All It Takes
By: Yamiko #7
Hello again! Chapter Five is here to continue on the previous evil cliffie and possibly create a new one - I'm not sure yet. I know it's gonna be fun, though. n.n
Chrno:reading through Chapter Five script, looking increasingly disturbed the further he goes: Um...can I get a stunt double for this one?
Um, no. Why?
Chrno: Well, some of the stuff you have me do...are you sure I –
Nobody gets a stunt double - we're too low-budget, I can't afford any. C'mon, you're a big tough demon...you can take it. Now go get ready.
Chrno:wanders off, murmuring despairingly about how he's going to die:
Right...pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...heh heh. :sheepish: Don't worry, this isn't a tragedy fic, so I don't intend to kill anybody...yet. Enough of that, on with the fic!
End of Chapter Four:
Chrno, however, looked as though he had seen a ghost. "You..." he stammered, still shocked. "You...but you're dead!"
"You would think that, wouldn't you." Gone was the sultry satisfaction that had been in the woman's voice. In it's place was a cold rage. "You would think that after getting my arm torn off and being thrown from a moving airship that I would die, wouldn't you, Chrno. Well, I'm obviously still here."
She moved until her face was only inches away from Chrno's. "And you are going to pay."
Chapter Five: Injury
There was no warning. Rosette wasn't even sure how it happened. The next thing she knew, Chrno was flat on his back and Joshua was getting up close and personal with her, pinning both of her wrists to the wall with one of his hands and holding the flat of a knife blade almost lovingly to her cheek with the other. Her gun lay momentarily forgotten at her feet.
"Don't move, chica," Joshua breathed, moving the blade up a little higher on her cheek. "We wouldn't want to cut your pretty face, now would we?"
'No, we most certainly would not.' Rosette kept her eyes on the knife. 'Where did that come from?' Her gaze traveled down his arm to the knife sheath on his wrist, hidden from view by the sleeve of his shirt. 'Oh, I see.' How in hell had she missed that?
Chrno was back on his feet. "Don't touch her," he growled.
"Chrno, Chrno, Chrno," The woman said mockingly, closing the short distance between them at a leisurely pace. "You don't seem to understand. You're in no position to be making demands."
She looked towards Rosette and Joshua, a sadistic smile spreading slowly over her face. "Did you know," she said, running her hand absentmindedly through Joshua's hair, "that there are hundreds of ways, none of them immediately fatal, to slit a human throat?"
The tension flowed out of Chrno's body. He was no longer ready to start a fight, but he sure as sin wasn't about to give up either. "You've made your point, Sumiah, now what do you want."
"Why, you remember my name. I'm flattered." The sadistic smile turned towards Chrno, and his glare deepened. 'She's enjoying this. She loves seeing me helpless. Damn it!'
"And as for what I want..." She paused to act thoughtful and cute, two particular moods that didn't become her. "Why, revenge, of course. You know, a woman scorned and all that jazz."
Right now, he hated her more than ever.
"Starting with your obedience." She tapped him lightly, almost flirtatiously, on the shoulder, and turned to reenter the room from whence she came. "Come."
He was tempted to refuse, to simply bring her down then and there. All it took was a quick glance at Rosette, disarmed and held hostage by Joshua and his knife, to rob him of that notion. He turned, shoulders slumped, and followed Sumiah into the room.
"Bring your little friend, Joshua." Sumiah's voice floated out of the room. "We wouldn't want her to miss the show."
"Of course not, Mistress." Joshua sheathed his knife and used his now-free hand to strengthen his grip on Rosette's wrists. He turned and, walking backwards and facing her, led her into the room. Even at arm's length, he was still too close for comfort.
"Aren't you afraid I'll kick you?" Rosette asked with a half-smirk on her face.
"Aren't you afraid of what Mistress will do to your friend?" he shot back, a full smirk on his.
Rosette fell silent. 'Damn.'
The room Joshua pulled her into was dark - blackout curtains over the windows, she noted - with sparse furniture, as far as she could tell. One long, low shape - possibly a coffee table - one larger, longer shape - a sofa? - and several chairs.
She paid a lot less attention to the room and more to its occupants when she heard a loud slap of flesh on flesh and the ensuing muffled thud of flesh on floor.
"Chrno!"
"I'm all right," he said from across the room, where he was in the process of picking himself up off the carpet. Sumiah had sucker-punched him. Somehow, he wasn't surprised.
"Don't get up," Sumiah said darkly, standing several feet from Chrno. She'd struck him hard enough to kill an ordinary human. "Stay down or I'll kill your friend myself."
"Stop it!" Rosette yelled, struggling against Joshua's grip. "Leave him alone!"
Sumiah glared at her, eyes flashing angrily. "Do not tell me what to do, child," she snarled. "This battle is older than you are."
Her attention turned back to Chrno, sitting on the floor. "At least you're smart enough not to disobey me," she growled, stalking towards him. "Not while I have your friend." She grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him to his knees. "I swore I'd make you pay," she hissed, her face mere inches from his. "I swore it sixty years ago, and I swore it today. And you have a lot to pay for."
She threw him to the floor, in the throes of a sudden fit of fury. "It's all because of YOU!" she screamed. "Because of you, I lost my love!" She delivered a hard kick to his stomach.
Chrno gasped, and found suddenly that he couldn't breathe. Sumiah's blow had knocked the air out of him.
"I lost my status!" she continued, her next kick striking the same spot on his abdomen as her last one. White spots burst before Chrno's eyes. He still couldn't breathe, and now he couldn't see. For the first time since he'd entered the old mansion, he was scared. Really, truly scared.
"I even lost my horns!" Her next furious kick struck his ribs with enough force to shatter steel. A thick wet snap echoed about the room.
Rosette gasped. 'Oh my God...'
Chrno didn't feel the pain until he attempted to breathe again. White-hot agony lanced up his side as he tried to fill his lungs with air. He gasped and began to choke, great wracking coughs that shook his small frame and forced thick dark fluids from his mouth onto the ragged carpet.
He struggled to breathe and continued to fail, gasping and coughing fluid onto the floor by turns. Finally, after several minutes that seemed like a terrifying eternity, he regained his air and lay on the floor, too drained to do much more than take one shallow, shaky breath after another.
His hands had gone to cover his mouth without him realizing it. He drew them away slowly and looked at them. They were covered in red liquid. 'Blood,' he realized numbly. 'I've been coughing up blood.'
He looked up slowly, the phrase "punctured lung" dancing through his head. Sumiah stared down coldly at him. She'd been watching him the entire time and, from the sadistic smile on her face, enjoying every second of his agony. She bent over, moving her face close to his, leering at him. "I told you you'd pay," she said silkily, straightening back up.
Chrno didn't see her final kick until a fraction of a second before it collided with his face. The force spun him around twice before he stopped, lying on his side and losing blood through lungs, mouth, and broken nose. He watched numbly as his world faded to white, then red, and finally a deep and endless black.
The last thing he heard before he fell into that blackness was his partner screaming his name.
Okay, for those of you who think I've gone and killed Chrno, don't worry - I'm not in the habit of killing my favorite characters. As a matter of fact, I'm not really in the habit of killing anybody...although that may very well change in the future.
A warning for all of you who hate the bloody, angsty, and generally depressing stuff in fanfiction: this particular story gets worse before it gets better. It does get better, though, I promise...it may just take a chapter or two to get there.
I had probably better shut up now before I scare away all of my readers. (I know, I know: what readers?) So, please leave me reviews (or death threats, if it makes you feel better), and I'll see you in Chapter Six!