by Rina K. Fenderson
Prologue. Moon Shadow
**This is where your sanity gives in and love begins
Never lose your grip don't trip don't fall you'll lose it all
The sweetest way to die
It lies deep inside you can not hide it's the meanest fire
Oh, it's a strange desire you can not lie that's a needless fight
This is where your sanity gives in and love begins
Never lose your grip don't trip don't fall you'll lose it all
The sweetest way to die
When your blood runs dry you're paralyzed it will eat your mind
Did you hold it back It comes to you in slow attacks It's the meanest
fire**
~~ The Cardigans "Paralyzed"
Rain pelted down on his soft features, mingling with his tears that collected under the fringe of his dark lashes. He suppressed a scream, squeezed his eyes shut more tightly, and shuddered in the cold rain. Grass and mud clung to his body, he could feel the green blades tickling at his neck, but his true concern was the weight bearing down on his vulnerable body.
It was a dream. It had to be. It was always a dream. Warm hands clasping and dragging over rain-soaked --blood-soaked-- frigid skin, under a red moon. It was always the same. The nightmare of remembrance. But he wasn't waking and the pain was increasing... Kurosaki Hisoka trembled and whimpered, his body unconsciously arching into his aggressor as an instinct to get away. No matter how far he ran, it always came to this. The blond boy shivering and crying on the ground, pinned by a demon cloaked in white. Hisoka had no understanding of how the nightmare became reality again, seeing Muraki had been shocking enough in and of itself and Hisoka said the wrong words...picked the vain fight with an incredibly powerful enemy and fell right back to where this all began. The rain had started when Hisoka's body was bare underneath Muraki's own. Hisoka's hands were bound over head by Muraki's powers and twisted thorn vines tore and wound around his wrists. A blade was lodged between his ribs, piecing his heart and bleeding out a ruby waterfall. Shinigami will die if too much blood is lost... Muraki pressed the dagger in again, ripping the newly healed skin and reopening the wound. Crimson warmth bubbled up and slipped down the boy's chest, dulling in hue as it mixed with the rain water. Hisoka whined, fisting his hands and wrenching them, but it only produced more blood as the thorns bit into his wrists. Blinking his eyes open, trying to see through the rain drops splashing into his eyes, Hisoka stared up at his imprisoner. Both of them were drenched. Most of Muraki's clothes were strewn around them along with Hisoka's, though he was still clad in his white shirt which clung to the contorts of his chest. The edges were stained pink where Hisoka's blood seeped in and his black tie dangled precariously around his neck beneath the collar. Hisoka eyed the fabric wishing he had control of his arms to wrap the tie around Muraki's neck and choke the man who killed him four years ago. Muraki grinned, his silver eyes glinting, and as if he read Hisoka's mind, he rose up the boy's body, letting the tie trail up his stomach and chest. Hisoka's head snapped back at the cold shudder that ran up his spine. Mud caked into his blond hair, pieces of the honey colored strands plastered to his forehead and over his emerald eyes. Then at that moment he heard his name. Not the growled tone of Muraki as he trusted within Hisoka's small body, but a panicked shout filled with concern and question. *Tsuzuki?* Hisoka thought, blinking the water and blood out of his eyes. His lips parted seeing between the leaves from his position on the ground, the dark figure of his partner. He inhaled sharply, readying to scream, then the knife was yanked out of his chest spurting blood with the sudden movement. Hisoka cringed, knowing Muraki too had seen Tsuzuki and was endeavoring to stop Hisoka from calling for help. He forced the scream to his throat anyway, but it never made it out. Hisoka's eyes widened, his voice box gurgled as it was sliced in two and blood poured from his throat. He couldn't even grasp it to try and stop the blood flow. He mouthed his partner's name, eyes blurring from tears and rain as Tsuzuki ventured away from him. Anymore blood loss and he was sure to die. Muraki ran his tongue over the dull side of the blade, lapping up a bit of Hisoka's blood with a malicious smile. "Now, boya...he's not to find you yet. I have a few more tricks I have learned and you..." He leaned over Hisoka, running his tongue along the boy's bloodied jaw. "Will be out of my way, forevermore." Muraki ran his hand down Hisoka's side, forcing himself in Hisoka again with the motion. The young blond arched up and tried to whimper at the sensation, but his mouth was filled with blood and his throat a mess of tissue. "It seems I need you no longer," Muraki hissed, slowly carving a pattern into the torn flesh at Hisoka's neck that was endeavoring to heal. "You no longer satisfy me."