"Do you all remember that story that was on the news two years ago? Remember? Remember how the adults wouldn't tell us about what happened? What awful things happened in the dark?"
There was a group of kids in the park. They were all playing a game at twilight near a break of thicker woods, in the center which lied a small and abandoned old house. This game was based on the rumors of what happened a few years ago. A rumor of blood, a rumor of love, a rumor of fear.
"I dare you to go run into the house and stay for an hour! And bring back what the adults said was in the basement!" one of the children yelled to a younger boy. He wanted to go back home, but he knew he couldn't. They'd all make fun of him if he chickened out, and he'd be alone again.
"No big deal; just some old, empty house."So he stood tall and marched through the woods and through the front door of the house, which creaked back into place. Fear shrouded his heart; he was becoming desperate now. He saw another door, and slowly crept toward it, his heart beating like a drum in his ears. He took hold of the door knob, and turned.
Screams and cries murdered the boy's ears. He couldn't cry out, and his feat were locked in place. He was hearing the pain of so many years ago. He was watching what no one knew, no one except the dead.
X
Yumi loved Ulrich, she loved him very much. Her heart was connected to his; she was his. They were perfect together, happy together. They were complete. But he came along; he ruined everything.
William was a new student at Kadic Academy, and he became deeply infatuated with Yumi the moment he set eyes on her. Her dark raven hair, her slender figure, her eyes, her beautiful and deep eyes. He just couldn't look away. He was obsessed with her. He would do anything to make her his. Anything at all.
He watched as Yumi and Ulrich walked around Kadic together every day, holding hands, talking happily, smiling at each other. William just wanted to break Ulrich to pieces! He just wanted to break him and break the way he looked at Yumi, wanted to keep him away from her for forever. She belonged to him, she belonged only to him. With that thought set in his mind, he knew what he was to do. He would keep Ulrich away from his precious goddess no matter what. Everything was so simple; he could easily do it. William had no conscience, and he would obtain his prize. He definitely would. He definitely would.
x
Ulrich and Yumi were taking a stroll through the woods after dinner. The two sat down at the bottom of a large oak tree, each holding their lover's hand. Yumi was tired from the torture Jim had put them through during class, and she quickly drifted off into a daze, leaning against Ulrich's side. He did not wake her, but just let her sleep and stroked her hair. Ulrich leaned back against the oak and shut his eyes, only for a moment.
The opportunity arose.
William stood from his hiding spot, a few feet away behind another tree, and hurriedly strode over to where the two were resting. He took the leather sack from his shoulder and turned it upside down, over Ulrich's head. He then pulled the string tightening the sack's seams, nearly strangling Ulrich. Silently, William bashed his head against the tree. Next, he half-dragged, half-carried Ulrich's unconscious form for several long and ecstatic minutes, in the direction of the Hermitage.
Once inside, William dragged Ulrich down the steps toward the cellar, in which a small door was easily visible from the pale moonlight leaking through the small and cracked window. He removed the sack from Ulrich's head, and kicked him into the deep hole, ten feet deep. William's smile spread across his face, looking quite deranged. He took the shovel that he had earlier positioned next to hole, next to a pile of earth that had been dug up outside, and began burying Ulrich. As Ulrich lay there, each passing minute disappearing more and more, William just stood there, laughing and continuing his work.
Ulrich couldn't be seen; he couldn't move. He was awoken from his dreamless sleep, and was immediately aware that he could barely breathe. He began yelling and shrieking, clawing through the dirt at the boarded wall, obtaining splinters and cuts at the wood and nails. But he could still recognize the voice of the man whom he hated the most of all, hated for trying to interfere with what he and Yumi had. He subdued his cries and listened to the words that, being completely buried underground, sounded like a whisper. "Lover. Will. Suffocate," the words sounded, and were followed by maniacal laughter. Either William was leaving the room, or he was standing where he had been for the past hour, laughing that horribly laugh that rang in Ulrich's ears, he did not know. The warmth of the world was melting away, and everything was going cold. So cold; so numb.
Ulrich's fear-cloaked autumn night was now eternally a moonless night.
x
Yumi awoke with a start, her mind trying to process where she was. Then she remembered that she had been with Ulrich, and looked around for him. When she turned and looked back at the tree, her eyes were attracted to a large patch of semi-dried blood. Yumi gasped, and then saw a small connection of thin blood splatters against the grass. She quickly followed it, calling for her lover. "Ulrich! Ulrich, where are you? Ulrich!" She soon spotted the Hermitage, and walked through the door. She saw more blood at a door to her right, darker this time, and slowly approached the door, then opened it. She hurried down the staircase, only seeing her way from the full moon's glare from the one window in a far corner of a room. Yumi ran to it, and froze at what she saw.
Ulrich's arm, missing a finger, purposefully pulled out of his deep grave, was pointed towards the staircase. She immediately recognized it as his, as it had his name engraved in it, seeping blood into the already-sodden earth. Secrets she discovers drain her face of color. Tears leaked from her eyes as she trembled from head to foot, falling to her knees. "Ulrich..." Yumi's whispers of her lover's name and demise were covered by large hands that were covered in dirt minutes later.
Her heart stopped, stricken with fear. There's someone else here! her mind screamed. She couldn't stop her tears from flowing; she'd never been so scared. Yumi heard the soft whispers of the man who had so many times tried to grab her attention at the academy and on her way to and from school. "One, two, three, four; locked beneath cellar floor. Five, six, seven, eight; lover will suffocate." William's words repeated, with apparent relish lacing his voice, echoing around the walls of the dark room and in her head. Then, she felt sharp pain as a dagger was thrust into her chest and out, three times. Then Yumi heard William's gasp of pain as he did the same to himself. He fell on top of her, as they both slid from the world and the moon disappeared.
X
The boy saw it all, the screams still surrounding him. He slumped forward down the dark and rickety stairs, where all of the love, horrors, and psychotic pleasure had occurred. The door shut behind him, never to be opened again.