Disclaimer: I don't own this anime.
A/N: Hey there gang! Hope you liked the last chapter. Anyway, I've been thinking on where this story will be headed and I think I have it planned out well (hopefully). So I hope you guys are ready to read something fantastic.
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Endless Darkness
Chapter 08 - Distrust
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"Hahahahahaaaa…." A demonic laugh was heard in the background among the endless darkness. "Who's that?" A redheaded girl asked. "So, you're the one they keep talk about." The voice said in response.
"What? What are you talking about?" The girl questioned. "Who are you!?"
An image appeared in front of the girl. A women with light red hair and green eyes.
"Ma… Mama?" The girl asked in confusion. The women reached her hand out to the girl and gave her a soft smile. The girl reached out to grabbed the women's hand, but the women began to quickly float backwards. "Mama! Wait, stop! Come back!" The girl panicked and started to chase after the women.
Suddenly, the floor beneath the girl gave way and she fell into what seemed to be water. But is was pure black. The girl began to struggle to stay above the water, but it felt like something was dragging her down.
"Oh… My little Nao. You should have never tried to kill yourself." The women said as she appeared above Nao. "Mama… -gurgle- He- help me!" Nao yelled, reaching out to her mother.
"You disappointed me… You must be punished, Nao." Akemi said as she began to walk away. "Mom, wait. I'm sorry… -cough-"
"Bye bye, Nao…" A hand surfaced from the water and grabbed Nao. It began to drag her down into the depths of the water. "No! Wait! Mother!" Nao screamed, but only bubbles came out. The darkness slowly consumed her being. The cold, lonely feeling grew stronger. "No… more… please…"
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Nao quickly jumped up into a sitting posture. Beads of sweat streamed down her face as she gasped for breath. She covered her face with her hands and let out a few sobs. "Every damn time… It's always the same dream…" Nao though as she wiped away the sweat and tears away with her sheet.
"Wait… A sheet?" Nao said, puzzled. She looked down and noticed she was on a couch. "Oh that's right. I fell asleep." Nao looked over to the clock on the wall and it read '1:16 PM'.
Nao looked around the room and noticed that there was no sign of Natsuki. "Where did she go?" Nao asked no one in particular as she laid back down on the sofa and turned on her side.
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Natsuki looked in the window of a dress store and gazed at the dazzling wedding gown as people passed by her on the sidewalk.
Natsuki pictured what Shizuru would look like in the gown. Her shiny brown hair with combined with the veil, her slim body fit snug in the gown and her beautiful ruby eyes. Natsuki smiled, but then something happened. The image of her love suddenly changed to Nao. "Gah!" Natsuki was taken aback, but quickly recovered.
Natsuki then sighed. "Ha… If only you were here, Shizuru."
Just then, a pair of hands covered Natsuki's eyes. "Guess who." A familiar voice said in a playful manner. "Shi-… Shizuru?" Natsuki said surprised and quickly whipped around.
There stood a brunette beauty, smiling warmly at the biker. "Hello, Natsuki."
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Nao stumbled off of the couch and walked over to the bathroom. After closing the door behind her, she glanced into the mirror. All of the sudden, she felt a sharp pain in her head.
Nao quickly covered the spot that was throbbing, grunting in pain. "I'm… so close to you…" Nao heard in the back of her head. A strange voice, like a man's voice, yet deeper. "Who… is that? Who's there…?" Nao asked, trying to resist the pain. "In do time. hehehe…" The voice simply said, then vanished along with the pain.
Nao quickly regained her composure and looked back at herself in the mirror. "What the hell was that about?"
After the redhead got finished with her business, she walked back out the couch. She laid down on her side, and looked over at the black television screen. The harder she looked at it, the more it seemed like something was moving in the background. Nao glanced at it harder, and saw something was moving towards her.
The girl quickly glanced around the room to see what was moving, yet she failed to see anything. Nao got up off the couch and walked over the the television. The moving object was gone. "I must be losing it… again…"
Then, a sound came from the kitchenette. Nao slowly walked slowly towards the room. Slightly peering over the counter, she saw something. She didn't know if it was a person or some type of creature. It was eating something off of the floor. Unknowingly, Nao set her hand down a little to close to a bottle of sauce, knocking it over.
The sound attracted the attention of the creature, and it slowly changed it's attention from the 'something' it was eating, to Nao. Now, Nao had a perfect glance at the creature. It's head had the shape of a goats skull, only with out the horns and the eyes. It's bottom jaw contained many rows of sharp teeth. It's skin was that of something that looked to be charred from fire. It had four limbs, each which had three appendages, which had very long, sharp looking talons. Running down its back, looked to be like some sort of bone like armor along with spikes running down the spinal section.
Nao slowly backed up, in awe of the creature that she so greatly regretted encountering. The creature leaped up onto the counter. Though it did not have eyes, Nao could still feel it's cold, hard stare. Saliva dripped down from it's fangs. It started breathing heavier.
"Wha-… What the hell is that!?" Nao thought to herself in a panicky fashion. The creature pounced, so Nao quickly leaped out of it's direction. It landed on the couch, practically breaking it to pieces. Nao made a quick dash to the door, but the creature was faster then her, cutting her off before she could reach the handle.
The redhead quickly stumbled to the other side of the room, throwing what she could at the creature. Sadly, her efforts failed to faze the monstrosity.
She was pinned into a corner. Tears began welding up in her eyes. The girl felt like screaming at the top of her lungs in fear, but nothing would come out, she was so scared.
Nao collapsed slid down against the wall as the creature slowly approached her. "No… Not like this." She silently said to herself. An image of her mother appeared in her head. "I'm… I'm scarred. Someone please… HELP!" She thought. Her throat was to stiff to make word. All that came out were slight squeaks.
All of the sudden, the monster stopped. Nao looked over and noticed a part of the creature was smoking where some sunlight was coming through the blinds and hitting it. The creature then let out a loud squeal, followed by a few grunts. Nao saw her chance. She leaped over to one of the windows and ripped down the blinds, revealing a wave of light that cascaded across the creature. It's skin started to burn bright green. It's screeches of pain echoed through the apartment.
Nao then made a move for the door and rushed out of the room, never looking back. "I've got to get out of here!" Nao thought loudly, running as fast as she could. The elevators were occupied, so she improvised. She ran down the steps, brushing passed a couple of people.
As soon as she got to the lobby, she sighed a breathe of relief. As she reached for the front door, it opened, revealing two familiar faces. "Natsuki… Shizuru?"
"Ah. Nao-han, how are you today. Okay I hope." Shizuru said with a friendly smile. The women always rubbed Nao the wrong way, but this time she just shrugged it off. "Nao. What the hell is wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost." Natsuki said resting her hands on Nao's shoulder.
Nao was out of breathe, yet she struggled to explain the situation. After a few minutes of explaining, Shizuru and Natsuki stood there with dumbstruck looks on their faces, followed by an outburst of laughter. "Oh my-… Nao, you are quite the story teller." Shizuru said, holding her ribs. "Sounds like… Someone's been hitting the sharpies, eh Shizuru…" Natsuki said, gasping for air.
Nao just stood there with a look of disbelief on her face. How could they find this humorous in any way?
Hey… HEY! Bellboy! Call the fire department! Quick! A rooms on fire." A man said as he rushed out of the stairway. "Kuga-san…" The man said huffing. "It's your room…"
"WHAT!!" Natsuki screamed in disbelief. The three quickly made haste up to Natsuki's apartment room. Sadly, what the man said was true. Her room was up in flames, big time. Natsuki fell to her knees. "Oh no."
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An hour later, after the firemen came and did their business, the three entered the blackened apartment. Natt believe it… My stuff… My lingerie… My photos… Everything, gone…" Natsuki quickly rushed in and out of every room, looking for anything that might have survived. Everything was burnt. "I can't believe it..."
Natsuki slammed her head against the wall. "Natsuki!" Shizuru said in worry. The brunette tried to comfort Natsuki, but her efforts failed. Nao could only look at the devastation. The redhead the redirected her attention to Natsuki, who she noticed was glaring right at her.
"What did you do!?" Natsuki demanded as she started to approach Nao. "I didn't do anything. It was that… That thing!" Nao tried to reason with the cobalt headed biker. "Bullshit! Don't give me that. You've always hated my guts. This was the perfect opportunity to ruin me. You BITCH!" Natsuki barked. Nao could only flinch. "I must have been crazy to trust you!"
"Natsuki, please. Calm down. Something else could have happe-" Natsuki swatted Shizuru away. "Yeah right! You know how she is. How she despises me. God! I can't believe the shit!" Natsuki yelled as she punched a hole in her wall.
"Wait! Don't just go accusing me. You have no proof." Nao retaliated, standing her ground. "No proof. I left you here while I was out. Don't give me that 'proof" crap. You're the only suspect here!" Natsuki screamed at the girl.
"Just get the hell out! I never want to see your face ever AGAIN!" The girl screamed with her last breathe, then began panting.
"F- Fine…" Nao simply said. She turned and ran out of the room. "Natsuki!" Shizuru said in disbelief. "How could you?"
"Don't start with me. Please, Shizuru." Natsuki said as she turned to her. "I would appreciate it if you left as well. I have things that need to get done."
Shizuru just sighed and walked to the door. "Even though this might have been her fault, I still think you need to apologies for what you said. Remember, she has been through a lot lately." Shizuru said, then took her leave.
Natsuki could only look at what used to be her apartment. She sat down on the ground and rested her head in her lap. Just then, she felt a draft coming from the direction of her bedroom. She looked over at her bedroom door. "huh?"
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Nao stood in the crowd of people the passed by her, as thought she was just a ghost. So many of her emotions were raging inside of her. She could take it anymore.
Tears began streaming down her cheeks. Her world felt like it was collapsing right on top of her. It was so heavy, she fell to her knees. No one even noticed. No one even cared. They all just passed by, along with their lives.
"It's so hard, isn't it?" Nao heard a man's in front of her. "Having to live with while carrying such a burden." Nao slowly opened her eyes and saw the figure standing in front of her. "What if I said I could make it all better."
"Oh yeah. What the hell do you know." Nao barked back. "What does anyone know? They all act like they care. Yet all they do is look down on you and pity you…" Nao said as she let out a few sobs.
The man chuckled. "I know everything, Nao." The man stated. Nao looked up in shock. "How do you-…?" The man put out his hand. "I can help you Nao. I can make all the pain go away. I can fix it for you. All you need to do, is give me your hand." The man said.
Nao didn't know why, but for some reason, her arm moved on it's own. She grasped his hand lightly. "The names Masaru Kenji. Nice to make your acquaintance." Kenji said, with a big devilish grin.
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A/N: Wow… Talk about time. It's been forever since I last worked on this story, eh? Well, fret no more. I shall try and get onto the story more often as long as school doesn't become to much of a problem. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please remember to drop me a review. Bye-Bye!
