Tis a very confusing fanfic this shall be -nod nod- I'm finally starting to branch out into other fandoms! Finally! XD; After like, 55 FMA fanfics, I guess I was due...in any case! Tis my first Higurashi fanfic, yatta! Each chapter might be based on different arcs, like how this one is based on the Tsumihoroboshi-hen arc. Onward!

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Ujimushi no chisou-hen (Maggot's feast Chapter)

Part I

Ketsueki

Blood

She was being watched again...

Rena's heart pounded hard against her ribcage. She curled herself into a tighter ball, as eyes bore hard, piercing stares into her back, peering into her soul, glaring at every sin she'd ever made...she glanced nervously over her shoulder, but nothing was there, except for her shadow thrown on the far wall of her bedroom. That didn't ease her pained worry though...she was convinced that someone was there, invisibly watching her with hunger in their eyes. And it didn't help that she was alone in the house, her father at the bank, getting money to pay for something that was dead now.

Because with her own hands, she had driven the cleaver through his skull...

The air rustled with the sound of cicadas just outside the window. Rena gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, listening carefully. The cicadas seemed to call out a word to her, but she couldn't understand.

Am I imagining this...I wonder...she bit her bottom lip and stood, attempting to slow down her quickly escalating breaths. No, she couldn't be, she decided. The cicada's chirps did sound like jumped words, in their own language.

She bit her lip harder and looked at her scared wrist, suddenly terrified. She felt a strange sensation from beneath her skin, crawling around, begging to be freed.

Rena shrieked and dropped to her knees, scratching her nails furiously across her wrist, making the skin irritated and red, but refused to break apart like she wanted. The crawling grew wilder under her fingers. She let out another short, shrill scream and scratched harder, digging the dull, chewed off tips into her starting to shred skin. Flesh tore away, revealing raw red tissue underneath, then started to fill with drops of blood.

Her hand fell limply to her sides. She watched the small wound with wide, horrified blue eyes, the still droplets suddenly shuddering, and little white worms, dyed red in her blood, poured from the small wound to spill off in wet clumps on the floor beneath her.

Rena screamed again, scared tears bursting from her eyes. Her heart was pounding fast in her ears, slightly masked by the maggots in her blood making that damned rustling sound, and the cicadas outside croaking loudly, and now she could understand what they said. They were calling to her, tauntingly, begging "Blood! Blood! Blood!"

"NO!" Rena clutched at her hair with her uninjured hand and jumped to her feet, running to the bathroom and grabbing the cordless phone on the way. She nearly collapsed against the white sink, staring at herself in the mirror. Her face was paled, almost gray and dead (just like their corpses...!) her eyes small and shadowed by her wild, messed up bronze hair. She dropped the phone and sobbed dryly, scratching at her wrist again, the skin itching under the collecting maggots.

With a wild, grievous wail, she smashed her fist into the mirror as hard as she could, making it shatter, pieces of it raining into the basin. She grabbed the largest, sharpest shard of reflective glass and held it at her dripping wrist and stopped, panting hard and watching the maggots squirm, still hearing the cicada's bloodthirsty chant.

"Get out..." She hissed, and held the glass shard high over her head, her eyes reflecting madness. "Get out of me!" She brought it down and hacked it into her wrist. Adrenaline mashed the pain as blood seeped out in rivers, hordes of maggots scuttling from the gash, spilling onto her skin, her clothes, everywhere. Bawling, she collapsed against the sink, clenching the sides of the basin hard and heaved, opaque vomit splashing into the rounded porcelain. She finished and spat out the acidic remains, her breaths coming out in rasps through her burning throat, and to her horror, the maggots were writing in her vomit too.

She staggered where she stood, close to fainting, and dazedly looked back down at her wrist. What looked like the last maggot squirmed free and fell to the ground with a dull splat-ing sound, and then it all stopped.

Rena took a breath of relief. Then blood, pure clean blood bubbled from the wound, and the pain finally stabbed into her body. She winced and sunk to the ground, leaving bloody handprints on the sink. Liquid scarlet pooled around her, as she realized what she'd done. She groaned and reached for her fallen phone, holding it close to her face with no strength left to hold it to her ear, and dialed the number she had long since memorized.

It was a relief to her to hear his voice again, cheerful but slightly puzzled. "Keiichi-kun..." She whispered, a faint smile curling her lips.

"Rena-chan? What's up? You left our club activities early; I was worried that you were sick or something." He replied. Rena shuddered, hearing the eerie rustling sound of the maggots, surrounding her now, swimming in her blood. "H-help me...please..." She begged, as breathing started to get difficult.

"...help? Rena-chan, are you okay?! What's wrong!?" He demanded immediately. Her eyes dilated, silent tears dripping down her cheeks. Her throat was tightening, making her voice a small, scared squeak. "Ma..." She started, unable to finish. She lifted a trembling finger and shakily drew a straight stroke in her blood.

"What? Rena, tell me what's wrong...please!" Keiichi begged, sounding desperate. She drew another curved stroke next to the first, spelling out 'ma' in katakana. "Ma..." She said again, quieter this time.

"...Rena...don't...don't worry, I'll help you, just hold on! You're at your house now, right? I'm coming, just wait for me!" Wild scrambling noises from the other side. Rena drew the next symbol, her hand trembling with the effort. Then her hand fell limp, splashing against the stretched out puddle, a choking sound escaped her, and then she was quiet, her soul departing her body. The cicadas went dead silent.

The phone crackled. "Rena...? Are you still there?" Seconds of no reply, then panic.

"Rena?! Rena, answer me, damn it! Rena! RENA!"

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Whee, fun! Because I forgot to say it before, I'll say it now. The title means When Maggots Cry Blood, yes, I know that they can't literally do that, IT'S A METAPHORE! ...please review! See ya next chapter!