Disclaimer: I own nothing...not yet, but someday I might.
A/n: This is my fist attempt at an angsty horror fic, so please be patient with me. I hope you like it!
Also, the high rating is only because of the graphic violence.
BTW this has nothing to do with the Young Love or No One Cares/ Project of Failure: Infinitymon timelines.
Chapter 1: Say It Isn't So!
It was your average beautiful day. The crisp spring air was quite refreshing after the cold loneliness that winter always seemed to bring. According to the local weatherman there was no sign of rain in the forecast, which was good since another heavy rain like they'd been having lately would most likely cause a big flood...
But Ruki cared about none of that as she stared blankly out the window of her room. Today was going to be another "wonderful" photo shoot, compliments of her mother. The voice of her mother's cheerful call echoed through the room and pulled her from the window.
"Ruki, dear, are you ready to go?" Rumiko asked her daughter.
"Yeah, I guess so." Sighed the sixteen-year-old, but her mother seemed not to notice.
As they drove down the road in her mom's black car, Ruki stared sadly out the window at the other children heading to school. She even saw some of the other Tamers laughing and talking as they went on their way.
Most anyone would think that any normal teenager would be happy to not go to school, but then again Ruki wasn't your average teenage girl. Ruki hated shopping, dresses, and almost anything else that most "normal" girls enjoyed doing. Most of all, though, she hated going to photo shoots!
It wasn't that she thought of herself as too ugly to be a model; she just hated the hot lights and the stupid comments the photographer would make as she stood there.
It didn't help that she had no one to talk to either. Her grandmother was ill and in the hospital, and she hadn't talked to the other Tamers since shortly after Juri's funeral two years ago.
Ruki thought back to that day, the day Juri's father found her laying on her bed with her wrists slit.
Nobody was really sure why she'd go and do such a thing. In fact, just the day before she'd done it, she'd been discussing with Takato about talking their parents into getting married between school years instead of after they graduated. Juri said her father would be the one who'd need the most convincing to let them go along with it.
"I wonder how Takato's doing, after all, Juri was his first love." She said to herself.
Ruki looked over at her mother to see if she'd heard what she said. But Rumiko hadn't stopped blabbing about some modeling tips, or whatever, since they left the house.
She then remembered the argument they had the last time she'd told her she didn't want to be a model:
"Don't be silly, Ruki! Anyone with natural beauty like us would be crazy not to be a model." Rumiko had said.
"But mom, I...I want to be a singer, and I want to finish high school."
"Don't be silly Ruki! Singers don't make money, and when you have looks you don't need to finish high school. I never did." Rumiko boasted causing Ruki to shut her mouth after that.
That had been only a few weeks ago.
When they reached the agency Ruki stayed in the car as her mother went inside. Ruki figured that maybe her mother wouldn't notice her absence, but much to her disappointment Rumiko came right back out.
"Ruki, dear, get out of the car. Everyone's waiting for you." Rumiko cheerfully said, seemingly oblivious to the disobedient look her daughter was giving her.
"No." Ruki answered and crossed her arms.
"Ruki, get out of the car."
"No."
"Ruki," Rumiko said through clenched teeth, "don't make a scene! Just get out of the car."
Ruki knew that she'd have to be the one to give in because of her mother's stubbornness. She laughed slightly at the thought as she recognized that same trait in her own personality, though not quite as strong.
"Fine, but I refuse to do any stinking modeling!" Ruki said finally giving in.
Rumiko smiled broadly and seemed to skip through the doors in glee.
In the studio she watched as her mother gladly modeled for the camera doing whatever the photographer wanted.
"She'd probably pose naked for him too if he asked." Ruki mumbled to herself.
"Ruki, dear, it's your turn. Go get changed." Rumiko said
"I told you I'd only come in if I didn't have to do it!"
"What? You never said that!" Her mother said innocently. "Ruki you have to do this! Everyone wants to see you model."
Ruki angrily glared at her mother. She knew what her mother was trying to pull. She tried it every time. The other people in the studio could only watch as a fight broke out between mother and daughter.
"Stop playing innocent! I told you I didn't want to model!" Ruki started to yell, "I want to sing. I want to finish school, because I want to know I can get a job if I fail at singing."
"I've told you before, singing gets you nowhere!"
"I could say the same thing about modeling!" Ruki screamed. "After all what are you going to do when you start to get wrinkles and gray hair, especially when you have no diploma or anything like that? Who would want to hire a useless forgotten nobody who's so full of herself about her faded looks? Who would want you around?"
Rumiko stood in shock at her daughter's outburst. Not even bothering to see the effect it had, Ruki stormed out of the studio.
After Rumiko was able to think again, she got in the car and went to find Ruki. But she wasn't at home, nor was she at the hospital with her grandmother who'd been sick lately.
"Mom, Ruki made a big scene and ran away from the photo shoot! I was so embarrassed!" She whined to the old woman in the hospital bed, eating supper.
"Did you ever think that modeling wasn't what she wanted to do?" Seiko, Rumiko's mom, asked.
"She says it all the time, but I don't think she means it. She doesn't know what's waiting for her if she doesn't do this."
"And what would that be?"
"She'd have to do physical labor! I just can't see her doing that kind of stuff."
"That may be, but you have to let Ruki make her own decisions."
"Maybe you're right mom. Thanks." Rumiko said sadly, and left.
It had tuned night by the time Rumiko left the hospital, and the parking lot was deserted. The heels of her shoes clicked lightly against the pavement. Perhaps if it had been better lit she would've seen someone coming up behind her. She didn't even hear the person's shoes make a noise. She turned around just in time to feel a hand close in on her neck and watch as her attacker stabbed a knife into her stomach.
She wasn't sure who it was in the dimly lit parking lot, and it didn't help that her head was being held back or the pain in her stomach from the knife wound. All she could tell through was whoever-it-was had a ponytail.
"W-who are you?" She managed to choke out.
Rumiko saw the person smile evilly.
She tensed up as she felt something sickeningly warm and slimy was tightened around her neck in place of the hand.
Rumiko was then pushed up against a burned out light pole. She felt the same slimy thing being wrapped around the rest of her body, then her mouth was stuffed with it. The taste was awful and she nearly gagged on it.
"Do human intestines taste good?" The figure's voice whispered in her ear.
The next morning that same parking lot was full of flashing police cars and police. The sergeant on the case walked up to a group of officers surrounding a blond woman gagged and bound to a pole by her own intestines.
"Did you find anything to identify her?" He asked a near by officer.
"According to the driver's license we found on the body her name was Makino Rumiko." The officer answered back as he shuttered. "What a terrible way to die."
The sergeant nodded in agreement.
"Anything else about Makino-san?" He asked.
"She was a fashion model at a nearby agency, she's divorced and has a teenage daughter. According to the records we found on her, both her and her daughter live with her mother, who is currently in this hospital. We've been trying to reach the daughter, but we're not having any luck."
"According to the agency, both Makino-sama and her daughter were there yesterday and a fight broke out between them." Another officer piped in.
"Hmm. So you think that the daughter did it? Any evidence?"
"There was some foreign hair on the victim, but that's it." The first officer stated. "Also, her right index finger is missing."
"Just like in the murder that occurred three days ago. See if it matches the hairs found on the other victim match those found here."
Even if they searched all of Tokyo they wouldn't have found her. Before the sun had even risen that day, she'd set out on a boat to Kochi on the Island of Shikoku from the Tokyo Bay.
Now that the sun had risen, Ruki leaned against the boat's railing and watched as the shoreline passed by.
"Hey there Sunshine, why so blue?" A familiar voice behind her asked.
"What are you doing here Ryo?" She asked whirling around.
He was a little confused at first as to how she knew his name then understood.
"I hardly recognized you Ruki-chan. You've grown up, and if I may say so, you've gotten prettier."
"That's what happens when you don't see a person for six years. And don't call me pretty!" She said taking a seat on a nearby bench. Ryo sat next to her.
"Well, I've been really busy. After all, with all the school I missed while I was in the Digital World I had to work twice as hard to not get held back."
"You never answered my question; what are you doing here?"
"A couple days ago my dad was murdered."
"What?! Why?"
"Don't know. But anyways, I'd gone to visit him and found him in his recliner with his stomach sliced open. Whoever did it also cut off his index finger and took it with them. Blood was everywhere..."
"That's disgusting! Why would someone want to kill someone then keep one of their fingers?"
"I don't know. Anyways I was searching through the house after the police left and found a letter in his bedroom addressed to me." He pulled the paper from his pocket. "I guess he wrote this to try and figure out how to tell me that I'm adopted, or that's what it says. It also says that I have a cousin who lives over in Kochi. I'm on my way there to see him. Why are you headed there? Are you on a trip with your mom or something?"
"No." She said quietly, then decided she might as well tell him "I'm running away from her. She's trying to force me to be a model like she is, but I...I want to sing. Plus, I want to go back to school. My mother pulled me out."
"I see. Will you sing for me Ruki-chan?"
Ruki looked at him then looked away quickly.
"N-not right now. Maybe...maybe later." She stammered.
Just then the boat pulled into the docks at Kochi, and all the passengers disembarked. Ruki and Ryo were the last ones off.
"Hey Ryo! 'M glad you made it." Called a boy with tan skin and dark hair.
"Do I know you?" Ryo asked.
"Oh, sorry about that, it's me, your cousin, Kai."
"Hey there Kai." He turned to Ruki. "Do you have anywhere to stay? I only ask because I don't think my cousin would mind if you-"
"I'll find a place, but thanks." She said and disappeared into the crowd at the harbor.
"Come on Ryo. You're probably tired, let's go to my place." Kai said picking up a couple of Ryo's bags.
Ruki went to an apartment building that had an ad in the newspaper she'd bought shortly after she'd gotten off the boat.
"Excuse me sir, but where might I find Takahashi-sama?" Ruki asked an older man who'd just left that same building.
"Who's askin'? The man replied in a gruff voice.
"Makino Ruki." Ruki answered. "I'm interested in the furnished apartment you have in the paper."
The man looked her over and after a while he decided.
"Do you have enough money to rent it?"
Ruki nodded and pulled out the money and handed it to the man.
He took it and counted it. Then went back inside the building. A few minutes later he returned with a set of keys.
"It's number 21, but first the rules: no late-night parties, I don't want to find anything stained when I come to inspect every-so-often, and if I get too many complaints about you, yer outta here. Understand?"
"Yes sir."
"Then here are the keys to yer apartment."
Ruki smiled and went to check out the apartment. It was rather nice, but nothing compared to home.
She ran her fingers over the rough green fabric that the couch was made of and looked at the kitchen. It was small but cozy.
The sole bedroom held only a dresser and a bed. She didn't much like the mustard yellow walls, but it wasn't like the whole apartment was that sickly color.
"Maybe Takahashi-san would help me paint over it later...or at least give me permission" She said to herself
The rest of the day went pretty well for Ruki. She stocked her bare cupboards and refrigerator. It was getting close to dusk and she walked around the neighborhood to get an idea of her new neighborhood.
On her walk she ran into Ryo again...or rather he ran into her.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Ruki yelled.
"Hey, Ruki-chan. Sorry about that."
"Must you keep sneaking up on me Ryo?"
"I just want to add some excitement to your life is all." He said jokingly. "So did you find some place to stay yet?"
"Yeah. In fact, I was just heading back there."
"That's good...I mean, that you found a place."
"Like I'm going to believe that." She laughed.
"Did you know you have a beautiful laugh?"
Rika could only blush.
"Is the great Digimon Queen blushing?"
"Shut up." She said punching him, but not all that hard. "I'm leaving. And don't follow me home. You'd only be a fool to think I'd let you in.
"Well, I'd rather be a fool than an idiot any day."
"And why is that?"
"It's simple. A fool knows what lies ahead and goes for it anyway. An idiot just doesn't know any better."
"Whatever."
"See you later Ruki. Oh and...I'm sorry about your mother."
"Eh? What about my mother?" She said turning quickly around.
"You didn't see the news?"
"N-no. I've been running around all day." She said nervously.
"The police found you're mom in the parking lot of the hospital in Shinjuku early this morning. "She's dead." Ryo said sadly.
Ruki's eyes got wide
To be continued...
-----------------------
Yes I realize that Kai is Takato's cousin...I knew it from the start, so I don't want to get any replies asking if it was the same one or if I realized it...but please do reply!