Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Wind Knoll's Curse ❯ Chapter 11

Scarlet fidgeted a bit as she remained beside the demon's chair. “I just want to know if my mom is okay,” she said with a somber sigh. “I miss her, truly. And now, no thanks to Teresa, I am worried sick over where her soul is right now.”

 

Touya looked over at Scarlet with an unclear express. “Would it matter to you if she were happy even if she was in hell?”

 

“If she is happy where she is then I am too,” Scarlet expressed, her hand placed upon her chest. “I just don't want her to be rotting in hell and unhappy.”

 

His hand cupping his chin in thought, Touya hummed a bit at how to word everything that had gone on unbeknownst to Scarlet. “Your mother assumed, just like the rest of you, that was written on those books were all factual. She was expecting something much different than what she was given when her soul threatened to leave her body. When she saw me, she was confused until I explained everything to her.” He leaned back in his chair with his eyes shifting a bit as he recalled the rest. “Cynthia didn't want to accept it at first but eventually came to terms with it as I continued to come back and check up on her everyday. You see, she was ready to go to hell with me, and she was ready to reside within my temple. She wanted me to look after you, and I did until you pulled so far out of my grasp, I just couldn't reach you anymore.”

 

Scarlet was silent. She cupped her elbows while looking down at the floor below. “So—is she happy?”

 

“She sure does appear so,” Touya answered somewhat vaguely as he crossed his legs. “Scarlet, your mother wasn't expecting to live in eternal hell for the worshipping she did, but she learned to accept it.” He leaned forward slightly. “Hell is not a world filled with lava pits, red bodied creatures with black horns and wings—that is just as much fairytale as your belief system is. While there are demons that will torment you if you stray from the temples, not all are evil. It is like saying everyone convicted and found guilty is a murderer.”

 

“What about me?” Scarlet asked, placing her hand upon her chest. “Will I get dragged down to hell with her?”

 

Touya cupped his chin in thought. “Well, your worshipping was cut off for a few years only to be slightly rekindled. It all depends on Jin and I seeing as you are baptized under us both. Do you want to go to hell to be with her?”

 

Scarlet inhaled sharply and steadily, not sure what to say to that. “I do not know. I do not know what to expect yet…”

 

“It is your choice,” Touya expressed with a simple wave of his hand. “You have been ducking in and out of the belief system, so I don't know where to put you just yet.” He took the blanket, which Cynthia Baker had made, and got up, from his frosty seat. Handing it over to Scarlet, he offered a brief smile to her. “I consider that you think more on it. At least if anything you will be with the people who loved you.”

 

“`People'?” She wondered aloud, taking back the quilted blanket. “Who else is in hell that I should know of?”

 

Touya tilted his head slight, gazing up at the young woman out of the corner of his eye. “You mean—your mother never told you?”

 

Scarlet shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

 

“I assumed your mother told you everything,” the ice demon expressed with a sigh. “Hmmm…I wonder…” He turned from Scarlet with a simple raise of his hand to her as if to stop her from speaking to him. His eyes soon closed, he concentrated on the voices around him. Mumbling under his breath, he spoke to some of the spirits dwelling within his bedroom before turning his focus back to Scarlet. “Apparently you were not told. You were only a baby when your birth father was taken.”

 

Hearing of her birth father, she widened her eyes while her heart quickened in beat. “What—what do you know about my birth father?”

 

“Your mother didn't say anything about it in fear of upsetting you,” Touya said in his defense. “But he was sacrificed to my temple to stop the long winter.”

 

Scarlet felt like she had been punched in the stomach. Grabbing onto her beating heart, she shook her head with a furrow of her brow to express her pain. “They…worshippers will actually be that detached to their own! That is horrible! People are so heartless!”

 

“Scarlet—.”

 

“They deserve to rot in hell—all of them; especially if they are going to act like monsters!” Scarlet growled, clutching her fists at her sides.

 

“Scarlet!” Touya yelled over her sudden mood change. When he got her attention, he sighed whilst crossing his arms over his chest. “Look, I am sorry about what happened to your family, but you're being hysterical. Calm down a moment and consider what you're not realizing. Your birth father and mother are finally together in the afterlife, and Cynthia is more than happy with the man she first married!”

 

“What about the worshippers?” Scarlet asked angrily. “Why do you let them run amuck when you don't even like human sacrifices?”

 

Touya sighed once more with a shake of his head. “Scarlet, there is nothing we can do. When your human kind turns that dark, even we cannot reach them.”

 

“And that is why you are threatening to curse everyone…?” Scarlet asked remembering what Jin said at Teresa's.

 

“Jin told you that one, hu?” The demon asked, tapping his finger upon his lower lip. “So far it is at a dead-end tie—we won't take action until the scale tips.” He shrugged.

 

“So you won't accept anymore sacrifices?” Scarlet inquired.

 

“We never have,” Touya scoffed. “It may be hard to believe, but human blood doesn't appeal to us. Some even find it to be an unpleasant stench. Why do you ask?”

 

Scarlet thought of Blossom—wanting her to live a normal life and to stop hiding. “There is a friend of mine who has to hide, because people are threatening to sacrifice her to the `demon Lord' Yoko Kurama.” She embraced herself, looking down at her feet. “I really want her to be safe, but I am not sure what to do.”

 

“And you want to do this for that co-worker of yours?” Touya asked.

 

“I—wait—how did you know that?”

 

Touya rolled his eyes playfully with a slight grin. “There is hardly anything that goes on around here that demons do not know of. I know who you mean—`Blossom', right?”

 

“Yes, but, even Jin didn't let on he knew that when I asked him,” she said bewildered.

 

“Yeah, well, Jin is a dork,” he put bluntly, walking over to his desk to flip through a few papers, which lied there upon the frozen wood. “While he may have his serious moments they are like his intellectual ones—few and far in-between.”

 

Scarlet agreed silently as she made her way over to where the ice demon stood. She gazed upon the papers he had in his possession to notice that they had foreign marks upon them. “What is this?”

 

“It is not important,” he said quickly as he turned on his heels to hand over a few of the papers to Scarlet, knowing that she would be unable to read what was placed on them. “I want you to go to Yoko Kurama's Temple tomorrow. Take these papers with you and tell him that I sent you there. He will know what to do from there.” Touya's icy hand touched Scarlet's shoulder, sending a chill throughout her body. “Trust me; your friend will be fine.”

 

She took the papers with a brief chatter of her teeth from the cold that the ice demon emitted through her bony body. “Is that all…?”

 

“No, it is not all,” Touya stressed lightly as he placed his hands upon his hips. “I want you to promise me something—I want you to promise me you'll stop slicing yourself up and express yourself in other ways.”

 

Scarlet scoffed with a slight turn of her head. “Why do I have to promise you that? I don't have to promise you anything.”

 

“Technically, no, and technically yes, you do,” the demon groaned, poking her on the chest. “When you were baptized in my temple, you became one of my children—more so when you were born here and your mother's umbilical cord was placed in my keeping. While it is in your power to control whether or not you slice up yourself again, it is in my power that I can make sure you stop.”

 

Confused, Scarlet cocked her brow at the demon though not saying a word verbally.

 

“If you so badly want to harm yourself to release your pain, then I will let you see the fears that will awake around you for when you might actually successful kill yourself,” Touya explained. “I won't be there to help you through it, and I will make damn sure Jin isn't either. If you want those fears to go away as well as those horrible nightmares, then I advise you to cease your cutting.”

 

Having her knife being taken from her, Scarlet couldn't help but cringe angrily. But a type of fear swelled within her stomach when she remembered the nightmares she had often had, and Scarlet dared not say a thing.

 

“Besides, your mother knows the pain you are going through,” Touya expressed with a slight shrug. “Would you rather let her rest in peace than have her worry over your life?”

 

Hearing of her mother once more, Scarlet tightened up and hitched in breath. She was unaware that her mother had been keeping tabs on her lately. It slightly embarrassed her. “My mother knows what is going on with me?”

 

“I tell her everyday,” said Touya plainly.

 

Sighing, Scarlet brought the papers Touya handed to her closer to her chest. “Fine…I will consider it…”

 

Touya turned on his heels and headed for his bed once more. “You may take the blanket with you on your way out. Take care of yourself, Scarlet, and please, close the door behind you.”

 

“Thanks,” was all Scarlet could seem to say as she did just that. Closing the door behind her, she wrapped herself up in the blanket she had been so long without. The feel of it was awfully warm. It helped her cool down as she headed for the entrance of the Ice Temple.

 

Jin waited at the front of the temple with his arms crossed and his right foot resting against the cold marble of the temple behind him. Rolling his pinky nail over his lower canine, he bit at the nail until the doors finally opened to reveal Scarlet. “So,” he began, “how did it go?” Noticing the blanket around her, he cocked his brows at the fabric. “Where did you get that?”

 

Scarlet kept the fabric close to her cheeks to remind herself of her mother, who had passed. “It was my mom's…and she gave it to Lord Touya.” She walked down the cement sidewalk alone at first until Jin caught up with her. “Thanks for waiting for me, Jin.”

 

Jin walked beside the apparently dreary Scarlet. Scratching the back of his fiery red hair, he shrugged. “Sure thing,” he said simply. He kept his wind swirling outward to keep the thick, fog barrier at bay. “So are you going to be okay?”

 

She nodded, continuing down the sidewalk she was upon. “I will be fine. I just want to go home and sleep…I am tired.”

 

Sensing her exhaustion, Jin grabbed underneath her arms. Lifting himself up off of the ground with his wind's aid, Jin headed for Scarlet's house further down the block.

 

The wind rushing through her hair, Scarlet inhaled sharply at being taken into the air so abruptly. “What—what's going! What are you doing!” She exclaimed, not liking the heights too much.

 

“Don't worry,” Jin said over the roaring of the wind. “I will get you home in no time at all.”

 

It was a promise the wind demon kept. His speed nothing to shake a stick at, Jin got to the window of Scarlet's room in no time at all. Floating near the window, he placed Scarlet in his lap, so he could focus his strength upon the shut pane. The stubborn window finally opening, the wind demon helped the young woman back into her bedroom.

 

Crawling through into her bedroom, Scarlet made it in with a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Jin,” she said softly to the wind demon.

 

Jin grabbed onto the top of the windowsill to throw himself into the room with a grunt. “Not a problem,” he said with a slight stretch. “You're going to be okay, right? You're not going to try and kill yourself again, are you?” Jin inquired as he watched Scarlet closely. “I have Teresa to keep out of hell; I don't need another on my plate.”

 

Scarlet sighed as she slipped onto her bedcovers exhaustedly. “I already promised Lord Touya I wouldn't do anything, so I guess I promise you the same thing. I am just very tired—too tired to try anything.”

 

“You know, you can just call him `Touya'. We are all not into that `Lord' stuff,” Jin chuckled as he headed back for the window. “Take care of yourself.” His hands gripping onto the windowsill, he launched out the window with his wind to head back towards Teresa's house.

 

Scarlet was too weary to get up to close the window, so she left it as it was there in her dark room. Kicking off her shoes, she moved the bedcovers to slip under their warmth with the blanket her mother had quilted for her on top. The thoughts and replays of all that had gone on that day exhausted her further; she falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

 

 

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