"Maddy!"
Madden Aislinng's stormy blue eyes lit up at the sound of her name, and caught on her cousin Nala who was politely trying to push her way through the crowd. Maddy raised an arm to wave in greeting, and that's where everything went wrong.
From behind her, like a tidal wave, out of the crowd, a dozen men streamed towards the girl, and with a hard, yet somehow discreet, blow to the back of the head, one of them caught the suddenly unconscious Irish-American girl and guarding her body lifted her up and spirited her away into the crowd.
Nala Fuyumi choked on a scream, almost tripping over her own feet. Yet somehow as her world spun to a stand still, none of the other people around her saw what happened. A few men and women in a hurry brushed by her and gave her dirty looks at where she was kneeling on the ground in obvious shock.
From somewhere a few feet next to her, a voice that was like nails on a chalkboard filled her ears.
"Something you should remember Nala Fuyumi, a bugged phone is as easy as being right there with you." Nala's head turned slowly as she dragged her eyes to look at the tall, imposing figure of Officer Tokiya, - the man who had haunted her steps for months and been a silent menace in the shadows - stood several feet away from her. He tipped his hat towards her. "Have a nice day Miss Fuyumi." And he melted into the crowd.
"Nala!?"
The shocked voices of the hosts and Haruhi behind her caused her to turn tear filled green eyes back towards them.
"They took her. They bugged my phone. They-they...took h-her."
The tears were slipping down her face furiously and Kyoya tugged her up from the ground into his arms. The curses of the other hosts were harsh as they protectively herded the girls back into the limo, and Kyoya gave the order to go somewhere they could actually create a decent plan. Music Room #3.
*V*V*V*V*V*V*V*V
"Pull. Rend. Tear. Snap. Pull. Rend. Tear. Snap." The chant whispered through the darkness of a small dank room. It came from a tall, skeletal man who was hunched over a table. On that table, lay a body. "Pull. Rend. Tear. Snap." A sadistic grin slid over the sorcerer's face as he played with Officer Tokiya's body. "Thought you were better than us hm?" The sorcerer bent so it would appear the hollow black pits where his eyes should have been were staring directly into officer Tokiya's wide open and terrified ones. "Pull. Rend. Tear. Snap." His inhuman, bony fingers with their claw like fingernails slid under the skin of Tokiya's body as he muttered the chant slowly, pulling an agonized moan from the man. "You are a fool. A beautiful toy, but a fool." Another claw slid into the body. "You had one simple task officer, yet not only do you fail me, you bring me the wrong girl."
Officer Tokiya couldn't have replied even if he wanted to. His lips had been stitched shut.
The sorcerer's hollowed out eyes slid over to the unconscious crumpled form of a girl on the floor in the corner of the room.
His pets crawled around her, one touched her hair. Hair the color of deep, rich, red, auburn. It flickered and shimmered in the light like a dark liquid fire. Or blood. The sorcerer smiled. Oh yes, this next playtoy would be a fun one to make scream. With her delicate features, and that gorgeous, rich hair, he knew he could expect great things from her. Maybe it was time to forget that other little vixen with her emerald eyes and her chocolate colored hair. However, the thought of her emerald eyes, and a glance at the rich red hair of the girl on the floor caused some semblance of a twisted, sadistic smile slide over the sorcerer's face. Maybe it was time to look into his old research on the melding of human bodies.
*V*V*V*V*V*V*V*
Madden Aisling moaned as she woke up. Her head was throbbing, and her eyes felt like they were caked shut. She could feel the moisture from the dank, wet floor seeping through the fabric of her pants, and the smell of blood and something far worse permeated the air.
Wait, BLOOD!?
Sitting up with a jolt, Maddy nearly rolled back into a ball from the searing pain in her head that was caused by the sudden movement. She finally managed to crack open an eye after valiantly holding in the contents of her stomach. The moment she opened her eyes however, she couldn't have kept the food down even if she wanted to.
Moments later found tears of horror dripping down her face as she vomited violently into the corner. Upon opening her eyes, she had discovered from where the scent of blood and fumes were coming from.
Scant feet from her face, lay the dismembered body of what she would have guessed to once be a human.
It had been torn apart. Although, perhaps torn wasn't the right word. It looked like one of those frog experiments you had to dissect in school for biology. Meticulously cut apart and separated into the correct piles of body parts. Pools of blood covered the floor, and she realized with horror that the wetness seeping through her pants was not water, but the blood of whoever those piles of body parts had once been.
Within seconds she was back to violently dry heaving as she fought down a scream.
She turned to face the wall, keeping the body parts at her back, but that had her fear rising sharply. It was easier to look at them than to let their unseen presence tear at the fragile edges of her sanity.
Face your fears head on. You're already letting time pass by being scared, so you might as well face your fear rather then let the time slide by in which you remain scared rather than face it and win
With a deep breath and a rolling stomach, the girl turned to face the body, gagging as she did so. Not looking directly at it, she observed the room instead. It appeared to be a basement of some sort. Four concrete walls and a door in one. No windows, and a dirt floor. Charts littered the four walls, and on the far wall from the door, the one she had been puking against, stood a tall metal cabinet with some sort of chemical ingredients behind it's glass doors. With shaking legs and averted eyes, Maddy stood and being as careful as possible to step around the body and pools of blood, she went closer for a better look at the charts.
They appeared to be some sort of alchemy charts, and with a whimper, Maddy suddenly realized what she was looking at. Human Alchemy. The study of bonding the human body. The study of creating a human body.
Maddy was almost a hundred percent sure she was going to be sick again. The pile of body parts on the floor, these charts, the ingredients against the wall. She dashed across the room, stumbling as she went, and began to try to tug the door open. However, before her hands touched the handle she had a thought.
This door looks old, which means it will probably creak. If there's someone on the other side i probably want a weapon of some sort to fend them off.
Her stormy blue eyes were drawn to the metal and glass cabinet across the room. With hurried steps and a racing heart, the girl hurried across the room, brushed off old cobwebs and dust, and yanked open one of the cabinet doors.
Sulphuric Acid
Nitric Acid
Muriatic Acid
Bleach
Liquid Ammonia
These and so many more littered the shelves, covered in dust from disuse, but the girl went for the first thing that both looked and sounded deadly.
There appeared to be some sort of homemade acid on the shelf right at her eye level, in a black, metal bottle that probably held about a cup of the stuff. It was labeled 'dissolving acid' with sticky, old red tape that looked like it was peeling off the bottle..
Gingerly reaching a hand in, the girl picked the bottle up and twisting off the cap, she let a tiny drop fall out of the bottle to the ground.
It hit the ground with a spark and a small poof of smoke.
Stomach rolling, because she really didn't want to hurt anyone, but she didn't want to end up like the body on the floor, she left the lid loose so it could be easily pulled off. If it was what it came down to, she'd defend herself. With that resolve in mind, the girl scooped up that bottle, and headed for the door.
As she gently tested the door handle, she was surprised to find it unlocked. Slowly swinging the door open, she was shocked and horrified to see a set of stairs that led down into pitch blackness. Before she could have even thought about stepping foot out of the door onto those stairs, a long, drawn out wail drifted up them, and there was the heavy thud and scrape of booted feet that began to echo up the steps in a steady momentum. She almost slammed the door shut, but at the last second closed it quietly.
Obviously, that isn't the way out...which means, there has to be a second way out!
Eyes scanning the room, the girl caught her breath on a sob. She didn't see a second way out.
Unless….wait! There!
Maddy's eyes lit up as she stared at the faint outline of a trapdoor on the ceiling.
Like any movie ever….classic.
However, she could hear the slow, heavy, footsteps coming up the stairs, and to reach the string dangling from the trap door she had to clamber up onto a very slick, blood covered table. Horror shivered up her spine, but, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
"Bloody hell."
She snorted at the ironic phrase, she couldn't help it. her natural sense of sarcasm coming to play. It was either laugh or cry in that moment, and crying meant defeat, so...laughing it was.
With those whispered words, she stepped forward and shoved herself up onto the table.
She was only just barely able to reach to string. It had obviously been designed for someone much taller to pull it down. When she got the trapdoor open, a rope ladder dropped onto her face, and she almost fell off the table in shock at the sudden attack from the piece of rope. As she put her foot on the bottom rung, the entire thing swung, making her stomach go queasy. She could feel the matted blood in her hair and knew not all of it was from that...thing on the basement floor. Whatever had happened that had gotten her here had resulted in some sort of head injury for her.
Pulling herself up another rung, she moved slowly till the top half of her body was out of the trap door and she found herself in an...Alley? Confusion swamped her. What weird place had trapdoors that let into alleyways? Apparently wherever I am. As she began pulling herself up however, there was a creaking noise and the door across the room swung open. Maddy didn't turn to look, just scrambled up the ladder as fast as possibly, and slammed the trap door shut behind her. Before she had even taken a step forward though, it swung open and a clawed hand grabbed her ankle as some sort of halloween horror face appeared at the trap door opening.
Reacting on instinct, she let out a ear piercing shriek, and popping the lid off the bottle she held with quick, jerky movements, dumped the entire bottle of dissolving acid on the creature's face.
It let go of her with a roar that had the ground shaking, and her sprinting off like an olympian runner.
How had she ended up here?
Where exactly was here?
The last thing Maddy remembered was the train station, seeing a glimpse of green eyes and... NALA! That was right! She was in Japan! She has been at the station to meet her cousin for the first time again in years. She'd seen Nala through the crowd and started waving.
Maddy would have been shaking her head in annoyance at her foolishness if her head wasn't throbbing so badly, and she wasn't running for her life.
How could she have been so stupid?
Something hasn't been right when Nala had sprinted forward with fear in her eyes and Maddy's name a scream on her lips.
Her cousin's fear was made obvious as she thought back to the body she'd woken up next to, and what Kyoya and Nala had told her of the situation her cousin was stuck in.
Forcing the bile down, Maddy pushed the emotions of fear out of her heart with a firm hand. She could focus on her own fear and pain later. For now? For now she had to get to her cousin, and to the police to report all she had seen and been part in since her arrival.
*V*V*V*V*V*V*V*
As Madden Aisling ran down a street like the hounds of hell were chasing her, a thought came to mind that completely made her revise her original plan
Wait I can't go to the police! Who's gonna believe me when I say a demon from Insidious kidnapped me and held me in his lair with dismembered body parts under the city?
Cursing as she ran down the street, Maddy made a fast change of plans, and stepping onto the sidewalk, headed for the first couple of people she saw.
"Excuse m-"
She didn't even get to finish her first words as one of the woman looked at her, gasped and fainted and the men began shouting at her in angry fear. With a look down at herself Maddy let out her own strangled gasp. She was covered on blood, no wonder the woman had fainted. It looked like she'd rolled around in a murder scene before deciding to take a casual stroll down the street.
Not very far off from what actually happened….
"Wait wait! It's paint! It's paint!"
The men in the group backed away a little rather than crowding her but still did their best to look intimidating to the little American-Irish teen.
"I, um," It took Maddy a moment to find the wording in Japanese and she winced, it had been far too long since she had had to speak it fluently. Finally finding the phrase, she began again, "I'm sorry, i didn't mean to startle you, I'm a tourist, an I got paint spilled all over meh by these hooligans. I was wonderin' if any of you had a phone i could borrow to call my cousin to come get me?"
Maddy tried hard to cover her irish accent, but it was hard, especially since she'd been staying with her family in Ireland for a few weeks before traveling here so it was stronger than normal. The men looked skeptical, but another woman, an elderly, grandmotherly type, stepped forward with a smile.
"Of course, pardon our rudeness, your appearance startled us greatly. Here, use mine to call your family, again, our apologies."
With a bow, the old woman handed her phone over to Maddy before stepping back to the group. Maddy eyed the phone warily for a moment, wondering how the woman could be so kind so suddenly.
Gah stop being suspicious of everything, just because you got kidnapped by the ghost of something from Fullmetal Alchemist doesn't mean you can be threatened by a woman with a phone and a kind smile.
Mentally shaking herself, Maddy flipped open the phone and dialed the number she had memorized by heart months ago. It rang a few times before someone picked up.
"Hello?"
Nala's familiar voice broke whatever spell seemed to be over Maddy, and she began to shake as the adrenalin let her body.
"Nala, it's Maddy."
"HOLY CRAP ARE YOU OK!? WHERE ARE YOU!? WE"VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU SINCE LAST NIGHT!?"
Wincing and holding the phone a little away from her ear at the volume her cousin was shouting at, Maddy quickly tried to shush her, and switched to English so less people would be able to understand her if they overheard her speaking. She took a seat in a chair and tried g to play off her shaking legs like she was just antsy and hadn't just spilled acid all over a monster's face.
"Nala be quiet I'm in a public place, I escaped the skeleton version o' Jack the Ripper and made it too some sort of downtown shopping area, I doona- don't, don't remember where I am it's been too long since I've been here. I'm at some Japanese version of Starbucks, but I don't know my exact location."
Her voice was shaking as she spoke, her accent leaking into it stronger than she liked it to be, and her whole body was trembling. With a forced smile as some people walked by with non-subtle stares at the girl sitting in blood drenched clothes in a cafe chair Maddy spoke again.
"I ha' to give the phone back to the woman I borrowed it from, but please hurry Nala 'm freakin' out. I don't know what you got mixed up in but I'm really scared right now and I look like I just rolled out of a horror movie murder scene and I'm drenched in blood and a whole lot of things I don't want to think about right now."
Even though her voice was hushed, Maddy looked around herself quickly as she spoke to make sure no one was listening in. Nala's voice was serious as she spoke.
"Yeah, I have some friends in the area since there are only two of those cafes that I know of and judging by how busy it sounds you're at the downtown one." Nala's voice was muffled as she spoke to someone on the other end of the line, but she was back in a second. "Ok Honey and Mori are on their way to get you, hang tight ok? Look for a guy who looks like a grade schooler with a tall, dark, and silent guy ok?"
Nodding, and then realizing Nala couldn't see her, Maddy spoke into the phone.
"Got it, I'll see yeh soon."
With those words, she hung up and sagged into the chair for a moment.
"Are you all set?"
Blinking as she found the kind, old woman next to her suddenly, Maddy smiled and nodded.
"Yes thank yeh, my cousin is coming for meh and should be here soon. I'm really sorry for the sudden appearance."
The woman laughed, showing off very white teeth.
"Of course, i had something similar happen once when I was visiting family in Tokyo so I completely understand. It's scary being a tourist who is lost and alone in a big city." Nodding in confirmation of the woman's words, Maddy waited for her to walk away, but the other woman hesitated before going to sit in the chair across the small cafe table. "Tell me if you don't mind, I'm curious about your accent. You speak Japanese well for a tourist, but you do not sound American to me."
With an internal sigh, Maddy forced herself to sit up straight and speak.
She was kind enough to help meh, the least I can do is be polite back.
So, with that in mind, Maddy began speaking.
"No no it's ok. I'm actually Irish, but I lived here for a few years before I moved to America, and now I'm back here for work and to visit family."
"Oh my." The old woman looked surprised. "You have traveled a great deal for one so young."
Maddy shrugged.
"I didn't have a choice, i go where my parents go neh? I was lucky enough to land a job that is goin'ta be based out of Ouran so I'm staying with family until I can get up on my own two feet."
Before the woman could say anything else, there was a the sound of an engine and a limo pulled into a reserved for customers only parking spot. The back door opened even as it was just parking, and a tall teenager stepped out of it, before assisting a small blond child out of it.
Not a child, make that a young man.
It was true, even from the distance she was at, she could see the serious set of both young men's faces and the way their eyes were quickly looking over people at the cafe before settling on her.
"Ah, if you'll excuse meh, my cousin ha' arrived I should be going."
With a polite bow to the woman, Maddy stood up, and shakily began walking towards the limo as it's two occupants watched her come with wary eyes.
"'ello, Nala's friends right?"
The blond nodded his head, and spoke.
"And you must be Nal-chan's cousin Maddy!" He gave her a beaming smile and gestured for her to enter the car. "It's too bad we're meeting like this, Nal-chan has told us such nice stories of you and then this happened on your first night back." He shook his head in disgust. "Kyo-chan is gonna find these guys don't worry, let's just get you back safe!"
So saying, he gestured towards the car again for her to enter, and with one last glance down the street, Maddy did just that.
**Author's Note**
Hey friends! I'm back with Nala, Maddy and the gang! Thanks for being patient during the absence I wanted to write the first few chapters of the story first before publishing it to give me a base to work from.
To those of you who are new, welcome too my story Cats' Prey the sequel to my story cat's eyes. It doesn't have to be read first but it may help clear some things up for you storyline wise.
Thank you everyone! You're all wonderful people ~ Lollicatt