For many people the shadows held the promise of demise.  The absence of light frightened them so that they avoided the cold beauty of the intangible embrace.  Steps guided them away, around and afar from the unknown of what lay just outside their reach.  Shadows were a forbidden landscape to be shunned by the mortal mind and shunned with the light.  Indeed the first embrace of safety man possessed was when the darkness of the night was forced away by the comfort of a fiery companion.  Yet even then the shadows encroached and seduced, slipped into existence without a sound.  That was when the people of the Shisou Clan were born.  Theirs was the first to not hide from the shadow and the first to embrace the forbidden knowledge.<br/><br/>Yurei remembered such tales with a fondness while she stood in the dark embrace of a proud tree.  Branches arched outward to give her darkness even in the night.  Part of her wondered at how her ancestors felt the first time they felt that touch, the first time their skin tingled to life inside a thing though dead.  The light of the sun did not give them such pleasure, only the absence could bring them to life.  Only the shadow could give her comfort.  Around her the gentle sway of the tree above formed clawed fingers.  Sharpened edges etched their mark on the concrete sidewalk with wicked delight.  Soft leaves became like armor for the twisted images cast.  At their center Yurei stood cloaked in the fear projected, set apart and safe from the eyes around her.  She stood there half within this world and half into the next.  Eyes peered out at the colorful display before her.<br/><br/>An annual party is what they had been told.  Women dressed out in skimpy outfits, their bodies hardly covered if at all while they pranced about.  Like bitches in heat the women moved, their male counterparts strutting about like peacocks to find their pleasure.  The affair sent a shiver of disgust along her body.  One might call such a thing anger or contempt, but she was beyond such low fare.  Instead she could only call her emotion disgust and the shadows became deeper around her sensing her distaste for the display of flesh.  While the display of flesh tormented her, the touch of the fabric taunted her.  To feel such wonderful clothing on her skin, to be seen in the light with such delicate fabric on her body was an opportunity undiscovered.  Fingers coiled to her gloved hand, synthetic fibers giving slight resistance to the movement.  Her suit was indeed more expensive than what they wore, but not nearly so beautiful or graceful.<br/><br/>Fibers of black and gray shifted around her body.  Cloth and leather blended together in artificial union to forge the outfit of her Master’s design.  The suit a familiar entity to her.  Yurei had performed many tasks decked out in such an outfit, performed the will of another wearing this very same fabric.  For her there was no joy to be had in the wearing of beautiful things, because for such joy there must be sight.  Yurei was never to be seen.  That was the task of another.  With some envy she looked upon the woman that would be seen tonight.  Looked upon her and gave only a simple nod of her head.  From the place between the world of the light and the dark her hand extended.  The glove removed so that her white flesh might emerge to touch bare flesh to her companion.  A symbolic gesture, but one that meant more to her than any other.<br/><br/><em>The snow had fallen fresh on the ground.  Cold and white, the very smell made her shiver with childish delight.  A squeal of laughter stole from her lips when her father slides back the panel to reveal the beautiful display.  Quickly her feet pounded into motion, not toward the snow but away to her room.  Her favorite doll must accompany her, but first her favorite doll must be made safe against the cold.  Small fingers, not yet nimble with age, pulled on the heavier clothes for her doll.  Perfect features smiled up at the child as she worked to dress and care for the small toy.  Such attention focused on such a delicate task prevented her from noticing the shadow forming behind her.<br/><br/>Only when that shadow came to roll past her small frame did she take notice.  Her father was no longer the only figure in her home.  Another voice rose up from the shadow.  A voice devoid of affection, devoid of concern echoed from the air around her.  The voice demanded her doll to be forsaken, for her affection to be turned aside.  The girl screamed her defiance, the small figurine clutched to her as hands reached to part them.  Screams called out into the wintery morning to be replaced with sharp cracks.  Her father nowhere to be found, nowhere to be seen.  He too was lost to the shadow.<br/><br/>Yurei was loaded into the wagon soon after.  On the floor her doll lay.  The heavy coat she had so meticulously kept clean and set on her doll’s body stained red now.  The stains would never come off her mind mused while she was taken away.  No gloves covered her hand while she was loaded into the cart.  The only warmth came from a similar pair of small fingers that touched her own.</em><br/><br/>Yurie turned her eyes back to the entry of the mansion.  The business of the clan was to be first in her mind, not behind pretty dresses and dolls.<br/><br/>“There is much lust to be found here.  Do we know for certain how to find him in such a carnal den?”<br/>