Ch. 4. And the killer is...
13wolfsbane: The library part, damn! I'm almost done with this story!
Yin: Thank god!
Koji: Good!
13wolfsbane: ACTION!
Yin: Huh!
Koji: That was fast!
13wolfsbane: Rika threatened to make the commentaries shorter or she'd do me in.
Koji:... I think I know who the killer is.
13wolfsbane: Or do you?
Koji: Huh?
Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, not mine- Grandpa!- not mine.
~~~~~~ (Be warned. I changed a few things in this chapter that isn't in the show.)
The door crept open, each student of the school tip toeing in quietly with hearts racing and blood pumping through their veins. The library- yeah, a perfect place to go to when it's really huge inside with tons of bookshelves and tables-
-and a perfect death trap for the killer to used on them.
A shrouded figure had kept watch behind a fairly large shelf at the door, seeing Takuya as the first one to enter. Next was Rika, J.P, then Koichi, and so forth.
Small-yet fast heavy breaths were silently made from the shrouded figure, ducking and moving away from the shelf to a different direction and plotting the right time to strike. The skull mask the figure wore covering his face, one never seeing the toothy grin implanted on the face with a small chuckle. Soon, it thought, Very soon... they'll die.
~x~
Takuya peeked through the door, checking if it was safe enough to come in. Than again, nowhere was safe with that psychopath on the loose after them for the oddest reason. He looked high and low, side to side, corner to corner: Seemed safe enough, right? Takuya motioned for the rest to enter, beginning with Rika, next J.P, Koichi, and so and so.
Zoe and Yin carefully walked passed Rika, who was holding onto Koji's arms because 'she was scared the killer would get her'- as Yin remembered her words clearly enough to puke them out. If it wasn't for her jealousy- which it was- she wouldn't even try caring what she did if she wasn't clinging to Koji most of the time. Man, what she would do to kick her ass right now.
"I don't trust Rika no more than I can throw. She's giving me a bad vibe." Yin whispered harshly, glaring at everything with annoyance.
Zoe noticed the tone she used in her voice when she said Rika's name and caught on to something she she'd thought would never happen- again!"Yin," Zoe began to whisper back, Yin glaring her way. "Are you... jealous?"
"No, why would I be?" Yin kept her head the other direction, not wanting to talk about it but knew Zoe would get it out of her eventually. "I'm not jealous about anything."
"You're lying Yin. Remember, I can tell when you're not telling the truth when you won't admit it."
Dammit! She just had to be good at that, didn't she? Yin didn't have to say anything for Zoe to know her answer by the look she was giving away on her face. With such clarity, she knew Yin still had feelings for her ex, but just won't come to admit to them. "Yin, maybe-"
"Okay, even though this goes against my horror movie instincts, I think we should split up. That way he can't get to us all at once, so this is how we do it." Zoe was interrupted by Takuya, more of his knowledge released and then received confused and startled expression from the others do to what he'd said last. "What?"
"This is how we do it? Don't you mean here's how we do it like it says in the script?" J.P question the young goggle head boy, bringing out his script yet again to prove a point.
"Yeah, but I wanted to say that instead of what the script had so it'd be more interesting. And you gotta admit, that song is pretty cool!" Takuya gleefully flashed a smile at them with the usual hand behind the head trademark.
They just stare at him, either shocked or awkwardness shown on their faces for him, sighing with a mixture of frustration and total annoyance. Can't believe how he made it to be the leader for their season, he's worse than Takato! Rika thought, in the same state as everyone else.
"Okay, so here's the plan!" Takuya shouted ecstatically.
"And here we go with another lame strategy." Koji murmured in slight annoyance hidden his firm voice.
"The library has two levels, so four people should go look upstairs while the other three stay down here and search. We'll meet back at the entrance in fifteen minutes, sound good?" All nodded in response, keeping to themselves their inner thoughts about Takuya's latest plan- which usually is negative. The J.P rose his hand. "Just a quick question that doesn't involve your lame ass plan that's going to get us killed anyway."
"Shoot."
"When did this school get a library?"
Takuya stares at him, somewhat dumbfounded and taken back to his question with wide eyes of confusion as his mouth fell open, allowing the air to flow in and out. "Actually, I've never been here so I wouldn't know."
"Hold up, if you never been here before, then how do you know there's two levels in this place?" J.P questioned him, a bit suspicious of the young leader.
"Easy: I saw the obvious stairs and Koichi told me about this place when we were running. Aside from that, any more questions? No? Good." Seeing that no one else had anything to say to him at the moment, he took this as a sign to continue with his plan. "Alright! Koji, you, Rika, Koichi, and Yin go upstairs. J.P and Zoe, let's get to work."
As planned out, by Taki of course, Koji, Rika, Yin, and Koichi went upstairs to check while the other three stayed below. Rika went looking around with Koji, remaining as close to him as possible. Yin and Koichi took off by themselves in opposite directions. Even though she knew she should be looking around for the killer (and possibly get killed in the process), she wanted to follow the other two to make sure her theory was wrong- to make sure that he wasn't-
Her memory played back to the day her distrust in him had occurred for the first time in a long while, when he kissed Kari right before her own eyes. Given the thought, she'd never heard his side of the story, because she was so stubborn. He knew very well she was like that, maybe because she opened up to him more than anyone else when they first started out. Dammit, why was she so stubborn?
"Yin?"
She jumps, turning violently the other way when now she faced him. Thank god, it was only Koichi! She sighs, placing a hand over her chest, where her pounding heart was at trying to break through. "You scared me." She said frowning, now her hands laying at her hips.
"Sorry," Koichi replied, smiling sheepishly while scratching the back of his head. "Anything wrong? You looked kinda down when Rika showed and started clinging to Koji." Great! Even Koichi noticed something was wrong with her. Seriously, she can never hold up the facade long or well enough for anyone to not notice or take a hint of any. She kept her silence, allowing her bangs to cover her eyes from view, not wanting her ex's twin witnessing her emotions running wild.
She heard Koichi sigh, and then his words. "He didn't kiss her, you know."
Yin risen her head, now facing him again with his usual calm and collected expression masking his face, one hand hidden inside of his pocket. "What?" Was all she could say to him, in a bit of confusion playing out.
Koichi chuckled softly, not used to seeing Yin look so surprised as she was now. "Koji never kissed Kari that day we were at the beach, she kissed him while you were gone."
Blue eyes casting downward to her feet, not wanting any sort of eye contact with him at the moment of dead annoying silence. "How do you know that for sure? How do you know he didn't kiss her when I left and didn't expect me to come back so soon?"
Koichi smiled. "Because I'm his twin brother and I saw it all take place. C'mon Yin, you should know how protective I am of my little brother."
True, he was protective over Koji at certain points, that she can say. He was even looking out for Koji when they first started dating, back then she thought he was a bit weird because of that. Those were good times, before all of this. "So that's... what happened?"
Koichi nodded, still smiling at her. He had figured since if they all died, he might as well tell her what happened before it was too late. Thank you brother instincts! He thought gleefully. "Alright then, let's go look around and get ourselves killed now." He half-halfheartedly joked with Takuya's plan, now taking off to search the other end of the second level.
"Sure..." She said in a whisper tone, readying to take leave herself when a quick thought came into mind: What Koichi had just said made her think of that day. He'd been telling her the truth all this time and as her usual stubbornness took over her senses she didn't listen, not giving a damn after just witnessing it. Shows how quick she was to act to something so stupid. Come on Yin, you have to look around now, even if you are going to get your freakin' ass killed. Her mind scolded her.
-But I think I need to talk to Koji first.
~x~
Koji felt uncomfortable with Rika holding onto his arm like a girlfriend would. She would stay so close to him like this, she's been doing this since they'd met. Why wasn't she giving him his space? It just didn't feel right with her with him instead of Yin. I wonder if she'll still be mad at me even after death... probably so. He wondered, would she ever forgive him for something he never did or meant to do?
"This place sure is scary, huh Koji?" Rika asked.
Koji didn't answer her, his mind clouded in deep thoughts and remembering that day, how he wished he could have changed it so none of this would have ever happened in the first place. (Takuya blamed it on Yin that a killer is after them all since the separation thing, so I'm just making fun of it again.)
"Koji?" She says his name, grabbing a hold of his attention finally.
"Huh? What is it?"
"Is something wrong? You've been quiet since we got here."
He shakes his head, sending an apologetic gaze at her. "Sorry, just thinking is all... nothing really."
She stares at him for a bit, long enough to think of something that made her smile a bit deviously. "Say, I was wondering- are you... seeing anyone right now?"
"My girlfriend- or now my ex as she puts it, ended our relationship a while back because of something she thought I did that was stupid as hell. And as a matter of fact, I'm still in love with her." Koji said.
"Oh, okay then." Rika said, her tone of voice in a whisper to hide the disappointment that she felt coursing through her.
The two walked down and pass a row of familiar shelves, one looking identical to the last and next one. If a killer was hiding out in this place and decided to pop up, they could easily loose him/her by running through the various of huge shelves. Seems like a plan if he/she showed up. "I don't get why anyone would want to do this to us, I mean- we're good kids. Why? I understand people want me dead because I act like a jackass most of the time, but the others? What reason is there?" Koji said, letting his thoughts out.
"Hey we're all scared, but don't worry. We're all gonna get out of this." Rika said.
They both had stopped suddenly, with Rika now in front of him. She looks into his blue orbs, wrapping her covered arms around his neck- causing Koji to freeze under her grasps as he remembered the almost exact same thing when Kari kissed him- except this wasn't the beach, this was school. Where they were all going to die if they didn't do something about the killer stalking after each and everyone of them. Rika closed her eyes, leaning forward as she brought her face closer to his, their lips almost touching and-
-he placed his hands on her shoulders, shoving her away before anything else happened between them. Before recreating the event that ended him and Yin.
Rika stares at him confusingly, almost hurt as she recalled her own actions. "I can't- I can't do this to her again, I won't hurt her again for something I never did." He whispers, expressions also hurt and anguish as hers was, eyes shut tightly.
"Am I interrupting?"
His eyes flashed open, jerking his to the left when he saw her standing there; her eyes had witnessed it, but to his guess by how she looked at them with such amount of anger, how much did she see? Expressions were the same as that day: hurt, anguish, regret, but mostly betrayal is what he saw in her sapphire eyes. The sound of her voice as if it were cracking, weakening as she were to burst out crying.
Crap, not again! "Yin, this isn't what-"
"Save it!" She almost wanted to scream when she spoke, backing away a step when he took one forward. "I don't wanna hear it, not a single word from you."
"Yin-" Whatever he was going to say to her was going to wait, because just like that she spins the other way she came from and ran off. Koji ran after her, leaving Rika where she was; it wasn't by instinct, or by some strategy he just thought, his heart was all he needed to follow. He quickly spotted Yin just ahead of him, it was a good thing he was faster at running than she was just a little bit, otherwise he would have lost her. "Yin stop!" He calls out to her.
She did stop, but not because of him, but because they both ran into a dead end in the library when they came to a wall and a bookshelf. Both were breathing heavily and fast, Yins back turned to him. Was she mad at him again? Oh please, don't be. He thought almost repeatedly.
He walked towards to her slowly, taking his time so he wouldn't cause her to run pass him. "Yin please, just hear me out."
"You're going to say that she tried to kiss you, aren't you? Just like with Kari?" She responded to him coldly like ice, still not facing him.
"I didn't try to kiss her, Yin, you know that I would never betray you like that."
"There you go again with that crap. Koji, if you ever loved me like you said you did, then leave me alone. Go away!"
"Yin-"
"I said go away!" She now faces him, showing him how much he'd hurt her inside with tears trailing down and wetting her cheeks. She must hate him now. Yin... "Yin, I'm sorry..." He walks closer, now in front of her wit her back fully against the wall. He kept his emotions hidden, suppressed inside of him as he reaches his hands out to her. Out of nowhere, without warning whatsoever she slaps him; not hard nor loud enough to create an echo though.
"I said stay back, you- you bastard." She hisses at him.
He places a hand on his stinging cheek, now looking back at her with a sincere look shown about in his eyes she'd grown to love so much. "I know you don't mean that, Yin." He said casually, causing her to flinch when he got closer to her.
"S-shut up! Just-"
"I won't leave you alone! Never again."
With his finished words, he wraps his arms around hers, bringing her close to fill in the gaps between them. Eyes closed, his hand cups the side of her face, bringing their faces closer as his lips firmly touched hers. She freezes up, never expecting him to kiss her like this after slapping him. His lips on hers, she had forgotten what his lips felt like; the warmth of his stinging her lightly. She finds herself wrapping her own arms around him, and she deepened the kiss with her eyes fluttering to a close.
The familiar sensation, the sweetness of this kiss, how close they were to each other: they both had forgotten about and longingly yearned for it again... just like now.
They pulled away, her feeling his warm breath slamming into her pale skinned face, staring intensely into his familiar blue orbs, his hand caressing her soft skin. "Did you have to kiss me?" She asked quietly, not sounding as harsh as she expected.
"Yes, I did."
"Why?"
He smiled soft and intensely at her as he'd always done, brushing a strand of stray black hair behind her ear. "Because I love you."
"I missed you so much." She finally admitted, burying her face in his chest with her hands fisting at his jacket.
"I missed you, too, Yinni."
They look at each once again, so intense yet gentle. Their lips reconnecting in another kiss, nothing would bring them apart again.
~x~
Rika trails down the aisles alone, holding her arms close to her as if cold with a frightened mask worn over her features. If she wasn't more alone when Koji ran after that girl, Yin (who might have been the ex-girlfriend he was talking about), then was now for sure. Perfect, for once she's found a guy she might have something in common with- other than the flirting Ryo- and he's still in love with his ex. Him going after her was proof enough, wasn't it? It didn't really have to lead to a broken heart ache pounding in her chest.
Unless I can try and change that, if I do have my ways... God! 13 made me skank, didn't she? Rika thought in steamed anger, regretting that I ever given her the role.
She felt paranoid now, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck rising and that other one: As if someone was following her for the passing eight minutes.
Step, step, step...
Her heart had froze, weighing like hard cement; those steps, heavy shuffles being muted each passing second, they weren't hers. The sinking awareness had returned, the rush of blood pumping through her veins of her entire body: cold sweat trickling down her features. Those horrid sounds beckoning louder and louder, closing in on her from behind.
Step, step, step...
Okay, probably J.P or someone pulling a prank on me, that's all... I hope! Rika paused, and so did the muffled steps a second later, crap! Please let it be her imagination, please let it be her imagination, dang it! I'm so going to regret doing this, but-
She turns on the balls of her heels, quickly enough and arms spread out slightly for balance, and was relieved that no one was there to greet her. Letting out a soft and quiet sigh, she allows a timid, weak smile to come across her lips, just glad that it was only her childish imagination running wild- which was very unlikely and stupid of her to do at a time like this. "Seriously, Rika, when are you gonna grow out of that habit?" She says aloud only to herself, since no one was there to listen anyways.
Facing back where she was once positioned at, it struck her hard-
-a rapid sensation flowing in her, with her teeth gritting hard against her own teeth, eyes widening and the urge to scream out of pain when she felt the coolness of a sharp, slim object slicing through her skin and muscles. Rika had began to grip her waist, only now touching a cloth and metal, both grasped by a hand. Wide teary orbs followed the hand, being connected to a shrouded figure in black and a skull mask; listening to the rhythmic sound of his slow and rough breathing.
She choked on her own shaken breath, body beginning to feel numb and limp; she reaches her hand up to his covered face, clutching onto the mask in a full fist and pulled it off. And she saw his face, to her amazement of seeing face above all others- or all people. "Y-you're t-t-the-"
He smiles wickedly down at her, pulling the knife from her torso as it dripped her blood; the red liquid from the freshly made wound staining her clothes. He'd risen the bloody knife high in the air, watching her look so helpless as she was now in his grasps. The look of fear washed over her, trembling with pleading eyes, he grinned even more at her reactions of her final time here. "N-no..." She whispers faintly, tears staining her damp cheeks as she froze, frozen with fear and the coming realization.
He only smiled. "Good-bye, Rika." And with that done, he plunged the knife back into her, creating another wound. And she screams.
~x~
Takuya, J.P, and Zoe ran up the flight of stairs after they heard that high, shrilly shriek only mere seconds ago, grabbing their attentions away from their search to saving a person from getting killed. It was a girl scream they heard, obviously it wasn't Zoe and Yin doesn't actually scream that high, so only meaning that it was Rika.
"C'mon we gotta hurry!" Takuya shouts to the other two as they ran on the balls of their heels, trying to be careful to not bump into anything in the way or fall over anything hard.
Koichi had just come into from behind to the right, catching up with Takuya in a much faster pace with the familiar mask of fear and worry worn over his tight features: He must be worried about Koji, the younger brother, as always. Koichi had a right to be afraid for his younger, there was a freaking killer on the loose after them and may be there on the second level, probably stalking after Yin or Koji to be his next victims. Takuya shook his head, he had to think positive, he had to. No one else is going to die, no one had to die- he had to make sure everyone was out safe and alive.
Takuya glances up, relief washing over him as well as a very faint smile cracking at his mouth when he both Koji and Yin dashing from opposite end of the library, where rays of the moonlight had shown through the clear windows. But why do they look all flushed up? He wondered, putting it aside for later. Right now they had to-
All regrouped at a certain bookshelf where Koji and Yin had stopped, staring at the same direction with eyes widening and mouths gaping open and some covered by hands, gasps released from them. Down only several feet away from them all, lying on the ground with her arms holding onto her red covered waist as one would do in such pain.
"Rika, I'll save you!" J.P, being the only one in the group to take action to this scene before them, runs towards the fallen Rika in an oddly enough way, gently moving her a little bit without having any more blood being spilled.
"It's too late for me... but I know who the killer is now..." She said weakly, wincing of the pain in her freshly made wound, giving away a far off stare in her violet: vision becoming hazy.
"Don't try to talk, just save your breath before-"
"J.P I'm freakin' dying here!" Rika half shouts at him, scowling and wincing in the pain still, leaving J.P a bit dumbfounded with her chosen words. "Oh, well okay then, presume speaking." He says to her, both ears listening to her now.
Rika rolled her eyes at him in frustration, "I caught a glimpse of the freak before he stabbed me, the killer is..."
Before Rika could even finish her sentence, to reveal the identity of the murder hunting them, above the bookshelf over the two teens, several books- some as huge and wide as a dictionary and some small- were pushed off slowly from their rightful place and came falling towards them. J.P and Rika gave out one last scream before the books began to pile hard them, ending their life as quickly as they fell. (Wow! Death by books, never heard of that before.)
"J.P no!" Takuya exclaims for his friends- minus Rika.
Koichi took a step forward, staring in horror at the now dead people with hard covered books sprawled around and over them. "J.P! Rika. J.P!" Koichi cried, turning back to the others then back to the bodies. "He was friend, my roommate, my college buddy," and he turned to Rika, shrugging her off. "I didn't really know her."
"None of us do, she's not from our season." Koji added.
Koichi jolted his head, the quick realization beginning to eat at him. J.P was his roommate, living in the two bed room apartment close to the college, and the rent-
"Oh crap, J.P paid the rent to our apartment," he began to panic, stepping away from the bodies in large steps behind him until his back hit the wall, peering over his right shoulder to see a window just ahead of him. Thoughts briefly running through his mind, thoughts he never knew would make him feel like it would solve anything, and he knew it wouldn't- but he didn't really have a choice. "I can't live in my apartment anymore! Dang it!"
"Wait! I thought you paid the rent." Zoe said confusingly at Koichi.
Still in his panic mode, Koichi just said what he needed to say before committing the deed. "Actually, according the manga version of our season, J.P is really wealthy, so it makes sense that he pays it instead of me." He waited until everyone had understood a word he had said about the now dead J.P, all a little bit flabbergasted by this.
"The bastard owed me money! A lot!" Takuya exclaimed, steam seeming to puff out of his ears. (Animes, can't live without them!)
"Now in any case, since he's dead and I am now homeless... I DON'T WANNA LIVE ANYMORE!" Koichi shouted, for once, and ran towards the window he had discovered only seconds ago. Almost tripping over his own feet, he lands before the windows, getting up with his hands latched onto the locks of the window and threw it wide open. Holding onto the inside wall of the library, he starts to climb out; right leg first and next his whole body, now finding himself standing at the ledge of the highest part of the school building, staring down at the gloomy, shadowy bluish-gray pavement that was his fateful doom. He had dark thoughts of death before, hoping they wouldn't return until everything that has happened today... his dark thoughts consuming him, bringing him down to the depths of old nightmares rekindling...
"Koichi!" The sound of Zoe's voice brought him back to reality, out of his dark thoughts. He saw Zoe climbing out of the window and onto the ledge with him, grabbing at his arm in a distraught-like behavior. "Zoe?" He whispers her name, low enough so that she was unable to hear him.
"Koichi you don't have to do this, Takuya is still your roommate, so you can make the rent together," she tried talking some sense into Koichi, hoping that it would be enough from having him take his own life. "And if that doesn't work, there's always Koji."
Registering his latest actions and on Zoe's words, at the same time trying to hold back the red color blush popping up on his heated face, "I completely forgot about that. Okay, I'm cool now and back to my senses, let's go back inside. He said all with that reassuring smile on his face, receiving a similar one from Zoe as they were carefully moved about the dangerous ledge-
-and there he was, all dressed in a black Halloween costume with a skull mask, not a sound made from him/her when they saw him/her there. He only had a quick look though, since the killer was fast enough to put all of his strength in his arms and pushed Zoe off the ledge; her scream filling the night in the most terrifying music there was. "Zoe!" He shouts, now feeling off balance with his arms waving in the air as the killer had pushed him off, following Zoe in the same fate of tragic death. Four down...
"Koichi! Zoe!" Yin shouts, the last remaining three gathering at the open window and the new figure that stood in front of them.
They froze when the killer faced them, backing them against the nearest bookshelf where there was no way of escaping without him getting them first. He took slow treks forward, the blackness of the skull's eye sockets staring at them in blankness. "Okay, I was wrong before, but I really, really think this guy is the killer." Takuya said, pointing at the killer while trying to sound at least a bit confident.
"No duh, Sherlock." Yin said to him in a sarcastic way. Of course it's the killer, it's not Santa Claus, for cryin' out loud!
The killer moved closer and closer, not a word spoken in the chilling silence he had created for himself, watching their fear taking over them with legs trembling.
"Why are you doing this?" Koji demanded, not receiving any sort of an answer from the killer. Then the killer had finally stopped, extending both of his arms as he grabbed at Koji's and Yin's hand, feeling both of them flinching in his grasps, they had a right to be scared... after what he had done. Then he brings their hands together in lock, having their fingers entwine and backs away from them smoothly.
Confusion had danced around in their features, not knowing what idea of what this was suppose to mean. Looking at their joined hands and then at the killer, Takuya stomps up to him, on hand grabbing the shoulder and the other clutching the mouth of the mask, ripping it from him...
...and his face was revealed, Yins gasp all that was heard. Takuya didn't know what to say, or how to react, he couldn't understand on how it was even possible for the killer to be who he was looking at. As if starring into a mirror, the emotionless face and the same eyes watching them all taking in the new and familiar face. His hair, his eyes, his face.
"It can't be." Yin whispers, shaking hear head in disbelief.
But it was true, what they were seeing was no lie to either of them, to Takuya mostly. What-no, who they saw was real. "Takuya?" Koji said in a blank tone, having the dumbfounded brunette and his double stare back at him: staring back in the same kind of horror in his eyes as when T.K. died, as he found out that Thomas wasn't the killer, and his friends after that. The killer was him.
The killer was Takuya.
~x~
Everyone: WHAT THE HELL!
13wolfsbane: Yep.
J.P: So then the phone-
13wolfsbane: Yep.
Zoe: The message on the blackboard-
13wolfsbane: Yep.
Yin: T.K. and Thomas-
13wolfsbane: Yep.
Koichi: And everyone else, including me-
13wolfsbane: Yep.
Koji: Takuya did it all?
13wolfsbane: Yep.
J.P: But why?
Meke: All will be explained in the next chapter, including an extra that may be too long for one chapter. So leave a review for 13 and tell her what you thought. And she apologizes for the long wait and too long of a chapter she updated.
13wolfsbane: Yep.
Everyone: SHUT UP, ALREADY!
