Hey all, nyacat39 here. So I've actually had this little AU story over on AO3 for a while now and with Fanfiction finally getting an Angels of Death tag well... Thought I'd finally share this story here. I'm gonna post all the chapters I've already got done over the next few days to slowly ease everyone in while I'm working on the newer ones. Hope you all enjoy it here as much as people over on AO3 do!
DISCLAIMER: I only own the OC's (and my best friend does as well as she helped make them with me) and the story, all the other characters belong to Makoto Sanada.
Chapter 1:
Rain fell from the sky as a bakery was closing down for the night. One of its employees stepped out after finishing her work and pulled a red umbrella up over her head of blonde hair. In her arm was a bag of bread and pastries that were going to be thrown out anyways.
"See you tomorrow Derek," she called back, just before the door fully closed and before she set off on her way home. Her black boots splashing in the water with each step, getting some onto her black capris and her striped socks, making her much more determined to get home as quick as possible.
Not thinking twice about it she turned down a back alleyway and calmly navigated her way through to get to her apartment. She did however stop for a few seconds to pull out her phone and double check the Note's area that told her the navigation through her chosen route.
I'm glad I didn't forget that today. The blond thought proudly to herself before her phone beeped at her with a reminder to take her medicine in the next half hour. Rolling her blue eyes at that she powered down her phone and continued on her way.
Slowly she began to notice two things. One was the fact that her simple shortcut home seemed to be getting longer than she expected, with a few new turns that she had to take to get back onto the right track… and two was the fact she was beginning to hear an extra set of footsteps that followed her own. She did stop for a little bit to make sure it wasn't just her imagination, but found that those extra footsteps seemed to continue… and get progressively closer.
Just keep going Rachel… Don't stop. If whoever this is speeds up, run. She thought to herself as she started walking once again, holding back on her urge to glance back to see who was following her. After what felt like a few minutes Rachel heard the footsteps increase in pace, prompting her to begin running.
Come on why isn't this alley ending? It shouldn't take this long! Was the thought that crossed Rachel's mind as she picked up the pace. She started running at the sound of whoever was behind her picking up their own pace. Barely thinking about it she took a sudden turn in hopes there would be another quick one so she could lose whoever was following her…. Only to find herself at a dead end.
Only able to take one step back, Rachel soon felt something large and sharp at her neck and heard an insane sounding laugh. Despite the situation, the blond only had widened eyes at how quickly this all happened.
"Turn around Ray," a distorted male's voice laughed. Slowly doing as she was told, Rachel couldn't help but ponder for a moment how this person knew her old nickname…
Only for her eyes to open up at the sound of an alarm going off on a side table next to her. Turning her head to the alarm she saw the glow of her phone and the reminder it had that it was time for her medication.
Sitting up and stretching slowly to help pop her muscles and wake them up, Rachel took to looking around her from the comfort of the queen sized bed she had been asleep in not to long ago. It was her room alright, from the cluttered sewing table of projects and finished stuffed toys in the far left corner of her room, to the large bookshelf near the dresser on the right. The shelves high above the work table were full of completed little dolls she made, some with faces, others without and the side table near her bed was still cluttered with her medication bottles, her phone, a digital clock and a few post it note reminders.
Her door sat a good distance away from her bed but closer to where her bookshelf was located, and was closed. There was only the open door of the closet in her room with some sewing material poking out.
Was that a dream? Or… did that happen? Rachel thought to herself after looking around her room with her lifeless blue eyes. She raised one of her hands to her neck and felt along the area where she had felt the blade.
It felt familiar…
"Hey Rachel you up yet?" A female's voice questioned from the outside of her door. Rachel had remained quiet for a moment, processing the voice in her head before answering.
"Yeah… I am."
"Hey great cuz I'm making pancakes for breakfast! Grab your meds and meet me at the table in five alright."
"...Alright Katie."
Rachel soon pulled herself out of her bed, glancing down at her legs she stared at the red pajama bottoms, unsure when she got them or if they were really hers. Shaking her head free of her confused thoughts she reached over to her side table and shook each of the three bottles before finding the one that had her pills. Twisting the top open she stared down the bottle and found only four pills within the orange bottle.
I'll need to get more tomorrow… right? The blond thought before checking some of the post it notes and then nodding to herself that she was right as one said she had to take one in the morning and one before bed.
Pulling herself up to her feet and making sure one pill was within her hand, Rachel soon made way out of her room. Once out she found herself in the short hallway between her room, Katie's room as well as the living/dining room of their apartment.
"Took your time huh Ray?" a brunette haired girl grinned, her White shirt with black cat silhouette designs, as well as a portion of her faded blue jeans were covered by a white apron that had splashes of flour on it. In both her hands were two plates with at least three chocolate chip pancakes on each of them.
"You said five minutes… it's been four."
"Smart ass," Katie laughed as she set both plates down onto the living room's table. Sitting down onto the small two person sofa the brunette motioned over to the blond to come take a seat by her. Rachel did so and saw the glasses of milk near the plates. She turned a questioning gaze over to her roommate who sighed.
"We're out of the usual OJ, so I just poured us milk."
"... No chocolate syrup to add in?"
"No, but we do have Strawberry. I just didn't want to assume because you know what happens when you assume," Katie shrugged, while Rachel blinked in confusion.
"... Strawberry?" The brunette paused mid-bite before sighing at the question.
"Questions later, eat first alright?" Rachel was quiet for a little while before she finally nodded in an "okay" fashion. She then took her medication with the milk before eating her own pancake breakfast.
…
After breakfast and cleaning up their dishes, Rachel couldn't help but remember her… maybe dream and was about to bring it up to her friend, only to get interrupted by the grinning brunette.
"So Rachel, remember what today is?" At this question Rachel gave her friend a confused look before something seemed to come to her.
"Movie Marathon day?"
"No that's Friday night. It's Saturday," Katie said, and seeing the confused look on her friend's face she got a slightly guilty look on her face. "Well… We finished our first finals earlier this week, and the others did as well. Soo, we're all meeting up for old times sake!"
"Oh…" Rachel trailed off, before something came to mind. "You think Barry actually got accepted into a college yet?"
"With his need to fight everything and anything added with his record? The school itself would have to be out of its mind," Katie sighed, while Rachel had a little smile make its way onto her lips.
"Yeah, they would have kicked him out on the first week."
"Nick's more likely bored out of his mind at his college. There's no Barry to make it interesting after all."
"What was he going for again?"
"Lawyer, he did always say he might as well be if Berserker Barry's gonna be a little shit."
"Oh yeah…" the blond trailed off, causing the brunette to notice and turn her attention to her friend.
"You alright?" Katie questioned, a concerned look on her face at how silent her friend became.
"... Did… It rain last night when I was at work?"
"... Rachel you don't work Fridays… And it hasn't rained since last month. Why?"
"... I had a dream… it felt so real I thought… it had to have happened last night," Rachel responded, trying to figure out exactly how to word her dream to Katie. The mentioned brunette leaned in slightly, showing her interest in what her friend had to say.
….
After telling Katie what she could of the dream, Katie had a contemplative look on her face before finally telling her friend what she thought.
"Well… maybe it came from the fact last night's movie marathon was Horror. That would explain the long alleyway and the blade at your neck. Hell I'm actually surprised you could actually sleep after that… I know I couldn't especially after that Doll one," the brunette shuddered, always having a fear for both porcelain and ventriloquist dolls. Rachel blinked and tried to remember last night… only for it all to come up as a blank.
That does sound plausible though… My mind must have just mixed it all together is all. Nodding finally to herself, Rachel offered up a small smile to her friend though like always it never seemed to reach her eyes.
"... You really suck at smiling after all." These words came to her almost every time she did smile. It felt like a distant memory and the voice wasn't very clear in her head, but every time it did come to her mind she felt her eyes almost water. Katie knew this well enough and had tried many times to comfort her… but no matter what it always seemed like her friend would be stuck having a constant mix of joy and sadness at random times.
"... Hey so you questioned about the strawberry syrup earlier right?" Katie quickly brought up, knowing by now that she had to distract her friend with a different conversation whenever she seemed to get upset.
"... Yeah I did…"
And with that the two had a more… one sided conversation for the next ten minutes. After words Rachel had went back into her room and got dressed. Today she choose to wear a simple white top with a grey sweater vest that had little black diamond designs, black dress pants with a boot cut and a simple pair of white socks. Checking through her closet, and moving a few of her sewing supplies out of the way she found her little black hand bag she had had since she was 13… or at least for what she could remember from that time.
It definitely had that old worn out look to it, with a few stitches here and there from the few times it did break. Katie and a college friend she made named Emily would both tell her constantly that she should think about getting a new one instead of just fixing it and modifying the strap so it would continue to rest at her side… but Rachel never listened.
This was one of the two items that she had left from her past… she didn't want to get rid of either of them, even though the memories behind both of them seemed lost. Just having them with her gave her a sense of calm. Though it was much harder to do with the second item.
Acquired Handbag.
….
After both girls had prepared, Katie now supporting a blue hoodie with a light blue wave like symbol on it over her kitty cat shirt. Rachel would always look on in confusion at it but never really questioned it, thinking of it more as something that wasn't really important. Though the parts she would question were when Katie would stop sometimes on a windy day in the middle of their park walks and playfully wave her arms around in the direction the wind would be blowing.
The only answer she ever got was that she was "Doing the Windy thing" and would then just walk off without her brunette friend to reevaluate why she was her best friend.
"Let's hurry!" Katie grinned as they stepped outside their apartment door, both supporting their own pair of shoes of course. Rachel gave a small smiled "okay" in response to her enthusiastic friend as they hurried down the halls and down the stairs as neither one wanted to deal with elevator traffic.
Rachel's pace was more controlled as she hurried down the steps at least one at a time… Katie on the other hand seemed to be going a little too fast to the point she was skipping a few steps here and there as well as running into a wall at least once.
"... Maybe you should slow down."
"Hell no!"
"But you might-" Katie's foot landed on one of the steps wrong just as Rachel was trying to warn her friend, causing the brunette to fall forward. Thankfully she had caught herself just before her face could hit the landing.
"HOLY SHIT THAT WAS CLOSE!"
I tried to warn you… Rachel thought to herself with a sigh as she stopped next to her friend to help her up.
"You alright?"
"Aside from my racing heart, the hurt ankle and hands? Peachy." Katie sighed while brushing off her pant legs, wincing a little from the pressure put onto her ankle as she stood up.
"Tried to warn you…" Rachel sighed. Katie seemed to grow a large grin on her face after thinking things through for a moment before speaking again.
"Yeah, you really did," the brunette snickered while Rachel just blinked in confusion as to what was so funny.
….
Inside a cozy restaurant two friends sat waiting. One was a young man with bored looking brown eyes, slightly messy black hair, giving it a fluffy look, he had on a rather average looking sweater with the words "I'm surrounded by idiots" printed on the front. He also had a pair of dark blue jeans and brown boots.
The other was another young man, with bright mischievous blue eyes, bright pink hair, freckles running across his face, an expensive looking jacket over a T-shirt that had a band's logo on it, a pair of sweatpants and finally a pair of white converse.
"I still can't believe you actually dyed your hair pink Barry…" the black haired boy commented with a deadpanned look on his face.
"Hey when you lose a bet, you lose a bet."
"The bet was made three years ago!"
"And only now did it become official that I lost Nick."
"Katie probably forgot about it anyways…"
"H-Holy shit! You actually did it!" the voice of Katie laughed as she and Rachel entered the cafe where the two boys were. At her reaction Barry just gave Nick a look while gesturing over to the brunette in a whole "see?" motion.
"... I liked your normal hair better," Rachel commented, remembering Barry's normal red hair. Comparing it to the bright pink it was now seemed to not sit well with the blond.
"Well it'll be back eventually," Barry winked causing Rachel to shake her head with a small smile.
The quartet all sat around at a table and placed their orders before starting to catch up with one another. Nick told them about how tricky his last final was and how he had passed it with a B. Barry had joked about how that was most likely his first time EVER having a B on anything. Nick however retorted.
"Funny if it was your test it would be YOUR first time having a B on anything as well."
Katie couldn't help but cover her mouth while loudly going "OH" behind her hand. Rachel did something similar but pretended to cough into her own hand as a way to cover up the small smile the crossed her face… though the hint of the usual small hint sadness that accompanied her smiles, giving away what she was actually doing.
Desperate to change the subject Barry asked the girls what their finals were like.
"Eh, long, dull and GOD was it stressful for the week," Katie groaned, leaning back in her chair with her head back.
"... I don't remember really…. But I think it was hard," Rachel responded with a slight narrowing of her eyes as she tried to remember what happened nearly two days ago. Her three friends shrugged it off though, being used to this by now. Something seemed to come to Rachel's mind though as she decided to speak up again.
"Barry… have you figured out what you're going to do yet?"
Silence was her only response as both Nick and Katie leaned in to their pink haired friend.
"Come on Barry, it's been a whole year now. Do you even have something in mind yet?" Katie asked, a playful smirk on her face as Barry fidgeted in his seat.
"The girls are both going into fashion and I'm going into Law… surely you've at least got a small idea where you're going."
"Uh… Professional Video Game Streaming?" Barry's friends all stared at him with deadpanned looks.
"... Seriously?" Nick asked quirking a brow.
"... Not unless you get a good following…" Rachel commented with a sigh.
"Trust me, as someone who Streams every Tuesday and does it for fun… it's actually pretty damn hard to get a good following unless you do it for years," Katie informed as she brushed a strand of her hair from her eyes.
The conversation went on like that for about four minutes before Rachel had to excuse herself to the restroom, leaving her three friends alone. As soon as she was gone all three got grim expressions on their faces.
"Hey Barry… how many people have died back home?" Katie asked her arms crossed as if trying to keep herself warm… or rather keep them from shaking from the morbid question she had just asked.
"Since last month… According to my cousin, nine people," the pink haired young man responded, pretty much staring into his cup of water as he answered.
"They still haven't caught this monster…" Nick picked up, seeing Katie pretty much look like she was going to break down crying soon. The black haired boy placed a comforting hand on the brunette's arm and Barry soon scooted his chair over to her side. The pink haired male wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gently began patting as a few tears began at the corners of her eyes.
"God when will this end?" She questioned quietly.
"... Apparently it was supposed to end when you two were thirteen." Both friends glanced over to their Law Student friend, looking for an explanation. "Originally the guy who followed almost the same pattern of indiscriminate killings had been caught six years ago and was executed for his crimes. He was an entire state away from ours and had the same MO of leaving the bodies out near the back alleys, and using a sharp object to slash unconnected people to death…. What's plaguing our state now is more likely than not a copycat killer."
"... Nick… How do you know that?" Barry asked with a confused yet slightly concerned look on his face.
"... There was a report we had to do on previous cases and we got to pick our topic. I chose to look up the Back Alley Murderer." Nick shrugged like it was no big deal, his friend's expressions seemed to say otherwise. Though it was a little after that when their food finally made it to their table, serving as a nice little distraction from the grim topic.
"Sorry I took awhile…" Rachel said as she was just arriving, and noticing the grim looks on her friends faces along with the food at the table. "... What's wrong?"
"Oh… just… discussing the funeral for my Aunt coming up," Katie responded, pulling up a pained smile and the two boys to agree to the lie. Rachel blinked at this and slowly sat down in her seat looking between her best friend and her food.
"Did… we ever talk about it?"
"Two days ago actually… You were there when I got the call after class…" Rachel looked down, almost ashamed that she had forgotten.
"Let's get off this grim topic for now and dig in!" Barry exclaimed, with a big grin on his face as he tried to get everyone's spirits back up… surprisingly it worked.
…
After Lunch the quartet were about to leave when someone called out to them outside of the restaurant. It was a young man with shaggy brown hair, a pair of glasses over his brown eyes, a black zipped up hoodie with a fluffy looking inside, grey sweatpants and a brown messenger bag at his side.
"Yo Eric!" Barry grinned while waving wildly at the oncoming brunette… Katie however seemed to lose whatever joy she had before and send a glare to her fellow brown haired companion when he finally stopped near them.
"Just got out of work…" Eric wheezed, clearly having run the whole way here.
"... could have stayed longer for all I care…" Katie mumbled causing Rachel to glance over to her with a confused look before her attention was snapped by Eric saying her name.
"Ah, sorry," Eric quickly said at noticing her surprised look. "I just… remembered to grab your birthday gift. Sorry I missed it last month."
He held out a nicely wrapped small box. It fit right in the palm of his hand and Nick looked at it suspiciously.
"... Wasn't her birthday two months ago?" Nick pointed out, causing Eric to fidget a bit… but didn't stop Rachel from gently taking the wrapped gift into her own hands.
"Nah Nick, we were all busy then so we had the party last month remember?" Barry laughed, seeming to be much more understanding on the situation then Nick… Katie seemed to also pick it up but frowned as opposed to the grin on the pink haired boy's face.
Rachel seemed to tune out her friends as the three boys all began catching up with each other and Katie seemed to gravitate towards her side as the blonde opened up the gift. Under the wrapping was a small black box, the kind that usually held jewelry in it which Rachel felt a little uncomfortable with as she lifted the lid. Inside was a rather simple looking chain necklace with a not so simple pendant on display with a shiny blue gem centered in the metal work.
Acquired Necklace.
Feeling uncomfortable with the gift, but not wanting to sound rude, Rachel closed the box and placed it into her handbag before addressing Eric.
"... Thanks."
At hearing this Eric seemed to just brighten up considerably but almost deflated a little when he noticed she wasn't wearing the gift. Katie was quick to pick that up and almost instantly got in her fellow brunette's face.
"She just got it. Don't think that every girl is going to wear something they just got, the minute that they get it," Katie growled, causing Rachel to quickly get in front of her to separate the two brunettes, Barry to place a hand on Katie's shoulder and another on her arm and finally Nick to do the same on Katie's other arm. The one who the words had been directed at had backed up with widened eyes at the hostility.
"Katie calm down!" Nick shouted, keeping his grip on his friend but making sure to not hurt her too much.
"Yeah, and he's normally telling me that!" Barry exclaimed, doing the same as Nick… though he was probably holding on a little tighter than Nick was.
Despite this Katie still seemed rather angry… but she at least took a deep breath and calmed herself down after glancing at her three friends. She relaxed enough that the two boys let go and she backed up a little to give them confirmation that she wouldn't do anything.
"... Maybe I shouldn't hang out with you guys today…" Eric sighed. With his head lowered and shoulders slumped he began to walk away until Rachel stopped him by gently grabbing his wrist.
"... We… hardly ever have everyone together. Please stay for the movie at least," Rachel pleaded, she hardly ever got time to hang out with all her friends from her Middle School days. Sure Eric didn't come around till her Junior year in High School, but he was from her old Middle School before her transfer, and sure they weren't friends in Middle School but he was still one of her friends she had for a very long time.
Eric looked Rachel in the eyes for a while before looking to the others, Barry was giving a huge grin, having known the pink haired boy for a while he knew this one was more of a "Sorry about that" grin then anything else. Nick was rubbing the back of his neck, a nervous habit he had, and Katie was avoiding looking at him.
"... Alright, yeah. Let's go," Eric smiled, the small group then began walking with both brunettes as far away from each other as possible. Katie kept shooting glares over to Eric, who seemed to be doing his best to ignore them and the other three friends couldn't help but think just what happened between the two to make Katie this bitter.
What happened after graduation that made them so distant? Rachel thought to herself while taking a single glance to her best friend.
…
The rattling of chains echoed around him. He had gotten used to it over the years, though it still annoyed him… reminding him about how he remained trapped. It was because of that feeling, it pissed him off. It pissed him off so much… but he had tried everything to break them by this point.
With his back leaned up against a wall, he simply stood there… waiting. For what really? Anything, there wasn't much else he could do at this point. He was tense but relaxed, tense enough that he would spring up whenever needed… but relaxed enough to nearly fall asleep.
"... So which movie are we planning on seeing?"
At hearing a voice his head snapped up and an almost feral grin started to form at the corners of his lips. He heard three other voices, the first one and two others being male and the last one being an annoyed female. His grin nearly faded at the amount of people and he nearly started to ignore them… until a second female voice rang out right.
"... Honestly I don't care…"
His head snapped into the direction, seeing the group of five passing by without a care… but his eyes remained on one single person in the group. The girl with blond hair… and the dead blue eyes.
"Come on Rachel, you've gotta have some opinion on a movie."
Everything seemed to slow down for him in just that moment. He didn't register if the one who had spoken was one of the guys or was the only other girl. Everything else seemed to be muted as he stared at the blond… and the dead eyed small smile that crossed her face.
An honest to god smile crossed his own face at seeing it… though naturally for him it came off a little more… dark than a normal person's smile should have been.
"Found you Ray."
….
Rachel stopped and glanced down the alleyway they were passing. The feeling of being watched was strong and a sense that someone had just said her name were both ever present as she stared into the slightly shadowed alley.
But no one was to be seen.
"You alright?" Nick asked, noticing that she stopped sooner than the others did.
"... Yeah." Was her only reply as she took one final glance down the alley before following her friends. The feeling of someone watching her remained strong the entire time she walked away.
….
The small group was now just leaving the theater, each with a disappointed expression on their faces.
"That was not worth the seven bucks…" Eric sighed.
"I'm surprised Barry didn't try finding the manager and punching them to give us a refund like last time," Nick stated, causing the mentioned pink haired boy to just sigh.
"The movie killed any fighting mood I might have had… plus I don't really want to be banned from another theater…"
"That would actually explain the zombie look you had half way through," Katie muttered, feeling slightly ashamed that she had even thought about seeing that stupid movie. The effects weren't even that good.
"... I'm still trying to figure out if the lead was cheating all the way to the end or in an open polygamy…" Rachel brought up. She was never really one to watch romance genre movies but this one honestly just left her more puzzled than anything.
They continued to complain about the movie, this being one of the first times in a long, long while that all of them got along so well… until Eric screamed.
"Er-" Rachel had started until Eric cut her off, freaking out some more.
"Oh God tell me that's not a-"
"Dude chill! What's-" Barry exclaimed while grabbing onto Eric's shoulder to try and calm him down… only to follow the brunettes line of sight and freeze on the spot.
Nick picking up on this rather quickly turned his head to peer down the alleyway. The sun was still out giving him a good enough view of what they were seeing. Nick froze but quickly brought his phone out and dialed a number, leaving both girls out of the loop… till they saw it
A body laid on its back in a large pool of its own blood. The person's mouth was open as if they had been screaming in agony, one arm positioned closer to their body and the other dropped off to the side as if that arm and been trying to reach for something. Katie had covered her mouth at the sight of it while Rachel's eyes widened.
Not just because of the dead body… but because she thought she saw a shadowed figure standing over the body… and then vanish after giving an almost demented looking smile in her direction.