I can't even begin to explain how much i hate the stupid story doc thing right now. I had to screw around with it for like an hour to fix chapters seven and eight! screw it all!
Chapter Eight:
Watch Where You Step!
Seren reveled in her new freedom. No wonder everyone like to sonido so much. It was so much fun! She sonido'd down the stairs. She sonido'd up the stairs. She sonido'ed up and down the halls.
She loved the feel of the wind rushing through her hair, in her face, in her lungs. This was great!
She threw her hands into the air and closed her eyes. If only this could last forever-
BAM!
She ran into something, and fell backwards. "Owww… what was that?" She rubbed her head.
"You really should watch where you're going. Don't want to hurt that pretty head of yours, right?"
Seren's heart stopped. She looked up. Of course it had to be the only person that she really did not want to see.
Nnoitra leered at her from atop his long frame, standing in the hallway. She had run into him, of all people. Looking at him from her spot on the ground from feet up, she could barely see all of him. His height was tremendous.
Seren didn't even go up to his collarbone.
Well, that sucked.
She got up. "Um… I think I'll go now…" She was aware of his creeping gaze traveling up and down her. She shivered on the inside, and the hairs on the back of her neck prickled.
"Hey! Don't leave so fast!" In a flash he was blocking her path. "We just barely got to say hi. Talk to me some more." "No… I really have to go…" She was backing up. She didn't like him. Whether that was because he was creepy or that he had beat her up the other day, she wanted to stay away from him.
"You know, that's very rude." Nnoitra pointed to his chest. "That really hurt when you ran into me. I think I may have a bruise." He pouted. "And you were going to run off!"
Seren wanted to shield herself from his eyes. She didn't want him looking at her the way he was. "I said I was sorry. It was an accident, I didn't mean to."
"Ah!" He said. "I guess you just learned to sonido. How nice." He smiled at her, but it was a lying one. Seren wasn't deceived. She knew what was going on in his head. She backed up again.
"Please step out of the way. I need to get back to my rooms." She tried to go around, but he easily slid over to block her.
"You really are quite rude. I'm trying to be nice about this." Nnoitra sighed. "But you won't even come talk with me. I think you should come with me, for that rudeness. I think you forgot something…" He bent over until he was face to face with her. His gray eyes blazed into hers.
"I could crush you like a fly, little girl, very easily. So you had better listen to me."
Seren's heart started throbbing painfully, like it wanted to go and break out of her ribcage and fly away from the cruel, evil eyes that were watching it. Seren curled her fists around her protectively.
"I-" Then she made up her mind. Without warning, she turned on her heel and sonido'ed away as fast as she could. She had to get away!
She flashed around the corner. But Nnoitra was already waiting for her. "I'm not going to hurt you!"
She knew better than that. She turned around and raced down two hallways, through the door. But he was there too. "Having fun?" He jeered.
Seren's turned and went to the left, plunging down the hallways. The windows and doorways that flashed by were the only indications that she was moving at all. Everything was a blur, and she could only think one thing:
Get away.
She looked behind her once, looking for Nnoitra, and then tripped over the stair that she hadn't seen. She tumbled down the stairs. Seren shrieked, then got up. She had at least one large bruise on her arm, and two on her left knee.
"Still running, pet?" Nnoitra was behind her. "You know, I can sonido just as fast as you can. There's no point in running."
"Yeah. There's also no point in not running also!" Seren yelped, then she flashed away.
She kept running, running. And somehow, he was always at the end of the hallway, smiling at her cruelly.
"Are you done running yet?" He jeered.
"Not until you're gone!" She cried, and turned around and ran the other way, although she knew he would be waiting for her.
Damn.
Finally, she had to stop. Her breath was coming out fast. She wasn't used to this, and it was draining her. Not to mention so far she had accomplished nothing.
This made her pissed. She hated how she was so powerless in this place! She'd been just fine out in the wilds. If only she was there now…
"Well, I'm sorry honey, but I'm really getting tired of this game." Nnoitra appeared behind her. Seren whipped around, braid swinging behind her.
He yawned, to add insult to injury. "It was fun though, but I'm tired of your fleeing. Come quietly and I won't hurt you. It would be a shame. You're too pretty to hurt." He grinned at her wolfishly.
Suddenly Seren felt something. It was just a prickle, but another reiatsu- maybe they could help her! And she turned and gave her all to one last burst of speed.
She stopped and turned down the hallway. "Please, you have to help me-" She started. And then stopped.
It was Blue Hair from before.
Damn. How did she keep getting herself into these kinds of incidents?
But she heard Nnoitra behind her. "Stop running, pet, you're really starting to piss me off!"
She decided to take her chances. She ran and hid behind Blue Hair. "Please, please-"
"What the hell are you doing?" He yelled. "Get off of me!"
"No, please, just help me!" She looked up into his cool blue eyes. She felt a slight flurry of surprise in her stomach, but only for a second. She tried to plead with him silently. She saw a brief blip of surprise in his eyes. All he did was grunt, and put his hands in his pockets.
Nnoitra was walking down the hallway now. "Damn, that little bitch really gave me such a chase! She just doesn't understand the meaning of pointless at all, does she?"
Then he looked and saw her hiding behind Blue Hair. "Hey, Grimmjow, that's not fair. She's my toy, I saw her first!"
"I dunno. She just went and hid behind me." Grimmjow scratched his head lazily.
"Well, give her back!"
Seren squeezed Grimmjow's jacket, begging one last time.
"Well, I don't think wants to go with you," Grimmjow drawled.
"You think I care? If I did, would I have chased her all this way?"
"True."
They paused for a minute. Seren could have sworn they could hear her veins pumping with her blood, or the shaking of her spine, or have felt the weakness that paralyzed her legs.
"Well," Nnoitra said. "Please give her back."
Grimmjow sighed. "All right." He turned around and looked at Seren. "Time to go." Seren shrieked.
"No!" She turned and ran.
"What the hell?!" Was all she heard behind her.
All she'd needed was a little rush. Adrenaline was giving her extra energy. It was like liquid silver in her veins, cold and fierce. If she could just remember to get upstairs, maybe there would be someone else, or if she was fast enough she could find Halibel's quarters-
"Listen, bitch. Really. Are you done yet?"
Nnoitra was there- again! Seren couldn't believe it. How?! How had he found her? She backed against the wall. There was nowhere to go. Her fingers scratched desperately at the wall, as if pleading for an exit to appear.
"Nnoitra. You shouldn't be playing with Aizen's objects."
Seren turned around. It was too much to hope for, right?
It wasn't.
Ulquiorra strode past her.
"Aww, Ulquioos, really. I had to run through half of Hueco Mundo chasing her, and now you're going to take her away?" Nnoitra tried to be nice about it, but Seren could tell he was furious. "I don't agree with that."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have gone after her in the first place," Ulquiorra replied. Seren watched as he placed himself between her and Nnoitra.
Well, here she was, being saved by an ass from a son of a bitch.
Really.
Well, she shouldn't complain.
Amazingly, Nnoitra relented. "Very well then, Ulquiorra. For Aizen-sama." Then he turned and leered around Ulquiorra. "Until next time, pet- and then don't think I'll wait for you to run around." He smiled cruelly, and then disappeared.
Seren hadn't realized that her heart had stopped until it started again. She gasped, and sank slowly to the floor. Her knees were really hurting now. Running after bruising your knee wasn't a good idea, she reminded herself.
Damn.
"You learned to sonido." He didn't even bother trying to make it a question. It was a statement.
"Yeah. Fat lot of good that did." Seren rubbed her arm. She knew how close she had been to being raped by Nnoitra.
Thank goodness Ulquiorra had been there.
"Can you stand?"
"Yeah. I'm not that weak." She got up, and winced. Damn knee. One thing was for sure. She didn't want to be carried by Ulquiorra again. She really didn't.
"Let's go." Ulquiorra turned to sonido away.
"All right." She tried to sonido after him. She couldn't; her legs just wouldn't listen to her anymore.
Ulquiorra turned around. "Weak trash," he explained shortly.
"You know what?!" Seren snapped. She was sick of everyone in this whole damn complex. She wished she was just out by herself, again, and she wouldn't have to deal with any of this. "You're an ASSHOLE!" She yelled. "I have half a mind to slap you again!" She got up and sonido'ed away furiously.
She turned around, looking for him, only to find that he was right beside her.
"Why did you stop?" He asked.
"Because- oh- well!" She tried to sonido again.
She did, but her steps staggered and she crashed into a wall from the side. Seren knew that she was exhausted and needed rest. She didn't know how long she'd been running, but she bet it was at least an hour.
Then she felt the telltale lurching of being picked up again. She didn't even bother protesting. In her heart, she knew she should be grateful to Ulquiorra.
Instead she wanted to punch his lights out.
She simply relaxed against him as he sonido'd, all resistance gone.
The same old blurring walls. Seren didn't even bother looking at them. She just looked at her hands, and noted a large brown bruise forming on her forearm.
Well, that's what she gets for not looking where she was going.
"We're here." Ulquiorra set her down gently, and Seren stumbled ungracefully down. He turned to walk away.
"Um… thanks…" She mumbled it as quietly as she could. Her damn conscience wouldn't let her just pretend he hadn't just saved her.
Damn conscience.
He didn't reply.
Her eyebrow twitched. "I said THANK YOU!" She yelled at him.
"I know." He said. Then he turned around and walked up to her.
Seren looked at the ground. What did he want her to do? Why was he still here?
His cool fingers touched her neck.
An instant electric shock of warning shot through Seren's body. But she stayed still, fists clenched at her sides. He wasn't strangling her, anyway.
He lifted up the necklace, and saw the angry red mark where it had shocked her.
It looked like a burn.
He touched her skin once.
"I'm sorry."
Seren looked up, surprised, but Ulquiorra had already turned his head. He let go of Seren's necklace and walked away.
