07.07.2009 – edited 01.10.2010
Chapter 2 – Nemurigusuri
(Sleeping Powder)
Thursday 13th October 2011
"... It's best if she doesn't know about this until he chooses to tell her, I suppose…"
"Know what Hatori-san?"
"Know the secrets that are contained in this room... I doubt if even he can remember all that happened here..."
[Little did they know that the memory was etched into the frail boy's memory far too well...]
As I let myself be consumed by the darkness around me, I couldn't help but remember what had happened in the last few minutes… hours… and days… why I had come to be like this, a helpless plaything for god yet again… I couldn't help but remember who it was that betrayed me to be a sacrifice of the curse once more…
Shigure.
It was he, that night two days ago, who returned from the main house, and followed the orders that had been given to him, even though he knew that it would only end up in my pain… or worse…
My extermination...
"Aren't you hungry Yuki-kun…? Do you want me to make you something else…? A… Are you sick?" Honda-san's voice spread through the room, snapping me out of my thoughts, and making me realise that I hadn't touched the food that she had so generously made for me.
"Don't worry about that k'so Nezumi, Tohru – who cares if he gets sick? Not me! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" The shriek at the end of his pathetic declaration was due to me sending him flying through the door at the other end of the room.
"I apologise for that baka Neko's stupidity Honda-san, he really just can't help it." I smirked as I spoke, but even still, something felt wrong.
And where was Shigure?
He had been acting strangely recently, and today he had gone without a word, leaving his poor editor trying to hang herself on our doorstep when we arrived home from school.
"You've not been destroying my house again have you Yuki-kun?" Speak of the Devil…
"It's not my fault that the Neko can't keep his guard up Shigure."
It was what I said every time when this happened, and it was completely true…
"You say it as if you've never let your guard down…" He whispered, and only I knew what he meant by it, my eyes hardening.
… but yes, it wasn't as if I had never let my guard down… admittedly it wasn't when the Neko was near me… but Shigure had seen the result of me letting my guard down…
… And the bastard still brought the topic up…
… He must be in a bad mood or something…
"What do you want Shigure?" I narrowed my eyes slightly at him, trying to figure him out.
"What?" His eyes widened in fake innocence as mine narrowed more. "Do I have to have a motive behind everything…?"
As he began talking about some nonsense in French (a language I had never liked…) I walked away, meaning to go up to my room, but Shigure stopped me, his face suddenly serious… but there was something else in there… something… malicious in the glint of his eye…
"Yuki…?" He grabbed onto my shoulder and pulled me back. "I need to talk to you…? Is that okay…?"
"Hmm…?" I looked back briefly and sighed. After all, I had really wanted to finish that gardening book I had been reading… but he seemed so… different… Stoic..."Sure…"
I suppose that curiosity didn't ONLY kill the cat…
… For it sure destroyed me…
Silence consumed the house as I followed Shigure up to his office, and sat on the chair opposite him that Mii-san had so often sat in to complain to Shigure about his deadlines, but the man facing me wasn't the joking, care-free man that constantly teased her. No. He was so different, I became almost suspicious that it was all an act… and it could all well be, I suppose…
"So what do you want Shigure?" I was beginning to get suspicious… and nervous as he sat in his large chair staring at me.
"Please Yuki, have a drink. You like tea, don't you…?" He began to pour me a drink, and as he handed it to me I stared at it, apprehensively. "Well…? Are you trying to tell me that you won't have the tea I have so kindly made for you out of the scant goodness of my heart…?"
Well I couldn't not have some after him saying that, could I? After all, I did live in his house…
So I drank the tea…
… And instantly knew it was a mistake…
As the bitter taste of the tea trickled down my parched throat I could feel it boiling inside me, drying up my mouth so I had to drink it all, but still my thirst was not quenched.
"Shigure, what have you DONE to this drink?"
"Hmm…?" He looked up innocently from where he was writing, and his eyes gleamed that same malicious gleam they had in them before. "Oh…? Your drink…? I just put some drug or another in it…"
"WHAT?" I couldn't help myself; I just had to get out of the room before something happened to me…
… But my legs wouldn't move… at all…
"I wouldn't bother trying to escape Yuki-kun…" The way he phrased his sentence, it was just so patronising… and I could do nothing about it! "It won't change the fact of what will happen."
"What will happen then Shigure? TELL ME!" I couldn't stand the suspense any longer – I wanted… no, I needed to know what was going to happen to me – because I was suddenly getting that strange feeling that what would happen wouldn't be good…
"Oh…" He smiled gently to himself as he looked at me, helpless and in his power, before resuming his talk in that patronising tone that irritated me so, so much… "I'm only following orders Yuki, and you should know well enough that none of us can disobey our 'god'…"
"No…" He wouldn't have…
… He had…
He knows how much I fear Akito, and yet still he is doing this… even though he was the one that took me out of that hellhole…
… Does that just make this place a holding cell, and he the jailor? Was this just a place to keep me until my sentencing has been completed…?
Does this make my entire life a sham, a lie?
"Yes, Yuki-kun, you know I can't disobey him, and therefore I must make sure that you don't disobey either…"
"B… but… still! Why did you drug me…?"
I could feel my defences lowering as the drug worked through more of my system, consuming all of the feelings in my body… and I couldn't stop it.
"I know you would have run away if I had just told you Yuki-kun…" He leaned in threateningly; whispering against me ear… just like Akito does… "It was a necessary precaution for when I take you to Akito-sama… after all, I'm not allowed to use force against his little pet, but I can use drugs… so much more convenient, don't you think? And so aptly named... Akin Kami..."
I only had two words for him now.
"You. Bastard."
"Tut, tut, tut Yuki-kun, you know that you shouldn't swear in my house, especially when there are impressionable ears here… somewhere…"
"YO, WHERE IS THAT K'SO NEZUMI?"
"… Well… maybe not him…"
Kyo! Never before had I been so glad to hear his dulcet tones before – if only I could scream, or call him… anything so he could hear me, and know where I am… and save me…
… But Shigure had obviously thought of the same thing, which was why he pulled out a roll of duct tape.
"You may not believe me Yuki-kun," He whispered as he wrapped the duct tape around my mouth and wrists, binding me to that tiger-print leather chair. "But I really am sorry… I do like you… I just like my master more, and who wouldn't…? Be careful how you answer Yuki-kun… after all, the walls have ears… And my mouth will speak what they hear..."
"You. Bastard."
"Oh Yuki-kun, Yuki-kun… is that all that you're going to say?"
"…"
"Hey, Shigure!" Kyo's voice rand through the house, and again a glimmer of hope shone through me. "Have you seen that damn rat anywhere? He seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Shigure sang, laughing gaily. "He's just left you know!"
"Where is he going…? Maybe I can catch him up and have that re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-(you get the idea) re-match on his way there!"
"Kyo, no. I think it's best if you just leave Yuki alone. You can always fight him when he gets back on Monday you know… and I'm sure that he will be in a weakened state then…"
"What? Why?" I could almost hear the glee that must me crossing his face… but what did Shigure mean by it…?
Then he answered my question, and it was the worst answer I could have imagined… ever…
"Why will he be weaker…?" Shigure replied to Kyo's question, looking at me, and stroking my cheek as I fell into a forced slumber from the drugs. "Because he is going to be at the main house for the weekend…"
After that, my entire world seemed that little bit darker as I sank into slumber...