Hello, I hope you enjoy this story. This is really my attempt at writing a horror story, but at the same time I feel like it's so much more than that. There action, adventure, mystery-it was really hard to classify it! I hope you enjoy the ride and enjoy the story! Critiques are always welcomed!

For a moment, sleep was peaceful. He had no way of knowing how long that moment was; it could have been seconds, minutes, hours...but for now all was peaceful. He was finally, for a splendid moment getting some rest. After that moment of blissful darkness...he began to dream of snow.

The world was white.

His footsteps crunched in the cold slurry, the woman at his side barely making a sound as she walked beside him. A child ran past him, brushing his leg. Their giggle chased after them like an evening shadow, echoing high all around them.

"Careful!" The woman called, her voice cautious, but amused. The child shouted something back, and the woman giggled in response. He turned to look at her, and the two shared a pleasant laugh, like old friends.

He could not make out her face.

He turned to look at the child. She looked like a little doll...wearing red and holding a ball while standing ankle deep in the snow. She was a charming little girl, and caused him to feel an instant spark of protectiveness.

He took another step and fell through the snow. The world was spinning in white, gray, blue...black. It was dark all around him.

"You should leave," Kurama's voice coldly bounced around him.

"Kurama?" He turned, relieved to hear the voice of a friend. But the person standing before him was not the Kurama he knew now.

Youko Kurama was cloaked in white, his eyes shining like the cruelest of golds. He was angry, and his face was twitching as he contained a snarl, "You should... LEAVE!"

Youko Kurama's voice broke off into an animalistic howl, his silver hair whipping around him. His body disappeared in a burst of light, and an old man stood in front of him, pointing a hand accusingly.

"YOU! You let the demon escape! You've killed us all boy!"

A sudden sharp gust of wind made him close his eyes, and stagger backwards.

A sharp pain stabbed into his leg, and forced his eyes open.

Hiei...no a child...Hiei as a child?

This child that was somehow Hiei, was brandishing a knife in his hands. The very tip of the the small blade dripped with red blood. Talismans were stuck to the boy's arms, and body. Smoke was pooling off the parts of Hiei's body covered in the talismans, and his face was scrunched in pain.

"Hiei let me-" but he could not speak anymore. His voice died away, and he watched numbly as his body moved on its own accord. His hands reached out and carefully removed the wards from the child's body. The angry child, lashed out and stabbed him again, the blade sinking into his shin. It hurt, but he kept going until he was peeling the last ward from Hiei's cheek.

"Run away...run away from this place as fast as you can," He was whispering, in a voice that was his own...but not. It was younger somehow...different in some way that couldn't be explained.

"Run away child, and don't come back... They'll kill you."

"They'll kill you," Kurama hissed from behind him.

Many hands were now pulling at his clothes, and dragging him in the dark. He was slammed against a wall, the air knocked from his lungs. He closed his eyes as dizziness swallowed him whole. Something wet trickled near his ear, gurgling and hissing with some dark threat.

He opened his eyes... he was standing in open air, snow beneath his feet. Youko Kurama was looking at him with a much gentler expression, one that mingled between pity and longing.

"You should leave...they'll kill you. They are going to kill you..." His voice had never sounded so desperate.

"No," he answered, no longer surprised that he couldn't control what he was going to say.

"He's going to...to kill me and my daughter," A woman's voice sobbed from behind him.

"Those old men are going to sacrifice you," a youthful Hiei chided, "You humans are as cruel as demons. You just don't like to think so."

"You need to run! If you go-"

"Lets play!"

"Duty comes before personal safety. You would do best to remember that."

"Aren't you afraid?"

"What an amusing human you are."

He covered his ears.

There were too many words, and it was all too loud.

Stained black hands clamped down hard on his shoulders from behind. His head shot up and he tried to turn, but a face was twisting unnaturally to be in his field of vision. He managed to catch a glimpse of a twisted white face lunging towards him from the darkness, before long hair shot out all around him. It was forcing its way down his throat, up his nose, in his ears...in his eyes. He started to choke, hands pressed flat to the floor. The hair melted and turned to ink. He was drowning in ink... it was so hard to breathe. His chest hurt...he was going to die!

"I'm waiting for you Kuwabara," a woman whispered her voice becoming distorted towards the end.

Kazuma Kuwabara shot out of bed, gasping for breath.

It was the middle of summer, and he has slept with only a sheet and his boxers. Despite all these precautions, the nightmare had still managed to leave him dripping with sweat. Stumbling from his room and going to his bathroom, he flicked on the light, and turned on the sink. Even as he splashed water on his face, he continued to be seized by racking coughs. Something welled up in his throat, and with a guttural growl, he coughed up an ounce of black liquid. It tasted like ink.

His legs were about to give out from under him, when a strong cool arm wrapped around his waist, supporting him in a familiar grasp.

"Kazuma! Kazuma! Hey! You alright?" Shizuru's voice came floating to him through the haze.

Kuwabara looked at her, and then back to the sink.

There was nothing there. No ink...just running water.

Shuddering he let out an exhausted and relieved breath. He turned to his sister's face only to scramble backwards as her eyes, and mouth exploded with ink. She tried to say his name around the liquid, choking as she reached out for him. She'd managed to make out the first syllable of his name when she melted into the bathroom floor, her body becoming a mass of black ink. The cold liquid sloshed towards his feet, and went up to his ankles. A hand lunged at him from the dark depths-

Kazuma Kuwabara woke up with a scream, his sister holding him painfully hard by the shoulders.

"Kazuma!" She gasped, and embraced him fiercely when his frantic eyes found hers. He struggled in her grasp, afraid that his was somehow still a dream, but Shizuru held on to him. She somehow managed to contain the trembling mass of her little brother in her arms, despite his massive size. Slowly, as the adrenaline died down, and he heard his sister's heartbeat, Kuwabara began to calm.

"Kazuma... I'm here... I'm here!" Shizuru whispered in Kuwabara's hair, pressing her brother firmly to her.

He shuddered, and eventually wrapped his arms around his sister. This had been the second consecutive week of nightmares. Terrible...terrible nightmares. They plagued him any time he slept. Sometimes even when his mind wandered he felt like he was choking on hair with his bare feet stuck in snow. It had become such a problem, Kuwabara had removed himself from school, he was far too rattled to concentrate on his studies.

"You with me little brother?" Shizuru asked softly, coaxing Kuwabara back to the present.

Kuwabara gently pulled himself from his sister and nodded. He swallowed hard, throat dry.

"Y-Yeah. Yeah... 'm here..." Kuwabara managed taking in a shuddering breath.

His sister's hands smoothed over his face. He shuddered, suddenly very cold.

Shizuru snorted, "...You look like hell."

Kuwabara smiled weakly, "I'm okay... it was just a bad dream."

"Bullshit!" Shizuru erupted, eyes narrowed, "You should talk with Genkai about these dreams! Every night...even when you nap! Kazuma...these dreams are dangerous!"

Kuwabara rubbed his eyes, "I don't know what she'll do... she's not the sandman-"

Shizuru flicked her brother on the nose, "Asshole, don't give me that. Sandman or no, she's still a great and powerful psychic... she might be able to get to the source of your dreams. And you no better than to scoff at dreams! How many times have your dreams been something more?"

"It's just stress and overwork... like you said, remember?" Kuwabara snorted looking around his bedroom, refusing to acknowledge the sense in his sister's words. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he wondered if he was really home this time.

Shizuru punched him hard in the ribs, and he bent over with pain.

'Ah...nope. This is real,' he thought as his eyes watered.

"Quit with the sass," Shizuru growled.

Kuwabara coughed and managed to sit back up. He tried hard not to look like a sulking child, but from the soft expression his sister was giving him, he was sure he'd failed.

Shizuru frowned and placed a cool hand to his face, gently wiping some sweat from his tired mug.

"Kazu... just... talk to Genkai. Talk to her about this. Please. Do it for me?" She implored, her voice filled with sincere worry.

Kuwabara had been avoiding his sister's eyes, but slowly he met her gaze. To his immense relief, her face didn't explode with ink. Holding her eyes and taking in a steadying breath to calm his shaking nerves, Kuwabara mustered up a big smile.

"Yeah...yeah I will. I promise. Tomorrow...okay?"

Shizuru's shoulders sagged with a bit of relief and she leaned up kissing Kuwabara's forehead, "Good. Sit tight. I'll get you some water."

"Two cups, please!" Kuwabara called after her as she left his room.

Kuwabara rubbed his eyes. He was very, very tired. Though he'd been haunted by these dreams for a while, this was the first time he'd ever seen Hiei or Kurama in the dreams. Normally he just saw the little girl, the woman, and an old man. Snow, ink, and long black hair always mingling weaving in his dreams. He had of course kept his dreams a tight secret away from his friends, especially Yusuke Urameshi. He wasn't in the mood to be teased to death... or be constantly worried over.

Kuwabara rubbed his throat, shuddering as he remembered black hair coiling around his throat... how could he even begin to explain these dreams to his friends?

Exhaustion beginning to calm his nerves, he pulled the covers up around his body. He had just gotten settled when Shizuru came back into his room. He smiled as she brought him an arm full of water bottles, a proud grin on her face. As he counted at least six bottles, he laughed and thanked her sleepily, reaching for one.

"Of course...try to get some sleep..." She whispered, setting a single bottle in his hand, while placing the rest of the water down on a desk near his bed. With rare tenderness, Shizuru leaned down to kiss Kuwabara's sweaty forehead. Gently, she squeezed her brother's arms, and brushed some black hair away from his pillow, before quietly bidding him goodnight as he fell into a hopefully dreamless sleep.

End of chapter 1