Koneko I

Chapter 3

Ring-ring! Ring-ring! Riiiii-

"Hello? This is the Baek residence."

"Am I speaking with someone by the name of Hanul?"

"What the hell?" I felt my stomach drop harder than my heart ever did. "Who is this? How did you get this number?"

"Relax. All will be revealed if you meet me for a little one-on-one, toniiiight!" This person had an oddly cheeky tone.

"What's your name, at least?"

"We need to talk, anyways. Occult Research Club Room. Kuoh Academy. You know what they say, Hanul: There hath existed Hell, but none the like than a woman being kept waiting or scorned."

Click!

So, it was a woman, but the question was who? It's in the dead of night, and I'm being summoned into school... THREE AND A HALF HOURS BEFORE I HAVE TO WAKE UP FOR IT!? Goddammit! Well, I'm awake now, but who would I be meeting with and what would their intentions- her intentions- be? Could there be some sort of trap or ambush waiting for me there? Was it even a real call? I DO have a disorder of schizophrenia up there, so it could have just been a hallucination. Yeah, that's right! It wasn't real. It was just my overactive imagination running away with me. I'm probably just hearing things, or I'm probably just in a terrible nightmare! Although, how typical and cliché of me to be having nightmares about school. Man, I REALLY need to stop watching so much anime. I smirked at this thought and drudged my heavy, foot-long feet up each of the stairs and traversed back to my room.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

XXX*

I had a dream that night. It was dark, but then as my vision began to adjust to it, there was a kind of light that began to illuminate my location. It's hard to explain, but the best I could offer was that... it was almost like a sunrise with a black sun. And then I saw... red. Lots of it. It was marvelous and spectacular, but nothing like blood. More like... a crimson-tint of the finest silk that was precisely designed for members of a royal family such as a princess, a queen or even a king.

It began to wrap around my wrists and ankles in an apprehensive fashion, tightly, and that's when she came. Her skin was as flawless as the complexion of a new-born baby with two superlatively cut sapphire diamonds with impossible clarity and a hint of emerald where her eyes should have been. I had to shut my eyes because even as breath-taking as she looked, I could've sworn I felt an overwhelming aura brimming from her presence that was mesmerizing- hypnotic, even- and when she called my name, my stomach churned such as the obese and bloated child from gluttony.

"Haaaaaaanuuuuuuuuuuuullllllllll… Why hath thou kept a lady waiting? Broketh are the two commandments which hath smithed the adversary of womenfolk."

"What... in the fuck... are you?!" The terror that I began to sponge, I... I...

"There hath existed Hell, but none the like than a woman being kept waiting or scorned. Wantonly, it is he who hath bit the viper the same he who hath bit the terra firma. When thou doth arise, will still ye not heed my warning and draw nigh?"

I didn't know what was going on. Who was this... person? Demon? Ghost? Or maybe I drank tap war and the fluoride was already granting me brain defects by assailing my subconscious imagination? Damn the wretched and corrupt governments of the world! "Better health with fluoride", my ass!

"Because I am a kind and compassionate princess and queen-to-be, granted will ye be with one last chance to perform. Should thou fail thine royal highness, she would make sure it would be the last chance you get... at everything... at your life. You will be forcibly forfeited."

Wh-what the fuck is this? Princess? Queen-to-be? My royal highness? W-wait! Is this about the rendezvous at Kuoh? The Occult Research Club? So, this was probably the person who contacted me on the phone then! I had to study her with the time that I had because I thought I understood her intentions, but they might have been different.

It seemed like my bondage was all connected. It was like one exaggeratedly extensive piece and it was... connected to her scalp?! So, that would mean... hair! Crimson hair! And the diamonds in her face were eyes; that was a no-shit-Sherlocks! Finally, she seemed to be unclad of any raiment. So, I was looking at: crimson hair, blue or bluish-greenish eyes and pale flesh with a sparse tinge of pink. Crimson hair, bluish-greenish eyes and pale skin. Crimson hair, bluish-greenish eyes, pale skin.

"You gaze at me with such innocent and pure affection in your eyes. It is this look which becomes my dismay, but perhaps, it would be more delightful in-person, for titillation and stimulation comes from what one is able to grasp. Please, accept my invitation, handsome prince. I beckon company of thee. Do not make me visit you or repeat myself a second time for it is the hour of my beast that is tantamount to the hour of my mourning."

XXX*

What was that thing? Was my schizophrenia going on overdrive or did that really just happen? I really wondered if talking to Koneko caused that maelstrom. It would make sense because that was the only thing I did that was extraordinary, recently. But even if this was true, was that thing a person calling out to me, and would I see it tonight? Could I have been entirely wrong? Could I have been called out for a completely different reason? I spaced out at the coffee vending machine while mulling over my choice, letting the electricity hum as I drowned into my recent memories of the semester.

XXX*

It began to rain when I got close to the academy. My hair- which stretched out dark, long and straight to my shoulders- was drenched in seconds. The hoodie I chose to wear didn't stand a chance. For a moment, before I entered through the gates to Kuoh Academy, I smelled something... thick and foul. It was an overwhelming scent but somehow... familiar. As I continued my pace, I began to grow dizzy and I started feeling weak. That's when I began to notice... the droplets which collided with the ground were the source of the smell, and they sounded... heavy. I stopped and extended my arm for a second then quickly retracted it for a closer look.

Blood and pieces of hair streamed through my fingers.

This was... SULFURIC RAIN!

I gasped and jumped at this then began to attempt to run as fast as I could through the front doors of the school, but just suddenly, my leg broke in half! I ONLY HAD ONE LEG!

As I hit the ground, I crawled as hard and fast as my twiggy limbs would take me, but... it wasn't enough. I began to vomit blood and as I pulled out my cell phone, I could see myself in the reflection of the de-powered screen, and I was melting. My strength waned and I laid there in the courtyard- praying again- as my eyelids began to close.

"Don't fall asleep, Hanul. Whatever you do, don't fall asleep." I chanted to myself, instinctively. "This... is not... real." I heaved breaths as I murmured nonsense until...

XXX*

"I hope Baek received my message and could comprehend my intentions," sighed Rias, who was pacing to and fro in the club room. "If he doesn't get it, either I'm losing my touch or Koneko is crushing on an idiot."

Anything Rias had ever performed- from a basic conversation to even using magic to send messages on an astral plane- she mustered no less than perfection with each attempt. Rias was always fascinated by the humans' creation of the dance called "ballet", for this reason. The way a human was able to move so flexibly like a demon and yet, still mystify while captivating an audience by intoxicating them with decadence-- the same way Rumplestiltskin spun straw into gold-- those dancers spun pirouettes into glamour and overtly-embellished elegance. It began to rain in the style of a light shower. As the rain drops gently pelted the glass of the window panes, Rias' tension began to simmer. After a first glance at the sound, she noticed through the windows that the heavens had turned pale, but even through the drywall, wood, metal and glass, she could still smell the scent of moisture in the air. It was nostalgic of her younger years and quite empowering. As she walked towards the window to place her hand on one of the panes, she noticed something outside.

XXX*

"Haaaanuuuuuuulllll... Don't give up, Hanul, you're almost there!"

Was I dead? Was that how it ended? A life full of pain, mistrust and struggle just to meet the love of my life for a moment of life's batting eyelash, then melting away like a used candle?

"Hanul! Please, get up!" I saw Koneko standing in front of me in the shade of my unconsciousness. She reached a hand out to me and I requited the gesture, but I felt too weak to fully raise my arm.

"Hanul, you can't just die like that because I... I... I!" Then, all of a sudden, I opened my eyes and before me stood a girl with a form that defied gravity's laws underneath the bloodiest, but most breath-taking, rose-tinted sky. She had the most beautiful gems pilfered from heaven's archangels that pierced right through me as they masqueraded for eyes. I screamed for a second and looked around as I frisked my body. I'm still alive. I'm in one piece and undamaged, just really wet and cold.

"What are you doing on the ground?" she chirped with a friendly smile.

"Wh-where am I? Wh-what's going on? My-My body..."

She looked me up and down, in which after, she tilted her head to the side.

"Oh Baek, I think you were tired, hallucinated and fell asleep out here. You could get sick, you know?" As she finished that sentence, she bared a quick flash of her pearly teeth. "Let's get you inside, silly."

She helped me up with the utmost, compassionate movements. From the way her fingers carefully gripped onto my shoulders to the way she held me when she instantly realized I forgot how to walk for a second, she had the touch of a loving mother with the strange but appealing smell of a campfire on the first day of winter. When her fingertips glided down my cheek, I saw a vision. It was a vision of an open forest, close to some mountains, that had the cleanest blanket of snow draped over the scene.

"Hanul? You're okay now, right?"

"Um, yeah. Thank you." That brought me back to reality. I checked for my phone and then pulled it out of my pocket. As I stared into its de-powered screen, I saw my flawless reflection with nary a thing out of place. I wanted to cry, almost. To think: what if that was real? What if that's all it took to end me? Did this girl cause it? Or has my schizophrenia become... a little too much to manage?

XXX*

She took my hand as I slacked behind her a little bit. I checked her out from head-to-toe, and outside of her wearing a school uniform in school at night, there was nothing that stood-- oh yeah, her hand. Her hand felt colder than the temperatures of the rivers in Greenland. There was a few times in which I had to retract my hand, quickly, because the pressure was becoming too much. It's like she's been frostbitten for years. Otherwise, like I said, she was the embodiment of perfection, physically, such as society's top pick on brainwashed role models for women.

The school looked more different at night than it did during the day. When you were at Kuoh during the day, you would see it as some typical high end institution with some nice perks and a great sense of interior decoration and design. If you saw it at night, you wouldn't believe how it looked. There were shadows of different shades of color depending on the angle that any light whatsoever illuminated it. During the day, it looked more wide-open, but during the night, I could spot so many places to hide and even how some of the shadows formed living creatures that I've seen before that were not of this world but hard not to recognize.

At times, when she talked, I felt that monster blurring and deafening out all sound, so I resorted to soundbytes and nodding my head. When Rias suspected my behavior, I began to chat spontaneous replies that seemed to fit any situation, and saying, "Ah, I see. Keep going, I'm listening."

For some reason, I felt like the company of Rias was both terrifying and liberating. It was, both, because I felt safer and more in comfort with every word she uttered now than I have ever felt in my life, but it was terrifying because as she was talking, I thought to myself many times, "It seems like she understands me more than the family that birthed me." I knew I had problems, and I felt she was the one that could possibly help me. The best friend of the girl I love.

XXX*

There were many questions asked. The questions ranged from my parents' marital status to my own personal belief system. No, this wasn't a who's-who, this was an interrogation. The woman I was held by in security was a different woman than this. She had a keen look in her eyes almost as if she was expecting me to speak mendaciously.

"...And how are your parents doing?"

"Have you ever experienced sexual abuse?"

"What does the word 'heart' mean to you?"

"What kind of girls are you into?"

"What are your intentions with my little doll... Koneko?"

I was at a loss at how such a beautiful face could speak its curiosities in such contorted perspectives.

"Have you ever sexually harassed or raped a girl?"

"Do you have a sexual lolicon fantasy, and that's why you're into--"

BOOM!!!

I instantly spun around and saw the door of her office split into 6 pieces, and they flew off the hinges as far as they split. When the dust cleared, the perpetrator was no other than...

[End]