Chapter 16:
A Doll's Dream
pt. 2
AND THE JACKASS RISES FROM THE DEAD
A/N: Hello everyone, did you miss me? Not important now, is it, eh? I've kept you waiting forever with this update, and again, I'm so freaking sorry (Can't use vague language here it seems), but! It has been one year anniversary of this fanfic on November 23rd, I'm late as hell (ha ha, I lied), but I just wanna take this opportunity to thank all of you who have been following this fanfiction ever since its crappy start to right now. Not much has changed, has it?
EXCEPT of course the fact that I updated the first 4 chapters and fixed them up a bit, I recommend you reread them before progressing onto this one. Or don't. It's fine either way :p
I just want to warn you, this fanfic is nearing its end and I'm still drabbling over what'll be the outcome. I treat my characters horribly, I'm not gonna lie, but I hate killing them (permanently at least). So we'll see what comes out of that.
So, anyways, I'm gonna update my other two fanfics in the next few weeks hopefully, I'm in 7th grade and it's not very easy with the two new subjects I recently got. But let's leave all that BS behind for now and get to the review of the previous chapter!
After months of uneasiness and attacks on young meisters and weapons the weak peace breaks yet again and the long covered scheme starts unravel. What lies will be discovered once this truce that lasted over a decade finally breaks?
Oh yeah, also major warning for possible Creepypasta clichés for those of imagination vivid enough to imagine the things I wrote down.
Thursday, October 1st, 10:12 AM - Class Crescent Moon, Shibusen
It was a chilly morning in the Death City. The Sun was almost completely covered by thick clouds, hiding its mocking grin. Cold wind blew the fog from the last night away and continued roaming the empty streets of the silent city.
The Crescent Moon classroom was rather silent for a recess, the usual lively chatter nowhere to be found. Many students weren't there, and every now and then their colleagues would find a flower on others' desks and give it a sad look; tears were nothing short of usual when that happened.
They all knew, those with a white flower on their desks have left to never return.
"Tachiko, what's up with you lately?" Yoshiki asked his meister "You look like you haven't had any sleep in weeks…"
"That's because I haven't…" She replied, practically lying on her desk. She lifted her head up a bit, revealing tired, Emerald green eyes "All this going on… People dying, fighting, and those weird dreams…"
Yoshiki sighed at the last part. Tachiko hasn't been getting any sleep because of strange nightmares. Already reflexively, he looked over to Rin, who was staring at the blackboard with a dull look.
He hasn't gotten any sleep altogether it seems.
"I thought we could at least have a peaceful celebration of our first year here… But those darn things keep popping up everywhere, we've been delaying it for a month now.." She continuing, joining Rin and giving the blackboard a dull look as well
"Hey, I know things look bleak, but we'll get through this. What do you say about going to the bookstore or grabbing something to eat after school today… No, even better, let me make something!" Yoshiki smiled "There's no doubt you'll get a good night's sleep after that."
Tachiko returned a small smile
"It would be nice… Though, you remember what happened the last time you tried to make dinner for us?"
"Alright alright, I admit, I'm not a Master Chef or anything, but I'm decent." Brunette weapon replied goofily, already knowing her response
"How about I make us something, eh?"
"If ya insist…" Yoshiki replied
"Great!" Tachiko said, already in a better mood, "You can bring your brother along too, he's free from work tonight, no?"
"Yep. We could invite Rin too, he has been distancing himself ever since the school year started, it wouldn't hurt him to get a bit positive."
"I guess you're right…" Tachiko said and looked over to Rin, who was now face in his book "… He's out cold.."
"Well then, we'll just have to ask him later" Yoshiki shrugged as the bell rang
06:35 PM - Gallows Mansion
"Thank you for inviting me over, you guys.." Rin spoke
"Aaaanything for a friend!" Tachiko said with a wide smile, looking into the Living room briefly before going back into Kitchen
"Man, cooking really cheers her up…" Rin said more silently
"You have no idea.." Kidd said from the armchair, lips bent into a small smile
"Though, truth be told, if Liz wasn't in there too she'd probably set something on fire already…" Yoshiki added on
"Oh, is something wrong?" Seiyu spoke from the hallway, walking in and watching he doesn't hit his head on the door's frame. Rin's expression changed only slightly at the sight of him
"She hasn't getting much sleep lately." Yoshiki sighed "She keeps saying something about repetitive bad dreams."
"I see…"
Only a second after there was a sound of metal clanging from the kitchen, followed by Tachiko's tired voice
"Come on, Liz, fifth time today…"
"I-it keeps slipping out of my hands!"
"Aw geez… Luckily that was just water… Dinner's ready!"
All got up and walked into the Dining room.
11:02 PM - Yakari Mansion
The residents of the Mansion were almost all sound asleep, but one room remained with its light on.
Rin was at his room at the window, petting a cat.
"You're a stray, aren't you?" he whispered to it in a tired tone, gently scratching it behind its ear as it purred in response
"I'll take that as a yes.." he smiled and continued playing with the cat until a knock at the doors interrupted them.
"Young Master?"
The cat jumped off the window frame and ran off. Rin sighed
"Yes?"
"Your parents are concerned. They told me to tell you to get some sleep if you don't fall asleep by now, it's worrying."
"I'll try. Thank you."
Rin waited until the housemaid's footsteps went quiet. He fell onto the bed backwards, letting out another sigh. Sleeping wasn't even the last thing on his mind. He gave up trying to get a shuteye weeks ago.
His chest pains were only getting worse, his mind was trying to wrap itself around so many things, he kept feeling as if he was close to discovering something but his brain was too tired to progress, but mind too loud to let him sleep. The frustration was almost unbearable. Even if he got a few minutes of peace to drift off he was awoken by nightmares. He knew that if this keeps up he'll either experience an accident or get really sick.
While he was busy staring at the ceiling the cat from before jumped into his room, by him onto his bed and laid down.
"Get comfortable if you like, I won't be sleeping anytime soon."
Meanwhile, at the Gallows Mansion Tachiko was turning in her bed.
She was in Death City. The sky was cloudless, but still grey, with no sign of Sun or Moon. The streets were empty, colored in a strangely unsettling beige-white color, but full of mirrors; She knew this image far too well.
She decided to just stand there, thinking that nothing will happen if she just stays there, but it wasn't long before she started feeling uneasy, followed and found herself glancing over to a mirror. The reflection was awful; it was her with black eye sockets, the dust was replaced with bodies, some people she recognized from her class that got killed. She stood there in silence until she saw a shadow move behind her in the mirror and felt a cold shiver go down her back. She ran as the dust on the ground got thicker with each passed street. She felt as if she was being chased but avoided looking at the mirrors, even though they could shed a light on whatever was chasing her. She ran and ran, every few steps her body got a bit heavier. Eventually, she fell, dust getting into her eyes. She sat up and rubbed it out of her eyes, only to meet her own gaze in the mirror. The black eye sockets seemed to be dripping with ink. She stared, terrified.
Suddenly, wind rose, raising the dust up for a while. When it finally calmed down the mirror showed her- no, that wasn't her. It was a lookalike of her, with black eye sockets, dripping with black liquid and with two red dots inside. A cackle was heard from the reflection as its shadow formed a tall man.
The silhouette behind her drew a quick, glowing green line in air, severing the reflection's head from its body. The last thing she saw was the green glow growing stronger and finding herself unable to breathe. The growing gravity struck her down yet again.
Tachiko gagged and shot awake, breathing heavily, bathed in cold sweat.
Her hand flew up to her neck, checking if it was still in one piece. She let out a sigh of relief
She couldn't understand, she's been through the same thing night after night, how come it upsets her even though she knows what's going to happen?
She laid back down, wondering if she should try to go back to sleep, but the flickering numbers at her digital clock made her realize it's basically pointless, 5 AM.
She got up and started her day, though earlier than usual still pretty much like any other.
At the same time Rin was examining the mirror shard from a few months ago for the thousandth time. It has been like a piece of a normal mirror ever since.
"Ugh.." Was all he succeeded to push through before rolling to his stomach as he usually did when he was frustrated.
"Why?" he continued, unaware he was rolling himself for 180 degrees with every new sentence
"Why is this god forsaken mirror not doing anything?"
"Come on, give me anything"
Naturally, no response
"… Stupid th-"
He hit the carpet with a quiet thud. After a long silence only a sigh could be heard as he pulled himself up onto the bed the onto feet
"That's it, I can't take any more of this." he said, taking his pajamas, or better said house wear off, revealing his slim form; he was even paler and skinnier than usual, he's been losing appetite for a while now. Not even his favorite, fatty tuna, interested him that much anymore.
"I'm not going to just wait here like his pawn, waiting to die…" He kept mumbling to himself, "If he really takes me for that much of a fool, he's dead wrong.."
He quickly changed into black trousers, his favorite shirt and dark brown boots. He wrote down a quick note, saying he's not feeling well and that he's going to try and get some sleep, asking the maids not to disturb him. He then put it halfway under doors to the hallway, took a black, fur lined jacket, dragging something else out of the closet too.
It was a long rope-like craft, seeming made of old sheets he used to sneak out often in the past and hid it from his parents and nannies as well as he could. He went to the balcony, tied his old handiwork on the fence and lowered himself. He'd stuffed what he thought were the necessities into his pockets, such as the mirror shard and a pocket knife along with a bunch of small cloth bags and started walking through the snowed forest.
"Now, where was it?" he kept mumbling to himself often, stopping every time to look around more carefully.
The cold wind was blowing through the trees' crowns, causing them to rustle softly.
"Why are there no more of his followers around?" Rin pondered, walking through the puffy whiteness covering the ground.
Suddenly his steps came to a halt.
"Finally…" He whispered, his look rising up and revealing his now more than ever tired eyes, making his empty glare that was filling with over exaggerated happiness almost like that of a lunatic, and the fact that he was seemingly talking to thin air making it even more so like it "Thought you'd hide from me?"
After getting to response, he shrugged
"Heh… Oh well, the hunt's over"
He took the glove off his right hand and put it up
"This may be the most outrageous and stupid thing I've done since I joined this school, but who gives a damn anymore. Am I right, Seiyu?" Electrical sparkles appeared between his hand and the invisible wall; It was like a hole tore in the image of the forest before him, revealing strange trees with weird wispy leaves and withered, crooked trunks. Right in the front a familiar stone step pyramid appeared, But even before he walked through the portal that was getting bigger and bigger by the seconds passing, he noticed that something was off
"You old bastard…" he said, kicking a pebble and looking up to the ruins of what used to be a well hidden dungeon, Rin's eyes now flared up with suppressed rage
"One step ahead of me, eh? I don't think so. I've got a whole eternity to find and bust your sorry ass." he continued mumbling as he neared the enormous pile of debris and started digging around, frequently finding pieces of walls stained in red, parts of decapitated bodies, as well as a scratched orb that radiated something weird.
Something dangerous.
He recoiled from the strange object like he's been burnt. He could feel his flesh crawling from just looking at the little thing, the glimmering orb was left alone for not even a few seconds before getting penetrated with pocketknife's blade.
Rin raised the glasslike ball up to get a better look
"So this was that awful madness source.. I haven't seen one of these in a while…"
After a longer pause he said to himself once again, "Oh well, safer in shards than whole"
He threw it to the stone ground as hard as he could. It shattered into bits and pieces just like any cheap crystal ball fortune seers use.
He looked down to it in disgust and finished "It's still evidence either way."
He took out a bag and put any pieces big enough inside, then put it back into his pocket and resumed digging.
He found no interest in the already previously documented bodies and chilling messages on the broken pieces of walls, but rather in every mirror shard or a more suspicious object, paper or message he found.
After a few hours he headed back to his house, exhausted, carrying a bunch of seemingly unimportant and needless junk in his pockets. He walked through the thick fog back to his mansion and climbed back up to his room - thankfully, the cloth rope was still there, untouched, waiting for him. After he climbed back up, arms barely supporting his weight, he untied the knot and hid it again, then closed the balcony doors and pulled the curtains over, even though the fog and clouds weren't allowing a single glimmer of light to get through the thick, grey wall.
He shook everything that he'd found out of the little cloth bags and pockets onto his desk; a few damaged old papers and notebooks, weird old jewelry, stone pieces with weird symbols on them and of course, the shattered glass ball that's still glimmering in soothing white light along with many, many mirror shards. Somebody uninformed could even say he was a crazy boy that robbed someone.
After inspecting everything he took out a little box, put the objects into their cloth bags then into the box, locking it shut and putting the key onto his keychain, then into his pocket, zipping it close right after and lying onto the bed. He took off his boots and jacket, placing them both near the bed. He locked that box for a good reason, not only because of fear that somebody might try to get in, but that what's in there might try to get out
He looked wearily at the clock, clearly without any focus in his eyes. Still, blurry neon green lights flickered before his eyes:
11:12 AM
He groaned silently and slipped into the unconscious, meeting another nightmare.
It was Death City- no, better said, somewhat what it'd look like in a thousand years; ruins of his hometown. The structures were almost like they were made from black marble, almost a contrast to Tachiko's beige white vision of it.
"Oh great." Rin sighed, like he was bored, digging his hand into his pockets "Come on, I know the line between your low budget horror story you embedded in my mind and the reality you sick freak. Now let's get this over with."
Getting no response but a sudden rise of the wind he looked around and started walking. The ground was covered in black dust, almost alike volcanic ash. He could feel the wind almost wrapping itself around him, the dust getting into his eyes and the coldness growing from his chest, inside out.
After a while he could no longer see a thing, but kept feeling an overwhelming desire to sleep. To just lie down, to succumb to the growing cold in his chest. He felt his legs getting heavier until he finally collapsed.
A poisonous green light had rose from the black ash and started enveloping him. He felt… Warm. Pleasant. Did it come to save him? Did it come to offer comfort? Did it come to show him the way out of this grim sandstorm?
And it was so warm…
So inviting..
So warm…
Suddenly, the tiny voice in the back of his head had become loud and clear, causing him to jolt up, throwing off the ash-like substance that was piling itself up on him and burying him.
He jolted up in his bed and looked around frantically.
After a long pause a nervous chuckle escaped his lips. He ran fingers through his hair, lips bending into an unsettling smile that was everything but happy. He kept mumbling something to himself slipping every now and then something in Latin, like curse words.
"Of course… No way to scare someone who knows they're going to die, who has no real bound to the people around him… Except… Except… You really are a being sick to the core, are you..?"
More shaky words escaped his lips. He had turned into a nervous wreck when he figured his own biggest weakness. His first line of defense, his biggest fallback, was his biggest flaw, and was going to ultimately become his downfall. That thought scared him out of his mind.
His unconscious craving for affection.
A/N: Oh man, I'm finishing this so late.
I'm too tired to wrote a preview the next one, I'll might do it tomorrow or on Wednesday when my holidays start. Bye now!