The time seemed frozen here. In a way, it still was. The sacrifice of twins throughout the village had grown, until one pair finally failed.
It was normal every now and then; twins, despite their rarity, would usually be two or three at times, like fate intervened, and in the end, one would always succeed.
The village would watch and chant and listen to the sounds of the chaos around them. They'd listen as the Earth stopped rumbling. They listened for those small little signs that the Gods were pleased and accepted them.
With a final endeavor, no one could deny the excitement in the air, the positive vibes radiating that this time, this, indeed, would bring them back from the brink.
But this time was different. A girl wavered where she stood, alone. An empty spot next to her where another should have been, but had vanished, leaving her behind, standing with a single red rope tied around a single waist instead of two.
She didn't scream or hesitate; she didn't yell or protest. She gave in with ease, but everyone could see the heart ache and the lingering emptiness inside of her. They chose to ignore it, saying that it would be fine, and with a snap she fell.
Now, there were no more twins.
The final pairing had ran, and in that moment of uncertainty, of self preservation, a village dragged slowly behind them.
Mio remembered the visions of seeing a girl outside the gate. She stood there crying into the air, blackened by smoke and thick with death. It was a smell she could never forget. She wanted to look, to see, to do something besides lay here. Memories were flooding her faster and faster, a dreaded, despaired feeling filling her heart.
She felt the hands tugging, the hands of the dead pulling at her skirt, her shoes, her torn leggings and shirt and her unkempt hair. They cried for her to keep trying, again and again, over and over, their voices burned into her mind. It didn't matter here anymore. She was gone, but in a sense, she was still there. She couldn't move. Her soul stuck to the form that once belonged to her. Sometimes she would see from her own eyes again. Sometimes she would drift and watch as she stayed on her side, her head in her sister's lap, feeling the pull of her hair when she would pet her. She would pet her again and again. She ran her hand across the knotted strands until she couldn't feel anymore. Sometimes she could imagine she was lying on the banks of a river and the water was playing with her hair.
Sometimes it wouldn't seem so bad. Sometimes she could imagine that she'd finally let her leave.
Then she'd hear her laugh.
It was hers, but then it was another's. She couldn't tell the difference anymore, between the neediness and the longing, they both felt the same, blurring together until she could no longer tell who from whom.
But, sometimes, if she were lucky, she would see her sister's brown eyes stir from within those hardened orbs that held a vicious and vengeful spirit.
The chocolate colored irises would dance lightly, apologies speaking volumes, a sweet and fragile thing among a million thorns in a body she couldn't keep up on.
Then they were consumed again by her. She was more dominating and so long as that was true, there was nothing she could do. So she would watch and try to form that shell again; that shell that would block everything out, that would grow cracked and splintered with each failing attempt at reaching her sister. She'd watch those lovely browns fill into a black void again, consumed with blood lust, and behind them she could vaguely make out the cracked heart of her own flesh and blood, too buried, too consumed to get back again.
She'd still hear them screaming. She'd still hear little girls crying out into the night until they fell silent again. She'd hear a shrill scream followed by cracking noise.
Here, the silence was more unnerving then anything.
It caused a tear in her dead heart as she thought of people giving up on hope. They were dead and they were all ghosts. But was there not still something to hope for anymore? She was pulled back in by those fingers again, calloused but soft, rough but gentle, guiding her away from anything that light would offer her. She would be reminded again that no hope lied in this place anymore, and that anyone who chanced entering again, would be dragged into Hell as well.
The fingers grew rougher, demanding her attention, attention from the sister that never came back. The sister she wished she could be if to help everyone here. They drew her in; back to the body she could no longer claim. Yet she still did anyway. Her eyes looked up to the culprit. Her blood stilled as she met those eyes. They softened when they noticed her, however. She couldn't find it in her to smile. What reason was there when she was held here against her will? Lingering in the afterlife that couldn't move on? Her shrouded eyes fell back to the floor, an unspoken, unreachable silence between had sat up briefly, her skin and body ten times the paleness of what Mayu had been. Her healthy eyes were sunken back into the bags beneath them. She assumed herself dead. Her stomach groaned and her waist hurt, but she couldn't feel any of it. She only knew she had been here for what seemed forever. Sae grinned as she did whenever her attention came back. Mistaking her fear for affection, she smiled and held their hands together, her eyes glued to Mio's. In them hid the slightest tinge of longing and sadness. She drew closer and pressed her cold and ashen face against her shoulder, leaving a stinging feeling in her bones.
She wasn't what the girl wanted but she was second best, which was worse than one could imagine. Forced to pretend to be the sister she really longed for she remained in this limbo. She remembered when she would hide her face or look away from those eyes; when she would cower in fear of them.
She couldn't feel the fear here anymore.
She could only feel her pain.
Hers and the villagers pain, the pain inflicted upon them from a deadly hole that led to Hell itself.
She could only pretend to be the sister and fill a void in the blood stained kimono's still heart. She could only pretend not to see the pain and suffering. Mio slipped back inside herself, autopilot as she would sometimes call it, and stared at Sae with a dazed look, another thing the crazed sister would mistake for an affectionate gesture. She was hollow, so it seemed any attention was positive. She faded back into the air and watched from a far while Mayu was pulled back into control; just a single moment passed between the two. Mio let herself slip and the other said nothing. Then Sae flickered back and petted her, a little angrier, back in control of Mayu's body, letting Mio slump back down into her lap. Mio fell back into the air, drifitng back out of her body, to the air she couldn't escape. Why did she even leave her body? It hurt either way.
She would dream of someone coming to save them. She would dream of a miracle where Yae came back to fetch her dear sister. She would dream, but even so she knew she'd have to come back down. Back down to the fingers than held her there for eternity.
There, she lingered on the thought of happiness bringing them back from this place. Here, she knew, no hope was optional anymore. With wary eyes and a warier soul, she could only feel the flood of water soak into her bones, and with the newly found water, flooding the trees and shrine stones, she felt the hope being washed away. A final click sounded and the village filled entirely. With it, Mio allowed herself to drown; to imagine herself drowning and finally floating away. No one would find this place anymore, now submerged deep under a lake, where a dam was placed, and Sae smiled at her through the filmy water. With a new found despair Mio sunk further into it; no one would find this place now.
No one would suffer this same fate, as everyone else.
Now, no one could save them.