i'd like to thank the following people who have been nice enough to read and review the chapters i have written so far: Redpage, Ambiekinz, Royal Court Jester, don'tchaknowme4life, dogluv101, Alvin Chip, heartbreaker19, Dawn of Glory, dbzgtfan2004, and last but certainly not least Kalulu2004. and if i forgot anyone, let me know (i have a shitty memory -_-) thanx so much for the reviews ^_^ you all make me feel so special! .......alright, enough of me rambling on, here's chapter 16 of Bloodbath. enjoy!

Bloodbath

Chapter 16

Takuya looked down at the tiny seashell in his hands. He slowly spun it, feeling the smooth surface of it glide over his fingers. He sighed, remembering how Zoe had searched through the sand to find it for him. Zoe.......He missed her more than he could ever had imagined. He missed her smile, her beautiful eyes, the way she tilted her head slightly when she was confused....

"Screw it. I'm going back to the campus now." Takuya stood up and shrugged a light jacket on. "The more I think about it, the more worried I get."

"Do you want me to go with you?" Kouji asked.

Takuya shook his head. "No, that's okay. I want to do this alone. Call me if Zoe shows up for some reason. There's a chance Kakuzawa could still be there."

"Alright," Kouchi said. "Seeing how he's kind of a nut-job, I'd be careful if I were you."

Takuya nodded, then took off.

Courtney emerged out of her room a moment later. "Where's he going?"

J.P. shot her an annoyed look. "He's looking for Zoe."

The girl rolled her eyes. "What the fuck........will he just let it go already?"

"We've been through this before," Kouji said, trying his hardest to be patient. "Something isn't right, so Takuya's gonna go try to check up on Zoe to see if she's okay."

"This is crazy. What exactly does he expect to find anyway?" She asked. "If she's with her real family, shouldn't he just stay out of it?"

"But the thing is, we don't know if that dude was even telling the truth," J.P. told her.

"Why would he lie about something about that?" She crossed her arms, annoyed.

Kouichi rubbed his eyes. "We don't know. Just drop the subject already."

"Whatever." Courtney turned to leave.

"Oh, Courtney?" Kouji said.

"What?" She asked, clearly agitated.

Kouji smirked. "You might wanna wipe your face a little bit."

Courtney frowned. "What?"

"You got a little something........." he pointed to his nostril.

"Shit......." Courtney wiped the white powder away. "You tell Takuya, and I'll kill you."

With that she slammed her bedroom door shut and locked it once again.

The guys burst out laughing.

"You never know," J.P. offered. "She could have been eating a powdered donut."

"Only you would think that, but when it comes to her, we all know better," Kouji said.

Meanwhile

Zoe was slowly walking down the street, her head cast down. After she had beheaded Professor Kakuzawa, she had quickly put her clothes back on and left. She didn't exactly know where she was heading, but she needed time to think.

"Nothing makes sense anymore...." She said quietly. "Nothing ever really did, though."

A girl was walking down the street towards her, talking to herself.

"Fucking hate this job. All I do is deal with asshole customers every damn day and the pay isn't even worth is," the girl muttered.

She looked up, and noticed Zoe, embarrassed that she might have heard. The girl felt funny if people saw her talking to herself. Zoe continued on, however, uncaring. It would take her quite awhile to sort things out in her mind.

Back at the college

Takuya walked up to the building, grateful to find it unlocked. As he made his way down the corrider, he looked around to see if there was anyone in the halls. The place looked deserted, but someone had to be there if the doors were unlocked, he thought. He finally came up to Professor Kakuzawa's office and knocked.

A moment later, a young woman in her early twenties opened the door. She wore glasses and her long black hair was tied into a loose braid.

"Hello," she said cheerfully. "How can I help you?"

"Um, hi. I was wondering if I could speak to Professor Kakuzawa," Takuya told her.

"You know, I'm trying to find him as well. I let myself into his office to see if I could find him, and then you showed up."

Takuya frowned slightly, afraid that the man had already left. "Do you know if he's still here?"

The woman thought for a moment. "Well, he might be downstairs in his lab. We can check there."

As she led him to the stairwell, she turned slightly. "By the way, I'm Miki, his assistant."

"I'm Takuya," he told her.

She nodded. "Just out of curiosity, why do you need to see him? If you don't mind me asking."

"A few hours ago, I was in his class and I brought a friend with me. Apparently he knew her and took custody of her," he said. "She lost her memory, but I'm not sure if she could still remember him or anything. I just wanted to see her and make sure she was okay."

"That's understandable," Miki replied. "I'd probably do the same thing."

"I met her on the beach about a week ago, and she couldn't even remember how to talk, so I took her home to help her. But I guess she found her family," Takuya said sadly.

Miki raised an eyebrow. "Family?"

Takuya nodded. "Yeah, Professor Kakuzawa said that the girl was his niece and that his brother has been looking all over for her."

Miki stopped right before the got to the stairwell. "I'm afraid you've been tricked."

"What do you mean?" Takuya frowned.

"Professor Kakuzawa doesn't have a brother. In fact, he doesn't have any siblings at all. Whatever he told you, he lied about the whole thing."

"Shit, what did he do with Zoe?" Takuya ran down the stairs, Miki close behind.

Miki went around him and led him to the laboratory door. "Let me unlock it."

She pulled out a set of keys and opened the lock, cautiously pushing the door open.

"Professor Kakuzawa? It's Miki, I wanted to ask you something."

They waited for a response as they tried to look into the large pitch-black room.

"The switch is on the other side of the room," Miki said to Takuya. "We better turn the lights on. And watch where you step, there are tables and equipment everywhere, so be careful."

Takuya nodded and they carefully tried to navigate their way through the room, relying on sillouettes of objects to see where they were going. As they got closer to the switch, they both slid on something on the floor.

"What was that?" Takuya asked, struggling to keep his balance.

"I don't know," Miki said, puzzled. She flicked on the switch a moment later.

As the light illuminated the room, they looked on the floor and gasped. There was a puddle of blood in front of them, their shoeprints quickly disappearing in the red mess.

"What the fuck?" Takuya's eyes were wide in shock.

Miki covered her mouth, gagging. "Oh, my god..........."

Takuya knelt down next to the puddle and saw two ribbons on top of it. The ribbons that Zoe had been wearing earlier that day.

"What did he do to her?" He asked, tears filling his eyes. "Zoe.........."

Miki looked up and suddenly screamed. Surprised, Takuya looked at the direction she was looking in. To his horror, on one of the tables there was a head. Upon closer inspection, Takuya realized that it was Professor Kakazawa's. Strangely, the man's head was bald and there were two tiny horns sticking out of his head.

"Holy shit!"

The dead man's head simply rested on the table, a small red pool formed around it. The eyes had rolled back into his head and his tongue stuck out of his mouth grotesquely. Takuya hoped that the blood on the floor belonged to Kakuzawa.

"Where's his body?" Miki was slowly rocking back and forth on her heels, queasy.

Takuya cast his eyes into another corner of the room and saw a large metal filing cabinet. He could see a smear of blood on one of the doors on it.

"I think I might know........" He slowly walked over to it and pulled it open, jumping back as he did so.

The decapitated body of Professor Kakuzawa tumbled out and landed on the floor with a sickening thud. Takuya shuddered and Miki bent over one of the tables, heaving. Takuya began to desperately look through and under anything he could find, hoping to find the girl. Zoe, however, was nowhere to be found.

well, they found the body.....and the head too for that matter ^_^ hope you liked the chapter. review please and the next chapter will be coming soon. laterz