Broken Melody
Chapter 3
Prelude to Darkness
"As I walk to the beat of my heart and soul, I feel like letting go. Oh, darling now, in my dreams you'll be tonight. Oh, Mr. Postman, now I have a sign. Here I have a letter, I know he's alright," 'Oh Mr. Postman'- B*Witched
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I would like to say thank you to my two reviewers: Miki-to-you-Maiko and VillianM. Thank you!! *Huggles* Would any of you readers like to join the (very small) ranks of those who receive thanks? Anyways, unless specified otherwise in previous chapters or at the end, all characters and designs are copyright to their respective owners. I claim no ownership.
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Darkness filled the castle. If you could call this evil fortress a castle. True, it maintained the common shape and wealth that a castle tends to, but it was somewhat in ruins. Tower crumbled under lightning and thunderbolts that were a result of the Leader's rage.
Kuraitama. Their master. Her full name being Kuraitama Shigin. And, oh, what a fitting name. Dark soul death silver was the translation, and just her first name sent shivers down her Servants' spines. Or it would, if they had any spines. She had a thick mane of wavy black hair, and cold red eyes. Her skin was a perfect shade of ivory, and she carried about her an air of power and cruelty. Inch-long blood red nails constantly pierced flesh and vein alike. Her Servants knew hat the nails were so red because they were stained by a constant flow of blood against them. Every time she was angry, she 'freshened up her nail-color'. And that's what she'd just finished doing. She waved at three of her Servants to remove the corpse, which looked like ten million needles had pierced it. The Servants' ears still rang with the cries of the now-dead one. A messenger scurried up to her, and told her something.
She scowled and clenched her fists, bringing her nails up to kill the messenger. However, she hesitated. She asked him something, the cold tones of her voice rolling neatly off her tongue and out of her mouth.
"I want this 'Nightmare Kaitou' corrupted," she said firmly. "And I want it done fast. Find the darkness in her heart and enlarge it. But please, don't screw this one up. I only want her evil when she transforms, because that's the point when she's most dangerous. Oh, and make sure she knows how to use weapons." With that, she turned on her heel and stalked out of the hall.
~~~~~~~~~~~
At that point, Chiaki, Maron, Miyako, and Indigo were in school. It was the end of the day, so no one was really paying attention. Indigo was scribbling something down on a piece of paper, and Chiaki craned his neck to see what it was.
Right now, I really don't care
And do you dare
To find the dark
In my heart
But right now, I could really care less
My mind's a mess
I'll take my life
I've got a knife
Do you believe me?
Or do you not see?
She's finding the darkness in me.
Odd, Chiaki thought, she really doesn't strike me as the poet type. Oh, well, that was a good poem. Dark, but good. Before he could contemplate his sister's poetic talents further, the bell rang and she crumpled up the paper and threw it in the trash. She muttered something like, 'I committed it to memory anyways', and ran out the door before any one else.
Maron let Miyako and Chiaki walk ahead of her, her thoughts drifting from Chiaki to Miyako to Indigo to Finn to her grades to being Jeanne and the checkmate tomorrow night. When they finally got home it was dark, but that wasn't stopping Indigo from swimming in the private pool, which must have been ice-cold. After finally finishing up her extensive amounts of homework, Maron decided to go join her. Surprisingly, the pool was quite warm, and apparently the girls got a bit louder than necessary, so the manager came out and yelled at them. When he turned his back, Indigo stuck her tongue out at him and flipped him off carelessly. Maron gaped at her, but Indigo just took that chance to go back to her lonely apartment. After the coldness in the night persistently seeped into her bones, Maron went in the Jacuzzi. She dunked her head under for about twenty seconds and when her head finally burst up, Chiaki was sitting on the wet concrete ground, looking quite satisfied. She turned around and ignored him. Or, rather, tried to ignore him.
"Hello, beautiful," he said cheerfully. She said nothing. He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically, and began humming an upbeat tune. He heard her groan, and his silly grin widened with satisfaction. After about ten minutes, she turned around and glared at him.
"Do you mind? I'm trying to ignore you." She said hatefully, but he just cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. She started to turn away, reminding herself not to think of how cute he was, reminding herself not to wonder what it would be like to kiss him. Ah, hell, it was too late for that anyways.
"You know, you're really sexy when you're mad," he informed her. She rolled her eyes and said sarcastically,
"Yeah, my five boyfriends tell me that a lot." She said sarcastically. Chiaki, however, apparently missed the sarcasm, and looked like he was very hurt and very close to hunting those 'five boyfriends' down and torturing and killing them using dull gardening scissors and rusted silverware. Then, of course, Maron busted up laughing. She laughed so hard she was almost crying.
"You actually believed me?!?!?" she gasped out between laughs. "You actually believed that five guys would actually want to date me?" When she finally stopped laughing, she noticed him staring at her. It wasn't, however, the normal stare below the neck. He was gazing into her eyes with all seriousness.
"Why do you say that?" he asked quietly. His amber eyes were so amazing; how had she never noticed before?
"Because I'm me," she said, in an even softer voice. "Why would any guy want to date me?" His eyes continued to meet hers; he found himself amazed at the great amount of sorrow in her eyes. But when she looked at him, another emotion sparked, and her eyes lit up.
"I can name two off the top of my head, and if you gave me a day I could probably think of ten more." He began. "Iinchou and I," he said. "You have serious insecurity issues." He informed her. Their eyes were still connected, and no matter how hard she tried, shoe could not bring herself to draw her gaze away. Chiaki wasn't trying, but he was willing to bet that if he'd tried to look away, he wouldn't have been able to.
"What's so special about me?" she inquired, hoping for an answer she wanted to hear. Chiaki's goofy grin reappeared on his face.
"Well, you do have a nice sized chest."
I guess you can't have everything in life.
She groaned in rage. "Pervert!" she screamed at him, then splashed him repeatedly until he backed up a bunch of steps, then she turned her back on him and refused to look back. However, he could tell by the set and shaking of her shoulders that she was crying. He realized just then that that apparently wasn't the right thing to say to her.
"Maron..." he whispered softly, so softly she barely heard him.
"Go. Away." She said firmly, still refusing to look at him. He gave up and left, flinching at the sounds of her quiet crying. Even though he could barely hear it, it made him feel worse than anything else in the world ever had, and, as he was willing to bet almost anything on, anything ever would.
Actually, the latter part wasn't true, but nobody knew that yet. So I'll shut up now.
When Maron thought Chiaki had left, she brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, burying her face in her knees and letting the cold tears mix with the warm water. When she thought she'd cried all her tears away, she wrapped a huge beach towel and darted into the apartment building. She ran into the elevator and smacked the 'seven' button. She hurried into her apartment, still dripping slightly. She slammed her apartment door behind her, and quickly threw on her pajamas. She started to head out to her balcony, but as she saw Chiaki was there, she turned on her heel and walked silently into her kitchen. She felt the tears began to form behind her eyes, and poured herself a glass of water. She set it gently down on the table, and let the teardrops fall onto the dark wood. The only sound that comforted her lonely heart was the sound of the salty teardrops splashing quietly against the kitchen table. After about twenty-five minutes, she could cry no more. He's not worth crying over, she told herself, but she could not help but think: If he's not worth crying over, then why am I crying? As she though, she absent-mindedly swirled the small puddles made of tears around on the table. The glass of water sat still-full, and she got a sudden idea. She grabbed the glass and walked out onto her balcony, not saying a word to Chiaki, just looking at the stars.
"Are you still mad at me, Maron?" Chiaki asked tentatively. She simply smiled sweetly at him. When she finally spoke, Chiaki felt a brief moment of relief and then he felt so terrible.
"I was never mad at you," she said in a flat tone. "I was furious with you." His face fell, and he started to try to explain, but she simply threw the water at him and carried the empty glass back into her apartment. Chiaki ran a hand through his messy(and now wet) hair and went back into the apartment.
"I am never going to understand her," he muttered under his breath. Unfortunately for him, Access heard and cackled while floating slowly and lazily in the air.
"Don't bother," he advised. "Usually you're a hell of a lot more stubborn than her, but you just had to go and fall for her." Chiaki groaned and rolled his eyes at the two-inch-tall angel, then promptly locked him in a cupboard. He heard a soft voice singing, and noticed it was slightly choked with tears. It sounded like Maron, and a song he'd never heard before. Indigo probably taught it to her.
"Hold me now, hold me now, say the things you say. Hold me now, hold me now, I pray. So~, here we are, at the start of this road, forever building castles in the air. Words-we don't need, without you I don't breathe, forever building castles in the air." Then the voice was silent, and the lonely darkness of quiet slumber crept across everyone.
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Indigo lay asleep in her bed, for once experiencing a dreamless slumber. The demon-messenger sent to corrupt her ripped out his heart, and held it in the dim light. It was black, and the pieces of veins hanging off of it were gray and black. The blood dripping off of it and onto the floor was a very dark black, but the second it hit the white carpet, it become see-through. He squeezed the heart carefully, dripping some blood onto his hand. Just enough, he thought grimly. He rolled over her thin frame, and thrust the black heart into her chest. Since she was sleeping and he'd made sure she wouldn't make a sound, she bucked and rolled painfully under the covers and the six hands holding her down. Using the blood he'd squeezed out, he drew the mark of Darkness on her forehead, and her hands involuntarily reached up to clutch her head; probably because of the intense pain the blood and darkness was causing her. The messenger left, and the only thing that showed he had been there was the light grey mark on her forehead. It looked like a triangle with two thin ovals set in the center.
When he arrived back at Kuraitama's fortress, he reported immediately, knowing she was not prone to patience.
"The mission was a success," he said in a robotic monotone. A grin of pleasure lit up her blood red lips, and her fangs gleamed in the moonlight. She had been draining something's blood when he'd first come, but the corpse lay forgotten on the ground. It looked like she'd been drinking for quite some time; no more blood was pouring out of the body's wounds.
In her rich, slightly accented voice, she answered: "I thank you. You have always been a trusty servant and done your tasks, no matter how difficult, obediently. I am promoting you- now you are one of my trusted generals, along with Noin and that girl, Myst{1}. I hope to see you continuing your progress- who knows? Maybe one day you'll be my right-hand man, like I was to Devil-sama." She grinned, her bloodstained teeth standing out against her black lipstick.
"Majesty? May I ask a question?" the servant asked shakily. She nodded her head absentmindedly, and snapped her fingers. Some grotesque monsters came and dragged the mangled corpse away. Actually, the corpse looked better than the monsters.
"Fish Finn said she was the devil's right-hand man. Which one of you is lying?" Kuraitama snorted.
"Let me set things straight," she replied in cold rage. "Finn was the devil's left hand man. She's my right-hand man, but you may take her place. Her friendship with that damn Jeanne may interfere with her duties." She then waved a thin hand, dismissing him. He scurried off as the sun woke from its slumber, spreading crimson and golden light over the world.
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Indigo woke up that morning, feeling like someone ran over her with a ten-ton truck, buried her, then dug her up a week later. Her head was throbbing painfully- she could feel it throbbing halfway down her back.{2} Her heart beat painfully against her chest, and she could feel her blood flowing sluggishly; she felt like she had needles stuck near her lungs, and every time she breathed she could feel the needles stabbing into her lungs. The saliva in her mouth tasted like poison, and her forehead ached with a blinding pain. She rolled over out of bed, shivering with the coolness of her sweat against her feverish skin. She fell almost instantly into a feverish sleep, and even Lance pounding fitfully on the door could not awaken her.
Maron awoke easily at five-thirty, unaware of what had shaken her out of her like slumber. She yawned and started to roll over and go back to sleep, but decided against it and took a shower and changed into her school uniform and grabbed her bag. Glancing at her watch, she realized it was only six-thirty, and grabbed a book she'd recently begun reading: Daughters of Britannia {3}, a book about the lives and times of diplomatic wives. It had only been recently translated into Japanese, and she didn't know much about England, but she already was enjoying the book. Out on the balcony, she rested her elbows on the rail and read, enjoying the cool morning breeze and the quiet. Every few minutes she would check her watch. At promptly seven-thirty, she slammed her book closed and walked out of her apartment. The quiet that ruled outside did not greet her ears; instead, she heard Lance pounding frantically on Indigo's door and yelling at her to wake up. Curiosity won out, and she went up to the older man and tapped him on the shoulder.
"What's wrong with Indigo?" she asked tentatively. Lance looked extremely worried, but he also looked like he knew what to do. He dug through his pockets for a few minutes, then came up with a small key. He fitted it neatly into the key hole, then swung the door open wide. Maron cautiously walked into the dim and warm apartment. It was laid out almost the same as hers, only slightly larger. She walked into the bedroom, and stifled a shriek with her hand. Indigo lay on the floor, shivering and sweating. Maron reached out a hand and lay it across her forehead. However, she instantly recoiled at the flaming heat that had met her hand when she had touched Indigo. A strange thing had happened also; in those few seconds she had touched her forehead, she'd seen a blinding darkness, broken only by a pair of cold red eyes. The pain that had greeted her in the second had been almost as blinding as the Darkness.
Tentatively, she laid her other hand on Indigo's cheek, and realized that while her cheek was unhealthily warm, it was nowhere near as hot as her forehead had been. Lance came into the room silently behind her, and Maron looked up and spoke softly, so as to not wake Indigo.
"She's burning up- there's no way she can go to school today. But really, there's nothing we can do. We just have to let her rest," Maron's gentle whisper reached Indigo in her freakish nightmares, but by the time it did, it was the hiss of a creature bringing news of your own death. Lance easily picked up Indigo's elf-like frame, and he and Maron put the extra blankets on her day bed. Lance wrote out a note explaining her absence from school, and Maron headed out the door to start walking to school. Outside she saw Chiaki leaning next to her door, absentmindedly shredding a piece of paper. She looked at him, rolled her eyes, and walked off silently.
"O-oi!" he shouted as she walked off. "Wait up!" He ran to catch up with her, and she still didn't speak to him.
"Maron, I'm reaaaallllly sorry about what I said- I didn't mean to make you mad! You were supposed to laugh. I'm sorry," as he blurted out those words, she slowly turned around to look at him. She cocked her head to her side, and looked slightly puzzled.
"That's the first time you've ever apologized for being a pervert," she stated calmly. "I guess I have to forgive you now, before I begin to hate the word 'sorry', right?" He nodded emphatically, and grinned triumphantly. She looked like she was about to smack him when he opened his mouth to speak, so he wisely shut it. As the elevator stopped on the lobby floor, Chiaki walked straight out the door, but Maron checked her mailbox first.
Empty.
School was like any other day. The tedious classes blended in with one another. They tend to do that when you're half-asleep and half-listening. Maron noticed Miyako was absent as well, which meant she'd received the notice card. Which could be either good or bad. Depending on the situation. Since Miyako wasn't there to outrageously flirt with him, Chiaki took it upon him to ask Maron out every five minutes. And whenever the other boys tried to do the same, Chiaki would just grab Maron's arm and drag her away, or (try) to put an arm around her waist and walk calmly off. Whenever he tried the latter, he usually got a smack on the head. A very hard smack on the head.
Somehow he had a feeling he was going about this the wrong way.
Iinchou was the only guy who didn't approach Maron that day, and he looked angry or depressed when Chiaki defended her from her semi-rabid 'fanboys'. He also blushed whenever Maron smiled at him after helping her with math. Chiaki was very lucky- he didn't know how lucky, though. He was new, so he didn't know that boys had been stalking/asking out Maron since fourth grade. He also didn't know that Maron usually only said one word to them: no. So he was lucky just to have a decent conversation with her.
Except for with Chiaki, conversations usually aren't so decent.
She really was beautiful; on the inside and outside. He auburn bangs fell perfectly over her chestnut eyes, and when the sun shone off of her silky hair, and made a halo of sorts, surrounding her head and making her look even more like and angel. She was kind, funny, smart, and obviously didn't have a mean bone in her body. At first he'd thought he'd had a chance with her, but then he noticed the way she looked at Chiaki; the same way he looked at her, and the same way Chiaki himself looked at her. They loved each other, and they were the only people who couldn't see that. He remembered a quote from somewhere:
You will never truly know love unless you surrender to it.
Apparently Maron and Chiaki didn't want to surrender to their feelings. Their stubbornness was strong, but if Maron loved him, she'd come out with it eventually. And if he tuned her down, then there would be her broken heart to deal with. He knew Maron always felt alone; a broken heart wouldn't help matters.
But, despite his extensive thoughts on Chiaki's girl(for everyone else had already dubbed her that; why shouldn't he?), his thoughts drifted to another angel:
Miyako.
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Kuraitama watched Indigo fretfully; but not for the reasons a kind person would be.
"Is she going to die? If she dies, we'll never kill Jeanne or Sindbad. Are you sure she knows how to use weapons? I don't want our little secret to be too weak. Why is she so ill?" she barked all of this out in one breath at the servant that had corrupted Indigo. Luckily for him, he knew the answer she wanted to hear.
"She is experiencing this great pain because she has not yet transformed. Once she becomes Nightmare-which will happen, voluntarily or involuntarily- the evil will seep into her heart, and she will feel the pain no more." Kuraitama snorted and rolled her eyes at the servant.
"I don't care if she feels pain. I just want her evil." The servant nodded silently, bowed, and walked out, leaving Kuraitama to her evil plots.
However, unbeknownst to either one of them, a group of not-so-loyal servants were holding a meeting of their own- one against Kuraitama. They didn't like how she treated them-like they were dispensable, and she could kill off as many as she pleased. Loyalty was not rewarded, and many faithful servants had not seen a promotion in their life-time. These creatures had been plotting for centuries. They were careful never to be caught, and studied Kuraitama and her loyal servants carefully. They knew Kuraitama was not physically strong, so if you could get past her magic you could easily win; they knew her servants were the exact opposite. They knew Kuraitama had a secret 'pet', a monster, that she hid in a shadowy dungeon far below the base level of the castle. However, the dungeon was unapproachable to anyone but her and Finn Fish and Noin and Myst. But only Kuraitama went down there.
It was unapproachable for three reasons:
The first was Kuraitama's spells; they permitted entrance only to the aforementioned people and a small amount of guards. These spells would never wear off. Kuraitama herself would have to deactivate them in order to break that part. Anyone who tried to enter would be attacked by fierce fire-Shkeins and water-Shkeins(pronounced sh-k-ein, the 'ein' pronounced like 'sign' without the 's') If you somehow managed to get through the Shkeins, then multiple tornados would appear before you, and thunderbolts would strike you down. If you somehow managed to get through that, then a regular non-elemental shield would appear before you, and nothing can break that shield.
The second was the guards that guarded the doors that led to the magic protections. They were attentive and always there- they never left their posts until the new shift arrived. You'd need practically an army to get through those.
If you somehow managed to get through the three aforementioned protections, the beast itself had no chains restraining it, no manacles, nothing to keep it from eating the first person who entered. And no one knew what the beast was, so no one knew how to defeat it.
But if they defeated Kuraitama, they might stand a chance.
~~~End Chapter three, in its eight-page-long glory~~~
I am so sorry this took so long. I couldn't work on it for a while because of a computer grounding, and then I couldn't upload it because it's saved only on the laptop, and the wireless chip wasn't working. But I really like this chapter, so I hope you do!! Please review!!!!!!!!!!!
Footnotes:
1-Myst is anime-only, so manga-only fans wouldn't know her. She's this little demon child that possesses things with candies. I know her better than Silk, that's why it's her instead of Silk.
2-This is entirely possible. I know this because it happens to me a lot. It's a lot more painful than it sounds, BTW. You get it when you have killer headaches, which is why I get it a lot.
3-This is a real book, written by Kate Hickman. I haven't finished it yet, but I like it so far. So I mentioned it in the story, yay.
Shkeins are creatures I made up, so don't use them. They're cute, puppy-like creatures. Except they have long rabbit-like ears and a cat-like tail, and small spikes down their backs. Water and fire Shkeins are vicious, but Earth and Wind Shkeins are generally passive, unless you attack someone they love. They are colored according to their elements,a nd have powers corresponding with the elements. Fire are red and orange, with the tiniest bit of yellow, water is aqua with blue, wind is grey, purple, and very little white, and earth is brown and green. There are two other types of Shkeins- healing/light, which can heal and use light magic(offensive), and dark Shkeins, which are physically stronger than professional wrestlers and can use offensive dark magic. Light Shkeins are white with a bit of silver and gold, and dark Shkeins are black with very dark black trim and very dark grey trim. But the light and dark Shkeins are very rare, and dark Shkeins do not attach themselves too masters nearly as easily as the others do, so they are harder to train. Generally, it's worth the effort. Shkeins will appear extensively throughout the story. In fact, I think Jeanne and Sindbad will 'adopt' a stray light one. Once again, please do not use them.
If anyone uses my Shkeins, I will murder them with a Christmas tree. Thank you, and come again.
Oh, and the song Maron sings is 'Castles in the Air', by B*Witched also. It was originally going to be something from 'Eclipse of the Heart' by Bonnie Tyler, but that will be the opening song quote in another chapter.
I hope you like the story so far!
-Knife thrower
