Please note: This story will have some very dark and intense psychological themes. It's a thriller with mature subject matter, and as such most of the characters and story will be OOC. Trigger warnings for content: scenes of graphic violence including physical and sexual violence, emotional and psychological abuse, intense and disturbing imagery related to death and supernatural elements, and sexual content (citruses). Read at your own discretion.
I'm very excited to write this story, it's something I have been working on for a while. I thought Halloween would be the perfect time for it's introduction to you all. If you can, please drop me a review down below. Thank you.
Chapter 01: Prologue
"Where were you?" He shouted into her face, towering above her, fuming with suspicion. "I've been waiting for you to get home for hours."
"Ren, please," Kyoko pleaded, placing her hand gently against his chest, both to obtain some breathing room and to calm his erratic anger. "I already explained it all to you. The filming took longer than expected."
Swallowing back her fear, Kyoko stepped around her husband, and walked from the entryway to the living room. Sitting down on the couch, she carefully slipped out of her black pumps, neatly placing them aside beneath the end table on the left.
Tossing back the remaining contents of his drink, Ren followed his wife to the couch and took his seat beside her, placing the glass on the end table to the right. Grabbing her arm roughly, he forced her to face him. "How long does it take to shoot a simple kissing scene?" He inquired with accusatory ire. His strong fingers dug into her flesh, the ache for blooming bruises sinking deep.
Reino brush aside the sleeve of her blouse and lightly fingered the darks spots on Kyoko's bicep. His heart began to beat faster as a silent rage started to stew inside of him. Holding his emotions calmly in check, and with mounting difficulty, he took a slow and steady breath. "Please, Kyoko," he muttered quietly. "Keep going."
Looking at his profile as he admired her injuries, Kyoko simply nodded and proceeded, biting back the tears that threatened to escape their cosy confines.
Wrenching her arm free of his grasp, Kyoko stood up and shook her head with growing frustration. "This is ridiculous, Ren. I already told you—"
"You're hiding something!" Ren yelled, finding his feet, and facing the short actress down with blue eyes of pure jealousy. "I see the way he looks at you, that goddamn Kijima, and the way you two interact. Your chemistry is blatant even to the blind. Do you honestly expect me to believe that there's nothing going on between you two?"
"Oh my god, Ren!" Kyoko screamed as a migraine insidiously began its own private assault of her sanity. "I'm an actress, it's my job to make it look real! Do you honestly have no faith in me, in my love for you, in our marriage?"
Grasping her arms with unfathomable strength once more, tightly enough to make her cringe with agony, Ren pulled his wife against his body, lowering his mouth to hers. "No one can fake an attraction like that, Kyoko," he whispered malevolently. "Not even you."
Her eyes fell to his mouth, pulse pounding erratically as fear began to seep into every part of her body. Slowly raising her stare to match his, Kyoko gasped. The look in Ren's cerulean irises told her of how drunk and dark the punishments inflicted shall be tonight. Licking her lips, Kyoko tried to grab his shirt to make him realise how terribly misunderstood she was. "Please, Ren. Please, believe me. I don't have feelings for anyone but you."
His hands squeezed further, causing Kyoko to hiss unintentionally. Pressing her against him, completely closing any remnant of space, he kissed her passionately. Drawing her lower lip between his own, he grazed her naturally mauve lip with his teeth. Feeling the tension in her reciprocation of his gesture, Ren bit down and drew blood.
Reino lightly caressed the curves of her jaw with the back of his fingers, taking in the sight of the thick gash on her lower lip. It was a bright red, swollen with light tinge of purple around the edges. "That sonofabitch," he muttered under his breath. Realising he was losing control again, he dropped his hands into his lap and entwined his fingers, taking one deep breath after another to help quiet the storm brewing within.
"I should stop," Kyoko said almost soundlessly, "You get the basic understanding—"
"No," Reino interrupted sternly. "You're my dearest friend, Kyoko. Please, confide in me. Don't carry the weight of this alone." Lifting his chin, he looked longingly into her amber eyes. "Please."
Nodding as a single tear rolled down her pale complexion, she continued.
Kyoko shoved him away with all the might she could muster. "Ow!" She replied, dabbing her fingertips to the cut. A shimmering glean of scarlet reflected against the moonlight filtering through the full-length windows. "Why are you doing this to me?" Warily, Kyoko walked backwards.
"You drive me crazy, Kyoko." Ren's voice was filled with a desperate, wanton, need. His tender affection mutated with his protectiveness as he admired how beautiful his wife looked tonight. A tight black pencil skirt hugged the curves of her hips and ass, with a long slit up the left leg, settling mid-thigh. She coupled it with an off-white chiffon blouse, sleeveless with simple black and gold buttons running down the front. The high neckline offered slight modesty, but the almost soft material did very little to veil the black, sexy bra she wore underneath. Ren's eyes fell to her chest as he imagined his wife wearing nothing but her undergarments. Pictured the lecherous ways Kijima and who knows how many other men must stare at her every day, silently undressing her.
Curling his hands into fists, he walked forward. "You are so beautiful." He stated matter-of-factly, the desire to have her, hold her, and ensure that she would forever be his alone began to course through hot blood. "I wish you could see what I see when I look at you, what other men see. How desirable and irresistible you are, Kyoko."
No, Kyoko thought, this can't be happening…not again. "Ren… please, don't do this…" Mentally calculating a means of escape, Kyoko decided the best course would be to run for it. Ren came closer and closer, then hastily Kyoko made a break for it and tried to shove past him towards the front door.
Anticipating her movements, Ren snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her back against his chest, holding her snuggly. Burying his face into the crook of her nape, he inhaled the sensuous scent of her perfume, the yearning to love her blooming wildly.
"Kyoko, why do you do this?" He whispered against her skin, his breath heated with obsessive intentions. "Let me love you, prove to me that you're all mine." He laid kisses along her shoulder as his hands began to unzip her skirt on the side. Her fingers scratched and scraped at the fleshy tethers, but inevitably she was too weak.
Lifting her off her feet, Ren carried her down the long, black hallway into their large bedroom. Throwing her onto the bed, he walked back to the doors, never taking his eyes off his wife, and secured the lock at the door's edge on top, out of reach for the shorter woman. Ripping his shirt open, buttons flying everywhere, Ren stripped it off himself and returned to his wife.
Kyoko kicked the blankets out in a wrinkled pile as she backed away upon the bed. Looking left and then right, she grabbed the empty glass she used every night, filling it with water to swallow down her medication, and threw at him.
Ren swatted is aside with mild irritation. "Why, Kyoko?" He asked, eyes reflecting a profound sense of rejection. "I give you everything you could dream of. Together, we are the most powerful, more wonderful couple in all of Asia. I love you with every fucking ounce of myself, yet you…"
"You are not the man I married!" Kyoko shouted. She grabbed the lamp and tugged until the power cord snapped and tried to throw it, but her husband closed the space between them and yanked the lamp from her grip, causing her to cry out in pain.
Throwing it to the floor, where it landed with a defiant crash, he reached down, and grabbed her ankles. Ren pulled her towards him, he then caught her arms as she tried to slap him and pinned her down to the bed. "I love you more every day, Kyoko." Ren's voice sounded so vulnerable and sad that for a moment, Kyoko felt feeble and guilty.
Leaning towards her, Ren kissed her again. This time the gesture was more aggressive, hungry, and intolerant. Her wrists wriggled within his hold, her body twisting to get away. Feeling her knee rise, Ren quickly adjusted himself and slipped his own knee between her legs, using the force of his body to immobilise her.
As his mouth wandered, Kyoko contemplated screaming for help, but knew that in the end it would be to no avail. The entire apartment was soundproofed.
Pushing herself off the sofa, Kyoko wrapped her arms around her body and shivered. Remembering what happened only filled her with dread and disgust. "I can't believe it's the same person, Reino. He's not the same Ren that I married, at all!" She rubbed at the bridge of her nose, feeling the pressure of her grief and trauma beginning to overwhelm. "I just wish that I had the strength to fight him off, to tell him no, and the power to do something when he doesn't listen to me." Kyoko blew out a breath of aggravation. "I'm crippled by my inhibitions and fear and I just hate it so much!" Burying her face into her cold palms, Kyoko sobbed.
Standing, Reino couldn't bear her pain and walked over to his friend. "I'm going to hug you, okay?" Slowly he placed his hand on her shoulder and tentatively wrapped his arms around her, taking great care to keep his arms above her waist. When she pressed her face against him, Reino could feel all the walls tumbling down. She wept and shrieked upon him. Kindly, he rubbed her back and tried his best to soothe her pain.
"It's going to be okay, I swear to you, Kyoko." He said delicately into her hair. "I'm going to find out what's wrong and I'm going to help you, if it's the last thing I ever do."
Ren awoke to the sounds of a violent pattering of rain against his windows. Rising, he swung his legs out of the massively spacious bed and placed his bare feet on the plush, grey carpet. A piercing ache throbbed painfully against his temples. Opening his eyes, he found his orbs to be highly sensitive to any bit of light, of which there was very little due to the dark, storm clouds outside.
Stumbling out of bed, he wavered his way to the bathroom. Fumbling for the faucet handles, he twisted them. The sound of rushing water echoed in the large bathroom. Bending over, he caught some water in coupled palms and splashed them against his face, taking his time to thoroughly rinse his eyes. After a few minutes, he reached out to the light switch on the left and flipped them. Turning off the faucet, he stood up straight and looked at himself in the mirror. The sight made his jaw drop.
"No…" he muttered, blue eyes widening to what stared back at him.
His body was riddled with scratches. His shoulder harboured teeth marks. Running his fingers across them, he recognised that they must have drawn blood, purpling around the edges. Defensive… he thought to himself. Swallowing back a lump of absolute terror, Ren stepped away from the mirror, refusing to believe that what was shown was truly a visage of himself. His back collided with the open door. Noticing another detail, the actor reached up and pressed his fingertips to his lips, noticing the cuts. More defensive wounds… Not again…
"NO!" Ren yelled, running out of the bathroom. Finding some discarded jeans on the floor, he quickly slipped into them and then took in the state of his bedroom. His shirt was laying in tatters about a foot away from the bed. Upon Kyoko's pillow was the chiffon blouse he had bought her for landing her most-anticipated project a few months back. Back when everything was perfect and happy, he thought.
Carefully, he approached the bed. Picking up the blouse he saw that, this too, had been torn. Dropping it back to the pillow, the actor felt an overwhelming desire to get the fuck out of this apartment. He escaped his bedroom and headed for the kitchen. Opening his cabinet, he eyed the bottle of Scotch.
No… Reconsidering, he closed the cabinet, leaving it all untouched. That only makes everything worse. Turning to the refrigerator, he fetched a bottle of water and emptied its contents in a few swallows, his throat unbelievably parched. Tossing the bottle into the sink behind him, he then grabbed the edge of the sink and pressed his fingers into the freezing metal.
What the fuck is happening to me, he contemplated. I don't remember a goddamn thing… How many times has this happened now? Sighing with frustration, he raked his hair back and thought about Kyoko. Kyoko, where are you? Suddenly noticing her absence, he went in search of his mobile phone. Finding it in the living room, Ren fell to the couch and scrolled down to her number and dialled.
C'mon, c'mon. Pick up please, Kyoko.
"Hello, you've reached Kyoko Mogami. I'm afraid I'm a bit busy at the moment but if you leave—"
"Fuck!" Cursing, he scrolled to his messages and began composing one. "Please, respond. Please."
As Ren's thumb danced across the touch-keyboard, the screen flickered. Startled by the glitch, Ren shook his head and proceeded with this message. Then the screen flickered again and then went black.
"What the fuck?" He cursed again. Flipping it over, he slid off the back-cover plate and attempted to open the compartment that housed the battery, but the little lid would not pop off like it normally did. Turning it back over again, he slammed the phone against this thigh and then smacked the sides with his palms. The screen flickered to life once more.
"Finally," he muttered with mild relief. As he scanned what he had typed up previously, his mouth fell open in utter shock. "What…" he whispered.
Each of the characters began to disappear one at a time, as if someone was deleting it all in slow motion. Making sure none of his fingers were anywhere near the screen, all Ren could do was stare in complete and total disbelief. When the message had been entirely deleted, new characters began to appear, all by themselves.
Closing his mouth, the actor gulped and found his throat to be terribly sore, burning with agony. He carefully read and re-read each character that appeared until the entire message was finished, as the "typing" came to an end.
Upon reading the words in their entirety, Ren released the phone from his hands and watched in horror as it landed with a soft thud on the carpet. Backing away from it, he stared as if it had exploded in a flower of flame and heat.
"No…" he said quietly. "No fucking way…"
The screen remained lit, the characters all blinking like a signal light on a vehicle, emphasizing its point to the utterly distraught Tsuruga Ren…
You stole her from me, now I will make you watch, trapped in your body as you break her with your own hands… as you lose every fucking thing that you hold dear…
Thank you for reading this story. If you can, please drop me a review and I shall update again very soon.
