Young Writers Society

Ch 2 - Quiet Whispers

“Izanami! Izanami!”

“Oh, be quiet. I’m trying to sleep.” I mumbled, before rolling over. In doing so I hit my head on a… tree? Why the hell was there a tree in my bed? I sat up groggily and rubbed the tiredness from my eyes. Looking over my shoulder, a shadow fell off of me and a voice said, “Well, she’s dead. That was no fun.”

“No!”

That voice. I recognized it. But, why? “Damn you!” The familiar voice continued, “How could you!? Bring her back!” The source of the shadow chuckled menacingly before saying, “Once you’re dead, you’re dead.”

“Damn it!” Then the voice broke into grief-stricken sobs.

Suddenly, I remembered. Ookami. That was his name. He was my adopted brother. His parents were dead; my parents were dead. We got by by pick pocketing and robbing when we got the chance. We were nine years old, who were so great at what we did, we had never been caught. Until now… With a jolt, I remembered being impaled. The man had said I was dead. This didn’t make sense. I felt very much alive. I stood up, circled around the samurai and faced him. “Hey, mister.” I said. No reaction. Not even a small glance of the eyes. “I said… HEY, MISTER!!” While saying this, I kicked him between the legs as hard as I could. He went down like a rock.

The other samurai gasped and rushed over to help their leader to his feet. I grinned and raised my fist into the air in a winning stance. I was about to start doing my victory dance, which Ookami said looked like a chicken which had drunken one too many sakes, when I suddenly couldn’t breathe. Gasping and wheezing, I fell to my knees. As I fell, I heard a jingling. What was is from? A bell? A bracelet? I looked down and saw… and chain. It was attached to my chest and, when I tugged on it lightly, it hurt. I looked as thought it had been roughly broken, not neatly sliced by a katana. I then looked to my right, and gasped.

Lying there was my body. It was my body, right? Same clothes, same dirty, messy hair and the same old katana speared through the chest. It was me all right, or at least it used to be. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. It was Ookami, slowly crawling to my body as to not bring attention to himself. While the two samurai were still trying to help their boss up, Ookami finally reached my body. With a shaking hand, he reached up and grabbed the hilt of the katana. He slid it out of my body and placed it on the road next to him. The blood on the blade seemed to wink at me in the sun.

Slowly, he placed his hand on the gaping wound. His eyes widened in horror when he realized that I was, in fact, dead, because my body did not have a pulse. “No.” He whispered, then, louder, “NO!” He whipped his head around, only to find a katana pointed at his nose. The boss of the samurai had finally gotten his dignity back together after something none of them could see had humiliated him. Ookami grabbed the bloody katana from the place he placed it, and swung it forward, smacking the katana away from his face. He jumped to his feet, his mouth in a snarl and tears running down his dirty face, leaving a clean trail. “Stay back! I’m warning you!” He screamed, getting into a hitoemi stance. “Oh, I’m shaking.” The samurai said, a coy smile playing at his lips. Then, he pounced. I quickly got back on my feet, and stepped between them, throwing my arms out defensively, completely forgetting no one could see me. “Stop!” I screamed. My eyes were squeezed shut and tears were leaking out. I opened my eyes again in time to see… the samurai go right through me. I gasped and turned on my heel.

The samurai swung down his katana and slashed it through Ookami’s stomach. Ookami’s eyes widened in shock as blood spurted across the road. The samurai dug the katana deeper into his stomach, until the tip of the blade tore through his back, sending another spill of blood onto the road. But he didn’t scream. Instead of he seemed to be looking me straight in the eye. A trickle of blood escaped from the corner of his mouth as he let out a gargled, “Izanami, I knew I heard your voice.”, before he coughed out the blood that was collecting in his mouth. The samurai stepped back, removing his katana from Ookami’s stomach. Ookami’s eyes rolled back into his head and his knees gave out from under him. I raced forward, meaning to catch him before he hit the ground, but, like before with the samurai, he fell right through my outstretched arms. Behind me, the samurai scoffed at Ookami’s last words. “The kid must have been delirious from the pain. For a second there, I thought he might actually have been talking to the girl. But, as much as I hate to admit it, the kid could have been a great warrior someday. He had a good hitoemi stance. The girl though, was nothing but a nuisance.”

By then, my blood was boiling. He just sat there, being calm and inconsiderate, while he made fun of two dead children. Well, I wasn’t just going to sit by like the spirit I was. I knew that I could touch people, as I had been able to kick the main samurai in the crotch. They just couldn’t touch me. So I did the best thing I could. I slugged him in the face as hard as I could. I grinned at the satisfying crunch as his nose broke under my fist and warm blood gushed from the wound over my hand. I removed my hand from his face, and shook it to get the blood off. Damn, that felt good. Really good.

I was about to punch him again, this time in the stomach, when someone grabbed my arm mid-swing. “If you don’t mind, I would like to land that punch myself.” I turned to the source of the voice, and hugged him as hard as I could. “Ookami!” I yelled, between my new sobs, and when I felt him pat me comfortingly on the back, I hugged him even tighter. Upon hearing a few cracks as I realigned his bones with shear happiness, I let go. Wiping my eyes so I could see, I look up at his face, for he was about two inched taller then me, and gave him a bright grin before saying, “He’s all yours. I already kicked him in the crotch beforehand, so I’m done.”

“Ah, so you did that. I was wondering what the hell had happened to make him suddenly turn purple and fall to the ground.”

I giggled and stepped to the side, to let him pass. He patted my once more on the back, before heading toward the samurai, who were once again trying to help their leader off the ground, with a frightening smile curving his lips into a sneer.