Hello! Rin again! I wrote another horror fic because I have absolutely no life. But hey! I finally wrote something that isn't painfully shippy! I should mention now that there are major transphobia and rape triggers ahead. I don't own Bleach or any of Kubo's characters. If I did, do you really think HitsuKarin would be a crack ship?
It was a creepy, creaky old house, decrepit and warped and slightly crooked if you squinted at it the right way. It reflected years past; the three-story mansion was stacked with smooth, slate-colored bricks, the shingles of the roof the color of storm clouds and a steep spire reaching towards the sky. Ivy climbed up the rotunda expansion on the right side, and the entrance to the garden was off to the left, cut off by gothic iron fencing. There was a circular window in the spire, wooden supports cutting it into six slices. Two columns supported a stone awning over the ornate, chocolate-stained doors. A small porch was contained with wood railings, steps leading up to it. The skinny springline windows were framed with carved mouldings, the grill and frame the same color as the railing and door. The inside was lined with gaudy floral wallpaper and brown paneling and the wood floorings were the same chocolate stain, the slats situated as such that reminded many of a jagged, toothy maw. It was grand in its heyday, a testament to the wealth of those olden days, but that was decades ago. Now the lawn and garden was a mess of overgrown weeds and dead flowers and the ivy was little more than shriveled, bald vines. It's door was hanging off the bottom hinge, revealing the dusty, littered insides all the way back to the stripped kitchen. The wallpaper was peeling and the paint was chipping and staining was fading and the walls had holes kicked through them, revealing bits of the broken wooden skeleton, and mold grew in dark spots along the ceiling and corners of rooms. The porch was a mess of broken junk; old washbasins and an antique fridge, a washer and dryer and broken chairs and broken crates with junk spilling out of them. Windows had holes broken through them and shingles were missing and the floors were twisted from years of water damage. The sidewalk was crooked and uplifted in several places, weeds blooming from the cracks, and the small set of stairs to the warped porch was long destroyed by nature.
Sixteen-year-old Karin stood at the head of the ownerless property, staring at the eerie mansion, and it seemed to stare back at her with the window in the spire as its cyclopean eye. Her weight rested on one leg, hip jutting out and fist akimbo. Her sable hair was tied into a high ponytail on her head, waving all the way down to the small of her back. Two pieces framed her long face, ending just level with the tail of her sternum. She wore tawny shorts and a black tank top, the latter hugging the surprisingly mature figure that she inherited from her late mother; a bulbous chest, ribs that tapered into an hourglass-shaped waist, and round hips. She wore small, plain ankle socks and converse that were filthy from years of playing soccer wearing them. Despite her lack of height, she carried herself with authority; shoulders squared and spine straight and her lips set in a firm, unamused line. Sharp, silver eyes gazed indifferently upon the huge mansion, narrowed with boredom, and maybe suspicion deep down in the depths of her subconscious. They scrolled to the side, her gaze resting on the group of boys accompanying her.
"This is a waste of my time, isn't it." She stated. "I don't think this is very fun. Why are we here? If you guys are just shitting around just to get me in trouble, I'm leaving."
"Dude, don't be so stiff." Her classmate said, scratching the back of his neck. "It's just for shits and giggles. Go into the bathroom on the second floor, say 'kill the bitch' three times in the mirror, and if nothing happens, come back out and we'll each give you ten bucks."
Her fine eyebrow twitched. "You're not very good at planning, are you? It has too many holes in it for it to actually work. I could go behind a wall, just not do it, come back out after a few minutes, and cheat you guys out of seventy bucks." She said.
"What, ya scared, Karin?" Another boy sneered at her.
"No, but you gentlemen are clearly stupid. Watch, I'll return in under ten minutes perfectly fine. If I'm not back within that time, you win, and if I'm still not out within half an hour, call for my brother." She said, sauntering up the cracked sidewalk.
"Hope you come back alive, Karin!" A shorter boy called cheerfully, and she flipped him the finger.
Light filtered through the filthy windows, illuminating the empty house and the dust motes floating about in the air. Karin looked around the first floor, finding a staircase in the kitchen. She stepped up it, leaving striped footprints in the thick dust coating it and the wood complaining under her with each step. She emerged in the second floor, equally as dusty as the first. To her right were two rooms on opposite ends of the hall, both doors closed, and to her left was a longer hallway with three doors visible until it curved at a one hundred twenty degree angle. She stepped to the right first.
She opened the door on the right first, twisting the dusty brass knob in her hand and wiping it on her shorts as she checked the room. It was empty, but far less dusty. The room across from it was the same, gutted and much cleaner than the hall.
She walked into the room, staring at the peeling window sill. The carcasses of flies were piled high on top of one another in a dark mass, uncountable, almost spilling onto the floor, and it was unnaturally cold in the room and a metallic smell permeated the air. The previous room wasn't nearly so frigid, nor as caustic.
She curled her lip. "Ew," she whispered, rubbing her arms. She turned on her heel and exited the room, shutting the door behind her. She turned in the hall, and stopped. She felt… off, suddenly. As if someone was watching her, focusing right on the back of her head. She turned her torso to the side, looking down the stairs and at the doors that she just exited. She scowled. Didn't she just shut that door, she thought.
She closed the door again and walked down the hall, the floor creaking underneath her sneakers. She checked the first three visible doors, finding similar to what she found in the room she dubbed Fly Room in the second room, flies in the window sill and a metallic smell permeating the freezing air. She opened door three, and whipped around, registering footsteps from behind her. But there was nobody there. Fly Room's door was open again, though. Faulty knob, she concluded. It was an old house— her father said it was built in the early nineteen hundreds, more than a hundred years previous by then.
"Guys, I don't find this even kind of funny or cute. It's quite pathetic. What? Do you get off on trying to scare people with your cheesy Hollywood tactics? Come on out, and I promise not to break your necks." She waited in silence before rolling her eyes. "I mean it. If I find any of you first, I will break bone."
She turned the corner, and the hall continued forward before making a sharp right, sunlight filtering through the window facing her that illuminated the walls and dust motes floating about. There was a door to the left, and she opened it, revealing a small bathroom, a porcelain toilet to the right, and a square sink behind the door. Karin grinned to herself. Finally, she'd get that stupid bet over with, collect an easy seventy bucks, and be home before dinner.
She closed the door behind her, facing the mirror in the darkness. She couldn't make out her reflection because of it, so she felt along the mirror with the pads of her fingertips. She felt along the crack that ran diagonally up the surface, and she cussed as she pricked her finger on a jagged bit. She braced herself on the (surprisingly) clean sink, staring into the darkness that shrouded the mirror.
"Kill the bitch, kill the bitch, kill the bitch." She whispered flatly. She waited for a solid minute before rolling her eyes and turning around.
There was a girl, somehow a iridescent in the darkness. She was a little taller than she was, clad in a white dress that curved with her lithe figure and billowing sleeves that covered down to her dainty palms and wore black leggings over her slender legs. Raven hair fell down to the small of her back, straight bangs hanging over her forehead and two pieces sticking up in a way that reminded Karin of antennae. She could see purple bruising along her windpipe, and she scowled. What the hell?
"You called?" The girl smiled, and her hand shot out, grabbing Karin around her throat and throwing her against the door. The girl held her there, her grip crushing her trachea, and Karin clawed at her hands and kicked her shins.
The girl laughed. "Oh, quit bitching. You asked for it." She sneered, slamming her against door again, and stars burst in her vision. "Isn't that funny? That's what he said to me. Right after he and his friends raped me!"
Her fist connected with Karin's temple, and she gagged.
"What? Can't take it? How pathetic!" The girl threw Karin to the floor and kicked her skull with the toe of her boot. She struggled to keep her eyes open, the pain her head was in almost too much to handle. The girl swung her leg into her stomach, and she heaved, spitting up half-digested popcorn and Cola she had before her 'friends' pulled her out of her house. The girl laughed as she wiped her boot on her shorts. She picked Karin up again, slammed her against the wall and shook her by her neck. "Serves you right! He said that to me too. Well, now it serves you righ-"
Karin was pulled through the door- literally pulled through solid wood- and emerged on the outside, gasping and gagging. She was pulled by her wrist and around the corner, running with whoever the hell saved-slash-did-some-freaky-ass-shit-to-her. She looked at the back of their head; unkempt hair the color of snow. They wore denim jeans and a varsity jacket, Hitsugaya embroidered across their shoulders in white against the black base and blue sleeves hiding their arms. They turned another corner, Karin's shoulder slamming into it, and she winced. They threw her into an empty room and locked it behind them.
She sunk down to the floor, breathing heavily. Her head hurt like hell, and her ears were ringing like a bitch. "Who the hell was that?" She gasped, looking the boy up and down. She could see a green and white striped shirt tucked into his jeans through his jacket, and he had pretty jade eyes and a square jaw. His cheek was swollen and purple, and his lip was split, and she could see bruising along his neck, but despite that, he was handsome. If she wasn't so fucked up, she'd find him hot. "And who the hell are you?"
He ran a tanned hand through his hair and licked his lips. "I'm Toushirou. Toushirou Hitsugaya. And the person you were nearly killed by was Giselle."
She furrowed her brows. "Forty years? You barely look fifteen." Hey, wasn't that her high school's old seventies mascot sewn on his breast pocket? A dolphin? She heard they changed it in the early eighties to the banshee.
He looked at her in alarm. "You haven't realized?" He said. "I'm a ghost, and so is Giselle. There are lots of ghosts here. Eight, including me, not counting the demon Szayelaporro. All of us were killed here, except Szayelaporro. Giselle was murdered here, and then murdered me, Bazz, Cang, Jugram, and Gremmy here the same year, and then she killed Yukio here in the late eighties, and then Grimmjow in the nineties. You see, if you die in here, you're stuck here as a spirit. We can't pass on or any of that bullshit, we're trapped, including Giselle." He focused on her. "And I won't let that happen to you, I promise."
She blinked, and her eyes widened. "Are you sure that Giselle girl can't get through that door? Wait, and how do I know this all isn't some elaborate dream?"
"I'm the only one out of us who can phase, so no. Szayelaporro can teleport around the house, but he can only do it himself and he's more of a nuisance than anything else. And, uh," He stuck his arm through her shoulder, and she could almost feel it— their beings mixing and mingling, chilling her shoulder right down to the bone. "This is real."
She shook her head, her ears still ringing. "I think I have a concussion." She announced. "But just a little one. My ears are ringing, and my head hurts like hell." She felt around her skull and felt a stiff goose egg on the back of her cranium from being slammed against the door. "Yeah, definitely got a concussion from that."
"Hopefully she didn't break anything. She has a habit of that, broke a couple of Yukio's ribs before killing him."
She spat on the floor, scrunching her face. Popcorn didn't taste nearly as good the second time around, she thought. "How long do we have to wait here? I kind of want to just get the hell out."
"We can go right now. We're right above the front entrance. I can just drop you through the floor and you'll be right on your way. We can't leave this house, Szayelaporro and Giselle included, so you're in no danger as soon as you leave."
She sighed in relief. "Yes please, I'd like to get to the hospital and brush my teeth."
"I hear you. I haven't been able to brush my teeth since the seventies." He laughed as he pulled her up. He held her hands in his calloused palms, and she watched as they sunk through the floor like it was quicksand instead of wood. They dropped in front of the door, Karin wincing as she rolled her ankle, and she shook it out.
"Thank you," she said. "And, uh, I hope you find peace."
Toushirou smiled softly at her. "Thanks,"
"And break that mirror for me." She grinned at him.
"We'll try-" He scowled. "I didn't ask your name. How rude of me."
"It's Karin,"
He smiled at her. "We'll try and break that mirror, okay Karin? Try and do your part too, get this building condemned. I don't want anyone else facing the possibility of death either."
"Will do."
She turned into the doorway, and bounced right off air. She blinked in astonishment and tried again, and she was pushed back yet again.
"What're you waiting for? Get out of here." He said. She slammed her side against it, and violently bounced off. She backpedaled, her silver eyes the size of saucers. She ran towards it again, banging her fist against the bouncy, almost gelatinous air.
"Guys," She shouted to her friends outside, mulling about on their phones and talking. "Guys!" She screamed. "Guys I'm here! Look at me! Guys,"
"What, did Giselle actually kill you?" Toushirou inquired from behind her. She whipped around, thrusting her fist out.
"No! Ch-check my pulse, and you'll see. I-I'm alive!" She stammered, trembling in her panic.
His fingers felt around her wrist, and his jade eyes widened. "Holy shit," he cussed. "Why the hell can't you exit then?"
"Because nobody can leave without my say-so." The girl from the bathroom appeared from the kitchen, swinging her hips as she sauntered over and her nails scraping against the peeling wallpaper and the light through the windows passing through her almost translucent body. "Your friends also can't see you, thanks to Szayelaporro's barrier. She's as stuck here as any of us. Will be for a long time." The girl- Giselle sneered widely at them.
She felt faint. She was going to die and be stuck there for eternity with some crazy, psychopathic bitch and all because she accepted some stupid fucking dare!
"Oh Jesus," she whispered faintly.
Giselle laughed. "Oh Jesus, oh Jesus, oh Jesus, please God, help me! Help me God! What did I do to deserve this? Cry all you want, honey, but God isn't here anymore. Believe me, I've got first hand experience in the matter." She stared at Karin through her lashes. "No, God isn't here. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't even real. But demons are. Do you know how? They're born of human suffering and hate. That's how I got Szayelaporro. I am hateful, and I've suffered, and therefore I'm powerful. More powerful than anybody else." Her slate orbs scrolled over to Toushirou, and he quickly averted his eyes. She flung her hand out to the side, and sent the boy flying into the large window facing the garden. Karin gasped and he cried out in pain. Giselle took a step forward, focusing on her. She backed into the forcefield, and bounced off of it. She was right in front of her, smiling widely and looking at her through her eyelashes.
"Ready to die, honey? Ready to be stuck in a body you don't feel right in? Ready to feel pain and hopelessness like you've never felt before?" She cackled.
Karin screamed and was quickly silenced by the homicidal spirit by a hand around her throat. She forced her to the ground, the ghost straddling her hips. "Do you know what they did to me? They took turns. Upstairs, in the room on the right to the stairs with all the flies in the window. Four of 'em. Took turns. Said that any girl would want to fuck them. Right up the ass, all four of them! And they had the fucking audacity to call me a fag. They were the fucking faggots! They were asking for it! And that other room? That's where he strangled me to death. So I killed them, all of them. They deserved it. "
Giselle flew off of her and hit the ceiling, dust flying off of it.
"Run,"
Karin was pulled to her feet and nearly dragged up the stairs. She looked at the new person; a blond kid in a dark trench coat and heavy boots with their trousers tucked in. She looked backwards, and saw that Toushirou was running right behind them.
"'Shirou, phase us through that wall!" The new spirit shouted firmly.
She whipped around, staring at the blond as they stopped at a dead end.
"This is my last phase, Yukio. The hell I'm using-"
"Do it anyway!"
Toushirou cursed and shoved the three of them through the wall and into a spacious room. The blond hurried and locked the door, and sunk to the ground.
"Jesus fucking Christ," they heaved, and Karin and Toushirou sunk to the floor as well.
She looked around. It was a spacious area, fairly clean and furnitured. There was a gaudy floral couch against the wall and a hideous rug in the center, a coffee table on top of it and a few older board games and card games on the surface. There were four blankets and a long, flat body pillow folded in the corner. It was plain in terms of decorations.
"Wh-where are we?" She panted.
"My room." The blond said, pushing back his unruly bangs. He was handsome as well, she thought. Grass-green eyes and long lashes and mussed, golden hair. He had similar bruising as Toushirou and likely herself by then along his neck.
"And you are?" She inquired.
"Yukio," he stood and sauntered to the couch. He flopped across it's dimpled cushions and moaned. "I'm never doing that again. I had to force through, like, four doors to get to you guys. I'm exhausted. Fucking bitch never lets up."
"I hear that." Toushirou moaned and sat next to him. Karin looked at the two boys in confusion.
"Our powers have limits. I can only use my phasing ability four times a day, and Yukio's kinesis or whatever the hell he calls it only works five times before it starts draining his energy. If we run out of energy," he pulled back his sleeve, revealing a transparent spot on his arm, and she gasped, "we disappear for a little while and it's a little unsettling. To restore our energy and keep our forms, we need to sleep. So we would really, really appreciate it if you were to be quiet for half an hour. Afterwards, we'll try to find a way to get you out of here."
Karin nodded. She stood, pulled two blankets from the pile in the corner, and threw them over the two boys. They stared at her in confusion.
"Stop looking at me like that and go to sleep. It'll suck if you disappear on me." She smiled tenderly at them, and the two boys nodded before leaning back and closing their eyes.
The teen sat in the corner, pulling her knees up to her bosom. She laid her chin on them and sighed softly.
"Oh, and make sure not to fall asleep. Giselle can't phase, but she can force through things like I can. She might break down the door, and we don't want to be caught off guard. Feel free to use any of the games we have to keep yourself occupied. If you need to sleep, sleep after we wake up." Yukio said.
"Right, thanks." She shouldn't sleep anyway, she thought, not with a concussion.
The teen scooted over to the table, picking up a deck of poker cards and situating a game of solitaire on the floor, and she quietly thanked her father for those camping trips in which the only thing they would do was play card games. She still had a sport themed deck in her room from when she was thirteen.
She wondered how long she had been in the house. Longer than ten minutes, for sure. Damn, that meant she lost the bet to that pretentious bastard, she thought. But how much longer until the thirty minute mark? She didn't want to worry her family.
Tears brimmed her eyes. What if she died? She'd be stuck there forever, never able to say goodbye to her family. She'd end up as a missing person forever, become a cold case in five years because there just wouldn't be any evidence. She would be stuck there with some psychopathic bitch and a bunch of ghosts and she'd never be able to see anyone she loved ever again or play soccer or find a nice girlfriend or boyfriend to settle down with or see her brother get married to his girlfriend or see Yuzu find her soulmate and she'd never go to college and become a physical therapist and she'd be fucking stagnant for god knew how long.
She sniffed quietly, careful not to make too much noise, staring at the cards below her as she trembled, holding back tears.
"Awww, the poor girl's crying." She heard behind her. She turned her head, and her eyes widened. A man stood near the door, his bubblegum pink hair grown down to his shoulders and ivory glasses magnifying his golden eyes and purple makeup dripping from his left eye. He wore a white, vertically striped dress that swept along his ankles, and fleshy wings were folded behind him.
Karin scrambled away, sending the cards flying about. She opened her mouth to scream, and the man appeared right in front of her, shutting her jaw with ease and touching a pale finger over her lips.
"Quiet now. We can't wake the boys, now can we?" He smiled at her, and she felt her knees tremble as if they were made of silly putty. "I am Szayelaporro, but you can just call me Szayel." His hand fell to his side. Oh shit, she thought. He chuckled. "Yes, Karin, I am the demon that Giselle summoned. Szayelaporro, The Lewd Concubine, demon of transformation and rebirth." He curtsied to her, and she stared in fear. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I'm not here to kill you, Karin. How about we sit down, have a nice chat for a little while? There's still fifteen minutes until the bet's over." He smiled warmly.
The two sat on the floor, the teen cross-legged and clammy. Szayelaporro pulled the cards together, shuffling the deck.
"A-are you here to hurt Toushirou and Yukio?" She asked.
"No, no," he waved it off with a chortle. "I'm not here to hurt anyone. I just want to talk." He purred. "Toushirou's been awfully vague about my master though, hasn't he? Poor, poor Giselle. And after all he did to her… The poor girl."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean?"
"Toushirou's a bad, bad person, Karin. He did a lot of bad things in life."
"You didn't answer my question." Ballsy to talk to a demon that way, she thought.
"Ballsy indeed, Karin. You're a very brave girl. You shoulder everything all by your little lonesome self. You haven't cried since your mother died, have you? You haven't even cried today, even facing imminent death. I wonder why." He finished shuffling the deck. He flipped the first card over, setting it face up on the floor. "Ace of spades," he announced. "You've faced misfortune in your life, specifically death. I'm assuming this means your mother's death. She drowned, didn't she? Yes, in the river when you were five while she was walking your brother home. You poor thing. You blamed him for years and years— you still do, deep down. You hate your brother for taking away the most precious thing in your life. But at least he's smart. You? You don't see yourself as smart, or talented, or strong. So you bury your feelings under that cold, sarcastic facade so you don't feel like a burden." He smiled up at her, and she glared at him.
"I would appreciate it if you didn't read my mind." She said firmly.
"No can-do." He replied. "You see, this is what I do." He flipped over the next card. "Ten of hearts. Good luck, fortune. School has been going well for you, hasn't it? Straight A's, a four-point-oh. You're also the star soccer player at your school. But that isn't luck, is it? You worked your ass off for all of that, didn't you? Your talent and smarts were sculpted over the years through your grief. You still grieve, don't you? For your mother? Oh, wait! You still haven't told your family about Hiyori! You grieve because of that too. You're afraid that they won't love you anymore because you're in love with a girl." He smiled at her. "Poor Giselle felt the same way to when she was alive. Hard-working, making her way through life the best she could, afraid of what her dad would think of her if he found out her secret... Poor, poor Giselle."
"Answer my question." She demanded firmly.
"Patience, young one. One more card to go." He chuckled, flipping over the final card. He gasped theatrically. "Oh, my! The queen of clubs! My, we can't say what this means, now can we? Spoilers," he winked at her, and she shivered.
"Will you answer my question now? Why do you pity Giselle?"
The demon sighed, propping his cheek on his palm. "Poor Giselle was a trans girl in the seventies. Those were dark times for those sorts of people. She was lured here by Toushirou,
and then he stood back and watched as four of his friends took turns raping her before the ringleader strangled her to death. Poor, poor Giselle…" He sighed sorrowfully.
"I don't believe you." Karin said. "You're a demon. It's your job to lie."
"I wasn't lying with the playing cards, now was I? Why would I be lying now?"
She glared at him.
"If you want to see Giselle's memories as confirmation, I'd be happy to show you them. It doesn't hurt, I promise." He smiled widely.
She nodded, and he leaned forward, shutting her eyelids with his fingers.
XXX
She checked herself in the full-length mirror, turning her body around and craning her neck to see her back. She picked a strand of sable hair from her butt and let it float to the floor. She smoothed her bangs and pulled the hem of her dress down her thighs and adjusted her leggings. She smiled to herself in the mirror. Flawless, absolutely flawless. Her stuffing was even and her hair was so smooth and silky and her stomach was flat, flat, flat as could be. She had gotten good.
"You're gorgeous." She said, grinning. She skipped out of her room and down the stairs, kissing her mother on the cheek as she came to the bottom step.
"My, you look gorgeous." Her mother beamed. "I'm sure Daddy thinks so too."
"Oh please, mother. He still thinks I'm George." Giselle giggled. "But yes, I am absolutely stunning!"
"You're going to knock Toushirou right out of the park, honey. He's going to see you and he's going to think, 'how did I never notice this gorgeous woman before?', I can assure you."
Giselle hugged her mother. "I'm going now." She said.
"Good luck, honey!"
The teen skipped out of the door, her bag bouncing against her hips. She stopped, remembering that skipping might mess up her hair, and she calmly walked while smoothing it out. She blushed to herself as she smiled. Toushirou, the boy she had always liked… no, loved, had finally noticed her. And all she had to do was wear one of her mother's dresses and a pair of heels and let her hair down and his jaw practically dropped to the floor. He even asked her out after school!
She came to the meeting spot in front of their high school and found him, hands tucked into his varsity jacket and looking about the horizon. She ran up to him and smiled.
"Hi, Toushirou," She greeted. He turned to her, and smiled softly.
"Hey, Geor-... Giselle." He said. "You look nice today."
She giggled bashfully. "Thank you. It means a lot."
He offered her his arm and she looped hers through it, and they walked together.
"So, where are we going?" She asked him.
"I-it's a surprise." He responded, and she giggled to herself. Men were cute when they were nervous. "So, uh, what brought your change on, Geor- Giselle?"
"Nothing," she shrugged. "I've always been Giselle, I'm just known as George."
"R-right." He said, adjusting the collar of his shirt. "A-are you sure you want to do this tonight? It looks like it's going to rain."
She looked up at the sky and raised her eyebrows. "No it doesn't."
"M-maybe it' just my imagination." He laughed awkwardly.
"Yeah…" She looked at him weird, before giggling. "You're so cute, Toushirou!"
"Thanks…"
He led her to the weedy front lawn of an old, decrepit, slate-bricked home, and as he lead her up the walk to the porch, she pulled her arm from his.
"You brought me here? To an abandoned, old home? On our first date?" She said flatly, and he sheepishly nodded.
"I-it's almost Halloween, and my friends are throwing a party in there. There's food and booze and I'm pretty sure Gremmy brought some pot with him, and I know there's some games going on."
She smiled teasingly. "You had me at booze. Let's go!" She dragged him by his arm into the old home, and he lead her upstairs. He opened the door for her, and as she walked in, she drew her eyebrows together.
"There's no-" She felt a hand clap over her mouth, and she screamed into it, thrashing about and clawing at the hand on her mouth and the arm around her waist.
"Nice job, Toushirou! Brought him right to us." She heard, and tears welled in her eyes. Toushirou lured her there? Oh god, what were they going to do to her!?
"Okay, yeah, I did. Now how about we let him go? I think we've scared him enough, Jugram."
"No way, man. We've got to teach him a lesson."
Her captor, Jugram, threw her to the floor. She saw three other teens behind him, boys she recognized from school, all players from the football team. Jugram Haschwalth, Cang Du, Bazz… Something-Or-Other, and Gremmy Thoumeaux. Toushirou was still in the doorway, fists jammed in his pockets.
Giselle flew to her feet and stepped backwards, holding her dainty hands in front of her.
"Okay, haha, guys. You've scared me shitless." She laughed humorlessly. "How about we cut this shit out and do something that's actually fun?"
"But George," Jugram said, and Giselle glared at him. "This is fun."
He grabbed her arm and she tore it away and kicked his shin. "It's Giselle, you piece of shit-" She was grabbed from behind by Bazz, her arms bent behind her, and she cried out as she was pulled to the floor. Jugram pushed her kicking legs flat, and her knees hurt from the force, and it was as if her worst nightmares had come to life. She cried out in pain, crying for him to stop, and she even spat in his face before Bazz covered her mouth and muffled her screams.
"Toushirou!" She cried out, briefly freeing her mouth from the athlete silencing her. She watched as he turned his back to her, and her heart seemed to impale itself on her spine. He lied to her, he actually fucking lied to her. And she fucking fell for it like some stupid bimbo.
"Dude, take it out. I want a turn."
He fucking lied to her. The first guy she ever liked. And he lied to her. He lied to her and he said nice things to her, only to lead her where she was. Raped by a pack of disgusting, rabid dogs. What the hell did she ever do to deserve it?
Her face twisted and contorted, almost painfully, and she knew what hate was.
"Move over, you've been going long enough."
Three.
And then four.
Five people that had shown her what hate was.
"Hey, Toushirou, you wanna go?"
"No. I'm not into guys." He said, and she wasn't sure if she was pissed or relieved. She just wanted to go home and cry and forget about the entire incident, and maybe take a shower. She felt so dirty...
"Your loss, man."
"Dude, he stopped crying when Bazz went. Maybe he's got something going for him."
"Fag definitely started enjoying it." She heard a chorus of laughs, and she dug her nails into the wood floor.
"Burn," she whispered. "You're all going to burn in Hell…"
"Bitch, what did you just say!?"
She was pulled up by her hair, and she winced. She cracked open her eyes, and she glared at the leader, Jugram, through her lashes.
"I said," she snarled, her nostrils flaring. "You're all going to burn in Hell. Each and every one of you. All of you are going to burn in Hell, I don't care if I have to drag you down to deepest pits of it myself."
Jugram violently shook her, and she bit back a cry.
"Bitch, please. We're doing you a favor! You're unnatural, a freak, a faggot!" He screamed in her face, and she smirked.
"Oh really? I'm unnatural? A faggot? Last I checked, you guys were the ones who shoved your cocks up my ass. Check yourself before you start calling other people names, honey." She spat in his face. He clamped his eyes shut, his face scrunching, and she laughed. "Careful, you're going to give yourself wrinkles early if you keep making that face, faggot."
She was thrown to the floor again, and she cried out as her skull connected with the panels. Jugram dragged her out her her hair, and she flailed, screaming, trying to pull herself out of his grip.
"Where the hell are you taking him!?" She heard Toushirou shout.
"Nowhere, I'm just going to teach him some fucking respect."
"Jugram, just lay off! We've scared him enough. I'm sure he gets the message and I'm sure he'll wear guy clothes and talk like a guy and flirt with girls and such, just leave him alone!"
"Is there something you're not telling us, Toushirou? Are you actually defending this freak? Listen, he's been asking for it."
"I don't care. This is getting out of hand and it needs to stop."
"Yeah? And what's gonna happen if I don't?" Jugram spat. "It's not like the police give a shit about trannies. And even if they did do something about this, you'd get charged too. And there goes that pristine record, down the drain. All those scholarships to all those ivy league schools and every chance of employment you have at a huge firm, all gone, not to mention that your grandma would kick you out of the house. So don't waste your time."
It seemed to shut him up, and Giselle glared hatefully at him, and he turned his gaze away.
She was dragged down the hall and into another room. Jugram threw her in, shutting and locking the door behind him.
Giselle laughed bitterly. "What're you going to do now? Rape me again? Listen here, honey, that only proves one thing to me; that you're jealous. Don't think I don't know. You're so into that Uryuu kid, I wouldn't be surprised if his cock was the only thing ever on your mind. But you're so ashamed of it. Yet here I am, with all of my freedom and comfort in what I am, and you're just so jealous that I can be me and you can't be you because you gotta keep up that tough-guy act, don't you? Face it honey, you're gay, and you're jealous."
His face contorted into a snarl, and he rammed his foot into her stomach. She retched, bile rising in her throat and pain coursing through her entire body. He sat on her thighs and wound his fingers around her neck, crushing her trachea. She gagged, kicking and clawing at his hands until he bled. Fear coursed through her veins like ice water. She was going to die. She was actually going to be killed by some fucking douchebag. Tears streamed down her temples in thick rivers. Her limbs grew heavy and sluggish, and stars burst in her vision, and everything was tunneling around her. And it all went dark.
XXX
Karin emerged from the memory. Tears rolled down her cheeks in thick rivers, and Szayelaporro pulled his hand away.
"See what I mean, Karin? Toushirou's a bad person, a very, very bad person. He let all of that happen to Giselle, and he barely tried to stop it. He's just as guilty as a bystander."
She slowly turned her head to the boy on the couch, peacefully asleep, and she wanted him to burn in Hell.
She stood and backhanded Toushirou across his cheek. He startled awake, staring at Karin with wide eyes. She fisted his jacket and threw him to the ground, startling Yukio awake as well.
"I can't believe you let that happen to that poor girl!" She screamed at him, shaking him by his collar. "You let them rape her and kill her! You didn't even raise a hand for them to stop. All you did was start, and then give up. What the hell were you thinking.? You cost Giselle her life! Because you couldn't stand up for her long enough that Jugram would fucking knock it off! You're just as guilty as anybody else that night. You deserved to be killed. You deserve to suffer."
"Karin-"
"Don't you start!" She turned to Yukio. "Fuck off."
The blond froze, wide-eyed and mildly fearful.
She turned back to Toushirou, and saw his eyes welling with tears.
"I know." He croaked. "I deserve to go to Hell. I deserve to be stuck here for the rest of goddamn eternity, because I'm a fucking coward. I was a cowardly, stupid child that couldn't stand up for what was right, and I've been paying the price for it for forty years. And I deserve it every bit of pain I suffer through. But there hasn't been a day that's gone by that I haven't regretted my weakness, because I did play a part in an innocent girl's murder. I played a part in all the hate and death it's created. I don't deserve death. Death is for good people, it's to find peace from a cruel world. I deserve to burn in Hell."
Karin threw him to the floor as if he physically burned her and stalked to the corner. She pulled her legs up to her chest and tucked her face between them, sobbing. She couldn't believe it, she trusted a man that actually played a part in a girl's murder.
Yukio sat next to her, wrapping his blanket around him. "He's not a bad guy, I promise. He really is remorseful."
"I'm sure he is, since it affects him." She spat through her tears.
"He cries on my shoulder every night. He does hate himself, Karin. I don't think there's a day that goes by that he doesn't want to turn back time and not take Giselle here. I know that doesn't do much good now, but I promise, he is remorseful. And so are the rest of the guys, Jugram included."
"I'm sure." She pushed back her bangs.
He sighed. "I really have to sleep. If I disappear, I won't be able to regain this form for a good week. But listen. I wasn't involved with her murder, and I can understand that she's just very angry and very sad, and she's just Giselle to me. She isn't a he, she isn't George, she's Giselle, the girl who's in a lot of pain and who just wants to be loved."
She looked up at him, tears still running down her puffy cheeks. "She didn't do anything wrong."
"No, she didn't." The blond leaned against the wall. "If you're going to cry, cry quietly. And for fuck's sake, Szayel, get out of here. You're not welcome."
The demon pouted, and she watched him disappear, and he mouthed 'call me if you need me'. The two boys fell asleep again, leaving Karin to cry in what was basically solitude.
She sniffed, wiping her eyes with the pads of her thumbs. She dried her face with the collar of her shirt, and exhaled deeply.
She waited, weeping sporadically. Thirty minutes had definitely passed. Her friends were probably calling her brother and maybe even the police, but she didn't know. The window faced the weedy side yard, so she couldn't check.
The boys woke up some time later, and luckily, Karin's face was clear by that time.
Yukio stretched into the air, popping his shoulder audibly. Toushirou stood, as did Karin, and she traded places with the blond. She couldn't even look at the bastard.
"Um, l-let's brainstorm. We really need to get Karin out of here." She heard Toushirou.
The boys sat at the table, and Karin sat on the couch, as far away from him as she could, and she crossed her legs and folded her arms.
"Alright, I'm sure we all remember Giselle saying we can't leave without her permission, right? That means her will is keeping Karin here, and possibly even us too." Yukio explained, crossing his legs. "So what if we eradicate that will?"
"Excuse you, but what the fuck are you implying?" Karin snarled at the blonde.
"Szayel holds up the barriers, but he's only held here through Giselle's will. Therefore, it's possible that if we eradicate that will, Szayel has nothing anchoring him here, and therefore the barrier will dissolve and you can run home free. The simplest way would be to kill her."
The teen backhanded the blond, and a loud clap resounded through the room. "I'm not putting that poor girl through more trauma than she's already been through." She snarled tearfully.
"But Karin, your life is far more important than a vengeful spirit's afterlife." Toushirou argued.
She jabbed her finger in his direction, her nostrils flaring and her jaw clenched tight. "I don't want to hear it from you, asshole. I would rather die than put that poor girl through murder again."
The blond cleared his throat. "Alright, we'll scrap that then. No re-killing Giselle." He ran his fingers through his hair. "There is another way we could eradicate that will without killing her that might work."
"And that is?"
"Convince her to move on, or at least get her to permit you to leave. But the possibility of that happening is slim to none."
"For you, maybe." Karin stood. "Imagine: being trapped in a house of all men, four of them your rapists, the fifth literally gave up on you, and the sixth just proposed killing you again. She needs somebody who hasn't hurt her, and who doesn't want to hurt her, to remind her that it's okay. I'll go, and I will convince her that it's not worth sticking around here with a bunch of disgusting bastards when she could be happier elsewhere."
"Karin, wait, are you sure you can do this? Because if you die, you can't ever leave here." Toushirou responded, and the teen glared at him.
"I will do what you were too weak to. If you've got a problem with that, then I suggest you fuck off and take a good look at yourself."
His eyes widened, and she found she couldn't decipher the emotion in them. Admiration, amazement, and something else that she didn't understand, nor did she care to.
"If you'll excuse me, I've got a ghost to cleanse, or something." She unlocked the door and went out into the hallway with nothing more than her anger and her sorrow and her iron will accompanying her.
"Giselle," She shouted. "Giselle, come out! You and I need to talk. There's something you need to know."
She found her way to the kitchen, and Giselle was leaning in the doorway to the front, glaring at her through thick eyelashes.
"You've got ten seconds to peek my interest before I kill you." She said. Karin turned her body to her, squaring her shoulders and staring right into her cold eyes.
"You don't have to stay here anymore." She said firmly.
"Yes I do. Toushirou and Jugram and everybody deserves to feel my wrath. I'll make everyone feel as lonely and helpless and hurt as I am." She responded, taking a step forward. "I'm going to kill you now."
"Giselle, listen, I know you're angry, and I know you want everyone to pay for the pain you're going through. Your parents, your classmates, your friends, strangers, God… You're just so angry that you were born the way you were that you want everyone to suffer through your 'curse'. But you don't have to be that way. Because you are natural, Giselle. You're not a freak, or an abomination, or a monster, and you're not George or a boy, you're Giselle. Giselle the girl. Giselle, the girl who deserves to be happy, to be at peace. So stop fighting and let go. Not for me, or any of the ghosts in this house, for you."
The spirit's lip wobbled, and then her face contorted with deep, boiling animosity. The cupboards and drawers began to bang open and close, and doors slammed shut and flew open, and so did the windows, and the broken light fixtures sparked, spraying hot particles everywhere. "They deserve to pay! They deserve to pay for what they did to me! And everybody else who calls me a bitch. I'll kill them all, and I'll make them feel what I felt for the rest of eternity."
"But why? So you'll keep hurting!? You've been making them pay for forty years, Giselle. Forty years! And you're still hurting! Don't you think you've been hurting enough? Forty years, Giselle. Forty years you've been trapped in this place with your rapists and the man who betrayed you. Do you really want to stay with them for God knows how long? Because I sure as hell know that I wouldn't enjoy their company for forty years, or longer! You need to think of yourself. Yeah, Jugram and all of them deserve retribution, even Toushirou. But you've been doing it for forty years! Just you! You've done enough, Giselle. You deserve to live happily. Let someone else take care of their punishment."
Tears streamed down the wrathful spirit's cheeks, and she hastily wiped them away on her sleeve. "No! I'll punish them until my anger is satiated!"
"Yeah, and when will that be? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Next year? Another decade? A century!? No! Think of yourself now, Giselle. Hate is an endless cycles of pain and sadness, and it only bites you in the ass. You don't get anything, only more of that hollow feeling in your chest that feels like it's going to swallow you whole. And it shouldn't be that way! Because you're worth it, Giselle! You're a sweet girl who's just scared and lonely and angry, and you just deserve better. You don't need any other advice, because you're enough just as you are. Your feelings of hatred and betrayal and being dirty, they're enough to love. And I love you, because I want to see you push past those feelings and be happy."
Giselle's eyes widened, tears still streaming from her eyes. Karin threw her arms around the spirit, holding her tightly, and the ruckus ended caused by her emotions ended.
"I love you, Giselle. I love you a lot, parts, hurt, and all, even if no one else will."
The spirit's arms settled around her waist, and she sobbed into her shoulder.
"I just want to go home!" She wailed. "I want to be held by my Mommy again, and I want to talk with my Daddy again, and I want to see Candi and Meni and Liltotto again and talk about clothes and how stupid boys are, and I want to go back to school and finish that project I was doing with Bambi, and I don't want people to call me George anymore because I'm Giselle and I've always been Giselle."
"Giselle!" They heard from behind them. The two girls turned, seeing Toushirou on the stairwell near them. "Giselle, I'm really sorry that I wasn't strong enough to stop Jugram and Gremmy and Bazz and Cang back then. And I hope you can find it in you to forgive me so you don't have to bear anymore hate."
Giselle stared at him, her eyes the size of saucers, before she shattered into a million particles of light, floating about the air like the dust motes that inhabited the house. Karin stood in awe as a feeling of peace and warmth seemed to pulsate throughout the house.
The teen faced the white-haired ghost, and she smiled at him. "I didn't think you had it in you."
"I didn't think so either. But I... I just couldn't bear to make someone else fix my mistakes." He replied. "And I'm glad I did it."
"Will you be moving on as well? You and the other spirits?" She inquired.
He shook his head. "I can't speak for Yukio and the others, but I won't be. Just because Giselle has forgiven us, doesn't mean I have forgiven myself. I'm... I'm going to stay here until I can stop hating myself." He said, licking his lips.
"I'll visit you." She promised. "And I'm sure that my girlfriend would love to come, too."
"I'm not entirely sure this is the best place to bring a date, Karin." He chuckled.
"Oh well. We make a weird couple anyway."
"Karin!" She heard from the stairwell. She looked up and saw her brother in all his ginger glory at the top of the stairs, and he ran to her, brushing past Toushirou. She threw her arms around his neck, and his arms circled her. "I was so worried about you! Your friends called me and said that you were involved in an accident here and what the hell is that bruise on your neck from and the entire house shook like there was an earthquake just a second ago are you alright-"
"Ichigo, breathe." She laughed, and he furrowed his brow.
"Have you been crying?" He asked. She squawked indignantly.
"No," She fibbed, and then burst out into a fit of raucous laughter. She held her stomach, doubling over, and tears streaming down her face. Her friends ran in, staring at her like she had a second head.
"You were right." She said to her friend. "There was a ghost. His name's Toushirou. And if you say 'save her' three times in the mirror in the second floor bathroom, he'll appear and he'll let you cry on his shoulder if you're sad or talk to you if you're lonely and laugh with you if you're happy."
She grinned at Toushirou, and he smiled gratefully at her, tears once again brimming his eyes.
"Dude, I think your sister's got brain damage."
"I've definitely got a concussion. My ears have been ringing since I got in here. God, and my head hurts like hell!" She replied.
Ichigo whipped out his cell and dialed for an ambulance in a panicked flurry. He ordered Karin's friends to help him get her to the floor. She lay on her side, her brother's hand holding her neck straight as he quickly relayed her condition to the operator. Yukio peeked his head out from the archway entering the kitchen, and Toushirou pulled him out in the open. The two boys waited on the stairs, and she smiled at them, and they smiled back. The ambulance soon arrived, and she was wheeled out of the house on a gurney with a c-collar around her neck. She smiled and gave a thumbs-up to the two spirits as they exited the home.
"Hey, Karin, who were those two kids? Your friends said they didn't recognize them." Her brother asked her in the ambulance.
"Other friends, I'll introduce you later. Maybe. First I gotta tell you about my girlfriend."