Hey, guys. Here's something new I'm working on. I'd like to know what you think.

And before you ask, yes, I am working on 12 Little HiME. I'm about 2/3 of the way done with the next chapter.

7/15/09

I busted out the hallway and into the staircase. My mind just barely registered Kikukawa-san's slaughtered body as I raced around it. I just had to get away from her. Them. It. I don't know who they are, but I know that couldn't have been Sis.

"Takumi!!"

But damn it if that wasn't her voice!

I reached the fire exit and finally stopped running, leaning on the door handle to catch my breath. I opened the door a bit, letting the pattering of rain on concrete into the hallway. I stuck a hand out, tried to let the rain wash the blood off my hands, wishing that it could wash the images I had just seen out of my head.

I heard a somewhat faint but distinct sound of a metal door clanging against the wall. "TAKUMI! Come back here!" Akira-kun couldn't stop her, then, I thought sadly.

"Oh, no, you don't, Mai!" That was Shiho-chan! She was still alive! A ping of a metal bat against the stair railing soon followed. I turned my head around to the stairs as I heard another swing of the bat, this one striking the cinderblock wall.

"Bitch!" "Sis" shouted. "Fine! You first!" I heard the bat hit flesh, but it was the sound of a hand catching the bat. Shiho let out a scream before I saw her being tossed down the stairs and onto the landing in my line of sight. She was clearly in pain. A stream of blood was coursing its way down the right side of her cheek. And this was in addition to all the bruises, cuts, and wounds all over her body she took earlier. "Shiho-chan!" I shouted at her.

She coughed up a bit of blood as she put all her effort into looking at me. "What are you doing, idiot?! Run!"

"YOU…"

" But…"

"LITTLE…" The menacing sound of a metal bat against the railing echoed.

"I'm dead, not you! Go! While she's distracted by me!"

"SACK…"

"NOW!" Still I hesitated.

"OF…"

"TokihaaaAAAAHHH!!!!" Shiho's command for me to run became a shriek of pure terror as her eyes looked up at her killer. I bolted out the fire escape and into the rain. I couldn't stick around to hear Shiho get bludgeoned. I had seen too much already.

It must have been four or five minutes of straight running before I stopped to catch my breath again, seeing no more than a few feet in front of me to navigate and otherwise staring at my muddied shoes. At least my heart was holding up fine. I looked around and found myself in the woods. I had no idea which one, though; I hadn't really been paying attention to where I was going.

I stopped to collect my thoughts. Who the hell was she? I couldn't shake the image of Mikoto's body run headfirst into the television, of "Sis" plunging that knife over and over again into Fujino-san's throat, of her twisted and inhuman smile as she approached me with that bloody knife before Akira-kun pulled me out of the way just as she lunged for me. What had she done to Sis?

For that matter, what had they done to Harada-san? The last thing I remembered was her rushing towards me with a bent metal pipe in her hand, held high above her head and screaming bloodlust emanating from her lips. It was her, and simultaneously it wasn't. The face, the (broken) glasses – unless someone made an exact clone of herand found a spare uniform or something, that was Harada-san. But at the same time, there's no way she would go berserk and murderous like that; it's not in her nature. I guess the permanently shocked looks on Nao-san's and Alyssa-chan's faces would attest to their surprise as well.

I nearly screamed in terror as the bushes behind me rustled before someone emerged from the shadows. I only exhaled when I saw it was Akane's boyfriend. "Oh, God, you scared me, Kurauchi-san."

"Where'd everyone go?" he asked. I saw the serious and alert look on his face. He knew as well what was going on, or at least as much as I knew.

"I don't know," I replied. I looked around briefly. "Where's Higurashi-san?"

"She…didn't make it." He didn't look away from me when he said that. A few raindrops plunked his cheeks, becoming his surrogate tears.

"I'm sorry."

For a moment neither of us said anything. The rain was the only thing making a sound until we heard someone approaching nearby. We turned to the source to see Takeda hurrying up the path that until that point I hadn't seen. I must have been just a couple feet from it when I stopped running. "Takeda-sempai!" I called when he got closer.

He looked up and saw the two of us. "We gotta head to the shrine. It's the safest place."

"Why there?" he asked.

"It's removed from the dorms. We can plan our next move there. I already told Senou-san and Tate-san to head there." Takeda continued running, moving past me as he finished talking.

That was as good a plan as any, except I hadn't recovered fully from all the running I did a few minutes ago. Kazuya must have seen that: "Takeda-san, go on ahead. I'll take care of Tokiha-kun."

"All right." Takeda waved as he continued up the slope and into the dark.

I spent maybe another minute catching my breath. "All right, let's go."

"OK."

I turned around and took maybe two steps uphill before I felt a sharp pain in my back and something fleshy covered my mouth.

No…

All my strength melted away as I crumbled to the ground face first. Even if I had the energy to scream, the hand covering my mouth would have smothered it.

Not him too…

My head had just fallen to the ground when I felt two more sharp pains dig into my back. Breathing became very difficult, and I struggled for my next few breaths. The pain was unbearable, even more when I coughed up the blood in my lungs.

I pushed whatever energy I could into looking up from my position to see Kurauchi-san stand over me, a bloodied knife in his hand. How can his face show no change in emotion? It's inhuman. My vision soon began to fade; I could just make out his figure move uphill, towards the shrine where everyone else was trying to get to.

My last thoughts before I lost consciousness for the final time:

Please…

Someone save them…

Someone save us…