Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Music Box ❯ The Music Box ( Chapter 1 )

The Music Box

 

A high, monophonic tune played softly through the small house as mother and daughter listened to the final notes echoing from the palm-sized box.

 

"You like it?" the mother asked as she closed the lid, an excited smile on her face at her daughter's awed expression. The young girl only nodded her head, her wide and sparkling eyes captured by and reflecting the bright, shiny jewel on the lid.

 

"My mother gave me this when I was your age; 'A piece of beauty and comfort in a land filled with destruction,' or so she told me. I did not understand what she meant back then, but I learned, just as I am sure you will, although I hope understanding is long in coming," the mother told the girl, whose innocent gaze had traveled from the translucent blue gem to her mother's wan smile and faraway eyes.

 

"Mommy?"

 

The woman sniffled once as she snapped back into the current moment and brushed non-existent tears from her flushed cheeks.

 

"So I give this to you, to comfort you in times of distress."

 

"Thank you, Mommy," the little girl smiled beatifically as she held the small box cupped in her two hands. She didn't quite understand what her mother meant with her whole speech, but at least she had the pretty box that played the pretty music.

 

She twisted the key on the bottom and opened the lid, releasing the tune and the tiny dancing figuring from their bejeweled cell. The tune carried her to a sleep filled with fantastic dreams that she would forget when she awoke.

 

The girl's mother smiled softly and closed the lid, once more dousing the room in silence as she planted a gentle kiss on the now sleeping girl's brow.

 

"May your dreams always be sweet," she whispered from the doorway as she blew out the lone candle and softly closed the door.

 

----

 

She woke up to someone firmly shaking her. And smoke. It was not enough to choke her, but she did have to get used to the heavier air and the lack of oxygen. She coughed as she wearily sat up, rubbing her eyes with her hands before yawning and looking up into her mother's frantic face.

 

"Run!" the woman ordered, "Hide! Get away from here now!"

 

The child looked up in exhausted confusion at the hysterical woman; her tired mind just could not comprehend the importance of the order or the fear in her mother's shaking voice. Then the door burst in as a figure flew through.

 

"Daddy!" the little girl cried in welcome as the man stood to his full height.

 

He turned around in surprise, "Get her out of here!"

 

After the harsh order, he jumped through the flames that had come up to the doorway and all the mother and daughter could hear after that was the clanging of metal and the shouts of battle.

 

Panic set in on the young girl then.

 

"Mommy?" Her questioning voice was at a higher pitch and quivering with fear.

 

"Run," the woman ordered as she pulled her daughter out of bed, "Run far away." She was shoving the girl toward the window but the girl stopped.

 

"Wait!"

 

She grabbed the music box off the nightstand in passing.

 

A scream of agony sounded from beyond the flames, which were, by then, licking at the doorway and the splintered fragments of the busted door that were still attached.

 

The older woman stood still as her face went white.

 

"Mommy, is Daddy okay?" the little girl asked as she clutched the music box to her chest, her eyes wide with confusion and fear.

 

"Of course Daddy's okay," the woman responded softly as she petted her daughter's hair, "He'll be fine, you'll see." But her voice was shaking and choked; she could not believe her own lie, but she would do her best for her now smiling daughter.

 

A beam crackled and fell, almost blocking the door to the little girl's room and pulling both the mother and daughter from their moment. The mother gazed swiftly at the flames then back at her daughter.

 

"I'm going to go help Daddy, but I want you to run away, okay?"

 

The little girl looked at her mother, very confused as to the desperation in her voice.

 

"Please, baby, you have to run away and hide. Do you understand me?"

 

"Yes, Mommy," the child replied softly, directing her answer to the floor.

 

"Good. Now, go."

 

The woman opened the window they were next to, kissed her daughter on the top of her head and jumped through the flames to join her husband.

 

The child walked to the window and was about to leave when she heard her mother cry out in pain. Her naive curiosity worked with her paralyzing fear and for several minutes the little girl stared in horror as the flames began to lick at her room, slowly closing in on her, trying to consume her. She heard the angry shouts of a battle - the dark angry voice of the attacker sticking the most in her mind, drowning out her mother's cries.

 

Suddenly, another body came flying through the doorway. It was her mother. And, unlike the last time, when her father came crashing through the wood, her mother did not get up, she just lay there on the floor, her wide eyes blank and lifeless as her blood pooled around her severed neck.

 

"Mommy?" the little girl asked as she walked up to the corpse, "Wake up Mommy."

 

She shook the body, not comprehending that her mother would never wake up; the woman's blood worked its way onto the child's hand and bare feet as the puddle grew due to the vigorous shaking the she had resorted to as she tried to bring her mother back to consciousness. Rivulets of smudged ash from the fire ran down her cheeks as the powdery substance stuck to her tears, the fire growing hotter and closer each second.

 

A couple light footfalls brought the girl's attention to the door of her room where a dark shadow took on a humanoid form as the family's attacker walked slowly through the flames of his own making. Fear gripped the girl's chest even harder and panic overcame her senses as she forewent the escape through her window for the false safety of her closet. She would wait there until the man left.

 

The boards creaked under his soft steps, telling the child that the dangerous man was still in the area; he was probably looking for anything worth stealing. The light coming in from under the closet door disappeared for a moment and the girl stilled, barely holding in whimpers of terror as tears streamed down her face. She held her breath for a moment then let it out almost silently when the shadow disappeared.

 

It was cold in her closet. The wall was riddled with holes in between the wooden planks that allowed the chilly night air entrance. Those holes were what had kept her safe until this point as she received clean air and rid her lungs of the choking smoke that had been increasing in amount ever since she awoke. She coughed once but froze in terror. Did the man hear her?

 

The footsteps started toward the closet then suddenly ceased and the child listened for a few minutes before sighing in relief. The man must have left. Just to be sure, however, she decided to wait in the closet until her father came to get her. Her mother had said he was going to be fine, and why would her mother lie to her? So she would wait. The tears slowed a bit, but still ran in small rivulets, branching across her cheeks and leaving murky trails as they attempted to wash the ash and dust that had settled on her skin.

 

She slowly brought the music box into view, releasing the harsh grip she had held it in against her chest. She fingered the small jewel and the intricate carvings on the outside of the box before remembering what her mother had told her it was for.

 

She turned the box upside down and twisted the key on the bottom before flipping it back over and opening the lid. If she needed comfort at any time, now would be it. The soft melody rang through the closet and soothed the poor girl more as each note passed. Now all she needed was for her mother to get up off the floor and sit next to her and the two could listen to the music together as they waited to show her father her new toy when he got home from work.

 

But her wish was wantonly pushed aside as the closet door opened to reveal the dark attacker, his blade glowing red as it reflected the fire, his evil grin gleaming as bright as his deep red eyes. She looked up in complete and utter horror as the tears began to flow once more.

 

"Thought you'd hide from me, hm?"

 

Then his sword came down.

 

----

 

Hiei jolted awake, his breathing harsh and irregular, his eyes wide in shock. He just had to dream of that. One of the memories he most wanted to forget haunted him constantly.

 

He reached into his cloak and pulled out a box with a translucent blue gem inlaid in the center of the lid and ran his thumb softly over a stain of red that could not be removed. He had grabbed it for its value on the Market when he had seen it clenched in the girl's hands, but when he went to sell it, he could not give it up. He had told himself the stain caused by the girl's blood lowered its value too much and he would have to try to clean it off, but even he knew that small red mark would do nothing to diminish the value of the intricate human-made object because such things were extremely rare in his land. But he still kept it, after all those years.

 

In a rare moment of regret, moments that only seemed to come when he remembered the first child he slaughtered, he turned the box over and twisted the key the key on the bottom then flipped the object over and carefully lifted the lid. As the soothing tune wound through his self-hatred as swiftly as the spinning figurine popped up into its standing position, a black tear gem fell into the box, joining a pile of its predecessors; moments of weakness never to be seen by anyone but him.