Selene Pais

Selene Pais ~ Moonlight Children

pronounced: Se-ley-ney (ey as in hEY) Pa-i(as in It) s (as in Say)
Greek for: Moonlight Children
pronouciations and words found at: http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/Woodhouse/

Chapter Alpha

Warm liquid flicked off of delicate fingers, the red already staining the once pale flesh. Green eyes watched as a blond man struggled to get back up from his face down position. Crimson warmth pooled around the man\'s shoes as the one in front of him slowly lost his life. He tilted his head, watching as the youth managed to get up onto his hands and knees. Blood spilled forth from his mouth adding to the blackening ground underneath him. Squatting down, he reached out a hand and took a hold of the blond\'s chin. With a rather gentle touch he guided the man\'s light blue eyes to meet his own. He felt his lips move as deaf words came out. Touching the blond\'s face, he kneeled forward, his first two fingers raising. Blue eyes watched in shock as the fingers thrust forward, the only sound being of the loud, thick cracking of bone.

\"Hyoga!\" Shun jerked himself out of his sleep, sitting bolt up right.

Andromeda\'s breath drew in heavy as the cold sweat from his nightmare continue to pearl down his brow. The door to his room swinging open causing the, already startled, teen to jump. Ikki stood in the door way for a few seconds, taking in the room making sure that everything was okay. When he had heard his brother scream he leapt out of bed thinking the boy was under attack. And by the looks of it, it was most likely nothing he should worry about, but still he needed to know what had caused such fright.

Walking to the bed he took a seat next to his brother, \"Did you have a nightmare?\"

The boy looked down to his crumpled up blankets and nodded slowly. His eyes filling with tears not wanting to recall the emotions that he had while dreaming. A soothing hand patted him on the head trying to calm him enough to speak about the turmoil.

\"Wanna talk about it?\" the elder brother asked after a moment of silence.

\"I dreamt it again...\"

\"Again?\" the phoenix saint frowned deeply.

\"I\'m going to take a shower...\" Shun pushed is blankets to the side and got out of bed.

\"Want me to make you something to eat?\"

\"No... no thank you,\" the boy mumbled while disappearing into his private bathroom.

The dark haired brother sighed heavily. The sounds of the shower quickly followed the shutting of the door. He was getting frustrated with the seclusion that Shun had placed himself into. No, frustration wasn\'t truly the emotion, it was more like worry. For the past month his little brother and himself had been living in the Grand Foundation mansion by themselves with a few of the maids. This was only because Seiya still had his apartment to live in, Shiryu went back to china, and Hyoga left for Siberia. Saori herself had been spending time at Sanctuary doing her ruling thing as Athena.

When everyone had left he was actually glad. He knew that everyone would come by to visit from time to time, it was like this unspoken pact between them all. But what he had been looking forward to was living with his little brother, actually living with him like they did before they where sent to the orphanage. The first few days ran smoothly, actually quite enjoyable. They even went to a theme park and had a blast, but when they where coming home...

He grunted at the memory. Some woman from a shinto shrine had shouted down from the top of the large stair well that lead up the side of the hill to the temple. He still remembered her words, \"The green haired one will be the end.\" Shun had quickly grabbed Ikki\'s hand when the elder shouted up to the woman to not creep people out and dragged the man off. Ever since then his little brother had been experiencing the same nightmare. He rarely screamed though, he only started to wake up screaming recently. That night was only the third time it had happened, but he always heard the younger saint shout out Cygnus\' name. He silently wished that the boy would tell him what the dream was, but every time the child tried he only managed to choke back tears. Whatever that nightmare was scared the boy, it terrified him to the point of even keeping it away from Ikki. It was almost like a dark secret that he desperately wanted to keep covered.

The door to the bathroom opened and hot steam billowed out. Shun warily stepped out not really caring that he was nude in front of his brother. Toweling his hair dry he made his way over to his dresser to fetch himself some clean clothing.

\"Is it really that bad?\" Ikki looked over to his sibling to find the youth already with his underwear and fresh pajama bottoms on.

The green eyed brother pulled on his deep aqua green sleeping shirt, \"Trust me Ikki, when I\'m ready to tell anyone I\'ll be telling you first.\"

\"That\'s not what I asked,\" dark blue eyes narrowed as the man stood.

\"Then, yes. It is, at least for me,\" he said rather calmly while buttoning up his shirt, his tangled wet hair matting to whatever it touched.

\"Can you at least tell me a clue on what frightens you the most about the dream?\" He stepped close to his little brother, taking the towel off of Shun\'s shoulders to gently dry the hair more, \"I know you don\'t want to talk about it little brother, but don\'t leave me hanging like this. Even one clue is better than not knowing anything.\"

There was a soft breath that was followed by Andromeda\'s cracking voice, \"Me...\"

Ikki paused, \"You\'re scared of yourself?\"

The boy nodded as a whimper hummed on his lips. Tipping forward, he rested his head on his brother\'s strong chest as a silent sob shook his body. Ikki closed his eyes trying to keep in his own pain. It hurt so much to see hnly nly family suffering from something that he couldn\'t help with. No, something that they wouldn\'t let him help with. All he could do was stroke his little brother\'s hair, waiting for the tears to stop.

~-The next morning-~

Shun grunted as he tried to manually change cha channel to the television. Usually he found television programs to be quite mind melting, degrading, and you tend to loose brain cells with shows like that American show \'Sponge Bob Square Pants\' or those imported French movies that you only stop on because it\'s more like watching a train wreck and you can\'t find the will power to change the channel. But he had watched some cooking shows and found them fascinating. To make sea urchin husks into bowls was freakishly brilliant, and to add a small amount of coffee into melting chocolate and milk to make a deliciously bitter sweet chocolate sauce was something he wouldn\'t think of. So, now when ever he wanted to watch TV, which was rare, it was just for the cooking shows. But only if the freaking TV WORKED!!

The static was driving him to the point where he was getting angry. It had been working just fine when his brother was watching the world cup soccer game a moment ago. Soon as the game was over he got to have some TV time for himself, mostly because he wanted to figure something out in order to cook for his brother, as a little thank you gift for always being there. But soon as he picked up the remote there was nothing but static. At first he thought it was the satellite so he turned it off, he knew a few local channels that would have some cooking shows at that time. But the TV was nothing but static, the only thing visible and audio.

\"Maybe I should just use a different television,\" he mumbled sitting back on his legs, after turning the appliance off.

Sighing he leaned back further, placing his hands behind him to support him as he thought. Maybe he could just go to the store and look through some cooking books. Watching the ceiling he decided that he would do that, it was a good idea. A frown formed on his lips when the sound of static came audible. He had just turned off the TV and no one else was in the room. Bringing himself upright, he quirked an eyebrow at the static screen in front of him. Pushing the power button in with his index finger he watched the screen turn from the snow to the blackness of rest.

Light thudding sounds pounded behind him sending chills down his spine. Whirling around he expected to see someone there, he was only greeted with the shallow ticking of the wall clock and the shadows of the potted plants. Goose bumps started to form on his uncovered arms as the room began to chill.

\"I-is someone there?\" he managed to keep his voice steady as his words came out in cold puffs of air.

A giggle of a child entered the room, the small thudding sounds of running ran from the door to along the wall. Shun found himself shrinking back, though he could hear what was going on he couldn\'t see anything. The laughter closed in as it continued its course around the room. He closed his eyes tightly when a picture crashed down from the wall, the glass shattering, picture frame breaking on impact. A hard lump formed in his throat as he found himself becoming frightened.

The giggle suddenly stopped along with the sounds of the foot steps. The moments of silence allowing Shun to sigh in relief as his fast beating heart began to slow. He gave a startled yip as the television suddenly shook. The screen flipped on, the volume loud as the once gone giggle returned.

Whipping around he gave a scream at the sight of a small black child like creature, the only thing visible where the blue eyes. Falling back he hit his head against the carpeted floor, the laughter now sounding like there where more than one in the room. Small black, clawed, hands grabbed at his hair from with in the shadows of the couch in fell next to. Those same eyes, the colors of a new born\'s, lifted over his face as a wide grin of thick canine like teeth smiled down at him.

With a scream ripping from his throat he pushed at the little creature, feeling it\'s skin, dry like clay. He desperately tried to pull away from its grip, the pain in his head pulsed from the creature pulling ruthlessly at his green locks.

\"IKKIIII~!\" the scream came out more like a cry as he finally freed himself and ran for the door.

Wrenching it open he slammed it shut once he was out into the hallway. The door knob started to twist, shooting his hand forward he grabbed the door knob, keeping the door shut. Realizing that he didn\'t have a key to lock the room, he found himself too frightened to make a mad dash for it. Besides if he did that then those... those things might get all around the house and hurt someone. Blood dribbled down the back of his ear and his temples from the harsh pulling his hair had taken. The door started to pull open, desperately trying to keep it closed he cried out for his brother once more. Fright painting every part of his voice as his voice traveled to his brother\'s ears.

To be continued...