Sorry, I was late with updating again! But this one, is WAY worth it. You can probably guess from the tittle what this chapter is about. ^^
Told you guys I would get around to it eventually.
*, Akuma means Demon, Satan, Fiend, or Demonic
*, Uragirimono means Traitor, Betrayer
Thanks to reviewers:
`Lolly 1o1
`zhane 17
`awesome dt
`Aria Scarlet, (ironicly I was listening to it when I was editing the chapter! Haha)
`XxKingArthurlllxX
`AnimeAddictLoverEverTrue
`AsDf
`guest
~Tiruneko ;3
X~27~X
Feet make contact with concrete, that fleeting sensation of freefall evaporated. Hands push against a cool surface, that fleeting feeling of dangling in air evaporated. Feet lift off the ground, that fleeting sensation of freefall returning. Hands reach for nothing, scrambling madly in the night air for a surface, then fall, sending Rin crashing harshly onto her back in the alleyway.
With a loud swear said to no one but herself, she sits up slowly, leaning against the faded red brick wall. Beads of sweat slide off her forehead, adding to the growing puddle seeping through her shirt. Her breathing strained and raspy, but yet she has continued her endless plight.
Run.
She stands, back against the left wall of the alley. Sucking in her breath, she jumps, landing on top of a dumpster, then back flips, but instead of landing on her feet again, she lands on her hands.
"Twenty three…"
And again she jumps.
"Twenty four… Twenty five…" She pauses momentarily, sucking in a deep breath, then runs again. "Twenty six…"
"Rin." Someone calls angrily.
"Len." Rin responds monotone, backing up and running forward again.
"Come back to the car Rin and eat something with us. I calmed IA down, so you can come back now." Len reasons angrily, not wanting to deal with his sister after how she treated IA.
"No. Twenty eight…"
"Rin just get over yourself, you have a temper, so? You always do this when you get pissed off about something, stop being a whining little baby and get the hell back in the car-" But he doesn't get to finish. Rin, while he had been speaking, had marched her way over to him, a deadly glare in her eye as shadows from the over head street light bounced up and down on her face. She cut him off by grabbing him by the neck of his shirt, and pulling him towards her, so close Rin hear him exhaling. Then, with no word of warning, she spun around, taking Len with her, and slamming his back up against the wall of the alley with a loud thump, sending powerful and painful vibrations rocketing through his skull where the contact was made.
"I, said, no. Len, I'm not interested in playing 'house' with you and Leek-face anymore. This is a war we're in, a war for our lives, and I'm done trying to be the optimist, in every situation. There is something you need to figure out. There are times where you can live your life, but there are also times where you need to wake up, and quit ignoring the imminent danger around you. Clearly, I thought you understood that, but I was wrong." Her eyes fire daggers into Len's soul, crushing him utterly in his entire argument, leaving him a little dumbfounded, and standing there, staring at her blankly until suddenly Rin pushes him up and harder into the wall, then drops him onto the damp ground.
"You don't get to act like you don't have any responsibility to them, to us." Len mutters, slowly standing.
"I'm not acting like anything. You need to leave Len. Go back to Miku and IA." She says without meeting his eyes, her back facing him as she clenches and un-clenches her fists.
"You made a mistake, Rin. That's okay, you let your temper get the better of you and-"
"Len!" She yells loudly, making him jump. "You, need, to leave before I break every bone in your body. Go."
Silently Len obeys, turning on his heel and walking out of the alley and back alongside a small road coming to their car and opening the door. Inside Miku is slumped against the wall of the trunk, IA's head in her lap as the child sleeps.
"... I see." Miku says, her voice only a whisper, even quieter than usual for her. "I'm sorry Len. About Rin. She'll be okay… that's what you taught me. Everyone'll be okay."
"I hope so." Len responds, resting his head in the crook between the window and door.
~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~
Bound by the wrists she dangles there, a mere toy. Slumped over painfully, feet squirming to touch the ground, at least give the girl a little balance. But balance in this situation is such a lie, which she knows, but yet she still pushes on.
The darkness all around is all too familiar, she can't even see the sewn together horrors of her own battered face.
Convincing her this is true, that she deserves every second of it has already happened. Oh does she deserve this. This pain, this feeling of abandonment, but no, there are still people here. Even if what they do isn't human anymore, they're still someone. Human or not they're someone. And Miku needs anyone right now.
"Today we're going to show them Akuma*, today we'll show them who you really are." The male voice comes to her.
"Yes… that's who… me am." Miku whispers, as silent and delicately as a gust of spring wind.
"Silence." A thick and rusty blade is driven far into her stomach, threatening to cause her to faint the pain is so great. With an invisible smile the male voice twists the blade, pushing further as the choking and retching noises come from Miku as she tries desperately to take oxygen, like a fish out of water, removed from its home in the cruelest manner. "Stop breathing now… let me hear that last breath Akuma. Let me feel it on my face. You're a monster you know, this is all her fault.Uragirimono* will pay as well for brining you upon me. Doesn't she know? You're evil." His breath reeking of alcohol and a twisted scent of smoke fill her already screaming lungs.
Yes… I am evil. She thought to herself that night.
"Oh come on now Uragirimono… come on now… you come too now, It'll be a tea party… under the setting sun." He teases dropping the blade and letting it clatter noisily to the floor as he reaches for a saw.
With his other hand he pulls a woman forward, letting her slide in a puddle of her daughter's blood upon the floor.
"The feeling of being reunited is so pure and delectable, huh?" The lights in the basement surge on, brightening the torture chamber. The walls are stained with blood, painted crosses and other religious symbols painted sloppily with simple cans of red spray paint mingle nicely with the splatters and crimson scars. Chains rattle as Miku shifts, being bound above the ground, wrists badly infected with a grotesque yellow and white puss, almost entirely hiding the occasional blood flow. The remnants of a summer yellow dress dangling off the toddlers slowly crumbling form, echoing a beautiful memory of the past, and tainting it with the blood of the present. Bellow a woman with long black hair held up with red ties into pig tails cowers in ropes of her own. A woman by the name of Miku Zatsune, responsible for the namesake of her nearly identical daughter, lies in a pool of her own child's blood, watching the man she once called her husband move slowly around, singing a distorted song.
"Please no Mikuo, this isn't how… maybe her differences make her beautiful… unique even… please enough." The woman pleads as she stands and begins to attempt to free the young girl with gleaming red eyes from her chains.
"You don't understand." The man whispers, picking up a gun and dropping his saw. The chains clatter loudly as Miku drops from them into her mother's arms, where she sits, with a plastered blank expression, permanently painted on.
He turns the gun on the woman with jet black hair and watches her pale blue eyes widen with horror. She mumbles different pleas under her breath, squirming to remove herself from the situation while her daughter sits on the floor amid a pile of her own blood, absent mindedly nibbling on her own fingers.
With a violent burst of rage the man begins to scream inaudible things, crazy dethatched sentences with no sense at all. Then he pulls the trigger, sending the demon child sprawling forward, parts of her brain and fragments of her skull flying out of her head through the hole in her forehead. The older Miku gasps, hyperventilating and whispering her daughter's name.
Then the man turns his attention to his wife, and again picks up the rusty blade.
The panicked gasps of her mother stir Miku, and she sits up, rubbing a painful area in her head. Her red eyes fall upon the black pistol on the floor and soon she has stood with it in hand.
"Daddy?" She asks, emotion cutting into her voice. "You don't have to hurt us anymore… okay? Don't hurt Mama, Daddy. She said I'm not a monster…"
"Hush Akuma, I'll kill you too… until you see her again." He yells at her without even turning to look at her.
"But no Daddy… I don' wanna' go again… it hurts."
"My god… Mikuo… you weren't wrong… she is… she is alive…" The woman whispers with even more horror than before, having believed only in the fact that her husband was crazy. The fact of her daughter being held captive by the man she used to love kept her from seeking help, consumed by the fear of him snapping and killing her baby… but no, he was right. She is a demon.
"Now… I will kill her now…" Her father mumbles, raising the knife on his wife as she sits, petrified by fear.
A gunshot echoes through the basement, and her father falls to the floor in a spray of blood, Miku standing behind the smoking gun.
The next memory that comes is even more painful, traveling through a maze of fog to her.
Taken by the hand she was dragged out into the open space, where everyone could see. She was told, no… ordered to get down on her knees and to put her hands above her head. Not knowing what else to do, this small child with the red eyes and teal hair obeyed with tremors of fear. She knew what was coming, but doesn't know how to stop it. Doesn't know how to get these people to stop it.
The crowd around them calls out in shouts of anger and protest.
"Kill it!" They all scream.
"Mama, not again, okay?" The little girl pleads, her voice a quiet whisper.
The woman standing behind her raises a large blade just above the girls head.
"Mama, no okay?"
It was too late. The blade flew into the young girl's skull "killing her". But out of the fog of pain the small child staggered to her feet and pulled the blade right out of her skull, splattering the audience with blood. She watched their horrified faces with a look of confusion.
"See everyone, she is evil! A demon sent from hell! She's killed Mikuo, and will kill us all! A monster! A monster!"
Miku shoots up from her dream, sweat dripping off her like salty rain, unable to distinguish her own tears from the drops of her own perspiration. Her heart beats fast, in all the wrong ways as she clutches herself around the waist repeating in her mind, "all over now"
"God, no one cries more than you." Rin whispers, placing a hand on Miku's forehead, brushing away her tangled bangs. The moon light streams into the car, showing Len and IA asleep in the front seat, and Miku sleeping in the trunk with Rin sitting just next to her, staring forward and out the window, refusing to make eye contact.
Miku smiles slightly through her muffled sobs, as she tries to stop herself from crying too loud.
"Sheesh." Rin mutters, closing her own eyes and dozing off with her hand still on Miku's head, holding her like a child.