"Whatsa matter, Kei-chan?" Mion snickered, shooting him her best villainous smile from across the table. "Too scared to play that weak hand of yours?"
Keiichi Maebara said nothing, staring intently at the cluster of cards in his hand.
"I'll bet he just doesn't want to admit that he lost to me again!" Came Satoko's jeering voice from another corner of the table. "Losing to a little girl so often must reeeeaaally get on your nerves, right?"
Keiichi's brow furrowed in his deep concentration, but then he surprised them all with a sudden grin.
"You made your biggest mistake…" he began, setting his cards facedown on the table, "when you underestimated ME!"
He flipped the cards face up with a triumphant "Ha-HA!" and Satoko's jeering was instantly silenced. Her sneer quickly morphed into a vengeful glare as the others looked on in surprise and admiration of the hand he had just played.
"Whoah, nice one Kei-chan!" said Mion, her surprise evident in her voice. "I didn't think you could do it."
"That's what happens when you mess with the best." Keiichi smirked, dusting off his knuckles on his shirt and ignoring Mion's unimpressed 'pfft'.
"Not so fast, Kei-chan!" He turned back to Satoko with a questioning expression. "I still have one turn left!" She was perched on the edge her chair, arms flung out to either side of the table in a dramatic gesture. The grin on her face was the one she reserved for the times when her impending revenge was something to be savored, and a grin that Keiichi really didn't care for.
"Fat chance, you little weasel!" He attempted to keep his cool composure. "There's no way you could beat me after what I just played."
"Well then…feast your eyes on THIS!" she slammed her card face up on the table, and Keiichi's jaw practically hit the floor. That was the best card in the whole deck, the one and only card that could beat the hand he had just played.
Crap. And this was a punishment game too…
"You're gonna get it, you're gonna get it!" Mion taunted in a singsong voice.
Keiichi sighed, accepting his defeat. "Alright, fine. The usual rules, I guess. What will I be doing this time?" He really hoped they wouldn't dress him up again, at least not in the outfit from last time. Another incident like that and the townsfolk might start shunning him.
"Hmm, let me think…" Satoko's fingers drummed over her cheek, her gaze directed at the ceiling as the diabolical wheels in her head tried to turn out an adequate punishment for her vanquished foe.
"Ooh! Dress him up like a princess again!" Mion jeered, sending him a smug grin.
"No, no! Make him run around town wearing one of our school uniforms!" Shion shouted in response.
Wait, when did Shion get here…?
"Make him dance and sing whenever anyone talks to him!" Rika piped up.
Is that blood on her face?
"Rika, you're hurt!" Keiichi began, jumping up out of his seat. "How did-"
"Kei-chan!" Rika cut him off, blood dripping from the corners of her mouth. "Don't get up yet. We haven't decided on your punishment yet." Her voice had changed, but she still wore that same cheerful grin. Her eyes were different, too…
"Yeah, Kei-chan." Mion agreed, trails of blood trickling their way down her forehead as well. "We need to decide what to do with you!" She giggled, a horrifying smile stretching across her face.
"Mion, you too!" Keiichi pointed to the trails of red. "You-you're bleeding!"
"I've got it!" Satoko cut him off. "I'll push you off the bridge again!" The others let out a cheer of agreement.
Bridge…again…what? What is she-?
Something sparked in his mind. A bridge. A fall…his fall.
He remembered it all clearly now. The cotton drifting festival, Oyashiro's curse, finding Rika's dead body…
"Rika…" he rasped, stumbling over his chair as he tried to back away from the advancing girls. "You…you're dead…"
"Well of course I am, silly!" she lifted up her dress, revealing the gaping hole in her stomach, the entrails spilling out and the blood running down her abdomen and legs.
Keiichi screamed and turned to run for the door, but found the way blocked by both Mion and Shion, their faces now streaked with blood. They wore identical smiles, their cat-like eyes leering at him.
"Stop!" he screamed, feeling the others grab him from behind. "Wha-what are you doing? Let me go!"
The wind was knocked out of him as he was roughly thrown to the floor, and his friends each grabbed one of his limbs to keep him from making an escape. They were all laughing as they watched him thrash about in a vain attempt to get free.
"I know how to punish you…" Satoko hissed, pulling a kitchen knife from behind her back. The corners of her mouth twitched with rage. "You killed us…Keiichi…"
Her whisper was taken up and echoed by the others. "You killed us. You killed us. You killed us, Keiichi."
"No…NO! I didn't! I didn't kill anyone! Please, you don't-"
"SHUT UP!" Satoko thrust her knife downward, the blade twisting its way deep into his guts.
"UUUGHYAAAAGH!" His eyes snapped open, a ragged breath tearing its way through his chest as he fought for breath through the apparatus attached to his face. He was no longer in the school, but an unfamiliar white room. Through his blurry vision he could barely make out the shapes of the wires and tubes attached to his body. He wrenched one arm free of his restraints, gritting his teeth as he felt needles ripped from his flesh, and yanked off the mask covering his mouth. He gasped for air, his lips forming bits and pieces of unintelligible rasps.
Doctors burst in through the doors, their faces hidden by surgical masks. One of them held another needle tightly in his fist, his eyes calm.
"Where am I?" Keiichi demanded, practically yelling the question. "Who are you people?"
"Easy, son." One of the doctors said, attempting to lay him back down onto his hospital bed. "Just take it easy."
Keiichi didn't want to 'take it easy', and instead punched the doctor in the jaw, attempting to peel off the other tubes protruding from his body.
"Sedate him! Sedate him!" The other doctor yelled as more attendants ran in to hold Keiichi down. The needle gleamed in his hand.
"NO! Nyyyuuuuh! Nooooo!" Keiichi tried to kick his way free, but his body was just too weak to break their hold on him. "What's going on? Tell me! TELL MEEEEE!"
The needle pierced his flesh, and within a few seconds the world began to fade away.
End Chapter
Okay, sooooo…I've been silent on this site for like a year now. Sorry about that everybody, but you see…I'm in college. And I'm an art major who has to cram in 4 years worth of classes into 3 years time. So, there.
Anyway, lame excuses aside, I return with new stories. This is one that I'm particularly excited about, since I am a huge fan of the Higurashi series. I've done a couple of Higurashi stories already, but nothing that I felt really remained true to the spirit of the series. I'm hoping for different results on this one, so please let me know what you think so far!