Ch 4: Jealousy
"The manipulation seems to be working. Soon, the boy will start to show the signs. I'm sure of it."
"I'm afraid that he's just feeling a twinge of jealousy. I seriously doubt that he'd go so far as to attack the girl."
"Well, we'll see about that, won't we?"
"You don't know the half of it..."
Yuki, Tohru, and Kyo had many theories as to exactly what the Dance Dance Revolution machine was doing there. One of them was that they were trapped inside an abandoned video arcade. However, this theory was proven wrong, because, for one, the machine seemed brand new; there were not even any small scratches or scuff marks. Also, the room was too white, and it had no exits or windows, so it wasn't exactly plausible that it could have once been an arcade.
Another theory that they had was that there was no room or machine at all, but that it was all merely a dream. All of it just seemed too… impossible to be actually happening.
The three of them assumed that they had been in the room for at least 48 hours, without food or drink of any kind. This made them extremely hungry and thirsty, and they also had the slinking feeling that they would never eat again, or at least not until the escaped the room. At first, they tried to joke about it, with remarks like,
"If starve, who should we eat first?" But these were only distractions from the bitter reality.
Hours and hours passed, with no satisfaction of food or water. They played the Dance Dance Revolution machine for entertainment, but decided to stop because they knew it would drain their energy, and make them hungrier, and also they were too famished and fatigued to beat Kyo's score. The ever optimistic Tohru would say things like, "don't worry- we'll find a way to get out of here soon," But this, in a way, just made things worse, not better.
Although Tohru, being who she is, was kind and polite to both Yuki and Kyo, she seemed to pay special attention to Yuki. He was always around her, hugging her, laughing with her, even kissing her on the cheek. Kyo, although unintentionally, began to become corrupted with jealousy. With every word, every jester, every touch, every sound exchanged between the two of them, he felt his face grow hot, his teeth clenched, and his hands balled into fists of rage.
The combination of the jealousy, the anger, and the terrible, biting hunger were what drove Kyo into a temporary state of madness.
One night (or at least, he thought it was night; Yuki and Tohru were asleep), Kyo simply could not sleep. He lay on the floor, eyes closed, trying to drift off into the faraway land of sleep. He used to love to have dreams, dreams that the curse was gone, dreams that Akito was no more, dreams that he and Tohru were married. But his dreams were different now. They were always about Yuki, sprawled on the floor, covered in blood, with and arm, a leg, or his back broken. He begged Kyo for mercy, for Kyo had finally defeated him. And Kyo would stand, looming in front of him, watching Yuki suffer, just like Yuki had always made him suffer. But them, Kyo would always wake up, and feel terrible, terrible for wanting to make another suffer so much, even if it was Yuki.
Anyhow, these dreams tonight would not come to Kyo, although he was weary. He opened his eyes, expecting Yuki and Tohru to already be asleep. But instead, Yuki was awake, in the corner of the vast, white room, facing the wall, doing God knows what. He seemed to be very distracted from the rest of the world, however.
Then, Kyo had a disturbing thought. This was the perfect opportunity. He could finally defeat Yuki.