Higurashi/Umineko series » Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kan: Kanashii hen
WOLFEDEN Stories
4. Chapter 4: Demon
Rated: T - English - Horror/Mystery - Keiichi M. & Rena R. - Reviews: 20 - Updated: 02-04-11 - Published: 01-24-11 - Complete - id:6683917
Chapter 4: Demon
Part A
My eyes twitched. I slowly opened them. My vision was blurry and I had a splitting headache. The back of my neck stung as well. I felt like crap.
When my eyes adjusted, I noticed where I was. I was in the torture chamber of the Sonozaki house. I was in the room which held all of the torture equipment. Scythes, hooks, spears, and prongs surrounded me. The tools glimmered in the dim light of the chamber. They gazed upon me with menacing looks. They wanted to sink their blades into me. They wanted to hear my cries of aguish and sorrow. Why was I here? How did I get here?
That's right; Mion came by my house to talk. She tricked me with her words laced with honey and with her soft luscious lips. It was my own fault for falling for such a stupid ruse. Because of my stupidity, I was dragged back into this place. I was taken back to this layer of hell.
I tried to sit up from the ground I was lying on. I couldn't move. I looked to my hands, my feet, and my neck. I was held down by restraints. I was on the wooden cross that I saw when I came here not too long ago. That was when I discovered Mion's crime, when I discovered the awful truth.
The doors to the chamber opened. A small light entered the room for only a brief moment before the doors closed. Mion entered. She was smiling mischievously at me as she saw me squirm on the cross. She was entertained by my desperate struggling. Mion stood in front of me, just chuckling at my pitiful state.
"You're awake," she said with a sneer. "Good!"
"Mion, what the hell is going on?" I yelled at her. My throat was hurting. The restraint around my neck was crushing me.
"We're gonna have a little fun, Kei-chan!" Mion licked her lips. "I have a wonderful activity I'd love for you to participate in!"
I coughed. "Let me go! Akasaka's gonna know that I'm missing and he's gonna find you!"
"I wouldn't worry about that, kukuku! The cops are gone from my home and there's no evidence of where you've gone to, along with myself! You're all mine now!" Mion snickered again.
I tried to clench my fists and break free of my metal restraints, but my fingers were also held captive. I couldn't move a muscle at all.
"Now then, what fun tool should I use first? Kukukuku! Maybe this hook? This scythe? Or maybe this knife? I just can't decide! Hahahaha!"
"Mion!" I shouted. "Why are you doing this? I never did anything to you!"
"Mion?" Mion looked at me confused. Had she not been listening to me call her name this whole time? "Oh! That's right! I forgot I was wearing her clothes for a second!" Mion untied the ribbon that held her ponytail. Her hair fell across her back.
I didn't believe my eyes. This whole time, the person who confessed her love to me wasn't the person I thought she was.
"Tadaa~!" The demon sang. "It's me, Shion!" She giggled playfully at me.
My pupils dilated. That was Shion? She visited me last night? Then…where the hell was Mion? What happened to her?
"You look surprised, Kei-chan!" Shion danced over to me. She drew circles on my chest with her finger. She looked down at me. I saw her vermillion eyes glow.
"Sh-Shion…? What are you…? Why are you…?" Her eyes captivated me. I was memorized by the rich green and by the reptilian appearance of them. I could see a lot of pain in her eyes. I saw fury, pain, sorrow, and joy all at once.
"Hahaha," she laughed darkly. "You're so predictable, Kei-chan! I didn't think I was going to be able to trick you so well! But you played right into my arms! Kukuku!"
"You…"
"That's right! I visited you last night!" She stepped away from and hugged herself. "I posed as Mion and confessed my 'love' for you and took you here to my beautiful home! I wanted to play with you! I hope you don't mind!"
"Why?"
"Why? Because it's fun!" She revealed her canines to me. He teeth grinded together and her eyes glowed again. Her venomous tongue licked the corners of her mouth again.
"Why do you have me pinned to this thing? What the hell's going on?"
"You really don't know?" Shion walked back over to me. Her face was a few inches from mine. "You're so clueless, Kei-chan…"
I blinked at her. "What're you babbling about?"
She threw her head back and cackled. "Listen to you! Dumb until the very end! I love it, I love it! Nyahaha!"
She threw her fist into my stomach. I coughed and spat mucus to my side.
"You lied to me…" Her evil grin shifted into a scowl. "You lied to me when you were supposed to be my friend."
I looked at her confused.
"You said you wouldn't stop until you found Rika and Satoko, you were going to save them. You were going to make the culprit pay. Didn't you say that?"
"…I did…" I managed to say, despite the pain in my stomach.
"I trusted you. I really trusted you, and what do you do? You stabbed me in the back!" She punched me again, but harder this time. "You didn't keep your promise! You let them die!"
"I didn't…I didn't let anybody…die…"
"LIAR!" She punched me repeatedly. I coughed up a little bit of blood. "Rika and Satoko are dead! It's all because of you! I found their corpses here! I found them in that tunnel over there!" She pointed to the prison chambers, where the ladder led to the secret tunnel.
"Are you out of your mind?" I said, spitting out some blood from my mouth. "I didn't do anything to get them killed! I did my best to find them! I never abandoned them!"
Shion looked at me blankly. She walked over to the side of the room. She flicked a switch. The room got a little brighter. I looked to where Shion was standing. I saw a person slumped over on the floor. The person was a girl. She was covered in bruises and blood. Cuts were all across her body and a deep gash was in her chest. I knew that girl.
"That's funny," Shion said lowly. "Sis said she wasn't responsible for their deaths either."
"Mi-Mion?" The girl was no doubt Mion. Her hair was done up in her traditional ponytail and she was still in her school outfit, only it was torn up. She lay still on the floor. She didn't move when I said her name. Her blood formed small streams that flowed all across the torture chamber. "Wait…is she…"
"She was alive yesterday. Poor girl kept calling your name!" Shion's smile returned. "What an idiot! She really thought you were going to help her! What an imagination she had!"
My face grew ashen and I felt sick.
"Eh? What's with that look, Kei-chan? You don't look so good!"
I cried out in a loud roar. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen! Mion wasn't supposed to die! Why was this happening? Mion was supposed to be arrested by Akasaka and that was it! Why did she have to die?
Shion came over to me again. She rested her hand on my cheek. She was smiling sweetly at me. "It's all your fault. You could have saved them, but you didn't. You promised me you would do everything to try and save them, but here you were, doing nothing at all to help them."
"All of Hinamizawa was supposed to look for them!" I yelled as I tried to break free of my restraints. "You know I love them both! I would never abandon them! I did all that I could! I followed what Akasaka told me to do! I never stopped caring for them!"
Shion's nails dug into my cheek.
I winced in pain and tried to turn away from her.
"Not gonna take responsibility for what you've done, huh?" Shion took her hand back and picked up a hammer from the table near her. She also picked up a long nine inch nail. "We're going to play a little game, Kei-chan. I'm going to drive each of these nails into every joint of your fingers. After that, I'm going to drive some more nails into the joints of your toes. And finally, I'm going to take the last nail and I'm going to drive it right into your chest. Sound like fun?"
"Shion, please…don't do this."
Shion smiled at my plea. She laughed. "Let's start shall we?" She sat at the side of the cross and scratched the palm of my right hand with her fingernail gently. "You know what's funny? I feel like I've done this sort of thing before, but I know I haven't. It feels very strange."
Shion had déjà vu like I was having before? I thought I was the only one who was experiencing it. I looked at her. That smile was still plastered on her face. She kept saying that I abandoned my friends, but what did she really mean? I did everything I could to find Satoko and Rika. I never stopped worrying about them. I followed my judgment and didn't cause any problems for the police. Could I have done something different?
"How do I know you weren't working with Mion?"
"I wasn't! I didn't know she killed them! I had no idea about anything she was doing!"
Shion stared at me. She was trying to see if I was lying or not. "You teased Satoko a lot though."
"We were only playing, I told you already! That's what we do! I never had any bad feelings towards her!"
Shion lowered her head.
"Why would Mion kill them?"
"I don't know! All I know was that she and Satoko got into a fight a week ago!"
Shion turned her body to fully face me. "Rena told you, didn't she? She promised she wasn't going to, but I guess you were bound to find out at some point. So yeah, that's right. They were fighting."
"You knew?" Shion was hiding this from me too? Why would she do that?
"Of course I did! Satoko told me about it!"
If that was true, then Shion knew everything about the quarrel. She must have known the secret that Satoko was holding over Mion!
"What were they fighting about?" I dared to ask.
Shion's smile deteriorated. "…You…"
"What about me?"
"Haha. I just gave you the biggest clue last night." Shion climbed on top of me. She sat on my waist and she still held her hammer and nails. "Mion loved you."
"She…really…did?" I was dumbfounded. All this time I thought of her as my best friend, while she thought of me as something more. I never noticed it. When we were walking together, I thought we got caught up in the moment, I didn't really think she loved me at all. It didn't matter now, though. Mion was dead, killed by her sister's hand.
Shion nodded. "She did. She really did. I knew she did for the longest time, that's why I always teased you when she was around. I always busted her chops because of that." She laughed lightly. "Satoko found out somehow. She started the fight with a joke; she played around saying that she was going to tell you that Mion loved you. Mion got so furious, you see. She wanted to be the one to tell you, she wasn't going to let anybody ruin that for her. She got so hysterical because she thought Satoko was going to tell you. She called Rena and Rena told me about it. Rena, Rika, and I kept quiet because we knew it was just a misunderstanding and thought it was going to blow over. We didn't want you to worry about it all."
I thought for a second. "Is that why Mion killed them, since she was so worried that she wasn't going to be the one to tell me?
"Looks that way, but who really knows?" Shion sighed.
"And what do you mean that it was a misunderstanding? Rena never told me that!"
"Eh? She didn't tell you that? That's odd." Shion ran a hand through her hair. "I was sure she would have told you all the details."
"No…she didn't…" I was thinking hard about all of this.
"Everything did blow over though. Mion and Satoko made up. They forgave each other and everything went back to normal. That's why they had so much fun at the homerun faceoff. Rena didn't tell you that either?"
What in the world was going on? Why didn't Rena tell me that they made up? What…what the hell was happening?
"Anyway, I guess we'll never know why these unfortunate events happened." Shion shook her head. "Sis never told me the truth about anything, even when I tortured her. She kept saying she would never hurt Rika or Satoko, and that she wouldn't gain anything from killing them. She said she put the fight behind her. All lies if you ask me."
My heart was breaking into pieces and the last part of it shattered when Shion said that. She said it so plainly, like it was no big deal.
"I heard you two yelling at each other. After you ran out of here, I found the bodies. It was right there that I knew Sis had to have killed them. She killed them and stuffed their bodies here so nobody would ever find them. She lied about putting the fight behind her.
"I loved Satoko like she was my own…and Sis killed her out of some stupid misunderstanding. She got so paranoid and killed her." Shion tightened her grip on her hammer. "She killed her so she could just confess her feelings for you…a worthless human being. It's because of you that she killed Satoko and then Rika to keep her quiet. It was because of you that they're dead, don't you see?"
That wasn't true. I wasn't responsible. Mion killed them, I didn't. It wasn't my fault. I wasn't responsible, but why did I feel so guilty? Why did my heart hurt the way it did?
"It was all because of you." Shion hunched over and her face met mine. Her forehead touched mine. I felt her breath touch my flesh. It burned me. "You're the one who's at fault here. Mion killed them because of you. You robbed me of the last piece of Satoshi-kun. And to make matters worse, you weaseled your way into my heart."
I was confused. She didn't really mean…
"I love Satoshi-kun." She sat back up and placed her hand over her chest and closed her eyes. She smiled genuinely when she thought about him. "I love him so much that I would do anything, even sell my own soul, so that he could come back to me and Satoko. But now…he'll never come back. He'll never come back and I can never face him again because I don't have his sister with me. So I began to realize something, why should Sis have her love and get away with her crimes while I can't have the one I love?"
Tears slowly fell from my eyes.
"So I killed Mion…and now…I'm gonna kill you. But…I tried though…I really tried to kill you as you laid there when you were asleep. I was going to kill you right there and be done with it…but I couldn't." Shion glared at me. "All because you found a way to get into my heart. You tried to make me betray Satoshi-kun and you tried to be him. But you can never be him. You're not Satoko's Niinii and you're not my Satoshi!"
My tears vanished and my eyes widened. What was she going to do to me now?
"Don't you impersonate him!" Her thighs squeezed my sides tightly, making it difficult to breathe. "Don't you rub my head and think you can make me happy! Don't you try to be Satoko's brother! You're not Satoshi; don't try to replace him! Even if God forgives you…I won't! Because of you, Satoko and Rika are dead, and now Satoshi-kun will never come back to me! You're awful, Keiichi!"
Shion placed a nail over my finger. She rose up her hammer.
"Show me your conviction! Take responsibility and die!" She swung the hammer down.
I closed my eyes tightly. I was waiting for the terrible pain to follow, but it didn't. I instead heard a dull thud. I felt something fall on top of me too. When I opened my eyes, I noticed Shion was laying on top me with her face next to my ear. Her hammer had hit the cross; it fell off of the arm of it and onto the floor. She was weeping. I felt her teardrops on my shoulder.
"Why…?" she moaned. "Why can't I kill you…? I hate you…I hate you so much...yet, my feelings for you are just like Sis'…"
"Shion," I said to her, trying to remain calm. "Killing me isn't going to bring Satoko or Rika back. You'll just be putting another hole in your heart. I don't excuse what you did to Mion. She should have been arrested and taken away, instead of being murdered, you know that. However, I am very sorry over Rika and Satoko. If I had known what was happening, I would have stopped this all before it progressed to this point. I am, in part, guilty of their deaths. I know you'll never forgive me for not realizing how Mion felt and what she was capable of, but know that I am truly sorry."
"Please, let me go. This isn't going to do you any good. You kill me, and the police will be after you just like they were after Mion. You'll ruin your life. Please, think this through, I beg you…Shion…"
Shion lifted her head to see me. A little smile was on her face. Her tears stopped. She looked at me sweetly. "You've really grown up, Kei-chan. Sis was right about you. She would have been a happy girl. I'm sorry…for everything. This demon inside me does all these awful things. I couldn't stop it from killing Mion…but maybe I can stop it from killing the one she loved."
Shion released me from the cross. She released the restraints that held me and allowed me to get up. I stood up and rubbed my sore wrists and neck. She sat at the foot of the cross with her eyes cast down. I stood in front of her. I smiled warmly at her. I wanted Shion to get help. She was distraught and standing on the brink now. I had to be calm and warm towards her. I didn't want to set her off again.
"You're doing the right thing, Shion."
"I should-I should tell the police what I did." Shion smiled back at me. "I should take responsibility for my actions now too."
I nodded strongly. "I'll go with you! I won't leave your side! I'll be with you every step of the way!" I held out my hand to her.
She took it and stood up. She blushed a little. "Thank you…Kei-chan."
I turned around and led her to the door leading out of the torture chamber.
"Kei-chan? Can I tell you something?"
"Huh? Sure, what is-"
My shoulder started to hurt. It stung and I felt something dripping down it. I looked. A knife was imbedded into my arm. My blood was gushing out. I felt the blade touch my bone. I knelt down on the ground and yelped in pain.
"Ha…ha…ha…nyahahaha….HAHAHA!" Shion threw her head back. Her laugh echoed throughout the chambers of this underground prison. "You fell for it! You really fell for it! Hahahaha!"
I yanked the knife out of my arm and yelped again. I covered the wound with my hand, to stop the blood from pouring out, and I looked at her. She showed me her fangs, her venomous tongue, her demonic jade eyes, and her bloody hand after she stabbed me.
"You didn't think I was just gonna let you go, did you? Oh no…you're not getting away from me! You're gonna pay for everything you've done to me! I'm gonna kill you the same way I killed Mion! This time, I'm not gonna stop the demon from killing you! I'll let it tear you to shreds! Hahaha!"
"Shion…you…"
"You're good! You really had me going back there! Now I know why Sis called you 'Master of Words' Maebara! But it's not gonna work anymore! You may have tricked me when you visited me that one day, but I won't allow it anymore!"
I looked at the knife. I looked at Shion. I had no choice. She wasn't going to let me out of there alive. She was really going to kill me this time! I had to do whatever it took to escape! I didn't have a choice!
She pulled out her stun gun from her pocket. She squeezed the switch and I saw the lightning dance in her hands. "When you get to hell, say hello to Sis would ya!" She lunged at me.
I swiped at her with the knife. My eyes were closed so I wasn't sure where I was going to hit her. I heard blood drop to the floor. I looked at my own small puddle. It didn't grow since she unsheathed her stun gun. When I looked at her, she was against the wall, holding her forearm. I had cut her.
"My arm!" She shrieked. She gripped the slice in her arm and her eyes were moving rapidly in their sockets. "It hurts! It hurts!"
With that, I leaped to my feet and ran for the exit. I flung open the doors and dashed up the steps leading to the main garden. When I got there, I looked at the sky. It was in the afternoon. Shion had kept me imprisoned for that long. It made me feel somewhat relieved. My parents had to know that I was missing from my room. They probably called Akasaka, or that guard that was protecting us, and had people looking for me. If I could just get to a phone, I could tell somebody what was going on. I had to survive that long!
"KEI-CHAN!" I heard Shion scream from the torture chamber, even though I was already in the garden. "Hahaha! Run you little bastard! When I catch you, we're gonna play a new game!" Her laugh had me frozen stiff. "Here I come!"
Part B
I sprinted inside of the Sonozaki house. I was in no condition to run around Hinamizawa like this. My arm was still bleeding and I heard Shion's swift footsteps coming from behind me. If I tried running away from the house, I had no doubts that she would catch me. There was no place to hide along the road from the house. My best bet to survive was to hide inside of it. If I could knock her out and call the police, I'd be in the clear.
I was in the main corridor. One side led to the living room where Mion and I shared tea and the other led to somewhere else. I decided to run down that way. I hung a left and found four rooms before me. Two were on each side of the hall. I randomly picked one and hid in there.
I was starting to feel dizzy. I was losing too much blood. I had to treat my wound. I tore a piece of my shirt off and made a make-shift tourniquet around my arm. It stopped the bleeding for now; at least that problem was solved. I was still holding Shion's knife. I wasn't comfortable using this as a weapon.
The blade of the knife was way too short. It required me to get close to Shion and she was dangerous at that range. She had that stun gun. One wrong move and she'd zap me with that thing again. If that happened, I'd be as good as dead. I wouldn't get lucky this time. I needed to find a better weapon to fight her with, preferably some kind of blunt object. I just wanted to knock her out. I didn't want to kill her.
As I contemplated my next course of action, I noticed the floor was stained with drops of blood, my blood. Dammit, I swore. I was leading Shion right to me! She would follow my blood trail and kill me! What the hell was I going do?
I didn't hear her footsteps. Was she in some other part of the house? Or was she waiting right outside the room where I was, waiting to strike like a serpent. I really didn't want to leave this room, but my blood trail revealed my position. Either way, I was screwed. I had to make a choice: I could run outside and take my chances or stay here and wait for Shion to find me and attack.
I decided to leave the room. I wanted to find a better weapon to use against my pursuer. I dashed out into the hallway with my knife raised. Shion wasn't there. I looked at all my corners. She was nowhere to be found. I didn't like that. I could feel her cold eyes watching me. I could feel her hot breath burning my flesh again. It was my imagination, but I was more afraid than I've ever been.
I quietly side stepped down the hall. There was a telephone on a small stand against a wall. I silently removed it from the receiver and dialed the number to the Okinomiya police department. The dial tone seemed to last a lifetime. Every second I spent standing there out the open, Shion could have jumped me. I was counting on it.
"Okinomiya precint?"
"Akasaka-san!" I whispered into the phone.
"Who is this? Speak up, I can't hear you."
"It's Maebara Keiichi!" I spoke in a low tone.
"Who?"
"It's Maebara!" I said louder. The second I did, I constantly looked over my shoulders. Shion had to have heard me! She was coming after me, I know it!
"Maebara-san?" He sounded extremely worried. "Where are you calling from? What's wrong?"
"I'm in the Sonozaki head house! Shion's trying to kill me! You need to send help right aw-"
The line went dead. I didn't hear Akasaka's voice anymore. I placed the phone down and picked it back up again; I redialed the number but the call never went through. I was about to dial one last time, when the phone rang. I seized the phone.
"Hello? Akasaka-san?"
"Why are you running from me…Kei-chan?"
My heart stopped beating. Sweat rolled down my face and down my arm. My wound started to bleed again. I just stared at the phone.
"You're not trying to leave before I can play with you, are you? Ha…ha…ha..haha…haha…ahahahahahahahaha!"
The line went dead again.
I dropped the phone and sprinted down the corridor; she knew where I was! I found another room off to the side and jumped in. I closed the door shut and backed away slowly. The door was very flimsy. It wasn't going to protect me at all. Shion could just kick it down and pounce on me like a rabid animal.
I backed into a table. I peered over my shoulder and saw what I had been looking for. There was a wooden sword lying on it. I stuck the knife in my belt and picked up the sword. I gripped the hilt and examined it closely.
It was made of hard oak. It was very sturdy and it fit well in my hands. It was light enough to swing, but it had a lot of power behind it. It was long too. It was about forty inches overall. This length was perfect. I could keep my distance from Shion and I had a chance to knock her out. I just might get out this, I hoped.
Footsteps slowly tread down the hallway. My pulse trembled. I hid in a closet filled with kimonos, blue jeans, a couple of yellow shirts, and a pair of sneakers. There was a holster, containing a BB gun, hanging from one of the clothing hangers. I knew what room I was in. I was in Mion's room.
The footsteps grew louder. The owner stood right outside the door to Mion's room. I peeked through the door to the closet, which I left slightly ajar. It was Shion's shadow. She was quiet. She stared at the door to Mion's room. She was just standing there. Was she trying to see if I was in there?
She walked away a few minutes later. I heard the crackling of her stun gun echoing down the hall. She wasn't going to stop until I was dead. But I had a chance now. As long as I held this sword, I could fight. I could get through this.
I crept from my hiding place and stood next to the table where I found the oak sword. I looked all around the room. It smelled like Mion. I could feel her presence in here. I saw the teddy bear I gave her on the day of the homerun faceoff. It sat there on her bedroll, without a care in the world. The happy look on its face made my spirit heavy. Mion would never hold it again. She would never kiss it goodnight. She would never think of me anymore.
I held the bear in my hands. I hugged it. I felt like I was hugging Mion, the real Mion this time. I felt so sad, so angry, and so alone. She was the closest I've ever been with in Hinamizawa. I think I loved her too. I wouldn't know now, I never would. If she was still alive, and if we had another chance, I think I could be sure. Shion stole that chance from me when she killed Mion. Even if she did kill Rika and Satoko, I still considered her to be my best friend. It's crazy, I know, but I really did. I missed her so much.
I placed the bear back on her bedroll. I promised I would fight through this, that I would live. I tiptoed over to the door to her room. I sneakily slid it open. I checked both sides of the corridor. Shion wasn't there. I quietly closed the door. I took a step forward. There was another room in front of me. I opened it and saw some newspapers in front of me, and there was a kitchen knife on a table off to the side. There was a little trap door in the middle of floor. I think this was the pantry.
I suddenly fell into the room. Something shoved me. I fell on my side, luckily not where the knife was sheathed in my belt. I got back on my feet and took a stance with my sword. There she was. There was my pursuer, looking at me as if I was a piece of fresh meat.
"Found you." Shion said menacingly. The stun gun in her hand crackled. "And what do you got there?"
I swung the sword to the side. I was ready for battle.
Shion raised her empty hand and turned it into a fist. Her other hand gripped the stun gun tightly.
We both stared each other down. We didn't move. We were like samurai watching one another, just waiting for the other to strike first.
"Hey!" Shion shouted. "What are you, afraid? Hurry up and make a move already! Believe me, if you won't then I will! Come on!"
She kicked the newspapers. They scattered in front of me and dangled in the air. I swung the sword down to clear them from my path. When I did, I saw Shion, gritting her teeth. She tackled me. I collapsed to the floor. The sword fell from my hand.
"Heh! Bastard!" Shion kicked my stomach. I coughed and covered myself with my arms, but her kicks were so strong that I feared she was going to break them.
She stopped kicking me. She reached down and took the knife from my belt. He smiled, flashing her teeth, at the bloody blade. She drove it into my leg. I cried out and rolled around on the floor. I rolled into a wall and struggled to get back on feet. I tore the knife from my leg. The pain got worse. Now my arm and my leg were hurt. Without my leg and arm, I didn't think I was going to be able to swing the sword correctly. I was finished if I didn't end this now.
"Haha!" Shion kept laughing at me. She knew I was done for if I continued on like this. "You're killing me here! You're pathetic! I guess there's not much left for me to do except watch you bleed to death! But I was so looking forward to torturing you one more time! Hey! Tell you what, why don't we go back to the torture chamber again? I wanna to hear a few more cries of anguish before I kill you!" Shion cackled once more. She stopped abruptly when she saw me raise my sword up. I wasn't going down yet!
"My, my!" She clapped for me. "I'm surprise you have some strength left! I mean it wouldn't be fun if you didn't! I know I'm gonna enjoy driving the nails through your fingers even more now! Although, I have to wonder: how long are you going to be able to last when you can barely stand? Look at you, you're a mess!"
"I…" I was breathing heavily. My wounds were still bleeding, my neck was itching again, and my heart was pounding so hard that it was going to burst a vessel. "I'm not gonna…I'm not dying here…" I squeezed the sword's hilt so tightly that it was vibrating in my hands.
"Now that sounds like the Kei-chan I know!" Shion smiled at me, in that sickening sweet smile. "Sis would be so proud of you! Ohhhhh…I can't wait until I kill you." She held her arms and moaned to herself. "Satoshi-kun will be so happy…"
"You're a demon. How could he love a demon like you?" If I made her angry enough at me, I just might get the opening I needed. "If anything, wouldn't he and Satoko be so ashamed of you? You killed a good friend of theirs! I don't care if it was out of vengeance, there's no way they would praise you for what you've done here!"
"Don't get cocky!" Shion pointed her stun gun at me. "That new attitude you got is really pissing me off! Since when did you grow up?"
"I learned a lot of things since I came to Hinamizawa," I smirked, even when I stared at death in the face.
"Don't you dare tell me what Satoshi-kun and Satoko would have wanted!" Shion dashed towards me. "Just lie down and die!"
She stuck the stun gun out at me. I dodged and swung my sword down hard. The blade hit the back of her leg. She collapsed; she dropped her weapon and it skipped across the floor. She crawled over to reach it, but she saw my shadow standing over her. She turned around to face me. Her hair was a mess and her eyes widened as much as they could.
I lifted the oak sword high into the air. She was afraid of me. She was shaking where she was sitting and she covered herself with her arms. She shrieked in terror at me. My face contorted into something hideous. My teeth gnashed against each other and my wounds didn't hurt anymore. Everything around me turned to scarlet, while Shion became a silhouette.
I swung the sword down upon her.
I felt the impact of my sword on her arms. The bones shattered. I swung it down again. I kept swinging it down harder than the last time. I just kept swinging. The cracking, sloshing, and squishing sound coming from my sword didn't bother me at all. If anything, it made me swing it down harder.
I did this before, I know I did. This was the most familiar event I ever felt in this week. I know I did this to someone else before. I remember swinging a bludgeon of some kind down upon someone…or some people. This felt so familiar but I didn't care. This wasn't a coincidence anymore. I felt it, Shion felt it too; we both had these occurrences of déjà vu. There was no mistake about it. This wasn't a coincidence. Something was reminding me of these events that I did in some another world and some another lifetime. This wasn't a dream, it was all real.
I swung the sword down once more. The awful noises stopped. I didn't hear Shion scream anymore. My arms hurt from swinging the sword so hard. My head was going to explode. Adrenaline was rushing through my body. I breathed more heavily and dropped my weapon. I stumbled to the door. I couldn't stand up anymore.
My vision returned to normal. Even though it did, the room was still red. I looked at my hands and my clothes. This wasn't my blood. My mouth had blood in it. I spat it out. It tasted terrible.
My eyes traveled across the room. Red was splattered all over the walls, floor, and it formed a stream that went through the trap door in the room. I looked down at my feet. I couldn't recognize the person I had hit anymore. I noticed the hair, the soft skin, and the horrified look in her eyes, but I couldn't remember what her face looked like.
I couldn't find her face at all. It was gone. I saw something sloshing about at my feet. Shards of bone lay around it. I held my mouth and went into the hallway. I vomited. I closed the door tightly and fell against the wall. I stared at the ground, trying to catch my breath. I couldn't believe what I just did. I couldn't believe the awful act I just committed.
I thought I was going to cry, but I didn't. I couldn't. I didn't have any more tears left to shed. I had enough of crying. I wasn't going to mourn anymore. I did what I had to do. If it wasn't her, it would have been me.
"I…I did it…" I said to myself. "I really…did it." My body trembled and I gritted my teeth again. "She's not gonna hurt me again…Mion…I'm gonna live…I'm gonna live!"
I laughed. I laughed hard. I laughed so hard that my stomach was killing me. I was scratching at my neck again too, a little bit harder than usual. I was happy. I was happy at what I just did. I was going to live. I got…revenge. I got revenge on the person who stole my best friend away from me. I said I didn't condone what she did, but I was really trying to hold back the fury when I said that to her. I said I had done a bad thing, but I told myself I acted correctly.
I still felt bad that Rika and Satoko were gone, but I felt worse thinking about Mion. Something inside of me just snapped. It felt great. It felt great to suddenly release all of my emotions through that sword. I was the biggest hypocrite of all. I thought I grew up, but in reality, it was just a charade. My thoughts were more mature, but I still had this…thing…buried deep inside of me. It was waiting to be unleashed.
I heard police sirens outside of the Sonozaki house. I heard the officers burst in through the main entrance, and I know some went down into the torture chambers. I was going to stay right here. I didn't do anything wrong. Sure, I took a life, but I did it in self-defense. She was going to kill me if I didn't fight back! I didn't do anything wrong! I waited for them to find me, I waited for Akasaka to come and see me.
I was going to live. I was going to live for Mion, and for Rena, the only friend I had left. I wasn't going to let anything else happen to me. I sat there, looking at my bloodied hands, waiting for Akasaka to come. I waited for him to see that I did what I had to do. I had killed Shion to save my own life.
I'm sorry…..I'm sorry…I'm sorry….…I'm sorry…..I'm sorry…..
