I think the subject lines says it all.  Constructive C & C is welcome.  Have
fun reading.

Shuichi Minamino
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SLEEPER
Ch 8 The Prisoner

	He banged on the gate, ignoring the pain in his fists as he continued to
do so.  Blood dripped down from the cuts on his knuckles on to the floor,
making a sickening dripping sound as it did.  He had to get out of this
Hell hole before he went insane.  He had been put in here for days and he
felt that his sanity and rationale were slipping away in the darkness.  He
wished for someone to be with him, to help him.

	Finally, he gave up and sat down on the ground.  He pushed a strand of his
bangs away from his face and sighed.  He was a very beautiful child.  His
delicate feature no doubt showed him of regal birth.  Dungeon was
definitely not a place for someone of his 
origin.  Actually, dungeons were never meant for a child, especially when
he was only four.  He was scared and he had never known fear before.  He
missed his home, and he missed his family, his friends and his servants.
He had no clue what was going on.  He was so lost and so frightened.

	The cuts on his knuckles were starting to hurt now.  He licked at the
cuts, the cuts he had made by banging on the iron gate for hours.  His
blood tasted rusty, like metal, but he licked and sucked at the cuts
anyway.  He had had nothing to eat or drink for days, blood was better than
having nothing to drink at all.  He stopped suddenly, disgusted with
himself for drinking his own blood.  How barbaric!  His parents had taught
him manners.  One should not eat or drink anything raw.  His
parents...where did they all go?

	He couldn't remember too well about how he had gotten here.  It was all a
haze.  His head was throbbing and he was very confused.  The prison cell
was empty except for him, it seemed as if they had meant to put him here
alone for a purpose.  The walls were made of solid metal, as if they were
afraid that he would escape.  He had no idea how to get out of this place.
He only knew that he really disliked it.  He hoped that all of these was
just a nightmare and that when he woke up, he would be back in his home.

****************

	For the first time in his life Hiei was indecisive.  He didn't know
whether to trust Coleen or tell Kurama about the incident; he didn't know
whether he should just forget the whole incidence and get himself out of
the picture...he was confused and in an extremely mean mood.  He was
annoyed by the fact that he had been defeated by Coleen, the only female
besides Mukuro to whom he had lost to.  From his observation, Coleen's
power level even exceeded Mukuro.  He breath a sigh of relief realizing
that it was 
a good thing that some of those psycho high power youkais had not decided
to take part in the Makai tournament.  Who knew what kind of chaos that
would bring.

	Why would she use a crossbow?  Crossbow was an inconvenient weapon.  It
took time to load the arrow, not to mention concentrating the youki on the
weapon to make it lethal and effective.  Surely a youkai with her power
level should know a better way to kill than using a crossbow.  Hiei's anger
flared again when he remembered how he had been defeated by someone who
used a crossbow as weapon.  

	But she was very pretty though.  And she looked very young, couldn't be
older than sixteen.  Long, soft, shiny brown hair and very intense looking
sapphire eyes that shone like one of those rare Makai gems.  She was a good
kisser too, but then of course, that was his first kiss so he probably
couldn't tell the difference...

	*Whatta...?!* Hiei stopped himself before he went further. *Why the hell
am I thinking about her?!!!  Shit!  Damn youkai!*

*****************

	The food tasted like crap.  Worms that he had never seen in his life
crawled and writhed on his food.  One of the worms had a grotesque head,
its teeth were jagged and its red eyes bulged out from the side.  That one
was still alive.  He was disgusted, there was no way that he would eat
this.  He put the food down on the floor and turned away.

	He looked back at the plate of 'food' when his stomach started growling
again.  He had to eat, he hadn't eaten for days and it would be a matter of
fact before he died from starvation.  He couldn't die now, he had to see
his family again.  They were probably worried sick about him.

	Ignoring the disgusting smell, he lifted up the plate and gulped down the
food.  He ignored the urge to throw up after eating.  It tasted even worse
than it looked.  He remembered chewing up the worms and feeling them making
struggling movement before they died.  

	Gods!  This was sickening.  What were those people going to do with him?
He was 
only four, that was too mean and too cruel.  He really didn't like these
mean strangers.  His knuckles were hurting again.  He looked at them, and
found one of his fingers bent out at a strange angle.  He touched it, it
was swollen.  He didn't like the way his finger bent out, it was not like
that before.  His other hand closed around the finger and twisted it.  He
ignored the pain and twisted it back into shape, hearing cracking noises as
he did.  He wondered why was his finger making such strange noise.

	He had nothing to do, maybe he should do something.  There was nobody
around it seemed.  Just him alone in this dark dungeon.  The gates were
solid but without locks.  He figured that it must have been computer
programmed.  He had seen something similar in his palace.  He was no
computer genius, he had never been taught to do this; for his father said
that he was too young.  But that skill might have come in handy now.

	He felt like crying, he was so lonely in here.  He was scared too, he
didn't know what those people had in mind for him.  He hadn't the power to
fight because he couldn't control or use his power.  How could you expect a
four-year-old to do that?  You couldn't.

	He started banging on the gates again.  Hoping in vain that maybe they
would take pity upon him and let him go.  He heard one cracking noise as
his fist struck the gate, he heard another as his other fist struck the
gate.  He heard more and more of it as he continued to bang on the gates.
It was later on, when the pain from his bleeding hands reached him, that he
realized that he had broken almost all the bones in his hands.

	He was exhausted, and he was very thirsty.  He licked at his blood, it
tasted better this time, less rusty.  He started bending his fingers back
in shape again.  It hurt but it was not bad.  At one point he seemed to
have gone beyond pain, he was starting to feel dizzy.  

	*Maybe this will be over soon.*  That was the child's last thought before
the world around him went pitch black.

---------Sleeper: The Prisoner (TO BE CONTINUED)------

	      --Shuuichi Minamino
	      ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` 
	    *      Shuuichi Minamino / Silver Fox / Youko Kurama       *
	    * The Proud Maintainer of the Yaoi/Slash Info Mailing List *
	    *  Firm Supporter of the YYH Dynamic Duo: Kurama X Hiei    *
	    *       A Thousand-Year-Old Fox Spirit As Human            *
	    *   Innocent Student At Large in Northwestern University   *     
            *              http://www.kurama.ranma.com                 *  
	      `~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~