Chapter 2: Things you see in a Graveyard

-Nathan-

Seventeen years. It's been seventeen years. Since what you ask? Since she died. My wife, Amani, was my everything. We married young, both of us 18 at the time. So deeply was I in love, it didn't seem real to me.

Unfortunately, luck had never been on my side.

Three months into our marriage, Amani told me she was pregnant. You can't imagine the rapture I felt! I was going to be a father! That is, until Amani got sick. A strange form of blood cancer, it seemed to be. I'm an oncologist, I should know.

I thought I could heal her. I had never failed a patient before, I wasn't about to fail the most important person in my life. She was in the final month of gestation period, when I thought I'd found the cure. Oh, the pride and relief I felt when I handed her the formula, thinking everything was going to be fine.

Within six minutes, she was dead.

To this day, I have no idea how that poisonous substance managed to get into my lab. I had never carried anything of the sort, and yet it ended up in my medicines. The only explanation I could come up with is that I had accidently placed it in one of my viles at the hospital.

I remember it all so clearly…the blood pouring in droves from every orifice of her, the soft, whimpering, desperate murmurs she made as I tried to hold her up.

I knew I had to act quickly if I was to save my infant son. Choking back sobs, I sliced open her bulging stomach.

As I pulled the baby's wriggling, bloody mass from her womb, he was silent. I knew he wasn't dead, for he moved quite animatedly, but he made no noise at all.

After wiping him of Amani's blood, he opened his eyes. Those beautiful, warm chocolate eyes with tiny flecks of green. They stared at me, blinking every so often, appearing to offer me comfort.

Setting him aside, I called the hospital. An ambulance came, and carted Amani's ruined body away. I explained the situation to the police afterwards, and was readily prepared to be arrested. However, my boss, Pegasus Crawford appeared on the scene, and pardoned me for her death.

You see, I worked for GeneCo, then and now. From the beginning of my employment, I knew that Pegasus had a certain attachment to me. At first I assumed it was because of my exceptional performance in my profession.

It wasn't until later I began to suspect an attachment of a different kind.

Doing my best to ignore his subtle advances, I started dating Amani. The deeper I became involved with her, the more he pressed his affections.

Once we were married, it seemed that he finally backed off.

Anyway, once the situation with my wife was settled, I was able to attend to my son. What a beautiful boy he was, he looked almost identical to his mother. His hair (which he had a surprising amount of for a baby) was as white and pale as the moon.

I named him Ryou, which means pale beauty.

It didn't take me long to discover he bore the blood disease as well. I had him scanned as soon as I could.

But, even before I knew he was sick, I knew I was never going to let him go. So small, so sweet, so pretty a thing was he, the world would only seek to harm him.

What a beautiful young man he has come to be. A tad thin, I suppose, but that is mostly because of his medication. And he is so well mannered! I don't think I've had a cross word from him in my life!

Ryou, poor Ryou, I wish I knew if you would live to yet another year…your sure has ever slipped beyond my grasp of knowledge. You'll have to stay the course for now.

Happy Birthday, my Ryou.

-801 Cheapside St, 10:00 p.m.-

Beep…Beep…Beep…Medication Reminder!

The polytonal machine announced the requirement of another dosage.

The room itself was considerably large. A blank, white canvas was perched on an easel in the far left corner of the room. Pallets of paint, as well as several color-filled canvases, were stacked neatly adjacent to the easel.

A television, kept in the most attentively clean condition, sat atop a desk against the north wall. Six bookcases, laden with thick texts, lined up evenly along the entire expanse of the east wall.

Against the south wall was a king sized, four poster canopy bed. Long plastic curtains draped down from the canopy, concealing the mattress from the surrounding air. The only window was the size of the west wall, opening out to a balcony.

Next to the bed was the now blaring medication monitor, disturbing the sleep of its snowy-haired occupant. The teen's large brown eyes blinked open as he groggily pushed open his plastic curtain to reach the alarm.

"Ryou?" Nathan stepped into the room, "Did you take your meds?"

Ryou sat up against the downy pillows, "Um, I was about to, just a minute…" He reached for the thin needle on his bedside table. The tiny shot pierced the crook of his forearm, pushing the medication into his bloodstream.

His father let out a relaxed sigh, "Alright, I was just waking certain." Ryou smiled weakly, settling back into the pillows. Nathan kissed his son's forehead before closing the curtain and crossing to the door.

"Good night, precious," he whispered before exiting.

The boy slumped after his father had gone and clutched the white comforter is his fists, "Well, happy birthday Ryou. Another year of successful survival," he muttered to himself.

Flinging the covers back, he slipped out of bed. He stripped himself of his loose white t-shirt, and instead opted for a white tank top and a short, black, button-up vest. Stuffing his long, coltish legs into a pair of dark jeans and sneakers, the teen quietly snuck into the hallway. As anticipated, his father had gone to sleep.

Downstairs behind the staircase was a tunnel that plunged under the house towards the graveyard, and ended inside his mother's mausoleum. 'Just a quick 'hi'' he thought, 'and then I'll go back to bed…'

-Kul Elna Graveyard, 10:15 pm-

Several insects and a few specks of dust were meticulously swept off by Ryou's pale, slender hands from the roughly-cut tombstone. "Amani Morgan, 2015-2033" was the letters and numbers etched into the rock.

Ryou was a frequent visitor to this tomb. At least once a day he would come. Sometimes he would come bearing trinkets for the grave, sometimes to read aloud, but most often to talk.

The pale child was alone. Except for his father, never had he made contact with another living person. It was obvious to him that his father wanted it that way. Even knowing his father's designs, Ryou could not bring himself to begrudge him. He understood that his father was still tormented with the death of his mother, and didn't want to lose yet another family member. He loved his father, and didn't want to cause him any unhappiness, especially because the man had devoted his entire life to finding Ryou's cure.

But in the recesses of his heart, he longed to be set free; to talk to people, to be limitless, and to see the world that he had only read about and seen from television programs.

Over the years, he became accustomed to talking to the tombstone; sharing secrets of his, new discoveries, or anything of the sort. Since his mother was dead, she would never betray his trust, like his father insisted people did quite often.

The albino wiped his nose, smiled, and patted the polished marble. He bent his head over the slab reverently, just ghosting his lips over his mother's name, "Goodnight Mom, thank you for giving up so much just for me."

He was all prepared to leave, when he felt the iron doors of the mausoleum clang from an impact. Ryou jumped and sucked in his breath. A second resounding clang met his ears, the doors giving way partly. He wanted to open the hidden staircase and run back inside, but found himself rooted to the spot in fear, and curiosity.

The doors swung open, and a figure stumbled inside. Thrusting against the doors again, the doors slammed shut, leaving the person panting against them with his back to the boy.

The figure appeared to be a man, at least half a foot taller than the teen. His hair was a light shade of grey, cropped below his shoulders in layered spikes, nothing to Ryou's feathered snowy locks. A soiled red robe, muddy at the coat tails, hugged the man's shoulders while billowing at his waist down to his ankles. Thick brown boots covered his feet.

The man turned, and then stumbled back when he took notice of Ryou. He had pale lavender eyes, and very tanned skin. His chest was covered by a black muscle shirt, and his legs were clothed by a pair of tight jeans. A wicked scar ran vertically along his eye, to be intersected by two horizontal slashes just below his cheekbone. All around, he looked disheveled and dirty, yet held a very handsome physique and face.

He spoke, "Did you hit this one already?"

Ryou cocked his head, "I'm sorry…what?"

This appeared to amuse the man, "Oh, you aren't a grave robber, my mistake. What are you doing in here, babe?" Ryou was too overwhelmed to speak. He shrugged, "Oh well, outta the way please," he pushed past the boy, and began shoving at the crypt.

Ryou panicked, "Hey! Stop that!" He swatted at the man's hands.

"What? Sorry sugar, I have to. It's my job." The man explained evenly.

Once again, Ryou was perplexed, "It's your job to defile people's graves?"

A crooked grin spread across the man's face. He reached inside his cloak, and pulled out a small glass vile filled to the brim with an eerily glowing green substance. "Where do you think people get Zydrate? Graveyards. What sort of things do you see in a graveyard?"

Ryou shook his head. The man rolled his eyes, then took Ryou's wrist. Startled, Ryou tried to lean back, but was pulled out of the tomb, into the graveyard outside. It was ironic, he thought, that his first moment outside would be in a place of the dead.

The mysterious grave robber stooped over an opened grave, pulling out the corpse. "Like this, watch," he ordered. From his cloak, he pulled out a long syringe and roughly inserted it into the corpse's nostril. Ryou covered his mouth in the grotesque nature of it. The glowing substance began to trickle like water into the empty vile. Once it was completely filled, the man withdrew his needle. "That's how you get Zydrate. Promise not to tell?" Ryou nodded his head dumbly.

He chuckled, and ruffled Ryou's hair, "Anyway, what's a pretty little thing like you doing in here?"

He pointed back to the mausoleum, "That's my mom," he said.

The grave robber nodded, "Oh. Sorry I tried to stick her, but hey, a guy's gotta make a living right?" He stood, and wiped some of the Zydrate residue from his cloak, "So what's your name, kiddo?"

The smaller one offered his hand politely, "I'm Ryou, nice to meet you,"

The taller smirked and outstretched his own, "Touzokuo."

The introductions were interrupted by an authoritative shout from across the yard, "Hey! We have Grave Robber's on site! Hurry up! Grave Robber's on site!"

A/N: Cliffhanger. Will Ryou and Touzo get away? Of course they will, but not without a few setbacks and an exciting chase scene. Hehehe. I hope this intrigued you if nothing else. Do let me know if the story is at all confusing, I know it can get a little hard to follow. Chapter three should be up in a few days, so be on the lookout!