Disclaimer: I do not own Durarara or any related references that I have used in the fic. For sure, I didn't refer to any fic from other authors as well.
Warning: Yaoi, angst, gore, horror, drama, violence, swearing, and more. Multiple pairings and semi-IC for everyone. AkaShiki, Shizaya and Izanri.
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Ano Uchi no Koto Winterbell
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Hi, it's me, Izaya, and I'm still experiencing all the shit here in Winterbell. Just last night, I have a dream about a creepy dinner and then followed by my dad's death. Even though I have tried to warn him, I fail to make him believe me… making us rush back to the city and try to stop it though it's too late.
Police are everywhere in the hotel when we have gotten there and the stabbing has happened. However, Dad manages to protect himself and now the assailant has been apprehended. But he has this long laceration as a defensive wound so we need to go to the hospital to get it stitched.
Since we're already there, I take the time to visit Megumi-san and hear what she has to say about the banshee and the other creatures as well— which turned out bad. Soon, I suffer from another nightmare from the banshee in where no one I know died but it's a clear message that there's more to come.
Knowing Anri-chan's child is attracting it, we keep on fending off this rotten parrot to keep her safe. But what if someone else got to Anri-chan first?
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Ano Uchi no Koto Winterbell
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"Possessed, huh." I cringe at what my baby has said before he has gone to hold me protectively like this. I let him hold me longer until I notice something strange about my own room. I take a hold of his shoulders and he releases me, staring intently at me and watching my every move. Shizu-chan then notices I am looking around for something, "Izaya, what's wrong?"
"There's something wrong. I just can't tell what…" I turn to him and we both sit up, my love reaching to click on the lamp to make the room appear brighter. That's when it hits me.
The door is now opened with a crack and it feels something— not someone— is indeed watching us from the dark halls. It can be Anri-chan but she will make noises for me to notice her. I turn to Shizu-chan who is looking at the door as well… soon looking back at me, "Let's check it out. I've got another bad feeling about this."
Getting off the bed, we take our clothes littering the floor and somehow, it has made me look around the room some more. Nothing much has changed. The place look exactly like how it did back in the dream I had where the young girl is with the doctor that she sleeps with. For a man of that age to sleep with a very young girl…
"Izaya?" Shizu-chan calls me again and looms his face before mine, "Spacing out again?"
"Huh? Sorry, I just remembered something. Ah, I mean. It is just like this… this room… in my dream…" As we put on our clothes, I narrate the whole dream to him… the parts that I remember, that is. It does sound perplexed… I still don't know why the banshee wanted me to see everything. I don't even think I remind her of that dead doctor she calls Sensei— well, he must be a doctor.
Shizu-chan shrugs at my story for now and then he pats my head, "I still don't know what to make out of it but one thing's for sure. I need to protect you from that woman." He then smiles at me and it compels me to give him a hug. A hug that is simply me embracing my arms around him. No strength at all. I then close my eyes, a giggle leaving my lips as a response to my love.
Soon, the door creaks open on its own and he suddenly has his arms around me for a protective embrace. I throw my gaze to the door and wait for anything to appear right before us. But nothing but a wind whistle is heard that moment.
"All windows are closed when we got here. There's no way the wind can seep through anything and whistle eerily like that. It is either coming from somewhere else… or a trap for us." Shizu-chan speaks and then I look up at his serious face…
"It could be worse really. But I can't stay here when something is out there and could get Anri-chan—"
He laughs a bit. Shizu-chan suddenly laughs at me.
"I don't want to really say this… but it seems you're getting really attached to that girl. I thought you had no intentions of rebuilding relations and getting attached too much with anyone in your new family. It's… just getting a bit ironic now. Don't you think?"
"It's funny you just notice that now. Or that you had the courage to actually say that. But either way, Shizu-chan…" I sigh and break off from his hold to walk towards the doorway, "I can't just let someone who clings on me get hurt when she's already taken under my wing."
We both chuckle at ourselves and I step out in the darkened hallways… seeing a figure standing outside Anri-chan's open door.
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Ano Uchi no Koto Winterbell
Rei Haruno —Sakura no Imooto
Chapter 7: She Calls For Family
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My body freezes as my eyes zero in that figure standing before Anri-chan's door. It is colored black… maybe only from the absence of light in the hall. But it is shaped as if a woman with short hair and is clad in a one-piece dress that reaches the shins. I can't tell if she's looking through the door or looking at me. But either way, there must be a reason why she is…
"Izaya, help! No! Let me go! Someone… someone help me!"
Anri-chan… I just hear Anri-chan's voice talk… no, scream. She is screaming and calling for help. But she can't be the figure standing before me! The figure is… standing calmly… inches away from me. Her distance from me has grown smaller, and I am able to see her clearer. She is indeed not Anri but a girl with cinder skin and dressed in a dark dress. She has her hair covering her face—
"No! Please! Let me go! Please don't hurt me! I'm—! Please!"
"A-Anri-chan…" I whisper as I keep on hearing her voice. I think this girl before me is the one responsible of the voices and I still haven't figured out what she wants me to do about it. And it's not like I can freely move at this rate.
My feet are planted to the ground and my whole body has frozen. The only movement I do is to breathe… I can even fail at doing so. More of the voices play through my ears… more of Anri's struggle. If only I have known this would happen, I should have gone with them and talked to Megumi-san just some other time. My numb body suddenly feels alive with a sensation of chills sent to my spine. And before I know it…
Her face is in breathing distance from mine.
Fear threads my body against as I gasp in terror, seeing that her once concealed face is right before mine. Her bloodshot eyes are staring straightly at me and her hands are clasped and raked through the sides of my head. She seems to be floating since we have the same eye level at the moment… when earlier she was inches shorter.
And by then, I realized who the girl is… or what I remember her to be. She is one of those creatures eating with me at the dining hall in one of my nightmares. She is the one less active than the parrot and the girl with braids.
"Papa…" She suddenly calls out in a ghastly voice, retaining the meager distance from me. The surroundings begin to grow warmer, to the point of making me instantly sweat just by standing there. Both cold sweat and legit perspiration come to me, soon making me to breathe heavily. Tears start flooding down the corner of my eyes… the girl slowly pulling away.
"Please help me…"
Gone.
She is gone and I move my eyes to look around for her… or anything weird in the hall. The heat has vanished and the tension starts subsiding. Bang! I soon hear loud banging from behind and I turn to look at my room door, where it seems to come from. The door that is suspiciously closed busts open and Shizu-chan pops out behind it, panting and very worried.
And I am just standing there staring at him.
We stay silent for a while until Shizu-chan tilts his head to the side, "What? Weren't you even surprised the door fucking slammed shut?" I only let out a loud twitch and he goes to embrace me, "Baby, are you alright?" He seems to turn to the door at the furthest part of the hall and let goes to check up on it. I take a deep breath and jog to catch up with him, "What do you think?"
He looks at me over the shoulder for a glance and then he looks around the empty room, "Looks like Anri isn't here. Where would she go at this hour? Shouldn't she be locking herself inside?" He then turns to me and asks with his arms crossed before his chest, "Isn't it time for you to explain why you're so motionless right now?"
"…I don't even know how to explain…" I finally manage to break into a chuckle while holding my head with a hand, "Someone is standing outside there and I hear Anri-chan's voice calling for help. Then she gets to me… calls me Papa… and then asks for help…" I close my eyes and shake my head a bit, "So much shit… but we still need to make sure Anri-chan's alright." I clear the frustrations and smiles forcibly at him, "Come with me to the toilet. That's her hiding place… usual hiding place."
"Yeah, you hide with her and almost got beaten by her father…"
I respond with a chuckle and we walk downstairs, my eyes locked at the hall and even trying to see across the other wing where the older adults' rooms are. Shizu-chan reaches out to hold my hand and holds onto it as we walk down the staircase. His smartphone is our source of light since the lights on the hall at night are still inoperative just like the lamps outside the mansion.
Soon, there are footsteps that aren't ours. Flinging around the place, we both find nothing that would make it… the grip on my hand tightens. Shizu-chan then pulls on me and tries to slowly walk towards a certain direction, "It's making a repetitive sound. It must be a spirit or something else. I know you wouldn't be relieved unless we check it out. It's coming from this place…"
"We're heading towards the library…" I speak as I find the walkway very familiar to me… though I haven't walked around here lights out. "This is more reassuring than walking around here alone and with you only over a phone call."
"This really is more reassuring than having you freak out on the other end of the line." He smirks as we proceed until we pause walking— the library doors before us yet the noise continues at a further place. It is on a hall I haven't walked yet… probably the ones I would avoid walking through. With a soft tug, Shizu-chan continues leading me by the hand towards the noise.
It leads us to a door along the hall and the further rooms in my eyeshot seem to be the ones used as rooms for the in-need. Shizu-chan hands me the phone and opens the door with his now free-hand. It opens and it leads down… we just found the door to the basement. He looks at me and smiles, ruffling my hair. His hand slips down to my face to pull me for a chaste kiss.
Everything's going to be alright, he means. Probably knowing I'm starting to get scared now.
Carefully descending the stairs, we move slowly to avoid making any noise. A small creak will echo down the hall and it will make me piss myself. The place gives off a rather different atmosphere and the potential presence of ghosts are rather high. Soon, I can hear machines operating at a distance and it seems we're nearby the boiler room. In fact, the mechanical noises are coming out from both sides of the hallway.
Walking off further, we come across door-less rooms which seems to be storage rooms for the hospital. Different old and used equipments are there and they are recklessly stacked inside the storage. The noise stops and Shizu-chan let goes of my hand to wrap his arm around me protectively. I then start frowning, trying to drown the noises from the machines.
I hear it. I can hear it. I can hear someone crying.
Looking up to Shizu-chan, I wait for him to nod back and we walk carefully towards the source of the crying sound. The closer we get, the louder my heart is pounding. I'm scared to see another creature lurking in the house. I'm scared to see Anri-chan as well. I'm pretty sure she didn't cry out like that without concrete reasons… and the way she does it makes me think she was talking to someone she can communicate with. And only one person comes to mind… ah, Anri-chan…
We arrive before a closed door from where the noise is coming from. Shizu-chan then tries to pry it open, since it appears to be locked. At the corner of my eye, I can see a figure poking from the corner. My eyes wander to the side and I see the same cinder girl watching us. Her white teeth show as she smiles in anticipation. I don't feel anything malevolent with this creature… perhaps she wants the crying person saved.
The door opens and Shizu-chan slowly swings it open, the faint smell of blood breezing out the room. Even the stagnant air attempts to intoxicate our noses. The light from the smartphone reveals blood that pooled just right before the door. Shizu-chan covers half his face from surprise and then he moves the phone to light more of the room… only for us to find what I have been afraid of.
Anri-chan is there. Seated and tied on the floor, crying to herself from the shock.
"Anri-chan!" I rush inside the room and Shizu-chan goes to inspect more of the room, walking closely behind me. I take her to my arms and shake her a bit to wake her up from the trance. She slowly regains her consciousness and begins crying my name. I tuck her in my chest and listen to her sobs that went from totally loud to inaudibly soft. Finally, she seems to have fallen asleep upon an assured hold.
"Shizu-chan, let's get out of here and—"
The door slams shut and the both of us are alarmed. My love then goes to the door to try and open it, only to be kicked from the side by someone. Being caught off guard, Shizu-chan groans and topples, his body loudly hitting the floor. The smartphone is thrown away in the swift movement and the room has been pitch-black with almost nothing to see. I grab Anri-chan closer and take her away from her original spot. My footsteps are echoing in the room as well as the offender's.
With my back colliding against the wall, I place Anri-chan there at the side and walk away to lead the offender away from her, "…I might not have seen your face… but I know who you are. Why did you do to Anri-chan?" The offender refuses to answer… but I hear him groan at some times, his groaning accompanied by some dripping sounds. He must be bleeding badly. In fact, the blood pool must have been his.
I try to navigate across the room… only for my eyes to see incredible sights again. Light flashes across the room— showing me the offender, Shizu-chan and the cinder girl by the door. She is smiling at me like how she does earlier and every time I move and the light flashes, she keeps on getting closer and closer. I am more focused on evading her… I didn't mean to run into the offender.
Before I know it, he is already grabbing me by the collar. My hands grab his hand and he seems to be chuckling at the hold. I try to get away, the flashes are already gone. I then feel freezing hands wrap around my head… before feeling a very hard thing whack me at the side of my head.
Losing consciousness all of a sudden, I see the last flash of light. As I am falling to the ground, Shizu-chan is already up and struggling to get the offender knocked out as well. The girl then suddenly appears before me, whispering before I completely black out…
"Thank you… Papa…"
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Ano Uchi no Koto Winterbell
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Consciousness creeps back into me and I feel like waking up from a deep slumber. Groaning softly, I try to get up from my bed… my body feeling so weird and unfamiliar. My eyes open and I see myself tucked in a much different room, my vision blurry enough for me to start guessing what I see. I get up and feel something heavy weighing my chest down. Hair also embraces more of my nape and my body feels so small. Looking down, I find myself wearing a baby blue pajama top and it seems to loom from where it should be flattened. I raise my hand to feel the shirt… only for it to appear smaller and more delicate-looking than my own.
Twitching loudly, I try to check my other hand, only to fail at simply pulling it to my hazy eyeshot. My side then starts feeling cold and I fling my head towards that side to see what is causing the cold— only to see the cinder girl snuggling my arm. Her head is bowed down but her short hair tells me that it is the same one back at the basement. I frown at it and she starts whispering words I can't make out…
"Ah, you shouldn't move much, Anri-chan." I feel hands hold my shoulders and I turn to see Akabayashi-san worriedly staring at me. After glancing at my side to find the girl gone, I lay down as he instructs me and then he caresses my forehead with his shaking hands, "Ah, Anri-chan. You had so many bruises. What did that burglar do to you? Didn't he… try to do anything inappropriate?"
"Burglar?" I speak in confusion of the man's identification, and confirming this crazy nightmare with the voice that I just hear. I don't know what the fuck happened but I'm clearly inside Anri-chan's body… or more like owning her consciousness at the moment. There's no way those creatures are not involved in this. I might as well ask him, "Father, Izaya is…? Is he alright?"
The man turns to me and he hums as he tries to manage a smile, "I guess he is. He and his boyfriend discovered you first and they were attacked by the burglar who locked you there. He was knocked out pretty bad… but he wasn't hurt that much. The man had a crowbar… it's weird that Izaya-kun hadn't lost that much blood. I doubt the one on the floor was his or Shizuo-san's, too."
He then pinches my cheek softly, "At any rate, you should at least call him Izaya-nii-san. To make it feel more like you two are siblings…" His voice almost changes with the way he uttered the last line. I am well aware of the reason— setting that aside, he's right. Anri-chan should call me Nii-san or something. Calling me plainly by my name isn't really cute for her…
Crash! A loud noise is produced from the hall and I have to get up to check it out. I go with my father as he exits the room to look into the noise. By the stairs, Shizu-chan and Aozaki-san are like mad dogs getting at each other's throat. Dad looks really puzzled but his fixed glare is being thrown to both men. Akabayashi-san then tries to break off the fight, "Alright, stop. What's going on?"
"I don't know about kidnapping Anri-chan but he's the one who hit Izaya!" Shizu-chan growls as he tries to pull on the collar more and then Aozaki-san grips at my boyfriend's arm more, "I don't know what you're talking about. It was a burglar, remember?" My love then grinds his teeth more, "How long are you going to keep that lie, huh?" 'Father' then grabs both of their wrists and tries to get them off… only having me to make it worse. I point my finger at Aozaki-san, "He… he's the one who dragged me from my room and locked me at the basement…"
Dad and Father— this could be confusing— look at me and Aozaki-san forcibly breaks away from Shizu-chan's hold. He is consoling his neck when Father throws his confused gaze at him, "Is that true? What do you want from Anri-chan? How dare you hurt my daughter!?" The offender then stares at me and he looks back at Father, "I didn't wish to hurt her. And I tried to keep this matter away from you, Akabayashi. But Anri was too stubborn— I had to take desperate measures."
"What matter? Are you talking about? Is there something you—?" Father starts roaring now… and then he looks at me, "What does he mean, Anri-chan? What matter is he trying to keep away from me?" His eyes feel like digging through my eyeballs… only for me to be distracted by the tug on my arm. The cinder girl is standing beside me again but her image is roughly visible and it seems like I'm the only one who can see her.
"He wants me, Father… he wants to take me." The cinder girl speaks in her ghastly voice, "But he found out that I'm… I'm pregnant. So he… he attempted to abort the baby inside me …"
I frown a bit at her and having no answer for Father, I just echo what the ghost beside me has spoken. "He wants me, Father… he wants to take me. But he found out that I'm… I'm pregnant. So he… he attempted to abort the baby inside me. Father, I'm so sorry… I didn't really mean to hide it. I'm just scared about telling you and—"
Everyone looks so surprised… until Father starts attacking Aozaki-san hysterically. He is screaming how much of a bastard Aozaki-san is, thinking about touching his own niece. The attack is filled with fury and murder intent. Everyone else tries to stop Father from seriously killing his cousin. I could care less but I'm not sure I could react like that as Anri-chan.
Shizu-chan and Dad try to break off the fight this time, me trying to help out since it is 'my' father after all. But Aozaki-san grabs me instead and he dashes nearby the stairs, the three other men gasping in the other man's action. Holding me by the neck firmly, he yells in madness with one of his arms bleeding underneath the sleeve, "You. If only you are as obedient as you have to be, it wouldn't have gone to this! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!" He doesn't have any other scapegoat than Anri-chan… who sold him to her father…
But I won't allow it. I use the poor girl's weak leg to reach and kick the stupid uncle at the chin. The man then groans out loud and let goes of me… only for me to be dropped from the top of the stairs. I try to balance myself but her frail legs fail to support my fall. They all call for Anri-chan's name and my mind freezes as everything slows down. I feel myself falling to the stairs and God knows if I'm going to break my neck or what. And the baby…
My fall continues until I feel someone catch me with their freezing arms. Everyone's eyes grow wide as my head hits a rather soft cushion. My eyes slowly move to see who caught me… only to see the parrot holding me close. Her gaze flies to me as she smiles creepily, "I… got… you… Mama…"
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End of Chapter 7
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Thanks for reading! Please review! I just noticed, the translation of the title should have been About That House, Winterbell… and I don't care if they call relatives by their family names because that's the only name I have for them. XD
This story is already abandoned. This is the last completed chapter. I'm very sorry to leave this one incomplete. U.U
