[Kachi]: 373.Modern Fantasy.Kyran & Eden

A much older piece - I actually wrote this for my A-Level English exam. This is what I could remember of it later, edited. This also marks the point I began to hate Kyran, which is bad considering, between the two characters, he was to be the protagonist of the main story...

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Kyran & Eden

  The dark hallway reverberated with a howl of anger. Rarely-looked-at pictures rattled as the door at the far end of the corridor was slammed against the wall, making a noticeable dent in the wallpaper. Framed in the doorway was a young man, his white hair as streaked with sweat as his face. As he limped heavily down the hallway, dragging his left foot slightly and leaving a very crimson trail of blood, the moonlight from the tall windows illuminated the sheen of water on his body. He opened the door of the bathroom in much the same way as he had with the bedroom - violently - and stalked inside, crashing it shut after him.

  Half an hour later, he opened the door again, much more calmly. His left foot was bandaged, although already blood was starting to show through the soft whiteness. Quietly, he walked back up the hallway, occasionally glancing out the windows, and back into his large bedroom. He didn't bother shutting the door, it would likely as not only be an inconvenience to him later anyhow. He had pondered the idea of ripping them all off their hinges a while ago, but had decided later that it would only make the place untidy. He sat on the bed, glad that his previous efforts had at least pushed the quilt off the bed and into a pile on the floor. It couldn't distract him now as it had before. The large rip down the middle of it bore testament to how angry he could get with items that wrapped around his legs at crucial moments. Finally sure that his energy levels had risen to an acceptable point and that no other inanimate objects would impede his attempts this time, he lay back on the soft mattress and put his hands by his sides. As he shut his eyes he murmured in a strange, yet melodic voice, "let's see him get out of this one..."

  When he opened his black eyes again, he knew immediately where he was. After all, he had created this place. And now, finally, it was fulfilling its function. It's myriad traps would at least hinder his enemy's progress sufficiently for him to track him, and have a little fun, before he dispatched him. He smiled cruelly. And he did want some fun. Where was the point in creating a reality as sophisticated as this one when there was no chance to test it out? That pretty little singer...he wouldn't know what hit him by the time Eden was done with him. He would, however, know who hit him. There was no way Eden would let his blue-haired nemesis die before he knew precisely who it was who had destroyed him in such an interesting way. He grinned, running his tongue over his pointed white canine teeth, before shutting his eyes and fading away from the patch in the dark forest. Yes, the hunt was now on.

  Kyran stumbled hopelessly through the wood. This surely couldn't be right, he had passed that tree five times already! He could have turned his back to it and drawn it's peculiarly knotted bark from his memory had someone handed him a sheet of paper and a pencil.

  Yet he felt that using such items in as deeply forested a wood as this would only bring him trouble - for what were pencils and paper but sliced trees? His train of thought carrying on thus, he didn't notice the small root apparently lunge for his leg, and only realised he had been tripped again when his chest hit the floor, knocking the breath out of him. Frustrated and angered, he pushed himself to his feet again and vented his frustration by launching himself at a thick and ancient tree, kicking and punching it's immovable bark. He only stopped, blinking back the tears of defeat, when he heard a low voice above him. He stepped back and looked up, hearing the words of a song he knew well. He had written it himself. In the branches of the tree, several feet above the slender, blue-haired rock star, was a man of his own age, with white hair and black eyes.

  Eden smiled down at Kyran. "Strange how these chance occurrences keep happening, isn't it?"

  Kyran could remember meeting Eden. Rather, he could remembering being killed by Eden; the only 'meeting' had been the slim white-haired man strapping him onto a fence in a cruciform and stabbing him through the back with the sword he was even now carrying, strapped to his back, as he sat in the tree watching the rock star's expression with interest. He knew that there must have been reasons for this murder, for from that event, 'Kyran' - himself, now - had been created, rising somehow from the corpse of 'Kyo' and finding himself entangled in a shrub some three years ago. Yet, for the demon Eden to go to all the trouble of creating a new demon - the blue haired Japanese man staring up at his opposite - it seemed strange that now he was hunting him down to kill him. So far, the black-eyed man had never divulged to Kyran the information only he knew. He took a deep breath, never breaking eye contact, green eyes meeting black head on, and spoke, making every effort to keep his voice calm and level. "I see events in dreams really do affect the 'real' world."  He gestured to the pale demon's foot, but his gaze remained fixed on his face. Eden looked momentarily surprised, then grudgingly broke the eye contact, looking down at his foot. He blinked, then growled in his throat and narrowed his eyes, forcing the clean bandage to disappear from this dream world. That detail wasn't supposed to have come through. It would only serve to make the rock star think he had some form of upper hand, the white-haired boy thought with anger rising in his chest.

  Keeping his face carefully composed, trying not to allow the faint smile to slip for even an instant, he looked back from his foot to the demon on the dirty ground below and reached out a delicate hand to him. "Come up here with me, I want to talk to you some more." Eden was sure that once Kyran had taken this first trusting step - and it would be rather a leap of faith for anyone to do that with Eden - it would be a lot easier, and more satisfying, to dispatch him. After all, what could be more fun than to kill someone who thought they could trust you? It would be the ultimate betrayal. But the other demon simply shook his head, and stayed resolutely on the ground. Fine then. If he wanted to play it like that, so be it. "Come on, I'm hardly likely to bite you now, am I?" He grinned, and watched in satisfaction as the green-eyed man stepped backwards hurriedly, eyes wide.

The pale demon had never smiled in a way that showed his teeth in all the time he had been dealing with Kyran, so the young singer had never seen exactly how sharp Eden's canines, both top and bottom row, were. Observing the black-skinned demon's reaction almost made Eden laugh out loud, but he restrained himself and instead stuck out his bottom lip, pouting like a child who had not been allowed to play. "Do I scare you? That's such a shame." He paused like that a moment, then wasn't able to contain himself any longer and started to laugh out loud.

  Finally, he managed to speak again, although Kyran's expression was liable to send him off again at any moment. "If I'd known I could spark such fear in you, I would have started laughing much sooner!" He covered his mouth, and the laughter, with his hand, but his eyes held such a vicious look in them that Kyran was almost afraid.

  He shut his eyes and shook his head. "You don't scare me Eden. At all. You' re just pitiful, a pathetic wannabe who follows his master's orders like some kind of kicked and disgraced puppy."

  Eden's laughter stopped abruptly and for a moment he looked as though be had been slapped across the face, then his black eyes narrowed and flashed red. "I don't scare you... I don't recall even trying." He held his hands in front of himself and grit his teeth: after a moment a small ball of light formed between his pale palms. He frowned a little, then with jaw still clenched he looked up at Kyran and almost threw the yellow light at his face. The blue-haired man stepped sideways at the last moment, taken by surprise, and watched in horror as the ball shot past his head and exploded, taking several trees behind him with it. Eden was watching his reactions, his normally pale face almost white with anger. "Did you enjoy that?" he spat at him. "Did that make you feel all warm and comfortable inside? No... I didn't think it did." The fury building inside him caused him to tremble; his short hair fanned out a little as he rose from the tree branch, levitating himself to the ground and only expending a little energy in doing so. He landed in front of the black-skinned demon, trying to quell the anger in him with only limited success. "So you think that purely insulting me will get me angry enough to kill you outright?" He shook his head and laughed, but it sounded tense and strained. "Sorry, but I'm going to draw out your death. I want to make you suffer."

  Eden almost howled with anger, creating another fireball two handed and aiming it directly at Kyran's chest. The green eyes widened and he stumbled back slightly, pushing out his hands and somehow creating enough force from the effort to stop the light just as it reached his palms. He looked up from the sphere to the fair-haired man, and was more surprised to see that finally his emotions had taken control and he was trembling with rage.

  He rubbed both hands over his eyes, then looked up to see Kyran still watching him, the energy globe remaining suspended next to his palms. The wave of fury that ran through him as eyes now red with anger met the nervous green of his nemesis almost scared him, but rational thought was the last thing on his mind as he hurled himself at the black demon, knocking the energy out the way easily with one hand and punching at Kyran's face with the other.

  The blue-haired man's hands moved fast as he blocked each of the enraged young man's attacks, working too hard on protecting himself to contemplate attacking back for the time being.

  Finally Eden staggered back a little, gasping for breath from the exertion of energy and cursing his opponent in a language the young rock star had never heard before. Slowly, Kyran dropped his guard and stood staring at the red-eyed Dreamer. So far, he hadn't launched a single attack at Eden. "Are you done?"

  The crimson-eyed demon shut his eyes a moment, then moved his hands, creating not only an energy attack, but infusing more energy into it than he would normally. Kyran blinked; it took a moment before he realised fully what the Dreamer was doing and when it sank in, his green eyes widened. Eden grinned in a mildly unhinged way, looking up from the glowing ball to the azure-haired man, the light from the energy making his face seem totally drained of colour. "Am I done? Do I look it?" And, pushing what remained of his energy into the sphere, he hurled it towards the black demon with all his force.
 
  Kyran froze, his fear locking his legs and rendering him immobile. He brought his arms up, crossing them across his chest and shutting his eyes tightly, the only thoughts running through his head being 'Oh gods...please...don't let this happen...' He felt the heat start to burn his cheeks, then, suddenly...nothing.

  Eden cried out in horror, almost collapsing backwards and using a tree for balance, his eyes rapidly changing back from the bloody-red of anger to the normal blackness. "You...you.. I don't believe... I can't believe it..." He started to look around desperately for his demonblade that Kyran had hurled away earlier in their fight, but it wasn't in view. He could only assume that one of the shadowy creatures that inhabited even the more hidden and private dreams had stolen it away; he was unlikely to see it again. This could not be, surely not. How could this lowly black demon - who couldn't even keep his own dreamworld solid for more than an hour, let alone several weeks of preparation and hunting - turn the tables on the powerful pale Dreamer and take control of a dreamworld that he had no part in creating? He stared fearfully at Kyran as the inky-skinned man slowly opened his eyes, evidently wondering how come he hadn't been incinerated by Eden's angry fireball.

  The green eyes blinked once, looking from the scared Eden to the fireball floating gently in front of his still-crossed arms. No longer was it a flaming white-yellow, but rather a brightly shining blue, white at the core and vaguely transparent. He reached out a long-fingered hand, tentatively touching the glowing globe then jerking his hand back again, expecting pain. When none arrived, he did it again, resting his hand a little on the top, looking at it with wide, incredulous eyes. Eden pushed his back further against the tree, wishing that it would open and he could vanish. Now, he was far too tired to think about fading out and reappearing Nothing would work as he wished. But his attention was more focused upon the blue-haired boy in front of him, who was peering curiously at Eden's converted energy. Finally, he took it in his hand and held it to his face, then looked up again to Eden, who tried even harder to burrow through the tree trunk. "You're still here. Why?" He paused, and when no answer was forthcoming, he smiled slightly. "You don't have control any more, do you? You've lost control of this dream, you can't make it do your bidding any more.”

  So, who now controls it?" He mimicked Eden's curious tilt of the head, and watched as the white-haired man whimpered slightly, fear now running through his body where the anger had been before. "You don't know? Or, do you? Do I control it?" And when again there was no answer, he smiled slightly. "How do I rearrange it to let me out?" Eden shook his head slightly, one hand straying up and covering his mouth, his black eyes wide. Kyran shrugged a little, "if you won't tell me, I'll just have to find out for myself." And he walked away from the pale young man.

  Eden remained leaning against the tree for a moment longer, trying to recover his energy levels a little. But when he held out his hand for a branch to wrap around his wrist, the limb just remained as it was, showing no inclination to follow the Dreamer's orders. A dream that had taken so much preparation was lost to him. Renewed anger running through his body, he pushed himself fully to his feet and used more than simply his remaining energy - it also contained his furious adrenaline mixed with a small helping of his own life force - to form the most powerful energy blast he had done so far, snarling in his throat and hurling it at Kyran's retreating back. The black demon swung round at the last moment, the hand not carrying the energy coming upwards to block the attack. The energy just hung in the air in front of the ebony long-fingered hand as Kyran surveyed the black-eyed demon slowly. "You keep trying to kill me. I don't want to kill you..." he spoke slowly, as if enunciation would help Eden understand. "...but, I have to protect myself. You' re giving me no choice." And with that he threw both of Eden's energy attacks back at the young man. Eden cried out wordlessly, crossing his arms in front of his face in the vain hope of creating a shield, but the last of his energy had gone into the spheres now heading straight for him, and no shield would form.

  Both attacks hit him directly, knocking him backwards into another tree, which he half slid down, his knees buckling. There was silence a while as Kyran stared at the hurt pale Dreamer whose breath was coming in painful-sounding heaves now. Then he slowly shook his head, looking with serious green eyes at the battered demon. "I can't trust you." And slowly he walked forwards to him. Eden cringed; his energy was almost totally depleted, and he was at the mercy of the other demon. Kyran stroked Eden's pale and bloodied cheek lightly, looking directly into his eyes as his hand lowered and ran across his lightly-muscled chest, ignoring the fact that the boy was trying to move away uncomfortably. "And if I can't trust you, I have to make sure you can' t hurt me again."

  He took two steps back and held both hands out, watching as two slivers of white light slowly formed in his palms. He looked back up to Eden, who was looking at the light apprehensively, then stepped forwards again. "Its a shame to do this to you...but, I have to ensure you don't come after me again." And with that, he rammed one bolt of light through the boy's right shoulder, and the other through his sternum, ignoring Eden's scream of pain, humiliation and rage as the light grew and went straight through his body until it attached itself to the tree behind him.

  Totally immobilised, half-standing against a tree that refused to follow his slightest order, the pale demon looked pitiful. Kyran stared at him a moment longer, then walked away in search of his exit from this dreamworld, ignoring Eden's pained and desperate pleas for freedom.