Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Winter Murders ❯ Suffering and Hope ( Chapter 24 )

Winter Murders

Hypatia was stunned. No one had ever called her Alexi's "girl" before. What gave this demon that idea? She wasn't Alexi's "girl". She was just a close friend… right?

"Now then sweetie, hand over Alexi," the demon commanded. Hypatia raised an eyebrow.

"Sweetie?" she asked. The man stared at her. "I'm not a sweetie, let alone your sweetie."

The demon was surprised at Hypatia's little outburst. Clearly the girl didn't know her own beauty.

"Anyway, give me Alexi," he tried to continue.

"I'm not her "girl" either," Hypatia continued, not heading the demons words yet. "I belong to no one. I am my own person."

"That's nice, but…" the demon tried to say, but Hypatia cut in.

"Further more, I'm not letting you have her," Hypatia stated. "She will stay here and alive, even if I have to kill you myself."

"…" the demon was stunned. He shrugged. "If that is what you wish."

The demon dove out of the air, heading straight towards Hypatia, who had stood up. Hypatia concentrated for a moment and then her wings burst through her back, blood spraying everywhere. She flexed her steel wings as the demon pulled back his fist, intending to strike her in the face. Hypatia moved out of the way to the left at the last second. She moved her right wing and the demon's chest was slashed open in several places. The demon cried out. Hypatia smiled slightly.

"You don't want mess with me," she stated. The demon was surprised to say the least.

~*~*

The guys were a bit stunned to find themselves outside of the demonesses' illusion. They blinked at the light. Kurama wasn't as bad as he thought he would be. Tears ran from his eyes, and he was angry at the sirens, but other than that he seemed to be fine. He wiped the tears from his eyes, shook himself and looked to Yusuke. Yusuke was staring at Dolore. He couldn't believe someone could go through so much and yet be so strong after all that had happened to her. He blinked as he realized that he was crying. He flinched at the fact that he was crying, but when he saw Kuwa balling, he didn't feel so stupid. Kuwa, unlike the others, could feel every bit of pain that Dolore had gone through because of his spirit awareness. He felt broken, used, abused, hurt and in pain. He could feel the way that they beat her, he could feel the maniacal joy she had felt as she murdered the town and her family, he could feel the budding feelings that had been squashed, and he could feel every man's hands that had touched her on his body. He didn't like feeling them touch her, feeling them rape her, he didn't like feeling her pain. He knew that the others would never understand what his problem was when he curled up into a ball and started rocking back and forth.

Hiei sat there mutely, not saying a word, unmoving. Kurama noticed his love's strange behavior. He went over to Hiei and put his arms around the smaller demon. Hiei didn't acknowledge him. He just sat there and stared at Dolore. Dolore's head hung in shame. She hated her past, and her future wasn't much better. She looked up and found herself looking into eyes that were as red as the crimson of her blood, eyes that reminded her of herself, yet didn't. She cocked her head to the side and looked at Hiei. Hiei looked right back. Dolore decided that she must have really shaken the poor demon up and quickly went into his mind.

~*~*

Hiei was a bit startled when Dolore appeared in front of himself in the black void of his mind. Both of them blended right in with their backdrop of black. Hiei looked at her questioningly. Dolore sighed and sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry for having upset you so much," she whispered. Hiei shook his head.

"It's ok, I just never thought that there would be someone somewhat like me out there in the world," he replied. Dolore smiled sadly at him

"I know how that feels, not thinking that anyone has suffered as much as yourself," she said as she pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

Hiei took a deep breath and looked at the demoness. She seemed smaller, more fragile than she had outside of his mind. She looked at him sadly.

"Why do you seem so different in my mind?" Hiei asked her. Dolore semi-smiled at him.

"When you enter the mind of someone with a Jagan, you are who you really are, as are they. This is what we really are, who we really are. I'm a fragile, broken and used girl. You're a broken man who's beginning to heal from the hardships that life has put you through. You are becoming what you always should have been, through the power of love," Dolore told him. Hiei blushed slightly and looked away.

"You know," Dolore said. Hiei looked at her. "I never wanted to tell anyone my story. Not even to the man I loved. I never told him about my past. I never told anyone anything about me before Wald Der Sorge. I lied if I said that I hadn't told my story before all of you. I told it to Subaru once. His story has to be the worst of all of ours in my opinion. His life was so depressing in my view. I may have never known love, but he knew love. He loved one man and only one many. He would have done anything for that man."

"What happened to Subaru?" Hiei asked curious how Dolore could think his story could be worse. Dolore looked at Hiei, the corner of her mouth turning up, trying to smile.

"Subaru was a naturally happy person to begin with. He had a loving sister and a big family who all were very observing of him. He was living with his sister and doing his thing, killing demons that were bugging humans," Hiei raised an eyebrow at her. "He lived in the Ningenkai; he wanted to protect all the Ningens. This man had met him when he was a child, and had promised that they would meet again, and if Subaru could make him feel anything, anything at all in the space of a year, he would spare Subaru's life. Subaru, being young at the time, didn't hear half of what the man said because of the wind, besides the man erased that memory from Subaru's mind.

"Years later he came back into Subaru's life. Subaru was drawn to him, though he thought it was just friendship. Subaru spent most of his time with this man and his sister. They were so close, or so Subaru thought. The man would tell Subaru that he loved him nearly every day in that one year. Subaru, though alarmed by such a proclamation, believed him when he said those words. Just before the year was over, the man sacrificed his right eye to protect Subaru. Subaru was crushed that the man did that for him. In that instant, the second the man Seishiro lost his eye, Subaru knew he loved him. He went to visit Seishiro in the hospital, but when he got there the year was over. Everything went to hell. Subaru isn't quite sure what happened, even now, but he knows that Seishiro broke his arm, told him that it was all fake and that he didn't love Subaru, and that he was so shocked that he went into a coma.

"Subaru's sister decided to do something about what had happened between her brother and Seishiro. She met him under the cursed tree he feed human corpses to. He killed her with his hand through her chest. Then he disappeared. Subaru didn't know what had happened to his sister when he awoke, and was terribly sad to find that one so precious to him had been murdered by the one he loved. He spent seven years looking for Seishiro, slowly becoming more like his love as time rolled by. When seven years were up, he finally found Seishiro. They met twice, the second being the thing that killed Subaru.

"Subaru met him on a bridge. They walked towards each other, Subaru lighting the cigarette that Seishiro had pulled out. Then they fought. Subaru didn't want to fight Seishiro, but he was. In the end, Seishiro went to kill Subaru the way he had killed his sister, but somehow Subaru ended up with his hand through Seishiro's chest instead of the other way around. Subaru felt his heart break. He asked Seishiro why. Seishiro simply replied that it was the spell Subaru's sister had employed at her death. The spell that would not let Seishiro kill Subaru in the way he had killed her, for if he tried, it would be reversed on him. Subaru asked him why he did it then, knowing this would happen. Seishiro simply said that if you thought about it, Subaru didn't have the will to kill someone. Subaru could feel tears well up in his eyes. Seishiro said that Subaru really was cute, then leaned forward, whispered something in Subaru's ear and died. Subaru cried for the man he loved. He wondered if what someone says when they died was true.

"He ended up having to fill in Seishiro's job of feeding the tree human corpses. Even in death Seishiro would torture him. He still feeds the tree. He's waiting for his inevitable death so that he can be with the ones he loves. That's why I think he is worse than me," Dolore told Hiei. Hiei felt for Subaru.

"Hiei, we have known about you for a while," Dolore suddenly confessed. Hiei was surprised and turned to face Dolore. Dolore hung her head in shame.

"We've known about you because of what you've gone through. Everyone has always thought, since we found out about you, that you would end up being one of us, and even one of the four," Dolore didn't look at the stunned Hiei. "Even I thought so. No one would have guessed that you would be able to come out on top. Maybe it was because you had suffered so much; in such a small time or that you were acting like me in a way, cutting everyone off from you and not letting your emotions come that much into play. Maybe it was because you never had anyone with you, close to you, even if it was in just a partner in crime. We were first surprised when you came to be on good terms with Kurama. I do admit that I knew who he was from watching you. I know that kitsune too well. We were a bit surprised when you heisted the three artifacts and were then caught by the bumbling spirit detective Yusuke.

"You continued to get close to Kurama, and soon we were all hoping that you would be saved from more hell than you had already experienced. I wanted you to succeed the most. I didn't want another person to become like myself, or the other three on the council, for you would most certainly make the council five. Subaru wanted you to succeed in the game of love, where he had failed so miserably in his view. Romial wanted you to never be betrayed by those you trusted, like him. Jane wanted you to never know the evil that hides behind every kind face. I wanted you to never become like me."

Hiei stared, dumbfounded by Dolore's confession. He couldn't believe that his life had been so depressing that they had thought he would come here. He knew that his past was bad, and that most people would most certainly be depressed by hearing it, but he never thought…

"I know it's a bit overwhelming, but I think you may have overcome the odds. I think that you have found friends that care about you, a person who loves you more than anything in the three worlds, and a family that is willing to accept you is you just let them. You can be more than what we are. You can do what we failed at so miserably. You can overcome the past evils that have haunted you and move on into a life of love and acceptance. All you have to do is be open to it and accept that you can be more than a shadow, that you can be in love and have emotions. If you take the plunge, we know that you will soon be as happy as the happiest people in existence. It's written in the stars that you will be one of the greatest love stories told, you and your fox, if you just take the plunge. The stars say that your love has the potential to be the greatest love of all time. You have the chance to be talked of by all; you have the chance to be the greatest romance story ever. You have a chance to make everyone hope and believe in these things we call feelings. All you need to do is go for it. You will make more of a difference in the lives of everyone around you if you go for it, than we will ever make in the span of time that we will exist," Dolore said anxiously. "We all want to believe in you so much, so that we can almost have a glimmer of hope for ourselves. We want to believe in you so that when we die we can go to the place beyond, confront those that we had loved and tell them that we love them more than anything and have it all be alright and our love returned. We want to believe in the proverbial "Happily ever after." You are the way that we will believe."

~*~*

Hypatia smirked as the demon clutched at his chest. Blood was pouring out of his wounds as his body convulsed. His knees shook and then he fell onto them and bent over the ground.

"I can't believe such small cuts are killing you," she said to the dying demon. She heard a groan that was not his and saw Alexi sitting up, holding her head from a splitting headache. Alexi blinked as she caught sight of the dying demon, which she immediately recognized as one of the "Chosen."

"Shit!!" she shouted as he started convulsing in his death throws. Alexi knew that if Hypatia killed this demon that she would become part of "The Chosen" because she was a different kind of demon, one that hadn't been assigned as a representative for "The Chosen." She quickly reached behind her neck and pulled out her katana, bringing it quickly down on the demon's neck. She heaved a sigh of relief, but it's was cut off as the lightning hit her again.

"Alexi!!!" Hypatia screamed.

~*~*

Hiei came too. He looked at the body of Dolore, stunned by what she had told him.

"Hiei!" Kurama shouted. Hiei was knocked over as said kitsune pounced on him and wouldn't let go. "You worried me so much! Don't ever do that to me again!"

Hiei was surprised that Kurama had been so worried. It had only been a few minutes… then he noticed that the suns position had moved.

Kurama was now kissing Hiei all over, and Hiei, being surprised and embarrassed, squirmed out of his hold. Scooting over to Dolore, who had yet to return to them. Hiei glanced at her, and noticed her breathing was shallow. He started to hear a faint song.

"Sirens," Hiei announced. Yusuke tuned in his hearing and noticed the song too. Kurama, who was Youko due to his being so worried over Hiei, heard the song clearly.

~All around me are familiar faces

Worn out places, worn out faces

Bright and early for the daily races

Going No where, going no where

Their tears are filling up their glasses

No expression, no expression

Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow

No Tomorrow, no tomorrow~

At one point in his life, Kurama had thought the song beautiful, but now it was being used to harm Dolore and the forest which she worked so hard on. He zoned in when he heard Yusuke shouting.

"Kuwa! Kuwa wake up!!!" Yusuke was shouting at the orange haired teen, who wasn't listening apparently. Kurama realized that the song had captured him as well.

"Yusuke! It's because of the sirens!" Kurama shouted at the distraught teen. Yusuke backed away from Kuwa and looked at the kitsune. Kurama backed up slightly, afraid of the half-demon's gaze.

"How long?" he asked. Kurama listened back into the sirens.

~And I find it kind of funny

I find it kind of sad

The dreams in which I'm dying

Are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you

I find it hard to take

When people run in circles it's a very, very

Mad world, Mad world~

"They're about halfway through," he said. "It'll take them a few times to kill everyone in the forest," he told the other teen. Yusuke began to rush off in the direction of the singing. Kurama wasn't far behind. Hiei brushed a stray hair off of Dolore's face and went after his friend and love.

~Children waiting for the day they feel good

Happy birthday, happy birthday

And I fell the way that every child should

Sit and listen, sit and listen

Went to school and I was very nervous

No one knew me, no one knew me

Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson

Look right through me, look right through me~

Hiei was hearing the lyrics and was saddened by them. Then he realized what the sirens were up to. They were going to kill them with depression. Hiei grew mad. The people and demons in Wald Der Sorge had suffered enough. They didn't deserve to die because of sadness.

~And I find it kind of funny

I find it kind of sad

The dreams in which I'm dying

Are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you

I find it hard to take

When people run in circles it's a very, very

Mad world, Mad world

Enlarging your world

Mad World~

"That's the end of the first time!" Kurama shouted back to Hiei. Hiei then noticed that Yusuke was no longer running with him and the kitsune.

"Where'd Yusuke go?" he shouted up to Kurama.

"He literally fell somewhere back there. The depression was too much for him. The Siren's song caught him," Kurama yelled back.

Hiei gulped, he didn't think that he'd make it, then he thought about Dolore, and what she had said to him and he grew confident. He sped up, determined to make it and stop the sirens before they could hurt those he cared for. He passed up Kurama, who was slowing down. Hiei's heart beat faster as he realized that it was becoming too much for the kitsune. He hurried more, determined to not let his love get caught by the song. He stopped as the trees came to sudden conclusion. Hiei stared at the circle of four sirens, their blue hair and blue scalely skin. He rushed at the nearest one and then felt a ton of bricks be laid upon his heart. He felt as though he had been betrayed by those he trusted. The time Kurama had protected Yusuke by taking the sword in his stomach came to mind and Hiei felt as if his world would collapse. He looked at the sirens, which seemed perfectly happy. Hiei pushed the grief as far aside as he could and drew his sword, his hands shaking as the siren suddenly looked like his precious fox. He closed his eyes, reminding himself that it was a siren he was going to kill, not Kurama. He took a few steps forward and then thrust with his sword. He heard a scream and opened his eyes. Kurama stood there, screaming in his beautiful alto voice as Hiei's sword was pushed into his heart. Hiei's eyes went wide and he collapsed to the ground, crying.

I killed him. I Killed him! He repeated to himself. The body fell beside him. Hiei choked as he opened his eyes to look at his now dead love. The siren's dead blue eyes stared back at him. Hiei's eyes went wide and he took a deep breath. He plucked the sword from the sirens chest and moved over to the next siren. Hiei saw his sister, his kind and caring sister. She held out a hand for him and motioned for him to embrace her. Hiei's eyes filled with tears. This is what he had wanted, to be accepted by his sister. To be accepted by one so pure, caring, and innocent. Hiei dropped his sword and went to embrace her. His arms wrapped around her slim waist and Hiei felt at peace. Then he felt something pierce his flesh, right by his heart. Hiei's head snapped up to look at Yukina, her normally happy and pleasant face now twisted into a look of hate and disgust. Hiei's eyes went wide and he collapsed to the ground.

"Hiei!" he heard someone shout. The voice sounded familiar, but he just couldn't place it. First he killed Kurama, now his beloved sister had killed him. "Hiei!"

Something cut his sister into pieces. Hiei cried out as he felt his heart break at the sight of his sister dying. He hid his head in his hands. Comforting arms were wrapped around his shoulders. Hiei looked up to find Kurama. Hiei's heart soared through the roof. He hadn't killed his fox!! He quickly wrapped his arms around Kurama's neck and began to sob onto his shoulder. Kurama comforted him by rubbing his back, but then suddenly stopped. Hiei was surprised but when Kurama pulled away he noticed his face was cold and dispassionate.

"I don't love you," Kurama said. Hiei's heart shattered. He looked dumbfounded at his fox. "I never loved you. Every time I said I loved you I lied."

Hiei began to cry, his tears crystallizing and falling to the ground unnoticed.

"How could I love you? You aren't what I want in a mate. You are nothing that I have ever wanted. The only reason I was with you was because you intrigued me. But now I've figured you out and I don't have a reason to stay. You mean nothing to me. You have never meant anything to me," Kurama said. He turned away and walked over to Yusuke, wrapping his arms around the teen. "I love Yusuke, not you."

Hiei cried, broken and alone. His heart was smashed into a million pieces. He could feel each one tear into his skin. He ripped at his chest, tearing away his cloak and shirt and ripping at his flesh in a desperate attempt to rip the bleeding parts of his heart out of his chest so that he wouldn't fell the pain. His fingers were bloody and he could see skin under his nails, but he didn't care about the physical pain. He just wanted the pain of his heart to disappear.

Gentle arms wrapped around him and he could feel the pain melt away. Hiei looked at his chest and saw a pair of pale arms were wrapped around his waist, holding on for dear life. Hiei looked over his shoulder and saw Youko's pained face. He was struggling against the sirens song. Hiei's eyes went wide and he could feel the tears start again. Youko smiled at him weakly and gave Hiei a reassuring squeeze. His eyes were filled with pain and Hiei knew that he wanted to tell him something, but he just couldn't because of the pain. Hiei looked at the two remaining sirens. Their illusions had worn off and Hiei picked up and threw his sword through the one who had looked like his fox. The illusion wore off the last siren and then it looked like Dolore. Hiei's eyes went wide.

"I'm surprised that you got this far, and survived this long Hiei," she said while heading over to the pair. Youko was out because of the song. "even though I'm not singing aloud my spell is working."

"Why?" Hiei managed to ask.

"Why what? Why try to destroy something that helps people? Why pretend to be Dolore? Why do all of this? Let me tell you something little man. I have good reasons for going after that ungrateful wench. She deserves everything that has come to her. I've made her what she is, and I will be the one to finish her off. That's right. I made her. I made that creature," the siren spoke with hate dripping off of her voice. She knelt down before Hiei. "you really do belong in that menagerie of hers. That's why I'm going to kill you. You belong with all those broken, despicable creatures. You belong with those downtrodden, stepped on, abused, used, and torn apart creatures."

Hiei stared in silence as the siren's illusion started to slip away. He stared in shock when he realized who the siren really was.

"Y-you're… Dolore's… mother," he stuttered out. The siren smirked wider.

"So you've heard that pathetic wretch's story? Even more of a reason to kill you," the siren managed to say. She was so controlled by her utter hate for her daughter that she didn't notice Hiei bring back his arm and shove it through her chest and heart. Her eyes went wide and Hiei smiled at her.

"You're wrong you know," he told her as he kept his arm in her chest, his hand poking out the back of her back. "Dolore is better than you. She will survive, and so will I. I will overcome people like you and I will survive through the centuries as someone people will tell stories about to their children. People will look up to me and they will follow my lead. I will have my "Happily ever after.""

The siren laughed. "It doesn't matter that you've killed me. I've already killed them. I've just finished the last time through the song."

Hiei's heart stopped beating. He pulled his arm out of the siren's chest and shoved her body away from him. He looked back at the kitsune. He was lying in an unnatural position. Hiei's heart started to break and tears formed in his eyes.

"K-Kurama?..." Hiei hazarded. He moved the kitsune so that he was lying on his back. Hiei brushed at the kitsune's hair. "Oh gods, don't die on me. I can't live without you. I don't want to be alone anymore…"

Make it go away or make it better

Isn't that what loves suppose to do?

Make it go away or make it better

Cause I would do either one for you

This is not the way you should see me

This is not the face I recognize

Could I lay my head down for a moment?

Would you sing to me like I'm child?

Cause I'm not angry, I'm not crying

I'm just staying over my head

You could be the angel that stayed on my shoulder

When all the other angels left

Make it go away, cause I am weak and

This is more than one should have to take

If you do this for me then I will promise

I'll make it go away for you some day

There are reasons, silver linings

There are lessons, but I don't care

Cause I just need a hand that I can hold onto

Its darker than death out there

Oh, I'm so cold

And so far away from my home

But tonight you're, you're where I belong

You're everything right when I'm everything wrong

So make it go away or make it better

Isn't that what loves supposed to do?

Just make it go away or make it better

Cause I would do either one for you

Make it go away or make it better

Isn't that what loves suppose to do?

Make it go away or make it better

Cause I would do either one for you