Dlbn: Here we are at last! The Epilogue!
Nbld: No reviews so no Review Corner. Here we go!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Loveless or anyone in it. It all belongs to Yun Kouga. I make NO money off of writing this story.
Disclaimer 2: I do NOT own the song "Creepy Doll" by Johnathan Coulter. Which this fic is based off of. I make NO money out of referencing it.
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Three months had passed since Ritsuka went missing. Soubi ran a hand through his long blonde hair as he sighed. It was thought by most of the town that Ritsuka had just run off without telling Soubi, finally too spooked by Kio's story and the hell house to stay there. But he had come to Soubi before he left. Something was wrong. He wasn't the Ritsuka Soubi had fallen in love with the moment they met. He told Soubi that the curse was broken, but he may want to stick around town a little longer to see it through. Soubi hadn't been sure what he had meant, but he had felt compelled to stay in the town and not leave after Ritsuka like he had planned on doing before. Ritsuka hadn't called since then. No one in town had heard from him since. A couple families had moved into the home and left it, claiming there was a creepy doll that unnerved them and made it uncomfortable to stay there. Soubi hadn't been to the house himself, not wanting anything to do with the home that gave Ritsuka to him, yet drove him away in the end. But if the curse was broken, then that meant Seimei would be gone. Therefore no more doll. Strange.
This was the first time he'd been to the home since Ritsuka had left. Nisei had come back to working for the office since Seimei had been silent, so he had been the one to show the house to people. The Inn was still open, but visitors never really stayed long enough to have use of it. The two slaves to the Cursed Child didn't really speak beyond mentioning if someone was interested in the house and/or if it sold. But Nisei always seemed to have this knowing little glint in his eyes, as if he'd seen something in the house he hadn't been willing to share with Soubi. That's why Soubi was here, now. To check it out for himself.
He opened the door and stepped into the house. Everything was as it was the last time he'd been inside the home. The furniture had never been moved. Ritsuka's personal affects that were left behind had been put in a storage room in Soubi and Kio's house, and the blonde once and a while felt himself compelled to look through it. Ritsuka had taken a big bag of money with him when he left, so there was none of that lying around. Other than Ritsuka' stuff being gone, everything looked untouched. It was clean, though, since other people had lived in it and kept away the dust and cobwebs. Soubi slowly made his way through the home.
"Seimei?" He wondered. "Are…are you here?"
As he suspected, no one answered him. He sighed, mentally scolding himself for even thinking of it. He made his way up the stairs and walked straight past the door that led to Seimei's room. He heard a light knock against the wood as he passed. Pausing in his walkthrough, he turned around to see the door. He heard the thump again. With a shaky hand, he reached towards the door knob. He grabbed the cold brass in his hand and slowly pushed it open. Daylight was streaming in through the windows, making it much brighter than when Ritsuka had first stumbled in the room and found the cursed doll-child.
"Hello…?" He greeted.
A small voice he slightly recognized instantly called out.
"Sou…bi…?" It wondered, sounding as if he was just now learning how to use his words.
He couldn't place exactly where he'd heard it before.
"Seimei?" Soubi wondered.
A little doll in tattered blue jeans, and blue zipped up sweater ambled out from behind a box. His mouth was plastered into a tiny smile, and one plum eye was wide open. He looked like Seimei, but his ears were missing. Soubi stepped back in surprise and fell backwards over a box.
"Are you…o…kay…Sou…bi?" The doll wondered, walking over with stiff limbs.
"R-Ritsuka…?" Soubi wondered.
The doll smiled. "Sou…bi…?" He reached out to the blonde for a hug.
Soubi gently wrapped his hand around the doll's midsection and pulled him close.
"I…thought…I'd ne…very…see…again…you…" The doll muttered, sobbing tearless sobs into Soubi's shoulder.
"I-It's okay…Ritsuka…I'm here…?" Soubi noted a bite mark on the former young man's arm. "Oh, Ritsuka…"
That would explain why Ritsuka had acted so strange when he came to the office before he left. It wasn't him at all. Seimei must have bitten Ritsuka and infected him with his essence to the point where they'd end up trading bodies. God damn. Seimei was out there somewhere torturing people disguised as Ritsuka. The thought was horrifying.
The front door downstairs opened.
"Hello?" A small woman's voice called into the home. "I'm supposed to see the house today…? Is there a realtor here?"
Ritsuka pulled back from Soubi, eyes glinting with a hint of madness as his mouth stretched into a wicked grin.
"Fresh blood." The doll muttered.
Soubi stood up, setting Ritsuka down on a box.
"Don't make a sound." He ordered.
Ritsuka nodded, opening the box enough to crawl inside. Soubi sighed. Damn Seimei and his curse. It destroyed a very innocent, pacifistic young man, and for what? To give a sadistic killer a new life and new people to ruin? Ridiculous. Soubi straightened out his clothing and shut the door, locking it with a key around his neck that he kept there at all times. It had been an order from Seimei so he could lock up the room for new people to see the house and so Seimei could unlock it from the inside when he felt it was time to reveal himself. He made his way down the stairs and was greeted by the sight of a young woman in her mid-twenties, and a young child, about age four, clinging to her pant leg as he hid behind her.
"I'm Agatsuma Soubi." The blonde greeted. "Please to meet you, MS…?"
"Koya." She greeted. "Koya Home. And this is my son, Koya Taro."
"A pleasure." He bowed. "Would you like a tour?"
"Sure." She smiled gently, picking up her son and following Soubi around the house.
"What's in there?" The little boy asked when they passed the door to Ritsuka's new prison.
Soubi smiled gently. "That depends. Do you believe in ghosts, Taro?"
The little boy grinned, eyes wide in fascination.
Soubi shut off the part of his heart that felt bad for dragging more innocent people into this web of deceit and insanity as he began to tell Taro and his mother the tale of a young boy who died saving his best friend from a terrible fate in this very house, and still lived there as a ghost.
When he was finished, Home giggled. "I think we'll take it." She stated.
Soubi smiled. "Excellent. I'll take you to the office and we can fill out paperwork."
He led her out of the house and down the hill. Looking over his shoulder, Soubi winked at the second story window. He turned back and followed the young mother and son to the office, answering Tarou's seemingly never ending questions about the ghost boy and his friend. In the second story window, the curtains ruffled as a pair of lips grinned, one plum eye blinked and the other stared out, unseeing, into the world he left behind.
"History repeats itself." Ritsuka muttered to himself, grinning evilly the entire time.
Once Soubi was out of sight, the curtains fluttered back into place.