It's time for all the little kiddies to run in fear!

Innocent Atrocities/ Demento

Chapter 02: Strange Door

Ryou turned over. There was a misplaced smell surrounding him. 'What is this . . .?' He thought . 'It smells like . . . flowers . . . I think.' He slowly opened his eyes. all he could see were thorns. He jumped up in shock. "What the hell?" he looked around only to see thorns. "Where am I?" he felt a light breeze blow by. "When did it get so . . ." before he could finish the sentence, he looked down.

He was completely naked, save a sheet covered in rose petals. The rose petals floated off in the wind when he sat up. Ryou wrapped the sheet around his waist before standing up. This small conscious motion caused his heart to calm down slightly. He put his chest and sighed. 'Well . . . I can't be sure of this, but perhaps I'm still somewhere on the castle grounds . . . it would a whole lot easier if I had a map. Ah well, for now I should get out of this . . . rosebush . . .' He hesitated then reached for a branch.

Back at the suite, Azure Kite shivered on the bed. 'I hope I'm imagining Ryou not being here . . .' He thought with his eyes closed. He sat up and opened his eyes. Ryou was nowhere to be found. 'Where did he go?' He thought. 'He couldn't have gone to the restroom . . . I doubt he knows where it is. Knowing him he probably decided to wander the castle looking for one . . . But I know him, and I know that he wouldn't go anywhere in this strange place without me! Someone must have taken him out of the room! But . . . why would someone want to take Ryou away? What could they possible want him for?' he stood up. 'I'll figure that out after I find him . . . but where should I start to look?' Azure Kite looked at the doorway on the same floor, then he looked down at the door on the lower floor. Before he could make a solid decision he heard a knock at the door.

It was the maid again. "Sir, dinner will ready shortly," She held up two neatly folded outfits. "My master requests that you dress accordingly."

Azure Kite took the outfits and nodded. 'She doesn't scare me and yet . . . something feels weird . . .' All of a sudden he felt a hard blow to the face; the fact that he was caught off guard made it even worse. The maid said nothing and merely closed the door behind her. However, Azure Kite could have sworn he heard a shriek down the hallway.

'What was that?' Azure Kite rubbed his cheek. 'It was so . . . ill conceived . . . I hope her personality isn't like that on a regular basis . . .' He looked at the clothes provided and held up a white blouse with ruffles around the collar, a collar that sloped quite low. 'Heh, this would look nice on Ryou . . .! That's right I have to go find him! . . . I don't want to provoke her again though . . . I'll change just in case I run into her. Azure Kite held up the top for a brief moment. 'This doesn't feel right . . .' He could not help but turn to the portrait of the old man. It felt as though the portrait was staring at him, or even like there was something with eyes inside of the portrait. 'I don't want to do this . . . But I have to.' He turned his back to the portrait and changed tops as quickly as possible. When it came to the pants his parinoia went up a notch as he decided to hide behind the bed. When finally dressed he looked at himself in the only reflective surface in the room: the window. 'I never would have thought that something cut like this would look good on me . . .' He thought, playing with the ruffles on the collar. 'The pants are a bit tight around the waist though . . . It's not a lot, but it is a bit much . . .' He tugged at the pants legs a little then looked over to see a pair of boots near the bed. 'I suppose it can't hurt . . .' He thought before stepping into them. Before he could zip them all the way up a loud series of knocks caused the door to vibrate. 'Now what is it?' He trekked to the door. 'I don't want to get slapped again.'

He opened the door and was immediately assaulted by the one knocking; it was Ryou. He had on nothing but a bed sheet wrapped around his waist. His body was covered in blood and small cuts. His hair was peppered with leaves, dirt, and even tree bark. There was a wild, panic-stricken look in his violet eyes. "R-Ryou, what happened?" Azure Kite wanted to pull the boy closer to him, but he had no idea how or where to touch him. He merely hovered over him.

"Huh . . . Kite . . . is that you?" Ryou whispered. "I'm not . . . I'm not imagining you're voice . . . am I?" Ryou looked up at Azure Kite dolefully.

"No, you're not imagining me, I'm here, so calm down."

"Ah, that's good . . ." Ryou paused. Then he sat bolt upright.

Azure Kite looked worried. "Ryou, be careful," He scolded. "You're hurt pretty badly!"

Ryou was quiet as he looked Azure Kite in the eye. "Kite . . . what happened to your face?"

"Ryou, you're practically naked and covered in cuts! I don't even know if it's a good idea to touch you!"

The teen smiled. "You can touch me wherever you want whenever you want."

Azure Kite frowned. "Ryou, I'm serious!" He grabbed Ryou's shoulders as lightly as possible, and pulled him onto the bed, Ryou flinched. "Eh? See what I mean!"

"Hey it just stung a little! All I need is some peroxide, a few Band-Aids, and bed rest!" Ryou laughed nervously. "Well . . . there is the matter of the gardener, but that can wait. What happened to you?" Ryou spoke fast, as though he did not want Azure Kite to fully understand his words.

Too bad the knight beat him to the chase. "Ryou . . . tell me what happened."

". . . I fell asleep after you did. When I woke up I was in the middle of a rose garden. Most of the cuts came from the fact that I was actually in the middle of dense rosebush forest, it was a painful chore to get out." He took a deep breath. "Little did I know that getting out was the easy part. When I finally managed to get out, I saw this huge guy. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call him a monster than a man . . . I dunno . . . All I can say is that I don't think he was too happy to see me outside of the bush."

"What did he do?"

"For a moment, he just stared at me with this big blank expression; kinda like the way you in a fight. Then he started to chase me."

"Why?"

"I have no clue, then again if he was the one who put me there, then I doubt he wanted me out of his sight."

"Well you got out his sight long enough to reach here, how did you manage that?"

Ryou sighed. "I climbed up a tree and didn't come back down until I couldn't see him. By that time it was pretty dark and the only way I made it back in the castle was through a corridor that seemingly hadn't been used in ages. From there I just wandered the castle until I heard a woman screaming. I turned a corner to see the maid coming down a flight of stairs I went up the stairs, hoping that it would lead me back here, I got lucky in that regard." He raised an eyebrow. "I can only guess that she came from this room, and your face is swollen, so that means something happened. . ."

"Well . . . when I woke up and saw that you weren't there my first instinct was to look for you. However, I wasn't sure where to look . . . by the time I made up my mind the maid came in with clothes that "The Master" requested we wear to dinner. I didn't say or do anything I swear, in fact I was gonna thank her, but I couldn't get the words out before she just slapped me!"

"That's all?" Ryou asked with a hint of suspicion.

"That's the truth . . ." Azure Kite replied exhaustedly.

"I wonder why . . . Oh!" Ryou's eyes suddenly lit up.

". . . Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You are wearing a different outfit! It looks really nice!"

Azure Kite blushed in spite of himself. "This isn't the time or place for that. . ." It was clear that the boy was not listening to him. In fact, he had deftly wrapped his arms around the knight and rested his head on his chest. "Ryou, this really isn't the time!"

"I'm kinda dizzy . . . I think my run of the castle is catching up with me . . ."

". . .All right you can stay like that but don't try anything else."

"Too tired . . ."

"You know the maid is going to come back, and she won't be happy if you're not properly dressed."

"I don't care."

"I could do it for you."

"Nope, that would involve you getting up, and I don't want you to move for a while."

"Ryou . . . at any other time I would give in to the fact that you're acting like a complete brat, but right now I can't do that, we need to find a way out of here as quickly as possible."

". . ."

Azure Kite looked at the tired look in Ryou's eyes and sighed. "How about this: we'll stay like this a short while longer, you get dressed, and then we find a way out of here. To be honest, we can't afford to lose any more time, but you're hurt, so we'll start slowly . . ."

"What's the matter?" Ryou looked up.

"Our . . . bags. . ." Azure Kite looked as far over the bed as possible. "I got so wrapped up in everything else that I didn't notice . . . Our stuff is missing!"

"Well, then, it's clear that whoever owns this place doesn't want us to leave. It's also clear that he or she doesn't want us to be in the same area either." Ryou touched his shoulder. "Well, the cuts don't seem to hurt as much now, not to mention . . ." He pointed to Azure Kite's stomach. "You've walked long distances with worse injuries. We should get going." He stood up slowly and dropped the sheet from around his waist. Azure Kite couldn't help but cover his eyes. Ryou looked down then at Azure Kite then smirked. "It's funny," He said much louder than necessary. "I walked through a thicket of roses, fell on my face multiple times, and climbed up a tree, but this one place doesn't have a scratch. Heck my legs and thighs are messed up too, and so is the sheet, but one area is left unharmed."

Azure Kite's arms shook, he was trying hard to not peer through his fingers.

"Ha-ha it's fine I've got the pants on now."

The knight hesitated and tried as hard as he could to not look at Ryou from the waist down when he finally peeked.

Ryou pulled at his suspenders and smiled. "This isn't half bad. . . I'm not sure what the suspenders are for though . . ." He let go of them with a snap. "The pants are already tight around the waistline."

"Ryou . . . aren't the suspenders supposed to go over the blouse?"

"But I don't wanna . . ."

"Geez. . ." Azure Kite hissed and snatched the blouse off the bed. Without a word he slipped the straps of the suspenders off his shoulders, jerked the blouse onto Ryou's body, and buttoned it. He even pulled the suspender straps back up. Then he walked back to the bed and flopped on it, blushing.

Ryou smirked again and said. "You forgot something." He dangled a purple vest in Azure Kite's face.

Azure Kite looked irritated. He snatched the vest and put it on himself instead of Ryou. Ryou merely laughed, put on some shoes, and opened the door. He peered around it down the hallways. At first he seemed calm, then the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

"Ryou what's going on?" Azure Kite inquired.

Ryou slammed the door shut and leaned against it. "Kite, shut up and get under the bed."

Chapter 02/ End

Well, then join them next time!

Ah, yes, for the record the spontaneous slap thing will be explained. Just sit tight.