Author's Note: So ya girl finally got into Ancient Magus Bride. It has everything I want: a strong female protagonist, a monster husband, magic, and slowburn romance alike. Yet who's my favorite character? Our tragic white haired anime boy Joseph, that's who. Why do I always end up falling for the underrated characters and/or villains?
Because I like torturing myself, that's why. Let's get on with the story.
You wake up in a lab, with no idea of how you got there.
Opening your eyes, you see that you're tied down to a chair. Your head throbs terribly. What happened? The last thing you remembered was walking late at night with your friends, when you were approached by some strange...boy. All you remembered was a flash of white silver hair and an oddly familiar smile...and here you are. Gathering your bearings, you try to sit up, but quickly find out that your wrists, chest, and legs were restrained.
Alarmed, you try to wriggle against the restraints, but to no avail. You twist your head around, trying to get an idea of your environment. It's a cold blue room, reminiscent of a hospital room, or a lab of sorts. The walls are white, as well as the tiled floor, but the strange blue lights gave the room an eerie alien color. To your right is a table covered in scalpels and medical tools. Upon closer inspection, you see that the blades were rusted in a copper residue...
Your breathing speeds up, your heart pounding louder than ever. In a futile effort, you struggle some more.
"Oh my, they always struggle." A boy's voice laughs from behind you.
You gasp, and turn your head to look. A young boy, looking no older than a teenager, calmly strolls towards you. Your eyes widen, recognizing the silver-white hair from your memories. The boy. A nagging sensation of familiarity nagged at you too, but you dismissed it as panic. Was he your captor? Why did he kidnap you? What was he going to do with you? Dozens of these questions scramble inside your head, your heart pounding faster and faster.
Seeing your frightened expression, the boy's smile turns into a Cheshire's grin. He leans slightly in towards you, and you immediately flinch back. He raises a pale hand - wrapped in bandages, you note - and roughly grasps your chin, forcing you to look at him. You gasp. His skin was deathly cold. It practically burned against your warm skin.
Although the boy wore a cheerful, if not slightly, sinister grin, something about his face was...off. His eyes. They were a soft and pretty blue color, but everything about them was utterly lifeless. Eyes that belonged to a corpse. You shudder under his cutting gaze, averting your eyes. He chuckles.
"Hmm...yes, yes, you'll do." He mutters to himself, and finally lets go. You sigh in relief, shakened. The boy turns his back from you, and begins to attend to the tools. You desperately try not to think of what he was planning to do with those knives.
"W-why…?" Your questions slips out weakly.
If the boy heard your question, he simply ignored it. Instead, he hums a merry tune, while he inspects the tools before him. As if he knew you were watching, he flaunts each knife in such a way where the blade shines in the alien blue light. Your breathing quickly turns into hyperventilating. You make another futile attempt to fight against the restraints, hoping by some miracle you'll escape -
He giggles, sensing your growing panic.
"Oh dear, why are you so excited to leave? We haven't even started yet."
"What...what do you want from me?"
"Ooh, good question." The boy turns to you, and pries open your mouth to peer inside. He traces your jawbone, then your shoulders. From the way he was playing with a scalpel in his hand, your imagination and worst fears were already confirmed. "Two arms, two legs, and a beating heart...Yes, that'll do quite nicely for me."
"W-what? What do you mean?"
"Hush, don't worry your head about it." With a marker, he begins to trace a dotted line along your forearm. Self preservation kicks in. Immediately, you thrash, jerking your arm. This ruins the line, and it zig zags down your arm. The captor's boyish face darkens, and his eyes narrow at you. Your blood runs cold.
With a forced smile, he holds your arm down with a surprising amount of strength. You cry out in pain, his grip squeezing your wrist so tight, you were certain bruises would be left behind.
"Come now," He says in a false, sugar-coated tone. "Don't be like that. Unlike you, your friends were more than happy to contribute."
Your friends. Oh god, were they trapped here like you?
"Where are they?! What did you do? What did you do to them?!" Fear momentarily forgotten, you defiantly glare at him.
A sickly sweet smile tugs at his lips.
"Ah. Well, I just improved them, that's all. They're not quite ready yet, but, if you insist…! Come on out, Hydra!"
Your eyes widen. What the hell was this psychopath talking about?! Your question was answered in the form of a screech. You freeze up. The screeches came from beyond the dark corridors. What in the world made that sound? Some kind of animal? The screech reverberated again, this time, drawing closer. Chills travel down your spine. Whatever it was, it sounded angry and in pain. Dread pools at the bottom of your stomach. The creature screeched again - an animal? - no, it couldn't be an animal. It sounded too inhuman, too unearthly -
A staggering creature dragged itself into the room. It easily towered everything else in the room, a foot shy from the ceiling. You gagged the moment it entered, a horrid stench filling up your nostrils and nose. What was this thing? Your eyes travelled up the patchworked and fleshy body, right up to its' two heads - oh. Oh god. Oh god no.
"They only just need some more limbs!" The boy gushes.
Your screams join the monster's, growing ever louder as you stare into the lifeless eyes of your former friends.
An arm and a leg. That's what the boy took from you, with a smile on his face and a saw in hand. For what felt like an eternity, you were awake to the horrific surgery. Mercifully, due to the the sheer amount of pain, you finally passed out from the second amputation.
It was a shame that you were still alive, when you came back into consciousness. The world is spinning, and your entire body is numb and on fire. You try to move, but you can't move. No, not that you can't move - you can't - you can't feel your fingers. Desperately you try to flex your hands. No response. You look down to see your bloody torso and what remains of your limbs - which wasn't much. You were so weak from blood loss, you had no energy left to scream.
"Wonderful, you're finally awake!"
Through a haze of pain and dizziness, you see that boy's terrible and beautiful face, smiling brightly down at you. Mockingly, he pats the side of your cheek.
"I wonder how long the serum will make you last? One hour? A day? A week?" He muses, his smile growing more and more manic. Tears pool at your eyes. "What shall kill you first, my lovely creations, or your weak willpower? Ah, not a lot of my guests can make it past my cosmetic experiments!" The boy pouts. "Maybe you'll be different."
No...let it all end. The tendrils of sleep, an escape from this absolute nightmare, beckoned you. Your eyes flutter shut, and you welcome death's embrace.
And for a moment, everything was peaceful.
This gift was snatched away from you within a few seconds. Something sharp plunged into your neck, liquid fire shoots through your veins. Gasping, your eyes fly open. The boy is looking coldly down at you - and it might've been your imagination, but something about his expression looked jealous.
"No, no, no." He sucks his teeth and shakes his head. "I can't have you leaving so soon...that's unfair, don't you think? That you get to die, and I. Can. Not." The childish playfulness is now long gone from his voice, now sounding dark and vindictive and much too old for a boy his age. Disappointment clawed at your heart. All you could do was weakly stare up at your torturer.
When your eyes meet his cold gaze, he gives you another false smile.
"You'll just have to suffer with me."
However, the act of seeing this boy's face again - it was like a light switch flipped on in you. Something clicked in your head, like a missing jigsaw puzzle, an epiphany. The familiarity, now nostalgia, now a memory is much more concrete. Your instincts weren't wrong. You have seen this boy before - before when he was kind, hopeful, human.
You've known him - no, you knew him. Thousands of memories from other lives flashed before your eyes, like a never-ending film reel. And you remember. You remember with sorrow, grief, and most of all, anger.
"I...know...you…" You manage to croak out. You taste nothing but copper inside your mouth, and your body screams for the limbs that have been ripped away, but you keep your eyes dead set on the boy. Yes, you remember...that he had blonde hair. Not that silver-white color. And his eyes back then...they were brown. They were warm and gentle, not a doll's eyes blue. More tears stream down your face, not from the pain, but from the pain of remembering the boy you once loved.
He tilts his head, similar to a cat, and only looks at you with an amused smirk.
"Hm? I can't quite hear you. Mind speaking up for me? Maybe get on your feet to tell me?" He adds, with a cruel grin.
You ignore his comments, and concentrate the last of your energy into your dying breath. You try to mouth his name. A wheeze only escapes you. His smile drops, his face becoming blank and impassive.
"Ah. How boring."
Having enough of seeing your suffering, he rises to his feet. You reach out, but only lift a bloody stump. He begins to walk away.
"Jo...Jo...seph…" His name barely escapes your lips. Each breath you're taking is like a stab to your chest, but you fight to keep your eyes open. You fight to reach out to him. "Jo...seph…"
Your efforts finally paid off. He freezes right in his tracks, halfway out of the door. Slowly, he turns back to you. His eyes are wide, his pupils are dilated. His jaw is clearly clenched in what looks like perplexity.
For the first time since this awful encounter, he looks shocked.
"...Sorry…" You whisper. The heat is rapidly leaving your body, and everything is growing colder and colder. Joseph stays glued in his spot, only staring at you. He is standing ever so still. Watching you. You close your eyes, with a weak smile. "Shou...ldn't...had...ever left you...I'm so sorry…Joseph..."
Footsteps approach your side. He's still staring at you. You didn't even have the energy to open your eyes. You can only wonder what expression he was making.
"...[Name]?"
And god, the way he said your name, it brought back that rush of love and hope all over again. Even for a brief moment, he sounded like that boy you met all those lifetimes ago - concerned and too caring for his own good.
Maybe. Maybe there is still hope left for him. Maybe...he can be saved. You faintly think, as your thoughts fade.
You die with a small smile on your face.
Author's Notes: Hopefully, I made it clear that the Reader's "curse" is being forced to remember their reincarnations and past lives. Reviews are much appreciated! Thank you!