Perfection; Illusion for the Mind
By: K-promises-fall
K: Enjoy. Warning: This one is a little graphic.
OOO
It was perfect, it was all so unbelievingly perfect. And it had to be, because Hyuuga were perfect. Hyuugas were the best of the best, having perfect eyes, perfect fighting form, perfect bodies, perfect eloquence, perfect beauty, perfect smell – yes, they even smelled perfect. She inhaled deeply and then coughed harshly, having inhaled mostly smoke. But beneath the smoke lay the scent of charred, soggy meat, smoked out and burning and… hot; the scent carried the heavy scent of heat with it.
Like she said – and a little grin adorned her burned, pulsing, puffy face, yellowish ooze seeping out of the tender raw and rapidly blackening flesh, enhancing her non-existent lips and her teeth, white and perfect in the firelight – Hyuugas, they smelled perfect.
Undeniably so.
And the voices, she couldn't forget the wonderful voices. The throaty gurgles of the bass, the sharp high-pitched sopranos and those amazing falsettos, all calling, reaching out to her. She laughed; a sprout of giggles that stretched out her lipless mouth and made her face hurt. It was a chorus, a chorus that only those as perfect as the Hyuuga could give, but it was ending – sadly enough. There was one last desperate wail (moan), and then silence filled only with the crackling of feeding flames.
She looked over at what remained of her sister. A blackened, cracked mass with depressions for eyes and crispy lips curled inward, like the way bacon curls inward when fried till crispy. Even her sister, the black sheep of the entire clan, the one failure, had managed to live up to the Hyuuga name. Her voice had been the best – the most perfect among all the perfections.
She giggled again, her throat burning and itchy, her voice broken and dry – perfect. "You were the best onee-chan. You finally proved them wrong. You were better than them." Then she laughed a silent noise, nothing but croaks in the firelight. It was the laugh of a dying person and it was perfect in that way. So was the image she had projected of her dead sister, her sister who really was there, who really was dead, who really was perfect.
They all were.
-- -- -- --
Hinata knocked lightly on the door before pushing it open and entering the small room. Her eyes were trained on the grey cement floor, away from the padded white walls and the person whom she knew lay in one of the rooms corners. She locked the door quietly and walked toward said person, kneeling in front of them. Hinata's eyes immediately went to the person's non-existent legs; blackened stumps she had been cursed with seeing before they had been forever wrapped in plain white cloth.
The person was mumbling to herself, like she always was.
"-perfect, it's all perfect," she said, followed by a light almost hearty laughter. "You were perfect onee-chan."
Hinata's head rose to the person's face as if they had actually addressed her, of course they hadn't, this person was far far away in lala land, in their own little perfect world. Hinata's eyes went to the girl's face, so much like her own had it not been for one thing. Her eyes were nothing but scarred tissue, the girl's eyelids melted over the empty sockets sealing away sightless eyes. Hinata's body trembled with unreleased sobs as the girl – only 14 now – laughed again.
"Onee-chan, why are you so quiet, onee-chan? Why did you stop singing? Your voice is beautiful, perfect. Why'd you stop singing? Why'd you stop screeeaaming?" She laughed once more, as if the way she had dragged out the word 'screaming' had been funny. Hinata shivered. "Your voice was best, always best; I love it, I love it, it's perfect, absolutely. So sing some more? Please sing some more, please?"
Her frame rocked and Hinata imagined how the tears would have been leaking from her eyes had there been any. So she did the only thing she could think of. She hugged her. Hinata hugged her sister in the way their father never had and the way her mother never had a chance to. She hugged and rocked her back and forth as she sang the only song she could remember from her mother.
It seemed to work for a few seconds as Hanabi relaxed in her arms, then Hanabi tensed and the next thing Hinata knew, Hanabi was thrashing around in her arms desperately wriggling her arms, restrained only by the straightjacket she wore.
"No! No! NO! Scream! Scream! Scream!!"
Hinata stopped singing and simply clutched her sister to her tightly, stroking her hair lovingly. "It's okay Hanabi." But it wasn't.
"It's always okay, right? Always. Because we're perfect?"
Hinata felt compelled to nod. "Yes," she said, nodding slowly as she stroked Hanabi's smooth black hair, remembering the fire that had killed her sister's sanity. "Because we're always so perfect."
OOO
End
K: I'm in a Hyuuga mood for some reason, even though none of them are really about Hinata… odd.
And yes this was under 1000 words; 814 actually. XD
Review people!
Ja ne ;)