'd compare. And then Other than that, he was shivering.

Was he... terrified? Or was he faking all it?

Still, Killua could remember the shudders running up hisspine when the man grinned to his phone. There was a hint of mischief in it, and then definitely of evil madness.

Something... is wrong. Obviously, everything he's doing has been a great big show. And he's been pulling a great poker face. Maybe he's a hunter, trained in this... freaky piece of art, if I may call it that, I thought.

Killua spared a worried and rather fleeting glance to Akane, sitting at the backseat, and with her tensed expression obviously she could see the doubts in the matter. And she could see them really well, maybe much better than he himself.

Bad Killua. Really bad.

Killua looked back to the front to face the driver and the direction where we were.

"Holy Crap."

"Holy Crap," she heard Killua whisper with a cut breath. She winced a little at the foul word—she was a rather clean person—but it was sooner than not when her eyes flew to him, rather a little confused.

But the confusion was short as the realization came quick. Her eyes widened in shock. The driver was now grinning a grin ear-to ear, and she turned desperately to Killua. He didn't look back at her, however.

Uh-oh.

The car was zooming off to a cliff at probably a harsh speed of 100mph, and suddenly the loud and painful ear-splitting screeching of road meeting rubber and the friction it caused made her tense. Trying to ease the pain, she covered her ears with her palms.

Suddenly, a hand—Killua's, perhaps—grabbed her thin right wrist roughly as he pulled her out the car through the back door. She had trouble seeing; the speed of the motion he took was too fast for her eyes. Everything was just a blur before her weary and tired lenses. Everything came in a smudge of color and movement.

So the next thing she knew, after she barely blinked, was that Killua was holding her by her waist and they were hanging by a fragile and weak-looking tree branch. As she turned down, she saw and heard the roar of the heavy current of a river, and the humongous sharp rocks protruding from the foam and the water.

Instant Death.

Just as she was about to try her hardest to push herself and Killua up, Killua spoke up. "Hold still," Killua said in a rather ordering tone, and pushing himself up with the hard stone, he jumped.

But with a really bad momentum, because the next thing she knew, she was being pulled by gravity down to the water, down to an inevitable fate.

Unggghhhh... my head hurts like hell... he thought, really irritated and annoyed, as he tried to smooth the soft bump at the crown of his head.

Let's see. What happened. I tried to recall the things. Well, before that driver could actually push that eject button, I got to grab Akane's wrist and we jumped out the back door. I was hoping to reach fresh ground, but my feet ended up in thin air, and angrily I grabbed at anything I could find. My hand found something solid and I grabbed on to it. And so, Akane and I hung by one fragile and thin tree branch that came out of nowhere. Lucky jump I guess, but not too lucky. I stayed hanging for a second or so, trying to catch my breath. Carrying Akane was no problem, anyway. I had her by her waist and she was breathing hard too. She was so light, maybe half my own, I don't know, I've carried dead persons heavier than her. And they were already dead. Then suddenly, I heard a crack and realized we won't be able to stay there forever. "Hold still," I told her, and with the little rock by my foot, I jumped. Honestly, I didn't catch that moment too good either. I knew I jumped, but my feet didn't reach solid ground and instead I ended up on the same branch and, toppling over, we fell down to the water below. Akane was blinking in fright, maybe shocked, but I don't kow.

He stopped in his tracks, realizing where his train of thoughts were slowly leading him.

So why... he thought, ...am I in solid ground?

He sat up harshly, ignoring the dizzying pain that the sudden motion had caused, and looked around to see a man sitting on a log. He had a hood over his head so Killua couldn't get to see a good look on his face, only his dark chocolate brown eyes.

"You're awake now, I see," the man said, nodding. "The girlie and you've been asleep for two hours now."

"Two hours?" Killua tried to ask, to confirm, but his voice came out ragged and hoarse. Dry.

The man tossed him carelessly a bottle of water. Killua immediately went down to business and gulped down half of it in a few seconds before putting it on the ground. The man continued to speak to him. "Where are you two going, anyway? She your sister?"

"No, I just met her along the way," Killua said. "We were planning to take the Hunter Exam."

"Hunter Exam, huh?" the man said with a smirk evident in his voice's tone. "Well, well," he said, "Apparently maybe fate brought us together. I'm headed there, too."

"Can you lead us to the test site?" Killua asked him, rather shamelessly, but shame had no place at that moment.

"Pretty easily," the man answered Killua. "Go carry her; we'll be there before she even wakes up or notices or realizes what happened." He then added, to explain, "I think the medicine will make girls pass out for a long time. I'm not sure." Seeing that Killua still stood there, firm and quiet and unmoving as stone, he repeated, " Go carry her. You can do that, right?"

Carry... Akane? Killua thought, however and gulped. How?

"Is she that heavy?" the man turned to Killua, eyebrows raised. "She was lighter than a feather earlier. Or was it dead weight?"

Earlier, right! He suddenly thought, remembering. "How did you get us... all the way up here?"

"I was passing the rocky side below when I heard you two splash down. Moral conscience won't let me leave two kids drowning in the current," the man answered with a tone of carelessness in his voice. Like he didn't even care, or whatever he did had nothing to it. What irritated Killua more was that he didn't even clarify on the how of the situation.

Killua finally decided to ignore, passing it off as maybe a secret technique by the guy, and he respected the privacy. He just shrugged. "If that's what you say, then I thank your moral conscience." Killua turned away and walked toward Akane. "Anyway, will we start now?" he asked, with still his back turned.

"Better so," the man said, and Killua heard a few tossing and jingling, like the man was preparing his things as well. "Just a few hours, maybe midnight you'll be hitting the sack there. It's five in the afternoon, anyway," he stated blankly.

"Okay," Killua said, not pushing for any more information or anything, and just put Akane on his shoulder. She shouldn't mind, right? I wish... he thought, as he said to the older man a very tired-sounding yet on-the-move "Let's go."

"Okay," the man said, and he led them to a direction toward the mountain.

When Akane finally woke up after the medicine's powerful energy-retrieving strength had worn off, she realized she was leaning and sitting on something cold and hard. She squinted her eyes, trying to focus, but it only caused her head to throb terribly. She moaned in the pain.

"Oh, so you're awake, Akane. Good morning," a voice said.

"Huh?" she turned to Killua, a little confused, looking up at him with blurry eyes. "Where... are we?" she asked. "Is this heaven? The afterlife? It doesn't look like what they told me."

Killua couldn't smother a chuckle at the foolishness of his older companion. "We're at the first test site, idiot," he said. "It's now a little past midnight."

"WHAT?" Akane asked in shock, but she decided to not shout once more since the pain in her skull just worsened. Her voice becoming lower and on a better-for-the-ears note, she asked him, "How did we get here?"

Killua shook his head teasingly, even waving his pointer finger side-to-side to exaggerate the action. "Now that's a part that I won't and will never tell you. But the weird thing is, there's only 99 examinees here - me being the 99th." He pointed on his number badge. "I mean, what kind of competition is that?" he asked, and laughed at his pride.

Akane ignored the blasting pride from the 12-year-old and just tried to focus even more. But then something struck her, from what Killua said. Wait, number badge? she looked down at her shirt and found her own number badge. It was a white circle, pinned to the cloth, and printed, marked on it, was the number 98. "Keeping secrets then. I don't mind." she finally said, and she could see the smirk on Killua's face fading. She tried to turn the topic away. "How many hours was I out?"

"Wait, let me count," he said, and counted with his fingers. "I think nine." Seeing as she didn't reply after that, he then grabbed his skateboard from behind him and started spinning the wheel.

Wait a sec... "Where did you keep that all this time?" she asked, rather suspiciously, but he only grinned at her.

"I ain't tellin' ya. Go hit the sack again, I think the test's starting tomorrow."

And in a flash, the world was once again a very tiring and very haunting and dark shade of midnight black.

Killua reverently polished his skateboard as he watched the rise and fall of Akane's chest. He was actually used to it, considering her usual quick-unconsciousness and falling to a fast deep sleep. It was already 1:00am, and he couldn't get a wink of sleep.

He was trying to find a way to sleep, but he just couldn't catch it. Because whenever he closed his eyes, those dreams, those memories, the black and the sticky red, would always cling to his mind.

His knee was an inch away from the top of Akane's head, which was laid down silently on the cold cemented floor. She was lying down sideways, arms being used as cushion.

She stirred and sat up, but sat with no words. Then, seeing Killua, she scooted over. She looked at Killua's empty-looking blackish purple eyes, and she noticed the little black rims already forming beneath them. Obviously he was craving for much needed sleep. She ruffled the kid's hair and pulled him with her arms, and embraced him so that he lay on her lap. "Sleep, Killua," she said, with a half-asleep, almost drugged voice, as he looked at her in the eye filled with surprise.

But then finally, ignoring the usual whys and hows, Killua smiled, and closed his eyes, knowing that maybe this would be able to make his nightmares fade away.

A very caring, a very familial touch he'd been aching for.

When she woke up after making Killua actually sleep, he was once again very wide awake. He stood tall above her, towering over her in a way that, somehow, intimidated her. He actually looked like he was protecting her, from her point of view. Without a sound she followed his eyes to where they were looking, and spotted something strange.

A weird, aqua-haired magician-looking weirdo was holding a card by another man's jugular, by the neck. He was whispering words she couldn't understand, lips barely parting with each said word. He was murmuring silently, a deadly, murderous aura coming out of him getting stronger with each movement of his lips. But there was some kind of playfulness to it, of course, a really eerie one, as she felt the hairs in the back of her neck rise on end. She watched as the other man, meanwhile, shivered, eyes daring bulge out of its sockets. His face was pale and he was sweating hard.

Then suddenly, the card trailed across the man's neck, and blood seeped out of the neck. The card actually made a wound! She watched the magician guy murmur again, awed at his power. She tried to do lip reading, and she supposed he had said, 'Is that enough, or do you want more?' The magician guy licked his lips, like he was hungry. Finally sensing it wasn't the time for watching eerie magician shows, she got up and moved closer to Killua.

He looked down at her, and with a little thud he slumped on the floor. "That's Hisoka," he said, like he was stating a very obvious fact. "Obviously, he's bored, and he just wants to have some fun while the exam hasn't started."

"That's some weird kind of fun," she said, shuddering, as she embraced her arms like she wanted to protect them.

"Coward," he teased, and she scowled at him. He stood back up, leaning once more on the hard wall. He continued to watch, while she turned her eyes away.

She looked around, trying to move her eyes off in a different direction from where HIsoka was, and whatever he was doing to the other man. She noticed that there were more people than last night, and there were at least 300 in the room, but no more than 500.

There's only that little number of examinees? She asked herself, a little shocked. And I thought there'd be... like, a thousand, or two.

People looked weary, tired, and sensitive. Everybody cast ugly, hateful glances to each other, and she felt bad how maybe there's no other group or at least pair of friends in the tunnel except for her and Killua. She figured maybe all of them were only there for the card and for only the card, and if killing was needed they will. She watched the people talk, usually hisses and little curses, and stare at the other people as well. Once in a few minutes, new people would pop in a hole and then the hole would disappear.

"The test's about to start," Killua said, and immediately, as her attention was called, Akane stood up and dusted herself.

"Do I look good?" she asked him, trying to get rid of the dust that stuck to her clothes.

He shrugged. "You don't need to look good to be a hunter, right?"

"I'm just asking you if I look neat."

"Yeah, you do. Just... your bangs. They're going to get in the way," he said, and she noticed how his hand twitched, like it was itching to move it away from her face.

Right, my bangs, she thought, and grabbed at her pocket for a clip. She quickly found it, and clipped her bangs to the left side of my face. She got another clip and clipped her hair midway at the back. "Better?"

"I guess," he said.

Then suddenly, a gray-haired, no-mouthed man came out from a random corner. It was odd, looking at him, and she wondered where the sounds were coming from. But she couldn't focus. She still couldn't, as she felt the uncontrollable adrenaline rush through her spine.

It has officially begun.