Note: Contains themes of violence and horror. Viewer's discretion is advised.
Drowned in Light
They deserved it.
A small figure stumbled through the metal hallways, a sickening grin on its face.
They all deserved it.
The crimson-stained axe in its hand dangled limply from its fingers as it was sharply dragged across the floor. A tiny droplet of blood collected at the tip of the blade and dripped, staining the metal grating.
They killed him.
In the pockets of its jacket were five slightly stained metal bracelets.
They killed my brother.
It made sense, didn't it? Light's bracelet number was 2, and he… died… in Door 3.
2 + 3 + 7 = 1 + 2 = 3
Clover giggled to herself, a chilling laugh that distorted and echoed through the metal hallways. It was simple math, so deceptively obvious that no one had even bothered to consider the possibility. Santa and Seven were the killers. They had to be. They had used Light's bracelet with their own to open Door 3, and then they pushed him in and waited for the door to close, waited for that fatal explosion that killed him from the inside out, that put an end to everything she lived for.
And Clover had avenged him.
She killed them. Hacked them to pieces.
She knew from the very beginning, from the moment when she first woke up on this ship that it was happening again. Nonary Game, Nonary Game. She instantly knew that she would be put through the same hell that she had gone through nine years ago. But no one else understood it from her perspective. No one but Light, anyway. No one but her brother. And now he was dead. There were times when she wanted to slash the smiles off everyone's faces, tear them up so that there wouldn't be anything left for her to care about, so that they would all leave her alone.
This was one of those times.
"Clover…? Is that you?"
Clover looked up, the same twisted grin still plastered on her face. "Oh, hi there, Ace."
Ace stood at the other end of the hallway, one of his hands in the pocket of his coat and the other wrapped around a second person's neck, clutching a sharp knife. It took Clover a few moments to even recognize the second person: Lotus.
Ace's eyes swept over Clover's bloodstained clothing and his face drew an expression of fear, something that Clover had never seen before in the entire duration of this game.
"Clover…" he said slowly, his eyes wide with apprehension. "Your… your clothes…"
"Y'know, Ace," Clover said in a high-pitched voice, gesturing to Lotus' shivering figure with the axe in her hand. "I never thought that you'd be someone to threaten another person…"
"Where are the others…?" Ace whispered, clenching his teeth.
"Dead."
"Wh-what! How?"
"You really wanna know, Ace? I killed them."
Ace took a step back, dragging the equally terrified Lotus with him. "You… Clover…"
Clover's vision was blurred, as if she was walking through a nightmare. Maybe it was just a nightmare, but even if it was, she didn't care anymore. If it was real, it was still a nightmare to her.
"You don't know what it's like, Ace. To go through the Nonary Game twice and to lose your only brother as a result…"
"D-Don't come any closer!" Ace suddenly choked out, readjusting his grip on the knife. It was only then that Clover noticed that she was slowly walking towards him, dragging the axe with her along the floor.
She laughed at his suddenly feeble figure, as if mocking him, and did not stop her approach. "Do you reeeally think I care about what happens to Lotus?"
"Clover! Please… Calm down! Snake is gone, that much is true, but—"
There was a sudden sound of splitting flesh and crunching bone. The blade of the axe in Clover's hand slammed down onto the metal floor, glistening with crimson. Ace's knife cluttered onto the floor beside it.
There was a split-second of painful silence. No one moved.
"AaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
And suddenly, as if someone had restarted time, two horrifying screams rang out in unison. One of them was high and bloodcurdling; Clover identified the voice as Lotus', who had managed to struggle her way out of Ace's grip and was now falling back onto the metal grating, eyes full of terror.
The other scream, louder and much deeper, belonged to Ace, clutching the bleeding stump of his elbow.
As if driven by some twisted form of vengeance, Clover raised the axe a second time…
Ignoring the screams, she used both hands to drive the axe deep into the top of Ace's skull. A sickening crunch echoed around the hall as both screams were abruptly silenced. As Ace crumbled to the floor, Clover planted her foot firmly on his shoulder and yanked the axe out, as what looked like some mixture of blood and brain matter spilled out along with it, gushing out onto Ace's coat, bright and shimmering red.
She looked over at Lotus, who was only staring in utter shock at the carnage unfolding in front of her. Lotus, probably on the verge of crying, eventually managed to tear her eyes from Ace's bleeding corpse and looked over at Clover, as if pleading for some mercy.
Clover did not, could not think. Her broken mind could only register the involuntary movement of her arm as it raised the axe a third time.
"Clov-"
Moments later, Lotus' body collapsed beside Ace's, the deep wound in her neck spewing blood in all directions.
Silence.
Clover stood alone in the hallway, bloody axe in hand, with the corpses of the last two remaining players – other than herself, of course - lying in front of her. She stumbled slightly to the side, scratching the axe along the metal grate.
She went over to both of the bodies and, reaching down, removed the metal bracelets from their cold, lifeless arms. After shaking some of the pinkish flesh from Ace's bracelet, she shoved them into the pocket of her jacket with the other bracelets.
It was then that she realized that she had almost all of them. Almost all of the bracelets were in her possession.
Except for the ninth bracelet… and Light's.
But that didn't matter. All she needed to do now was to find Door 9. The exit to the Nonary Game.
As she stepped over the mangled bodies, Clover giggled to herself again.
It was time to leave this place forever.
Clover stepped through the doorway, carrying the axe with her, and into the brightly lit room. It looked to be a church or a chapel of sorts. Candles lined the walls, flickering and offering an insignificant amount of warmth. Wooden pews were lined up on the floor, but Clover's eyes were drawn to the area where the altar should have been. Instead of an altar, there was a dark coffin.
As she entered the room, another object of interest entered her line of vision: Door 9. The large "9" splattered on the double doors shone like a beacon. For a moment, it was all that Clover could see. She grinned as she realized that she had finally reached the exit.
The revelation settled over her. So, at last, it was over.
But then, as she looked around the room, she spotted something else.
A second Door 9. This one was smaller, but was clearly marked with the same "9".
Which one… which one?
She stood, observing the two doors, as if waiting for some response. There was a faint memory of this, something that began to resurface from her mind from nine years ago. She pulled at the memory, but it was too distant. She couldn't remember which of the two doors she had gone through nine years ago, or even if she had gone through one of them.
Clover sighed and sat down on one of the wooden pews, resting the bloody axe beside her. She stared at the candles on the wall, her vision fading in and out of focus as she examined the dancing flame. Her mind unfocused as it slipped into a distant memory.
One time, when she was only five years old, there had been a blackout at her house during a thunderstorm. Clover had huddled in her room, wrapped in blankets, shivering and waiting for the thunder to stop.
Soon, Light, twelve years old, had entered her room, carrying a candle to illuminate their surroundings. For a brief moment, Clover had wondered why he would bring a candle, if he was blind and the candle did nothing for him.
It was then that she realized that the light was for her.
"It'll be alright," Light had said, gently. "I'm here, Clover."
I'm here.
In a rage, Clover snatched the axe beside her and slammed it down onto the pew in front of her, shattering it in half and sending broken chips of wood flying into the air. The sound was deafening.
Tears began to stream down the sides of her face.
Light… Light…
And then, she heard another sound in the room. A sound that frightened her as she realized where it was coming from. It was a loud banging noise, and it was coming from…
…Inside the coffin.
Clover turned with an angry glare and watched the coffin for a moment. The noise was getting faster and louder, and sounded almost desperate.
There's someone trapped in the coffin.
How could it be? All of the other players, plus the captain in Door 1, were dead.
But then Clover remembered. There was one more person on this ship. The one who had orchestrated this entire Nonary Game.
Is it… Zero?
It had to be Zero, there was no other possibility!
She felt anger rise up in her again. Zero was responsible for everything that happened today. Their kidnappings, forcing them to solve ridiculous puzzles in exchange for their life, and Light's death! She did not know his motive, or his identity, but she didn't care. Zero needed to die!
Clover screamed as she took the axe and ran towards the coffin. Building up momentum from the run, she raised the axe once more.
I'll kill you, Zero! I'LL KILL YOU!
With a savage scream, she drove the axe into the center of the coffin, shattering it. The pounding stopped abruptly, replaced by audible groaning from the person inside.
But that wasn't enough. Clover lifted the axe and slammed it into the wood again, and again, and again, until the coffin was mangled enough for her to see the face of its occupant.
And when she did…
Everything stopped.
Clover's eyes grew wide and she suddenly let go of the axe, causing it to clatter to the wooden floor. She took a step back and lost her footing, falling backwards and landing hard on the carpet. Her breath came out in ragged gasps. The image that she had just seen was only for a fraction of a second, but it was enough to burn it into her mind.
She slowly crawled back up to the edge of the coffin. Mustering all of her strength, she looked inside.
"LIGHT!"
The scream that had escaped her throat was inhuman. Clover's brother was dressed in a strange black robe that was now stained entirely red with blood. Deep, bleeding gashes lined his entire body where Clover had smashed the axe into the coffin, and his face was covered in bloody scrapes and cuts. It looked as if his nose had been broken.
As Clover's eyes met his, he struggled to move the slightest bit, but merely writhed in unimaginable pain as more blood gushed from his wounds. He tried to speak, but no sound came from his mouth, save for a disturbing gurgling noise.
Clover was frozen. Her mind was shattered, still trying to process the image that she was seeing. Light's eyes, despite not being able to see, were wide open, quivering. He had, no doubt, heard her scream.
As Clover gripped the edge of the shattered coffin, Light's movements grew fainter and fainter. He soon stopped moving completely and his eyes became cold and dead, his lips still trying to produce the word that he so desperately wanted to say:
Clover.
It didn't matter if Light could not see. It didn't even matter if he somehow believed, maybe foolishly, that his sister was not the one that killed him at that moment.
But the fact still remained that Clover had sent her own loving brother to his grave.
She wanted to cry, to cry her eyes out, but her body could not function. She began to hear voices, whispering in her ears. They were the voices of the dead, of the six people that she had slaughtered for a nonexistent reason. But then, like an angel's voice, she heard Light among them, soft and clear.
"It'll be alright… I'm here, Clover."
And then Clover began to scream. The screams tumbled out of her mouth, never stopping, never yielding. She screamed until her throat was hoarse, until she collapsed in front of the coffin, tears streaming from her eyes. She began to calm down after some time, and then the horrible sight returned, and she screamed and cried some more, clutching herself and sobbing before her brother's grave.
"Automatic incineration will take place in… ten seconds."
She let the bracelets fall to the floor, watching as they clattered and rolled along the metal.
She was aware that the large metal door in front of her was not opening, and yet, she felt no inclination to try and figure out the problem. The bloody axe had been left in the chapel, resting on the coffin. The machine that had appeared from inside the floor behind her was sitting there, but she had completely ignored it.
She felt dead. She might as well have been dead. She couldn't feel anything.
"Three."
Memories of the events that took place nine years ago resurfaced in what was left of her mind.
"Two."
She saw the terrified, ghostly faces of the other players, the people she had murdered, one after another, all for nothing.
"One."
She saw Light's face, surrounded in a deep, warm glow, smiling down at her.
She closed her eyes.
When she was engulfed by the burning heat, by the roaring flames, nothing meant anything.
And nothing was more inviting.
Author's Note:
The Axe Ending was the first ending that I got on this game, and boy, did it freak me out. Definitely was not expecting to get chopped in the neck by a crazed axe-wielding demon girl.
Anyway, this is my first M-rated story. The idea in itself terrified me, and before I knew it, I was writing this...
Thanks for reading! Please review!