Thy Heart Shall Bleed

.:TWO:.

"Duo?" a voice was heard from a distance, "Duo? C'mon, wake up…"

My eyes opened a crack to see Quatre looking over me. "Oh thank Allah!" he smiled, "You scared us there."

I sat up with a wince, "What happened?"

"You fainted. Good think Heero was there to catch you, you could have almost hit the table behind you."

"It still doesn't stop my head from hurting."

"What happened to you?" Quatre asked.

"I don't know" I rubbed my head a bit while sitting up further.

Wufei was near us looking at the scary painting with a puzzled look. Trowa, I couldn't see, so he must be in the other room. Relena was peering at the other smaller paintings of the historical prisons, while Heero, well, he was looking at the next room that we hadn't seen yet. It looked dark but he was just standing there with his back to us. He might just be hearing the boat horn and seeing if we're safe maybe. It's kind of creepy, him just not moving. Well, he is the perfect soldier…

"That painting, there's something about it…" Wufei said as he pointed.

"It's creepy" Relena said and I had to agree with her again on the 'creepy.' It has a certain dark, familiar feeling to it. I couldn't look away from it.

I shuddered, "let's move on shall we…" I got up slowly and felt a little better apart from the shakiness. Quatre frowned at my shaky arms, "I'm okay, really. We can't waste time."

"Duo's right. We need to keep moving" Heero said looking back at us with a blank stare.

I grabbed my bag and we all moved on to the darker room. We couldn't see anything again.

"That's it. I know we're using the torches for emergencies, but I believe that this is the right time" Quatre said responsibly.

"He's right" I heard Trowa say, "at least half of us should have one in their pocket or hand. We have enough battery cells."

"Heero would have one of course," Relena said 'sweetly.'

Trowa spoke again, "I don't really need one. My eyes are sharp as it is. Quatre needs one."

"And what's that suppose to mean, Trowa?" I could hear Quatre pouting.

"Nothing" Trowa said chuckling, "Duo needs one too."

"Hey! …. Fine" I said giving up quickly, coming back to the light room to look for the pocket torch I had somewhere.

"Wufei did you want one?" Quatre asked coming in to look through his bag as well.

"Might as well?" Wufei sighed.

"Relena?"

"No way!" she fake gasped, "I'm a proper lady."

I rolled my eyes. It's not a big deal to have a torch, jeez. 'Proper' ladies don't follow their fantasies everywhere either.

"Besides I don't have any pockets and I don't want to hold anything" she stubbornly said, "I have good eyes too."

I couldn't help feeling that was directed at me.

Soon we had our torches in our front pockets, we were off again. The once dark room was almost the same as the room with the painting, except these paintings were just of building, the table in the middle had broken glass on it and all over the room. The horn noise was still heard, but it sounded much closer. Ok, maybe it was because there was a large gaping hole on the wall that looked to have been blown away by an explosive device. The horn noise was coming though there. It was the only 'door,' so I assumed we were going through there. As we moved through the bricks, the sound bounced off the walls. The only direction to go was down the moldy stairs. What seemed like green mould covered the surrounding. We had to watch our steps and also glance at what was in front. We had to practically walk in a line as the space was not all that great. What was worse was we had to touch the some what sticky sides for guidance. It was gross. I heard Relena shudder in front of me as we walked. It scares me how we almost are alike. Like brother and sister… now that's disturbing. The horn was getting closer and closer.

…

"God, how long is this thing?" I said frustratingly.

"It's only been 10 minutes" Wufei said from the back.

"Exactly!" I said, "'Normal' stairs don't take this long!"

…

"Jeez, finally!" I puffed out. The air was getting thicker by the moment. The stairs had taken 20 minutes. 20 MINUETES! I was rubbing my hands to take off the bits of mould that had clung on. EW, I know. The horn sounded so close.

Heero opened the steel-made door ahead, as the leader, he likes to get to things first like a kid in a candy store… ok, I can't really see him as a kid, well, a really happy one, much less after candy. Though I have seen him have chocolate one time. Anyway, getting off the subject…

We moved in and found that the lights in there were already on, so we turned our pocket torches off, just for the sake of it.

Bars, concrete, no windows, and more bars- to put it frankly, it looked like we were in a prison. This kind of makes sense, 'cause it's a 'historical' center so this could be for a tour area or something? It got colder as we moved on. The ground was made out of concrete and there were patches of mold in some areas. And so were the walls. It looked cold and unfeeling. In front of us, there was a long hallway, doors were on the sides and the dim lights at the top gave the path an eerie look. The strangest thing was that the horn sound had gone. There was not a single tune of it.

"So, where do we go from here?" Wufei asked, breaking the silence. It was a good question. Do we just go straight ahead; or go through all the doors?

"I suppose we could check the doors," Quatre pointed out, "it would be reasonable."

The first door was on the right. We opened it and got ready incase there was any dangers. All that was in there was another long hallway but on the left was a line of cells all the way to the end, while the other side was just a brick wall that was gray and moldy with cobwebs in some parts.

We moved to the end checking if there was anything useful in any of the cells. The bars were rusted and in most of the cells were dark but there was nothing interesting. We went back out and moved to the next door higher on the left. It was locked. We moved again, further than before to the right again. We opened it… and it looked just like the other cell room. Except this time the cells were on the right. We moved on. The problem with this one was that there was darkness at the end. The lights on the other side must be broken.

"What's that noise?" Relena squeaked out. She was right, unfortunately. There was a strange noise. It sounded like a gargle with some wet tapping. I'm guessing that was walking. It came closer and closer.

"Hello?" Heero asked strongly. The darkness didn't reply, only with the gargling and the wetting.

"Do you need help?" Quatre shouted out.

It still didn't reply.

"Maybe it doesn't want help," Relena said clinging to my man… I mean Heero.

What if it isn't something we don't want? It can't be human because it's not replying… but maybe they don't understand English…

Finally, the gargling figure moved into the light with its slow walking.

We all gasped… that can't be human at all! It was a disgusting looking creature. It walked on two legs, and its whole body looked naked. Its skin color was grayish-brown with an oiled complexion. Its arms were so long that its clawed hands were dragged against the ground. Its face was horrid. It was a vertical, bloody, rusty mouth. Its daggered fangs were all in the wrong directions and it moved a bit to the opposite sides. It was scary. I've never seen anything like this.

Relena covered her mouth with her hand. She was shaking. I felt my hands shaking. Neither of us could move. Except for Heero. He instantly grabbed the butt of his gun out of his jacket and pulled the trigger. The target was right on! The creature screeched out of its gargled mouth. The bullets went right in with blood splattering in little directions. Heero shot it three times in the head. It went straight down with a gargled sigh.

We cautiously moved to it. Relena was at the back trying to catch up with what happened. I couldn't really blame her, no matter how much I wanted to, I have never seen anything like that… well only in movies. And I bet Relena hasn't seen any horror movies…most likely she'd watch romances.

The body twitched a few times but then it died away.

"What is it?" Quatre asked.

"You mean what was it" I corrected him.

"Maybe it was a human…at some point" Trowa said, "…it could have been mutated or something."

"That's right. It seems all infectious in this whole building" Quatre said, "Something happened here…something big."

"That must be why we were sent here. This is the problem... some kind of sick mutation has corrupted the town" I said realizing.

"We need to stop it and search for any signs of survivors" Heero said taking charge as usual, "they're most likely more of these things," he gave the body a good kick.

"You're right" Relena said shakily.

"We should go back. We don't know what's over in that dark area" Wufei said, "we could get lost."

Everyone agreed with him and moved back to where we had come from. We moved further and found two doors opposite from one another. The left door was locked, while the right one wasn't. Heero went in first while the rest of us were coming. I saw that Relena was behind us. She had her hands around her arms, shakily. She looked around everywhere, glancing for even the slightest of movements. I started to feel sorry for her…even though it was her fault for coming with us in the first place. I know, I'm scared too- the further we go, the more I feel sorry for her. It's creepy how we agree on the same thing.

In this room it had tiling for the walls and floor: Green and white patterns. There were two paths on both sides. When we moved to look, there were just toilets and showers. So I'm assuming this is where the prisoners go to do their business and smell fresh. Except now there are moldy bits and some parts on the walls are cracked. There was nothing interesting here, so we moved back out.

Straight forward we went. We found two doors next to each other on our right. Both were locked. Moved on again, and there were two more doors on the left…they were locked too. And finally, as we made our way to almost the end. There were two doors, one was closer than the other. We found that it was open. We all got ready just incase there was trouble again. I decided that I'd let Relena go first than me, leaving myself at the end.

As everyone else moved into the left door, I stopped for a minute…I thought I heard someone calling my name.

"Duo…"

I looked to where it came from- the door on the right.

"…Duo…"

I moved to the door. The others haven't realized that I'm not with them so I think I should just take a peek at whatever is on the other side.

"Duo…"

I looked back at where the others had gone to and then turned to the door in front of me.

"Duo…"

I placed me hand around the handle and turned.

"… come, Duo…"

Quatre's POV

"Duo?" I said looking at the back, "Where's Duo?"

"He'll come. Probably tying his shoe" Wufei said at the front, rolling his eyes.

We found another hallway. It looks almost like the other hallway, except it was dark in most places and something horrible was heard…gargling.

Relena gasped again. This time we were ready. We had our guns, ready to fire. The creature was seen. It looked almost the same as the other but its head was on the sign, as if it had broken its neck. It was repulsive.

We fired and it went down immediately. My heart felt suffering, but not from the creature…somewhere else. We moved on. I started to worry, Duo's taking his time. We met a brown rusted gate, knowing that we wouldn't be able to get through it and it was darkness through there anyway, we turned to the right. There was a door. It looked bigger than the other doors and it was blue.

"This must be the end" Heero said turning the knob. It didn't work. It turned…but not completely. It must need a key or something.

Heero looked back at us, "…Where's Duo?"

Back to Duo's POV

The door opened. It looked exactly as the cells again- they were on the right this time.

"Duo…"

I heard the calling again. It sounded like it was at the end of this room.

"Duo…"

"Hello?" I found my voice. Who could be calling me? It couldn't be the others.

"Duo…come"

I did as the voice said. Even though this seems like a trap I can't help but follow it. Like it's a spell. I ran to the door, glancing at the cells just incase. As soon as I got to the other side, I opened that door and moved in. It was a bit dark but I could still see. I turned to the only direction to go- right. I followed down.

"Duo…come this way"

I followed the voice and passed one door and found two big doors opposite each other- the voice told me to go to the left. The door opened and I moved inside.

The strangest in this room was that it felt huge and the fact that it was outside. The cement wall seemed to surround the area, the green grass looked cold and wet. I couldn't see anything because there was no light… except for the light bulb at the top of the door I entered. There was no ceiling… it was just a night sky, which is weird because to my clock it is only one-thirty pm.

If we still believe that this is a historical center, I'm guessing that this could be a demonstration or something on what it was like at night or something like that.

"Duo…Come here"

I realized that this was crazy, following a stranger's voice, it's dangerous really.

"Duo…"

"Screw it" I said and turned away to the door.

All of the sudden, wind arose. It sounded like the wind in the North Pole. First it moved around my ankles. It was cold and it rapidly moved higher and higher. As soon as it was up to my head, I felt like I was tossed to one side. It forcibly moved me further into the darkness, away from the door and its calming light.

My eyes had watered from the wind. After a while, the wind stopped. I soon comprehended that I had my eyes tightly shut and opened to look. All was dark. I don't know where I was and the wind pushed me here, why? Is that even possible?

It was darkly scary. I was surrounded by black. I switched my pocket torch on. It didn't help much. Still blackness.

Might as well move somewhere… I sighed and moved in a random direction of the darkness.

"I have no idea where I'm going…" I said as I looked around.

In two minutes, I found something. A wooden gallow. I was right, it must be for demonstrations! Too bad no one's here to applaud my ingeniousness. Well, I'd love it if Relena was here, then she could finally admit certain things… 'Oh, Duo, you're so much better than me. You're so gorgeous and smart. Heero's all yours, after all, you do deserve it.' God, that'll never happen.

I felt so bare out here. I couldn't see anything at all; the wind was generously blowing everywhere and my ears instantly picked up a sound. Hooves stamping on the ground. It felt like it was running right next to me. I felt like I was going to get hit. It came and it went. I didn't like the feeling of this.

I moved behind the gallow and climbed up the stairs that was provided on that side, there were no bars to hold so I quickly climbed it just in case. I was soon up the top where the bodies were hung. Thank god there weren't any bodies there now- well, they'd be stuffed dummies, wouldn't they? There was no rope of a noose hanging just wood. I heard the noise of the hooves coming by again. I squinted my eyes… there was nothing there.

I looked everywhere and I couldn't see the light of the door… how far did that tornado of a wind move me? I whimpered, how am I ever going to get out of here? I couldn't yell out. That would be too dangerous. Who knows what would come out.

The hooves came passed again… maybe I'm hallucinating or something… maybe this is all a dream… maybe I passed out at some point? I don't know what to do! I'm not just going to run in some pointless direction in the dark.

I did the only thing I could do. I took my gun out and shouted for help. I didn't really expect to get a reply but I did…

All of the sudden out of the blackness in front of me on top of the gallow, something came out. It was indeed a horse; a white mare. It was saddled with black material that looked silky. Its eyes startled me the most, it was menacing red. It was frightening. As soon as it got closer, I saw that someone was riding it.

Please be normal, please be normal, I thought to myself. The closer the two came, the brighter they were. I could see everything on them as if it was daylight, but it was still dark around. How is that possible?

I gasped at who I saw riding that mare… Heero? Except he looked so different; he was wearing old fashioned clothes with a white puffed up shirt. His eyes were just like Heero's, beautiful deep blue, but it looked so haunted. His face seemed darker, shadowed by his hair that seems longer and there wasn't any sign of the bang with the dark blue dye on it. How can that happen? He couldn't have dyed it back to its original colour now.

"Heero?..." I asked right as the white mare moved so that its right side was near the wood of the gallow that I was on.

'Heero' looked up at me and smiled… a real smile, "Duet…" his voice was soft and sounded like it was echoing.

"Wah?" I uttered out, "my name isn't Duet."

"It was…" his smile faltered a bit, "but now I have you again…"

"What do you mean? Aren't you Heero?" I asked quickly as I looked down at him.

"I'm not your Heero. I'm Haro Yuwe" he said with a smirk. It looked so much like Heero's.

"This is so weird. I must be dreaming or something" I murmured as I rubbed my forehead. He's just an illusion or something.

"Believe me, you're not dreaming. You'd be mine if you were…" Heero- I mean Haro said.

"What?" I frowned. This so is not happening.

"You're finally here. I thought I'd never see you again" Haro said smiling dreamily.

"Have we met before?"

"Of course we have. You won't remember… not yet" Haro said still looking up at me with a serious expression.

"What do you mean?" I cried out, "This is not making any sense!"

"My poor Duet. Tormented still, just as I" Haro's voice seemed to spread around me.

I felt so dizzy then. Please don't do whatever that tornado did to me before. I felt like I was going to faint. The moment I closed my eyes, my body fell. I couldn't do anything to stop it. My eyelids were flashing red and I felt pain in some parts of my body. I exclaimed out in pain.

"Sshh. You're here now…" I could still hear Haro's voice sooth me.

I slowly opened my eyes. I was in Haro's arms on the mare.

"Don't worry. It'll all come back to you… and then you'd be mine again," and just as soon as he finished talking, he placed his mouth on top of mine. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't struggle- my body wouldn't let me. I strangely felt safe. I heard the horse neigh and soft trotting.

His mouth was exploring mine with one arm around me while the other was caressing and holding my face still. All I could do was close my eyes. Flashed of white were under my eyelids and I immediately felt different.

I opened my eyes and realized that I was lying on the ground. The door from where I came from was there, the light blurring in my eyes.

I got up quickly and felt around myself, my gun was still there.

"What's going on?" I blurted out.

I felt myself freak out. This is all too strange. Was I just dreaming? Did I faint at the door all along?

Something glittered at the corner of my eye. It was small and silver. I picked it up. It was a key…

How was that? Did you enjoy this chapter?

I have fanarts now too, both by Pandabaka. They will be shown on my site