Chapter 4: Return to the Mansion of Desirers
"Finally!" Kazahaya shouted as he burst through the twin glass doors of the Green Drugstore with a proud grin on his lips and his nose held up high in the air. Rikuo walked in shortly behind him and didn't look the least bit proud. The way he saw it was that with one mission down, another one arises. "We've got the ring!"
"Oh?" Kakei asked. He was putting up some bottles on the blank spot of the shelves. Saiga had his arms wrapped tightly about Kakei's waist and was nuzzling the back of his ears playfully. "I'm afraid I have some bad news . . . "
"There was something that we missed." Saiga was the first one to speak up and bear the bad news. "You have to go back . . . there's another ring."
"What? Another ring?" Kazahaya nearly fell on the floor in grief. He had just gotten out of the mansion and didn't want to go back.
"Yes. But this one shouldn't be too hard. While you guys were gone, we found that the ring is in another statue almost like the one that you found the desire ring at."
Kudo began to try and remember the statue in the garden. The picture came quick to his mind. He knew where the statue's twin was. It was outside of the building. The first statue that they saw. But there was another one in the lobby as well. "I know where we could find the second ring." He said and gripped Rikuo's shoulder, dragging him back out of the store.
"Wait!" Kakei said. It was too late and they were already all the way down the street. "They don't know that the ring brings out the opposite of desires . . . that it brings out fear."
"They'll find that out sooner or later." Saiga said then returned to nipping at the tip of Kakei's ear.
"Well I can count on Rikuo at finding this out, but Kudo-kun . . . " the manager of the drugstore had to take a moment to think. Would Kazahaya figure it out?
"Don't worry about it. Rikuo'll guide them through it."
"Here we are." Kazahaya said. They were back at the mansion and standing in front of the pond which held the statue of the angel in the middle. He picked at the green moss in the pond a little. The sticky slime made his face automatically stiffen up. "You can get this one and I'll check out the one in the lobby . . . " he quickly decided. Before Himura could change his mind, he dashed off inside.
"Eh . . . " Rikuo's face almost did the same thing when he touched the moss. Regardless to the moss, he boldly stepped in and went on toward the statue. Something caught hold of his foot and dragged him down into the one foot deep water. His entire body fell into the water and moss swiftly caught onto him like glue. He sat up and found that a root had gotten hooked onto his foot. Himura wiped off his moss-covered face and got back up to continue his journey to the middle of the pond where he could search for the ring.
Kazahaya walked up to the gargoyle statue up against the wall between the stair cases. He searched the entire thing with no luck at finding the ring so he figured that the statue that Rikuo had checked had the ring in it. The lights flickered a few times then went out. Everything went dark. Nothing could be seen out of the thick darkness consumed by it. He backed slowly against the wall, unable to do anything about his fear of the dark but sit there. He slid down the wall and sat down. His hands were clenched tightly into fists. His knuckles were almost ghost like because they were so white. The now frightened and slumped over Kazahaya started to rock back and forth, humming to himself within the darkness. The heat of fright returned to his body and only grew more with his nervousness. His gut cramped up and he felt dizzy. Almost as if he were going to pass out. He could only wait until his partner returned to save him once again.
Rikuo reached the statue and started to look for the ring behind the left wing. "It's not here . . . " he said then searched the right wing. His pinky finger found a crack in the angel's right wing and started picking at it. It fell apart like dust, revealing a small hole. He found the ring within it and picked it out. Got it . . . now to grab up Kazahaya and get out of here . . . he placed the golden ring with ebony rubies and a blue diamond in the middle in his back pocket.
Kudo's partner dragged his feet across the clumpy moss until his feet touched ground once more. He walked up to the door and slowly opened it. The lights peered into the dark room and brought the light to the boy. "Kazahaya . . . ?" he asked as he poked his head in. He found him passed out against the gargoyle statue. "He couldn't be this afraid of the dark if he could fall asleep like that." He said as he walked over to him and scooped him into his arms. Rikuo cradled him in his arms and held him close to his chest with a smile. He looks cute with his mouth shut.