-Blood and Flowers-
"-en. Ren!"
The smoky female voice raised in tone, hovered worriedly above him. Little by little, awareness came back. He was lying on something hard, and- and, that scent. His eyes opened, an involuntary grunt escaped his lips.
"M-Mistress-!"
Ai knelt in the grimy alleyway, her large eyes fixated on his face.
Yet she did not speak.
Ren was vaguely aware of Hone's apprehensive looks, her disguise of a Cafe Barista momentarily discarded along with materiality to the human eye.
"What happened to you?" Hone demanded after a long moment had passed. "You started yelling with your eye shut and almost blew our-"
He ignored her, "Mistress-" his heart sank. Ai had risen without a word, her steps echoing in the cold silence, then abruptly halted, listening intently to only something she could hear.
"The contract..."
Something slipped past her pale emotionless mask.
She vanished suddenly moments before Hone was going to inquire on her meaning. Then just as Ren climbed up to his feet, shaking nonexistent dirt from his sweater, he froze. They both heard it as Ai's bell tinkled, felt it, as the dimensional portal absorbed their target to the world of grey skies and river.
"She's ferrying him to Hell."
...
In another dingy alley lit intermittently by street lights, they found Wanyuudo trampled on in the gutter. As Hone rescued him, Ren continued on, trying to make sense of everything. Why had Ai taken off so suddenly? Why hadn't they moved first to give the perpetrator a taste of his own medicine?
Nothing made sense- something caught his eye. The tip of a pale pink shoe sticking out from a dumpster. He hurried around and stopped and stared. The contractee was dead. Curls of auburn framed her doll-like face, the sweater she wore over the Barista uniform was splotched a sickly crimson from the mortal wound dealt to her heart. Hone jogged up with Wanyuudo at her heels.
The three of them gazed down at the body.
"I told you that girl pulled the string only halfway before he lunged at her. Tossed me aside!" grumbled the old man. Neither of the younger assistants of the Hell girl were listening. Hone at length, lowered her sleeve from her mouth, "this girl...was dead before the contract was fulfilled."
"What does that mean?" Always considering himself to be the quicker out of them all, Ren hesitated to even surmise the consequences of their Mistress's actions. Did she ferry that guy to Hell simply 'cause...he killed the girl he supposedly loved?
Did Ai take ...revenge for the girl? As the last thought passed through his mind, the sound of many legs scuttling over a concrete surface echoed. They all turned as a huge red spider appeared from the darkness of the alleyway...
...
The oar swished through the water, Ai's gaze was fixated ahead on the distant Torii gate. The actions were the same. Monotonous. The man lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his clothing soaked with blood. Ai let her senses drift, the scent of decaying flowers mingled with the coppery sharp scent of blood.
She did not think of what she had broken; nothing disturbed her impassive countenance. Not when the spider's web strung fine thread and bound her hands from dipping the oars. The boat tip was only inches away from passing through the gate.
"Hell girl, this human is not bound anymore by the threads of the contract. His sin is for mortal eyes alone." The voice echoed from above and all around.
"He is worthy of Hell." Ai gazed forward to the barren, ashen land ahead.
"That is not for you to decide. Release him."
"This is vengeance." She insisted quietly.
The webs broke and she continued through the gate, the boat vanished into the blackness as the spider's voice rang ominously throughout the decayed land.
"Then, your heart has returned. Never more shall you leave this place, Ai Enma."
-TBC
AN: finally an update! -.-; sorry for taking so long!
No flames!
Reviews loved :)