Prologue Arc: Lust Begets Death
This is the final part of the prologue arc. Here is my first sex scene so it would feel awkward at some places. And everything else would be more disturbing. Special thanks again to Hwikek, Miz-KTakase, Solarius Scorch, and to Liber-T.E.A. This is for Elred Bluegreen. I will start work on the story proper soon.
Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.
-James 1:15
"...they're like the sweetest apples on the top of the tree. Almost tantalizing. But I cannot savor them because society loathes my actions. Damn them. I see people who are praised as upright and cavort with whores in bar rooms and bring mistresses to their beds. I've heard stories of kidnappings and sadism but no one lifts a finger to look into such matters. There are people who never practice what they preach but expect others to uphold those so-called 'moral standards'. Typical hypocrisy. Why should I be any different? Is there an imperative need to conform? Morality is only a matter of perspective." He confessed to the radio, distaste and cynicism reverberating from his voice.
The radio whispered in reply, "I see... You are rather unfortunate... It is not my place...to judge a man by his virtues... I never choose the next hand to possess me..."
"But one more thing," Endaka said warily, "Are you sure that nothing bad is going to happen to me? If you grant my wish, there has to be a catch. There must be."
"Again... I harbor no ill will nor do I desire your demise... And I never question your morals... My only exigency is...no regrets..."
"I'm ready to receive. Give me my pleasure." He cheered like a child eagerly awaiting a sweetmeat as a prize. There was a slight rustling of cool air. It was not a dreaded cold wind but rather a gentle breeze caressing his body. Something is happening. The machine is right! Everything was going in his favor. Now it would only be a matter of time before his wish was granted. He felt his blood rush through his veins in ecstasy. The night seemed to have lasted for days in a silence ocean deep when the doorbell rang... He stood up slowly.
The radio told him, "It is...for you..."
He smiled like sunshine at those words. Avidity surged through him as he tidied up the room. He turned off his computer and printer and picked up the pictures that fell on the floor. He put them inside and arranged his bed. Like a monk rejoicing in revelation he rushed out of his room to receive his caller; it took a lot of restraint to get him to modulate his pace to a stroll. Endaka slowly approached the door. He opened it and his suspicions were happily confirmed: in front of him stood a high school girl, no more than fourteen or fifteen years of age. She had purplish blue hair with bangs falling a few inches from her shoulder. She wore, of course, a school uniform with white shoes and black socks that reached up to her knees. She had a nice bust size, neither big nor flat, just ample enough for him.
"Good evening," Endaka greeted her trying to keep his composure with some effort. The girl looked around the room. He anxiously waited for an answer.
"Good evening," The girl replied timidly. She looked at him with wide innocent eyes. He tried his best not to smile to widely and not to be overly courteous. He didn't want to frighten her.
"What brings you here?" He asked. The girl blushed, she was too embarrassed to speak. "You could come inside if you want." The girl nodded slowly. She walked inside slowly and he closed the door behind her. He guided her to the kitchen. Endaka helped her to her seat and gave her a glass of water.
"I'm sorry if I disturbed you, sir." She meekly rebuked, sipping her glass.
"Oh don't worry. I'm not mad. What's your problem anyways? I'm all ears." He assured her.
"Alright. You see I live alone in an apartment. My parents died when I was young. I have some relatives but I don't really consider them family so I make ends meet for myself in high school. Tonight I was going home by train until I realized I got off at the wrong destination. I tried to get home but I had no money for the fare. I was so worried. I don't know what to do. I heard about you while I was walking past a convenience store from some of your employees. I decided to go to your house since you're the only person I think I can turn to for the moment."
The man felt sympathetic for the girl. He said to her, "I have a car. Maybe I can take you back to your apartment."
"Really? Thank you very much." She stood up and bowed. Endaka took the glasses and put them in the sink. He and the girl went outside to the car.
The road was full of late night motorists and the sidewalk was crowded with people. The entire city seemed abloom with lights from everywhere. 'Bright lights of the big city' indeed, Endaka thought from the driver's seat. Sitting next to him is, of course, the girl who was looking out through the window longingly. He smiled.
Keeping his eyes on the road, he asked her, "You have a part time job?"
"Yes, I do. I work part time in a cafe and at a bookstore. Things are always hard with school projects and the rent, but I manage."
Poor girl, he thought. He then thought of another question. He asked her again, "You have any friends?"
"I do… but I don't take the time to talk to them a lot. I'm just focused on getting everything done."
Endaka chuckled a little, "You don't know what you're missing. Friends spice up your life. They make it interesting. You also have to slow down a little to enjoy the scenery, you know." The girl smiled a little. She looked at the cosmopolitan lights that made the city come alive. They came to a stop at an intersection where a red light signaling for traffic to stop. Endaka pulled the brakes, he thought of another question. He was going to ask her if she had a boyfriend. He wanted to know if she had any sort of relationship much closer than friends and family. He felt a bit tense. It was a personal question after all and he feared the girl would be suspicious of him. That his question would be answered with another question and what would follow would be an inquiry with each succession of questions probing into deeper into his skin until the truth is pried out like a stubborn carbuncle opened with a hot steak knife.
It was going against his instincts; he never made deep relationships with anybody. He was good natured with his peers back at the Middle East but he was never had any girlfriend for reasons he made up. He doesn't talk much about his life with his colleagues back there. Now here he is with a girl that the radio granted to him, or so it seems. All of this is too good to be true. It was the first time since his days at that mud hole orphanage did he really got a chance to get laid with a girl this young. But then again, this was something he would never want to wake from; it is an opportunity all too hard to pass up. The light turned green and he got the car moving again. It's going to be the last stop until they reach her apartment.
It was a now or never moment for him. If the girl doesn't take too kindly to his question, he would blow this chance but he had to know if she really had a boyfriend. For one thing, he is jealous if any girl he would have potentially met has some sort of male liaison. And two, whether she were two-timing or not, having someone close to her like that is like having an arrest warrant sticking to his ass, since he is still a fugitive. He paused. He decided to ask the question. He took a deep breath.
"Pardon my intrusion. Do you have any boyfriend?" He asked her. The girl was slightly puzzled. She turned to him slowly.
"No, I don't have any, sir." She answered. She then continued, "I'm sorry if I didn't introduce myself correctly. My name is Sayuri Himuro."
Endaka smiled and answered, "Oh, my name's Takeo Endaka."
"It never occurred to me to have a boyfriend. I'm always alone at my apartment doing stuff." There was a pause. She finally said with a faint smile, "Would you like to stay with me tonight?"
The very words struck him like lightning. These were the words he wanted to hear in one form or another but he never would have expected to come out from her, at least not this easily. He mentally thanked the radio for this. Indeed, that radio only required him to never regret its blessing.
"Yes, I wouldn't mind stay with you tonight," He calmly answered. He curbed his inner enthusiasm so as not alarm her. He made a turn to the right.
"Thank you so much, Endaka-san. I thought you would object if I ask for that." She blushed.
"Ah, that's nothing; I don't go out with people that often. And I kinda live all by my self at home."
The girl smiled, "I don't mind. There's a first time for everything." Endaka made another turn of the wheel to a street that would take them to a far more tranquil and less crowded part of the city.
At this time, the night was dark and deathly silent save for the almost-nil chirping of crickets and harsh white lights of lamp posts, the apartment seemed to sit idly in a sea of placidity, the kind where time moves slowly to the delight of the ever-weary city dweller. The neighborhood surrounding the four-storied building lay in a blanket of silence. Endaka didn't expect this. There had to be some sign of life like a car pulling over at one of the houses or the odd homeowner taking out the trash this late. In his watch it is already eleven p.m. It just felt a little odd as he and the girl walked to the building.
"Is it always like this?" Endaka asked her. The chill of the night had crept under his clothes and he is feeling the nip.
"Only right now, everyone in the neighborhood is asleep and most of the boarders are out for tonight." She answered.
"How 'bout your landlord? Wouldn't he find it odd that you're going home with a grown man?"
"Don't worry. He's just a nice old man who doesn't bother me much."
"Huh?" He was perplexed by that.
"At the fourth floor I live next to a rather unruly group of boys who sometimes made loud noises at night. He would sometimes mistake my room for theirs." She explained. They continued walking until they reached the front of the building. They opened the door. The lobby has only an old man sitting in his desk watching from a portable TV.
"Good evening, Mr. Oruki," Sayuri greeted.
"Good evening, Miss Himuro," the old man replied without turning his face away from the tube, "it's late already and you know how dangerous the streets are at this time."
"It's alright. I'm still in one piece." She replied.
"That's good. Good night." The man concluded. His eyes are still focused on the screen. Endaka walked with hesitant steps, half glancing at the man. This Oruki fellow did not seemed a wee bit perturbed by his presence. He walked quietly, neither too silent nor too heavy. The man seemed to have his eyes glued to the tube, and the TV's volume is turned up high enough to echo throughout the room. The noise is quite loud. Sayuri turned around and gestured him to move on. Reminded, he proceeded. They walked up a flight of stairs. The noise of the TV seemed to emanate through the walls from the desk of that old man. It seemed eerie, especially since the girl told him that almost everyone is out for the night at this hour. Walking up the stairs he noticed that some of the lights are dim and anemic. Some of them flickered occasionally. Maybe Mr. Oruki needs some new lights, he mused.
They've reached the fourth floor. The din of the TV seemed far away but can still be heard from below. Before them is a corridor with rooms on either side. Unlike the small lobby on the ground floor and the stairs, the place was completely dark as if someone had turned off the lights there. The girl shut the door leading to the stairs. The place is finally silent. Deathly silent. Weird, he thought. Then they proceeded. Along the corridor are rooms on either side. Excitement was mounting inside of him as they walked together to her room. To him it was hours before they stand in front of the room.
"We're here." she quitely cheered, "hope it wasn't much trouble for you, Endaka-san." They are now standing in front of her room: Room 409.
"No, no, Miss Himuro, there's no trouble for me." He replied. She dug into her pocket and extracted a key. She slipped it in. The mechanism chinked. She pulled it out and turned the knob.
"It's open," Sayuri chimed. They both walked inside. The room wasn't much and it was made to serve only necessary functions. It had a bed, a table, and two chair. There is a desk with some book, mainly manga and textbooks. There is a cabinet at the back made of particle board. The girl was quite tidy as the bed was well arranged. There is a balcony with a washing machine outside. It's separated from the rest of the room by a glass screen with a door. The screen was dressed with simple curtains. The room's walls are berefit of any decorations. Not even a boyband poster. But it does not worry him that much. The room is, after all, tidy and presentable. It smelled pleasant too. She must be have been a good girl and by her story if it was true, she didn't give a fig about what people around her think. She turned to the desk to switch on the lamp. She placed her bag on the table and sat down on her bed. She then took off her shoes and put on her slippers. She then turned her head to the man, who seemed to be staring into space.
"Um, Endaka-san, what are you thinking?" Sayuri asked him as she sat on the bed.
Snapped out of his revelry, he turned to her, "Uh, nothing. I'm just thinking about your room. Everything's so clean and tidy here," he chuckled embarrassingly.
"You know what, Endaka-san? I've never felt anything like this. Something's always missing when I'm here. I just didn't realize it until today. Thanks for keeping me company."
"It's okay with me. Do you have a cot where I can sleep on?" He asked.
"No," Sayuri a little embarrassed, "I don't. I'm sorry I didn't prepare for something like this."
"I...see..." Endaka himself got a little embarrassed. He came here ready for action and now he's caught in an awkward position. He should have known to prepare beforehand for this.
"That's alright. If it's okay with you...we could share the bed." She suggested to him. Endaka was taken aback by those words. These very words sounded to him too frank, too naive.
"Uh... what?" He smiled a bit feigning some slight surprise.
"The bed's big enough for the both of us. And I have a special little request for you." His ears could not deceive him. He was simply overwhelmed by his disbelief. His mind restrained on the need of caution, I don't want to scare this girl. One wrong step and it's all over for me now... Screw this! The radio would hate me for throwing away this opportunity! I'm gonna do this broad!
He asked her with a smile, "What's that?"
"The thing is that I've never felt the touch of someone. And that I'm always alone here not realizing it until you asked if I had a boyfriend. You see, I don't one. I never really got a chance to ask them out. I just sort of closed myself to things like love and stuff. I feel in any case, it wouldn't work out well for me. But now your here, I'd like to show my gratitude by sharing the same bed with you."
Without any hesitation, he sat next to her. The girl simply said, "Let's begin."
She climbed on to his lap. She sat on it with his arms around her. Endaka felt fire inside him. He put her arms around her waist and began stroking her arms. She cooed playfully, "This feels a little clumsy. Let's lie down."
"Good idea," He agreed and they lay down, him on top and the girl underneath. Their lips meet and kissed slowly, their tongues hungrily probing the contours of their mouths and savoring each other's lusts. They writhed together passionately with his hands feeling her buttocks through the back, and up to the back of her head. This is only the appetizer; the rest of the meal has still yet to come. Instinctively, they sat upright again. He began licking her neck and face; she moaned slightly. He smoothed his hand on her belly, feeling the suppleness of her flesh beneath the fabric of her blouse. He stroked her several times and slowly progressed to her breast. The sounds of their mutual lovemaking broke through the stillness of the night air.
His hand cupped one breast while his other hand went down to the thighs. Yes, those thighs his creamy smoothness had felt sent electricity throughout his body. His hand stroked her thighs and she could her ecstatic breathing heightened. Sayuri put one hand over the hand cupping her left bosom and began massaging her breast with it while his other ceased the stroking hand and guided it the her right bosom. Repositioning his hands to form an X cupping both, he fondled them circularly, his lips sucking the girl even more hungrily. It was at first slow, deliberate, intending to taste with touch. Then he increased the pace, rubbing them impulsively as his touch could not get enough of it. He felt his pants bulge. She felt it and cooed lustily, her breathing acclimated to new heights. Then she let out a shrill cry. She had reached a higher heaven of carnality and lay down with heavy breathing. They had ceased.
For that brief amount of time they paused. Endaka looked at her and commented, "Wow! That was wonderful!" His breathing still heaving from their shared debauchery.
"I like it... I really do," she answered. She lay on the bed for a while. She whispered a few phrases to him. He nodded with lecherous glee. She lay on her back again and he stood up. He unbuckled his belt and tossed it aside. He was undoing his pants, his hands a little shaky with excitement when a piece of paper slid of one of the pockets. Endaka and Sayuri quickly glanced at the stray object. His eyes widened with surprise as it slid across the floor.
"What's that?" Sayuri asked a bit wearily as she turned her head to look at it. Endaka got up and hurriedly pick it up.
"Nothing, Sayuri. It's just a piece of paper that I-" But it slipped again. This time it floated on the bed. He was instantly paralyzed. He could not think of what to do the next split second as it landed on her chest. Oh shit, he thought.
"Endaka-kun, what's this?" She took it and had a glance. It was a chaotic classroom scene set in a culture festival. The students are milling about their business but the shot is focused on seven girls: the shortest had red hair with pigtails and a sunny smile; the tallest was busty, raven haired-beauty with sad eyes; one girl with glasses on seemed to rage at another, who seemed very annoying in the picture; standing beside the long-haired one is a girl with short hair and a cute appearance and another with shorter boyish hair. Behind the redhead is a girl, also with short hair, having a somewhat muscular body. At another part of the picture are two women and one other figure, presumably teachers. One had long wavy hair and looked like a party girl. The other had short hair and smiled modestly. The man, she judged by the shirt and tie, has his face obscured.
"Ah, well you see- Um- I-I-I could explain that-" He stammered whatever he could say as his extreme worry and embarassment hijacked his reasoning.
"Please calm down, Endaka-kun. There's nothing to afraid of." She gestured him to pacify him. "It's alright. I know this was taken in a culture fest." His body's emotional stood down and breathed at what may be a sigh of relief. Although he hesitated for a few seconds, he finally spoke.
"Yeah, it is. It was quite fun then. I took a break from work back then and I came there by chance. It was a wonderful time. My only regret was there no one else with me. I took pictures of it, however, so I was able to show it my friends."
Sayuri looked at the part of the snapshot where that face was obscured. It seemed it was done by a drop of liquid eraser. She looked at him and asked, "Who's this person? The one without a face."
Endaka had a slight frown. He slowly took the photograph from her and began, "You see, this fellow here is a teacher. Kimura. This guy has achieved a reputation in school as a pervert."
"A pervert?"
"Yeah, he seems to enjoy peeping at high-school girls. According to some of the stories surrounding him, he became a high-school teacher just to get close to them."
"He 'observes' them," he added distastefully, "He makes excuses to just to look at them. Even coming as far as joining them in their swimming class."
The girl seemed worried, "Gosh. Does the school take note of him and his... antics?"
"I don't know what kind of institution would hire him and then keep him in his post despite all that. You know that the most unusual thing is that the boys admire this guy. They say he was being sincere when he admitted that. I bet they kept him from losing his job." However, he left the part that made him seething with envy such as how he got to see them everyday.
"I guess that's why you smeared his face," she noted, "You don't like this guy 'cause he harms girls that way. I'd be angry too if with a pervert like that. Even more if the place where he works still keeps him there." She let out a sad face. Endaka looked at her. He sensed that he may have encountered these freaks.
"Are you okay?" He asked softly. The girl gripped the edges of her blanket. She hung her head a little.
"I encounter those kinds of people everyday. In school. During my part time jobs. Even when I go home. You see, the thing about having parents is that you feel safe and sound with them. They will always protect you from anything. Not so for me. I'm always alone ever since they died. In this apartment you may feel safe but... there is no one around you to confort you when you're alone and vunerable. I sometimes feel that I don't want to venutre outside because that." Tears well in her eyes. She was quite as the grave.
Endaka placed her arms around her in comforting embrace. "There, there. I may not know what it's like to be in your shoes but I certainly know how it feels." He wiped them water away from her eyes.
Her hands touched her arms. "I'm sorry if I was not honest the first time we met. I just couldn't think of anything else then."
"That's alright. We don't want to burden each other with untold baggage do we?" He assured her.
She smiled again, "Thank you, Endaka-san." The two looked at each other face-to-face. In the moonlight, there is no doubt that the passions in their hearts are resurfacing again. Endaka felt a little good about himself. This girl really wanted some love. And some poppin'. He'll give both and it wouldn't be too hard since he's doing her a favor.
"Ready for another go?" He asked her, his words sounding as if his savoring their taste.
"I am." She answered softly, stroked his back seductively. He put one hand over her back and crept another beneath her blouse. He slid under her bra and felt her breasts. The soft suppleness of her virginal mounds excited him further, he started rubbing it slowly around and on the nipples, the girl began to whimper slightly, the sensation setting her body afire. Now the rubbing is getting faster and faster, her moaning pitched a little as well. Then he nudged his against her cheeks and began kissing her. Then their lips once again, their tongues making reentry and clashing harder.
They stopped their oral adventure but they still stare at each other's faces. She could see the fire in her eyes. He gazed at her but he was not seeing at the moment of climaxing passion. Only a moment now before he could taste the fruits of her innocence.
But his hand felt something different. The soft flesh he was rubbing suddenly felt flaky. Dry. Another part felt like cold and loose like old paint. Moreover, 'neath it is a pulpy sensation similar to bananas left to ripen on their own for too long. Plus there was the feeling of something hard beneath this... pulp. Cold sweat gushed out from the pores of his body, totally paralyzed in uncertainty. He felt the shivering pass of an icy mountain draft. His eyes darted throughout the room, trying to ascertain the source of the draft. The walls are not thin and lack any seams for air to pass. The windows and doors are shut; the only air conditioning they have is an electric fan. A sickly sweet smell then filled the room, assailed his nostrils and putting fear in him. Trembling, he took his hands out of the blouse. He took his hands slowly out of the blouse. In the scant light of the moon seeping into the window, he could see what was clinging to his hands: a thin sickly epicarp of disgusting color, partly cracked and dry; partly peeled and damp.
His eyes widened in fright as he put his hands away. He saw Sayuri, wretchedly decayed in such a way that she seemed to be experiencing several stages of decomposition at once. Her body had a hideous hue of greenish black with varying shades of it in different parts of the body. Some parts seemed to be dry while others are wet, damp and cold. Maggots and other numerous cadaverous creatures skittle all over the body like a sort of metropolis, some flitting and emerging through tiny gaps in it. He could see her clothes are torn and ragged. From her ripped blouse her putrescent abdomen was open, revealing the contents of her innards, what used to be various organs that functioned for her during the days of a life that had ceased so long ago. He lifted his head to look at the face of his lover. Her face was dried and rugosed at one part of it. Another festered with revolting decay, clearly wet and hideous. A part of the skin is missing and he could see graying and thinned-out muscles, oozing with fluids that reeked of rotten meat. But her eyes had held him the most. They were partly rotten but still basically intact. They are dead and lifeless yet they pierced into his soul.
"Endaka," she croaked, "what are you waiting for?" Her dead mouth moved liked a loose marionette. Endaka could not answer this repellent entity that was before him. Turmoil gripped his mind as it sought to analyze everything he saw, felt, smelled and heard in the room quickly so he could know whether to flee and what to do but none was forthcoming. He was too terrified to make a move yet. He could hear his heart beating wildly.
Sayuri... blinked. She began to approach him, causing her body to creak and grate audibly. She sat up and crouched. The mattress, now a ragged and dirt-stained pad with springs sticking out, rasped with her bony limbs. She extended a bony arm, decayed skin hanging loosely from it, to caress him. Time almost froze as his heartbeats became louder.
Dokun, dukon, dukon, dukon, dukon... dukon... dukon... dukon... dukon... DUKON!... DUKON!... DUKON!
Her decrepit hand is less than an inch away from his face.
"AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!" He screamed. His adrenaline-infused body came to life as he quickly pushed her off the bed. Sayuri fell of the bed with a shriek and light crack! He stumbled off and raced for the door. He turned the knob quickly but it would not budge.
"Shit!" He muttered as he struggled to open it. He turned and pulled as hard as he could. The door did not yield. He could not budge it. He began kicking it frantically to open, hoping it caved in so could escape from this horrible hallucination.
He heard her cry, "Endaka! Why did you hit me!" It wasn't in the in dead croaky voice he heard earlier but in the voice of the Sayuri he heard a while ago. Alive and sad. Endaka was instantly flooded with memories. Her cries took him back to the orphanage, to its basement where he held 'correction sessions' with its more troublesome wards and was once known as Oni-sama. He recalled vividly his sadistic glee when he beaten up boys. And that time when girls where sent to him to be disciplined: the brand he kept specially in reserve for them. Yes, he sometimes had to beat them and even drug them as a last resort to make them behave so he could put those sailor uniforms on them. And he relished the sounds of tearing them apart when he raped them and the moans and squeals they give out. It was a very good time for him until those delinquents escape that house and everything blew over. He remembered one of the lessons he gave to one of them.
The girl trembled in fear as the terrible Oni-sama stood in front of her. The room's darkness covered his face while the lightbulb illuminated the object of his perversity, a young girl of no more than thirteen years of age. The girl wept and pleaded disparately, "Please... please... I won't steal any more food from the kitchen..."
"That won't work on me. I'm here to teach you a few lessons and you'll learn it the moment you step out of this room," he growled. He held her by the neck. She whelped sharply as he slapped her several times. He then casted her roughly to the floor. The girl cried helplessly as she laid them. He then grinned, "Time for Lesson No. 2: Obedience."
The girl could not answer, confused and afraid of what might come next. He slowly turned his back and and unlocked a trunk. It creaked as he opened it and picked up a blouse and skirt: components of a sailor uniform. He got around and threw before her. Then whispered a command, "Wear it."
"W-what?" The girl asked meekly. She rose up a little. Then a hard slap landed on her face. Her head fell back on the floor.
"Wear it!" He raised his voice gutturally. She let out a frightened gasp. The sound turned him on.
She managed to ask him in a shaky voice, "C-can I please change somewhere else? I can't-"
"You do exactly what I say and don't ask anymore!" He cut her off. The girl stood up shakily. She removed her dress and put on the uniform. She felt so embarrassed doing it in front somebody besides her friends. As she weakly buttoned the blouse up, she looked at him with terror, the obscured face she could not see to decipher his intent. The man said to her, "Now that you're dressed, I will show you to my pet. His waiting for you." The tone was a little shaky and that didn't bode well for her. The man roughly grabbed her wrist and half-dragged her to a door next to him. She futilely whimpered as he opened the door and threw her into a dingy bed. The man took a foil packet from his pocket. He undid his pants and so forth. The girl knew something is not right and she tried to get off the bed but the man grabbed her and covered her mouth with a strong hand.
"Hey, leaving so soon? The fun's just about get started!" The now nude Oni-sama stated lecherously as he tied a piece of cloth on her mouth to muffle her screams. He then pinned her to the bed and forced his weight on top of the helpless girl.
Those memories filled him with neither regret nor wicked nostalgia but with great fear. The fear that his past had caught up with him. And took appearance in his unnatural craving of teenage girls in uniform. The flashback is over and he could see the room had changed in appearance. It now appeared wrecked, rubble strewn across the floor and the walls had holes in most places with loose wallpaper hanging from it. Pieces of plaster fell of the ceiling and water dripped from it as well. The door leading to the balcony is splintered and the glass screen was shattered with shards of dirty glass scattered about in front of it. The furniture was destroyed and everything was hauntingly desolate. It reeked of death.
The rotted corpse stood up unsteadily, bones grated audibly and organs slopped sickeningly. She creaked itself as if to realign disjointed parts in its body. She began pacing to him slowly like a toddler making a first step on its own.
The curtains of the room fluttered wildly in a breeze casting a sinister spectacle of light and shadow on Sayuri. She moved like a poorly-manipulated puppet hanging loosely on its strings. Her body grated louder, adding to his distress. The cold wind swept against him. He could take it anymore. He knew that he is only a few seconds away from being ripped apart by her or whatever she intended to do him. He had to act! He sprung to his feet, side-swept to a corner of the room to find anything to bash her with. He found a chair. Instantly, he charged at her with the chair as a battering ram, knocking her off her feet. He raised the chair and began beating her as fast as he could and as hard as he could. He grunted deliriously, he landed blow after frenzied blow on the corpse, who shrieked like an inhuman banshee.
"Stay away from me! STAY AWAY FROM, YOU BITCH!" He screamed violently, striking her with madly, and the bones creaked loudly. He gave a final righthook to her to make sure she is broken for good. He rushed to the door and began bashing it. He made a breach. A good sign! Just as he did he heard bones grating again. Panicked, crashed the chair even more and added a few kicks to until the gap was big enough for him to break free. He crashed through the rest of it and started running out to the hallway, which was in the same defiled state as the room. He ran feverishly and dared not to look back. He reached for the door at the end of the hallway and crashed through it.
The flight of stairs was dark and grim. All the lights are out but he would not bother with such details. His survival was his first priority and stopping to think is just lunacy. He continued downward hoping to reach the lobby and out to the relative safety of the outside world, his body consumed by the void of the stairs.
As he descended downward, the darkness seemed to close in all around him. It became thick and oppressive. He sweated and panted heavily from his pell-mell flight from that cadaver. He gradually slowed down. His strength had almost left him when he finally stopped. He got hugged a railing to support himself. His heart beated away like an out-of-control mule. Only when his body moderated its pace that he noticed something peculiar. He barely heard his breath. He couldn't hear any echoes. The darkness was completely pitch black. He could not see nor hear anything at all. And it felt like a crowded steam room on a hot summer noon. He sweated profusely. His breathing wheezed and his lungs has difficulty handling the thickness of the air. He looked at his watch. It was twelve o' clock, two hours since he took that girl home. And the hour before that, he was talking to the radio. The radio! Endaka felt a mix of emotions explode inside him. Anger of that radio's lying; anger for being fooled into the predicament he was currently in; and evil thoughts of his vengeance of that machine, vowing to destroy it should he get out of this hellhole. Then he remembered the radio's words, "No regrets."
Fear returned to him once again. He realized that his mindless acceptance of its offer was his own death wish. He regretted it for good. He looked up and he could see the tiny light from the top floor. It came from the doorway he busted through. It flickered feebly in the pitch black. But how could it be if the apartment has only four floors and the light from the top floor is high above from the ground like the end of a vertical tunnel high as a skyscraper and narrow as two shipping containers put together side by side. He realized that he was on a long flight of stairs! He was nowhere near the ground floor and the set of stairs before seem to lead to a bottomless pit. His vision went blurry, his hearing echoed and he was hyperventilating. Everything slowed down. Then he heard Sayuri calling out to him.
"Endaka! Please comeback! Please comeback!" The cadaver called out from the top in the sweet voice of the living girl. She ambled about abhorrently down the stairs, a mockery of the life and vitality she once had. The sound of her footsteps overloaded Endaka's already-spiraling mind. He tried to run but he slip. He grabbed a rusty railing but the weak steel could not support him, thus it broke and he screamed into the black nothingness which guaranteed a deathless fate, an endless end.
Endaka woke from the fall that seemed to have no end. He slowly got up. His body ached all over. He felt wasted and groggy. He creaked his neck and let out a grunt. He looked around where he is. Looks like that pit had an end after all, he thought. It was dark but he could see now. Behind him was the stairs which was derelict and unused for so long a time. A door was in front of him. He look up and saw stairs that lead to the top floor. It was deserted like everything else.
"Hell the entire building's deserted," he said to himself wryly. He looked around some more and paused for a few minutes. Reassured, he opened the door. Instead of the lobby, he was in front of a wall. A wall behind a door is usually a shocker but that was not what petrified him. The wall bore a grotesque Roman bas-relief of a man in agony with hundreds of hideous arms grabbing him to prevent his escape and abhorrent faces sneering at the poor fellow. The unfortunate one being featured was... him.
"Jesus Christ!" He screamed. Just as he did, he heard footsteps from the upper levels. The clattering of bones and the rasping of a torn dress heralded what he thought he could get away from.
"Endaka-kun, why did you leave me? I thought you promised to stay with me tonight," the creature moaned. He could not answer it. He looked on as the thing called out to him. "Endaka, please stay with me! I'm sorry if I took it too far!"
It seemed his sanity would snap at any moment. His mind demanded for action to maintain it. He blurted back, "What! What the hell is this! Just leave me alone!"
The corpse moaned, "Why? did I do something wrong to you? Tell me. Please tell me? TELL ME!" At that instant she jumped off from the stairs and into the bottom. Endaka dove for cover and it narrowly missed him with a sickening crack. He rolled over and backed away. The creature got on its hand and feet and stood up. It turned to face him.
She spoke softly and coldly to him, "Why are you leaving me so soon? Is because of those girls?"
"Girls?"
"Do not be be coy with me, liar," she said menacingly.
"What?"
"YOU LIAR!" She screamed. Her voice became monstrously inhuman as if she spoke with the voices of a thousand demons. Endaka sprung to his feet and quickly made up the stairs to the second floor. Sayuri ranted on, "YOU WANTED TO FUCK THEM, DIDN'T YOU! WAS I NOT GOOD ENOUGH? WHAT DO THEY HAVE THAT I DON'T!"
He broke through the door and shut it. He then grabbed a piece of iron and jammed it on the door. He was not sure if it worked but all he could think off was escape. He knew that this building had a fire escape. He ran through the hallway so he could reach the fire escape. Halfway, the floor cracked and he fell on through a hole.
THUD!
He lay on his belly apathetic and helpless. Sayuri walked beside him and turned him over his back with her rotting bony foot. He looked at her and blinked. The corpse's eyes were red with anger. At that moment, he knew the his life would end and that he didn't know what was after death. He had been an agnostic all his life. He wondered if he made had could have a chance to settle his earthly affairs before this. The corpse gave over him, circling him like a shark. Angry, he whispered to her softly, "Come on and finish me."
She did not answer. He craned his neck a little, his voice became a little louder, "Come on and just finish me." No answer.
Enraged over delaying of his fate, he screamed, "COME AND JUST KILL ME, GODDAMNIT!"
She finally smiled horrifically and she spoke in her demonic multivoice, "Why are you in such a haste? Do you think we will just kill you here and then? And for what? To punish you for your sins of depravity and hedonism? We think not. We have greater affairs to attend to. You are just a mere instrument for a something greater than your wretched being. But that does not mean we will not make use of you in the future."
"What? You mean...?"
"But be warned. Do not give fancy us as though we can grant you clemency or mitigate your torment by skills of bargaining. We do not waste time with servile wretches like you. We decide about how we do about with you. And you have one more useful task for us tonight." Suddenly, Endaka was spreadeagled on the floor by some unseen force. He struggled to move but he was completely immobilized. Around him are a number of weird symbols appeared around him. They glow with a vivid red color that terrified him to the core. The building rumbled violently and the ceiling disintegrated into a cataclysmic tornado. Most of the building has been ripped apart revealing to him a violent bloody-red sky. Everything was too horrifying for him to watch yet he could not close his eyes. In fact they've pulled back wide open. Almost as if to make him watch his fate.
Three daggers of horrid alien design danced around in the air. The corpse smiled and began chanting incomprehensible words. The daggers whirled faster and she chanted wildly, raising both arms as if to praise the sky. It got wilder until the final refrain. The daggers stopped and hovered over him. Then they were lowered carefully until two of them slowly dug into his flesh in his shoulders while the center one was a nick above his throat. Then she dropped both arms dramatically. The center dagger settled into his neck. He wanted to scream but his throat is slowly and painfully cut apart like a steak. The same thing went for the knives on his shoulders, cutting in the middle of the length of the arms. The pain was overwhelming. He writhed violently as he was slowly opened away by the daggers. The center dagger stopped at the waist while the the two finished at the wrist. Now he was exposed like a filleted fish.
The corpse walked over him and slowly dug her hands into the open chest. It slowly wrenched his heart from it. The pain maddened him and he thrashed his head violently to it. She held the heart like a torch. She then sliced it open with a fingernail. The blood that drained out from him formed a pentagram on where he is lying on.
"Takeda. See you in hell," she gloated. She tore the heart away. At the same time, he was instantly torn away from his skin and clothes. Standing up in the circle, hundreds of chains with hooks dug into his flesh and began ripping him away in a bloody manor. Screaming, bit by gruesome bit of his body was scattered about by the chains until there was nothing else left of him.
The bloody pentagram that remained was set aflame. She threw the pieces of the heart into and it burn more violently. The ground shook and opened forth a chasm that spawned fire. The sky and flames were sucked into it until something popped out of it. Everything finished, the chasm slowly crashed up closed and the thing fell on where the pentagram had been. The building returned to its normal decrepit state with rubble strewn around. The corpse, satisfied, screamed into the air piercing the night. Out of it came phantasms that flew swiftly into the air. They gave an eerie lightshow that finally concluded the strange little scene that had played in the abandoned building. And it fell to the ground. For some time it remained silent until...
"It is finished," a voice finally broke the silence of the eerie interlude. "More work lays ahead."
"We must make haste," another urged. "Our lord demands us to be swift. The time is upon us."
"Patience, everyone," a third rang out, "we only just began. We have more mundane matters to settle with for the moment."
"Yes," the first agreed, "I will dispose of the corpse of this dead wench who was our vessel." The figure picked up the corpse and dragged it away.
"It has been centuries since the last time we were truly free," a deep voice said, as if to savor the moment.
"Haven't we all," the third voice commented. There discussion continued well into the dawn. Meanwhile, at the same time in another house a man got out of his bed and went down the stairs to get a drink of water. At the kitchen sink in poured himself a glass. He felt something was going on. He looked around the kitchen and around the house. Nothing. Relieved that nothing had broke into his home he cleaned up and went back upstairs. He got back to bed with his wife so he could wake up and start another day of work.
Author's note: Dukon is the Japanese onomatopoeia for heartbeat. I'm finally done with the prologue. I can now continue work with the story proper. The numbers 4 and 9 are unlucky numbers in Japanese superstition and it's seen in Room 409. Add them together and you get the number 13, considered unlucky in the West. Feeling lucky, pal? Just wait for the shocking first chapter of the story proper.
