A/N: Hikari: Once again beta-read by dawntodusk~! I'm really starting to owe you for this... but here we have the newest chapter! Enjoy~!
Chapter 8: A Sky Cut Off at Corners
Silence. The utter and complete silence that wrapped itself around the familiar room filled the air so wholly, that when the woman sitting in that room moved even just slightly, the rustling noise her dress made echoed like a shout from the walls, bouncing up and down, left and right. But, for once, the woman was glad for the silence, as the thoughts that filled her head were quite enough of noise for her.
As she looked up at the window, she sighed at the barred sight of it. How long had she sat there, beside the bed, and how many times had she sighed at noticing how completely trapped she was in that room? Too long, too many times.
How had Elisabeth ended up locked up in a room in her own home? Quite simple actually, and most probable too. When she had ran out from the castle…
/FBW\
Elisabeth didn't stop until she tripped on a root on the forest path she had taken as her route. On that spot she laid for who knows how long, just thinking about the last few minutes. Yes, few minutes, even though, considering the amount of doubt and horror, the events had made it seem like hours. She couldn't believe it, or so she thought, as apparently she did believe it, when you realize that she had ran out. In horror.
Slowly she sat up on the rough ground, simply focusing on breathing in and out. She had to calm down.
Once she did, she looked around at the forest around her. Just ahead, between the trees she could see a road in the fading light of the evening. Remembering back a week ago when she had arrived to the castle she knew that the road would take her back home.
"Home…" She looked back the path towards the castle that was hidden behind the trees. For the last few days she had started to think of the castle as her home, as she had been sure that she wouldn't, and didn't want to, go back to her brother. But now… now she couldn't return there. Not after seeing that room, those paintings, that painting. Knowing this, why did she feel a horrible tearing in her heart as she looked back and forth between the road and the way back to the castle.
Not able to bear the tearing she faced at the ground squeezing her eyes shut as tears started to run down her cheeks. Why did this have to happen? Why did the "monster" her brother had been talking about have to be Märchen? After the past week, after the past day, why did it have to be him? Just when she…
Shaking her head to clear her mind she stood up. She couldn't go back to the castle, not now. For all she knew, Märchen could kill her when he found out she had been in that room. That she couldn't accept, because despite all, she had again found the will to live. Ironically because of the man who supposedly took lives away.
And so, as hard as it was, she stated walking towards the "home" she had grew up in.
/FBW\
She reached her destination only after dusk had fallen upon the land, and to her utter surprise she found that her brother had been waiting for her. He had looked like he had not slept nor eaten for weeks, even though it had been just one since she left, and had constantly looked around him like something was going to attack him at any given moment. The moment Elisabeth stepped inside the gates to the castle grounds, he ordered her to be taken to "the room prepared for her". It had turned out to be the room on the bottom floor she had been when she had met März for the first time, only now the window had been barred and after she stepped in the door was locked after her.
From that moment she had been sitting on the same spot beside the bed, just sitting, doing nothing else. Her tears had long dried into light lines on her cheeks, and her sobs had died down. She hadn't even bothered to put on some light, so it was dark, the only light being the moonlight coming from the window. And even that was faint, as a thin layer of clouds covered the moon, keeping it from casting its light.
Now she was even more trapped than ever. Never before had she been so restrained, not before this. Even back when she had been a child she had been allowed to take walks around the castle and the gardens. And now that she had gotten accustomed in having someone she could even dare to call a friend… It only made things seem worse.
Spending hours in the darkness of that room had given her time to think things through once more. Eventually she had realized that there was a possibility that she was wrong about Märchen. It could be that the paintings were created by someone else, if not Elise, then perhaps the castle itself.
The castle had seemed to have its own life at times, there was no arguing about that. And truly, Märchen wasn't the type who would do something like that. Not him.
As she had realized this, she had gotten an immediate urge to apologize to the man, before realizing the impossibility of actually doing that. Firstly she was trapped, which automatically made it so that she would not get to the man, and secondly, even if she got out and all the way back to the castle, she wouldn't had known what to say to him. As such she had become even more depressed than she already was.
So there she still sat, having wrapped her arms around her knees, being constantly reminded of her own powerlessness…
/FBW\
"Light" was something Märchen knew he would never have. For whenever he thought he had found it, it turned out to be something completely different. He didn't know what "light" was. Of course he knew of sunlight, and the flickering light of a candle, but… something somewhere within him knew that that was not it. Not the "light" he wanted to find.
And now, once again, he had lost something that could had been his "light", and, again, noticed it too late. She was gone, and would not come back. As he had come to realize this, he was overcome with deep sadness, one he had never felt like. And still he had the feeling he had.
Frustrated he hit the wall he had spent the last hour staring at. Why couldn't he remember? Why couldn't he understand any of what was happening around him? Elisabeth… Why had she left? Letting his now sore hand slide down the wall and fall to his side, Märchen stared at the said wall once again. Why..?
"Why indeed?" The voice echoing in the room was deep, dark, and most of all dangerous. Despite this Märchen didn't flinch at the sudden question. As he felt the cooling darkness covering his chaotic mind, he closed his eyes acknowledging its presence. "But one must ask, why do you care? After all this time?"
"Ido… Do you know the answer?" His silent voice sounded almost innocent, like a child asking a question from a parent. This was not too far from the truth either.
"I may… but you have no need to know", the voice said in a strict, yet calm tone. This answer didn't satisfy the man the least however, as he clutched his hands to fists. He couldn't defy this darkness, he knew that. Ido had the power over him, as long as he was the conductor of tragedies. But that didn't mean he could be kept in dark about things about himself.
"Why? Why do you not tell me anything?" Märchen turned around, facing the darkness fully instead of the wall. "Every time I ask you tell me I have no need to know. Is it not my memory? How am I supposed to get revenge when I do not know who to avenge to?" As the voice kept silent, his eyes narrowed and he continued. "How will I know whether I have anything to get revenge about in the first place? You could have deceived me! You-!" He was suddenly cut off by a freezing, pressing feeling in his mind.
"Have you forgotten, Märchen von Friedhof?" The man gasped as the feeling concentrated and he held his head. "After all this time, have you forgotten, that the only way a revenge can be acted out, the only way I take hold of humans is through three things. If you have not forgotten about that…" Märchen fell to his knees, the voice thundering around him. "…tell me what they are!"
As the feeling gave in only ever so slightly the conductor gasped for breath.
"Hatred… death and… impulses…", he said quietly. Apparently satisfied, Ido let him go. Sighing in relief he let his breath even out while the darkness continued.
"Yes, that's right. Hatred for those who have done you wrong, leading you to your death, and the impulses that tell you to avenge", it said slowly, like talking to a mere child, before chuckling evilly. "In that aspect you are no different from those you have helped over the years." Märchen fell silent while thinking about made sense, it always had, but why did he have the nagging feeling at the back of his head that there was something wrong about it?
"The only difference between you and them is, that I chose you to hold the baton, made you the conductor of revenge tragedies", with this conclusion Ido waited for the man's answer. It didn't have to wait for long as soon he looked up again.
"Why me? If I am not so different from anyone else, why did you choose me?" This question earned another chuckle from the darkness.
"You were special. That is all there is to it." It wasn't all there was to it, Märchen knew it wasn't. There was something more, something Ido wouldn't tell him. But what was it? This was too suspicious. And as he thought this, he didn't notice the darkness intensifying around him.
Nothing made sense anymore, not like it used to. Before he had just blindly trusted what Ido said, obeying and thinking that it was right and justified for he and Elise to do what they did. Before he would accept any excuse of an explanation from the darkness and forget the matter for a period of time again. But now… Now everything Ido said raised more and more questions. Questions he wouldn't get an answer for.
"You still doubt me?" The almost irritated tone snapped Märchen out from his thoughts. Glancing around him he finally noticed the intensity, and the creeping coldness that was slowly covering him throughout. That moment he decided. This time, this time he would get some answers. This time-.
Suddenly his world turned into a deep, dark oblivion…
/FBW\
Clenching her small hands into fists, Elise followed this exchange with wide eyes. She hadn't known Märchen had become this doubtful towards their revenge. This wouldn't do, not in any way! She had to snap him out from it, that blockhead. Why couldn't he see why they should continue, why it was so important? If they didn't…
Shaking the thought out from her little head she turned her attention back to the room, just in time to see the man collapse, causing her to let out a small squeal. However, she only had the time to think about rushing to his side when he suddenly stood up again. Sighing in relief Elise noticed that Ido had already left, so she stepped into the room. As she was about to make her arrival noted, Märchen spoke, stopping her in her tracks.
"He should have just believed me." Elise's eyes widened once more, as this wasn't the voice of her beloved. No, this voice was the voice of the one who she had thought to have left the room already. "No matter, I will just have to conduct the final tragedy myself." And before Elise had the chance to step out from the room again, the possessed man turned around and faced her with lifeless golden eyes.
"A-Ah! I was just… I mean I tried to…" She trailed off as the man smiled coolly. This was not good, this was not good!
"Why, greetings Elise. A pleasure, as always", he said as he twirled the baton in his fingers. "You must have already figured out the situation, hm?" As Elise nodded carefully he chuckled lightly, his eyes gaining a malevolent glow…
/FBW\
A chill ran up Elisabeth's spine, telling her that she had spent too much time sitting on the cold stone floor. Sighing she stood up, noting that horizon had already gained some lighter color, marking an hour or so before the sun would rise. She hadn't slept at all during the night, her thoughts and regret wouldn't let her.
As she thought of whether she should attempt to sleep or not, she suddenly felt a slight gust of wind coming from behind her. Turning around, she realized that she was no longer alone in the room. The one who had appeared in one dark corner of the room wasn't exactly the first person she had assumed to enter the room, though when one took into account that she hadn't assumed anyone could enter, she wasn't all that surprised. In fact, now that she thought about it, it was actually most probable that Elise would appear, perhaps for the fact that Märchen wasn't there to stop her from making an all-out attack on Elisabeth.
What surprised her, however, was the fact that the girl appeared to be filled with utter terror, gasping for breath and eyes wide like plates. As Elise looked at her, the blue eyes showed the same kind of distaste towards her as usual, but this time there was something more, as if they were… begging her for something? Why was that? Elisabeth didn't have to wait for long for the answer, as the girl straightened her petite figure and faced her eye to eye.
"Let me get this straight to you. I hate you", she said, making Elisabeth struggle at trying not to smile at this. It was quite obvious. "I hate you from the bottom of my heart, but I have no choice. You happen to be the only one I can ask for…help…at the moment." She almost whispered the word "help", making it seem like the most horrible word in existence. Which it probably was at the moment. Keeping these thoughts to herself, Elisabeth waited for the other to continue. Which she did, after a moment of apparently arranging her thoughts.
"At first I was going to make the rest of your life as horrible as possible, as simply killing you would be too easy", she continued, talking about killing her like it was something that happened every day, thus affirming Elisabeth's earlier thought, "that way assuring that I could spend the rest of eternity together with Mär, like we have so far. But… You changed him." It was like the girl's eyes had lit up in flames, and Elisabeth could easily see that she was seriously considering about going with the killing plan after all. She didn't, however, and as she opened her mouth once more, it was clear that she was getting to the point of her arrival.
"And because of that Mär is in danger." This last statement echoed throughout the room and inside Elisabeth's head over and over again. What? Märchen was..?
"What… What do you mean he is in danger?"
A/N: Hikari: Did I just team Elisabeth and Elise up? I think I did. Wow. I hope I got Ido right, all dark and so on...
Anyway, reviews!
dawntodusk: No! You cannot be thanked enough! That is a pure truth, so deal with it! *cough* But, I'm glad you liked the paintings~ I thought it would be odd adding to the castle, but decided to just go with it in the end~ Oh, and before I forget: *hands over a box of tissues* If I get this thing right, you'll be in tears before long~ But that's a good thing, okay? Good, not bad!
pika318: Yes, he is quite brokenhearted, isn't he... I hate doing this to him ;_;
WitchJuliana: Ahaha~ Thank you, thank you. I'm updating, as you see, slowly, but surely~
By the way, has any of you ever cosplayed at school? I have, at least half-cosplayed, for the last two weeks, first as Märchen, and currently as Hiver Laurant. Why? 'Cause it's fun~! ^^
Over and out!
