Shizuo groaned. His head was throbbing, his face was warm, and his heart was beating out of his chest despite having just woken up. His eyes weren't even open yet, but his body was pulsing while being covered in a cold sweat. Shizuo felt so sick and he didn't understand why.
He attempted to reach his hand up but he couldn't move them. His arms felt so heavy. The redhead clenched his teeth hard, his expression souring in pain before he forced his eyes open.
Shizuo stared at the ceiling to one of the bedrooms. He recognized it and soon realized he was still in the church. He was in one of the shared bedrooms with the twin-sized beds. Something was poking against his back painfully. It took a lot of effort, but he managed to move his head—rubbing his face against the fur trimming of Izaya's coat that he was apparently still wearing—to look down at himself.
The blond was lying on a twin-sized bed. The mattress had been removed, so he was lying on the metal crosshatch box spring. It was extremely uncomfortable and he was certain he felt it tear into his flesh a bit.
However, Shizuo couldn't move. His hands were bound at his side to the box spring. It was just a flimsy clothe that held him. It looked like it was pieces of a sheet torn into strips. He could feel the same cloth around his ankles, keeping all four limbs pinned to the edges of the bed. He tugged on it but he had no strength to break it. Just moving his arms made his them shake violently with the effort.
"Wh-what...?" Shizuo voiced.
"Are you awake?"
Izaya's voice made Shizuo jolt. The blond-dyed-red turned his head to see the raven standing by a table across the room from him. His back was to Shizuo and he didn't turn to him yet. He was mixing something in a glass cup, but Shizuo couldn't see what.
"I...Izaya..." Shizuo groaned. "Wh-what...are you...?"
"You've been asleep for a while. I'm sure you must feel terrible."
The raven turned around with a medical ventilation mask, the end of the tube for the mask sitting in a cup of clear liquid. In his other hand was a syringe filled with green fluid. Shizuo tugged on his restraints with worry.
"I-Izaya," Shizuo groaned, "what are you—what's...going on? What you doing?"
"It's alright. It'll all be over soon."
Shizuo's eyes widened, his heart starting to thump in his chest with fear now.
Izaya placed the syringe on Shizuo's stomach. The blond jolted.
"Don't move." Izaya said. "If you break that, you're screwed."
"Wh-what is that? Izaya, what are you doing?!"
"Don't wor~ry~!" Izaya sing-songed. "It'll all be oka~y! Just don't move!"
"Iza—"
Izaya put the mask over Shizuo's face. Immediately, he was hit with a strangely pungent and sour smell. Shizuo held his breath as quickly as he could and tried to turn his head away.
"Breathe in." Izaya commanded. "Just a little bit."
"Nm!" Shizuo shook his head.
"Breathe i~n!"
"NM!" Shizuo shook his head again.
Izaya glowered. He let go of the mask, in which Shizuo shook his head to knock it off, and grabbed the syringe. Shizuo breathed in fresh air, panting heavily. He put it in between his teeth, the glass clinking. The raven then grabbed the ventilation mask again. Shizuo turned his head away, burying his mouth and nose into the fur of Izaya's coat.
Izaya grabbed Shizuo by his hair and tugged. The blond closed his eyes tight shut and kept his head turned. There's no way Izaya was stronger than him so he could keep his face away from him easily.
The raven glowered. He pushed the mask to his cheek then pushed it. It got the plastic under the fur and managed to put it back over Shizuo's face. The blond held his breath again.
"Breaf in, 'hihuo!"
Shizuo didn't respond. The raven glowered again.
The the raven hopped onto Shizuo's stomach. He made sure to slam his weight into Shizuo's abdomen, in which he knocked the wind out of him. Shizuo's eyes widened as the air puffed out of his lips. He inhaled deeply to catch his breath, inhaling that strong smell.
"N-no, no!" Shizuo yelled. "What are you doing?!"
Shizuo huffed in labored breathing. Izaya took the mask away. He put the mask over the top of the glass and grabbed the syringe in his mouth. He slurped to get any saliva off it, then wiped the rest on his leg. He placed the syringe back on Shizuo's stomach and stood.
"Don't worry, it won't kill you." Izaya turned his back on Shizuo and went back to the desk to put the mask and cup of liquid down. "It's just a diluted form of the chemical that the cultists used to paralyze you before."
Shizuo's eyes widened. The blond couldn't have moved anyway, but now there was no way he could get out of his restraints. Shizuo tugged his limbs again, but he whatever the pyramid monster did to him was still holding firm. His strength was waning as his limbs started to tremble.
Izaya picked up his hunting knife from the table. With a calm expression, he pulled the knife out of the sheath, letting it gleam off the candle light. Shizuo stiffened.
"It's supposed to be ingested." Izaya said, inspecting the knife before grabbing a whetting stone. "For maximum results, you should eat it. But I don't need maximum results right now."
Izaya sat down on the table, rubbing the stone against his knife to sharpen it.
"All I need is for you to hold still long enough to do a little autopsy."
Shizuo jolted, his eyes stretching wide with horror. "Aut-autopsy...?"
Izaya looked at him. The two made eye contact. Then Izaya smiled happily. "Well, what else am I to do with you?"
Shizuo felt his blood go cold as terror filled his being. "N-n-no!"
The blond tried to tug on his restraints. He managed to shift his torso slightly.
"Izaya, what are you even thinking?! Why are you—"
"DON'T MOVE!" Izaya's voice boomed as he hopped off the table quickly and rushed over.
Shizuo jolted to his call. He had never heard Izaya scream that loud, not even when he was barking orders at him when they were running. The raven grabbed the syringe from Shizuo's chest.
"I told you, if you break this, you're screwed!"
"...Ho-how the hell is that going to screw me?!" Shizuo pulled on his restraints, but he could already feel the drug tingling up his limbs. "Izaya! What are you doing?! Why are you doing this?! Let me go!"
"No, no, no. I need to do this."
Izaya turned around and sat down on Shizuo's stomach. He rested the syringe in the crook of his leg and stomach, pointing the tip of the syringe out so it didn't stab his other leg. He then continued to rub the whetting stone against his knife.
"See, Shizuo, Alessa told me some interesting things when her and Red Pyramid invade our sanctuary. She had really, really, really interesting things to say!"
The blond perked. 'He called me 'Shizuo'.'
Just that alone told the bound man something was extremely wrong. Izaya had always called him 'Shizu-chan'. The only time he hadn't during their entire stay at Silent Hill was when Shizuo froze with fear. Even when they were running from monsters, he still called him 'Shizu-chan'!
If Izaya was calling him by his real name, either he was dead serious...
Or he wasn't in his right mind.
"Izaya..." Shizuo couldn't help trembling as fear filled his being. "She-she got to you..."
"Well, she's always had me, eheh. Me and her have been together for, what? Fifteen, sixteen years now?" Izaya looked over at him. "I've always listened to her and done as she's asked."
"Izaya, whatever you're thinking of doing, don't!" Shizuo pulled on his restraints again, but he couldn't move at all now. "We—After everything we've been through together, you can't do this to me!"
"It's because of everything we've been through that I have to do this." Izaya grabbed the syringe and stood. He pocketed the whetting stone and put the knife down on Shizuo's stomach. "Alessa won't forgive you, Shizuo. So I have to hurt you."
"What the hell did I do?!" Shizuo felt his sleeve being pulled up, the fur trimming tickling his wrist. "She-she needed you to live and I've—hngh!"
Izaya pushed the syringe into his antecubital vein. Without hesitation, Izaya pumped Shizuo's bloodstream with the green liquid.
"What is that? What's that drug?" Shizuo started panting heavily as his grip on his nerves started to crumble.
"Something that'll make this end so much faster!" Izaya smiled happily.
The syringe was empty now. Izaya tossed it behind him without a care. The glass shattered on impact, the metal clattering. He then sat down on Shizuo's thighs. His hands grabbed at the buttons of the blond's shirt. He began unbuttoning it.
'No, no! I have to...I have to reason with him! I have to bring him back to his senses!'
"I-Izaya..." Shizuo looked up at him with terror. "You...you can't do this. Alessa warped your mind. She's controlling you. She—"
Izaya pressed the tip of the knife to Shizuo's cheek, silencing him. The raven stared at him with an eerily calm gaze, drawing the blade against his cheek in a near sensual manner. He then pushed the knife deeper into Shizuo's flesh.
Shizuo felt a deep pain in his cheek. It was a pain he hadn't felt since he was a kid. His face burned and he called out, turning his head away from the knife. Shizuo looked at him wide-eyed with shock.
"How-how...?" Shizuo voiced.
'I haven't felt pain from a cut in years. Why did that hurt? Why did that hurt so much?!'
Izaya stared down at him in silence. Then a malicious grin crossed his face.
"Ain't that interesting?" The raven sneered.
With a sudden uncouth lack of patience, Izaya grabbed each end of his shirt and ripped it apart. Buttons snapped off while the fabric tore. Shizuo jolted and gasped.
"Izaya—"
The raven pressed the knife to Shizuo's neck. The blond felt the cold steel against his pulse. Izaya started giggling giddily as he moved the knife over a few centimeters, closer to his Adam's apple.
In the next moment, Shizuo felt a searing pain in his neck. He jolted and gasped in pain, his whole form trembling. He pulled against his restraint before screaming. The agony went down his neck, slicing over his clavicle to dig in even more than before. Shizuo closed his eyes tight shut and screamed again.
Izaya took the knife away. Shizuo gasped, feeling blood trail down his neck and shoulder. The blond panted heavily, his chest rising and falling quickly. He pulled on his restraints yet again but still, he couldn't move at all.
'No, no, no!' Shizuo looked down at his arm. 'Move! Move, dammit!'
"Struggling will just make it wo~r~se~!" Izaya sing-songed, smiling from ear to ear. "Eheh, in all the years I've known you, the only time you showed pain was the first time I hit you with a truck! Now you're making so many interesting faces! And all from a knife! Hey, Shizuo, tell me!"
The knife came down again. It pricked against Shizuo's chest before pushing in. Shizuo arched and screamed in pain.
"Am I better than the Saika slashers?!" Izaya asked, his voice filled with glee. "A whole mob of people left so many cuts on you but you couldn't feel a thing! And here I am making you scream! It's amazing! I've always wanted to see you like this!"
"I-Izaya, stop! STOP!" Shizuo clenched his teeth hard, tears of pain starting to dot his eyes. "You have to stop!"
"Ahahaha! I don't have to do shit, Shizuo! This is a dream come true!"
Izaya took the knife and pressed it to his stomach. The knife dug in again. It hurt so much worse this time since it was his soft underbelly. Shizuo wanted to scream but his voice wouldn't come out. It was stuck in his throat, so all he did was sit there with his mouth agape for a few seconds.
He was only able to breath when the knife was removed from his flesh. He coughed hard and turned his head away, teeth clenched and eyes closed tight shut.
"Aha! Are you crying?! I'd never though I'd see you cry, Shizuo!"
Shizuo glared at him, but it was lackluster. The pain made it hard to hold a proper gaze of hate. Although, he couldn't muster much hate either since he was more scared and betrayed than angry. There was no way this was Izaya. There was no way, after the last three months of surviving with each other and creating something akin to a friendship, that Izaya would turn on him like this. And even if he did, it wouldn't be like this! Izaya wasn't this savage! Izaya wouldn't dirty his own like this!
"Izaya..." Shizuo's voice sounded pathetic to his own ears, but his throat hurt from screaming. He couldn't muster anything more than a pitiful voice above a whisper. "Izaya, you need to stop, please. Alessa's poisoned your mind. You have to see that—HAAAGH!"
The knife came over his lowest left rib, pushing in, in, in. Shizuo's scream was deafening.
"S-ST-STO-STOP!"
"Nope~!" Izaya smiled.
"IZAYA!"
Further into his flesh, he pushed the knife. It was so painful that Shizuo's vision began to spin. But Izaya didn't stop. The edge of the knife poked something within Shizuo that lit his entire chest with agony. His voice died in his throat again and the breath was yanked from his lungs.
"Oh, is that your rib?" Izaya asked.
Shizuo's head spun. The pain was more than he had ever felt before, more than he had ever though he could handle. For a moment, his mind went numb, to the point where he thought he would faint. His vision blurred and his head lolled against the metal.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Izaya pulled the knife out then tapped Shizuo's face. "You can't fall asleep now! We've still got a bit to go~!"
Shizuo looked up at him with terror.
Kasuka stood upon city center of Ikebukuro, microphone in hand and camera pointed towards him. The camera was projecting the same image on the giant digital billboard atop the building behind him. There was a crowd surrounding him, but keeping a wide girth thanks to the bodyguards. Many of the crowds had phones out and were recording or taking pictures. Kasuka smiled from ear to ear as he spoke into the mic.
"And with that comes the end to our segment!" Kasuka said, his voice echoing from the billboard. "Be sure to check out our new television show 'Love is Black' on XX channel! The first official episode is tomorrow, May 12th at 20:00. Myself, Katsuki Anami, TT studios and our entire production crew would greatly appreciate your continued—"
"-nued-nued-nued—" The billboard began to stutter, which caused Kasuka to stop what he was saying to look at it. It also caught the crowds attention as they looked up.
The image on the screen began to flick black repeatedly, frozen on Kasuka's image.
"Oh, technical difficulties." Someone in the crowd said.
"Oh, no, what's wrong with the overhead?"
"That's dangerous. Get away from it."
"Who do we talk to to get that fixed?"
"Would it be the maintenance of the building?"
"Probably, since they're the only who's promoting the billboard."
"But aren't their multiple businesses in that building?"
"Should someone tell the people inside that it's damaged?"
The screen began to crackle, Kasuka's image vanishing entirely as static began taking over the screen completely.
"Hanajima-san," The camera man started.
Kasuka looked at him.
"You can finish the outro. We're still streaming to the rest of Japan."
The actor nodded and raised the mic again. "Be sure to check out our new television show 'Love is Black' on XX—"
Kasuka was once again interrupted, but this time by a scream. It was a male scream with a digital overtone. Kasuka looked back up at the billboard. The crackling screen began to form an image. It was very fuzzy and faded, but slowly a demented image began to show.
Another scream resounded from a man with red hair. His limbs were bound to a metal box spring, so he couldn't move nor defend himself. There was another person sitting on top of the bound individual, knife in hand that was obviously drawing across the man's skin.
The black-haired man lifted the blade, blood coating the end of it. The redhead coughed before gasping harshly.
"Come on, come on, come on!" The black-haired man said with a voice filled with glee. "You can't sleep yet, Shizuo. I haven't even reached your organs yet!"
Kasuka's eyes widened. Many people of the crowd gasped. The parents in the crowd covered the eyes of their children.
"Shizuo?" Someone said.
"As in Heiwajima Shizuo?"
"No way! He died years ago in a plane crash!"
"There's no way that can be him. He's not a redhead anyway."
"And he's wearing a coat that looks like Izaya's. There's no way he would do that!"
"Someone turn that off!"
"Who's broadcasting this?!"
"This has to be a fake!"
"It's okay, honey! It's not real! It's just a scary movie!"
"We need to go, sweetie. You shouldn't be watching this."
"What's going on?!"
"Iza-Izaya, stop..." The redhead on the screen said through labored breathes. "You-you have to sto—AHAAAGH!"
"What was that? I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the shink shink of the knife."
The redhead could only scream in response.
"Hey, hey, if I push my hand against this tummy cut enough, do you think I can pop through to your intestines?"
The redhead jolted, his eyes widened. "D-d-d-don't!"
"Come on, I'm sure it'll be fun! You know there's about five feet of large intestines. We can jump rope with it!"
"IZAYA, STOP!"
The black-haired man put his hand over the redhead's stomach. He began pressing his weight on that hand, and gradually, his palm began to seep into the flesh, being enveloped by blood. The redhead groaned, his eyes stretching wide as he clenched his teeth. Within seconds, the brunette's hand disappeared into his wound. The redhead's scream was deafening.
Kasuka couldn't take his eyes off the screen. He recognized that voice. Even though it had been years since he heard it, there was no way he could forget that voice. The voice of his older brother.
'What is this?' Kasuka thought.
Across town in her apartment building, Celty 'stared' at the screen with pure horror. Shinra watched wide-eyed as well. The two had been watching the Hanajima Yuuhei promotional program for a new show that would be coming out, staring the mentioned actor. However, as the segment was about to end, the cameraman who had been pointing the device at Kasuka had changed his angle to look up at the billboard screen that was showing a terrible image of someone claimed to be Shizuo being tortured by someone claimed to be Izaya.
The couple stared at the screen in horror.
Then Celty stood. She quickly typed a message and showed it to Shinra as she grabbed her biker helmet.
:ill be back:
"What are you going to do?"
:I dont really know but I need to find out if that is real, find out what's going on.:
Shinra nodded. "Maybe Shiki-san will know something."
She put her helmet on and nodded.
However, Shiki certainly didn't know anything. The yakuza executive was watching the same program while he waited for the arrival of an Asuki group executive. They had business to attend to but he wouldn't arrive for another hour. So, while he waited, he had some free time. Him and Akabayashi decided to watch the Hanajima Yuuhei program. Both were just as surprised to see the strange broadcast on the billboard.
"It can't be them." Akabayashi stated. "We couldn't find anything in Silent Hill that indicated they lived."
"And yet something seems authentic about that."
"It's certainly real. But whether that's Heiwajima-san and Orihara-san is up for debate."
"...Maybe..."
Shizuo coughed, his whole form trembling. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't see anything as his vision spun. His mind was going numb as he throat began to ache. The power of his screams had killed his vocal cords immediately. But what else was he to do? Izaya was burying his hand into Shizuo's stomach. He could feel those dainty fingertips push against his inner layer of skin. It wouldn't be long now before he pierced through to his organs. He could be there easily and quickly if he used the knife, but no, Izaya was taking his sweet time with this terrible act.
Izaya retracted his hand, giving Shizuo's body a momentary reprieve. He was finally able to breathe and so the old bartender began panting heavily.
"Iz-Izaya...Izaya, st-sto..."
"You're still saying that?" Izaya chuckled. "Come on, we can keep going! I still haven't made it through to your tumtum. Just a bit more push and I'll pop through. You can't give up now."
"You're cr-crazy...! You've gone crazy!"
"I don't know, I feel pretty sane!"
"Alessa warped your mind!" Shizuo glared at him. "She—"
Izaya pushed on his wound again, which killed Shizuo's voice instantly. The raven shoved his hand into the cut, reaching down, down, down, back to where he had just stopped before. His nails scraped at the flesh inside. He tore at it slowly, peeling away a small strip of flesh at a time.
Shizuo find his strength and screamed. There was only pain, only suffering. His mind was flooded with sensations he had never felt before. He wanted it to end. He wanted to faint. He would rather be unconscious that to live through this torment.
In the next moment, Shizuo felt something pop within the wound. His scream became caught in his throat as Izaya's nails tore through the flesh completely. Within the same second, he felt his nail scrape against something in him. His stomach immediately clenched. Shizuo couldn't scream. He wanted to scream but there was nothing to come out. All he knew was pain. All he knew was suffering. All he wanted was for this to end!
Izaya chuckled. "I feel your tu~mmy~."
Izaya twisted his hand. Shizuo closed his eyes tight shut and screamed as loud as he could. He couldn't hear it, he wasn't even sure if anything came out of his vocal cords, but he screamed nonetheless.
Then as soon as the pain came, it vanished.
Kasuka could only watch the terrible scene before him. He could only watch as the person who might be his older brother was tortured. Maintenance from the building who owned the billboard was on the scene and trying to figure out how to turn it off. Kasuka heard they tried to cut the power, but he wasn't inclined to believe that since the image was still playing.
He could do nothing but watch. He could only watch as Shizuo tilted his head back and let out a scream so loud, so piercing, it sent a chill down Kasuka's spine.
Then in the next moment, black came from the floor under Shizuo. It enveloped the redhead entirely, hiding him from everyone's sight. Izaya jumped off the man and backed away. Within a few seconds, the black disappeared and Shizuo was gone.
The screen began to crackle again. Static began to make waves down the screen from top to bottom. Then the image was engulfed in static. It flashed between black to static a few times before turning off completely.
'What was that?' Kasuka wondered, a knot forming in his stomach. 'What's going on? Was that really Shizu-Nii? It...can't be...'
It was foolish to hope. After such a long time, there was no way his brother would suddenly be alive.
But what if...?
Shizuo panted heavily as finally the pain subsided. He groaned before forcing his eyes open. He was prepared to look up at Izaya, to try and reason with him again.
However, he didn't need to. Izaya wasn't there anymore. Neither was the box spring he had been lying on. Or the church that had been over his head.
Shizuo stared up at the roof of a warehouse, with a high ceiling and metal support beams stretching from the walls. There were huge windows on the top of the walls, right under the beams, and a wide open space. Bright light filtered in front those windows, nearly blinding Shizuo and certainly hurting his eyes. Shizuo's eyes widened at the sight.
Hesitantly, he moved his hand. He could still feel the cloth around his wrists, but it wasn't bound anymore. He looked down, his head so heavy, and saw the ends of his bonds were cut free.
'What...happened?' Shizuo thought, 'Where am I...?'
Shizuo could hear birds chirping outside, along with cars driving by and honking. He could see a blue sky with very few clouds.
'What's...going on?'
Shizuo close his eyes tight shut then forced them open, looking all around him once again. He didn't recognize this warehouse. He was certain he had seen every place in Silent Hill, but this one was knew to him. He didn't know this place. But there was no tell-tale signs of abandonment. No layers of dust and decrepit.
'Am I...out...?'
Shizuo push his hand against the ground and managed to roll over. His wound spasm and he called out in agony, falling limp to the floor. He got a mouthful of fur-trimming as the hood of Izaya's coat pressed against his face.
'Am I...out...of Silent Hill...?'
