Ghost of Our Past: Part One

A/N: :D

Please forgive any missed grammar or spelling.

Chapter Four

It had been one week since Love and Rose had talked that early morning and Love had kept his word, he'd not asked Rose about the dream anymore, however that brought little relief to the blond. Rose lay in bed tossing and turning, his brows furrowed in discomfort as he groaned. His body was covered in a thin layer of sweat, thin strands of golden hair sticking to his slick skin. His hands clutched tightly into the sheets and his nails dug into his palms, the thin sheets he had wrapped himself in offering little protection. Jerking roughly to the side the blond whimpered, falling victim to the horrors of his mind.

~0~

Rose was sinking, his world turning black as a deathly coldness engulfed him. His body was heavy and he watched as bubbles floated from his throat and danced to the surface of the water. He looked as the sun shined a weak beam of light that shot into the blackness of the frozen river he was in. Weakly he reached out a hand, his chest growing heaver and burning horribly. Watching as black vines crawled from the corners of his vision he drifted his eyes upward once more. He was about to die and his death was slow and painful, but worst of all, lonely. He saw no one up on the bank looking for him as he sank and he didn't hear any muffled shouts of worry or concern. Rose closed his eyes sadly, he would die all alone here in this dirty reviver, but he supposed, that was alright. Rose opened his eyes to see the sun one last time, but instead saw a figure shatter the surface of the water and swim toward him, gripping his wrist tightly and pulling him into its chest. They rose quickly upward and Rose breathed in a lung full of water, his world finally going completely black.

~0~

Rose shot up in the bed, groping at the air for land to pull himself out of the water. It took him a moment to realize that it had been a dream, that he wasn't drowning and he was wet because of his perspiration. His ragged breathing was loud in his quiet room, echoing around the area and fading away slowly. He looked around, grabbing at his throat and feeling down his chest, the burning that had consumed him in the dream gone. With wide, confused eyes Rose looked down to his shaking hands. He'd been through this before, this becoming almost like a morning routine. For the past week he'd been having horrible nightmares he far from understood and he'd wake up shaken to the core. Curling in on himself Rose wrapped his arms around his thin frame and rocked back and forth. As he tried to calm back down he knew he couldn't take much more of this. For not only was his mind assaulted in his sleep, it was every time he closed his eyes. All the time there was some horrid scene flashing through his mind, blood and death the focal point of the ghoulish images. His could feel his mind breaking, cracking under the pressure of these nightmares. He knew if this kept up, his mind would shatter completely.

Love was dozing, the dark man sleeping in much later than he normally would. His brows furrowed and a puzzled expression consumed his features. He tossed to the side and breathed out a loud sigh, a hot cloud of moisture appeared, but then disappeared just as quickly. The dark man had piles of blankets covering his form to protect him from the bitter cold, but still he shivered, unable to find any protection from the cold.

~0~

Love looked around the tattered village he was in, watching the dirty, skinny inhabits walk by. Their faces were tired and worn, as were their clothes and homes. Many of the homes were rundown with holes scattering the roofs and termites eating away at the walls and steps. No smoke came from any of the houses which told Love that they had no heat. Looking down when something ran by him he watched as the little boy from the woods stumbled, falling in the snow. Tears filled his eyes as a circle of red started to paint the snow, the tiny child having spilt his hand open on a rock. He listened sadly as the boy started to cry, holding his hand as big tears rolled down his bony face. He watched as the little child cried and people walked by, not bothering to help him up or bind his deep cut. It was a truly pitifully sight that pulled roughly on Love's heart strings. The tiny, starved child wailed loudly as blood ran from the wound, landing in the cold snow and melting it quickly. The little boy clumsily got to his feet and stumbled into a passerby, only to be swiftly hit and knocked back to the ground.

"Don't touch me you filthy rat!" The man said, the women with him watching on with a bored expression.

The little boy whimpered softly, but didn't rise from the snow, his eyes shedding more tears. Love wanted to help him, but he had learned from his first dream that he couldn't touch anything or be heard. So he stood and watched as no one helped the child, the tiny boy curling up into a ball in the snow while his blood painted the ground red.

~0~

Love's eyes shot open, his chest heavy with emotion. He rose up in the bed and looked around, his heart aching for the little child that had been haunting his dreams for the last handful of nights. That skeletal little boy who didn't have a home nor a protector. He suffered horrible in every dream Love had and every time Love woke up heartbroken and devastated. Love didn't understand why he kept having dream after dream about that boy, but every time he did, he felt more and more broken. The life that boy lived in Love's dreams was horrible, he didn't have anything and no one bothered to help him. A stray animal lived better than that little boy and was treated better as well. In every dream the child would be abused by the villagers, always being beaten or becoming the butt of a cruel joke or experiment. Love pinched the bridge of his nose, he was tired and his heart worn thin. For the past week he'd had nothing but dreams of that poor kid and it was eating away at him. It was driving him insane with grief and Love silently wondered when it would end.

~0~

Shinji walked around on the first floor of the warehouse, watching as every breath he took came out in a translucent white cloud. Once again it was snowing outside and the warehouse had gotten even colder. Shinji was starting to worry about the others, yes they could withstand bitter cold, but this was the worst winter they had ever spent at the warehouse. He and the others were slowly freezing and everyone was shivering, even Hiyori. He stalled as he stopped by a window, sticking his glove covered hands in his fluffy jacket; his brows drew together in worry at the thought of the Rose. The blond hadn't been his normal self in days and everyone was on guard, not used to Rose acting the way he was. He had taken to wondering the warehouse at night and walking outside in the snow, sometimes with shoes, sometimes without. He would disappear for hours on end and Shinji couldn't remember the last time Rose had eaten and the blond looked like a walking skeleton. His bones looked like they would rip though his skin at any second and none of his clothes fit right anymore. Hachi was about to have an aneurism because of Rose, but no matter how much Hachi examined him he never found anything that could be causing Rose's problems. The blond had barely said a word in a week and whenever he did speak it was soft and distant. He refused to hold or start a conversation; instead he just sat off by himself and played his guitar.

Shinji had actually taken the blond's guitar away, Rose having played it so much the other day with fingers dried and cracked from the cold that they had started to bleed. Though Rose showed no reactions to the freezing cold weather, his body was still easily affected by it. When Mashiro had squeaked with shock and pointed at the blond, Shinji and the others had followed her finger and looked on with surprise as Rose continued to play while blood slowly dripped down his arm. Not noticing that he had broken the skin on his bony fingers. The man had simply kept staring off into space, not even realizing when Shinji pried his hands away from the instrument and took it away. And thinking of Rose brought up Love, the dark man having been in a state himself the past few days. He had been waking up just before Rose which was very far from normal. Love would come down looking tired and worn, and his features layered with a certain sadness that no one could understand. Every day it was the same thing and Love would become more and more depressed. He smiled less and laughed less, not even reading Rose's manga or listening to music. He had been eating less and hadn't had a conversation with anyone unless the other person started it. And the Vizards had often seen Love reach for something, his face twisted with sorrow, only to draw it back, as if realizing whatever he'd reached for wasn't there. All Love seemed to do lately was sleep and even though he was still better off than Rose the fact that both of them were in a funk was troublesome. Shinji wasn't going to lie; he was worried about Rose and Love. He'd never seen the two the way they are now and he couldn't help but be on edge. Shinji sighed loudly, walking away from the window and going after a bottle of water. He was almost to his breaking point with both of them, he wasn't going to stand by and watch members of his 'family' suffer. If things didn't get better, he would soon be making his way to Urahara's.

Which little did he know, would be sooner than he expected.

A/N: Blah….man now I really, honestly do hate this chapter, but like the last one….it is very necessary. Man, this one…it…..ugh it just sucks.

Well please forgive any missed grammar and spelling.