Chihiro: Part I

Chapter Twenty-Five

~*~

For days after the death of Anzu I stayed secluded in the mausoleum, lying in bed for what seemed to be hours and only going out to feed when Seto insisted. I could tell he was becoming more and more concerned; several times he sat down to ask me if something had happened and I wanted to tell him, I wanted more then anything to tell him and unburden myself. Maybe he would understand. But in the end I always shook my head and he left me alone.

Now that I was staying in the mausoleum more often, we were having sex regularly. Some nights I needed it more than I ever imagined I would; I needed Seto's touch and his taste and his smell on me, inside me, and all around me. And some nights, when I didn't want sex and Seto didn't seem interested, we would just sit together in front of the fire and that was all that was needed. Seto had his books that he dived into, staying absorbed for hours, and so long as I could sit next to him and stare into the fire, I was at peace.

One of the few nights we ventured out to hunt, we passed a newspaper stand and there it was, plastered all over the front page: CHEERLEADER'S KILLER STILL AT LARGE IN DOMINO! When I saw it I was careful not to look at it too long, in case Seto noticed. I was suddenly more grateful than ever that we didn't own a television, or even a radio, so that I wouldn't have to hear the news reports about Anzu's death. Any more about it and I felt I would break down into a million pieces.

At one point after about two weeks of seclusion, Marik and Bakura found their way to the mausoleum (much to Seto's distaste) and came looking for me. I was sitting in front of the fire and came to greet them at the door, happy to see them until I remembered that they had been there that night too, the night I killed Anzu.

"Hey Jou, enjoying your honeymoon?" Bakura asked as they made their way inside, while Seto held the door open with a half-hearted look on his face.

"Yeah, you getting your face smeared with Kaiba cream every night?" Marik asked, as nonchalant as ever. It was at this point that Kaiba went upstairs with his book, muttering something about the vulgarity present in his home that evening.

"So where've you been, Jou? We haven't seen you since that night you killed that fucking annoying salesgirl." Bakura was admiring the stone that the mausoleum was made out of, running his hand along it to feel how smooth it was.

I sat down on the couch and shrugged. "Haven't felt much like going out, I guess."

"You're not feeling upset about the salesgirl, are you?" Marik asked, smirking. "It's not like you had a choice, Jou. She couldn't know you were still alive."

"I'm not upset about that, can we just drop it already?" I snarled, a little more angrily than I would have liked, and the two of them were suddenly staring at me very seriously.

Now here's something about the two twits that you might not believe. The two of them aren't much when they're together: they fight, they hit, they scream, they bite, and they probably fuck each other senseless, but that's not what I'm getting at. On their own, they have their different qualities: Bakura can be more indifferent while Marik can be a bit more fun and joking. One thing that they're not is stupid, combined or on their own.

I was sitting with my arms crossed staring into the fire when Bakura plopped down beside me on the couch, and when I looked into his chocolate brown eyes, they were hard and serious. "What did you see?"

I felt my lip begin to tremble, and I started to blabber out an excuse. "Nothing, I-"

"Bullshit it was nothing." Bakura said seriously. "You drank her blood; there was something you must have seen, something in her lifetime that has deeply distressed you."

Fuck these guys, sometimes there just isn't getting anything past them. But I really didn't feel like explaining the whole damn thing to them. And who knows, would they understand? Would they care? They didn't know what I was going through, who were they to try and pry it out of me?

Marik plopped down on the other side of me. "Come on Jou, you can tell us. What was in the bitch's memories? Maybe you fucked her and didn't remember?"

I stood up so abruptly the couch almost fell over. "Look guys, I really don't…would you just please leave? I'll…I'll come to the coven in a few nights."

"Ooh." Marik grinned. "He's getting upset, it must be worse than I thought."

"Maybe he raped her and didn't remember." Bakura muttered indignantly.

I don't know what it was, Marik's remark or Bakura's, but next thing I knew I was more furious than ever before. I stared at them one minute and the next there was this incredible bashing noise, but where had it come from? I saw them look behind them and there was a chair in pieces on the floor behind the couch. It only took a moment for me to realize that I had picked it up and thrown it, in a fit of anger.

That was when they seemed to get the message, moreless. They got up off the couch and sauntered over to the door, not really saying anything or looking at me as they walked by me, and I wouldn't look at them. I couldn't meet their eyes. I felt an incredibly sick feeling build up inside of me and I felt nauseated.

I heard the door close and they were gone.

I stood there for what seemed to be hours just heaving in anger, my head spinning and my emotions clogging my thoughts. I felt the blood tears begin to swell up in my eyes until I pressed my hands against them and tried to keep them from spilling.

I opened my eyes after I was sure I wouldn't start crying, and there was Seto standing on the steps, watching me with a serious expression on his face. He didn't even seem to notice the broken bits of chair lying around on the floor. Hope that chair wasn't expensive.

Under Seto's glare, I felt almost as though I was human again, and here he was coming to confront me. Only this time I wasn't lovesick over him. This time I was desperately pleading with him in my mind not to ask, please don't ask…

Seto stepped off the stairs and came towards me, and for the first time since my embrace, I felt genuinely threatened by his presence. We had roles in this relationship, we both knew it, and now he was going to exercise his role as the sire.

I looked to the door and wondered if I could make a quick escape, but Seto growled out. "Don't even dare."

I stayed perfectly still after that, watching him come closer and closer towards me, and willing myself not to cry in fear. He came right up to me, towered over me, and I stared up into his blue eyes, bright from the fire, but hard with determination. If I tried really hard, I could close my eyes and we would be back in my apartment, with a beating heart in my chest, and Anzu would still be alive.

Seto's voice didn't quiver with rage, nor did it soften with love. "Tell me what happened."

It was an order. I would disobey at my own risk. I looked away from his eyes and at his shirt, a beautifully hand-made silk shirt, jet black and open at the collarbone. Maybe if I stayed quiet I wouldn't have to answer him.

"Oh…" I began weakly, gesturing towards the door with my flailing arm. "You know them, stay too long, ask too many questions-"

"That's not what I meant." Seto interrupted harshly, and I jolted slightly from the sharpness in his tone. "You've been quiet, distant, not going out to feed. So what happened?"

I shook my head and turned away from him. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Jou, it's obviously bothering you-" He reached out and took my shoulder in his right hand, and angrily I shrugged him away.

"I don't want to talk about it!" I snarled at him, and turned to him, and he maintained his hard demeanor, although I could have sworn I saw him trembling. "Why don't you just read my head, if you're so goddamn curious?!"

Seto took in a deep, annoyed breath. "I was hoping you would just tell me."

I felt my anger soften immediately, and my scowling, scrunching face slowly faded into a frown. There was the one thing he could say to shut me the hell up, and say it in a way that would make me think that even just for a moment, maybe he cared enough about me to want to know what was genuinely wrong.

So I gave in. Of course I did. "…I saw a girl I knew when I was human."

The expression in his face was nothing I had ever seen before. Horror, for a split second, came into his eyes and then he seemed to calm himself, so the azure pools I stared into were now calm and cool. "And what did you do?"

I took him a breath and closed my eyes. I didn't want to say it. "I killed her."

Seto let out a deep sigh of…relief? I looked at him and he did indeed look like he was relieved. "I'm glad to hear it."

That did it, I guess. My jaw dropped open and I was prepared to launch into a furious onslaught about how he dare say such a horrible thing. But I couldn't find the words that expressed the anger I was feeling. I turned my back on him for a moment to compose myself, but I couldn't keep it in for even a second. It needed to be unleashed, everything about it.

"Glad to…glad to hear it?!" I screamed at him, my voice echoing off the marble that surrounded us, and yet still Seto did not flinch. "She was alive and well and breathing and laughing five days ago and now she's dead and it's because of ME! Because she knew me!"

"At the wrong place at the wrong time." Seto said gently, and came towards me. I was still heaving with anger and I knew that if he so much put a finger on me I was ready to lash out and get even angrier, for making light of such a severe situation. But his eyes were kind, and his expression was unmoving.

Seto smiled very gently, and he reached out and touched my jaw with his fingers, lightly and featherlike, and I felt the anger begin to slip away. "You may be a strong fledgling but your humanity continues to weaken you."

Humanity, what humanity? Did I have any humanity left in me when I attacked and killed Anzu in that dirty alley?

Then Seto did something completely unexpected. The fingers that gently touched my jawbone reached over and gripped my shoulder; pulling me forward unexpectedly, Seto gathered me into his arms. I was confused for a moment, for his scent flooded my nostrils and he was holding me close and I closed my eyes. My blood rushed within my veins, in simple ecstasy for being so close to him. My blood raged, begging to break from my skin and be closer to him than I already was.

I felt his lips caress the shell of my ear, which made me shudder hard. He whispered gently: "No matter what you do, time will touch them, and hurt them, and take everything away from them. And if it comes by your hand, they should be so lucky to fall embrace to a gold-headed angel, and leave this world in bliss."

I squeezed my eyes shut and I felt the tears start to come. It was the single most incredible thing I ever remember him saying to me, in all the time we knew each other. I wrapped my arms around him and held him to me hard. I never wanted to let him go ever again.

Seto laid a very gentle kiss on the shell of my ear and I swooned. I felt his nose tickle my ear, as his lips whispered to me. "This girl, wherever she is now, will go on. And you should too."

After a moment of silence, because talk seemed ever so unimportant at this time, Seto rested his head against mine gently, and we just stood there for moments, quiet and holding each other, while the fire blazed away in the fireplace and the night dwindled on.

Perhaps Seto would win "Best Sire of the Year" after all…

~*~

Seto was right; time did go on. I stayed at the mausoleum and avoided the coven, not quite ready yet to face and make up with the twits. It was just as well, because I was in such peace at the mausoleum. Seto and I went out to feed just about every night, and afterwards we returned to the mausoleum to partake in passionate sex. Seto was quite forceful when he wanted to be, but hell you'd never see me complaining. Whether he was gentle and passionate or animalistic and powerful, I was a slave to his arms, more in love with him than I could ever realize, and wanting to spend all days and nights in nothing but our naked skin.

Eventually the mystery surrounding Anzu's death died down, and the "case went cold", as the newspapers said, meaning that the police were no longer looking for a suspect, I guess. Her funeral was scheduled, and even though I desperately wanted to go to pay my respects and offer silent apologies to her parents and her loved ones, it took place during the day, and even if it took place at night, I was afraid to death of seeing Otogi there. I was pretty sure he wouldn't bother showing up for her funeral, but how did I know? For all I knew, he was still in love with her and just had the shittiest way of showing it.

I promised her quietly that when she was buried, I would visit her. I'd talk to the tombstone, as stupid as that sounds, but I figured she'd at least appreciate a visit…and maybe an explanation.

Seto found out who she was eventually. One too many times when we were out and passed a newspaper with her happy face posted on the front, I must have looked a little too long and Seto figured it out immediately. He said nothing, offered no words of sympathy or solace. He knew that I had to move on, and he wouldn't help by constantly referring to her. I knew too that if I kept thinking about her, I'd never get over the guilt I felt.

It was nearly October, and the air was beginning to change. The leaves were changing colour, and ever so subtly Seto was beginning to change a little too. He seemed quieter, more reluctant to leave the mausoleum. He wanted to stay in and not stray too far. I was more than happy to stay in the mausoleum with him, partake in whatever he wanted to do, even if it was just sitting quietly. The love I felt for him was so strong that we didn't need words. All I needed was his presence, his scent, his embrace, his erection, and his kiss, and I was sated. And I was ecstatic to think that time was continuing on, and we were going to witness the change of so many seasons together. So long as we were together, eternity didn't seem so frightening. It seemed just dandy.

~*~

Mid October rolled around, and one night when I awoke I realized that the walls of the mausoleum suddenly seemed so bare and dull. What was missing exactly? I thought long and hard about it. I had always been disappointed that the mausoleum didn't have a really nice bathroom where I could just surrender to the shower now and then, but I'd gotten over that. But suddenly the plainness of the walls was beginning to get to me. How does one dress them up?

Of course any normal person would think: "Hey, that's easy. Pictures! Lots and lots of pictures of the happy homeowners!"

But Seto told me that vampires did not cast reflections, and if they didn't cast reflections, I was worried that they wouldn't show up in pictures. Say we had Yami take a picture of us in front of the mausoleum, and we got the film developed and all it was was a picture of the mausoleum with nothing in front of it. The people at the photo shop would think we were crazy.

So pictures were obviously not an option…but the other one was paintings.

And that, dear reader, is when I discovered that the one thing I wanted most in the world, in the last days of being human, was finally within my grasp. And I nearly had a heart attack when I remembered it.

Yup, you got it. "Merciful Death".

I had gotten into the habit of robbing my victims, yeah I know it's terrible but it's how we get by. I had saved enough money from my victims that I had well over the amount needed to buy "Merciful Death". So I woke up one evening bright and early, got dressed, gave Seto a passionate kiss and promised him a surprise when I came home, and set off to the art gallery to buy the painting.

It was quite something to revisit the little street that the art gallery sat on. I hadn't come down this way since I had been turned, and I felt so nostalgic about the whole thing. I was so pleased, walking down the street with a huge goofy grin on my face. People walking past me must have thought I was nuts, but I couldn't help it. I stared at the gift shops and the restaurants and everything all around and I felt like I was human again, just an ordinary human kid waltzing around enjoying his youth in the hip part of town.

I came to the art gallery in no time, and even though I was delighted to see it again, I was suddenly paralyzed with fear for a single moment when I thought…what if "Merciful Death" was no longer there? It had been nearly six months since I'd seen it; it was more than possible that it had been sold a long time ago. I prayed that it wasn't, though. I really, really, really prayed that I would walk in and there it would be, waiting for me, asking me to take it home.

I walked in through the door and bell chimed. The heat took me immediately, and my eyes searched the walls frantically. There was no one at the front to greet me, so I couldn't ask about it, so I just wandered about the gallery, searching the walls for it. It had to be here, it just had to be! I'd die if it wasn't here! I'd just die!

But then I saw it. Perfectly aligned on a wall right in front of me, there it sat. Dark and dreadful and deep and beautiful, and I nearly fell to my knees when I saw it. I nearly burst into tears when I started to approach it. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would own it…and now I had enough money to buy it ten times over. I was going to have it after all. It was going to be mine.

I heard footsteps come up behind me, and before I could turn to look over my shoulder, I heard a gentleman's voice ring in my ear, slightly distasteful. "Can I help you sir?"

I turned and looked at him. The snob was definitely taken aback by my youth and then by my clothes (the fucking expensive kind, remember) because he looked me up and down for a brief moment and then smiled, as if he had come to the conclusion that I had lots of money.

I didn't want to waste any time. I motioned to "Merciful Death" and asked: "How much for this piece?"

The man looked at the painting and then back to me, with an even bigger smile. "That piece is listed at 43,000 yen, sir."

I smiled, and I nodded. "I'll take it."

His eyes lit up for a moment, as though I had said the magic words that he'd wanted to hear all day. He clasped his hands together tightly, as though he was overjoyed, and just as he was about to open his mouth….something very strange happened.

The expression left his face ever so slightly. The shine in his eyes was diminishing ever so slowly. The more I stared at him, the more my smile started to falter. I searched his face, his hands, his stature…nothing changed. Was he okay? He was staring at me like a doll with glass eyes, and it was beginning to unnerve me. What was going on? Was he going to tell me that I couldn't have it?

That was when I realized that the air had shifted in the gallery. It had shifted very, very dramatically.

I opened my mouth to say something when a voice interrupted me: "Charles, give him a decent discount, will you?"

The voice came from behind the salesman. The salesman nodded like a slave following orders, his eyes continually fixed on me, and simply answered: "Yes sir."

Then he moved past me, towards the painting, and I watched as he very carefully took it off the wall and carried it towards the back of the store, where I presumed he was going to have it wrapped.

I turned around and came face to face with another vampire.

His red eyes were full and blazing. The scent of his blood hit me in the face like a brick, for it was old and magnificent. The vampire was very handsome; he had traditional and very delicate features. His skin was pale, as was his long hair, and he looked at me with the kindest of smiles. He stood at least a head taller than me, and dressed in a luxurious red satin suit. A massive ruby brooch was pinned at his throat. I knew it right away: this was one old and rich motherfucker.

I was going to ask how on earth he had the power to manipulate the human the way he did, but then I realized that I had seen him somewhere…but where? I hadn't seen him in the flesh before, it had been…

*INSERT GASP HERE…because that's what I did.*

I pointed to the empty wall behind me, where "Merciful Death" had been hanging only a moment ago, and I struggled to form words as this vampire stared at me. "You…the painting-"

The vampire laughed a low, handsome chuckle, and swept the wave of hair out of his face gracefully with one long white hand. "Yes, it is mine. And the human, yes…it was me. A very loose capture of how I was turned."

Then his eyes narrowed almost seductively. "I'm pleased you like it."

My jaw dropped open and I was lost for words. Here I was standing with the artist and the subject of "Merciful Death"…how insignificant did I feel at that moment? I can't even begin to tell you! And as much as I wanted to stray from the typical screaming fan girl effect, I couldn't help but completely gawk at him. "Like it? I adore it!"

I was gushing shamelessly, but he didn't seem to mind so I just kept right at it like a moron. "When I was human I would just stand here and marvel at it!"

Again that very handsome, low chuckle, and his dazzlingly eyes met mine once again. "Always delighted to meet a fan, and an undead one at that."

I grinned widely, and decided now was the time to introduce myself to this vampire who had painted my favourite painting in the world. I felt like a school girl about to meet her favourite romance novel author.

I offered my hand and gave him my name. "I'm Jounouchi Katsuya."

He took my hand like a true gentleman, and gave me his name.

"Pegasus J. Crawford."

THIS IS THE END OF CHIHIRO PART I!

I'm sorry to leave you all with the cliffhanger, but I figured this was the perfect time to put the twist in the plotline.

I want to thank all of you who have read, reviewed, emailed me and put "Chihiro: Part I" on your favourite story lists!

It has been your support that has given me the incentive to finish this story!

Stay tuned and find out what happens to the vampire Jou when "Chihiro" continues in Part II, coming the first week of March, 2010.

Again, thank you for all your support!

Ennya