When They Cry: Decay

PROLOGUE

There are things in this world we are not meant to see. Things that aren't meant to come to pass. Things that make you wonder if God has looked away from you. Forsaken you and left you to your fate.

Such events occur frequently in some places. Rumours will arise that these points are possessed or unlucky or simply cursed. This is an account of one such place. A place trapped in it's own twisted web of deceit and hatred.

Welcome to Hinamizawa.

CHAPTER ONE: FALLEN ANGELS

The dark corridor held a foreboding mood. The emptiness was broken only by a single figure. A girl of about 17, leaning against the far wall with a book in hand. It was still opened to page 1, as it had been for the past three days.

Shion tried to piece together the words contained within. Tried to imagine another time and place where young boys weren't driven mad by forces beyond human control. Where time ran smoothly. Where hearts weren't broken beyond repair. It was all in vain tonight. Satoshi's life was fading.

She pressed her forehead against the glass barrier that prevented the mutated strain of Hinamizawa syndrome that crawled beneath the surface of Satoshi's skin from infecting outsiders.

That was what she was to him wasn't it? An outsider. Satoshi had known her for all of five minutes, but she felt she'd known him forever. Not for those fleeting moments. It was all moot now, though.

Irie had informed her three days ago that an unforeseen 6th stage of the syndrome had manifested in Satoshi. A stage that would lead to long, unpleasant death. There was nothing to be done about it. There were no corpses who'd met this fate to study. Satoshi was going to die.

Shion looked away. She could stand the sight of his withering existence no longer. As she looked into the dark hallway leading out of the underground facility, she caught sight of a silhouette in the shadows. The lights flickered for a moment, revealing the face of a young girl.

"S-Satoko?" Shion asked, horrified that Satoshi's sister might see him in his broken state. The answer came in an echoing tone.

"Not quite, Sonozaki Shion. I am what you would call a sorceress, a spell caster… or perhaps a witch?" The voice seemed wrong. Mocking.

"Don't play games, Satoko." Shion stuttered. She was getting quite unnerved by this disturbing event.

"The irony of that statement must be lost on you, but that's beside the point. The real question here is: What would you give to save Satoshi from his fate?" Satoko stepped forward into the light radiating from Satoshi's room. She was garbed in strange attire. A sort of gothic, pink outfit topped by a small hat.

"S-Save Satoshi? I'd give anything! My soul even, so long as my heart can still beat with love for him!" Shion stammered in a hesitant excitement. She knew she should know better than to get her hopes up based on the words of a clearly disturbed little girl, but what choice did she have? What could be more important than awakening Satoshi?

"Your soul? That would do just fine." Satoko giggled as she pulled a parchment scroll from behind her back. She unrolled it with a flick of her wrist, revealing a long contract composed in Latin.

"What is that?" Shion asked. She was trembling visibly now. Something was definitely wrong with Satoko. This person wore her face, but her eyes told a tale of despair.

"This is the contract of determination. Sign and I will awaken your slumbering friend there. Decline and you may keep your weeping soul. Either way, we both win, don't we?" She gestured violently with the scroll, a smirk crossing her youthful face, making it appear old and twisted.

"What happens if I sign away my soul?" Shion asked, now wary of the promises of this witch-Satoko and hoping to get out of this situation alive.

"You'll linger here, in this village of the dead, for all eternity… unless I say otherwise of course. But isn't it worth it to see this boy rise again?" Satoko offered menacingly.

"But… why do I have to give away my soul for love? Why is it that Mion finds happiness without sacrifice and I must give up so much to mirror her?!" Shion demanded, the harshness of her tone not immediately apparent to her.

"Do you dare commit the sin of envy so close to the pits of hell? You've done things in worlds unseen that would cast your soul into a darkness much crueller than the fate I offer you. Melancholy as your existence may be, at least you'll be spared the suffering of eternal punishment. Sign."

"Well… if this is the best for Satoshi… I… I'll do it." Shion finally concluded with an insincere smile. Before she could even finish speaking, a cut formed on her forehead, dripping warm, coppery blood over her face. Drips seemed to levitate from her and splash across the contract. A wound of another world, a world of atonement, had been stricken upon her to mark her sin.

"Thank God that's over with." The witch-Satoko sighed. The blood slid from the contract and pooled on the floor, leaving only a single, frightening name intact: Leviathan.

"That's not my name!" Shion exclaimed, her horror at her situation now worsened by the supernatural display.

"I'm afraid it is now, Leviathan of Envy. For your sin you are renamed forever as my furniture. Enjoy your human life to the fullest. I hope you're satisfied with your choice. Nihehehe!" A harsh light was cast from the doorway. Satoko's silhouetted form departed, leaving Shion alone with Satoshi once again.

"Did I make the right decision?"