42I'm sorry it took me so long to update! I've been really busy with school last semester but I had a lot of free time today... as in four hours sitting on a bus. So I took my computer and wrote the whole way! I have a little more free time so this story is going to be taken off hold. WARNING: There is some minor gore and a severed head, nothing too bad, but I thought I should say. Now, without further delay, here is Chapter Two!
Cursed Dream – Chapter 2
Tokin quietly made her way to the wall separating the Sumimura Estate and the Yukimura Estate. Once at the wall, all she had to do was climb up the oak tree, onto the branch that went over the wall and jump off. It was a piece of cake for a person of her skill, even if she was still sick.
Madarao watched lazily from in his doghouse as the Yukimura girl jumped nimbly from a tree and, after checking to see if there was anyone watching, moved towards the house. 'Should I stay here and not care, or stop her before she injures her heart?' Madarao knew Yoshimori's current condition and was not sure how she would take it. Before he could make up his mind, she had disappeared around the corner of the building. 'Oh, well. It's her choice anyway.'
"Shuuji, where have you gone? Yoshimori is having another nightmare." Shigemori called as he left Yoshimori's room to look for his missing son-in-law. Shuuji had left the room only to put the youngest of his three sons to bed. Toshimori had been sitting with Shuuji earlier, keeping watch over his 'Yoshi-nii', but his head had started to droop as he fell asleep on his father lap.
Tokin snuck in through the same door both men had just left from. Her breath caught in her chest when she saw what was in the room. Yoshimori was laying down on his futon, face ashen and covered sweat. He seemed to be muttering something in his sleep, his eyebrows kneaded together, in pain and fear to what he was seeing in his dreaming.
Tokine left the room quickly when she heard voices coming back towards the room. She hid herself under the deck just outside the room she had just left. "When are you going to leave for Ryusendo Cave? You said that there was a great chance to find a Sabojon there." She heard Yoshimori's father ask.
"Yes, it has a high spiritual power there. Sabojon are attracted to that sort of thing, like with Karasumori." The old man answered. "I'm heading off first thing tomorrow morning. Just make sure that he doesn't go running off if he wakes up." His voice was full of concern at the last part.
"I thought you said that he couldn't wake up."
"Well, it's not truly waking up per say. He will appear to be awake but he will not see the world as it is. It will continue to match his nightmares. Try to not let him move around too much if this happens. He'll just end up hurting himself or others."
Tokine ran out of the house, still careful not to run into anybody. She would have to go to Ryusendo Cave and leave tonight, so she could get there before Shigemori. It was her fault that Yoshimori was like this; she had to fix it herself. Now that she was out of Yoshimori's house, she'd have to get back into hers, grab some supplies and get out. She couldn't tell her Mum, she'd only worry. In addition, if she told her grandmother, she would stop her.
The window that leads to Tokine's room came to her view. She easily jumped up into it. Her supplies from yesterday were still out and ready to go. She'd have to get a map and food for the trip, she knew from memory that the cave was not far from here so she could travel light. During the day, it was a popular tourist sight, but there would be no people there during the night.
As she reached the front door, her mother came up behind her. "Ahem." Tokine jumped and looked behind her. "I think you're forgetting something." She held out a small pack. "I wont say anything, but pleas be safe." She asked.
This shocked Tokine, she had thought her mother would try to stop her. "Thanks Mom." She said quietly as she took the bag. She turned to leave the house, just as if it was any other night and she was going to protect Karasumori.
He hated the colour red, it burned itself into his eyes, surrounding him in the discussing hue. Where had it all come from though? It hadn't been there earlier. "Hel-" He tried to call out but a sharp pain in his throat stopped him. His hand went to his neck, it felt normal. 'What is going on?' Fear was starting set in. He looked around franticly once more. All he could see was red, dark lustrous red. 'There's nothing here… why is there nothing here!' None of it was making any sense. 'Maybe I should try calling them again.'
"Dad!" No answer, he stood up and started walking. "Aniki?" No answer, picking up pace, he began to run despite the pain. "Grandpa?" No answer, all he could see was red as he ran forward. "Tokine?" This time there was an answer. A small whimper from his left side. He stopped running and looked over but didn't see anything. He called again, this time louder. "Tokine!" The whimper sounded again. He ran in the direction of it, but when he found it, he wished he hadn't.
You couldn't even really tell what it was anymore, but the purple sleeve and dark hair gave it all away. He felt sick as he dropped to his knees and his stomach tried to empty itself. This horrible sight in front of him couldn't be Tokine. The whimper made itself known again. He looked up, it hadn't come from… where he thought. Hakubi flouted a few feet away. "You found Hunny. I can go now." He disappeared in a wisp of smoke. 'No, no, no, NO! That can't be Tokine!' But it had to be right? Why else would Hakubi be there? The seed of fear that had planted itself in his stomach sprouted and grew. A low rumbling sound came from behind him, he dreading turning around.
Shuuji's head nodded as he tried not to fall asleep sitting up. His father-in-law had gone to watch Karasumori in the place of Yoshimori and Tokine. He had talked with Tokine's mother a few hours ago and it seemed she was still too sick to go to the school tonight. His son had been increasingly fidgety, his moaning forming into audible words again. Well, technically it was only one word that he seemed to be saying repeatedly. 'No.' He didn't want to imagine what was going through Yoshimori's head at that moment.
A tapping noise from the window to his left made him jump. He looked over to see a black bird with a white square on it's chest looking at him. "So, Masamori finally shows up." He said to himself quietly. He stood up on his now stiff knees to go let his eldest son in. Reaching the door, he saw that Masamori was already inside and leaning against the wall. "Welcome home." Shuuji greeted him in a weary tone.
"I received Grandfather's message. How is he doing?" Masamori asked without opening his eyes or moving from his spot on the wall. In truth, he didn't want anyone to see the worry in his eyes. He envied is brother for being the legitimate successor when it should have been him, but they were still brothers and he couldn't help but worry.
"He's still asleep. Why don't you come in?" Shuuji turned to walk back into the house with Masamori in tow.
"I'm sorry I took so long to come back." He could see how tired his father looked. "Why don't you go get some sleep and I'll watch Yoshimori for a while." He offered his father. Shuuji looked at him for a minute, but somewhat reluctantly agreed. He turned down a different hall to his room while Masamori continued to the room that his father had pointed to.
Masamori came up to the room to find the door ajar. He cautiously opened it and peered in. Inside there were bandages, a tube of what was once most likely warm water at one time and an empty futon. He knew what the affects of Sabojon poison were, but it surprised him that this stage of the curse was happening so soon. It normally took the victim a few days to reach the point where they would start sleepwalking. "How serious is his injury?" He wondered to himself aloud. 'I should find him before he gets into trouble. This will just cause more worry for Dad.' Looking down the hall, he saw a small plant knocked over. 'How did I not notice that before?' he asked himself. Following the direction that the plant had fallen, he made his way farther into the house.
He didn't turn around, he only ran away. 'Damn it! I shouldn't be running. I have to protect her.' Protect her, she's gone. "No, no, no, no, no…" He couldn't think about that, he could only run, keep running. His feet pounded on the ground that he couldn't see. His vision was covered in the ugly red colour from before. He couldn't even tell if he was moving forward anymore, there was nothing to judge movement, only the feel of his feet hitting the ground. The ground however seemed to be disagreeing with him as it suddenly cut off and he found himself falling. The only good part was whatever had been chasing him had now stopped.
Hitting the ground hard on his back, he had to work hard to stand again. After gaining his bearings, he looked around the room. To his surprise, it was his own room that he was standing in. He tried to twist around to make sure nothing was behind him only to have agonizing pain shoot through his back. He fell to his knees thanks to the dizzying pain. He heard voices behind him he scrambled back to a standing position. He had to keep moving forward.
He pushed the door open slowly, making sure nothing was on the other side. "…Yoshimori…" A voice came from his right. He looked down the hall in fear. The voice didn't sound too friendly, but somehow so familiar. He quickly turned and headed in the other direction. He stumbled down the hall as fast as he could, but his feet didn't seem want to keep going. His mind screamed as his body fell to the floor. A dark figure came into view, the only detail visible was an evil grin on it's face.
Masamori looked down on his brother. He had only found him thanks to the loud thump of a body hitting the floor. The appearance of his brother shocked him. He knew that he had been injured, but he had no idea to what extent. When he had received the shikigami from his grandfather about Yoshimori, he had remembered when Yoshimori would throw up a giant fit over a scratched knee. His thoughts had consisted of things like 'He would run away before things got too hurt'.
Nevertheless, there his brother was, his whole torso covered in once white bandages, now red. His shouldered rapped in more bandages, but that didn't seem to be as bad. Yoshimori's glazed eyes looked up at Masamori with fear. It was as if he didn't' truly see what was in front of him. Masamori put his hand out to try to get his brother off the ground only to have him flinch away as if he had just tried to hit him.
"Yoshimori, we have to get you off the ground. Dad's worried, please." He talked as calmly as he could. The younger of the brother's face paled. His face was one of someone who had just had a horrible realization. "I'm not going to hurt you." He slowly reached his hand out and put it on Yoshimori's good shoulder. "You're safe." His words didn't seem to do anything but make the look of horror on his brother's face. He quickly retracted his arm when his brother's arms shot to his own neck, as if to stop some invisible force from chocking him.
The figure looked down on him with menacing eyes. He backed as far into the corner as he could. The face of the figure came into face into view and made him feel ill. It was his brother Masamori, but he looked different, more evil and not in anyway like the person he knows. The figure that looked like his brother reached out towards him and grabbed for his arm with clawed hands. He just flinched back in time to avoid getting cut by the razor.
"Just like you to run and hide isn't it gaki. It's no wonder that no one cares about you." His mouth didn't seem to move with his words, but that didn't seem to matter at it the moment. 'It's true though, isn't it? I am useless, I couldn't protect Tokine.' He thought to himself. "You're a useless mass, a waste space that doesn't deserve the air you breath." The creatures reached forward again and clasped it's hands around his neck, squeezing of the air flow. "You can't protect anyone." He moved his hands to pull of the clawed ones from his throat, gasping for the breath that wouldn't come. The hands were released from his neck, still gasping. Tears were forming in his eyes.
"How could you do this Aniki?" He asked is a pitifully small and horse voice. 'I know I'm useless, why must you remind me.' His head began to feel light again, and the world around him wavered. He found in increasingly difficult to stay sitting upright. Not that that mattered, the creature was advancing and his brain was yelling at him to get away. "I… can't."
He made one last attempt to stand but his legs gave out under him and fell back onto the ground. The wound on his back began to burn with pain again. He stretched an arm forward to pull himself along the floor. It didn't seem to work much better than his attempt to walk because his sweaty hands couldn't get a grip on the smooth floor.
Hearing his brother's pleas scared Masamori. He had been trying to help Yoshimori. He may not have been the best brother, but he had done nothing to warrant what had been asked. 'I don't want to see what is going on in his head.' He thought as Yoshimori tried to stand again, only to fall on the floor once more. A shaking arm reaching out and trying to drag the equally shaky body across the floor.
Something in Masamori was screaming at him to reach out and pull Yoshimori into a protective embrace, but he held back remembering the reaction from just a hand being on his shoulder. 'Speaking doesn't seem to do anything to help either.' He thought to himself, doing his best to stay perfectly still. Yoshimori had started muttering to himself again, it sounded like 'No, no, no…'
Just as a plan started to form in his mind, another wrench was thrown in. Toshimori and woken up and was looking into the hall with a very worried look on his face. "What is Yoshi-nii doing up? Dad said he had to stay in bed." He didn't seem to quite understand the severity of the situation. Yoshimori's face, if possible paled even more.
"Run Toshimori, get away." Yoshimori called weakly.
Toshimori's face out of his room, it was bloody but he couldn't see where the blood was coming from. He had forgotten about his younger brother, he was such a horrible older brother. 'Masamori was right, I am useless.' The thought ripped at his heart. The evil looking Masamori turned on Toshimori. Masamori's mouth seemed to be saying something, but all He could hear were growls. Masamori grabbed Toshimori by the scruff of the neck and took him back into the room.
He was terrified; he couldn't let Masamori do anything to Toshimori. He reached out in front of himself again and tried to pull his tired body across the floor, this time with more success. Before he could reach the door that Masamori had gone through, he heard an ear-piercing scream. "No!" He yelled, with one last pull he could see through the door. Toshimori's head lay on the floor, blank eyes staring straight at him. "Why couldn't you protect me?" the severed head cried.
His stomach made another attempt to empty itself, but there was nothing left inside and he only managed to dry heave. He pulled his last thread of strength together and cast kekkai around Masamori. "Why are you doing this?" Masamori just laughed as Toshimori's head continued to weep.
A kekkai formed around Masamori. 'How can someone so weak cast something so strong?' he wondered. Toshimori didn't know what to do, other than to sob. Masamori had just been explaining what was going on when Yoshimori had screamed in the hall way then pulled himself to the door and cast a barrier around their older brother.
"Why are you doing this?" Yoshimori asked, almost yelled at his older brother. Somehow, his voice sounded stronger than before.
"I'm not doing anything Yoshimori, snap out of it." Masamori said. He tried his best to break the kekkai before Yoshimori could say 'Ketsu'. He wasn't sure where the strength had come from, but he could be in trouble right now if his brother choose to destroy him. "WAKE UP!" He yelled in a last attempt. It didn't seem to much better, but Yoshimori's balance must have gone again because he swayed and fell to the floor.
The kekkai fell and he ran to his brother's side. He was breathing heavily again and didn't seem to be awake anymore. Toshimori was still crying; Masamori opened his arms to signal him to come forward. He hugged his youngest brother and made a calming noise. "Go get Dad, I'll make sure Yoshimori is alright. Are you okay?" Toshimori's crying stopped and he nodded. With Toshimori dealt with, he could deal with Yoshimori, though all he could do was take him back to his room and making him more comfortable. The situation was definitely worse then he had thought.
Well, there it is. I will update as soon as I can and you will read more about Tokine. It just thought that you needed to know about the horrors that were going on in Yoshimori's head. I feel so bad for being so mean! LOVE YOU ALL MY READERS! PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!