Yui ran, tears of fear blurring her vision momentarily. She glanced behind her, but when she heard Raito's chuckle from somewhere in the shadows, she quickly looked forward again and forced herself to run a little faster. She swallowed down a whimper and wiped her eyes roughly with the back of her hand.
Raito and Ayato had once again managed to corner her when she had come home from school. They were ravenous as usual and the more she struggled, the more it excited them. Their taunting had been relentless also, causing her to absently wonder if the tears that continued to well up in her eyes were really from fear or just them.
She had no recollection of how she escaped them; they probably let her, knowing how much they would get a kick out of it. It was hardly considered uncommon to see her running frantic around the house. She was scared, so scared. She had slowly become resigned to the fact that she would inevitably die in this house – a fact that choked her with fear.
But until then, she'd keep running. She had to keep running. Kami-sama help me, I don't want to die here!
She kept running, running until her chest clenched tightly and her legs burned. Yui threw herself into the nearest door and shut it with a slam. She slumped against it tiredly, taking in large, shaky breaths, sobs breaking through her irregular breathing. She would be a liar if she said she wasn't absolutely terrified. Ayato and Raito were hunting her.
However, as she looked up, her entire person froze. It felt as though her blood had turned to ice. All thoughts of Ayato and Raito suddenly left her. Tears began rolling down her cheeks completely unchecked. She blanched at the sight before her.
It was that room.
The room she had refused to go near since Kanato had nearly choked her to death the first time she showed her that room.
The room with all the previous sacrificial brides.
They were all lined up and pristine as usual. Kanato went out of his way to keep them this pristine – he loved them like this so dearly after all. They were all so beautiful. Yui subconsciously clutched her hands to her chest. How could she compare to these women?
She wiped the tears with her sleeve as an eerie silence overtook the room. It was too silent, it was suffocating. No matter where she looked, a beautiful face was looking at her; those glass eyes were seeking her own light pink ones. A chill ran up her spine. Where the eyes watching her? Following her moves?
How many girls are here? I can't even see the end of them… is this where I'll be?
She banished the thought from her head as she took a tentative step forward. It echoed loudly in the otherwise silent room. Yui could have sworn the eyes moved as she did. She swallowed, turning slowly to face the door. She knew she couldn't come back out that door. Raito and Ayato would only find her again. She wasn't sure if she could handle them taking anymore of her blood tonight. Kanato had only just fed last night and she was already feeling so weak.
There must be some other door in this room…
Helplessly, she glanced around the room, attempting not to make any eye contact with the beautiful girls before her. She didn't want to look at her future, she wanted to ignore it for as long as possible.
They won't do that to me… They won't, I know they wo- Ah! Another door!
She could have skipped towards it, if her footsteps resounding so loudly around the rooms weren't giving her chills. She quickly pushed it open and shut it. She was a little startled once inside. It was so … small. Or, small at least compared to every other room in the house.
It was an odd room too. It just had shelves all along the bland, white-washed walls, as well as many closely spaced together shelves in the middle of the room. The light flickered slightly above her once she pushed the stiff light switch. The room was also unnervingly silent; the only thing the blonde girl could hear was the hum from the light and the thundering heart-beat pounding against her chest.
Curiously, she stepped closer to one of the centre shelves. The shelves contained nothing but large, dull grey boxes. Some looked considerably older than others, the grey turning an odd shade from perhaps weathering of some description and crumbling and disintegrating slightly with age. Yui stared at them in confusion, and glanced at a relatively new looking box. The only thing on it was Tashika, Natsumi written across the side in clear black lettering.
Overtook completely by curiosity, she lifted the box from the shelf and placed it on the floor. For a long while, she just kneeled in-front of it, staring at it. She wanted to know what was inside, but was it really worth it? Anything could be in here; clothes, book or maybe jewellery.
Or maybe the parts of a wax figurine that weren't used.
The thought came to her so suddenly that she recoiled from the box as though it had spontaneously become animated and attempted to bite her. No, not even Kanato would… Surely he wouldn't store parts of girls so meticulously? She swallowed the rising bile in her throat. These brothers were capable of anything, she had seen that much.
Gingerly, very gingerly, she lifted the lid of the box and set it aside. She could have cried in relief when she peered inside and found it contained only what appeared to be files and diaries. She plucked out the first folder. School reports. All pertaining to a Natsumi Tashika.
The same name as on the box…
Yui frowned slightly in confusion as she flicked through it. She had good grades, whoever this Natsumi was. She didn't recognise the name of the high school Natsumi was attending – an all-girls school in the countryside somewhere. However towards the end of the file, there were transferal papers. Natsumi was transferred straight into the night class of Ryoutei Academy. Yui blinked. That's the school she was in! Natsumi's grades had maintained quite well for a while, but suddenly plummeted and when the reports stopped unexpectedly, it didn't look like they had ever recovered. There was another set of transferal papers out of Ryoutei Academy for her about a month ago to some high school that Yui again didn't recognise. However there weren't any more school reports from Natsumi's new school.
To change school so many times in less than a year… that must have been daunting.
She pulled out a different folder. It was a police report.
A missing persons file?
Yui glanced over it, according to the report, her name was Natsumi Tashika, she was 17 years old and had waist length, straight dark brown her and green eyes. She was last seen when she was coming home from school to her neighbour's house, where she was temporarily residing.
It made Yui anxious to be reading over this. The girl, Natsumi, had gone missing about ten months ago. Why was this report here? Why was all her documentation here?
She continued reading and was overcome with sympathy.
"All known relatives are deceased. Last remaining relatives, mother, Sakura Tashika (42) and brother, Daisuke Tashika (13) died in a car crash 6 weeks before Natsumi was reported missing." Yui read aloud.
She had no one…
She tried to swallow down her overwhelming sympathy as tears stung her eyes once more. The report ended there, but attached was another report. It was dated after the missing persons report. It was a statement that read Natsumi was in fact not missing; she was taken in by her godfather. He apologised sincerely for any concern and worry he caused, he just wished to have her with people who loved her as soon as possible. It explained that she had been brought to the manor and she would be transferred to another school as soon as possible. There should be no further cause for alarm as she was now in good hands.
Yui gaped slightly when she saw who signed off on the letter. Shu Sakamaki signed off in lieu of her godfather?
She had barely seen him move the entire time she was here, and any responsibilities he had, he carelessly thrust upon Reiji. It was peculiar to say the least.
Attached to the letter was also a picture of Natsumi. She was certainly a pretty thing. The missing person report hadn't done her any justice. Natsumi had a certain sparkle in her eyes, a vibrancy that Yui never had. She was slightly envious.
She looked at another folder. Medical reports, dentists, hospital visits… She glanced at one in particular. It was a hospital report from a hospital not too far away from the Sakamaki manor. It contained all her personal details as expected – although Yui noticed something unusual. The guardian that had signed the consent forms had been none other than Shu. Looking at the report, it appeared as though Natsumi was brought there due to a sudden unexplained poisoning by an unknown toxin. Yui's hands shook as she read the next sentence.
Natsumi Tashika was pronounced dead on May 20th, 2014 at 2.57am. All attempts at resuscitation failed. Cause of death is believed to be poisoning from an unknown toxin. May have been self-administered, the patient was believed to be in a fragile state of mind. The body has been removed, as by request of the guardian, before further examinations into the cause of death could be arranged.
Taking a deep breath to settle herself, Yui lay aside the folder, hoping that her death had been quick if nothing else. Natsumi had died a mere month or so before Yui had arrived to the manor herself.
She must have been another sacrificial bride… I wonder if she's in the room just next door. Her body was taken from the hospital, it could be nowhere else.
The thought unsettled her. It unsettled her immensely. Yui shook her head somewhat restlessly and reached into the box once more. She pulled out a small leather bound journal.
This must be Natsumi's diary… Did she have as terrible of a time here as I am?
Yui was just about to open it, to quench her curiosity when she heard a faint 'thump'. Every fibre of her being froze. She had come to fear any noise – no matter how miniscule in this house. For the house never made noises on its own, it was always one of the brothers. And if they were close enough for her to hear their goings about; they were more than close enough to know where she was.
She had a very funny inkling she wasn't supposed to have found this room, least of all these files. And she had an even funnier inkling, that if she were to be found here rummaging, she'd live to regret it.
Would they even let me live long enough to regret it?
She wasn't about to chance it. She threw all the folders back in the box and hastily thrust the box back onto the shelf, stuffing the diary into her uniform pocket. She all but threw herself out of the room, just in time to see Raito slip into the room containing all the sacrificial brides, smirking coyly at her.
"Found you, Bitch-chan." He sang, slowly walking towards her. She swallowed, taking a step back to match every step he advanced on her.
"R-Raito, please, I feel so faint already…" She began, but his eyes just showed his amusement. Suddenly her back collided with a wall.
Yui didn't have time to blink before Raito was towering over her, his hands propped up on the wall on either side of her head. She pushed weakly against his chest. "You have no right to refuse me Bitch-chan, you're useless for anything else but your blood." He chuckled, smirking as usual but there was an icy undertone to his usual playful tone. It sent a chill down her spine.
"Be a good Bitch-chan and let me have my way with you." Before she could protest, he had pulled her flush against him, kissing along her throat with light butterfly kisses. His fangs plunged in just above her collar bone causing her to gasp. Her eyes flew open, and she knew all the glass eyes were watching them. How could this not bother Raito? They were in the room with countless innocent girls that had been sacrificed to them. How many lives had Raito been responsible for ending?
Natsumi is in here somewhere…
It was her last thought before her vision started blurring and she succumbed to the darkness.
Raito sighed in pleasure as he savoured the last mouthful when she slumped against him. "Oh, looks like I got a little carried away, ne Bitch-chan?" He picked her up effortlessly and carried her out of the room – never once meeting the girls' lifeless glass eyes that surrounded him.