Blood. There was too much blood! It was everywhere, in her hair, on her hands, drenched over her body. "Come off, please." she pleaded miserably, tearing at her soft alabaster skin in a futile attempt to remove the red ichors.
It was futile. Every drop of blood she managed to scrape off, some how even more would appear to replace it.
The roars of her pursuers topped her cold. Those death curdling screams promising vengeance for what she did piercing her to her very soul. She didn't mean for it to happen! Couldn't they see that? She didn't have control! Why won't they just leave her alone?! She didn't mean to hurt all those people! It wasn't her fault! Her blood... her blood...
"She's over here!"
"Get her!"
"Kill the little witch!"
Leona struggled to her feet and ran. She had been running for so long, she ran until her legs felt like lead while the blood in her veins burned battery acid. Then she ran some more.
***
Ranma jumped back, then high as one of the Orochi's heads crashed into the ground where he had been standing. Twisting in mid air, he dodged another head flashing by just barely, jaws snapping at him dangerously just before he landed on the neck of the one who had attacked him first. He grunted, careful not too lose his footing as he raced up the cold dark skin towards the main body. The skin of the Orochi was slippery!
Half way there. Come on Ranma, don't screw up now! Akane needs you!
"Holy crap!" He exclaimed, another head of the Orochi flashing by and biting at him. He swore he could see the pearlescent shimmer of its saliva-drenched teeth as it snapped by him.
Stumbling slightly, Ranma leaned forward as he ran to center his balance. He had to hurry, and he knew it. Akane couldn't survive long underwater, and this bastard Orochi didn't look willing to go back to sleep any time soon.
Jumping high, he twisted overhead to avoid another head of the Orochi as it slammed into the space he had just been standing on. Landing on top of its head, the pigtailed martial artist nearly stumbled and careened off the Orochi's body when he landed on a patch of fungus growing over it's skin.
He wasn't prepared for the Orochi to thrash about so quickly; he was flung high in the air. Twisting to better gain control of his ascent, the boy grimaced as gravity reasserted itself. Falling, he felt a sense of horrified awe grip his chest, the beast below him converging on his falling form, eight heads snapping out at him, blood lust apparent in their eyes.
***
"Where is she?!"
"Fan out, look through the brush! She can't have gotten far!"
"Find her and kill her!"
Leona struggled to remain quite, to keep the overwhelming fear inside when all she wanted to do was cry out, to submerge herself in the growing shroud of despair gripping inside her.
"Shit! I've looked everywhere!"
"The river!"
"Lets go!"
Leona squeezed her eyes closed tightly, hugging and pulling herself deeper into the dead hollowed out tree she had taken refuge in.
***
Ranma screamed, the teeth of the Orochi piercing his form, blood erupting from his wounds and covering the head that had managed to snatch him.
The other heads whipped about in frenzy, attacking the head that had managed to score the feast ala Ranma viciously. When they slammed the head that had caught him from numerous sides all at once, the Orochi lost its grip on his sundered body, flinging the wounded bleeding morsel back into the air.
Thoughts of Akane, of the girl drowning under the angry waves of water below him was lost. Thoughts, desperate and hurried, began to fade away as his body descended lower and lower. He had failed, and he knew it. His legs where useless, the Orochi's bite had pierced and severed his spinal cord at the base of his back. His arms still held strength, but even now he could feel that power fading away to nothingness.
"I hate you." he heard himself gurgle out as he fell faster and faster to the ground. His senses were vanishing. Gone was touch, and with it pain left him. His eyes were swimming, sight leaving him quickly as the sounds of the world became dulled.
***
Tired. So very tired.. Leona hugged herself tighter, a sudden chilly wind blowing into her hiding space, sending a shudder through out her entire body.
It had been an eternity since the angry people had passed her by, or so she thought. She was so deep in the grip of despair a second seemed like an hour and a minute seemed like a second to her pained senses.
She needed to move, she was thirsty and hungry. Fear of her pursuers kept he were she was, despite the need for sustenance. She just wanted to be left alone, to fade away from everyone's eyes and be alone. No one could hurt you if you were alone, after all.
"Here you are." a voice filled with alien concern and caring pierced the haze over her mind. She stiffened with the words, an acute fear of one of those bastards finding her rising in her belly. She knew they wanted her dead, she knew they planned to hurt her over and over again until her body failed if they managed to find her.
***
Ranma lay there, caught by one of the heads of Orochi. He thought he would be gobbled up the moment he touched down, forever silencing him. Muted shock gripped his mind as the world began to fade away, washed away like a pane of watercolors being scrubbed from its surface. All that remained was the single head of the Orochi beneath him, holding him wrapped in its neck like a snake constricting on its prey.
He felt.. something.. happening. The neck constricting his rapidly cooling form shifted, morphing into something different. Like putty, the skin of Orochi gave way around him, flowing downward into a circular flatplane. As more and more of the Orochi's neck transformed, the flatplane turned into a basin, water as crystal clear as a purified diamond filled the basin, before he was lowered into it.
The waters immediately clouded over, blood mixing with the waters and turning it a decidedly pink opaque liquid.
Why was the Orochi doing this? How was he still conscious of his surroundings despite his body's refusal to respond to his will? He should be dead, right?
The flow inverted, pulling back into his body, strange familiar energies erupted in his chest before agonizing pain clenched at his mind.
The Orochi's head gazed at him, stared right into his eyes as the pain began to become too much for him to take. His consciousness slowly ebbed away as he stared into the Orochi's blue eyes..
***
"There, all clean." the voice of her caretaker said calmly from behind her.
Leona stared at the dark murky waters of the river, transfixed at the sight of herself in the water. The blood was gone; the despair of her actions had been washed away with the cleansing. "Am.. am I really clean?"
Amusement.
"Mister?" Leona turned around, fear at being abandoned welling in her chest.
Tinkle, droplets of water descending from on high splashing behind her.
"Where are you?!" Leona sobbed, twirling back around, eyes fearfully in search.
Compassion.
"I'm here." the voice, so kind and soothing, sounded again from behind as she felt strong arms surround her slowly, pulling her against her caretaker.
Leona looked down at the arms holding her, sniffling back tears of relief, "I thought you left mister."
"Leaving. Coming and going. It will happen."
Confusion.
"Why?" the girl asked, her tiny hands squeezing at the arms that had surrounded her.
"Why? It's the way of things." the voice spoke, hesitantly and full of doubt.
Leona sniffled, "I don't want to be alone Mister. Can't you stay with me?"
Acceptance.
"I'm always with you, in heart and soul."
"What's your name?"
"My name.." The voice asked itself, "My name.. is.."
Darkness overcame everything.
***
The pair slept peacefully, resting amid the evidence of their joined passion and pleasure. They laid there, the boy holding the woman tightly against his chest, unaware of the dim violet shimmering light surrounding their bodies. Neither would know of it's coming, and as the light faded away into oblivion, neither would know of its passing.
See other episodes by Matdeception
(Posted Mon, 16 Feb 2004 20:59)
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