Leashed | • • • | Blue Exorcist

Cherry Blossoms

Yukio's POV:

Blood. Blood was everywhere.

I lifted my hands to cover my eyes, to shield me from the horror around. However, my sight caught on my arms and I squealed. Stumbling backwards, I tripped over something. My ass landing on the floor of my dorm room and I couldn't stop the ear piercing noise escaping my mouth,

Blood dripped from both my arms. Several deep lacerations were carved into the flesh. The cuts were parallel to each other, neat and perfectly spaced. They were obviously intentional, but who had done this? It surely wasn't me. Each gash covered the entirety of the underside of my forearms, the weeping slits gaping almost a centimeter wide. Below the surface were layers I'd only learned about whilst receiving my Doctor Meister. I saw the white sinew of the dermal layer, the way it reflected the light, and the bluish hue it held. Underneath it, was the subcutaneous fat. Sickly yellow, glossy, and bubbled in a way that reminded me of cottage cheese. And the blood, it pulsed in some areas, and flowed freely in others. It hadn't hit an artery at least, possibly an arteriole or a vein. The blood was oxygenated, however, so I quickly decided it was the former.

But why? Why was I bleeding? Why don't I remember anything?

I glanced to the room around me. The walls were painted a crimson red, handprints smeared over the off-white texture and splatter marks dripped down the plaster and bled over the baseboards. I felt bile rise into my throat and I turned to my side to wretch.

My my watery eyes I focused onto the inanimate object I'd tripped over, and once again, I felt a scream pierce the air. "Rin!" I moved to my knees, positioning myself over my motionless brother. His forearms were similar to mine. A deep, long gash mirrored each arm, going from wrist to elbow. Dozens of small holes lined each side of the lacerations, resembling those of missing stitches. I cradled one arm in my hands, our blood beginning to mix, trailing to my elbows before falling to the floorboards beneath. Oh my god, his cuts were so deep. I saw the same tissue exposed on myself. He'd gone through the epidermis and dermis layer just as I had. Yet, I saw deeper. Millimeters etched farther into his flesh, the fatty, subcutaneous tissue expanded his wounds like foam. And at the very base of the cut, was solid white bone.

I felt my throat tighten as nausea flooded my veins. The world began to swim and I was on the verge of passing out. Screwing my eyes shut, I tried to force away the onslaught of gore that attacked my vision. Suddenly, the arm I'd been cradling shot out and grasped my shoulder. A surprised yelp passed my lips and my eyes shot open, meeting the gaze of my still living twin.

A pair of black orbs stared back at me. The void it held within threatening to swallow me whole. "Uh oh," Rin stated, his voice reverberating, "look at what you've caused." In a flash, his free hand raised in my direction. With the force he put behind it, I expected him to slap me. However, my eyes darted to his hand, and I saw the glint of a razor as it slashed into me.

I shot up in bed, yelling out in fear as my arms went to cover my face. I waited for the blade to hit, to feel the pain, for the warmth of blood to seep over my skin. But nothing happened. Hesitantly, I peaked through my eyelashes. Dim moonlight basked through the curtains, barely illuminating my surroundings. My vision flickered with what I'd just experienced and what lay before me. The blood soaked walls were clear, the crimson floor mopped clean. But most of all, Rin wasn't here. I was alone.

I took a deep breath to calm my thundering heart, and with shaky hands, I reached for my glasses on the nightstand. Once firmly placed on my head, I rubbed my fingers against my temples, a small ache had appeared inside the front of my skull. It was just a nightmare. It was the same nightmare I'd been having for four nights now. Ever since that day in the hospital, I couldn't seem to shake it. I'd figured I'd be able to recover quicker the more I dealt with it, yet every time I found myself in a cold sweat, my body still flashing danger signs over an hour after I woke.