Chapter Seven: Failed Attempts
"ONEE-CHAN?"
Haru and Rin burst out of the closet and tried to see over the crowd that had formed outside of the room next to them. Haru grabbed Rin's hand but she reluctantly hit him away. Disappointed, he settled for standing as close to her as seemed possible.
"Calm down, Tohru… it's alright…" Yuki was whispering softly into Tohru's ear as he held her closely on the bedroom floor.
"Onee-chan, what happened?" Kisa asked softly, trying not to cry.
Tohru could barely stop crying as she looked up at blurry Kisa, Kagura, Ayame, Ritsu, Momiji, Hatsuharu, and Rin. "I…" she started, but she couldn't get even one word out without bursting into a fresh stream of tears.
"Relax, Miss Tohru…" Yuki rubbed her shoulder affectionately, but she just buried her face into his shirt. He had no choice but to just sit there with his arms around her while everyone awkwardly stared. Any minute now… they'll be asking why I haven't transformed… Yuki thought miserably.
Upon hearing the commotion, Kyo burst into the room, followed shortly after by Hiro, Hatori, and Shigure.
"Tohru!" Kyo and Shigure exclaimed, oblivious to Yuki for the moment.
"What's wrong?" Hatori snapped, glaring at everyone as if they were being accused of murder.
How ironic.
Tohru was embarrassed, and tried to hide her face in Yuki's shirt. Surely it was just a trick of the light. Surely she had imagined it. Why did I have to scream? Why did I have to draw this crowd? I'm alive… there's nothing wrong… oh dear…
Yuki sighed and stared up at everyone innocently, while it dawned on Rin.
"Yuki… why haven't you transformed?" she asked quietly, inching away from Haru but finding it difficult when she was against the wall.
The silence pounded in his ears as he tried to think of an excuse. "I…" he started. How was he supposed to know? He hated their stares. They were staring at him like he had murdered someone.
That was it.
They had stopped talking to him because they all thought he was the murderer.
"…don't know," he finished lamely.
I need to get out… I need to escape…
Kyo parted the crowd and crouched down next to Tohru. "Tohru?" he whispered, his heart beating loudly. Tohru looked up, still covering her face with her hands but peering between her fingers. "Do you care if I hug you?"
Tohru shook her head as Yuki stood up and stepped away. If Kyo still transformed, he would be stuck. Framed. Cornered. Caught.
Chest pounding still, Kyo extended his arms, embarrassed, and tried to hug Tohru. As he wrapped his arms around her, his stomach began to feel sick, and in a split second…
…he was a cat.
Yuki sighed in frustration and anger, trying to hold back tears as the family stared at him in horror.
"You think I'm the murderer, don't you?" he whispered, his voice cracking.
Those with enough courage nodded slightly.
"Well… I admit… Yeah, I was at the Main House on December 10th. But I didn't know that… I… I would never hurt Miss Tohru. It wasn't me who tried to kill Tohru, it was Kureno. It I had come in only a second later… she would be dead. I know you don't believe me… but fine. I didn't do it."
"Liar," Kyo hissed, once again a clothed human.
For a moment, everyone turned their attention to Tohru. She was still on the floor sobbing, but for the first time, they noticed that she was clutching one of her blue hair ribbons between her hands. On the right side, her hair had been cut off on one side to about two inches below her chin. A sliver of a cut glistened blood on the side of her neck, right where her hair ended. The remainder of her hair lay limply on her bed's pillow.
"Whatever, Kyo. Solve the mystery yourself. But it wasn't me. As I far as I know, Akito's not even dead."
With that, Yuki bolted out of the room.
"Tohru-kun… was it Yuki?" Hatori dared to ask. The only sound that could be heard was the whistling wind outside and the sound of anxious breathing.
"I don't… no. It wasn't," Tohru answered firmly, "It… the person was too big to be Yuki. He… he didn't murder anyone, you guys, I don't think anybody here did. Just think about it… Yuki? A murderer?"
"I wonder if he's okay…" Haru said quietly, the only person hearing him being Rin.
"I don't know what to think anymore," Rin sighed, her confusion and wanting to help Haru taking over her as she slowly drifted out of the room. "All I know is that this is definitely not a game anymore."
-+-
"Hey, hey Haru?"
"What?" Hatsuharu grunted at Ritsu as they entered their bedroom after dinner. Whatever Ritsu had to say wasn't important to him now. He lay down on his bed, thoughts chasing each other around his head. What had changed with Rin? Why did she seem to hate his guts all of a sudden? And what's with her and Yuki? What did she say before…? She's doing what's best for me. What a lie. I want her… I want her back…
"Well… do you think Isuzu-chan is upset?"
Haru raised an eyebrow as he sat up and pulled the cover back. "Why would she be…?"
"Well… everyone's accusing Yuki of being the murderer."
"Why would Rin care?"
"Oh… gomen nasai… but I thought they were dating?"
Haru snapped.
"WHAT?" he demanded, feeling his palms sweat as he stood up.
"Gomen nasai! Gomen nasai! I accidentally went in their room yesterday and I saw them sleeping together…"
"WHAT?"
"Gomen nasai! Oh please, Mr. Black Haru-san, please don't be angry! They looked so cute and… OH CURSE MY MOUTH THAT CANNOT KEEP ITSELF SHUT! GOMEN NASAI! GOMEN NASAI TO EVERY UNFORTUNATE SOUL THAT HAS CROSSED MY WRETCHED PATH! NO, HARU-SAN! KUDASAI, NO!"
At this point, Black Haru had become so angry that he had turned both beds over and knocked anything else standing down, including Ritsu. The room was completely destroyed before he stormed into the closet and tried to open the door, but found it locked. Continuing in his rage, he stormed into the hall and tried to open Yuki and Rin's door from there. That too was locked.
"DAMMIT! WHAT THE HELL?" he screamed, and began to destroy the hallway while Ritsu, bent over on his knees, apologized over and over again.
Half of the main hallway was unrecognizable before Momiji had the sense to throw a bucket of ice water on him.
-+-
"Don't leave."
Yuki turned from his spot in front of the open window to see Rin in the doorway. She closed the door and locked it, the breeze from the outside world gently brushing through her hair.
There were tears in her eyes, and miserable thoughts in her head.
To make Haru happy…
"Rin, I have to…"
"No," she said, her voice shaking. "You can't. I know you didn't do it. So does everybody else."
"You don't understa—"
"I understand more than you do. Close the window."
Yuk turned back to the window and stared at it silently. Slowly, he picked up his bag filled with belongings… He tried to ignore her….
"No!"
Rin ran across the room and shoved Yuki into the wall, making him drop his bag. "You're not… leaving here. You're not… leaving me alone," she decided, trapping him with her arms as a river of tears dripped down her face.
What am I doing?
"Calm down…" Yuki cooed, silently wondering why he was always the one comforting those who were upset, but secretly glad that Rin was so close to him.
"Don't leave, Yuki, please, don't…"
"It's okay, Rin, I'm right here," Yuki whispered. "Why… don't you want me to leave? I thought you didn't like me."
But Haru does…
"I don't!" she cried, but corrected herself quickly. "I mean… I didn't. Before. But… now… I want you… to…"
"…I… think… I…"
Yuki's last two words were left unsaid, because Rin forced herself to lean forward and kiss him. Both of them were so distracted that they could not have noticed anything else, even if Black Haru just happened to be throwing a tantrum outside their door.
-+-
"Hiro… Hiro! What are you doing?"
Kyo stood at the doorway as Hiro threw up into the waste basket in their room.
"Sorry… Kyo… I don't… know… uhh…"
Kyo grimaced as he threw up even more.
"Do you have the flu?" Kyo could feel himself backing away. There was no way he wanted to get sick.
"It's weird," Hiro threw up again, "It doesn't feel like I'm sick, but I just don't feel right."
"…Want to go to Hatori's?"
"…Yeah. Thanks."
However, Hiro and Kyo could not go to Hatori, because at the precise moment they reached the door, someone in the room across from theirs screamed.
"KAGURA!"
-+-
"Tohru-kun, this is very important," Hatori looked Tohru in the eye across the table.
"Important!" Ayame shrieked in a sing-song voice from his bed.
"AYA, would you please leave us alone?" Hatori pleaded.
"OOO! Mr. Snuggle-Pants wants to be alone with Tohru-chan!" Ayame squealed. He opened the door to the closet, but thought it was the door to the hallway, so he just shrugged it off and sat in the dark closet for a little bit.
"Now that that fool is gone…" Hatori mumbled. "Okay, I need you to tell me exactly what happened. Start with when you woke up."
"Well… I was really tired… so I sslept until tthe afternoon… when I woke up, I sat up and tthere was someone standing over me…" Tohru shuddered. "I yelled… then someone… I guess Yuki… came in and shouted at the man. The knife he had only cut me a little bit."
"Where did the man go?"
"He jumped out the window."
"And what's the deal with Yuki? How come he can hug you?"
"I don't know… a couple of days ago I was upset because Kureno wouldn't help me with the clues, so Yuki tried to comfort me… he accidentally hugged me and I didn't transform."
"Today… do you think he was telling the truth?"
"I don't think Yuki-kun would—"
"HATORI!"
Hiro and Kyo burst into the room. "Hatori! Someone down the hall was screaming!" Hiro panted. Confused and somewhat afraid, Tohru and Hatori followed Kyo and Hiro to Kagura and Kisa's room.
"KAGURA!" Kisa screamed again, but once she saw Tohru enter the room, she ran to her, crying.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Hatori panted, and Kisa and Kagura pointed to their two beds.
There seemed to be nothing wrong.
"Is there a spider…?" Kyo suggested.
"Pull… back… the cover…" Kagura told Hatori, clinging onto Kyo, much to Kyo's disgust.
Still confused, Hatori pulled back both of the bed's covers simultaneously.
He saw the problem.
Stuck into each girl's mattress were multiple knives, some of which were bloody, in the shape of an 'X'.
Hiro threw up into Kisa and Kagura's trash can.
"This is not good," Kyo decided.
Hatori thought it was strange that Hiro would get sick. Nobody had been out of the house in days and nobody else was sick…
Poison?
Planted bacteria?
"This isn't a game anymore," Hatori remember what Rin had said. "Somebody is trying to kill all of us."
-+-
"Did you kill the girl?"
"Failure."
"The small boy?"
"No."
"The two brats?"
"The slut?"
"…"
"Anyone?"
"No."
"WHAT ARE YOU GOOD FOR? NOTHING? I THOUGHT SO! KILL THEM! ALL OF THEM! I DON'T CARE HOW, JUST DO IT!"
"Yes."
He bowed his head and stalked away, angry that he had been chosen as the 'servant'.