Lies and
Deception
Chapter 11
By: FayeValentine00 (Sarah-chan)
We stepped up to the gate of
the main house and I couldn't help but pause a moment. The last
time I'd been here, Akito had tried ruin everything and forced me
to leave all of my friends behind. this time would be different.
With everyone's support, Akito had to accept us. I NEEDED Akito
to accept us.
I felt a squeeze at my hand
and looked up to see Yuki smiling down at me. A moment later I
felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Kyo with a similar
expression.
"Good luck. Kagure and I
will wait out here."
"Thank you."
Taking one last breath, I let
go of Yuki's hand and led Shigure, Ayame, Hatori, Momiji and Yuki
into the building that scared me so much.
We sat down and waited for
Akito who lay lounging on the patio, just outside the door.
"Tohru ... you never
listen, do you?" Akito's voice was soft and when I didn't
answer, he continued talking. "I told you not to tell
anyone. I said that you needed to leave. You don't belong here!
YOU'LL NEVER BELONG HERE!"
In a quick motion, Akito was
on his feet and a moment later he was standing in front of me. I
couldn't help but cringe as memories flowed back to me from that
time when Akito had attacked me after seeing Kyo's true form.
"Did it hurt,
Tohru?" His voice was suddenly very condescending.
"Were you sad?"
I didn't answer him. I wasn't
sure what to say. What was he trying to prove to me. We both knew
that Leaving the family had hurt me deeply so why throw it into
my face.
"All of you were
wrong." Akito suddenly addressed the 5 men sitting behind me
with a mixture of anger and hate. "You all thought I did
this to hurt you ... to torture you. ... How vain of all of you.
... You're wrong. I always knew that perfect little Torhu
would find a way to make you all happy. You all make me sick!
She'd doesn't belong here. She's not one of us. SHE'LL NEVER BE
ONE OF US!!!!" As he screamed, he grabbed a vase off
the shelf and sent it shattering into the wall.
After another second or two,
Akito stood over me again and stared down at me with a look of
disgust on his face. "I told you. ... I told you that I'd
make you suffer for ever getting involved with our family.
... You're so stupid. You always think that you can fix
everything. You are not their savior. I AM THE HEAD OF THIS
FAMILY, NOT YOU!!!!"
I sat with my hands balled up
into fists. I suddenly felt extremely angry. This was all a power
play for him. He didn't care what he did or who he hurt, as long
as he felt that he was in charge.
"Nothing to say
Tohru?..."
I still didn't answer. I had
no clue what to say.
What happened next was the
very thing that I most dreaded. He grabbed me by the hair and
yanked me to my feet. I couldn't hold in the yelp of pain and
shock that escaped my lips before Momiji, Shigure and Yuki
grabbed Akito tightly and tried to pry him off of me.
I felt like I was reliving
the past. Years ago, we'd gone through a similar outburst by
Akito but this time was different. This time I was pregnant and I
was terrified that he'd do something to hurt my child.
"A-Akito ... What are
you so afraid of?"
"What?!" Akito just
seemed to become more enraged and used the handful of hair in his
grasp to shove me back down to the floor with surprising force.
"I only want to be happy
with Yuki and my friends. I-I want you to be my friend."
"Shut up! SHUT
UP!!" He screamed wildly. "I hate you! YOU DON'T KNOW
ANYTHING!"
"Give me a chance.
You're sick. L-Let me try to help you." I fought back the
tears in my eyes and looked up to Akito.
"What the hell is wrong
with you?! You shouldn't be here! We don't need you!"
"Yes we do." The
deep voice behind me caught Akito and everyone else off guard.
"Hatori?!" Akito's
grasp had loosened when he realized that Hatori had defied him.
My head was spinning. Nothing
was going as I had hoped. I didn't want to cause a fight. I
didn't want the family to be torn apart. All I wanted was for me
and my friends to be happy. In order to do that, we had to have
Akito's permission.
"Stop! Everyone please
... please stop." The tears that I'd held in since entering
the building began to trickle down my face. "I don't want
this. I don't ... I don't want you to fight."
I felt Akito's hand loosen on
my hair a moment before I was shoved forcefully at the wall. I
tried my best to brace for impact but thankfully it never came.
Two strong hands seemed to effortlessly catch me out of the air
and when I looked up, Ayame was looking down at me in concern.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Tohru ... This is all
your fault. Everything was fine until you got involved with our
family."
"That's not true."
Yuki's words were spoken quietly but you could hear his anger
easily. "That's not true at all. ... Before Tohru came, very
few of the Junnishi actually spoke to each other at all. The only
time we ever saw each other was on New Years. .. Now it's
different. .. Now we are friends."
"She's ruined
everything." Akito's voice seemed different. "She's
made all of you hate me. She's made all of you think that your
curses don't matter. ..." Suddenly Akito began coughing. At
first it wasn't very bad but it didn't stop. As the second went
by, Akito's coughing became more intense.
"Akito?..."
Something was wrong. I knew it but I didn't know how to help
until I noticed a pitcher of water against the wall, near the
broken vase. As quickly as I could, I grabbed an empty cup and
poured Akito a glass of water.
When I held out the glass of
water to Akito, all of the men in the room seemed to freeze in
shock. My eyes met his and I could see a mixture of hate and
fear. "NO!"
He smacked the glass out of
my hand, causing it to shatter and sending small shards of broken
glass into my hands and arms.
"I don't want your help!
I DON'T NEED YOU HELP!" He screamed at me wildly until a
second coughing fit hit him.
I was afraid. My hands were
bleeding and my whole body was trembling but this was the only
time that I'd be able to show Akito that I was sincere.
"Tohru..." Yuki put
out his arm to stop me from getting a second glass but after one
look at my face, he backed up but continued to watch me closely
with concern.
I went back to the pitcher
and filled the second glass for Akito. The moment he saw it, he
smacked the second cup out of my hand too but this time I forced
myself not to flinch when even more of the glass shards embedded
in my hands.
"I DON'T WANT YOUR
SYMPATHY!" His coughing seemed to grow worse by the minute
but no one wanted to approach him.
One last time, I went to the
pitcher and poured water into the last glass that sat on the
table. I tried to ignore the pain of the glass digging deeper
into my hands as the blood from my hands stained the glass and
dripped off the bottom. "Akito, please let me help
you."
I knew that if he refused me
this time that there was no hope but I tried to have faith in
Akito and in myself.
When he looked up at me the
last time, he looked more like a confused child then the head of
the Sohma family.
"Why? ... Why?" His
voice was shaky and emotional but this time he didn't hit the
glass away. Our eyes met and we just stared at each other for a
long time until he finally took the glass from my hands. "I
don't understand you at all."
When he finally took a sip
out of the glass, I felt happy. Akito talking the glass was such
a small step when you looked at the grand scale of things but it
was the first time that he'd ever accepted anything from me.
He finished the glass of
water quickly and was just about to set down the cup when his
whole body went limp. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.
The glass slipped from his hand and shattered onto the floor. He
stumbled a few steps and then began to fall.
I watched in shocked horror
as Shigure and Hatori caught the older man gently and lowered him
to the floor. Hatori did a quick examination before looking up at
Shigure with an expression of disbelief.
"He isn't
breathing."
"Oh my God."
I watched as Shigure and
Hatori began working frantically over Akito's body to revive him.
I couldn't look away and I
started muttering to myself. "This is all my fault. ... This
is all my fault. ... AKITOOOOOOO!!"
Tears were pouring from my
eyes as I watched the scene before me and until the moment that
Momiji, Yuki and Ayame had ushered me outside and closed the door
behind me, I couldn't stop looking.
I could hear Momiji, Ayame
and Yuki calling to me over and over, begging to me to calm down
and snap out of it but I couldn't. All I could see was Akito
laying unconscious on the floor, surrounded by shards of broken
glass.
This was all my fault. If
Akito died, they'd all blame me. I'd upset Akito and caused him
to push himself to hard. If he died, I'd never forget myself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next Chapter - Is he dead?
