Voodoo Curse Chapter 6

Part 1

Ren slumped as Kyoko clicked the door shut behind her. Finally the shoe had dropped. After the multiple times he had held himself back from embracing her, one moment of poor judgement had frightened her away. There was a dull ache in his chest. His groin also throbbed with unfulfilled longing. He mightn't have gone too fast with the romance but he definitely had rushed the intimacy. His soul had leapt into hers and he had virtually merged with her, in every way but physically, when they had kissed. The only excuse for his lack of control was that he had lost himself, or rather, rediscovered himself in her. In his arms Kyoko had been so warm, soft, fragrant and inviting without any of the artifice of the other girls he had ever embraced. Oh Hell! He didn't know who he really was any longer. Ren was fairly certain he would have to go back to square one yet again to regain Kyoko's trust. She was like a wild animal, always with one eye on an escape route which she had used today, and he had to re-tame her. He also had to tame his own wild beast, Kuon, the primitive part of himself that he now hated more than ever. He wanted to howl at the moon in frustration like the wolf that he was. Instead he went to the kitchen and poured himself a double scotch and downed it in one gulp: then another; and one more for good measure.

Half an hour later, in a numb stupor that had done nothing to relieve his emotional pain, he snatched up his phone that was lying on the counter silently mocking him, and scowled at it. He scrolled down searching. Nothing. Growling, he slammed it on the counter then picked it up again. The alcohol was rapidly slowing his cognitive ability and his limbs began to ignore his brain signals. He staggered to the living room and clumsily fell into the sofa. He heaved a heavy sigh as tears rolled down his cheeks.

He looked up and moaned self-pityingly. He slurred his words thickly. "Rick, whyn't you stop me?... Right, you'rnt here. 'Cause of me, you'ren't hr t' hadvise me. It's all my fault, evrithins, m' flt, alws has bn, allis w'll be. I have no right to have her, not ever. Oh God! I just want to die!"

He splayed across the couch and the phone in his hand lit up as it rung sharply. He squinted with one eye to focus on the call display. Pressing the pick-up he put the phone to his ear.

"Yashro! I shcrewd up big time! Yup! Hindeed I did! Need some help here."

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Part 2

Kyoko ran up the staircase two steps at a time. The taisho and ookamisan looked at each other in surprise as she stumbled into her room at the top.

She rifled around in her closet and found what she was looking for. Her Ren doll stared vacantly at her as she glowered at it.

"You stupid baka, Ren! You stupid playboy! Why did you do that? Stupid baka me! I should have known better!" She raised her arm up to throw the poor doll across the room, stopped, stuck her tongue out at it and lay it gently down on her dresser. She crawled into her futon pulled the quilt over her head and lay there stone faced while the wheels relentlessly spun in her head. "Grrrr argh!" She writhed and rolled over umpteen times. "Why didn't it feel like he was acting? Damn him! He was so amazing, I just forgot everything! His eyes bored right into my soul! Every place he touched nearly burst into flames. Kami-sama, I gave myself away! He`ll never respect me as an actor or a woman ever again! I can never ever face him again! What am I gonna do?"

Stretching her arm out from under the covers she reached blindly for her phone next to the futon. Patting around her, she found it and pulled it into the darkness and sat there with her phone lighting up her makeshift tent while she frantically checked for unanswered messages. Finding none she felt conflicting emotions of relief and disappointment. So Ren hadn't left any. Why would he when he was probably so mad at her. "Moko! I have to call her!" She deftly scrolled through her contacts, furiously typed out a message and after a moment's hesitation she squeezed her eyes shut and determinedly pressed the send button.

Seconds later her phone rang and Kyoko started, her heart lurched out of her chest. She reluctantly looked at the phone screen to see who was calling. Phew! It wasn't Ren! "Moshi Moshi! Hai! Moko-san! Kyaa help me!"

A very sleepy voice tinged with annoyance responded at the other end of the line.

"Ok, Kyoko, cough it up! What happened? No wait! Let me guess – it has something to do with Tsuruga-san. And don't try and cover it up or leave anything out. My threat still stands. If you don't tell me everything, we aren't best friends!"

Kyoko reluctantly began to recap her encounter with Ren. "Moko! You know I told you I wasn't in love with Ren? Well I didn't exactly lie – I wasn't aware that I was then, but anyways we were practicing my latest role which calls for a kiss and well, I'm sorry I didn't tell you that Ren is in it too and he's my romantic co-star and well we got to practicing the kiss and well it got out of hand and ….."

Kanae interrupted. "And?...What!? Why didn't you tell me about the role? Geez! Mo! You call me your best friend and you didn't tell me something as important as that?"

Kyoko blushed over the phone. "I'm sooorrry Moookooo! I only just accepted the role before reading the script. I couldn't back out without breaking the contract! Anyhow Ren found out I was in it before I knew he was in it! It's all sooo embaaaraassing! And then he bullied me into practicing! He practically blackmailed me! When we got to his apartment and when we began the improvising he was very professional but then when he started to kiss me, he wouldn't stop and I had to yell at him!" He's a playboy! A playboy I tell you! He was talking all sweet at me..aarrgh! Probably just like he does to other girls! And I didn't want him to stop… but I did. I couldn't let him continue when he's just playing with me!"

"Kyoko I don't think he's a playboy – at least not now. Have you heard one thing negative about him? Or him being with any girl or anything in the news or Hype magazines?"

"No I've only read interviews with him in magazines."

"No? I thought not. Neither have I so I think you can only come to one conclusion."

"What?" Kyoko waited dumbly for Kanae to explain.

"Kyoko, In spite of you being such an incredibly intelligent hardworking and talented actress, when it comes to reality, you really are clueless you know. It's beyond my comprehension that you can observe people so well and mimic their gestures and mannerisms without understanding the reasons behind them. Surely you've studied Tsuruga Ren? Don't you have any inkling at all as to why he behaved the way he did? I think you have purposely put up a mental block. You`re a mentally deranged blockhead! Why don't you think about what happened for a while longer and let me know when you've figured it out. At a more reasonable time than midnight ok? Goodnight!"

"Wait, Moko! ….Moko?"

There was silence on the other end. Kyoko stared blankly at the phone.

"She hung up?!"

Kyoko fell back on the futon spread eagle and tried to silence her thoughts.