Blood Reign; Chapter 2: Unwanted Blood
The skillet sizzled as more meat was tossed into the pan the meat cooked with the vegetables as steam filled the air. After the cooking was done the large food was spread across the table as the four siblings sat at the table.
"This looks so yummy! Let's eat!" Marco smiled happily tying his napkin around his neck, but as he reached for the food, his hand was stopped by Marla.
"What's up sis?"
"We have to pray first" said Mariaz as Marco gave a disappointed groan but went with it. Bowing their head their heads in silence a silent prayer was spoken.
"Now we can eat!" Marco said and he dug in, stacking his plate with one of everything. Marla did the same and the two began devouring their food like a pact of animals. Marla though was a bit more cordial with her eating, stopping to take wipe her face before sinking her teeth back in the meat. Marco however stuffed his face with every bite. He ripped away at the cooked flesh sometimes taking a piece of bone.
Mariaz and Marx used their knife and fork to cut into their food.
"Hey Marla wanna have an eating contest?" Marco said in mid chew, there was a gleam in her eyes and soon the two began stuffing their faces in an inhuman speed.
"Which do you think will choke first?" Marc said bringing a piece of beef up to his mouth, chewing it slowly before swallowing.
"Hard to say, but I am not doing the hemlock again" she said swallowing a piece of chicken before grabbing another piece. As the, semi-normal, dinner continued there was a sudden knocking.
"Who could be here at this time of night" Mariaz drowned as Marc shrugged, "the knocking seem to continue.
"I guess I'll get it" Mariaz said rising from the table, "I'm going too" Marx said, a questioning look forming on Mariaz face.
"You think I want to stay and watch this train" he pointed to the two still in their contest, "Good point" she said , but not even halfway across the room a hacking noise filled their ears. Turning back it appeared that Marco was choking, his face was flushed and he was hitting against his chest.
Mariaz gave an annoyed groan as she walked back to the table, "See this is what you get for not chewing" she chastised her brother as he continued to choke. With a role of her eyes she and her sister began trying to help him. While the two tried to help their brother Marx was left to answer the continuous knocking. As he walked toward the front; he opened the door he was met with the sight of no one there.
"Hmm" he looked out into the darkness of night, his eyes searching to find no one was there. He was about to go back inside when he felt something, a presence.
"Hello there" a voice called, looking forward towards the forest, it was dark and empty, but just as he was about to turn back again when a chuckle filled his ears.
"Who's there?" he said looking back into the forest, suddenly a figure stepped out of the forest, dressed in a long white robe, he looked to be an older male, but there was something not right about him.
"Who are you?" h asked as the man stood there, a smile on his face as his eyes, black, looked at him. He raised his hands motioning for the boy to come outside.
Marc stood there watching as the man continue to motion for him and as red eyes looked at him a small scowl formed on his face. He knew what he wanted, but he would play along with it. Taking a step outside the man's smile seemed to widen with each step the boy took towards him. The boy was now standing in front of him.
The man held his warm face as he bent down to look at the boy, reaching his hands up he reached toward him, his smile widening revealing sharp canines. But as his hands made contact with Marx he pushed back landing on his butt on the ground. His face looked pained, bringing his hands up his eyes widened as blisters and burns littered his pale hands.
"Are you okay mister?" the boy said as the man looked at him, "I'm sorry did I hurt you?" he said as he walked a bit closer to him, the man seemed to scoot away.
"When I was younger I had a nanny who watched me" he started, "Whenever I would get hurt she would always kiss it better…" he began digging in his pocket and down his shirt
"She gave me something and told me whenever I get hurt to kiss the wound with this" the man's eyes widened when the boy brought out a necklace out of his shirt, a silver-like cross hanging from the thin chain.
"You look pale" he said walking closer as the man scooted away, "Could it be you don't like this" his question was confirmed as the man flinched at the sight of the cross.
"I don't like seeing creatures in pain" he said raising his head as an eerie glow incased his eyes, "I think I'll put you out of your misery" there was a click and the man gasped as a gun was now pointed at his face.
"Now…repent" he said finger on the trigger, "Marc where are you?" a voice called as the door opened suddenly, Marc turned quickly back towards the house, "Hey bro what are you doing outside?" Marco walked outside as Marc stood in front of the forest. Turning around he found the man was gone and with a huff he put the gun away along with the cross.
He walked back towards the house stopping to the side of his brother, "You two better not have eaten all the meat" he said before entering back in front of the house. Marco stood there scratching his head before shutting the door.
The next day the four siblings went to their summer jobs, except for Marc who was left alone since he was too young to have a job. He spent the day wondering around the village, though he had a certain mission in mind. The other night was still on his mind, his encounter with the strange 'man' seem to confirm his suspicion he had about the seemingly peaceful village. There was a dark presence, a cloud, hovering over the village that left a pungent smell of blood and death in the air.
He had tried to talk to the people, though most of them just looked at him and patted his head and called him 'cute' or 'smart for his age', they were utterly useless in his mind. So he decided to go another root, if they wouldn't tell him what he wanted to know he would get the information his way.
Finding a good spot the boy sat on a bench outside one of the businesses. In his time in the village he noticed many people came passed this part of town and decided it would be a good place to get his information. Taking out his book and pencil he started writing down things trying not to appear to suspicious.
He looked up from his book to see a group of elderly seniors sitting opposite from him, one of the ladies looked over towards him. She smiled and waved toward him, being polite he waived back.
'What a cute little boy' the lady thought, a gloomy feeling came over Marc but he kept a seemingly innocent look on his face.
"What a cute little boy" she said and the others looked at Marc nodding and smiling at him.
"Did you hear another person died last weak?"
"I know I she was such a nice woman"
"I hate to go to another funeral"
"She was so young too, the family must be crushed"
As the people spoke Marc sat there fining reading as he tried to listen in on their conversation.
'All this death is so sad' the elderly woman thought
'Maybe I should move out of the town, so many others have' a man thought
'I hope it isn't an epidemic'
"You know I've been hearing rumors" one of the females spoke, "They think it's the work of that family that moved into the house a few weeks ago"
"A family?" Marc said silently, curiosity peaked he got up from his spot and walked over toward the elderly people, "Excuse me?" he said trying to sound as innocent as possible.
"Yes, my I help you little boy?" the elderly woman said as Marc smiled, "I'm sorry for bothering you but may I ask a question?"
"Such a polite boy, sure what do you want to know?" she smiled as Marc smiled, "Do you know who lives in that big castle up there?" he pointed towards the castle like mansion that sat on the high hill.
"Oh, let me see, yes I believe the Kanemasa household" she said as her friends nodded, "Yes they moved him a couple of weeks ago"
"Yes there's a man, a woman, their little girl, and a servant I believe. Though they keep to themselves"
"I've never seen them out in the day, only at night" the elderly man said with a suspicious tone, "Oh don't mind him he's caught up in the town gossip"
"Yes, now who might you be little boy?" she inquired as Marc smiled again, "I'm Marc Blood, I recently moved here with my siblings" he introduced himself to the elderly people.
"Excuse me I have to go, thank you for answering my question" he bowed politely before walking away from the elderly group. Once he was a good distance away he dropped his smile, "Kanemasa" he said stopping in the middle of the road to look at house that seem to shadow over the village. The home itself was like an enigma, something that didn't appear to belong in a place like Sotoba.
As crimson eyes stared up at the village he felt another presence, another thing that didn't belong with these people, humans. If he wanted more answer he had to keep looking, the people in the village didn't seem like they would help him or be any help to him. But there was some shred of hope, through his search he found that there were some, only a few, that held a suspicion that there was something suspicious going on and may be of use to him should the necessity come up.
Looking back up at the house he came to a conclusion he decided he needed to see this so called source of the problem the villagers kept squawking about. But how would he go about it, he could go up to the house and say, 'Hi I'm new here and just wanted to ask, is one of you killing of people in the village?', yeah that would work so well. He needed a guise, someone he could get into the house without being notice.
At the library Mariaz had finished stacking the books, it was annoyingly silent in the library, and no one was there besides her. It was well into the afternoon and the head librarian hadn't showed up yet. It not like she cared or anything, she was annoyed that she had to do all the stacking by herself. Shaking her head she left the shelf and went towards the front desk. Looking around she searched for a something to write on. Finding a small sticky not she wrote down a letter, grabbing her bag she placed a sign on the door before locking the doors to the shop.
'Closed for personal purposes' it read and she left the shop. She decided it would be best to return home, maybe she should go and find her co-worker…she shook her head again. On her way home she passed by a Rice Shop and she suddenly felt something was strange. Stopping she looked up at the small shop, her crimson eye focused on the window up top. She wanted to walk away, but something told her to stay. With in inner sigh she took a deep breath and entered the shop. The inside looked was relatively normal, no one seemed to be there. As she walked further inside she thought she heard something coming from upstairs. Silently she found her way to a staircase that must lead upstairs, she began walking up and true to her suspicion she found herself apparently in an upstairs house.
She noticed a light on and voices talking, walking closer she stood in the door way as others looked to be in mourning. There was a woman, two males, and an elderly man though her sight was mostly on the one on the bed. It was a child, a dying a child.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid your son is dead" one of the men said, he looked to be a doctor of some sort, though he was quite young. The others began to have a break down at the news, tears brimming from their eyes.
"I'm sorry for your lose" the doctor said trying to hide his sadness, as the family grieved over the boy's death, the doctor looked over and his brown eyes noticed a figure standing just outside the door. He was about to speak when the red cloaked figure raised a hand slowly, one finger touching their lips and made a shushing noise.
The doctor eyes slowly widened, everything seemed to slow down before even he became still. The figure glided across the room was now standing in front of the bed and over the child. Their crimson eye looked down upon the child, scanning over his form before stopping toward his neck, on the side held two puncture wounds. Reaching down the figure placed a hand on the wound and as they made contact the wounds made a sizzling noise before completely sealing up. Bring their hand up they raised it over the boy's body moving it back and forth before lowering it.
Once done the figure glided backwards and stood back in place at the door frame; time began again.
"My I help you?" the young doctor said as the girl in the door frame stepped out as the other family members turned to notice her.
"I apologize for the intrusion" she apologized, "I heard noises upstairs and thought someone could help me" she said.
"Well I'm afraid you've come at a bad time and…" he stopped as a coming noise filled the room, everyone turned around, their eyes widened and they gasped at the sight.
"HIROMI!" the family gasped in disbelief as they watched boy rise slowly from the bed, his eyes holding a tired look in them, he looked round and blink, "Mom, dad, granddad? Why is everyone in my room?" he said tirelessly before being pulled into a deep hug by his mother and father.
"It's a miracle!" the granddad said wiping away a few tears from his eyes.
"Sorry for disrupting, I'll show myself out" the red head girl said as the doctor turned toward her just as she was leaving. The doctor quickly followed after her, down the steps he rushed just in time to see the girl walk out of the shop.
"Hey wait!" he called as he ran outside the house, he stood in the door frame panting as the girl now stood in front of the house. It was silent as they looked at each other, red into brown.
"Who are you?" he said as the girl looked at him with an even look on her face, "Mariaz Blood" she simply said as the man looked at her, suspicion hidden in his eyes.
"I'm Toshio Ozaki, I'm a doctor in this village" he said as the girl looked at him, "You look so young"
"Tell me what you were doing, back there?" he asked as the girl remained calm in her look, "I don't know what you mean?"
"You know that boy upstairs; he was dead only moments before you arrived" his voice was nervous and there was a bead of sweat falling from the side.
"I thought someone in there could help me" she began, "I was looking for someone who knew how I could reach the librarian who works at the library" she said as the doctor eyes seem to narrow at bit. It was becoming doctor as the sun was setting over the horizon.
"As for the boy..." her head fell upon the darkening sky, "They come from the darkness, they drink the red from warm souls…hmm" she faced back to the doctor who gulped as the girl came closer. Reaching into her bag she pulled out something, on closer look it appeared to be a pen of some sort. Moving passed the doctor she began scribbling on something on the door.
"Hey what are you doing!" he grabbed her shoulder pulling her back, looking where she wrote he found no trace of writing. Standing there, an eerie feeling came over him, gripping his fist he turned to find the girl gone.
'Mariaz Blood…'
"See you tomorrow Mr. Ookawa! Night" Marco said closing the door to the wine shop, "You know your way to loud" he suddenly jumped at the sudden voice looking around he suddenly noticed his siblings standing against the side of the shop.
"Man you guys almost gave me a heart attack" he calmed his nerves, "But awe, you guys came to pick me up from work I'm touched!" he smiled as his siblings rolled their eyes simultaneously.
"So what have my bro and sis's been up too?" he said as the siblings had a silent look on their faces, "Um did I miss something?"
"Well I'm no longer working at the lumber yard" Marla said as her brother gave her a surprised looked, "For real, what happened?"
"Well the man you haired me apparently became ill, someone from town came by and gave us the news" she passed for a minute, "The owner, Yasuyuki Ootsuka, apparently died." She said as her siblings looked at her.
"Man that's rough" Marco scratched his head, "You know I overheard my boss today, apparently some woman from a town over passed away too."
"What's so weird about that?"
"Nothing except her husband and brother-in-law had died just recently, I don't know just gettin a strange vibe a guess"
"What about you Mariaz, you seem rather perplexed" Marc inquired as his sister leaned against the shop, a solemn aura about her.
"The head Liberian didn't show up today"
"That doesn't sound so bad" Marco said as his sister gave a light groan, "That wasn't strange to me either, but returning home a passed a rice shop and discovered a family grieving over their died son" she said and now eyes were on her.
"Man that's sad" Marco said as Mariaz took a short breath, "The boys alive" she said and a surprised look came over the others faces.
"There something strange going on in this village" she said pulling herself from the wall, "When I saw the boy I noticed he had two puncture wounds on his throat" she said the siblings looked at her, listening as she spoke. "Also he appeared to have been missing a considerable amount of blood" she said
"Missing…blood?"
"Is that strange to you Marco?" Marla looked at her brother who nodded, "Yeah I think I heard someone talking about someone from another village who had died from…what was it Amnia or something like that"
"You mean Anemia" Marc said as his siblings looked down as the boy was deep in thought, "Hmm that would explain a lot"
"Something on your mind?"
"Last night…a guy came to our house, apparently he waited for someone in the house or rather he was trying to draw out someone from the house" he explained, "When I left the house and approached him he attempted to attack me, but when I flashed him this" he pulled out his silver cross, "He ran away, he looked as though he was in pain"
"Missing blood, puncture wounds, silver crosses, creepy people from the forest, man this is starting to sound like some bad horror film" Marco said folding his arms, "So what do we do?"
"Not sure, what do you do in a place filled with death and smelling of blood?" Mariaz looked at her siblings as they stood in a circle.
"Man what a drag, I thought I would get to relax, but no some kinda freaky blood sucking thing has to come along and mess with our vacation" he groaned as his siblings just look at him, "Be quite you…"
Marla suddenly turned, her ears twitching as her eyes looked back and forth. "Hey sis what's up?" Marco inquired but received no answer as his sister darted down the street.
"Yo Marla what the hell!" he said as he raced after her, "Great now we have to run" Marc said as he and Mariaz followed after their siblings.
In a house on the other side of the town, the house was dark and everyone appeared to be sleep. Suddenly there was a light laughter and then the door to the house suddenly came open. Out of the house came a young boy, no more than 6, walked outside dressed only in his pajamas.
"Susumu…" a voice called out as the boy looked to the forest, a pair of red eyes glowing from the darkness, "Susumu come here, come to mama" the voice beckoned as the boy began moving slowly toward the hypnotic voice.
"That's right come to mama" the voice called as a toothy smile formed on the woman's face, as the boy got closer the woman reached out her pale clawed hands in an embrace. Suddenly the woman gasped as something came down between her and her son and as she looked toward her son she found he was gone.
"Su-Susumu!" he called coming from the forest, her eyes looked noticing the shining steel axe that was embedded in the ground. As she looked around for the boy, the moon decided to peek from the clouds, her eyes looked upwards and widened as she noticed someone standing on the roof. Her long red hair flowing with the nightly breeze,
"Who are you?" the blue haired woman called up before her eyes fell on her arms or rather what was in them, "Susumu!" she cried as the woman's crimson eyes fell on the woman below, "Give me my son!" she demanded as the female scoffed before jumping off the roof. She effortlessly landed to the ground in front of the woman who gasped again in shock.
"Wha…" the red haired female scoffed again, "Hey Marla!" a voice called, three figures came running up toward the one now known to be Marla. Seeing the others the woman made a pained face before running into the forest.
"Hey what's with the kid?" Marco inquired as his sister remained silent thrusting the boy into the larger males hands, "Here hold him" she said before heading back into the forest, "Hey sis wait!" he called as his sister rushed into the forest leaving the three.
The woman ran through the forest, she ran and ran, not even looking back. As she exited through the other side she stopped to catch her breath, though she really didn't need to breath.
"Hey Nao how was your hunt?" a voice said, looking up a group of people, just like she, stood looking at the woman as she exited the forest.
"Hey what's wrong with you?" another voice said as the one called Nao stood, "My task was interrupted" she said and the others looked at her.
"What do you mean interrupted? Didn't you bite your son?"
"No, someone stopped me before I could get close to him" she said and others looked back and forth at each other.
"Who stopped you?"
"I don't know I never saw them"
"Them? I thought you said there was only one stopped you"
"It was one, but soon others came and I had to retreat and…" she suddenly stopped talking as something jumped from the forest, flying over the others before landing on the other side of the group who gasped in shock.
"Hey there everybody!" a chipper voice said as he stood in front of the group, dressed in a yellow track suit, the muscled blue haired, yellowed eyed male looked at the group who now became silent.
"Nao failed to turn her son" a voice said from inside the group, out of the group of people stood a young teen girl with bright pink hair in two ponytails, she was dressed rather fashionably, she stuck out from the others.
"Megumi" one of them said as Megumi just huffed rather like a child, "Is that right, Nao" he looked at the woman who gulped, her eyes downcast.
"I'm sorry Tatsumi-san, but someone stopped me before I could drink his blood" she said meekly as the male looked at her.
"Oh and who might that be?" he inquired as the woman passed for a minute, "I don't know she appeared out of nowhere and then others came…and I was forced to retreat.
As the conversation continued, Marla scanned through the group, all their eyes on her. There was something wrong with this group, something night right. Their skin was pale and their eyes were red in a black hue. Her eyes stopped suddenly, falling on one of the males in the group, 'You…isn't that Yasuyuki Ootsuka?' she looked at the man who was supposed to be dead.
'Hn' she moved some hair out of her face, 'They all smell of death and blood" she said and eyes widened at the statement, 'I can't hear a pulse from any of them' her eyes seem to glow with the moonlight
Turning around she raced back into the forest and disappeared with the darkness,
Back at the house, Marc and Marco stood outside as Mariaz was somewhere around the house, Marla jumped out of the bushes and landing back with the others.
"What happened" Marc asked as Marla stood back up, "It would appear that our suspicions were correct…where's Mariaz?" she looked not seeing her sister.
"She put the boy back to bed" he said as Marla looked forward as Mariaz exited the house and now stood with her siblings.
"How's the boy?"
"He's fine, although…"
"He had the same puncture wounds I saw on a young boy this afternoon"
"Blood drained" Marc said as she gave a confirming grunt, "I managed to seal off the wound so he should recover" she said with a sigh, "What if those…things come back?" Marco said with a worried tone, "Not likely I managed to put a Hogofū on the house. I also put a cloak on the boy and the rest of the family for good measure" she explained, "It won't come back"
"We should get home, now" she said as she walked toward the forest, the others silently followed behind her before disappearing into the forest darkness.
Next time, Crossed Blood
