Hi everyone!
Here I come with a new chapter and I'm pleased to announce that this one is pretty long. I hope it makes up for the long wait of the previous chapters. Anyway, thanks a lot for the lovely feedback! I want to thank all of you people: YOU are the reason why I write and your kind words make me want to write more and more and improve my writting, so thanks again to trigger that part of me.
CharitinaX: Hello! I'm so happy to hear that, though you make me feel a tad guilty, hahaha xD Anyway, I'm sure your finals will go smoothly! Thanks again for the support and I hope you enjoy this longer chapter too! :D
WritersUnite717: Hi there! I totally understand what you say, antagonists tend to be complete bastards, but most of them are sexy bastards so...~Can't resist them! And I'm very please to know that my story intrigued you that much! Please keep reading :)
Guest1995: Hi! Thanks for the review! Hopefully now that I'm on holidays I'll be able to post more frequently. I'll work on longer chapters too! ^^
fianna2452: Ciao! Awww thank you! It makes me so happy to know that people like how I portrait Makishima, since he is a difficult character to write and sometimes it's hard to predict how he would behave, but what makes me even happier is to know that you like Shiori (OC's are not always liked). And don't worry I don't plan on dropping this story! New chapter are coming soon~
Previously...
Shiori covered her mouth and felt breathless. She cried, and cried.
Not because she had been kidnapped, not because she was afraid to die, but because she realized how lonely she was, how different she was. She feared not knowing what she wanted, and above all… she feared he was right.
Inferno
Chapter 10:
She looked out the window. She tried to calm herself. Try to steady her breathing. She had to be smart about it; she couldn't let him get in her mind. She needed to remain calm, otherwise her hue would get clouded. If she continued stressing herself, her psycho-pass levels would raise. She couldn't allow that. So she took a deep breath and she started to think. There was no point in trying to escape or use force against his captor. There was no way he would let his guard down and no way for her to escape. He could read her like an open book. He knew exactly what was going on her mind. If she ever acted suspiciously he would kill her. She had no doubts about it. She needed to act carefully, she needed to outsmart him. She could not carry on being a naïve silly girl. She needed him to trust her. But how? What could she do to gain his trust? To make him believe?
Her head started to hurt and she decided to close her eyes for a bit as she massaged her forehead. She wiped the sweat from above her upper lip. She was starting to feel tired but she wouldn't let her determination flatter. She would survive.
She opened her eyes and walked away from the window. There was nothing for her to do inside the tiny room. Aimlessly she walked towards the door and placed her hand on the knock. To her surprise the door opened. He must have opened it when she was sleeping, then that might mean he was at home. She walked out of the room and walked down the hallway, gazing out the window. Nothing seemed to have changed, life continued outside, even when she was no longer part of it. She got to a spacious room, the same she first had seen him. She looked around, unable to spot him. The room felt empty, cold even. She stopped by the window and tried to picture him in it. He would be sitting on a chair with a book between his hands, or near the window gazing outside with a knowingly smile. The image of that smirk on his lips made her sick.
She continued to walk around the flat, eyeing everything carefully, looking for anything that would give her any clue of what did he expected of her, what he was really like. But everything felt so surreal. There was nothing personal, nothing that felt like it truly belonged to him. She walked towards the kitchen, and out of curiosity she opened the drawers just to discover that all the knives and sharp objects were gone. She closed them again letting escape a soft sigh between her parted lips. Of course he would do that. Shiori just carried on. The long hallway ahead brought her to the beginning of the stairs. She went upstairs. When she got to the second floor the dim light welcomed her. The white hallway was bathed with the warm sun light that entered the big windows. There were several rooms there, many of them locked, but then she stopped in front of the door at the end of the corridor. This one had a different vibe. She assumed it would be locked but still tried to open it, and to her surprise, it did.
The room revealed was big. She walked inside and closed the door behind her. Shiori observed the room and established that it was Makishima's office, sort of. There was a large desk with some papers on it and a great shelf full of books. Shiori felt tempted to read the papers on the desk and cheek its drawers, but her inner school girl walked her to the shelves and she touched ever so lightly the back on the books, reading absently the tittles. She didn't seemed surprised to discover that most of those books had been banned by Sybil. She took one of the books from the shelf and opened it. She liked everything about them: the smell of ink and the paper pages. She felt nostalgic and for a second she forgot where she was, what was her objective, and the person these books belonged to. It didn't matter. She caressed with her fingertips the pages. Why were those words condemned? What was so wrong and dangerous about these books that they were to be erased, forgotten? She felt a pang of resentment towards the system that allowed that, the people who commanded it.
She let the air she had been unconsciously holding in her lungs out and returned the book to the shelf. She wasn't acting rationally; she didn't have time to read. So she returned the book to the shelf and walked towards the door. Before leaving the room she turned around and looked at it. It didn't help her try to understand the man she was living with, but somehow she felt closer to him. The stupid thought made her cringed. The room, the books… they transmitted warmth, intelligence, wisdom… none of those adjectives matched Makishima, the cold, cruel and manipulative monster that had kidnapped her. She would not be fooled.
She exited the room and returned downstairs. After searching the house she felt restless. She had been hoping to stop seeing his face in her dreams, and then when she finally decided to face him she couldn't find him. She was alone in that maze that had no exits. She felt trapped and an overwhelming sensation invaded her. She felt caged, her chest felt tight, she couldn't breathe. She felt incredibly tired, the determination from the morning started to fade away, and she cursed herself for being so weak.
''It's not fair'' she muttered as she clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white. She raised her fist and hit the wall. ''Damn it''
She eventually lowered her hand, letting it fall to her side. Her knuckles bruised and bloody. The wall too.
She sat on a chair and waited. She rested her hands on the table and looked at her bruised hand. She felt dizzy. There was a knot in her stomach, she felt sick again. She rested her head on the table and closed her eyes, fading away. In her dream she kept staring at her hands and for a second she imagined herself hurting him: closing her hands around his neck. He was smiling, no, not smiling, smirking. Smirking and looking at her with that look, a look of satisfaction that said: I told you so. It was then, when she realized what she was doing, that she woke up. Her head was hazy and her breathing fastening. She felt horrified at the mere thought that she was enjoying herself in the dream.
''Did you sleep well?'' A sudden voice surprised her. She jumped in her seat and turned to the voice and saw him. Makishima was sitting on a sofa, with a book between his hands. He wasn't looking at her. She parted her lips and nothing but a quiet cry came out. He closed the book and raised his eyes to meet hers. ''I didn't want to disturb you so I let you sleep'' He said. She looked away nodding slightly. She knew he was observing her, she could feel it, his ghostly touch hovering over her. ''You look distressed'' He pointed out, and she raised her head making eye contact with him again.
''It's nothing'' She said, her voice sounding raspy. ''I just had a bad dream''
He smiled.
''Well, now it's over''
Not really. She wanted to say, but instead she nodded again, biting her lip.
''Where were you?'' She gathered the courage to ask. He smiled again, feeling pleased with her curiosity.
''Did you look for me?'' He asked. She shifted uncomfortably on her chair.
''You weren't here'' She replied, not wanting to admit she purposely wanted to find him.
''And tell me, did you walk into my study?'' He asked then. Shiori stopped breathing, her blood ran cold. She did. Now he wasn't looking at her, should she lie?
''I did'' She mumbled softly. He didn't move, he didn't even acknowledge he had heard her. She bit her lip. Now that she was watching her words, trying to please him, trying to make him trust her, she felt more vulnerable and exposed than ever. But then again, there was no point in lying; he probably already knew what she'd been up to.
''Did you go through my files?'' He asked. Shiori felt relieved she didn't and sighed.
''No''
''Good'' He replied looking at her, this time he wasn't smiling. She felt her body tense once again. ''Well, since you have been honest with me, I guess I should return the favor'' he spoke, getting up from the sofa. He walked towards her and she eyed him cautiously. ''I went to visit an old… friend'' He said, struggling to find the right word to qualify the person he'd seen. She could see he wasn't really a friend, more like a chess piece, a pawn. She remained silent, hoping he would continue. ''He had some interesting information to share with me, it might interest you too'' He smiled softly. ''You might remember a girl attending Oso Academy named Reira''
Shiori's eyes opened completely. She fought the urge to get up and throw herself at him.
''She is my friend'' She said, sounding more aggressive than she intended to. ''Is she okay?''
He nodded.
''You don't need to worry, nothing bad happened to her. Rikako hadn't done anything to her. Actually she had been taken down''
At that piece of information she got up. By who? What happened? But she didn't ask that. She realized she didn't care all that much anymore.
''What does this have to do with Reira? Is she okay?'' Shiori repeated.
''We are quite impatient, aren't we?'' He asked, and just now Shiori realized how close he was. ''It turns out, she has been helping out the inspectors conducting the investigation about the murderers at Oso Academy, she has been… cooperative and very useful to them''
''She got involved with the police?'' Shiori asked surprised. She had a bad feeling about this.
''More like joined the force''
''Why would she…?'' But then it hit her. Reira wanted to find her, and to accomplish that she was putting herself in danger. She didn't know what she was getting involved into. She didn't know Makishima. She didn't know what he was capable of. She hadn't seen Rikako's victims with her own eyes.
Makishima could read the panic in Shiori's eyes. He watched her, watched her swallow her fears and feelings and regaining her composure.
''Is she in danger?'' She finally asked.
''Not right now'' He replied calmly. ''She isn't a thread'' He added, implying that if Reira ever became a threat he would dispose of her. Shiori bit her lip again.
''She won't stop'' She mumbled to herself. ''She won't until she finds me''
''Unless there's nothing to find'' He said then. Shiori looked at him.
''What are you saying?'' She asked. She felt scared and tried to get up from the chair but he grabbed her wrist and held her there.
''If you were no longer a missing person but a…''
''Corpse'' she finished the sentence and it hit her. With all her strength she freed herself from his grip and got up. ''Are you actually suggesting I fake my own death? That I condemn myself to never be found, to stay here making everyone I love belive I'm dead?'' She was yelling, she was furious.
''Do you really think they will find you, anyway?'' He asked then. There was neither malice nor teasing in his voice. He was just stating a fact. They would never find her; that was the whole point of the kidnapping. She couldn't be found, she was a clue towards Makishima. She knew too much. The only way they would find her, if they ever did, it would be in a box. Shiori shivered at the thought.
She considered it. It didn't matter what she did, she was already dead. And for the first time, she realized that even if she did come back, the Sybil system wouldn't let her wander the streets after being confined with him. She realized that what she called life back then, wasn't really life. Her head was spinning around, her thoughts were merging with each other, and she no longer knew what was real. She didn't know where her own beliefs began and where Makishima's did. Everything was together in her head.
''What would I need to do?'' She finally asked in a mere murmur, but it was enough for him to hear. Shiori couldn't tell if he was smiling or not.
''I would need your DNA'' He said. ''A large amount of blood and maybe hair''
''Take it'' She said feeling defeated, tired. ''Take all you need''
And he did. He got his blade from his pocket and walked behind her. He was close. She could smell his scent. Makishima grabbed her hair gently but then got a hold of it bringing her head backwards. He cut her long hair to shoulders length and let it fell to the ground. Shiori said nothing, she didn't move, but felt her shoulder shake. She was trembling like a leaf. She heard his steps walk away and soon enough he returned with some kind of tubes and medical equipment. He walked her to the sofa and made her sit.
''Get comfortable'' He said and took her hand. She felt her skin burn against his, and felt deeply ashamed of herself and her reaction. Makishima inserted the injection on her arm, penetrating into her pale skin, and started draining her blood that started filling the tubes. Shiori felt the pain on her arm and how her energy left from her body slowly. ''This will take a while'' He muttered. ''And you will feel dizzy, so try not to move''
She nodded and closed her eyes. She thought he must be enjoying himself, watching her kneel, behaving like he would expect her to.
''That's a good girl'' She could hear him whisper.
Shiori felt awful. She tried to convince herself over and over that she did it in benefit of Reira. She was doing the right thing, giving her loved ones a closure. She was driving Reira away from the danger. If she thought she was dead… she would stop looking. She would give up. She would be safe. Her blood was still being drained from her body and she felt light headed, but that didn't stop Shiori to bit her lip, again, harder this time, until it bled. She forgot about her surroundings completely, but she came back to reality when she felt a cold hand caress her neck. She flinched but didn't pull away. It was him. Makishima touched her skin and with his fingertips caressed her now short hair.
''How are you feeling?'' He asked. Shiori enclosed her eyes, feeling her energy being drained from her.
''Good'' She lied.
She felt a lot of things, - guilt, sorrow, pain, loneliness, shame- but good was not one of them. She was about to fake her own death, to be erased from the earth. She probably would hurt her parents; she would hurt Reira, smashing the little hope she might have had.
She felt his hands go down her neck to her shoulders; they continued to travel her skin, her arms to her hands. And then they stopped. She felt Makishima sit next to her and grab her hand. He touched her bruised knuckled and she flinched.
''You hurt yourself'' He said. It wasn't a question.
Shiori didn't answer. She looked away. It didn't matter what he said to her, she hated him, despised him, she loathed him. She couldn't stand his hand on her hand. A pat of her wanted to push him away and not feel his touch, but the other part craved it.
What is happening to me?
It was the last thought that crossed her mind, before she blacked out.
So, how was it?
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and stay turned up for more! Thanks for reading this far! If you liked it, please leave a review, it makes me incredibly happy to know what you guys think of the story and where it's heading!It helps me out a lot, reviews are always appreciate it and it really is a motivator to write. So, feel free to share your thoughts via review or PM.
I'll try to update soon the next chapter.
See you around~
