Master of Puppets: Chapter 1
"No… don't leave me here," a breathless voice could be heard.
The wind blew fiercely, red hair flew wildly. Crystal blue eyes rimming with tears, silent begging glowed from within. A haggard breath could be heard and seen in the chilled air.
By rights, she should be tired; she ran countless floors to the top of the great stronghold, Hollow Bastion. She only ran for one reason, she just could not let go.
"Mana, please don't! Don't do this!" she yelled breathlessly.
Mana smiled sweetly, her long black hair flying wildly as well. She was facing out into the endless reach of blue sky. She turned and held out her hand and said, "We'll go together," with a strong gust of wind, Mana was gone, faded away, leaving the other behind.
Naomi shot up from herbed and screamed out, "No!"
She looked around her room with wide eyes and whispered to the darkness, "Mana?"
Silence.
Naomi slid out of bed and walked over to the small bed beside her own. All that was visible was a lump in the center that rhythmically rose and fell.
Naomi poked at the lump three times in a row. She stood silently waiting for a response.
The lump moved and a grunt became audible.
"Oh thank God you're alive!" Naomi yelled as she flung herself onto the lump and rapped her arms around it.
The lump squirmed and made another grunting noise. This grunt signaled life, and thus only made Naomi squeeze harder.
"Let go!" a deeper voice said as the covers over the squirming lump were tossed off.
Another girl appeared with long black hair and a strip of hair that hung in front that was dark red. Deep purple eyes stared blankly at Naomi's blue eyes.
Naomi jumped forward and rapped her arms around the girl.
"Oh I thought you were dead!" Naomi said.
"Dead? I know I sleep like a rock… but come on," she said, half awake.
Naomi let out a sigh and leaned her head against the older girl's shoulder. They had known each other since they could remember, and cared for each other deeply. Mana had sworn a long time ago that she would protect Naomi from anything and everything. Naomi was grateful for that, and promised to herself to always keep an eye on Mana. It was their silent promise.
Mana laughed slightly and said, "I assume you were having a dream,"
"A nightmare actually. It was weird… you were standing on some platform at the top of the castle, the wind was blowing, so it was hard for me to stand straight. I yelled at you 'not to do it', so I guess I thought you were going to jump. Then you reached out your hand and said 'we'll go together'. Then you just disappeared," Naomi said, recounting her nightmare.
Mana drew an arm around her friend and said, "Well, I assure you that nothing of the sorts will ever happen. I will never leave you willingly," she finished with a smile.
Naomi smiled as well, and lightly pulled out of Mana's hold.
"I guess I'll go back to bed, sorry for waking you," she said apologetically.
"That won't be necessary, it's already eight o'clock," Mana said after she glanced at the clock.
"Heh…" Naomi said as she put her hand behind her head and laughed nervously.
Ansem sat content in his library flipping through one of his dusty research books. He sat with a smile playing on his lips and a calm expression on his face. This Ansem was not the Ansem who wished to banish light and destroy endless worlds. This Ansem was just a kind king who loved all of his people, and was loved by all his people.
A boy bearing spiky silver hair and dark skin like Ansem crept into the library. He silently walked up behind Ansem and stood behind him, quite enjoying the fact that he had gotten in undetected. Now all he had left to do was think of the best way to frighten Ansem. He was seventeen: he lived for moments like these.
Although he was sneaky, Ansem was older and much wiser. Although he too enjoyed moments like these…
The boy took another step forward and bent his knees slightly to get as close to Ansem as possible without being seen or heard. He closed his eyes, thinking of what to say to freak him out the most. He opened eyes and was shocked to see that his victim was gone.
"Miss me?" a low, playful voice whispered into the boys' ear. The boy jumped and swung around to see Ansem chuckling lightly at the boys' shock and sudden flush in the face.
"You'll never win," Ansem said as he went back to his chair to finish his book. He looked up at the boy, who was still recovering from his alarm.
"H-how did you do that?" the boy asked.
"Dante, Dante, Dante, I know how you do things, and besides, I've lived with you since you were born, I can almost sense when you're coming. Besides, you're my brother, I guess it's some sort of 'family thing'," Ansem replied playfully.
Dante grumbled slightly at his older brother's response.
"Why do you have to know so much?" he asked as he wandered over to a chair and plopped himself down into it.
"Because I'm older than you," he replied simply.
"Dude, you're thirty," Dante said blankly
Ansem shook his head and chuckled softly. He loved to torture Dante... it was like a sport.
Naomi sat motionless on the floor of the main lobby of Hollow Bastion. The lobby itself was filled with beautiful decorations and elegant stained glass windows. The floor was made of beautiful deep red marble, and was shined to perfection.
A concerned Mana stood in front of her, waiting to see how long it would take the redhead to notice her.
Naomi looked up, blinked, and said, "M-Mana!" she took a deep breath and said, "Wow...you scared me..."
"That's not like you, you're usually the one who scares me," Mana said, tilting her head to the side.
"I guess I'm just, deep in thought... that's all," she said, still a bit distant. She laughed a little to cover up her state of "deep thought".
"Are you sure you're ok? I don't need you getting all depressed on me now." Mana smiled and walked closer to her life long friend.
"She'll be fine." They both turned around to see Ansem walking down the stairs.
"Uh oh… Look who it is, Mana." Naomi whispered and nudged her friend in the arm. Mana looked down and blushed a bit as her heart beat sped up.
"What are you two doing down here?" He strode up to them, "Looking for lost change?"
"No. I was just thinking. That's all." Naomi answered as Mana just stood there, staring at the ground. Her face was becoming redder by the second. Ansem lifted her chin up with his fingers and looked into her eyes.
"You don't look so well, Mana. Maybe you have a fever." He went to put his hand up to her forehead to feel it, when she pulled away.
"N-nothing's wrong! I swear! It's just a little hot in here!" She spoke fast and kept moving away, till she bumped into Dante, who was behind her. She jumped up, a little startled. Naomi laughed.
"Hey! You leave her alone! Don't you know it's not nice to pick on girls?" She joked as she walked over to Dante, elbowing him in the stomach. "I'm gonna be up in my room, if any of you need me. Need to finish my project!" She started to walk up the stairs back through the library.
"Wait! Naomi!" Mana called as she turned back around.
"What is it!"
"Oh…. Never mind. Just forget about it." She turned back around and saw Dante looking at her strange, "What's up your ass? What're you looking at?" He just shrugged her off and walked away. She turned back around and noticed Ansem had disappeared. "Hm. Wonder where he went off to….."
Although Naomi said she was heading upstairs for a project, she was lying. That sort of thing always came naturally to her though. It was no special trick. She just said something that wasn't true and people believed it. She was walking down a long hallway towards her room. A clean cotton smell seemed to drift around her, and then the smell of blood. She quickly turned around to see Ansem behind her. Naomi raised an eyebrow.
"What're you doing here? I thought that you had better things to do than hang out with a little girl like me?" She laughed quoting something he had said when they were younger.
"Ah… well, that's what you think." And with that, he was right up next to her, "Just like Dante, I like to toy with other people too." Her eyes went wide as his face got closer to her and his lips almost touched her ear.
"Wh-what're you talking about?" She started to shake in fear. Ansem was scary up close. You never knew what he was going to do next. She didn't trust unpredictable people, which is why she didn't like the fact that Mana liked him.
"Mana likes me, doesn't she?" It was like he read her mind.
"I couldn't say. We don't talk about relationships that often." She stopped shaking, and tried to cover up her lie as much as possible.
"You better hope you're not lying." He said and two minutes later, he was walking down the hallway again. She sighed and leaned up against the wall.
"God, he needs some chill pills…. wish they sold those things here. If I built a nut house, he'd be the first person I'd admit." She looked back at her door, "Wonder why I smelt blood before I saw him…."
She opened it and walked in. It was dark and she went to switch on the lights, when the shadows moved. She jumped.
"Wh-who's there?" She looked around, frantic to see if anyone was trying to scare her, "This isn't funny! Come out now!" No one answered and she flicked on the lights to find nothing there. She walked into the middle of the room and looked around again. "Nothing…. That's so freaky." She sighed and then grabbed a book and started to read.
Down in the Waterways, something was brewing. Something that all the inhabitants would never be able to see, until their deaths, when things like these would be created to kill instantly. It would be the last thing they saw, when their hearts were stolen and shipped away into the dark abyss of the end of the world. They twitched and moved in the shadows of the Waterways and hunted rats for their cravings.
And He controlled them all.