Who Will Heal the Broken?

Chapter 4

**WARNING** There is some suicide baiting at the beginning of this chapter. Nothing too major but it ends after the words in bold and is done being mentioned at "Yeah of course, Bon!"

"Go back to Hell where you came from."
"You don't belong here."
"Monster."

It still continued but, this time, it wasn't from my friends. Technically, not this many people were supposed to know, but once it got out, everyone knew I was a demon. It didn't help that half of the people saying these things now lived in the same dorm as me.

I left the dorm that morning to see the Kyoto trio walking down my hallway towards the cafeteria setup, "Hey guys, what's up?" I called out joining them.

"What's this shit?" Bon growled pulling down a piece of paper that had been taped to my door. I took a look and pasted on in magazine letters were the words:

'You'd be better off dead. Go kill yourself, demon.'

I shrugged before taking it from him and tossing it in the trash just inside the door.

"To be fair, this is the most creative one I've seen. They took the time to cut out all the letters AND make the word demon completely red." I really thought nothing of it and kept walking, but when I turned around I realized all three had stopped walking and were just looking at each other.

"You mean this has happened before?" Konekomaru asked.

"Yeah," I shrugged again, "it happens, occasionally. Usually, they just leave it in my locker." I really kind of thought they knew this. It didn't really bother me because I had my friends back.

"You would never do anything like that though.... right? We care about you and you know that. Don't you?" Bon said with an odd tone to his voice.

I knew they cared about me. I did. I just really don't care about myself as much as I care about them or they care about me. But I would never kill myself.

"Yeah of course, Bon! Don't be silly; it's just words on a piece of paper."

"Words can hurt, too, Okumura." Bon said quietly. I had been walking towards breakfast, but I heard him say this and I froze.

Yeah, words hurt, but that doesn't matter now. "Really guys, I don't even read them. I just crumple them up and toss them out! Simple as that. Can we go eat now? I'm starving!"

"I second that!" exclaimed Shima. Immediately after, he took off down the stairs. The rest of us followed and got down there to find Shima already on his second plate. And then off to school we went. I had the feeling today was going to be a bad day. I just hoped I was wrong.

When I got to school, I decided to go to my locker. I didn't use it anymore since there were only notes and people would break the lock destroy whatever was inside, but the conversation from earlier had made me curious.

Immediately upon arriving at my locker, I noticed it was covered in scribbles and scratches, all saying horrible things. I opened it and a cascade of notes fell out. One had a few razor blades taped to it with the same message from before. I sighed and tossed them in the trash bin in the hallway.

I shut my locker and was about to walk to my next class when I thought I saw a shadow zip by behind me. I turned around and decided to investigate. There was a demon still on the loose, after all. The bell for class rang and I decided to skip my first class. I turned the corner I thought I had seen the shadow go when I ran face first into Bon.

"The hell are you doing, moron? Your class is that way," he pointed in the opposite direction," and you're late."

"Er.. it's kind of a long story." I said, not really wanting to explain I was chasing a shadow. That would sound dumb. But I also didn't want to lie.

"And it looks like we both got time." Bon said crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

"I was just cleaning out my locker when I though I saw something. I was following it. It's probably gone now though so..." I said, swiveling around on my foot and starting to walk away. I felt a hand grab my collar and pull me back.

"Oi, if you think that was the demon, don't be going after it by yourself. I know how you operate."

"I know, Bon. Besides, the chances of it being in the school are slim to none."

"So were the chances of it being here in the first place." Bon countered.

"Touché," I replied walking away to my second class.

The rest of the day I felt like I was being followed. It had to be that demon. By the end of the day, I was full on paranoid.

"Rin, you seem a little more distracted than usual today. Care to share with the class?" Yukio's weird way of checking up on me and asking if I was okay.

"Nope just thinking."

"In the future please think and focus on what we are talking about in class." Yukio said and went back to his lesson.

Supper, and pretty much everything after, was uneventful that night. I was hoping to at least catch another glimpse of a shadow, anything. I couldn't just go searching because Bon and Yukio would have questions.

.......

They don't care about you. Why should they? You're a demon. A monster. You don't even care about you. How pathetic. It's a good thing you've only told your brother about your healing ability. What would they think if they found out you finally have a nondestructive power but even that's a failure? Those letters were right about you.

.......

I jolted awake, shooting up so fast I was afraid I had woken Yukio. A dream. It was just a dream. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow move. Was it just a dream? I quickly followed the shadow as it flew through my door and out into the hallway. I avoided people for the most part. One thing I was sure of was that I was NOT going to use my flames. Never again if I could help it. I would only use them when I was training to control them. Once again, I ran into Bon. This time not literally.

"What are you doing up?" he whispered.

"I could ask you the same thing, you know."

"I was going to the bathroom. This is the farthest bathroom from your room. So again, what are you doing up?"

I didn't to explain to Bon so I didn't.

"I dunno." I replied.

"You don't-?" he stuttered out in confused surprise.

"Just walking I think."

"Okumura.... are you... sleep walking?"

"No." I said. This is exactly what I wanted him to think. I have sleep walked before. I know that I talk when I do this.

"I think you better head back to your room." he said trying not to laugh, "This will be a fun story to tell you tomorrow."

"Okay." I said cheerfully and walked in the other direction. Whew.

I turned a corner and something grabbed me and put a cold, clawed hand over my mouth. I didn't know what was going to happen next. But one thing I did know, was that I was going to get out of this without using my flames.