Revenant
Her head was pounding incessantly, blood rushing in. The body that was hogtied upside-down on the crude metal fence felt so asleep, when she couldn't be more awake, more aware of just how screwed she was. When she tried to kick the legs that were draped over the top-most bar, she only succeeded in tugging the back of her head into it, too hard, and now she can see a little less clearly.
Not that the black eye she undoubtedly had was exactly helping either.
The bitch is right in front of her, telling Neru that she's going to bleed for her, and there's a knife in her hand, and she's doing something with it, something that really fucking hurts.
Neru screams.
...
"You're making a goddamn mess, skank."
Of course she was. Struggling and fighting like a fish impaled on a hook. She stabs deeply into her soft stomach, deep, penetrative stabs, listens for the garbled moans of pain sounding from below. Blood is oozing between those dazed, parted lips, and she's delighted by her helplessness, wants more.
Her white kneecaps cry red all down her thighs as she twists the tip of the knife into them.
...
Electricity ignites every drop of blood still lucky enough to be inside her body as the needles of pain wrack her bones. She can't taste her own fear over the warmth and copper of the blood spilling fast from her mouth, so as far as she's concerned it doesn't exist anymore. Her red life is trickling over her face, into her nose, can't breathe. She spits, and it's only a little better. The blood drips up her cheeks, like tears in reverse, and it clots around her lashes as she squeezes them shut to protect her good-by-comparison eye.
Her body is dying, but she refuses, refuses to be killed like this.
By her.
She howls in agony and determination. She will not die tonight, and never for Miku.
...
"It was truly a horrific discovery; two high school students, shot in their own homeroom. They were admitted to the hospital when their principal found them this morning, and it's believed they were left unattended for the entire night. Miraculously, one victim is making a steady recovery and is due for surgical extraction of the bullet that missed her heart by less than an inch as soon as her vitals have stabilized more. However, the second victim remains in critical condition with no improvement over the afternoon. It is unclear whether she will survive the night. It is also not known what transpired or why the victims were at school after closing hours."
...
"Let's see that pretty scar I gave you." Miku's fingers work the jacket's zipper down, hands jerking it open around Neru's shoulders before rolling the red-stained shirt down to her chin. Blood is sluicing beautifully across the curves of her hips, the taut muscle of her stomach, deep cuts weeping more life.
But Miku isn't looking at her latest handiwork. Her attention is fixed on the soaked bandages surrounding Neru's chest.
...
She can't say she minds the air. Neru's skin is sticky and hot with sweat, blood, and grime.
The sensation isn't as filthy and revolting as Miku's ghostly hand settling itself between her breasts, pawing and petting over where she so generously unloaded a bullet into her two nights before.
An unbearable chill spreads out from the palm, counterpoint to the intense sudden burn of pressure on her wound. Neru snarls as defiantly as she possibly can, trying to mask the howl of agony forming and sticking in her throat. Miku's hand is straying just a little, but still far too much. Fingers rove over her modest breasts in some sort of sick caress and something ignites in her, makes her feel disgustingly alive. Her violent thrashing is rewarded when a hand slips from its bindings, and she makes a lunge for Miku's knife.
The moment she touches it, her blood freezes and burns all at once and she is forced to snatch her hand back.
Miku's pissed. The sensation of her hand on her chest disappears and reappears around her heart. Neru can't do a thing. Cold, ice, sliding over the supple muscle that is her heart, delicate, but by no means gentle.
In spite of this, she never doubts that Miku can't kill her. She doesn't know why.
And she doesn't care.
...
Miku lets go and slides her hand back out. She is shaken from the attempt on her knife, but not for long. She revels in Neru's wet eyes, brimming over with tears.
It is lovely, how she just won't die.
She smooths the hair out of Neru's eyes, cradling her shaking face and steadying it, forcing her to share the warm amber, the light in her eyes that Miku's now lacks.
"You're spunky." She leans in towards her ear, grazing her lips over it. "I like that." Her mouth presses lightly along her jaw, over and over, and pauses over Neru's red, warm lips, hovering before curling into a smile. "...A lot."
If she hasn't yet succeeded in stealing her life, she has at the very least stolen her breath.
...
Pain.
This is what it really is. Not getting shot in the chest. Not being sliced into ribbons.
This.
She doesn't want to cry in front of Miku, but she thinks of Haku.
And remembers.
...
"Meet me at the school in one hour. If you care at all about Neru's safety, you won't tell her or anyone else that you're going. Come alone."
Neru's hand shakes furiously, her previous oppositions to snooping through Haku's phone dissolving away rapidly. She'd known something was up.
And Haku had left five minutes ago. Without her phone.
Fuck. Fuck. God damn.
She tears her jacket off the doorknob and pulls it on as she runs out into the night.
...
"Hm-hm." Miku smirks, briefly breaking contact with their lips. "You're awful resilient. I was almost annoyed that you wouldn't die..." She slid her dead, cold hands along Neru's waist, ducking one inside her jacket to draw a sharp fingernail up and down her spine in a gesture resembling affection.
The girl arched helplessly, emitting a soft whimper through clenched teeth. Miku could see in her eyes how difficult it was, her attempt at keeping quiet. She was hopelessly, adorably stubborn, and there was nothing quite like knowing she could do absolutely nothing to stop her.
...
Neru is a cat, quiet and predatory, tiptoe-running down the hall.
Where is she.
Her ears strain hard for any hint of that familiar, sweet voice, listening, yearning.
Where is she.
She's feeling more reckless with every moment that slips by, each second feeling like far too much time, because it is a second that Haku is alone and scared, or worse, not alone and scared, and even one such second is too much. Neru spots a door partway open towards the middle of the hall and doesn't breathe, nearing it as swiftly and quietly as her short legs can carry her. Stumbling to a halt, she looks inside and sees them.
Haku, of course, is who she hones in on first. She appears unharmed, but looks so very afraid that it just kills Neru-
-and then she sees Miku, sneering at her from her perch atop the teacher's desk.
"What an obedient girl, showing up exactly on time." She drawls, "At least it can't be said that you don't listen to your superiors."
Neru's insides are on fire. She forces herself to stay put. She needs to know what Miku wants, needs to know if Haku is safer with or without her interference.
"P-Please, tell me, what's the meaning of this?" Neru's heart twists. Hold in there, she begs.
"You need to be made aware of your place." Miku slid off the desk, hand on her hip. "You and Neru both. I can't have you cheeky upstarts outshining me. But you're in luck. I will afford you an opportunity to appease me."
Haku worried the hem of her sweater, eyes downcast. "Wh-What do you mean?"
Neru did not like the way Miku was smiling.
"With you and your mouthy girlfriend stealing my fanbase, I'm not making as much money as I'm comfortable with."
"...H-How much do you-?"
Miku interrupted her with a dry laugh, tossing her hair haughtily. "Oh please. Keep your chicken feed. Whatever you have to offer isn't enough."
"Th-Then what-?" Haku's words faltered as Miku took a few steps closer, and Neru had to lean closer to catch all of what was being whispered.
"There are ways to get money very easily...especially for your type."
Neru's blood went cold.
"My...type...?" Haku backed away nervously as Miku kept closing the distance between them.
"I know a whole cadre of men that would just love a piece of soft, white cake like you."
At this, Haku flushed terribly and her hands flew to her mouth, obviously shocked, horrified.
"Th-That's-! I...I couldn't, I-"
"Ohhh I see." Miku sang out mockingly. "You're saying Neru would be better for the job then? Perhaps you're right, there's quite a market out there for breaking in wild mares-"
"N-No, no please!" Haku sobbed, "Not...not Neru..." The young woman was shaking terribly, tiny hiccups emanating from her throat.
"Then this is what will happen. Every week you'll come back on this day to service any and all...customers I find you. You will let me take pictures, and I'll show all those boys what a nice little come dumpster you are. But..." Miku sneered mischievously. "...perhaps I should examine the goods first."
Before Haku could utter a sound of disagreement, Miku slapped a hand over her mouth and pushed her onto the desk, her other hand tugging up on the edge of her sweater-
...
She lacks Haku's shape, but Neru's body is not without appeal for Miku. It's the movement, the rhythmic, enchanting way she sways under the warmth of the crawling blood oozing over her that has Miku fascinated. She's so busy admiring her that she almost doesn't pull away in time as Neru makes another swipe for the knife.
"Oh, now you're really making me angry." She wrenched a hand into Neru's hair and pulled. "Keep your fucking hands to yourself. Don't you know? I vested my soul into this knife just so I could use it on you. Aren't you special." Neru remained silent, ever-adamant about keeping her silence. "You're a stubborn little fuck. But...maybe I can find other ways to hurt you."
Sweeping her hands along the lithe little curves, she felt her way along Neru's body with an intimate familiarity that finally spurred a true reaction. She went completely rigid under her touch, but the true prize came as Miku slid her hands over her thighs, spreading them and stroking the warm skin.
...
Neru froze, just like she had two nights before. The gravity of the horror of what was happening stunned her, and Miku's hands were moving-
"N-No, no!" She screamed the word again and again, increasingly hysterical.
...
Do something.
...
She slams the classroom door fully open. Miku springs back defensively, releasing Haku.
Smart move, but not enough. Neru's out for blood.
"I don't recall inviting you, blondie."
Haku whipped around with wide, grateful eyes, hovering fearfully between the two of them.
"Give me one good reason not to beat the ever-living shit out of you-" Neru warned, steadily closing the distance between herself and Miku.
But more importantly, the distance between herself and Haku.
"Watch your mouth little girl. Now run along. The grown-ups are talking business."
"P-Please-" Haku interjected, pleading with Miku and backing towards the approaching Neru, "-we don't want any trouble-"
"Speak for yourself Haku, I'm gonna fuck this bitch's shit up-"
Neru charged forward in a blind, hot rage, but Haku had seen something she hadn't.
"Neru, no! Look out!"
Miku drew the gun quickly, too quickly, a deafening sound filling the air. In the same moment, Haku tried to shove Neru out of the way, but it was no use. Neru's world reeled around in her shocked haze, and for a moment there was nothing, nothing but the acrid scent of gunpowder in her breath. She's quivering, eyes wide open, staring into Haku's horrified eyes, and her screams sound so very far away-
Soon enough, a rose of pain bloomed, thorns out, in her chest from the cooling bullet, burning body.
She couldn't do anything but watch.
...
"...stop..." Neru groaned, squirming as Miku began to unbutton, unzip her shorts.
"Shall I tell you something about Haku?" Her voice is playfully cruel. "She had no idea you survived that damn bullet."
...
"Well well. It's a shame that didn't go quite as planned." Neru's head is throbbing fifty million different colors as she watches Haku sink to her knees in devastation, tears pouring down her cheeks, Miku getting closer to her. "And now it's too late to conduct any business. Much too big a risk you'll talk." She poised the gun squarely between Haku's eyes. "The nice thing about being friends with a police officer is that one isn't held responsible for using the gun they give you. Especially if a poor, helpless pop idol felt she had to use it for self-defense against some jealous wannabes."
...
"...stop..." Neru snarled.
Miku paid her no heed, a sinister smirk etched onto her face. "She thought she'd failed to save you. That she pushed you to your death." Her hand slides inside her shorts, rubbing her womanhood through her panties with sick fascination.
Neru's body is vivid white electricity under her touch, deep spasms coursing through her body.
...
She can only watch. The blood rushing in her ears drowns out most other sounds, and she sees Haku's miserable face, the barrel of the gun prodding into her forehead, and one horrible moment later there's a noise, accented by Haku's hiccup of a cry.
The heavy sound of a body hitting the floor.
...
"...s-stop, hahh...stop-"
"She died thinking you'd died because of her." Miku whispered darkly, rubbing Neru deeper. "And now I'm really going to finish what I started, kill you nice and slow, in every way I can, starting with your soul, until you're a lifeless little puppet and I can watch your mind rot and your spirit die-"
...
Neru is trapped, all but dead in the hospital bed, hooked up to countless machines, needles in her arms.
She hates it.
Here, she can't exact her revenge or join Haku in heaven. Neru is squarely clinging to a frayed line, stretched out over a void of fuck-all.
The door opens and closes quickly, secretly.
"...Dell?"
He looks like shit, but who could blame him? He might've been the one other person that loved Haku as much as Neru does.
But there's something more. She can't feel much, but there's no mistaking the ominous energy that envelops his being.
When he sits in the visitor's seat next to her bed, she realizes he smells like something much worse than cigarette smoke.
"I don't have a lot of time."
Neru stared at him carefully. His hands were shaking, but it isn't his usual smoker's jitter.
"...Do you know..." Dell grit his teeth, "...that she had the nerve to show up for her funeral?"
Nausea, fury, fear. Instantly Neru is engulfed in the tidal wave comprised of these feelings, not only for Haku, but for Dell, because she knows what it means for someone as protective as he is.
"Bitch has the police in her pocket. No one else was gonna do anything about her."
"Dell." Neru sits up with enormous effort, arms trembling. "...What did you do?"
"If you have to ask," he gave a wry, dark smile, "then maybe I shouldn't tell you."
"I know damn well what you did, you crazy bastard." Neru smirked wickedly. "I want to know how you did it."
Dell gave a dry laugh and stood up. "As much as I'd love to recount the dirty details, it goes without saying that I'm knee-deep in shit. I just thought you should know. And in case the next time you see me is from the other side of some prison bars, I wanted to say goodbye to the only other person that gave a damn about-"
He's struggling to get the words out, so Neru distracts him by ripping the needles out of her skin, hastily disentangling herself from the rat's nest of IVs and medical tape.
"I have to get out of here," Neru informs him plainly as his jaw drops, "right now."
...
Neru lets out a guttural scream and thrashes like a madwoman. She didn't leave the hospital just to be tied down again.
Neru fights so hard against her bindings that her phone flies out of her pocket and skids along the stone a few feet away. Miku sees and pulls away, looking between it and Neru before smiling wickedly. Her skin is still crawling with revulsion from her touch.
"Oh look here." Miku taunts in a sing-song voice, approaching the phone. "Your most treasured possession. It's such a waste to keep old photos of the deceased. I think I'll clean out your phone a bit."
A streak of platinum lightning shoots throughout Neru and she screams from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, hot tears flying from her eyes unremittingly.
She wanted to see Haku again.
...
Neru is in his arms, lifted like a bride from the hospital bed. The thrill of getting to leave the bleak and hopeless walls of the building is so great that she can briefly overlook how sore and tender she is all over.
"I can't take you far," Dell admits, checking over his shoulder worriedly, "but if I can get you there I will." Neru's head lolls weakly against his chest, arms looping around his neck. "Where to?"
"Just get me to Haku. I have to see her again."
"You sure-?"
"Absolutely." Neru's expression darkened. "My odds aren't exactly great. For surgery."
Dell stopped in his tracks. "You haven't had that bullet fished out yet?" He whispered furiously, "You do realize that you might be pissing away whatever chance you have left-"
"It's a necessary risk. Let's get going."
"...You're crazy and I should put you back." Contrary to his words, Dell continues carrying her down the hall. "They should check and make sure your head's alright."
At least he was getting his sense of humor back.
"While we're together, you should tell me."
"Tell you what?"
"Don't play dumb."
A brief silence ensued as they reached the hospital exit, the cold night air settling all around them like a cloak.
"Let's just say," Dell whispered, "that knife I gave Haku for her birthday for self-defense finally found a purpose."
As they walked, Neru revelled in the recounting of the grittiest bits. Dell remarked that she was twisted and bloodthirsty.
But in the same breath, that he liked it.
"I hate to leave you here-" Dell grimaced as he carefully set Neru on her feet at the gates of the cemetary.
"I understand." She mustered up her strength and hugged him around the neck. "Just watch your damn ass, okay?"
He returned the embrace, surprising Neru. It was the first and possibly the last time they'd do this.
"Look who's talking." He chuckled, but she could hear the weight of his troubles in his gritty, weary voice. And she could say it's possible (definite) that he knows she's distressed by this, because he gives her a final, quick, reassuring squeeze around the shoulders.
"Jesus I hate long goodbyes." They broke away and Dell wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. "Just...take care, yeah." He gave a curt wave as he turned, running the other direction until he became nothing more than a shadow, assimilated into the inky night.
Neru turned her attention towards the church across the yard.
She had her own direction to run, too. Neru tried to make her stumbling legs carry her faster, but she was so tired and so not used to moving after being bedridden. Swallowing her pride, she leaned against the fence to catch her breath for a moment before limping alongside it, using it for stability.
Haku. She can do this if it is to see Haku, and she's getting closer and closer-
Her vulnerable, tender body is slammed roughly into the fence, a broken whimper escaping her throat. A cruel, familiar laugh fills her ears and panic settles fast into her body.
"I don't recall inviting you, blondie."
...
Miku's going to erase pictures. Pictures of Dell, Neru, and Haku together, of Neru and Haku together.
Of Haku.
The reprieve her body is experiencing from being beneath Miku's prolonged assault does nothing to assuage the deepening sense of despair this brings.
She watches with a breaking heart and shuddering breath as Miku reaches for the phone-
-and snaps her hand back, screaming furiously, as though all of what remains of her ghostly body has been lit on fire.
Brandishing the knife again, Miku snarls and abandons the phone, baring her teeth at Neru.
"I don't know what kind of bullshit you're pulling now," She screams, "but it ends here!"
The knife swings upward in a foreboding arc both of Miku's hands clasping the handle with resolve, and Neru flinches, squeezing her eyes shut in terrible anticipation.
A dreadfully slow moment passes.
But the sensation of the blade sinking into her body a final time never comes.
Hesitantly, she opens her eyes.
Is she dead?
It's the first thing that comes to mind.
How else can she be unmistakably looking at Haku?
Like before, all Neru can do is watch.
But it is not like before. Far from it. Haku, with her delicate, ghostly wrists sealed around Miku's, halting the knife in the air.
"You-!" Miku gasps, looking, for the first time, very afraid, almost human. She struggles. Haku is too strong for her.
"You're wasting your time." Haku's voice is soft, laced with pity. She pulls Miku's wrists down, keeping her iron grip on them. "Nothing of mine will ever harm her fatally." Her hands force the blade the other direction, and Miku's eyes widen.
"Wh-What are you doing-?" She screeched, "You can't do this to me!"
"There's no saving you. But...I can and will save Neru. This time." Haku began forcing the knife forward, unhindered by Miku's feeble protests. The blade penetrates her chest and a desperate howl sounds from her being, her ghostly frame going fuzzier by the moment. "It shouldn't hurt if I stab you where there's nothing there." She gave the knife a final, definitive push, silencing her permanently, one last gasp etched into her face. "Mercy is the least I can offer."
Neru watches as Miku's form dissolves away, like grains of sand evaporating into the night, stares as Haku turns to her.
She looks almost exactly as how Neru last saw her: her tidy school uniform, loose, low ponytail, gentle eyes.
The most remarkable differences are the bullet hole in her forehead and the ethereal aura surrounding her body.
Gentle hands do away with her bindings, easing her off the fence. Everything feels hazy as Haku tucks Neru's cell phone back into her pocket where it belongs, carries her battered, broken body across the graveyard.
"You...chose my phone..." Neru smiled wearily, "...you were there for me the wh-whole time..."
"I'm only sorry I couldn't come to you sooner..." Haku's eyes welled with tears of remorse. "...until that moment, she hadn't been intending to kill."
Neru lifts a hand and cups Haku's cheek in wonder. "Take me...to your body, Haku."
They enter the church, and at the end of the aisle lies her body, surrounded by white lilies that may as well be yellow in the presence of her pale form. Haku sets Neru on her feet beside the altar, so she can lean on it for support as she looks at her.
Her forehead has been cleaned up a bit, with hair strewn over it to obscure the wound. Hands folded neatly across her stomach, a peaceful look on her face. It looks like she simply fell asleep.
Neru places her hand over Haku's, feels how they are devoid of life. She leans over and presses a soft kiss to her cold lips before shakily pulling away, clutching at her heart.
It was beating too fast, she could feel the bullet moving towards it again.
"You're...still so beautiful, Hhh-Haku..." She swayed and fell against Haku's ghostly form feebly. "...I'm glad I could see you one last time."
"N-Neru, what do you mean?" Haku held her in her arms, eyes wide with panic.
"Evh...even if I got back to the h-hospital in time-" Neru winced, smiling up at her sadly, "-muh-my chances for surgery are..."
Haku's lips parted in shock, before closing again firmly. "Don't move." Her ghostly palm settled against her chest, and Neru watched with shuddering breath as the fingers delicately slid inside of her. She couldn't feel them. Suddenly, for a very very brief moment, as small as the time it takes to blink, an intense inner trauma gripped her before disappearing again, and Haku's fingers returned to the surface-
-along with the bullet.
Neru lay gasping and panting for a short time. Haku simply held her. The pain quickly dissipated and her cloudy vision finally grew clearer. The feeling of rejuvenation swept throughout her body, and Neru realized something.
She was going to live.
"You're still as brash as ever I see..." Haku smiled kindly, letting Neru take the bullet in her fingers. "...You haven't changed a bit."
"Neither have you, really."
Haku laughed softly, helping Neru to her feet and embracing her around the shoulders. "Death doesn't truly change people. It just changes their state of being."
Neru held onto Haku for a long moment. "What now?" She murmured into her shoulder.
"The living and the dead can't mingle indefinitely."
Neru's head snapped back up. "Y-You're going away?"
"No, nothing like that." Haku assured her. She withdrew Neru's phone. "This is my home now. Whenever you're alone, or in trouble, or just want to see me...you can call on me. And I promise to come for you."
Neru clasped her hands around Haku's and kissed them tenderly before pulling them over her chest.
"You have another home too, you know." Neru smiled. "Right here, like always."
A/N: Wow, what a huge oneshot. XD The inspiration for this one came from a wacky dream from playing Project Diva Extend's song, "Hold, Release; Rakshasa and Carcasses". I just had to write something so I started with a few vague ideas and it took off from there into this! I hope it was at least somewhat enjoyable. Thank you so much for reading, please feel free to review and make my day~!