So these upcoming chapters will be fun... Stick with me, I know where I'm going with this story and plot line until the very end. ;)
You all were very concerned about the pup! If you were on Instagram with me, you would have gotten a few spoiler hints!
SHOUT OUT TO MY INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS AND COMMENTORS, YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!
Anyway, Enjoy!
Chapter 49: Sins of the Past
Rin was now on top of her bed, staring up at the dog demoness who had forced her there; a clawed hand tightening dangerously around her throat.
"N-Netami," she forced out, "I thought-"
"Lord Sesshoumaru has spoiled you," the demoness hissed, half under the influence the queen's control. She smiled in bitterness, "How trusting you are of demons… What a sin for him to give you false hope in a life without worry as you tagged along under the safety of his shadow."
"Wh-what are you saying?" Rin gasped, realizing that Netami's voice was beyond construed.
The demoness sneered with lifted pupil-less eyes, "So terribly naïve. So terribly sheltered. Lord Sesshoumaru will have his fun with you and then he will toss you aside like he has everyone else."
Widening honey-brown eyes stopped struggling at the very words, at the very thought, that Rin had always tried to suppress.
"Do you still doubt demon nature? Do you consider yourself unable to be vexed or bewitched by a being that saved your life? You do know that is what we demons do best, don't you?"
"You're wrong… He's not…," Rin tried to retaliate but the demon's grip tightened grudgingly around her throat.
"Do you wish for me to prove it to you? To prove that you are nothing more than a fleeting trend on Lord Sesshoumaru's magnificent timeline of cold-hearted conquest?" Netami offered with her shrill, overtaken voice.
Rin just stared up at her without a word to spare.
A slimy tongue elongated to wipe the disbelief from Rin's paling face.
"I know that you are envious, darling," Netami cooed, "Envious of how intimate I am with our lord. Centuries of history that you could never hope to fully hear or know, simply because your life is deathly short in comparison to any of ours. I thought maybe it would be better that way for you, to keep on living without knowing the truth…"
She smiled wider before finishing, "…But you deserve to know."
"Ungh!" Rin's mouth opened at the hand's redirection to force open her jaw. Rin's own fingers clawed and fought against the advances, to no avail.
Time to instill the darkness… to make her capable…
Using her other hand, Netami scooped the Tamuri Salve under the shelter of her forefinger claw, and lowered it into Rin's mouth. Scraping the filth along the girl's tongue, the demoness finally retreated her arm as Rin began to writhe against the taste. Netami now forced the human's mouth shut and collapsed her nasal airways.
"Swallow or you will die breathless."
Rin looked up at her pleadingly for the few moments that lack of air granted her, hoping that the deranged woman would somehow change her mind, before inevitably ingesting the substance.
And then…
Darkness.
0oooo0ooo0oooo0ooo0oooo0
Rin awoke to the sound of heavy rain smashing down upon the vaulted roof, lengths above her.
She sat up in a cold sweat, gasping, everything around her... unrecognizable. Surrounding her was a barren wooden floor, meeting the four corners and tatami-papered walls of the large room. The slats above gave the indication that she was in the middle of a traditional Japanese-style castle; very unlike her lord's.
Feeling the soft thin mat below her, she took notice of the elite-style, simple bedding.
Where was she? And where had she been prior to this point? She couldn't seem to remember...
And then she took notice of her clothes.
An old style, plain navy, yukata.
Rin gasped.
The belt… Kaerunin… They were gone.
Frantic and sweating, she stood with difficulty, barely catching her balance as she rushed to the single exit of the room and slammed open the sliding door. Looking down both hallways, she saw no one; she heard nothing. Every single standing candle was put out.
Abandoned.
What is going on?!
The blood in her legs clogged with misplaced adrenaline as she rushed through the corridors of the darkened castle, desperately trying to find a way out. The dimming glow of the papered walls indicated oncoming dusk; she was close to the outside world. And when she finally caught the thin opening between the fragile main exit doors, she granted herself a slight smile of hope before sprinting towards them.
Using both arms with desperate fervor, she slid them apart and gazed out over the quieted castle grounds, aching for answers.
Alas, her breath caught and she nearly crippled over in shock.
Blood. Death. Bodies.
Hundreds of human bodies.
Everywhere.
Blood pooled the dirtied soot and ground as the remaining shreds of organs lay strewn out left and right; origins unknown. Heads lay severed from lifeless armored forms, seemingly screaming with fear-stricken facial expressions that dripped heavily with scarlet tresses.
All of them… mutilated.
She struggled to lean against the door she had just opened, covering her panicked face as the stench of death attacked her senses. As she scanned over the bloodied masses that were torn, ripped, or simply, cut down clean, her eyes found a focal point.
The focal point.
About fifty yards away, down the castle stairs… dead ahead was…
Lord Sesshoumaru.
His claws; caked with blood.
His tongue; wearing away their accumulated filth.
His deathly golden eyes; staring straight at her.
0oooo0ooo0oooo0ooo0oooo0
Netami gazed at the girl beneath her who had ceased all movements aside from heavy breathing and whimpering.
'Using Lord Sesshoumaru's past to darken her heart, hmm?' She solemnly questioned the queen's voice that had commanded her previous acts.
Yes. Though, it's a bit darker than that. These past events actually occurred, and are unexaggerated. And, in each one of his darkest sins that I have her endure…
…Rin is to play the vital role that caused them to be so unforgivable.
Wherever she is… Whoever she is… She will encounter him in the most traumatizing of ways. She will experience the Sesshoumaru that she has never seen; the one she has never known.
Rin will see him as the man he used to be, before he cared for anything but himself. The way of a demon.
"...You sure know how to break a soul, I'll give you that," Netami murmured.
The more Rin grows to fear and hate Sesshoumaru, the more the leftover pieces of her darkened soul festers in the Underworld. And with the growing pieces of her soul that come to be under my control… I can gift another with its power. I can make them look like her, smell like her, and able to control the power within her…
…within Kaerunin.
"I guess you mean me when you say, 'another'," Netami muttered, looking to Rin's hip at the pulsating sword before thinking, "So that's why we were both required to take the salve. So that my own darkened soul could converge with, and take on, Rin's." She scowled at the blatant trickery.
After a moment of thought and observation she questioned out loud, "And how do you figure Kaerunin will destroy Sesshoumaru if the blade supposedly aims to protect both of them equally?"
The queen sneered in her cell, the time of trial nearing as she heard guards making their way down the stairwell. She lightly touched the breadth of her shoulder and neck, where a darkened purple scar lay embedded upon fresh white skin.
"I am my late husband's surviving mate, you know… Our souls are forever intertwined. And with my living influence, I can manipulate the release of his remaining power regardless of handwritten standards. The only key that I need… is the sole bearer's essence. Rin's willingness to sever her and Sesshoumaru's bond unlocks the potential. I have the ability to untangle the rest."
0oooo0ooo0oooo0ooo0oooo0
Despite it all; the gut-curdling stench, the nauseating visuals, the harsh reality of the situation that presented itself before her, Rin still felt relief at the sight of the familiar face, the silvery hair, the prestigious dress.
Sesshoumaru.
"L-lord Sesshoumaru?!" She cried out, beginning to rush down the stairs in his direction.
The up-and-coming daiyoukai yards before her lowered his claws to his side, studying the figure running towards him, while he turned his full body to face her.
"Wh-where are we?! What happened?!" She shouted, though seemingly unheard as she continued towards the sanctity of his presence. He cocked his head.
"Hmm. It seems as if I missed one," he proclaimed, mainly to himself, slightly perturbed.
His eyes grew colder; the sudden toxicity of his aura caused Rin to halt in her tracks.
"Rushing to your death, girl?" He spoke maliciously. His voice tainted with hatred, "Usually I wouldn't bother with low-life vermin such as you, but I've been feeling rather ill towards your particular race as of late."
This Sesshoumaru... Rin's chest grew tight with renewed confusion and fear.
His voice... His eyes... They were scarier than she remembered.
He began walking idly towards her, his pink-flowered silk yukata flapping against the rushing wind. A smile snaked slowly across his face as he scented the human broad's fear.
"How careless of me to have made such a mistake... But equally...," he said loud enough for her to hear, raising a single hand of bright green claws out to his side as he lifted his chin to the air in an aristocratic manner, "...how sad that you were too foolish to escape while you still had the chance."
Yay for upcoming bad Sesshoumaru. :( Will Rin be strong? How will this play out at the trial? What will Lord Sesshoumaru's reaction be?
All answers will come soon enough!
Thanks for all the reviews! I will be replying to them soon!
Just been busy updating and planning for you guys :p
