Oh, dear...I think all Naomi and Seiko shippers will tremble in fear at the name of this chapter...
It's exactly what you think it is, just with a little twist at the end. A sad twist, probably.
The next chapter will be far more light-hearted, have the best chapter name I have ever come up with, and contain both NaomixSeiko and YoshikixNaomi. We'll get back to the serious stuff once I get some more tissues. Enjoy, and thank you for all your support!
"Seiko...Seiko, where did you go?"
She was ashamed of how weak her voice sounded in the cutting dark, trembling and faint. Naomi Nakashima haled in her steps, standing still as if listening for something that would never be heard again.
There was nothing, as she had expected. She was alone here, after all. After having split up with the rest of her fellow students, the basement corridors ahead had twisted and lurched on seemingly forever, swallowed up by menacing darkness that held no trace of her best friend.
Seiko...What had they done with her? What did they plan on doing? Naomi had seen the girl's corpse plain as day, eyes blank and wide, face pale and expressionless like a twisted, frightening parody of the girl she once knew. Seiko was long dead, yes she knew that...But she wasn't going to leave what remained of her friend behind while everyone else escaped together.
Seiko had been the one from the start, determined to make it out alive and safe. She belonged outside, somewhere with fresh air and a slight breeze, somewhere where the sun shone on her and the grass swayed. Not here in these ancient corridors that stank of gore and decay and one thousand atrocities. Seiko was light, and she couldn't say here in the shadows.
Naomi wouldn't let her.
"I'm not going to let them hurt you anymore!"
It was fruitless, she knew, to call out to a corpse. Corpses were just that after all-shells that held life one. If anything, Naomi was just giving whatever spirits pursued her an extra hint.
But…
"I'm going to protect you!"
She gulped back another fit of tears as she spoke. No time for crying here, not when her best friend was in danger, not while they had taken her away and were now planning on doing God-knows-what to her corpse…
The thought was accompanied with a flash of anger to her oppressors, and spurred her on her way again. Her footsteps echoed mockingly against the dirt basement walls, like sentinels as she traversed further down the hall. Wooden doors lined the hallway, and she stopped to try them, but they all seemed locked shut. Each time she pulled, there was no give, just like a few of the doors upstairs.
However, just as she was about to give up on the doors, one yielded with a deafening creak that made her jump in the stillness.
The first thing she notice was the noise. Erratic and jumping, it sounded just like static on the radio. The room itself was devoid of any people-including Seiko-and seemed to be lit with a dull, flickering light. After a moment, she realized that the source was the afterburn of a small television stationed in the far right corner of the room.
There was no picture on it. It simply flickered static off and on as the door closed heavily behind Naomi.
Intrigued, the girl crossed the room in order to investigate further. The television seemed quite old, perhaps made in the nineties or so, with antennas standing up straight at the top. Naomi frowned a bit, crouching and tapping on the screen once-
Suddenly, though, the image wavered and a voice echoes from the TV, making Naomi cry out and jump backwards.
"My name is Shougo Taguchi. I work as Kou Kibiki's cameraman and personal assistant."
Not even having time to grumble about how hard she had landed on the floor, Naomi instantly perked up, standing before the TV in an effort to see what was going on.
The man on the screen seemed young, even though it was sort of hard to tell given the shakiness of the image. It appeared to be filmed on a little camcorder, and the picture on the screen seemed fuzzy with static jumping out once in a while. He was blonde, squinty-eyed. He looked very scared and, furthermore, he appeared to be at Hevanly Host.
Naomi's heart jumped. Had someone ended up being taken to the school recently without her knowledge? She checked the date, blinking on and off in the lower left-hand corner, and affirmed that it was indeed filmed recently. Perhaps he was still here?
He had gotten separated from his boss, he went on to say, but had decided to film as much as he could in order to document the events at the school. That much was useful, she supposed. Maybe she could even take this tape up with her, so that she could prove nobody was crazy-otherwise she'd be sent to the psychiatrists for sure!
The young man went on, his voice shaky. "These records will serve to validate my excista-
"NO! DON'T!"
Naomi jumped yet again as he was interrupted by what sounded like a girl screaming. Oh, God, she wasn't going to have to watch another victim, was she? She'd had enough of those! Yet, something prompted her to keep watching, maybe because in the back of her head the voice sounded a little familiar…
The cameraman seemed as shocked as she was. There was another piercing scream, one that made Naomi cover her ears for a moment, and then the hurried sound of pounding feet. The cameraman seemed to be running to investigate, something which she couldn't help but think was a bad idea, considering the location.
The camera bounced up and down as the man ran, causing the images to sway and Naomi to feel a little sick. Eventually, though, he seemed to slow down enough for her to get a good look at the room he was in. Her heart froze. There was no mistaking that room. There was no mistaking that stall.
And there was absolutely no mistaking that voice.
"Please...Don't do this…"
It couldn't be. It couldn't…
The camera swept over the bathroom, shaking slightly in the cameraman's hands. There was the horrifying-looking monster she had run from earlier. There was Seiko, strung up in the stall with the rope around her neck, looking at her murderer with fear in her face, abject terror in her voice.
And the person hanging her…
The person hanging her was…
"Naomi, please! Don't do this!"
Seiko's hands were clearly tied behind her back, judging by the way her shoulders shifted in a vain effort to escape. The curly-haired girl was standing on a bucket, the rope around her neck, tears running down her face.
"No...No...Naomi, please, wake up!"
The Naomi on the little screen made no response.
"Naomi, please, no…!"
The Naomi on the screen-Oh God, no-seemed zombie-like, as though in a sort of trance. Her hands worked fast and diligent, with as much apathy as when she tied her shoes.
There was a metallic bang as she watched herself kick the bucket, a horrible choking noise-
Her name uttered pleadingly between half-emitted coughs-
And Naomi fell to her knees at the sound of it.
The cameraman apparently couldn't take it anymore either, and quickly ran out of the bathroom, a quiet scream escaping him.
Suddenly, though, he turned and-
Oh, God, Oh, God, Please no, Please no-
She was there, staring into the camera with eyes as blank as the ones on Seiko's corpse-
Seiko's corpse that she had choked the life out of-
And all at once the camera shut off.
And Naomi was horrifically and utterly alone.
'Let's get out of here together, Naomi!'
Seiko..
Her best friend was dead, and she...Instead of saving her…
A hoarse scream tore its way out of her throat, echoing back mockingly from the walls of the basement room.
"Seiko! SEIKO, NO! I couldn't….I didn't…!"
But you did, didn't you?
"Oh,God, NO!"
Her hands flew up to grip her hair, and the sharp pain cutting through her skull wasn't even worth her notice.
She'd killed Seiko.
She'd killed her.
"Seiko, no...No, no, no, no, no…"
Her fervent protest melted into sobbing, her eyes squeezing shut as she attempted to block everything out, and something in her chest had split wide open, a bleeding break where Seiko had been and where Seiko had vanished-
A coldness enveloped her body, an infiltrating sort of substance leaking into her mouth and making her gag, just as it had in the Infirmary.
She knew it was the darkening.
She didn't care.
She welcomed the black tendrils, keeping her eyes shut as the darkness seeped into every pore on her skin, teetered on the brink of passing out, desperate for the end.
Her own hand was turning black.
Good.
And then…
Beep!
What on Earth...The cheesy little text tone she'd chosen for her phone? Why was it going off now?
Somehow, by sheer force of will, Naomi managed to move through the haze, dug her hand into her pocket to retrieve the pink device, and as soon as she flipped it open-
How the hell are ya, babe! ^_^
Sorry about earlier. D:
I apologized, though, so you have to forgive me now!
If you don't, I'll email you a beau-tiful crotch shot.
So, watch out! ;)
Let's get the hell outta this dump together.
Hand in hand, right? :3
Untill we meet again…
You'd better get it on with your darling little mochi, or else!
Anyway,
I'll be waiting for you by the entryway.
We can kiss & make up
xxxooo
oooh la la
It was like reading a death sentence. The dumb emoticons, the innuendos, the assertive phrasing...All of it was Seiko, and it hurt. God, her poor friend must have been about to send this when she…
The thought made her want to scream.
No. No. I'm done. I can't take this anymore.
Everything hurt too much. Seiko has sounded so scared, so desperate…
The only thing Naomi had left had been taken away. And Naomi had done it herself.
Beep!
What? Another message appeared in her inbox.
Sender: Seiko. Subj: No Hard Feelings
It was the same damn message! How was she even receiving these? Was it some kind of glitch?
Or was it…
Beep!
There it was again, spamming the inbox the way Seiko had always done when she decided that Naomi was taking too long to respond.
How the hell are ya, babe? ^_^
The familiar little pet names were making her want to cry. But it couldn't be true. Not even Seiko could forgive her for what she had done...Naomi was sure that even she wouldn't, had their places been exchanged. Not after what she had said. Not after what she had done.
Beep!
No, Seiko hated her now. And that was okay. Naomi hated herself, too.
Beep!
Seiko...What have I done to you?
"Seiko…" Her voice was barely audible in the darkness. "It's okay to hate me. I know you do. And it's okay, really..What I did...Everything I did was…"
Beep!
Message received. Subject: No Hard Feelings.
"...Seiko…" It was barely even a whisper.
Beep!
Her inbox was filled with the same message, over and over, repeated as far as she could scroll.
No hard feelings...But there was, wasn't there? There had to be!
"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry…"
And she was. Sorry her friend had never made it outside, sorry she hadn't even been able t graduate yet, sorry she hadn't even been able to steal that kiss from Naomi she was always talking about…
Let's get the hell outta this dump!
"Seiko…"
Hand in hand, right? :3
"I love you.."
The words were out without her even thinking, and they brought another wave of crippling sadness because they were true.
She loved Seiko when she was smiling.
She loved Seiko when she was crying.
She loved Seiko when she just wouldn't shut up.
She loved Seiko when she had to reminder her for the fifth time that day to get her damn hand away from her butt
And she had never told her.
Beep!
"I love you so much..."
Beep!
One more message, one more echo of the girl she had loved so dearly, and Naomi could barely see it through her tears.
But it was different.
Sender: Seiko. Subj: 3
With a shaking thumb, Naomi pressed 'open'.
I know, sweetheart.
I know.