NOCTURNE
Chapter XV (15): Voices
As the door squeaks open, Akira sees before him a large bedroom ('Must be the master bedroom,' Akira thinks to himself). A few meters ahead of him is a small dresser with incense burning and candles lit. The candles look like they have just been turned on because wax is just starting to dribble down the sides in small, thin streams. There is no light in the room except for the lit candlesticks, so it is very hard to see inside. The eerie singing that Akira had been entranced to earlier has ceased and Akira snaps out of his daze. To his left is a large bed. On the bed… is the mistress, smiling softly and looking at Akira as if she is looking right through him into his very being. She is under her black blanket and looks as if she had been waiting for Akira, for she is sitting straight up in her bed.
"Hello, Mr. Tanaka. What brings you to my room?"
"I uhhhh… ummmm… I'm… not sure…"
"That's alright. There have been people who have come to me like this in the past, as if they were spellbound."
The mistress (who is now wearing large lavender pajamas that look like they could fit a more "heavier" person) uncovers herself from the blanket, gets off the bed, and walks slowly towards Akira, still smiling. She stops a few feet before him.
"You heard voices… Did you not?"
"Well… Yes… I think…"
"Only special people hear voices in this mansion…"
"Hmm? Special people? Like whom?"
"Like you, Mr. Tanaka."
"I don't really understand… Could you--"
The mistress places her finger on Akira's lips, stopping him while he is talking. She looks directly into his eyes as if she is looking for something inside his soul.
"I'm not sure how you possess this strength, Mr. Tanaka, but…"
The mistress lifts her finger off Akira's lips and uses that same hand and covers the part on Akira's chest where his heart would be.
"I want you to promise me something."
"What's that, miss?"
"Please… Never go bad. Stray off the path you are now, for if you do not, you will surely have a most terrible death, something so sinister that even I cannot say it aloud. But… If by some chance you manage to take control, stay on the side of good, for treasures await you that are far greater in price than anything nature could ever conceive. Your heart will break over the next few years, for these years are going to be the most challenging ones you have ever faced, but in the end it will all turn out right… if you don't let evil consume your heart. If you stay on the path you are now, the planet will be doomed to destruction, and billions will die… Not millions, but billions… Possibly even trillions of people and things will perish at your very hand. You will be known throughout the universe as the most threatening thing to ever take a breath of air, to ever be born… But, if by even a stroke of luck, you manage to direct your power to your will, then the universe will have a savior… They will have someone to look forward to saving them, to guiding them and to change their lives…"
The mistress places her hands on Akira's face and looks at him as if she is pleading.
"Please… Don't ever turn bad… Do not… I fear for your life greatly, and that is why I tell you this… Do not turn bad, Mr. Tanaka, no matter how tempting the words of others are or how bad things turn… Stay on the side of justice, not injustice…"
The mistress is gone like a shadow before Akira can pull himself together. Still rather confused, Akira leaves the mistress's room and starts to go back to his room. As he enters the dining room, he runs into a young woman wearing a large white apron and a strange maiden hat. She has spaghetti sauce-colored hair and her hair is in a braid that reaches to her chest. The woman has the same color eyes as her hair, and she has freckles on her face. The long-sleeved, dark blue shirt she wears under her white apron seems to make her look very warm and it makes Akira rather puzzled. 'It is summer time, so why is she wearing a summer shirt?' Akira thinks. The woman notices Akira in her rush and looks at him with frightened eyes, as if she is about to flee from him if he so much as spoke.
"Hello there. Who might you be?"
The woman looks very scared and is trembling slightly but she manages to force out a very weak answer.
"I… I am the maid, Miwako…"
"Miwako, eh? That's an unusual name. Nice, though, I like it."
The woman seems to give Akira a very dark look, but the look could be just Akira's imagination.
"What are you doing up this late? It's pretty dark in here and I don't think there is anyone who would eat this late…"
"I… I have matters to attend to… Please excuse me…"
The young maid named Miwako bows quickly and seems to escaping from Akira as she rushes down another stairway towards what looks like a basement.
"Eh… I wonder if all the people here are like this? What a place. Maybe this is some sort of asylum? Then what the hell am I doing here?"
Akira leaves the dining room and goes into the lobby. He notices the large doors next to the suit of armor and makes his way towards them. As he does, the doors open by themselves and another woman rushes in, slamming right into Akira. Although her unexpected entry knocks her off balance, Akira stands as if nothing had hit him. The woman loses her balance and starts to fall over, but Akira manages to grab onto her hand and hoist her back to her feet. The woman is huffing and looks like she had been running for a while. The woman has crimson colored hair that is very wild, as well as her eyes (red and wild, that is). She has on a sleeveless white shirt and a short brown skirt, latched on to her waist by a black leather belt with a glimmering gold buckle. The woman has socks that almost reach her knees (they look almost the same as the socks that baseball players wear) and she has on brown shoes that look worn out from use. She looks very young with her cute face and seems to give her a "pure" look, almost like a young child. The woman is hunched over and holding her knees with one of her hands. She pulls her other hand from Akira's grasp and looks up at him, rather shocked. Akira stares down on her, waiting for a response.
"Where'd… you come from?"
The woman asks between her gasps for air. She is breathing heavily, almost as if she is having an asthma attack.
"Are you alright? You look like you're having an attack."
"No… I… do not have… asthma, thank you… very much…"
The woman is still struggling to speak, so Akira does most of the talking to let her catch her breath.
"I am Akira, Akira Tanaka. I just got here and I was just about to venture outside until you happened to ram into me… I have also been exploring this large mansion, but I haven't really gotten that far… Who might you be?"
The woman seems to have caught her breath, but she is still breathing quite hard. She stands up tall and looks Akira in the eyes.
"My name… Do you really want to know?"
"Why not? It'll be easier to know who you are instead of calling you… Oh, I dunno… "You," maybe?"
The woman giggles.
"My name is Misao. You have a strange name… Akira. It sounds so powerful."
"Thanks. What are you such in a rush for?"
"I lost track of time and I was getting back inside to my room, but then I got hungry so I was about to go to the dining room."
"What a second… You say you were off to your room?"
"Yeah, but I didn't want to go in it so I went through the front to go to the dining room and get something to eat."
"You've lost me a little… Is your room in the back or something?"
"No, I get to my room by climbing a tree which is right next to my window."
"Ah… So you actually get inside your room by climbing up a tree and through a window?"
"You got it!"
Akira chuckles.
"You must be a really energetic person."
"I get that sometimes…"
"Where might your room be?"
"Why do you wanna know? It's not really any of your business, is it?"
"Well, I'm just curious. I might be passing by and I could say hey or something."
"You'll have to find out for yourself! I'm staying up much to late… Oh jeez! If you make me a bad, then I'm gonna—I'm gonna—AUGH!"
The young woman named Misao runs off into the dining room, rather pissed that she is staying up so late. Akira shrugs his shoulders and sighs in his mind.
As Akira walks up the stairs to his room, at the foot of the stairs he sees yet another woman.
"What kind of place is this? There are women everywhere I turn!"
The woman at the top of the stairs seems to glow. Although Akira can't see her very well from his distance, it is true that she is glowing, almost like a ghost. Chills run down Akira's spine as he walks closer. The woman upstairs slowly starts to disappear from view.
"Wait a sec! Who are you?"
Akira starts to dash up the stairs, but it is too late. The woman has disappeared, almost like an illusion. Akira stands directly where the woman was and stomps hard, making sure there isn't anything she could have gone through.
"Was that a ghost?"
As if to answer, a chilly wind seems to rush right through Akira's body, chilling him to the bone. His shoulder turns icy cold, as if a large ice cube had been placed on it. Akira turns his head quickly to his shoulder to see if anyone is touching him. There is no one in sight. Rather freaked, Akira walks shakily back to his room and slams the door, locking it. Dark wakes with a start from under the bed and peers out, noticing Akira. He starts to squeak happily as Akira draws close to sit on the bed. When he does so, Dark jumps out from under the bed, startling Akira, for he hadn't noticed that Dark was awake.
"Don't DO that! I've had just about enough surprises this night."
Dark nudges his head against Akira's leg. He then jumps on Akira's lap and curls up on it, as if falling asleep. Akira smiles.
"At least I've got you here to keep me company… But at the same time, I hate your company, you know that? Sometimes you can be a real pain in the neck, Dark."
Dark stays motionless on Akira's lap, not understanding a work that Akira said except for his name, which he twitched slightly to. All of a sudden, Dark wakes with a start. His eyes are wide and his expressions look very alarmed, as if he was looking at something else in the room. Dark leaps out of Akira's lap and starts to rumble a low growl, which echoes from the walls. Despite his small size, Dark can still make quite a loud snarl when he wants to. Akira notices Dark's strange behavior and plucks him off the ground.
"What's the wrong with you? There's nothing else in here--"
Akira then hears the cold voice of a young woman, calling out to him.
"Akira… Akira… Be with me… Akira… Akira… Stay with me…"
Akira freezes on the spot and releases Dark, who starts his warning growl again. The voice continues, and it starts to grow, as if drawing nearer and nearer.
"Akira… Akira… I've been so lonely… Akira…. Akira… Don't leave me…"
The voice maintains its rhythmic pattern of words. Akira continues to listen intently to the strange death rattle of a voice, which seems to be coming from a different world.
"Be with me… Stay with me… Love me… Hold me… Akira… AKIRA…"
The voice grows louder and sounds like it's speaking right into Akira's ears.
"I've been so lonely for so long… I've needed someone to love for so long… Will you love me… Akira… Will you hold me… Akira… Will you stay with me forever… Akira… Akira…"
The voice slowly starts to fade away. As it does, Dark's growling does the same. The voice finally disappears completely and it leaves an absent-minded Akira and a confident Dark alone in the room. Akira's eye twitches.
"Okay… I think I need a walk… I've been in bed much too long… Yeah… That's it… Come on, Dark… We need to… walk…"
Akira stands up off the bed and wobbles over to the door. As he opens it, he hears the small cry of a woman. Akira jumps slightly and looks out the door.
"What are you doing?"
The voice calls from the stairs. Akira looks over in the direction of the stairway and sees Misao stepping up, reaching the top.
"You scared the crap outta me! What do you think you're doing?"
Akira looks very pale and doesn't respond.
"Why do you look like that? You look as if you saw a ghost or something!"
Akira just gives Misao an empty look. Misao shudders.
"Alright… You do what you want… But do not follow me into my room!"
As Misao says this, she dashes over straight across from Akira's room and towards another corridor. At the beginning of the corridor is a room, which she opens, enters, and shuts hard, sending a signal through Akira's body, waking him up. Akira shakes his head, picks up Dark from the floor, and runs as fast as a rocket from his room, down the stairs, and into the lit lobby. He notices the front doors and opens them, revealing a beautiful night sky, filled with twinkling stars and a large, glowing half moon high in the black sky. Akira doesn't really notice any of the surrounding because he is still running, though, and he tears off down the yard, getting ready slam his body head on into the large metal gate ahead of him. As he crunches into the gate, it rattles terribly, but it doesn't open. Akira slams the gate with one of his fists, but the gate stays shut. Akira calms himself down and examines the gate closely, looking for a lock. There is nothing on it.
"What the fuck! What is this!"
Akira pulls and pushes the gate with all his might, but nothing. He even takes out his sword and slashes at the gate, but the gate stays unscratched and unopened as it was earlier. Akira finally gives up and leaves the gate, heading towards a large storehouse at the left of the mansion. As he goes over to the storehouse (possibly hoping it could contain something to get the gate open), he hears the low, menacing growl flowing into the air. Akira stops dead in his tracks and listens. He feels as if eyes are piercing him in the darkness, warning him to get away from the storehouse. He also starts to hear the faint laughing of a woman, giggling alongside the growls of a large beast. The strange atmosphere and the chilling echo of the two voices is too much for Akira, who then zips away to the opposite side of the mansion towards a large terrace, which has several white tables spread throughout the terrace with a pair of chairs at each table. It would be the perfect eating-place if it were afternoon right now and if it wasn't summer time. Of course, Akira doesn't take notice of the tables and chairs and continues down the terrace. Several seconds later, Akira notices a small gate to his left and jumps clear over it, almost like a track runner. He lands in a small area with a lonely stone well. There is no grass growing here, so it is rather muddy. Akira catches his breath and notices the well. He then goes over to it to have a drink.
"Damn, that's too much running for one night…"
As he nears the well, he hears splashing noises coming from deep within it, as if a large creature was calling to him from inside or if someone was struggling to keep himself or herself above the surface of the water below. Akira calls out.
"Hello! Anyone down there?"
The splashes immediately stop. Cautiously, Akira takes the pail that is on the side of the well, ties it with some of the rope on the well, and lets the pail drop. The sound of the pail splashing in the water below is heard, but nothing more. Akira pulls on the rope and lifts the pail up from the cold water. He then drinks up the water, not leaving a drop in the wooden pail. The water is totally refreshing and completely rejuvenates him, making him feel like a new man.
"What incredible water! I feel so much better now."
Dark (who is still being held by Akira) looks at the water and makes a disgusted face, sticking out his tongue. Akira laughs and places the empty pail next to the well where it was before and heads towards the backyard of the mansion.
"Not much of a water fan, are you, Dark?"
Dark keeps his eyes fixed on the water, as if it were about to strike at any moment. Akira chuckles to himself and leaves the lonely well to itself again, heading towards many trees that lead to the backyard of the mansion.
After going through several trees, Akira finds himself in the small backyard. It looks almost like a traditional Japanese yard, with large stones on the ground making a small path and a beautiful white flower in bloom next to one of the trees.
"Wow, that's one strange looking flower…"
As Akira nears it, he hears the sounds of footsteps rushing towards him. In a split second, he feels something grab onto him hard, squeezing him to death!
NOCTURNE"Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble." --Macbeth
