Title: Terror…
FIRST OF ALL, let me tell all of you who have already read this chapter, I'm really sorry I had to reupload, but I found a few mistakes, and decided to correct them. And anyway, something is wrong with my account, some of my reviews for the first chapter of this ficcy was deleted… somehow… when I uploaded the last chapter 18, and not only of this fic, there was another fic where some reviews disappeared. Anyone has any ideas? So, anyway, I thought if I may cancel that chapter and upload a new one, my account won't be so will be alright. Anyway, I didn't change a lot of it, just some tiny errors, so you won't be missing much if you don't read this again.
A/N:Hello again! I did take a long time… and I bet you guys are already bored with my excuse…. But I couldn't help it!!! *wail* I had this band performance, and I had to practice everyday, staying back and LOADS of time, taking up my school time. Imagine practicing from 7am to 5pm…. Could have no time to update… believe me!!!
Chidero: Going mad? Aren;'t you already mad? Nyhaahahaha… oh, man, gotta stop laughing like that…. Nah, come to think of it… don't really want to waste a death on a noisy… uh… monkey
Akira: Err… *inches closer* are you still mad about Mitsui-san? *Akira flashes Murusame* uh… right… looks like you don't think of him as a hero yet. Uh… I'll just leave quietly for now.
Zaki Spirit Wolf: Thanks… wow, that's a nice name, where did you think of it? Read on… thankfully this chappie is not as short as the last. Thanks again… you're one of the few who wouldn't kill me because of the suspense…
Teh Tarik: Eeep!!! *Buys a wig for the tarik as she sees a bald teh tarik. Don't tear your hair out over a cliffhanger!!!
Alexia: Oh… okay, thanks… yup…he was importent for that chapter. He's not that important in this.
Kathleen: You really want to know? I'm pleased to inform you that his name appears in this chapter!!! Nyhahahaha… I'm going mad… too much of trumpet playing has messed my brains up, excuse me…
Sakura88: Would it be alright with you if I continued calling you by your old penname? Well it is a little easier to spell… yup… I'm going sot also… yup, I love add-Maths too!!! It's fun!! Though I'm sorta dying through accounts and the rest as I skip all the classes and am still lost… now must study. Do u go 4 tuition?
Leviathan: Kenji? *watches as Leviathen kneels* well… I wonder… *reads on* *gulp* uh… kill me? err…. I see… well, err… *goes off into hiding*
Crazy4u: nahlar… I'm not that easily tersinggung. Don't go mad yet, enjoy form two…. It's fun. And yeah, I agree… lot's of seniors act terribly… they think they're grand… I don't really respect ALL my seniors…. But at least most of them… *grins* err… this chappie is not that short… so, don't shoot me again, considering that I don't have nine lives… and I have been killed again and again… *grins* ^_^;
J2ain: I'm sorry you had to wait some more… but I just couldn't upload it soon enough. Jersey number? No… it didn't… but it may be a good idea… I'll think it through… maybe I can fit it inside the fic. Middle of an empty room in the middle of the night? Good!! Go on reading then…. Hopefully you won't get a heart attack!!!
Krappkarmin: Yeah, school is really killin!!!! God SOS!!!! Hopefully u enjoy this and cool off some of ur stress…
Miracle: Oh? Good… *stares as Miracle goes dreamy* *reads on* uh… what? *Throws a shoe at miracle* you don't care about Sendo??!!! Cruel!!! Nyahahaha… ok… I'm really going mad.
Chapter 17- Scary?'Stop screaming!' Rukawa shouted. An ear-ringing silence followed. Hearing someone who was suppose to only sleep and play basketball shout was weird enough to shut all of them up. The moth, however, was still up there, fluttering, waiting for them to get ready to defend themselves, as if mocking their slowness.
* * * * * * * *
I know, something in me… this definite sureness, that I'm the one that it wants. That stupid fluttering moth is counting down… counting down to my death. It's just me… if am I ready, ready to face it, ready to save my friends…?
I… I… will save them…
* * * * * * * *
Why? Why did it only want one? Rukawa questioned himself, eyeing everyone – or at least, trying to eye all of the scared and cowering students who shrank back from the moth. The moth who had killed so many… Shiozaki-sempai, Mitsui-sempai… and most of all Saori-nee-chan. Rukawa suddenly felt anger rise in him, seeping from his bloodstream into his brains. He nearly lost himself then, succumbing to his anger. He wanted to run forth, to rip the stupid moth in half, making it pay for all the hurt it had caused, for all the lives it had taken.
He would have done so… but a rustling from his left distracted his thoughts. That, and several screams of shock, warning and plain terror. Rukawa's mind blanked for a while… then snapped back to reality. He ran his hand over his messy and totally drenched hair, as a fork of lightning momentarily lighted the field.
'Don't follow!' Rukawa heard it as if from afar, as if drowned not by the whip crack of thunder, but by the ages that had somehow gotten between them. The ages that now separated them, the ages, which now, made them bid each other goodbye.
'Don't follow!' the person repeated, shouting behind his back, as he ran on. Some of them looked as if they were on the verge doing exactly the opposite. The moth suddenly swooped down on the tall boy, chasing him, chasing the tall captain who was running with a petrified look on his face.
'Go! Get lost! This is the only way!' All of these seemed to happen in slow motion, as if this was a movie or a novel, not real life. Rukawa seemed paralyzed, nailed to the spot. No matter how he urged his limbs to move, he couldn't twitch a nerve.
'Damn! Don't do it!' Fujima called out, raising his voice over the howl of the wind, and the fierce shower of rain.
'Sempai! What the hell!' Kiyota screamed. Jin seemed to shock for words. He just stared at the retreating back of his captain, which were covered by the shadows of the moths' wings. It was so dark and black… Jin shuddered, took a deep breath and broke forth. That was when Rukawa's paralysis broke. He stepped up, and grabbed one of Jin's hands.
'Sendo! We have to move! Now!' Rukawa screamed.
There was no hope for Maki left… he's gone… sayonara…
'But Maki…'
'He chose to sacrifice, like Mitsui-sempai. There was nothing we could do, and there is nothing we can do to help him. We still have us… let's move on with what we have… we don't have the time, and can't afford to look back if we want to survive!' Rukawa said softly, and in his own way, he sounded threatening though they could hardly hear him through the rain. His soft voice seemed to have a certain effect on all of them, and they were silent for a while. And though that while had seemed long… at least to some of them it did seem long, it was, in reality only a few seconds passed.
'But that's not back!' Jin shouted suddenly… hysterically.
'That is not BACK! He's not dead! He has a chance, no matter how slim it is, it's still a chance, to survive. We have to get to him! It's not past! Damn it! It's present, happening right before our eyes.'
'You'd rather sacrifice all our lives to save one? All of us? Maki's life may be more important to you compared with the rest, but the price of a life is same… everywhere… a life is alive, nothing can compare with that, and no other's can compare with that one's life. No, even Maki's life can't be compared with Kiyota's, that's the price of a life, a price that can never be paid,' Hanagata said, softly, comforting, and yet, stern.
'He was chosen. He had to go… he was the one that it really wanted… it really wanted from the start. And nothing is going to change that. Enough people have died… let's move on… Maki will be the last… because he is the ONE. If we could just get out of here, this nightmare will be over, I feel it…deep in me. It will be end.' The wind swirled around them softly, making them feel, as weird and impossible as it may seem, peaceful.
'But… but he's our friend…' Jin whispered. Kiyota looked up at the sky, at the full moon and twinkling stars. They all looked bloody. The full moon… it looked bloody.
'He's… not… he… he was. He's not our friend… he was.' Kiyota whispered. Tears started welling up from his eyes.
'He is, Kiyota. He still is. Friendship doesn't end that easily. It will go on, even after one has gone. Your memories… your memories of him still live on, and he lives in you. So, he still is your friend,' Fujima said, wiping the rain drops that nearly entered his eyes.
Damn! If only I could help! Kiyota nearly screamed in rage, frustration, and hurt.
The wind blew harshly, sending shivers down everyone's spine. They were soaking wet, and cold like hell, but they still stood there, with the moon's glow illuminating parts of them…. The sight, the whole scenario seemed reverent, and they didn't feel like breaking the atmosphere right then. Crystal-like raindrops continued falling, mingling with their tears.
After a few seconds that seemed like eternity, a Shoyo first-year spoke up… not out of will, but mere intuition.
'For you maybe, but not for us.'
'Huh?'
'The nightmare may end for all of you, but not for us.' The rest still stared at him, uncomprehendingly.
'Don't you see? This is our school. We see it everyday. We see the gym everyday! How can it be over for us?' his voice was amazingly soft and even.
'You're not the only one, some of us have lost friends… everything. And all of us have lost part of ourselves, didn't we? We lost our believes, we might develop phobias, anything… everything. There's no need for you to sink in your excuses, your self-pity… what is there to claim? We can't help you much. All we can do is to sympathize on you a little… but that's all we can do. We're all on the losing end… aren't we?' Fukuda said. His voice was placid… placating…
'We're worse!' another Shoyo second-year shouted immaturely. There was a pause.
'Why exactly are we discussing who's worse off in a field, under pouring rain, and with some nightmarish thingy chasing after… after… us all?' Miyamasu asked. A rippled of nervous laughter followed his question.
Miyamasu gave Jin an oh-gosh-what-is-it-now look, as if he hadn't meant it to be funny. But most of Miyamasu's words had a little humor in them, though he never meant it to have, so he was kinda used to it by now… and yet, what Miyamasu just said wasn't exactly funny, and for once, his look was right… Jin forced a smile.
'Look, let's just get out of here. You may be worse of, or you may think you are worse off, or whatever, but all the once… at least some of the once who had sacrificed their lives decided to get us out. How can we still stay in here then?' Fujima asked softly, trying to ease the tension that didn't retreat with the laughter.
'But Maki-sempai…' Kiyota said stubbornly.
'The best we can do is leave. We shouldn't disobey a captain's word… right?' Takesago said. Kiyota wiped his eyes, trying not to sniffle as he nodded his head.
Sendo started forward, and after a few seconds, the rest linked hands and followed.
The wind shriek piercingly. Lightning flared for a moment, thunder screamed at it, seconds later, as if angry, angry at their courage to step forward…. And in the lightning's momentary illumination, Rukawa thought he saw his sister smiling down at him, encouraging him softly. Rukawa hung his head…
Onee-chan… gomen… I couldn't help you then… but… allow me to live for myself a little more… to really now, enjoy… something you taught me to do… to smile, to touch another, but I didn't. all I cared for was myself… I forgot how to… how to be happy and smile… sayonara…
* * * * * * * *
Maki noted that he was already panting. It was too early to be panting. They had learnt in basketball how to breathe to conserve their energy… so they wouldn't tire so easily. He shook his head, trying to clear it, trying to breathe normally, but he was suffocating under a confining mantle of fear that threatened to choke him.
He could still hear the moth's fluttering wings, feel it as it beat wind towards him… and he wondered why he was running. There was no way he could win this… but he went on running anyway. Realizing that he was almost lost, Maki looked up, and at the window of the teacher's office. A solitary light was lit, and thus allowing him to look right into that particular part of the room.
All of a sudden, Maki couldn't breath, and yet, his limbs continued moving, suffocating him. His lungs on fire, his blood turning to freezing ice in his blood stream he still ran on. He was forced to run on.
What the hell is that? he asked himself although he knew… there was someone… a lady with hauntingly long hair standing there by the window. Her face was pale… no… it was white. White and bony. Her eyes, so sunken that he could nearly see her pupils. Her long gray hair was all over her head, in a very messy fashion. He didn't know why he could see her so clearly when he was down while she was on the second floor. But he did know that he was nearly dying of fright. She reached her hand out, a bony white hand, as if reaching for him. And suddenly the moth was not all that scary anymore… suddenly, all the stories he had told his sister, all the childish scary stories that was not true… or so he had assured her, seemed realistically petrifying.
This is so… old-fashion… more than that damn it! This is freakin CHILDISH! Come on! A lady standing by the window? It's a natural scary story that everyone uses!
Lighting illuminated her frame, her bony frame, and all the saliva in Maki's mouth dried. He could feel his heart thudding in his body. Numbly, he unconsciously told himself that the most typical scary stuff would be the worst when it really happened.
She opened her mouth, and let out a high pitch shriek, screaming like a banshee. From afar, Maki heard the moth let out another shriek in reply… as if scared. The moth… scared
Maki tore his eyes away from the window… and realized that there was only one way out for him. He was faced with no other choice, except to go in there… into that dark corridor. He headed for it, without a thought whatsoever, even though he knew that it would eventually lead to the office if he went in the correct way. But he had no thought of doing so. He would never go anywhere near it.
However, as he neared it, he felt a splinter of pure fear push its way into his heart. He glimpsed the moon, shrouded by clouds… feeling that that was the most innocent thing in the world… and yet, knowing that this was the last time he would ever see it…
A/N: EEP!!!! Don't kill me because of the cliffhanger!!1 I didn't want to do it… but I couldn't help it. it was too tempting. Anyway, it was already too long and I didn't know what to write next!! Gomen, gomen… hopefully you guys liked it!