~Clock Strikes Three~

"Where are we going, miss?"

An additional voice assisted the painstakingly sharp voice. They contrasted each other, one being so evil and one being so... innocent. Surprisingly, instead of canceling each other out, the voices seemed to get along... not so well, though. Perhaps opposites do work out together.

Although Elizaveta never wished to.

"You'll see."

The answer was so unsatisfying, and Eliza felt like banging the woman's head with her trustworthy frying pan, but then again, what could she do? The woman was some supernatural being, Eliza knew for sure. But how, how could anyone escape from her grasp?

"Who are we going to visit, miss?"

Elizaveta was just trying to be nice. She held back her anger, frustration, spite, all behind her gritted teeth. She clenched one her fists and held that hand with the other, trying not to make any wrong moves. She glared at the woman, who didn't bother to look at her. She sighed, loud, and hearing this the woman finally impaled Eliza's eyes with hers.

"I believe he's one of your friend, dear." The woman hissed. "And to give you a clue; he would probably be awake this late, meddling with his little games."

One name flashed onto Elizaveta's mind. She didn't want to believe it. No, how would she kidnap her own friend? But on the second thought, she smiled on how the person would most probably escape the woman with his high intelligence. The kid still had hope.

"You see, lady," She finally got the guts to contradict the woman. "He's a smart ass. He would outwit you and he would never got into your hands."

But she was wrong.

"Beep."

The continuous beeping sound seemed so endless, disabling itself to stop. Hiding under a blanket in the middle of the bed, inside the room, a boy rapidly pressed the buttons on his game console, showing some blue aura-like light. Honda Kiku, an amnesiac otaku, was always stuck with his electronic games every night.

"And now the boss," Kiku finally commented. He looked at the watch glued on his wrist. Five to three. "Let's see if I can beat it within five minutes."

It wasn't a challenge for him. Beating a game in one hour for him was always like a sand flying in the wind, irritating the eyes but can be easily overcame. This one was not a sweat. It was flowing in his blood.

Kiku wasn't obstinate. He does interact with the other people in daytime, only nighttime he would hang out with the beeping device. He never actually wore glasses, and his grades were amazingly, and unexpectedly, high. Maybe the game actually sharpened his logic skills, or maybe it's just him. He's also unexpectedly polite, not like those heavy drunken gamers. Maybe his big brother taught him manners at all cost. Maybe because he had an array of siblings, so he didn't want them to be like him if he's violent or something. But who knows.

Tick... tick...

Not only the game sounded in the correct beat, but the clock assisted the beeping sound, playing in symphony. The long hand of the clock turned as Kiku's hand madly danced, pressing the buttons rapidly in the midst of the battling sprite of the game. After a brief while, he sighed. He had just beat the boss. Which means, beating the game. He saved the game, recalling that he had beaten three hundred fifty-nine games. This one was added to that number as it formed a nice, round three hundred and sixty. Glancing at the clock, he found out it was exactly five minutes.

It was three o'clock.

He smiled and he was about to to raise his fingers from the miniature platform, but it was stuck there. He couldn't move it away from the gaming console, and he panicked. What's more, it started to dance again, pressing the buttons, continuing the finished game and he—he couldn't stop.

"What's happening?" He stared his fingers in utter shock, as the RPG game started to go berserk on itself. "I can't stop!"

Error...

Data-bzzzzzt overload...

S-bzzzzzzt-system getting rid of un-bzzzzt-nknown illegal viru-zzzzzzzzt-s...

He couldn't stop staring at the screen either. His eyes began to burn fiercely, and it really shocked Kiku, because it had never happened to him before. It severed, hurt, ached... and it started to spill liquids around his face.

"A-ah!" He yelped as he saw the liquid fell onto the bluish-green beeping screen. But he didn't yelp because he's afraid that it would damage the console.

He yelped when he realized the liquid was red.

Blood?

"What's happening? S-stop!" He was completely bewildered. At the second touch of the blood onto the screen, it beeps uncontrollably, and a light, a seizure-causing white light, came emerging from it. The blanket got flown away, and the game console was crushed. He flapped his eye lashes for a couple of seconds, and what stood before him had caused more questions upon his highly intelligent brain. A woman appeared in a white, flowing, ominous cloak, face completely hidden.

"Excuse me, lady, who are you?" Kiku tried to be polite, and he wiped the blood off his face. He could feel—feel, not see—the woman smiling, evil radiating from her very being.

"Same question, as before. And I give the same answer. It's none of your business."

Kiku's eyes gone wide as the woman drew a blade—small, but dead scary. He backed off to the corner of his bed, and, his room, as the lady came closer.

"Wha-what are you doing, lady? S-stop!" he stuttered as the woman pinned him. She drew the blade onto his neck. That shut him up.

"I want you to follow me." She whispered. It was freezing, the sound, like the soft winter gusts in the middle of a blizzard.

"Wh-where?"

"Be my companion," she answered. "And I want you to murder... your smug, big brother."

"N-nii-san?" He blurted out. "But—"

"Oh, don't you just wanna kill him," she started pressing the blade onto his neck. "He had always been a pain to you. Taking your pleasure away, ordering you around, you know, how first children act around their younger siblings."

His eyes widened even more.

Yao did that all the time. He always acted smug towards his siblings, especially to him. Do this, do that, don't, NEVER... That always came out of that Chinese's mouth. Even once Yao and him fought and beat the crap out of each other because of some stupid reason Kiku forgot, until their younger siblings started to cry and tried to stop them. He felt a black grudge burning inside his heart.

...No.

Shake it away, Kiku, He slapped himself mentally. He's your brother.

His attention turned to the woman again. He smiled, he knew one way to get off from her. He had been holding it as a secret.

The secret that only he knew.

The secret made every night when he was awake.

He's the third child, smartest and most cunning.

"I'm sorry, lady," he apologized without any sorry. "I can't believe I'm actually saying the word he likes to say... but my response would be, 'no'."

He pressed a button underneath his bed. The woman didn't expect this; totally in awe at his foresight. The Japanese slid down a hole opened by the button, but when she tried to grab him, the hole closed. She let out a growl of anger.

But Kiku wouldn't have to hear it. He slid down the hole, until he reached a basement. His own basement. It was his idea to make it, because he knew that someday, a stranger might get his way towards the house, or, his room. He prepared this for it. He could hear a lot of thrashing up in his bedroom, probably the woman fighting the traps he also made in case something happened. It was a little bit scary, how it wouldn't stop; but it eventually did. He smiled at his brilliance. The traps he prepared were the most deadliest, and if someone actually pushed and strived through, they would get killed.

But no one shall run away.

He walked to the small couch he unknowingly stole from the living room, and slumped on it. The Asian family had a very big mansion, so losing a furniture would hardly be noticed. There were tables, lamps, chairs, a bookshelf, a small fridge, even his manga collection was stored there. Most of them were yaoi, though. That's why he hid them all here.

He was calming himself down, grabbing a tissue and wiped the blood on his neck and placed a herb he took from the first aid onto the wound. He noticed that his eyes were still bleeding—literally—and thought of wrapping it with a bandage.

When he was about to reach it, someone covered his mouth and pulled him backwards. Kiku yelled, but it couldn't be heard. The sound was stifled by the hand.

Kiku can hear a whisper.

"I'm sorry, Kiku."

He almost got out from my grasp.

The woman appeared in front of him again, sliding down from his bedroom. The sight was horrifying; she had a broken neck, an arm orientated not the way it was supposed to, even one of her hand was amputated... she had survived all Kiku's traps. She smiled, satisfied on how...the person managed to get Kiku. Kiku tried to look at the kidnapper. It was... it was his own friend, Elizaveta. He was genuinely shocked by this.

"I finally got my hands onto you..." She smiled again, a smile he hated very much. She put her hands onto his forehead. Kiku shook his head, and the woman drew her hand back. "So, tell me you changed your mind."

He shook his head again.

"Well," She said. "You'll die."

He didn't want his brother to die in such young age. He didn't want to die in the age of twelve too. He didn't have the choice he wanted. He hated this.

He knew Elizaveta hated this too. Explanation can wait—he can already feel Eliza's red tears dripping on his shoulder. He glared spitefully to the woman.

He finally surrendered himself to her.

"Good. Let's go."

A second later, they were transported by a strong wind, into another place.

A black cave.

He ran his eyes around the cave, observing. Something caught his eyes.

"Gilbert-san? What happened?"

Gilbert was already awake. He smiled bitterly. "A lot."

He ran to him, Elizaveta watching in the back, hand held forcefully by the woman. Both of the woman was once again teleported by the wind. They were gone in the matter of seconds.

Kiku was muted. Desperate to check his watch, he glanced at it.

It was broken. But it was moving.

In fact, the second-hand had just passed through four o'clock.

~Prey Caught: 3/12

~Eyes Taken: 0/12 pair


~TBC~