"The Trial will begin now," Sword Mask said. "I will be your mask."
Yuri nodded and then thought of something. "I'll turn into a monster if I fail, won't I?"
"Oh…no," Staff mask answered. "The first trial stands as your judgment."
Yuri was a bit suspicious. He knew they were bound to their word. They had promised he wouldn't change into a monster. They'd promised he could retake the Trial as many times as he wanted—as long as he came once every night. They'd promised that if he passed his Trial, they would release both him and his daughter. He knew there had to be a catch somewhere…
Yuri shook his head, driving his suspicions away. The Masks were giving him a good deal. Maybe they were trying to trick him somewhere, but it sounded so simple. All he had to do was keep retaking the Trial until he passed it. He could probably pass it right now. He wasn't a frightened nine-year-old now.
The sword came off the mask and came to his hand as the mask fitted itself over his face. Yuri remembered the feeling that he was about to suffocate, just one of the fears Sword mask had played on before.
The sword's hilt fitted awkwardly into his hands, its size a little too big. His hands seemed small. Yuri looked down at his hands and saw the hands of a child, soft and smooth in some parts and bleeding in others.
He was a nine-year-old. He was retaking his Trial as a child, and now the Masks' solemn silence had turned into raucous laughter.
"Such a young one! He will be good to break."
"His taint is too heavy for the fusion to succeed," Grail mask said dismissively. "Break him and place him below Death Emperor. Let us be done with him."
He already was afraid of the strange masks above him, but in a way Yuri was relieved to be here. He was away from the corpses: the corpses of the monsters that had attacked, and the corpse of his mother. The skeleton of a home. Yuri already knew he could never call that place home again.
"But what about when your father comes home?" Sword mask asked. "What then?"
The child shivered. That was right. Dad would come home, and he'd know something was wrong right away when Mom wasn't outside to welcome him home.
Then he'd walk inside and see Anne's body lying with the monsters'. Yuri envisioned it so clearly as he sat on the floor, watching his father's reaction. "I'm sorry dad," he said in a soft whisper.
His father knelt in his green army coat to pick up his wife's corpse, cradling her head to hide how her neck had snapped. He only spared his son a disgusted look before walking outside.
"Dad?" Yuri called. Why was his father walking away? Was he going to leave him here? He wouldn't. The snow was already deep outside. It was the middle of the winter. All the villagers were dead. If Dad left him he would starve.
Did Dad think he should die too, for not keeping his promise?
Yuri ran outside the small house and saw his father's silhouette, small as a dot, moving away. "Dad!" he yelled. When the distant figure didn't slow, Yuri ran as fast as he could, stumbling over and over in the tall snow drifts. "Dad, wait! I'm sorry! DAD!"
He felt an odd pain in his body, in his hands. He looked down at his hands and saw instead claws merging into bloody palms. The disparate images snapped him back into the reality of the Masks. His hands completed the change from human to monstrous, covered in a black, leathery skin. The foreign skin was beginning to spread into his arms.
They were trying to turn him into a monster, Yuri realized. They were going to turn him into one of those…things…those things that had killed Mom, that had almost killed him-!
At his panicked thoughts, the black color spread faster, covering his elbows quickly and beginning to sneak up on his shoulders. Seeing this, Yuri grew even more terrified. His heart was pounding in his chest. Then as his chest was covered with the monster's skin, the pounding abruptly stopped as his heart was replaced with something else, a void filled only with dark magic.
He realized his fear was fuelling the transformation. Maybe if he wasn't afraid, it would stop? Would he get his heart back? Yuri tried to concentrate, telling himself that if he calmed down, he would see his hands, his arms. He hoped.
"It's useless," Sword mask cackled. "Try your hardest boy. It'll make your defeat most amusing."
Couldn't he stop it? His arms remained the same even though he concentrated, tried to make the black color go away. He couldn't stop—he couldn't stop being afraid completely, it was too hard. The forced fusion halted for a few seconds, but he couldn't seem to change himself back. As he began to despair the fusion began spreading again.
There was only one way he could think of to stop: he had to get the mask off. He brought up the long black claws to the mask and tried to pry it off, getting fresh gales of laughter from the Masks. Yuri knew why they were laughing, the mask was attached to his face. It felt like ripping his mask off would tear off his skin as well. He didn't care, he'd rip himself in half if he had to, he was getting out of this mask. He wasn't going to be a monster. He wasn't going to be like those loathsome creatures that had killed Mom. He was getting out.
He doubled over on the ground, writhing as he tried to wrench the Sword mask off. With only his left hand, his best effort brought a sudden pain, so horrible he screamed. His right hand released the sword, letting it fall to the ground.
There was a gasp. Yuri looked up, seeing a boy lying beside him. It was himself, with the same brown eyes and hair but without a mask. But he was right here, inside the mask.
The Masks were silent for once. They were so silent that Yuri guessed the truth: he had managed to free himself somehow. But somehow he was also still trapped in the mask.
Gaping at him, the boy nervously scrambled to his feet. "Help me," Yuri said. The boy was silent. He had tears coming down his cheeks. Yuri knew he was crying as well, his tears running down the mask. "Please, help me!" he yelled, crawling towards him. His body hurt so much he couldn't stand.
"Yuri?"
The other boy only stared at him wide-eyed, shaking his head slowly. "I can't. I can't," he whispered.
"You have to!" Yuri said desperately
But the boy only turned and ran, leaving him with the Masks. He wasn't going to help him, even though they were the same person. The pain became so awful that Yuri crumpled on the floor, his hands and arms still in their monstrous form.
"Yuri…"
"You've failed," Sword mask's voice said coldly.
He woke up, next to a woman's body. His mother's, still warm despite death. He yelled in horror, pushing himself away as Anne's arms reached out towards him.
"Yuri, Yuri! It's just a nightmare. You're alright." Her arms grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to look at her. "Yuri, wake up."
It wasn't his mother at all. "Who are you?" he demanded.
Alice gave a puzzled smile. "I'm your wife, silly."
The word 'wife' woke him up to who he really was. Not a nine-year-old, and not Fox Face, whose version of the Trial he had just seen, but an adult Yuri, a husband and a father. The incredible epiphany was followed by the realization he'd just made a fool out of himself.
"Oh." He did feel very silly and cracked a smile. "Sorry Alice. Just—you just startled me."
There was a knock on the door and it slowly opened. Margarete poked her head in. "Yuri having nightmares?"
"I wasn't that loud," he protested.
"No, I've just been awake the whole night. You want some tea?" she asked.
Alice smiled and edged out of bed, tying her robe closed tightly. "Come on," she said to Yuri, "Or are you too tired?"
He didn't exactly feel like sleeping after remembering his whole Trial. "I want coffee though," he said.
Margarete rolled her eyes. "You and your coffee."
Ten minutes later, they were all settled in the kitchen. Margarete and Alice were both sipping tea, the spy comfortable in her blue lingerie and the exorcist in her white robe, while Yuri walked to the table with his mug of coffee. "So what makes you yell like that?" Margarete asked curiously.
He chose the simplest explanation: "Graveyard dream."
She raised a delicate eyebrow. "Want to be any less vague?"
Yuri sighed. "I dreamt about my Trial. It wasn't too fun."
"I see, I won't ask anymore. Though I'm really curious."
"You always are, Margarete."
Margarete wisely left it at that and finished off her tea. "Well, I'm going to get to bed," she said. "Keith's probably wondering where I am."
"Is he in bed?" Alice asked.
"He went to check on the others in their coffins." She shrugged. "They keep asking him if he's made me a vampire yet."
Alice winced, knowing it was a rather sensitive subject. Margarete had refused to be turned into a vampire, despite Keith's attempts to persuade her. Both he and his clan were of the opinion that any member of the clan, whether by birth or marriage, should be a vampire, but against Margarete's stubborn attitude it was useless. "Well, they'll learn sooner or later."
"Probably after I'm dead," Margarete replied, dumping her cup in the sink. Alice sighed after she left.
"I hope they work that out…I don't know why she doesn't agree. I suppose that's just between her and Keith, though." Alice looked over at Yuri. "Are you feeling well? You're still pale." She leaned over the table, pressing the back of her hand against his forehead to check for a temperature.
Yuri quickly turned red in the face and took her outstretched hand into his own. "C'mon, I'm not sick. I just had a bad dream, that's all."
"About your Trial?"
"Yeah. But this time I saw it through Fox Face's eyes…it was kind of weird."
He wondered what the point of that had even been. Sword mask had said he had failed…but was that Sword mask talking to Fox Face or Sword mask to him? If it was to him, how was he supposed to pass that Trial? Did he have to change the memory somehow? But that…wasn't that impossible?
"How'd you sleep Alice?"
"Perfectly fine, until you hit me with your arm, you oaf," Alice said. She giggled at Yuri's contrite expression. "I know, you were having a nightmare."
Yuri didn't tell her then why he'd been having that nightmare. He didn't want to worry her, especially when it'd be over in only a matter of nights. Besides…then maybe he could make the good news a surprise. Seeing Alice put down her tea, Yuri walked over to her and hoisted her out of chair. She was surprised by the sudden movement but laughed quietly as he carried down the hallway back to their room.
**
Breakfast was quiet by normal standards. Leon was off somewhere, going to Italy he'd said. Margarete had persuaded Locke yesterday to come out of his room for meals, but he would not say anything to Anne, or Isaiah for that matter. Keith seemed unhappy about his son's stubbornness and had remarked once that he probably inherited it from his mother; Margarete had given him a sweet smile before kicking his shin underneath the table. Keith left the subject of heredity for later discussion.
"So, you'll watch Anne and Isaiah?" Alice said suddenly. The children looked up at her questioningly.
"What do you mean?" Anne asked.
"You'll be staying with Uncle Keith and Aunt Margarete for the next two weeks," she explained. By that time they should be able to get Locke to make up with Anne.
Isaiah was dismayed. "You mean you're going home without us?"
"Don't worry, you'll have plenty of fun here."
Both of her children looked dubiously over at Locke and then gave their parents pleading looks. They did not think two weeks with their sullen 'cousin' would be any fun at all. But the decision was final; they'd be here for two weeks. They already had clothes here, so that was no problem.
"Don't worry," Yuri told Anne at the door. "Just show him Heaven's Fiend. Show him how much control you have over it. You've been doing really good at it."
"You think he'll be impressed?"
"I bet he'll be. But you have to remember to have either Keith or Margarete with you, okay?"
Anne nodded and Yuri gave her a hug. "And if that doesn't work, just kick his butt," he whispered in her ear, making her giggle. Then he hugged Isaiah after Alice had let go of him. To his surprise, Isaiah had gotten over his initial disappointment fairly quickly and was being positive—that was good of him.
"Two weeks to ourselves," Alice said once they were in the car. "Think we should fix up the shop?"
Yuri groaned as he got behind the wheel. "Is that the most romantic thing you can think of?"
"Oh, well, if it's romance, I guess I'll just go along with whatever you want," she said mischievously. "That would be just fine."
"Now that's more like it."
**
Author's Note: There's only one reviewer. Did I scare everyone off with the long chapter? ^^
**
Reviewers:
MikoNoNyte: Yuri's Japanese, so he's definitely a man's man, especially with who his father is. (Army men don't really seem like they'd encourage anything but.)
I know we grow up to be our parents: at ten years old my older sister told me I was just like my grandpa. I didn't know exactly what to say to that, but he, my mom, and I all have the same kind of temperament. Which is kind of scary sometimes.
Yuri wasn't exactly being gentle; he did knock Anne down with his hit. Although he probably didn't hit too hard, knowing Alice would have his hide if Anne complained to her.
Heheheh…I cannot tell Anne's class. I cannot tell anything about her magic. Except that it is a major plot point, though you probably already knew that.
I'm glad you liked the Judgment Ring part. ^^
And yes you did inspire me by saying it'd be interesting to see how I developed Yuri's relationship with his Masks. I hadn't actually planned to, but since then…it's become a big part of the story in a way. ^^ I'm just vulnerable to suggestion.
