Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Hazy ❯ It's Okay ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1

“A Tragic Beginning”

“She walks to school with the lunch she packed.

Nobody knows what she's holdin' back.

Wearin' the same dress she wore yesterday.

She hides the bruises with linen and lace

Through the wind, and the rain, she stands hard as a stone,

In a world that she can't rise above.

But her dreams give her wings

And she flies to a place where she's loved…

Concrete Angel

The teacher wonders but she doesn't ask.

It's hard to see the pain behind the mask.

Bearing the burden of a secret storm;

Sometimes she wishes she was never born.

Through the wind, and the rain, she stands hard as a stone,

In a world that she can't rise above.

But her dreams give her wings

And she flies to a place where she's loved…

Concrete Angel.

Somebody screams in the middle of the night.

The neighbors hear, but they turn out the lights.

A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate;

When morning comes, it'll be too late.

Through the wind, and the rain, she stands hard as a stone,

In a world that she can't rise above.

But her dreams give her wings

And she flies to a place where she's loved…

Concrete Angel

A statue stands in a shaded place.

An angel girl with an upturned face.

A name is written on a polished rock;

A broken heart that the world forgot.

Through the wind, and the rain, she stands hard as a stone,

In a word that she can't rise above.

But her dreams give her wings

And she flies to a place where she's loved…

Concrete Angel.”

That's the song I was singing on the bus home from school. My friend, Leslie,

Looked over at me from her window seat.

“How come you like that song so much?”

“Because I can relate to it.”

My stop came up after that, and I got off and went inside. As I was hanging my backpack up in the closet, I could hear my dad discussing something. It sounded like another “client”.

“Hmm. *sniff, sniff* Ahhh. Yeah…this stuff is pure Crack. She's all yours, Ross.” Yep, another “client”, all right.

My dad used to be just an alcoholic. But then he discovered Crack. After his money ran out, he bought a trailer house out by Quartz elementary, my school, for about 26 cents with no payments, and started selling my mom out to people. They would take her back to my room, shut the door, and I really couldn't figure out what happened until about a year ago, on my tenth birthday, when I was taken back there. I never forgot it…or forgave my father. My mom wanted out of it too, still does, but every time she brings it up he beats her so bad she can't walk for days. She never leaves the house, because he fears she'll go to the police. I can't go over to anybody's house, because I might tell. This time, my mom was too hurt, so Ross was taking me. I followed him obediently back into my room, and then started to run for it. Ross took out his knife and slashed me across the chest. He raced to the door and locked it before I could retaliate. Then he swallowed the key.

“You're a feisty one.” He said. “Don't worry, though…I know how to fix that.” Then he struck me again, so that there was a bloody X on my upper torso. Then he went for my legs, cutting them up so much and hitting so many veins that I got dizzy from the blood loss, but I shook it off. He walked over to the closet and took out the whip that was kept there. He cut and slashed with it, and finally, when my vision had become so hazy that I didn't even care what he did, he threw me onto the bed, and climbed on top of me.

What was left of my shirt fell off, and the denim panties formerly known as my jeans were yanked away so that he could see every last nanometer of me. He covered my mouth with his, put his tongue so far down my throat that I nearly gagged. Then he bit down—hard—on my neck, licking the blood that flowed from the wound and grinning. The rest I won't tell you about, since this ought to be a book any kid age 12+ can read. Then he left, but I really didn't care. Because I was lying quietly on the bed in my room—alone—unconscious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day I went to school, sweats and Band-Aids and excuses of a brawl hiding evidence from those who stared. My day went fine until they introduced the new student. He was tall, with long red hair that hung to his waist and came over his shoulders, and brilliant emerald green eyes that seemed to see right into your heart.

“Class, this is Suichi.” Ms. O'Malley, our teacher, wrote it out on the board.

“Think of I'm gonna sue, eeeee—a spider, and good chi from fung shui.” You could tell this embarrassed “Sue-eeeee-chi”. The only seat empty, as usual, was the one next to me.

“Show him around for the day, will you Lindsay?” Asked Ms. O'malley. Of course, it was a rhetorical question, so I spent the day walking around with Suichi and showing him how the school worked: The jocks, the Cheerleaders, and the run-of-the-mill kids who could be endlessly subcategorized.

Thankfully we had all the same classes, so it didn't really tax me giving Suichi a grand tour of a normal school day. That is, until Gym. I had forgotten—almost - about the wounds I'd received last night. So when gym was over, I realized too late that they had re-opened and I'd have to bandage myself up before I fell over dead from blood-loss. Unfortunately, Suichi had realized it before I had. He came over and, getting my attention, gestured to the red “X” seeping onto my T-shirt.

“Do you want me to help you?” Even though the words stung because I hated to depend on this boy that I'd only just met, I knew I had no other choice if I wanted to keep my life. My head slumped so much that my chin touched my already-sore collarbone. I stood up, my gaze on the floor.

“Yes.” Nobody else was in the gym. Suichi took me by the hand and led me out the back door, where he took a pendant from around his neck and, giving it a tight, quick squeeze, made a quick slashing motion with his hand. Suddenly, a swirling portal appeared before him. Grasping my hand tightly in one of his, Suichi stepped into the portal and pulled me in along with him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived in front of a large 2-story house and entered through what seemed to be the front door. Suichi led me up the stairs to a small bedroom situated on the first row and right side of the hall. To the left of the room was a door. After closing the door to the first room behind him, Suichi told me to go over and sit on the bed and he'd be back in a moment. I, however, couldn't bring my self to do so after last night so I found myself a comfortable place on the floor and waited.

Suichi came back after awhile and sat down next to me on the floor. He carried with him a basin of hot water, some cloths and lots of bandages. I hated having to disrobe—completely—so that he could clean my wounds and bandage me up. It was worth it, now that I look back on the memory. Once he'd finished, he took something from his pocket that looked like the morning-glory seeds that my mom bought every year—and never used. He put it in my hand, got up and went into the room to my right. After a minute he came back, carrying a small cup of water. Pointing to the pill, he said,

“Put it in your mouth and swallow.”

“Huh?”

“It's a painkiller. Swallow all the water, too.” I gave him a look that said I didn't trust him, but swallowed the pill and drank the water anyway. I stood up, but Suichi stopped me from pulling on my shirt and, stepping closer, put a hand on each side of my midriff. I started to struggle against him, but everything from my bellybutton down to my toes turned numb and completely useless, and I realized that if Suichi hadn't been restraining me I would have fallen and hurt myself even worse. I must have looked at him as if I'd been fatally betrayed, because he sat me down on the edge of the half-covered bed and, getting down on my level, explained.

“I knew you'd try to leave, and with your injuries, well, I just couldn't let you endanger yourself like that. So I did give you a painkiller, but I added something to the water to immobilize you until your body was strong enough to fight the medicine in it off. I'm sorry I betrayed you like that, but it's for your own good.” Then, he lifted my legs up and laid me out on the bed, covered me up, and started for the door. “The painkiller works as a sedative, so you'll probably fall asleep in a couple of minutes. You look like you need it anyway.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He was right, because when I woke up the sun was just finished rising, and the light filtered in through the blinds on the window. Suichi was curled up at the foot of the bed, I knew because I could see part of his hair around the edge of the bed. It was so funny that I accidentally laughed out loud, which I hadn't meant to do, because I figured the least I could do was let him sleep. Unfortunately Suichi heard me snickering, Because he sat up and looked at me with “What in the name of Yorkshire Pudding” Plastered all over his face.

“Sorry,” I said, breathing slowly to stop my giggling. “I meant to let you sleep, but…” I started to get up. “What the!?”

“Apparently you were weaker than I thought. Your whole body is numb…whoops.” Suichi tried to grin. It didn't work.

“That's okay…” it wasn't, but oh well. ”How long until it wears off?”

“If you do everything I say and let the rest of the medicine work, then maybe a week. But I doubt you'll let me touch you.” He paused when my expression changed to watch the same “What in the name of Yorkshire Pudding” look creep over my face. “And I won't unless you say it's okay. I'm not like Ross and I'm not like your father.” That froze me.

“How. How did you find that out?”

“You had a nightmare after you went to sleep. It was hurting you and your body was rejecting the medicine. It wasn't pretty.”

“Rejecting?”

“It was trying to purge it from your system but it was already absorbed into your tissues. It took you 15 minutes to clear your stomach and run out of bile, and that was the easy part.”

“Oh, I—“ great. The first guy to care about me and I puke my guts up…in his room. Smooth, really smooth. “I'm so sorry—“

“No, it's alright. It was really no trouble—but I took the nightmare from your mind and put it in mine. It showed…everything.”

“Oh.” I did my best to look down. “Um…how can you…”

“Later. I'll tell you later. Now I have some other medicine—let me go get it.”

He was back a little later with a tiny red bottle. “You have to swallow all of this.” He said, opening the bottle. I downed it with little help, but then things got weird.

“Now,” he said, pulling down the covers, “this is the optional part.”

“Go ahead.” He traced a line from my collarbone to my bellybutton and stopped at my solar plexus, halfway between. That spot started to tingle and slowly the feeling spread all over me, then ebbed away. “What was that?”

“I gave you some of my ki, my spirit energy. I'll have to do that a few more times because you don't have any ki of your own.”

“Oh…” Then the sedative in the new medicine started to take effect. I hoped I didn't purge again. The last thing I saw was Suichi. He was smiling.