WARNINGS: standard Diabolik Lovers warnings apply (i.e. incest, toxic relationships, abuse, violence, profanity, etc)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Diabolik Lovers, only the plot of this fanfic that diverges from the original DL plot and my OC
No.1: "My Most Precious Doll"
He gave her a choice this time.
Laito Sakamaki never gives her a choice.
'132~'
Usually it's "surrender willingly, or be punished and forced to surrender anyway". But this time he offered her an alternative. To "spice things up".
After a few weeks of living with the Sakamaki brothers, Yui had come to know that there never really was an option when it came to anything. She could either: be really miserable and in pain, or be slightly less miserable and live on to be in pain another night.
'254~'
And this time, it was "play hide-and-go-seek or willingly give herself to him".
She shudders thinking about it. She would never do that out of her own free will. She hadn't lost her sanity yet.
So she ran while he counted to three-hundred. Extra time, "because humans are so slow", he said.
'227~'
And even though he called it a choice, Yui knew that was deceptive. Laito had set it up so that either way he would win. If she had said no and refused to hide; he would finally have gotten what he really wanted from her. If she decided to play and ended up getting found, he would say that her lack of interest offended him and would punish her severely anyway.
And if she wasn't found, well…
That had never happened before.
And Yui doubted it would happen this time, either.
'253~'
But no matter how pointless it seemed either way, Yui wouldn't give up. She wouldn't let them break her into submission. This was only another trial given by God to test her faith and so she would be strong. She had some spirit in her still.
At least that's what she reminds herself as she runs through the endless halls of the mansion.
It's nighttime, play time, as Laito calls it. He has the advantage here, but she won't let that deter her. She couldn't give up hope.
"274~"
She gasps. It's not possible. She had been running away from him, she knew she had been going away from him. So how could he sound so close?
She has to rethink her strategy. She has to go now.
'281~'
Changing her direction, and choosing on a whim, Yui runs down a random hall. The mansion seems to be cloaked in a perpetual state of darkness, but in this moment the darkness stretches farther and darkens further the more she looks. The 'thrill of the game', as Laito would call it, gives the winding hallways a sinister aura.
She turns.
The wallpaper is in a purple trim.
Must be near Kanato's room.
"289~"
Yui's heart stops and she wonders if he's somewhere in the walls laughing at the sound. It can't be that time already? Where was she going to go?
There are doors lining the hall, one at the far end that she knows leads to the insidiously childlike Sakamaki brother.
'291~'
Kanato or Laito? Who could she afford to run into? Who was the lesser of two evils?
If I run into Kanato, he'll drink my blood, kill me, and turn me into one of his dolls.
'293~'
But, if I'm caught by Laito, he'll take my blood, rape me, and then torture me afterwards.
There is no choice.
Yui picks a door on the wall, and runs inside. Rows and columns of eyes stare unblinkingly back at her from their deathly pedestals in the dark.
This is Kanato's wax doll harem.
'294~'
No. Kanato wouldn't be happy if he found her in this room. He would "discipline" her for being in here, Laito would find her and penalize her for losing the game, and then Kanato would punish her again for playing with Laito and not him.
She has to leave-
'295~'
Yui scrambles to get out of the door, but as she's going, she knocks something over, and tumbles on top of it. Opening her eyes frantically, she sees a beautiful brunette with haunting blue eyes laying underneath her. A doll. Her face is blank, but her eerie blue eyes taunt Yui. They whisper: "you're going to end up just like me, Yui. Kanato's gonna get you~"
'296~'
There's a gaping dent in the doll's face and she knows she's caused it.
Kanato's going to kill me.
"297~"
I have to leave-
But there is no time left. There's nowhere to go. She's run out of options.
'298~'
But then...she sees a door. One she's never seen in this room before. Behind a red curtain that hasn't been pulled forward to conceal it completely, lies a door with a golden-gilded knob.
Thank you, Lord.
'299~'
Yui crosses the room faster than anything she's ever done in her life, running past a doll that looks sickeningly like her to reach the curtain. She imagines that the counting has gotten quicker in time with her racing heartbeat. His voice echoes in a taunting mantra, and she thinks he's close,
Right behind you,
Right behind you,
And Yui really does feel like he's right there behind her, a breath from her ear whispering:
"300."
She shuts the door as soon as she opens it, and she's inside. Saved, but momentarily.
And when the door shuts, it's like a switch flips. All outside noise is gone, she can no longer hear Laito's voice. It's like another world here.
Behind the mysterious door lays yet another hallway, but shorter, and Yui wonders how big their house could possibly be, to have whole hallways existing behind small doors. Somehow the vibe feels different, spooky almost. It's another climate here and she shivers. She feels strange and...unsettled.
Suddenly an invisible hand seizes her heart in a vice-grip and her knees fall out from the sheer force and shock. Yui grapples onto the wall with one hand, the other grabbing at the skin of her chest in hopes of diminishing the hammering pain in her heart.
What was that?
With a shuddering breath, Yui recovers and stands up on slightly shaky legs.
And then she hears it.
As if on cue, like something out of a horror movie, soft, stuttering sobs ring through the empty air and bounce off the walls, echoing eerily.
The hair prickles on Yui's arms, goosebumps appear, and her voice shakes with fear and uncertainty - why is everything so creepy in this house? - when she calls out:
"Hello?"
And she almost wishes she hadn't, but whatever reply she would be met with would determine her sanity, which was hanging on a thin thread at this point in her stay of the Sakamaki mansion. She has to know.
The crying stops abruptly...
And with no noise to confirm that she hadn't been hallucinating, Yui is left blind; consumed by the darkness of fear.
No. I'm done being afraid.
"Hello? Is anybody there?" She says a little bit louder, not caring if Laito heard her and she lost the game. She's tired of living in fear all the time, tired of letting the Sakamakis rule every aspect of her life. She's strong.
Time to stop cowering.
But nobody answers her.
Yui looks around at the hall she's in; the pale and peeling purple wallpaper, a frost of dust adding a thin, grimy sheet on the surface of the end tables. In fact, the whole hallway is a snowglobe of dust; spinning and recycling in the air as if no one had opened a window in years.
Yui coughs reflexively, and takes a step forward.
The voice was feminine, that Yui knows. Whoever was crying is probably a girl, a young girl it sounded like.
But there are no girls in this house except for me... Could it be...?
"Please, whoever you are: I don't mean you any harm." Yui tries to make her voice as calm and altruistic as possible. She has to know who this girl is. What if she's like her?
"...who's there...?"
The voice is soft and sweet - like that of a small child - and distinctly surprised. Whoever she is, she sounds vulnerable.
She had just been crying.
"My name is Yui, Komori Yui." She says, eyes roaming all around.
"Who are you...?"
She's cautious. Of course she is. Why shouldn't she be in a house like this? I can't seem too eager; if I do she might run away.
"I'm a friend." Is the best thing Yui can come up with to not scare her away.
"...you won't hurt me...?"
Yui's heart clenches in empathy, she knows what it's like to have to keep your guard up at all times, even doubting those who reach their hands out in kindness.
"No. I want to help you." And she truly does. "Where are you?"
"I'm trapped, and I can't get out."
Yui's heart stops once more at that sentence, and starts thrumming shallowly in a mixture of anxiety and excitement. She isn't alone in this. Maybe the brothers kidnapped her, too!
"I'm a sacrificial bride, I'm trapped in this house, too! Maybe we can help each other out. Where are you? What's keeping you trapped?" Yui's eyes scan each of the walls frantically, walking over to the doors and checking them to see if her voice is coming from within.
"I'm so scared," the voice quivers with emotion, "...it's dark in here..." And somehow her voice echoes like a melodic bell in a church, and Yui finds it hard to pinpoint. It's like she's everywhere at once.
"But where are you? Can you see anything?" Yui says, trying the first door in the hallway. Grunting in frustration when she realizes:
Locked.
"I-I don't know." And when the girl starts crying again, Yui resolves herself.
Yui knows the feelings of hopelessness; she had felt them all too well throughout her stay here. But it's different now. A new surge of hope flows through Yui as she realizes she's not alone anymore.
We'll save each other.
"Hold on, I'll help you out. Just keep talking, I'll follow the sound of your voice." Yui says, choosing another door to check.
"Okay… What do I talk about?"
"Maybe describe where you are, it might help me find you."
"It's dark."
Yui looks up.
She said that already.
"And cold; the chill seems to sink into your bones and never leave. There is this big, vast emptiness all around me, like I am in a fog of nothing... and your voice just echoes through, softly like a chime. 'Like I am lost at sea,
waves undulating beneath me,
and your voice is a buoy,
a tether to reality.'
Keeping me from slipping away back into the rolling darkness..."
How oddly and eerily poetic. What kind of child speaks that way?
"Uh-huh," Yui wasn't really sure how to respond to that. "Is my voice getting louder?" Yui calls out.
"I- cannot tell..."
"Well, I think I'm starting to hear your voice better," Yui says, putting her ear to another door. "Keep talking."
" 'The cold pervades every crevice and crack' ," the child begins again as if uninterrupted, speaking almost to herself. " 'It comes from within, lives inside, and never goes back.
A chill up your spine,
a coldness in your heart.
When you breathe, it infects your lungs and never departs,
until you're cold all the way through. A deathly chill, it stays, a constant companion.
And you're suddenly a cold casket, sombre and lovely,
heat has deserted you completely.
But not youth. That stays for eternity.'
You rot inside and not out, in the guise of peace. Only your lonely spectre to haunt the halls with and without sound.
They don't hear your cries; you're dead. And no one sees; they're dead too, just not like you."
How...morbid.
"Did you... write that yourself?" Yui asks tentatively, a chill crawling down her back like a small spider. Did it get colder in here?
"Did you like it? Mummy used to. I've had a lot of time, being alone and trapped by myself for so long. It's a bit maddening, really..."
Yui didn't really want to think too much of it.
...I think...I've found you.
Yui grabs the handle of a door nearest the end of the hall.
Gotcha!
Yui opens it, the desire to jump in excitement doing battle with the need to shiver, "Are you in here?"
Dark purple walls. A beautiful armoire-wardrobe and matching vanity. A table covered in a gossamer blanket of meticulous design. Boxes neatly arranged taking up space on the floor. No windows. No trapped girl. And oddly enough; not a single speck of dust covering even an inch of any part of the room. In fact, if not for the boxes, it could be an extra bedroom with how clean and organized the entire thing is.
"Hello? Are you- in here...?" Yui calls out uncertainly.
Because if the mystery girl's going to be anywhere, it should be here; the room that's most lived in, right?
What is this place?
Walking over to the vanity just by her ear on the wall of the entryway, Yui glances curiously at the items in the box resting on top. A rattle. Gloves. Toy giraffe. Plastic rings. A blue-and-white scarf. Mostly nondescript items, but a few things jump out at Yui; 'Little Women' - a human book - and...four tubes of chocolate lipstick…?
How bizarre... The chocolate lipstick could've belonged to any one of their mothers, but I can't see anyone in this house reading 'Little Women'. It's a book written by a mortal, for little girls! Who could this stuff belong to?
Yui gets up, set on determining just that, and walks over to the wardrobe.
Whoever these items predominantly belong to must have their clothes in the wardrobe, right?
She opens the doors, forgetting that she was originally looking for someone, forgetting about Laito and everything else and finds...dresses. A whole row overflowing with dresses. Ball gowns, dinner parties, evening and formal wear, sun-dresses, nightgowns, coat-dresses, and all of them lavish and glaringly expensive. But more than that, there is one other thing that sticks out about the dresses:
They are all child-sized.
Closing the doors and wondering what this could possibly mean, Yui backtracks, eyes looking for the door...
This isn't my business, I shouldn't be in here.
...When her eyes catch one of the boxes on the floor.
What's that there? Wait a second...
Opening the box, Yui finds a collection of paintings, depicting the very familiar figures of the brothers, namely the triplets. But there is one irregularity appearing in every. Single. One of the paintings. A little girl with long purple hair and eyes to match. A little girl that looks just like Kanato.
Yui pulls out a random painting, in it are the obvious: Ayato, Kanato, and Laito. But there's another person standing with them, in the middle next to Kanato. The little girl with the purple hair. Yui turns the painting over in her hands, heart pounding loudly. Written in the corner in black ink, near the frame: "Ayato, Kanato, Chouko, and Laito Sakamaki (left to right)".
Yui drops the frame.
They have a sister…?
She frantically picks up another one, this one holding two females; one she'd seen in visions and the other she'd never seen before until just now. Flipping the painting to see the inscription on the back, she reads the names: "Chouko and Cordelia Sakamaki". The painting is dated to thirty years ago, and yet the woman looks only in her twenties, and the girl couldn't have been more than ten years old.
Yui stares at the painting, entranced by the obvious beauty of the women. She has never seen two women more beautiful in her life, though when compared with the bitterly cold yet seductive look of the woman; the beaming child with her bright eyes and innocent smile looks infinitely more enchanting. Something about the woman who had her hand on the child's shoulder was so distant and cold, and next to the vibrancy of the beautiful child, one would hardly notice the woman stood just behind her.
The woman also had long purple tresses like the girl and Kanato, yet her eyes were a bright chartreuse, the picture of Ayato and Laito's.
She must be the mother of the triplets… Cordelia… Yui looks back at the smiling little girl in the painting… Chouko Sakamaki...
But they can't have a sister. Why haven't I ever heard of her or seen her in the paintings of the main hall?
She doesn't understand why it means so much to her, but it does. Maybe she can find a written document proving the girl is really their sister. It's a long shot, but maybe. Trying to do just that, Yui walks over to the table and pulls off the sheet to look through any possible box resting on the surface, but she's surprised. There are no boxes on the table, because it isn't a table.
Yui gasps at the sight, stifling herself from shrieking as she wants to.
There, on a raised platform, is a casket with a glass lid containing the body of the violette girl from the painting.
Lying on top of a thousand white roses is a dead Chouko Sakamaki.
Her skin is as white as the roses she rests on, as white as any vampire would be. A deathly pallor. The kind of color that humans can only achieve through the ultimate means of an eternal sleep; death. And yet her lips are as pink as a blushing rosebud, as if the woman had merely fallen asleep after applying a coat of lipstick.
And she is certainly a woman.
This is not the little eleven-year-old girl from the painting thirty years ago. This girl was a butterfly who's made full metamorphosis into a young woman every bit as gorgeous - and even more so - than her mother. Sweeping cheekbones, elegantly sloping nose, flawless ivory skin, long and luscious purple hair cascading down the length of the coffin like velvet - and decidedly not flat chested - she was a woman that Yui could envy.
She looks like an angel: pale and glowing, lying dead in a tomb of darkness and isolation.
What happened to you?
Yui can't think of what could have caused this. Looking at the casket more closely, she sees a heavy golden lock chaining the lid resolutely shut, and an inscription engraved onto a golden plate next to it, reading: My Most Precious Doll.
But, that doesn't make sense.
Yui is the daughter of a clergyman. She has seen enough burials to know that caskets don't normally have nor do they even need a lock. Especially one so bulky and substantial.
Why would anyone lock a coffin?
It's not as if there are any grave-robbers around to mess with the body...?
...And it's not like the corpse is just going to get up and escape?
Unless…
.
.
.
Unless she's not dead.
Yui looks at the woman in horror and alarm for any signs of movement. Though she thinks she sees the rising and falling of the woman's chest, it is the ever-so-slight fog on the inside of the glass lid that alerts Yui to the fact that this woman is still breathing.
She's not dead… Oh my God!
Yui taps on the glass three times, frenetic and scared.
She's been kept here in this room with all of their trash like a discarded toy!
Yui's eyes tear up as the dread sinks heavily into her.
Oh my God... what if they locked her in here?
Terror rushing through her in a deadly tidal wave as she shrieks: "Chouko? Chouko?!"
"Oh Little Bitch~?" A taunting voice echoes from somewhere down in the hallway. "Don't you know that crying out your location completely defeats the purpose of playing hide and seek?~" Laito's voice. "Or did you want me to find you?~" A chortle accompanying the last remark, rings through the tense silence.
Yui's heart stops again and she wonders if she'll die young from a heart attack, what with all the terrifying suspense in the house. It's too much for anyone.
Oh no.
He'll find me here.
If they really did lock her up then I wasn't supposed to see this. I can't let him catch me in this room!
And so Yui throws the covering onto the casket, and hastily runs out of the room, closing the door as well. Come on, come on! But when she turns around and gets to the opening of the hall; Laito stands there waiting for her.
A sly smile appears on his face as she walks out and sees him. "Nfu fu~ It appears that you've lost the game, Bitch-chan." he says looking her up and down. "You naughty girl, hiding in Kanato's private wing~ What? You want him to punish you too? Nfu fu~"
He cocks his head at her, smiles his cat-like grin, leaning all up against the doorway as he continues: "I must say, this isn't a very good hiding spot, hmm? Hiding out in the middle of a hallway doesn't seem very smart~" He's laughing at her, but that's okay.
As long as he was laughing at her, then he wasn't paying attention to the fact that she went somewhere she wasn't supposed to go.
Maybe she can get away with this yet.
But his eyes don't seem to stray. They fixate on her face curiously... He's staring too long.
What is he looking at?
She gulps.
"No~ hiding in plain sight where anyone could see is too stupid, even for you… Where did you go?" His piercing green eyes never seem to lose their interest in her face - in fact, he's barely blinking - and that's when she realizes he is looking at her and scrutinizing her reactions.
The silence is dragging too long, she has to say something.
"I-I-" Yui's eyes dart everywhere, scrambling for some sort of explanation. His eyes narrow.
And then, looking for some sort of explanation for her odd behavior, then they move. And when they fix on something behind her and widen, that's when she knows she didn't close the door all the way.
No, no, no!
He takes an audible breath and she can even hear it enter his lungs. And then he advances.
No-!
"What were you doing in there?" His voice is the only thing seemingly kind about him as he strides over to her. She's in trouble.
Yui backs up two steps before being sharply accosted by her shirt and lifted three inches from the ground. Furious green eyes burn into hers with their gaze. And though calm, his voice is no longer kind: "Answer me quickly before I become angry. You don't want to make me angry, do you, Bitch-chan?"
She has never seen him so full of genuine emotion, making her momentarily shocked beyond words. His severity and intensity are the two signs that tell her that this is not playful Laito. Playful Laito is teasing, seductive, easy to please and appease. He has a one-track mind.
This is a different man entirely; a stranger whom she doesn't know how to reason with.
Tell him what he's looking for. Show him you weren't doing any harm.
"I-I didn't mean anything by it-"
"That's not an answer." His voice isn't loud, but it's deadly in its seriousness. This Laito plays no games.
"I was just looking for somewhere to hide!"
But then… suddenly his ferocity seems to evaporate; the lines of his face easing, and his shoulders relaxing slightly… His eyes, however, are still steely, accusative, and ready to rip her open if she says anything he doesn't like. His eyes are poised, waiting to unearth his scarier and more serious alter-ego.
Thin ice, Yui...
"Are you sure that's all you were doing, Bitch-chan?" His words are biting, and for some reason his customary pet moniker for her stings with vengeance.
But she still replies:
"Y-yes." Her eyes are tearful as he drops her to the floor and steps over her form to storm into the room. Probably checking the validity of her words.
A mess on the ground, Yui doesn't even get up to try and get a glimpse of his expression when in the room, still struggling to calm her riotous heart. Though he made her out to be a despicable intruder, she knows without a doubt that she would feel like exactly that if she tried to peek in.
It seems...wrong to look in on something so obviously personal and intimate. But that didn't mean she wasn't curious.
Then he storms back out just as quickly and temperately as he had stormed in, this time though his glare is a bit less hostile. But there still remains some unknown emotion in his eyes.
He glances at her from her position on the ground, still seeming no more friendly or reassuring, which makes her nervously cry as he pulls her up by the arm: "What are you doing?-!"
"Get up. We need to move." He barely looks at her now.
Move? "Y-you're not going to punish me..?" Yui stutters. He certainly doesn't look like he's in the mood for blood.
"You've ruined my appetite." No jokes, just a statement. He shrugs the question off nonchalantly, as if both his mind and his heart are in another place.
"Then where are we going?" But still, she dreads the answer.
He finally looks at her, and this time he smiles, showcasing his sharp incisors: "To dinner."
Her heart sinking in her chest with a sharp sense of dread, Yui breathes slowly to calm her nerves, feeling anxiety begin to overwhelm her mind, she almost thinks she imagines the little girl's voice crying out to her again, this time screaming;
"No! Don't leave me, please don't leave me! MOMMY!"
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
A/N: I'm not really used to writing in the present tense, but since there are going to be flashbacks in future chapters I'm gonna put those into past tense and the current story in present. So if there are any mistakes on the tenses (which I know there are) you can either ignore them, or if you're feeling OCD you can tell me and I'll fix them when I have the time. Updates will probably be all over the place, so stay tuned!
Ciao bellas!
P.S. And if you have a chance to leave a review, answer me this: how do you feel about the length of the chapter?