Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Wind Knoll's Curse ❯ Chapter 16

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Scarlet's spirit had drifted from her body, appearing in nothing but a dark void. Opening her eyes slowly, she saw nothing but the darkness surrounding her spirit. It made her wonder, with how dark it was, if her eyes were truly opened. Her soul appearing to float there upon her back, Scarlet pulled her feet down so they would touch the pitch black ground beneath her.

“Where am I…?” She wondered as she walked forward with her arms out, waving them about to try and find any object, which may be before her unseen.

An eerie growl could be heard emitting from the darkness before being followed by a few screams of what sounded like terror. She looked around the darkened area quickly when the sounds started getting louder and almost closer to her—so close, in fact, that it felt like something was breathing down her neck.

Her hand placed upon her neck, Scarlet turned around to try and face whatever it was that felt as if it were threatening to sink its teeth into her skin. “Who's there!” She demanded to know loudly. “Who are you!”

Images began pounding against her head as she stood there being laughed at and teased by unseen damned souls. They were brief at first; one after another attacking her mind and starting to stir up a headache that just made her want to scream. The images were of Wind Knoll. At first they appeared normal only to show decay and ruin with blood splattered upon the streets and some dripping from the broken windows. Everything appeared decollate at one point finally as her mind was quickly taken down the nearby street towards Lavender Lane.

The speedy rush of the image soon stopped and traveled by slowly to show her the outcome of her home. It had rusted over and the front door and windows were boarded up as if to prevent people from coming in or at least those who were probably still around within the decayed looking town. Blood was splattered on the pavement as were, what appeared to be, bones from humans and animals.

As her spirit remained outside of her destroyed house, a sudden scream from inside of the house startled her to the point of covering her ears and kneeling down to the ground beneath her. “Stop it; stop it; STOP IT!”

A hand came out of the darkness behind her to grab onto her shoulder and pull her away from the scene. Scarlet spun around to come face to face with the wind demon in his natural, demonic form.

“Come on!” Jin insisted eagerly as he grabbed onto her wrist to pull her back into the darkness. “I have to get you back to your body or your spirit will be lost from your body forever!”

Scarlet was mostly pulled as the empty darkness soon turned into blinding light, which soon engulfed the shadows. Her once lifeless body began to twitch slightly from her soul being returned to her once more. Inhaling sharply, she opened her eyes and attempted to shoot upright upon the bed she was upon only to feel something heavy upon her body to keep her from doing so. Her eyes finally focusing upon the blurry room about her, she looked down at the wind demon, who was lying atop her body. Once he stirred and steadily began to wake, she grunted whilst attempting to push him off with her body as she had found her hands were locked tightly into his.

“Get off me, big foot,” she demanded wearily.

Jin steadily rose off of Scarlet, pulling his fingers from between her own. “Are you okay?” He asked, ignoring her comment.

Scarlet still squinted from the bright candlelight before bothering to move only to flinch in pain from the many open wounds she had received from the demonic spirit. She released a brief cry of displeasure before remaining still once more. “My God…what happened…!”

Pulling from the side of the bed Scarlet was strapped to, Jin headed over towards one of the many wooden tables nearby to gather a few things he knew he would need in order to conceal the many gashes on her body before coming back to where he had stood previously. “That demonic spirit ripped at your body when we tried to get it to come out. Some demons will do that when they possess a human body.” Jin wrapped up Scarlet's torn apart torso with medicine dipped bandages in a hurry. “Now, tell me how did that thing get into your body?”

Hissing from displeasure of the medicine stinging her blooded body, she forced herself to try and remember the events that were fearfully hazy to her no thanks to the dark force that had taken over her previously. “I…it came from the store—ouch! Be careful!” Scarlet scolded as she clutched her fists and closed her eyes tightly. “Silvia had a dark shrine hidden within the back room, and when I stepped over the upside-down pentagram, I suddenly felt very sick to my stomach.”

Jin halted in what he was doing for a moment, gazing at Scarlet seriously. “Silvia seriously did it?” He asked in amazement. “She created a portal through to the darkest parts of hell!”

“Can humans do that?” Scarlet wondered dumbfounded from where she lain still.

“Humans are capable of many things depending on their bloodline and willpower,” Jin expressed. “Humans can create evil, dark powers within their own homes from negative feelings in the heart if they are not careful. Silvia has been worshipping the darker side of Wicca to speak with us, and it has created a dark portal for high level demons to crawl through. I am surprised she hasn't been attacked yet.”

“We can't really have powers, can we?” Asked Scarlet once more with a slight scoff of disbelief. “Can we…?”

“Witches and wizards—what bloodline do you think they came from?” Jin asked with a shrug. “Within every human there is a capability of performing the unimaginable. The human emotions can accomplish about anything when put into focus!”

“What are you going to do about the portal?” Scarlet wondered as she hissed slightly from a twinge of pain as she attempted to move her right arm.

Jin hummed in thought, cupping his chin as he gazed off to the side with his blue eyes darting back and forth in thought. “I will have to talk to Kurama about it. He's better at this sort of thing than I am.” Once he finished bandaging up Scarlet, he picked her up slowly within his arms regardless of the displeased sounds she created. “Oookay, now to get you back to your bedroom.”

“Oh, God—be gentle, you big klutz!” Scarlet demanded as her entire body ached from the movements the wind demon made.

The wind demon didn't say anything to her although he did chuckle within the back of his throat. He made his way out of the priestess' room and into the hallway where all of them were waiting eagerly for the word on Scarlet's behavior. When Jin saw their expressions of worry and slight ease, he nodded at them. “Don't worry, she's okay.”

Regardless, the priestesses followed behind the wind demon, knowing that the girl recently cured would still be part of their responsibility until she was declared fully healed.

Making it to the room Scarlet was assigned, Jin kicked it open with his foot once one of the priestesses unlocked it for him. He made his way into the dimly lit room and placed Scarlet gently down on her bedcovers for a moment. Jin pulled the covers out from underneath her before placing them over the injured human.

“Alright,” Jin said, scratching his forehead with his thumbnail, “I am going to send someone to go talk to Silvia about your sickness. You cannot go back to that store, at least not for awhile.” He motioned behind his shoulder at the priestesses standing there in wait. “Some will be here to help you when you need it.” Excusing himself, the wind demon headed for the doorway. “I am going to go speak to Kurama. I'll be back later.”

One of the priestesses nearby that Jin could trust, he pulled off to the side for a moment to speak to her alone. The others came over to Scarlet, who was trying to listen in on the conversation between the demon and the hooded priestess in the hallway, but her hearing wasn't that excellent, and soon her vision was crowded from the three who came to her bedside.

“When you get the chance, can you get Scarlet a new book among other things?” Jin asked in a whisper between the two of them. “Some of her belongings were destroyed by her step-father.”

“Of course,” the young woman said with a nod. “I will get a few things for her from the Worship Room.”

“Thank you, Razz,” Jin said simply before quickly hurrying down the hallway so he could go speak to the others.

The woman smiled simply at the sound of her nickname coming from the wind demon. Her smile was replaced with a worried frown as she gazed over at Scarlet and recalling her hellish experience. Grabbing onto her priestess gown, `Razz' walked into the hallway and followed the corridor she was within to the west where the Worship Room was located.

The floorboards creaked eerily as Kurama stepped down the hallways of his own temple with his hands behind his back. His eyes swung back and forth between the right and left side of the halls to make sure everything was in perfect order. He walked slowly until feeling a powerful negativity trickling down his spine. Kurama stopped dead within his tracks at the feel of the uneasy presence, leaving the large hallways quiet and void of all sounds.

Suddenly there came an eerie moaning of the walls and a horrible, inaudible rasping sound one could possibly mistaken for the wind. Kurama was no fool as he stood there, listening careful to the sounds, which came closer to where he was standing. He closed his eyes slowly to look through the area with his spiritual senses.

The hallway appeared in black and white within his third eye as he gazed cautiously about the area, which appeared to breathe heavily from some unseen force Kurama was trying to pinpoint. Whatever it was, it was creeping about with a sickening cracking fashion, moving quickly towards where the redhead was standing in the Earth Temple halls. The rasping sound started to get louder and louder the closer the creature seemed to get as Kurama kept his eyes upon the invisible being as he could clearly see it was heading towards him and nearly upon his back.

A hand fell upon the redhead's shoulder, startling him slightly as he looked over at the one responsible. “Kurama!” Jin began urgently, not having the time to apologize for sneaking up on him. “I've got to speak to you about something!”

Hearing the urgent tone in Jin, Kurama looked about the hallway for a moment as if trying to hunt for the negative force once more only to find nothing before addressing him. “What is the matter?”

The two went to Kurama's bedroom to discuss the matter that Jin had endured. Leaning against the edge of his desk, the fox demon cupped his mouth in thought of the situation. “Are you sure about this?” Kurama asked, his expression serious as he tapped his fingers slightly against the wood beneath his hands.

“I am very positive!” Jin exclaimed as he motioned his hands. “One of my worshippers got attacked by a high level demon and nearly died. She said that the demon came from a portal created by one of the darker worshippers of Shishi at this store she works at.”

“I'll go to the store with the others to shut off the portal,” said Kurama sternly. “You can take care of that injured worshipper of yours.” He was about to turn around to get the others only to be stopped by Jin.

“Can you shut off the portal without Touya?” Jin asked with a raise of his hand slightly. “Scarlet needs to talk to him about her mother—again.”

Kurama sighed slightly at the thought of letting Touya leave the group in order to speak to a worshipper. “I really could use Touya in this. If you are willing to take his place, I can let him go.”

“Agreed!” Jin quickly said with a nod. “I will take Touya's place in closing the portal.”

Waving his fingers over towards himself, Kurama pushed up off of the desk he was leaning against to head for the door to his bedroom. “Come on; let's get this closed up. I feel something is wrong…here.” As he said that, Kurama couldn't help but stop for a moment to look about the room as the atmosphere was making him uneasy as they both eventually stepped outside into the Earth Temple's hallways.

Scarlet's soul wandered once more as she fell asleep in attempts to ease the pain she was feeling. Her displeasures could be heard echoing down the empty halls within the night as she tried to fight the sounds and sights of hell calling to her. Rust and blood were splattered all over familiar areas as sounds of the damned filled the foggy air—her soul attempting to run from them all though running towards her destroyed home.

“Scarlet?”< /div>

Stopping her steps once she heard her name echo about her, Scarlet stopped just outside of her boarded up front door to gaze up at the clouded sky above her. She tried to focus on the person calling to her over the escalating moans of the damned, but it was frustrating and hard to do so.

“Scarlet, where are you?”

“I am here! I am here!” She shouted loudly continuing to gaze desperately up at the sky above her.

Looking back at the end of the driveway of her house, she watched as a woman, with her head lowered and her stringy blond hair covering her face, swayed back and forth towards Scarlet from the heavy fog of the surreal dream. The damned woman had on a torn, ratted off-white dress, drenched in blood and dirt. Her arms twisted with her head in sickening ways—she acting as if she were a puppet on a string with how she would move un-human like. Even if her rotted feet appeared to be walking slowly, it was as if every blink Scarlet made, she got a good distance closer.

Running up to the boarded up front door, Scarlet banged upon it harshly with both her fists, regardless of them blistering and starting to bleed from the eager bangs she unleashed upon it. “Let me in! Let me in! Help me!”

With several cracks of her neck, the spirit woman turned her head to the side slowly with her mouth dropping open almost six inches down to show the broken and destroyed teeth, which had decayed away within her mouth in life after death. She released a horrifying scream of anger at Scarlet as her badly decomposed hands reached out for her.

Scarlet pressed her back against the boarded door behind her, closing her eyes with tears streaming down her face from the fear she couldn't deny was overwhelming her. She could smell the woman's horrible breath upon her face, making Scarlet beg over and over again to be left alone.

A cold feeling falling over the area as, large, thick ice shards jutting up quickly from the ground to fence in the decaying building and Scarlet. The damned human soul was quickly pierced by one of the building length shards, demolishing her body completely.

The sky raining blood for that moment, Scarlet eventually opened her eyes to witness the large ice shards before her before gazing down at the ground before her when she noticed a soft blue light emitting from the cement. She stepped back from the circular light before her to watch as the ice demon Touya surfaced from the ground through the light portal he had created.

“Ice Demon—what are you doing here!” She exclaimed in wonder though she was eternally grateful.

Touya looked over his shoulder at the frightened Scarlet, noticing her tears of fear. “Jin told me you wanted to speak to me. And it's Touya by the way. I do have a name.” Opening his arms, he accepted the frightened girl within them for a moment even if consoling was hardly his thing as a demon. Gazing around the scene, Touya realized that there was something amiss about the surroundings. “Where are we? Is this Wind Knoll?”

“This is my…house…I think,” Scarlet answered, wiping some of the blood off of her face with her sleeve. “It's boarded up for some reason, and I don't know why! This is the second time I have seen it like this…”

Touya furrowed his brow in wonder as he made it over to the door to place his chilly palm upon it and feel of the energy surrounding the area. Blinking a few times at the dark energy he could sense, he eventually pulled his hands back quickly to bring back to his sides. “This is…this is bad.”

“What is it?” Scarlet asked as she made her way closer to the worried ice demon.

Turning around, Touya quickly grabbed onto Scarlet's wrist to pull her away from the building once he pulled down his ice shards from the area. “I am hoping the guys can handle the problem, but I really need to send one of the priestesses over to the store where the demons have gathered to shut off the portal. The demons are predicting Wind Knoll's fall and are teasing those who are sensitive with it!”

Scarlet's fingers twitched slightly outside of her slumber as her soul made it back to her body thanks to Touya's guidance. Batting her eyes open, she shot up in bed with a quick inhale once she was conscious. She shook her sweaty face before looking over at her bedside to find Touya there.

“What is so bad about what you saw?” She asked. “The demons are just teasing us, right?”

“Demons only tease before completely ripping someone's heart out of their chest after cutting off their limbs slowly,” Touya said seriously. “They are planning on trying to pull Wind Knoll under, and I have to send somebody to the others to tell them!” He quickly pushed from the bedside he was sitting upon with a simple wave to Scarlet. “I'll be right back, Scarlet.” Touya ran from the bedroom to head down the halls to find one of the priestesses to send as a messenger girl to the Black Magic Store.

Kurama had gathered Shishiwakamaru, Jin, Suzuka, Hiei, and Chuu to the opened portal within the store. When he had pulled the red curtains back to examine the room, he did feel a horrible vibe from within the enclosure. He waved those around him within the room and to make a circle around the upside down pentagram drawn upon the floor and marked with candles of blood, dipped in dry sacrificial blood.

“Alright, everybody, let's close this portal up,” Kurama instructed.

Hiei growled at the instructions though did as he was told. “Humans always have to get themselves in deep, and we are the ones left to bail them out.”

Shaking his head, Kurama focused on the portal that had the damned moaning in anger and want to escape from the depths of hell. “Regardless, we offered to take care of this town, so we might as well hold up our part of the deal whether the humans are sane or not.”

“C'mon, let's get this over with,” Suzuka sighed as he outstretched his hand over the center of the upside down pentagram with the others.

All of the demons focused their demonic energies upon the opened portal in attempts to seal it; however, as they tried the demons attempting to keep it open and get through attacked by sending out their own energies to slice through the high level demons' hands. When Kurama felt his skin slicing open thanks to the threads of demonic energy slicing through the surface of his skin, he flinched slightly with a slight bear of his teeth.

“Don't budge!” He demanded. “We cannot let these demons through!”

This first wave of the attacks weren't much until. Even if their hands were getting bloody, they refused to move from their posts. Unfortunately the second wave was more powerful, and Chuu even threatened to pull his hand back from the group.

“Don't move!” Kurama ordered once more even if he was threatening to withdraw his hand as well. It dripped with blood with how many cuts had been placed upon his fingers and palm as were the others. Closing his eyes tightly from the pain, he tried to stay focused on closing the portal as they were nearly there judging by the demonic energies getting weaker to his senses.

Her sandaled feet pounding into the ground, `Razz' tried to make it to the store as she made her way through the misty farm area of Wind Knoll. The trees and buildings passing her by at a blinding speed, she hurried out of the woodlands and onto Willard Drive. The door soon within reach, she started to bang upon it harshly in hopes of getting somebody's attention.

“Lord Jin!” She screamed loudly, continuing to slam her palm down upon the reinforced glass of the front door. “Lord Jin, I need to speak with you!”

Jin's ears catching the sounds up front, he turned his head to look over at the swaying curtains, losing his focus for that one moment. “Razz?” He wondered.

“Jin, DON'T!” Kurama yelled only to be too late.

A powerful demonic power seeped through the portal and sliced right through Jin's palm and creating a small hole within his hand where it started to bleed uncontrollably. The wind demon quickly brought his injured hand to his chest, holding onto his wrist tightly with his eyes closed firmly in unbearable pain.

Forcing to pull his hand away from the circle as well, Kurama made his way over to Jin to look at his hand to see it had indeed been pierced by the power unleashed. He ripped off part of the kimono he was wearing in attempts to bandage it up only to stop midway as the ground began to shake.

“Kurama, we can't hold this any longer!” Shishi pointed out through his clutched teeth as he tried to refrain from moving from where he stationed.

The floorboards began to break and crack slowly as the trembling got worse with every passing second. Kurama grabbed onto Jin's opposite hand to help him up quickly. “Let's get out of here! The demons are breaking through! RUN!”

The entire building shaking hysterically, the demons quickly made it out of the building. Razz was outside and in shock to witness Jin in horrible pain at his hand being punctured. She hurried over to him only to hold onto the demon for support as the tremors traveled out onto Willard Drive to start rattling the houses and stores nearby—one even so much as collapsing right before them.

“What is going on!” Razz asked as she held onto the wind demon's side tightly.

“Hell has literally been unleashed onto the town,” Jin said breathlessly before hitching in breath at the pain of moving his injured hand.

Hiei watched with a slow shake of his head. “They damned themselves from the very beginning. Ignorance has damned them all to hell.”