Happy Birthday, guys. ^_^


Inside the castle, there were several chairs and benches, as you can imagine, the Red Assassin was kind enough to gently set Kyrie on one of the benches. He brushed some hair away from her eyes, and stared at her for a few extra minutes, mumbling to himself:

"You know…I had a feeling from the start. The second I saw you I knew our paths were going to cross…" A sigh, "Oh well, you haven't tried to kill me yet, and even if you do…" A chuckle, "…at least you're cute."

My lip curled up in disgust at his words.

MY THOUGHT PROCESS

Who did he think he was?

He had no right to call Kyrie "cute."

Only three people were allowed to call her that.

He especially had no right to assume she'd try to kill him.

Even when held against her will, I knew Kyrie was too pure to harm another creature.

Then again, she'd never been in this situation.

I could have been wrong.

As he stared at her, he pulled something from his pocket, an apple, and placed it in Kyrie's hands.

"There you go, kid." He whispered, standing up and walking away, "I'll come and get you later. Don't move." He snickered at his own, cruel joke and left the main hall. I, in the meantime, had been watching from the rafters, a view from above was truly a great one, perceptive and subtle.

The nearest door closed, I floated down to Kyrie and watched as she quietly slept.

It was something I could never get over: Kyrie was at her most beautiful when she slept. Yes, I understand that it sounds a little creepy, but when you're dead and wandering the living world without the ability or need to do tasks such as sleep, you watch the living as they sleep. It truly makes you feel better.

After all, Sleep is the brother of Death.

In any case, it was rather late, and even the Red Assassin had to get his rest, it came a few hours later, but it still came. It could have been fatigue, or it could have been the fact that he had found one of the castle's storage rooms filled with wine and other kinds of spoils.

It was here that I found him sleeping, saliva dribbling over his chin, a bottle in his right hand, his left hand over his protruded gut. There were several empty packages of hand-held pies around him, and gravy was smeared on his cheeks.

I'm sure he was happy.

THE RED ASSASSIN'S USUAL MENU:

A pizza every dinner

He slept too long for lunch

Coffee for breakfast on rare occasions

An entire six-pack of beer every day

Very rarely he'd treat himself to ice cream

It was no surprise to him or me, that he threw up at least three hours later. He sighed as he finished, rubbing his stomach. He figured that along with him spoiling himself, the food must have expired ages ago.

He was wrong. After all…the lonely scientist had to eat somehow without moving back and forth all the time.

Hung-over and tired, the Red Assassin massaged his throbbing head as he headed back to the castle entrance, where Kyrie was. Luckily for him, she was still there, shivering, mumbling, sobbing, moaning:

"…no…don't leave…"

The Red Assassin raised an eyebrow at her odd behavior. How was he supposed to know? How was he to be aware of the torment and pain Kyrie had gone through? To him, she was just a pretty voice and a cute face. However, as he kneeled closer to her to comprehend her whimpering, he could smell it, the torment:

It was the scent of snow, ashes, and tears.

The Red Assassin grumbled and inched away from her, rolling his eyes. "Teenage girls and their fantasies…" He whispered.

I couldn't agree more.

The sun began to rise over the white terrain, and as bright as the sky was, the castle remained eternally dark.

Of course, with the daylight approaching, this meant Credo was already awake and wandering headquarters, alerting all the other knights, already exhausted from yesterday. They groaned and whined. Not in front of Credo or Gloria, though. They wouldn't be caught dead doing that.

Credo was informing them all of their mission, it was early in the day, there were more survivors to find, and more demons to vanquish. Though Credo said that, everyone knew the real reason he was so anxious to get out there and start searching.

Never underestimate a brother's love.

The knights searched all over Fortuna Island, thirty survivors had been found within one hour. But not Kyrie. Forty-two demons were killed. But not the Red Assassin. Credo was determined to find his sister and have the Red Assassin skinned for what he had done.

KEEP IN MIND

Credo was not yet aware that the Red Assassin had his younger sister in captivity.

He had no clue that his sister was trapped in the most fearful areas one could imagine.

How do you think he'll react, though, when he finally MAKES these discoveries?

Allow me to skip about two hours ahead, when Credo finally made his way to Caerula Port. Now that it was broad daylight, Credo could see the entire area clearly, and now took in mind that the drawbridge was up. At first he was certain that this was a good sign. Then Gloria had checked the control room, where she pointed out the bullet hole in the bridge's control panel.

Of course, only one man fit the bill. Yet this didn't explain exactly where Kyrie was. Gloria, however, was smart enough to put two and two together. In horrified realization, she turned anxiously to Credo, who was not thinking the same thing.

"I…I think I know what happened, Credo." Gloria gasped. Credo turned to her. She pointed at the gunshot, and at the lifted bridge. "He did this in order to keep us from following him, don't you think? But what if…what if…"

"What?" Credo snapped.

"What if he…knew? What if he's aware of the relation between you and His Holiness? And what if…he knows that Kyrie is your sister? I mean, it wouldn't be too hard to figure out, with the way she lunged at him in order to protect you."

Credo was silent, a good two minutes passed before he revised Gloria's words, "Are…you saying that…he kidnapped Kyrie in order to get to me?"

I shook my head, they got everything figured out except for his motives.

As they stared at each other in shocked silence, there was a roar from the mining field, the lion of flames was awakened, and now he could smell human blood nearby. This was a pleasure to him, finally, after two-thousand years of confinement in hell, he was given the chance to torture defenseless humans once again.

Luckily, this devil was smart enough to realize that one step onto the port and it would sink, extinguishing his flames and killing him. He roared in anger and simply looked over in anger at the humans. Credo, Gloria, and several other knights ogled the large lion's head as well as its flaming mane, staring at them from over the hills.

A QUICK CONVERSATION

Gloria: "What do we do?"

Credo: "Nothing yet, it can't reach us."

Gloria: "Shit…"

I would have stayed and watched, but I felt there was a stronger need for me back at Fortuna Castle.

Sure enough, Kyrie was awake, the Red Assassin was nowhere to be seen. He was, at this very moment, in the library, the very thought made me laugh. I never quite figured the man who brutally murdered Sanctus to be a bookworm. Then again, in the library, he had a strange method of looking at a random book for five minutes, then tossing it aside.

As Kyrie stirred, confused where she was, unaware of just who had rescued her, she looked around the Grand Hall, tossing a few wooden chairs out of her way as she did so. There was also the apple that had appeared in her hands when she woke up. Something in the back of her head told her it was a very bad sign.

Lifting chairs to make a path, she felt something crawling on her arm. She looked down and saw the eight hairy legs making their way up, her eyes widened and she screamed, flailing about, and tripping over the many chairs she had just moved.

The Red Assassin heard these noises and smirked, closing his book with a loud "snap", a cruel grin on his face.

"Sounds like someone had a rude awakening…" He snickered, making his way over to the hall.

Kyrie heard the pounding footsteps approaching, only then did the apple make sense: the Red Assassin had stolen several apples. It was the Red Assassin that had brought her here. The Red Assassin was coming to gather her up now that she was awake.

Kyrie sucked in a deep breath, and quickly looked for a place to hide. The first hiding place was under the closest bench.

The door opened, and the Red Assassin walked inside, examining the area. He smiled. Kyrie curled up in a tight ball, but it was no use.

"Choir girl…I see you under there. Why don't you come out?"

Kyrie gave no response, he remained patient. Patience was one of those tricks he had that one would never expect him to have.

"Come on. I'm not going to hurt you."

Kyrie responded this time: "You tried to shoot me." she whimpered.

"What? You're still mad about that? I wasn't trying to kill you."

A FACT ABOUT THE RED ASSASSIN

Even though I knew this wasn't true, he had an amazing ability to sound truthful.

Kyrie probably had her doubts, but for the moment, she believed him.

Even if his lie wasn't enough, he had a very convincing and seductive voice. Kyrie and I both had to face that terrible fact.

As he spoke his honey-sweet words, the Red Assassin lowered to his knees and hands and slowly began to approach Kyrie. She watched, and could not move, as he came closer. She shrank even tighter into her fetal position and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Aw…don't be afraid." He cooed, reaching his hand out to grab her. He nearly brushed against her hair when he, along with the benches and chairs flew into the air and fell to the ground. The furniture stacked messily on top of him. The chandeliers above shook with a violent rage, and a terrible moan could be heard.

Kyrie covered her ears and looked around in horror. She stood and ran out of the hallway, gasping to herself, "It's the ghost of Fortuna!"

YES

I'm the ghost several people were afraid of.

My spiritual powers were at their peak in this foundation.

I haunt Fortuna Castle, but believe me, I didn't kill anyone.