Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, and never will... (pouty face)
The bedroom made my eyes burn. The walls were all white- washed and plain. The mattress sitting on the bedframe itself was cream with a floral print, old rust-stains, and indented enough to easily spot all the springs. A single small window, opposite of the door, was nearly as white as the walls, except for the chipping paint revealing several coats beneath it. A pine dresser rested against the wall opposite of the bed. There were only two things in the room that didn't adorn white: the dark, stained, wood paneled floor, and a spot in one of the corners, where there was a small hole with a splatter of something a rusty brown color around it. I could only guess that it was a small bit of the last person who lived here.
I removed my left hand from the pocket of my floorsweeping, black leather trench coat, exposing my blacked smoked frame sunglasses and slid them above the bridge of my nose. The lights in the entire apartment were off, and it was still too much to take. I slipped the black canvas duffelbag from my shoulder, letting it hit the floor with a muffled thud. Steps ceased from behind me, "Even at night, these rooms seem to blind me," I glanced emotionlessly at Mum in the living room, seeing her pull out her own pair of sunglasses from inside her thigh-length leather jacket, "But I guess filling up the rooms with dark furniture will go easy on our eyes a wee bit. You could even put posters on your walls."
Mum looked very beautiful for her age, considering she was over 600 years old. Her glossy hair was a piece of black nothingness, straight and reaching to the small of her slender and perfectly toned back. In fact, it seemed as if the light that reflected off her hair only reflected more black. Her eyes were a shining, piercing silver and gray. Pale and silk-like skin graced her entire body, nothing to ruin its perfection, not even a freckle. She seemed to be blessed by the beautiful Aphrodite herself with the perfectly curved and placed features. Being only a few inches taller than myself, I was often referred to as her clone. In fact, despite her true age, she appeared to barely have reached thirty.
"Those bleeding mortals call these strips of plastic blinds?" I remarked, fiddling with the strings of the contraption screwed into the window frame, showing the clear, starry night, blocked by the towering, rundowned buildings of downtown Kyoto, "These damned things are as useful as a euro hanged by a fishing line." I turned to Mum, who had moved to the doorway of my new room, "Tell me, why do we have to settle down in the city? You know as well as I do that more mortals could interfere with our lives here."
Mum was becoming very irritated, "Life, you know as well as I do that if we lived anywhere else, deaths would be more suspicious and it would be much more difficult to find good blood. And you also are aware that mortals in cities are much too concerned with their own lives to give a damn about anyone else. So quit inventing pathetic excuses to get out of this apartment!" She stormed off to what I could only guess was her own room.
I simply dismissed her outburst and wretched open one of the drawers of the dresser and began to unpack the small number of possessions from the dufflebag. It was true... Indeed I despised this apartment. It only brought back horrible memories of the dreadful month spent on a filthy, cramped ship to America from Ireland. That was nearly 160 years ago and I was so young, but it still affected me in that caged kind of way.
A few changes of clothes, potions, herbs, oils, candles, insence, and a family heirloom, The Book of Shadows. All in all, it only took less than ten minutes to unpack. I glanced out the window, quickly deciding that I wasn't that hungry, and changed into a black baby-tee and checker patterned pajama pants of red and black. Moving the blinds, I slid open the window... Or more like yanked it open, since it kept sticking every few inches. I took in the unnecessary intake of the cool, polluted, night air and swung my feet over the ledge. My feet dangled three stories from the dirty alleyway below, but I paid no heed to it. I just stared out at the stars, savoring the silence.
Damn this, I thought to myself, We were fine! We didn't need to settle down! We were just fine the way we were! I absent-mindedly fumbled with the small silver pentagram that rested about my neck on a silver chain. As plain and old it was, it was one of my most valuable belonging. It was the last thing Father gave me before he died. I remember he told me "It's not a gift, it's a loan. And you have to pass it on," It had been passed down, generation by generation from my fathers' side of the family, all the way to me. I am supposed to pass it on to my offspring, but I yet to have them. Not that I have any intentions of bearing a child, or falling in love. See how that turned out for Mum; falling in love with a mortal, On top of that, a wiccan mortal.
A sigh slipped past my lips. Right at that moment, the second window to the right of mine was lurched open with a loud shrink, starling me into nearly slipping completely off the windowsill, yet gripped the windowframe at just the right moment.
A teenage boy stuck his upper body out the window, peering around and catching the sight of me. "Holy shit! You okay?!" he stretched his arm out to help me, not that it helped much. "What happened?"
"Hn," I glared at him and heaved myself back onto the sill, "I wasn't in any peril. I was merely climbing up to my window out of pure curiosity," I lied.
"From three stories up," he clarified disbelievingly.
"Yes! Damn! Who the hell do you work for?" I snapped at him. I took advantage of his startled reaction and looked him over. I was somewhat surprised that he was quite attractive. Dressed in an old white tee shirt and blue plaid boxers, his hair was black and messy, as if he had recently gotten out of bed, which could have been the case, being past midnight. His eyes made me think about a mortal food, chocolate pudding. Overall, his face wore an offended expression.
"Sorry, I just thought you might have needed a little help..."
"Well, you thought wrong," I retorted.
"Hey, Yusuke! You talking to yourself again?" a very loud, very annoying voice echoed from the boys' room. It reminded me of fingernails scratched against a chalkboard. A second boy emerged at the window; tall with orange curly hair cut in an odd Elvis-style do, and beady eyes. He sported the baby blue pajama set covered in hundreds of little brown teddy bears with red bows around their necks, and a matching teddy bear was gripped tightly in his arms.
He's almost as attractive as an old corpse, I heard my mind comment.
"Hey sweet thing! The name's Kuwabara. Kazuma Kuwabara. And I know that a cute lil' thing like you yourself would just die to go on a date with me," the carrot-top, Kuwabara said.
I snorted, "And if I ever agreed, I would have to remind myself of whatever it was I was smoking at the time... and stop."
The black-haired boy cracked up in fits of laughter, "You're not as bad as I thought you were. I'm Yusuke Urameshi, and you are..."
"Life," I spoke flatly.
"Life? That's an interesting name. Never heard it before."
"You wouldn't. Not in English, at least," my voice just dripped with the 'I-could-care-less-what-you-have-to-say' tone.
"Well, it's very pretty," I could tell he was trying to brighten my mood... Good luck.
"Hn," I just turned back to my previous past-time and stared at the stars.
"Wow! She sounds like Hiei!" Kuwabara exclaimed.
I cocked an eyebrow, "I beg your pardon?" I felt as if I should have been severely offended.
"Oh, Hiei just a... an acquaintance of ours," Yusuke apparently changed his choice of words for this 'Hiei', "You may even meet him after school tomorrow... You are the ones who moved into the apartment for rent, right?"
"We are. But I will not be attending school with you."
"Why not?"
"I am home-schooled," I lied through my teeth. It was an excuse Mum and I used to keep me from being out at day.
"Oh," Yusuke sounded dissapointed, and for some reason, embarrassed.
"This is getting boring," Kuwabara yawned, "I'm going back to bed." He clutched the teddy bear closer to his body and stalked off.
"So," Yusuke tried to carry on the conversation, "Do you like being home-schooled?"
"Hn. I guess. Don't have anything else to compare it to."
"Where you from?"
"Around... But I was born in London."
"Cool," his eyes drift to the alleyway, "Hey, do you think I can drop by after school tomorrow? I could... you know... help you get settled in and everything. And maybe just, well, hang out?"
"I guess... If you can keep quiet."
Yusuke stared confusedly at me, "Why's that?"
"My mum works night-shift," I lied once again, "She sleeps in the day and doesn't like to be disturbed."
"Oh," he yawned, stretched his arms over his head, and relaxed them, scratching the back of his head, "Well, I guess I'll see you after school tomorrow. Nice meetin' ya, Life."
"Of course," his window shut, leaving me alone once again. I remained there, gazing at the stars for a couple more hours, as I played with either the pendant around my neck, or strands of my long, silky, slightly wavy black hair with natural dark brown tint.
Finally, I pull myself off the windowsill and shut the blinds behind me. With a glance toward the digital clock, "Already?" it read 4:46am. I slid into the bed and pulled the old quilt over me. I leaned toward the clock, and set the alarm for once in my 'life' to 2:00pm. I figured it would give me plenty of time to look like a 'daytime' person. I rested my head on the ratty feathered pillow, and amazingly fell to sleep.
That's the first chapter! Please review. Flames and all. I don't care.
-The Hidden Pagan