Well, I love wolves. I love Touhou. I love the Scarlet Devil Mansion. And most of all I love blood. So of course this would come out. Enjoy~!
Chapter 1: So begins the task...
My name is Saylum and I am 3,018 years old but look no more that thirteen which is normal for most yokai. I have gone through many changes in my life. I am now the dream yokai of Gensokyo when just a decade before, I was a lowly wolf yokai. A lot can change in a short amount of time; such is the way of Gensokyo. Those changes lead me to like Gensokyo but I will tell you about that another time. I now spent a lot of time in Gensokyo; especially at the Scarlet Devil Mansion…
"Saylum! Saylum, get down from there, you lazy yokai," a familiar voice rang in my ear.
It took me a minute to understand where I was. Let's see, I just lost a danmaku battle with Marisa and needed to rest. I opened one of my lazy eyes. I looked down and saw a demon looking up at me. She had on a black dress and two sets of leathery wings, one on her back and one on her head. Her hair was long and scarlet like her tie. Her name was Koakuma. She had been here many years but that never stopped my superiority. She didn't seem happy to find I had fallen asleep atop one of Patchy's huge bookcases. Again. I closed my eyes again and heard her stomp her foot in frustration. I had to try hard to stifle a snicker. She's too cute when she is flustered~. Then I went back to trying to remember something.
Then I felt a sharp blow to my forehead. I opened my eyes in time to see Koakuma looking thoroughly pissed and then my gaze was shifted towards the floor that was on its way to meet me... I yelped. I hate how high these bookcases are, even though they were very comfortable. I landed on my head and that woke me the rest of the way up. I barely got to a sitting position before Koakuma floated down in front of me.
"It has been four days, Saylum. Time for you to go talk to Sakuya about your assignment," she scolded as I sat up. It took a moment for the star to clear from my eyes. The look on her face was on the edge of smugness. It was time to play the game.
"Come on, Koa. I just spent the night here. I wasn't going to stay," I half-heartedly whined.
When I first came to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the mistress, Remilia Scarlet, thought that I deserved access to the mansion any time (but not without a fight). After I had claimed victory, she looked to me with respect. Then she offered me the chance to come have tea with her and like an idiot I accepted. However, she tricked me. In the tea was a curse that made me promise that if I stayed in the mansion for more than three days, I had to work or forever be Remilia's servant (and without pay, by the way). It kept me from free loading, as well as being bored. She didn't have the slightest idea how much I enjoyed having this agreement.
"It is half-part noon. Sakuya should be on the third floor," Koakuma said too smugly (I'll fix that later). Just to play along, I pouted and folded my arms childishly. Koa giggled and patted me on the head before turned from me and walking to another part of the library to do Patchy's bidding. I waited for a minute to make sure she was gone. Then I pulled up a grin that soon began to hurt. I loved working here because there was always something to do and maids to play with.
I got to my feet. Then after the stars cleared from my vision I left the library. I then made my way to the oversized foyer and up the stairs. Half way up, I was greeted by my fairy friend named Sam. She wore the usual maid outfit but her hair came to almost her waist and her bangs swayed to the side as if blown by the wind. Her golden hair made her look unique in comparison to the other maids. And that I liked.
"Over stayed your welcome again, huh?" She guessed with a smile.
I returned it warmly. "Yeah. I think that Koakuma is waiting for me to slip up just so she can scold me for it." Then showing mock sadness I declared," She is so mean to me!" Then, I pretended to faint. Sam giggled. She had such a nice laugh that seemed to echo in my head long after the joke was said and done. That's how we became friends so quickly...
After she settled a bit, she rested her hand on my shoulder. "Sakuya is at the top of the next flight." Then she looked slightly off in the distance, not really talking to me but to a being that was invisible to me. "She looks like she is expecting you." She gave my shoulder a quick squeeze. Then she headed down the stairs.
Upon hearing that, I became serious and all I could reply was a whispered, "yeah".
When I got to the second floor stairway, sure enough, Sakuya Izayoi was at the top of the stair looking down at me from the bottom step. There was an eerie feeling about our positions. The way I had to look up to see her on the stairs just above me was a physical metaphor for our roles. Weird how that happens when you know you're in trouble. Her blue eyes were looking at me coldly but they seemed to be hiding another emotion, something between smugness and pity. She had her arms folded as always and she looked amused despite the message her eyes were sending. I shivered. She had definitely been waiting for me.
"Come along," she commanded without even so much as a greeting. I followed her to what was apparently "my room". It was simple; an unused bed (the bookcases were better) with a handmade quilt, a dresser made of pure bamboo, a closet that had almost nothing in it, and a small wooden chair in the corner with an unfinished book in the seat. She told me to sit on the bed and I obeyed. That's how it was with Miss Sakuya; she told me to do something and I would obey, no questions asked. Sakuya then went to my closet. It was mesmerizing to see how every movement she makes was elegant. It was like she was dancing and I couldn't help the pink rising to my cheeks. She moved some of my other clothes (two or three) around in my closet and pulled out my maid outfit. It looked the same as the uniforms the other maids wore but it was one noticeable difference.
The skirt was cut way shorter. I hated it with a passion.
Before I could protest, I was in my uniform and Sakuya was hanging up the clothes I had had on just a millisecond ago. I yelped in surprised and then gave Sakuya a look that said I hated when you did that. Come to think of it, why was I thinking about it?
"I hate when you do that," I spoke aloud. A speck of amusement flashed across her eyes before she closed my semi dust covered closet and made her way (still elegantly) to the bed. She stopped a good distance from me but I could still see all of her features (thank you yokai eyes). Then her eyes set on me.
"Let's see," Sakuya murmured trying to think of my task for the day. It usually turned out to be a punishment for staying to long in the first place. I couldn't keep from looking her over now that she wasn't paying me much attention.
Her silver hair sparkled in the sunlight from the window and I had to resist the urge to run my fingers through it and feel the silkiness of it. Then my eyes moved to her face that looked elegant even when riddled with thinking lines. I sometimes imagined putting my hands around her cheeks and just looking into those delicious pools of blue and maybe even pull her in to indulge in her lips on mine... I moved further down. Every feature on her was picture perfect. Divine. Awesome. Then, I glanced back up and stopped at her neck. There was something hidden a little behind a lock of her hair. If I weren't so close, I never would have noticed. I leaned in and tried to see what had caught my eye. I saw that they were two identical marks on her neck. Then, without thinking, I knew what I saw. I didn't need to think any further on the matter. I was never going to get my word in on something like this.
I snapped out of my train of thought as Sakuya had found my task. She turned to me and studied my face. "Is something troubling you?"
I immediately tilted my head down, making my hair cover my face; I habit that I couldn't quit. This always happened when I was questioned and I wasn't at my best. "It's nothing, Sakuya-sama."
Her ice blue eyes began scanning me trying to find out the problem in my face. I kept my head down. She can't found out what she can't see. Then her hand grabbed my chin and gently lifted my head up so she could see my face. I felt heat rushing to my face and my heart moved into overdrive. I was being made to look my superior in the face and I swear I would have been hypnotized by her beauty. The fact that she was touching my face had cleared my face of any previous emotion saving me from explanations.
Sakuya seemed to know this too and let go of my face. I let my gaze drop to the floor again. She gave me one more look over before deciding to let it go with a sickening smile. I then realized I had leaned almost all the way off the bed closer to her. I quickly got up from the bed and stepped a few steps seemed to not notice as her smile was so big that it made her have to close her eyes to make room for it on her face.
"You are to play with Mistress Flandre today," she stated. My heart sank. Any pleasant thoughts I was having about her turned to dust at this task but it was short lived as my eyes crept up to her neck once more. She turned to the left in the hall and disappeared among the many corridors of the dark mansion (still gracefully might I add).
The basement hallway was cold and empty. I had long since gotten used to it but today I could not stop shivering. Stupid short skirt. It wasn't long before, I stood in front of the steel door that let to Flandre's room. It always made me sad seeing this door. What was behind this door still haunts me today. It looked like the door to a prison rather than to a little girl's room. I sighed. Remember, Flan was once a force to be restrained. She might still be. I never tried to find out for sure.
I knocked on the steel door and flinched at how it echoed down the almost empty corridor.
"Who is it?" Flandre's sweet voice called from the other side. Just hearing that she was okay brought a gentle smile to my face, remembering the days she wasn't always covered in blood. Then I saw two red dots in the middle of the room glaring in my direction.
"Saylum", I answered cautiously. The red dots blinked with a new kind of emotion I couldn't identify. I stepped inside the room and tried to use echo location and find the little demon. "You must be bored down here all alo-"I never finished the sentence as the door swung closed and Flan tackled me to the cold, marble floor.
"I missed you, little yokai~!"
I froze underneath her embrace. It took me a while to get my senses back mostly because I was trying to recover my breath back from the impact. Still too strong for her own good I see.
She snuggled the small of my back and giggled. Finally, she let go and allowed me to sit up. I didn't have to see her to tell that she was grinning extensively. I remembered when she always smiled like that but it didn't feel staged, like it was hiding the horrible illness of insanity under its veil. Back then, I could play and fight with Flandre without fear or worry. Then, she got too happy, too playful, too isolated. I use to laugh at her excitement over playing but now it pained me to see her innocent little face.
A slight shift brought my thoughts back but Miss Flandre was no longer beside me.
The darkness did not hinder my sight but I could not sense her nearby. I looked to my left and right but there was nothing there. I looked frantically around me but she was nowhere in sight. It was like she disappeared. Then I hear her giggle. That sickingly sweet giggle that sent shivers down my spine every time I heard it. It came from everywhere and yet nowhere.
"Now we can play~!"
This was not good. If I wanted to stay out of harm's way, I had to find her and not let her out of my field of sense lest I be caught off guard. I thought about using echolocation to find her but dismissed it. It didn't help that she kept giggling…
Suddenly, the air shifted. At first, I couldn't locate it but then it seemed to be moving in a downward spiral and coming towards…my right! I side-stepped and Flandre missed me by a millimeter. She was kneeling on the ground where I had stood not a second ago. She wasted no time bringing her leg up for a round house kick. I jumped to the right but she stomped her foot on the floor and the force was transferred to her left arm instead. I was trapped as she raised her claw like nail above her head and giggled.
This is going to hurt…!
And it did.
This is going to be more grueling than anticipated.
~ooOoo~
If someone had walked into the basement, they would think hell and heaven had just played football. The marble floor was cracked and stained red in some spots. The furniture was either missing, broken in many pieces, or flung into multiple directions. The wall had a crater that surrounded a hole that looked identical to my figure…you connect the dots.
Flandre was in the middle of the floor (with only a few scratches might I add) staring at me. I may look unconscious but I am not out yet. Aside from my body being bloody and bruised and my numb limbs, I felt like a million freaking bucks!
"You've gotten weak. If I knew how breakable you had become, I wouldn't have played so rough. I'm sorry", she mumbled.
"It's okay", I mumbled with some exertion. She couldn't control her strength and I haven't seen her in a while so she might have just gotten stronger. That was grounds enough to forgive my pain.
She turned from me and called down the hallway. A few fairy maids fluttered in and soon I was being carried to my room (or at least I think it was my room, I wasn't paying close attention). The fairy that laid me down on the bed examined my wounds. She then went down under the bed and came back up with a medical kit. She took out some bandages and was about to start patching up my arm but held up my other hand.
"You don't have to, I can do it myself", I choked taking the kit from her. She looked perplexed and worried but let it go and fled from the room. I began to wrap my left arm in the sterile bindings. As I finally got it around three times, suddenly it was fully wrapped. I stared at it in disbelief but soon found my entire body cleaned and bandaged. I threw a quick glance at the door and, sure enough, Sakuya stood there with a haunting look on her face.
AN: Hooray/sorry for the slight cliff hanger. Sam is a fairyfied version of my best friend who is an awesome golfer and fun playmate! I haven't thought this story through at all but I have learned that those are the best kind of stories~! I hope you don't think poorly of me or my story.
