Thank you for reading the first chapter. Special thanks to BlondiePsycho, Shirai-P, and iloveyugiohGX93.
Chapter 2:
The room that monster left me in was spacious, and surprisingly neat and nicely-decorated, much more than you would expect from such unkempt, uncivilized beast. The large windows were covered with expensive dark-red curtains. The furniture -consisting of a queen-sized bed with two nightstands, a closet, and a vanity with its stool- looked quite luxurious. They were made of some fine, dark-coloured wood. The bed sheets were daisy-white, and very soft to touch. Overall, the room was quite nice, but at that moment nothing could brighten me up or lift my mood.
The adrenaline rush started to fade away quickly, causing my body to start trembling, and my knees to give out. I collapsed on the carpeted floor, sobbing my heart out. It finally hit me. I was kidnapped and trapped in a monster's lair, unsure of what he had in mind for me. It was highly possible that I was never to see my father and my siblings again. Whether the beast was planning to bite my head off, or worse perhaps make me pay for that rose somehow, or just lock me in eternally was beyond my comprehension.
It was just like when my mother passed away, or when I broke my leg as a child. At first, it's mere shock, it doesn't hurt, you're only confused and scared. But then when the shock wears out and you're back to your senses, it starts burning everywhere. It takes time to realize how much painful it actually is when shock masks your most unpleasant moments, and now was the time when I realized how horrified and pained I awfully felt.
I couldn't clear my head, and the terrified faces of my beloved family members that started fogging my mind was making it harder to focus. I could still hear Miku's sobbing, and Rin's frightened threats. I could hear Len's and Gumi's groans as the monster kicked them off. I could still hear my father threatening the monster, and sometimes begging him to spare his children. All their voices were mixing in my head, and the noise could almost deaf me. I screamed at the top of my lungs to cover up the noise in my head –ignoring that my pathetic act was probably music to the demon's ears- , and tears washed down my face even quicker.
But my screaming didn't last long, and soon I was tired. I completely dropped on the floor, my mind still hazy and foggy from all the screams and the terrified faces. My mother's screams somehow also got mixed up with the the rest of the mess in my head, but this time I couldn't scream and push the noises away any more. I accepted the horror inside of me and let myself slip into a cruel ,nightmare-ful sleep.
The next thing I knew was that someone was knocking at my door.
The sun was up, it seemed, so I got up and opened the curtains, still numb from sleeping and irresponsive to my surroundings, but soon enough the flood of yesterday's events abused my mind forcefully, and I knew what was to happen next, because it had already happened to me before. A grieving cycle. An unending chain of shock followed by sadness, repeating again and again until time decides you had enough torture and starts healing you, leaving scars in the process.
I decided I didn't want to answer the door to my kidnapper. That monstrous thing could break the door down and enter like he did in my home if he wanted to, so there was no point in answering anyway.
"Your breakfast is outside." He announced with his deep voice as if giving food to a pet, sending shivers through my spine. I wasn't ready to hear that voice yet. It immediately triggered the madness inside my head, and the voices broke out again. I let one loud scream out of my chest, silencing every other sound around me, both in my head, and out of it. I didn't notice until then that I was crying again.
Shivering violently, I started to do what my sister Miku taught me to do when I needed to calm down. It was a little habit of us that we did when we were worried or depressed. I started to hum a faint melody, in my head at first, but using my vocal cords when I became comfortable enough. Singing had always done the trick for me, it could always bring peace and serenity to my soul. As I continued singing softly, there came one song that Kaito had written for me before. It was short but very sweet and honest. It wasn't a love song, but a song of gratitude and thankfulness that we've ever known each other's. It didn't only make me happy when I sang it, but it also lit a spark of hope inside of me. I wasn't going to be locked here forever, I still had Kaito. He was strong and brave, and he also knew people who could help.
I dried my tears with the palms of my hands, and decided to occupy my mind with different things until it was the time when Kaito came.
The light coming through the windows invited me to check what a wonderful day it was outside. Funny how life never actually slows down for your sadness, and your doomsday could be just another sunny morning for everyone else. The scenery from the windows was not really captivating; just the rotting dead garden surrounding the mansion, with no living fauna or flora except for one pink rose plant, bearing three fully bloom roses the very same colour of my own hair, and one rose bud. Just one lively rose plant- which happens to be the most beautiful one I had laid my eyes on- in a lifeless wreckage. I had the urge to go down and have a closer look at it, but after the show that monster put on yesterday, I was definitely avoiding the rose he was obsessed with at all costs.
I turned away from the window, curious to know whether he was still at my door after all this time. I took a peek from beneath the door and saw nothing beside what was supposed to be my breakfast. I opened the door slowly, and took a look at the tray at my feet. There was a plate of pancakes, a cup of milk, and a plate of cookies. Weird. It couldn't have possibly been the monster who prepared all of this now, could it? The work seemed so fine and delicate and even smelled good! And two clawed, deformed hands, belonging to one awful being, didn't seem capable of doing such a fine job. But then, who else was there to make it?!
I walked out looking for the bathroom, throwing that little mystery to the back of my mind, mostly because I didn't really care that much, and partly because I wasn't going to eat it anyway and risk being poisoned, or just giving him the feeling that I needed his good deeds –such as cooking- to survive.
The bathroom was very close to the bedroom, and it was also unpredictably neat and clean. I washed my face and freshened up a bit.
I walked out then, wandering randomly around the place since I had nothing to do. All of the rooms upstairs beside the bedroom and the bathroom were locked, but the corridors and hallways were a sight themselves with their decorations. Admiring my surroundings, I swiftly found myself walking down the ivory stairs to the dining hall, where I caught a glimpse of…him, walking away heading to the mansion's entrance, before I heard the door slam.
Alright. I was by myself. Maybe it was my lucky day after all. Maybe I would be able to escape if I could make sure he was far enough to not notice.
But then I heard what seemed to be the clinking of dinner plates.
I sneaked to the kitchen, clutching my heart¸ in fear of discovering a new member of the demons family. It was so naïve of me to think that he'd leave me alone in the house to escape whenever I wanted, wasn't it? I should have expected.
But what I could have never expected was the perfectly-normal young woman I found in the kitchen, washing some cooking pans.
Well, perfectly-normal if not for the bandages covering her left eye, and the scars of claws on her neck, but she was still a young normal human being. She had short brown hair, and was taller than me, but she turned quickly to face the other side of the room, so I couldn't fetch more details. Was she a maid? Was I to face the same fate soon? That was his purpose in bringing me here?!
The woman probably became aware that someone was staring at her so she stormed out of the room as I tried to mutter an "excuse me".
"Wait a moment, please!" I called after her not hoping for a response, but she actually slowed down and stopped mid-step.
"Hmm?" She replied without facing me.
"Are you locked here too? Did the monster kidnap you? Please hear me out, we could help each oth-"
"Locked?!" The young woman chuckled, revealing the nice voice she had.
"I'm not." She continued, walking away and leaving me even more confused.
The only thing I could come up with was that she was probably a maid, even though she dressed too nicely to be one. But even that guess was shattered when two maids came by later to do the housework while he was still out, greeting the brunette lady with the name 'Sakine-sama'. The mentioned woman soon took her leave with the maids when they finished working, avoiding me whenever I tried to talk to her.
I was finally truly by myself then. It was the precious little moment I desperately waited for, and I was so scared of letting it slip through my shaking fingers.
I started rummaging through the bedroom I had spent my night in, looking for the bag containing the things I had brought with me, with the intention of fleeing and never coming back once I found it.
But I couldn't find it.
Where had that cursed animal hidden it?! I really didn't want to abandon my bag, honestly because it held inside something so dear to me. The necklace my mother wore to her wedding.
Oh how she wished to see me in the same pearly necklace on my wedding day! It was probably the last physical reminder I had from her. There was nothing left from her things but for this necklace, because everything else went to her sister, my aunt.
It didn't appeal to me to search the first floor, it was mainly occupied by the large dining room, the kitchen, the living room, and two bathrooms, and none of these sounded like the perfect place to hide someone's personal belongings, so I decided to continue searching the upper floor first. Since I ended up finding nothing in the bedroom, I went to search the bathroom, and it was just as fruitless, but to my surprise, one more room that had been previously locked lied in front of me with its door ajar. Perhaps the maids forgot to lock the door back?
Curiously, I walked in, investigating my surroundings.
The room was completely white. The carpets, the walls, the curtains…and even its center of attention, a white grand piano. It was the last thing I could expect in such a place. I approached the piano to take a closer look, and I found it pretty dusty, but it was very beautifully made. There were small fine carvings on it which seemed to represent someone's initials, 'K.G' .
I let my fingers caress the white and black keys, but I thought the piano sounded a bit off, and needed a little bit of tuning. It must have been abandoned for a while.
Finally I diverted my gaze from the piano to notice a much smaller but just as stunning detail. A drawing easel. Another thing that you don't usually expect to find in a beast's liar, but oh well, they did not necessarily have to belong to the beast himself, I reminded myself. The could belong to that mysterious 'Sakine' lady, even if it didn't fit with the little initials theory I came up with, a moment ago.
Beside the drawing easel, a few paintings were stacked next to the wall. Curiosity got the best of me, so I decided to steal a glance.
Even to someone who had no knowledge in art like me, the paintings looked breathtaking. The colouring style was rather soft, and very relaxing to the eye, and the sceneries presented were quite beautiful. Most of them were drawings of gardens, forests, or nature in general, but there were also two paintings of a female with chocolate-brown orbs who looked very similar to the woman in the mansion, or 'Sakine-san', but also younger, and even more beautiful, not that the mansion's lady wasn't gorgeous herself.
Suddenly, reality stung me again with the mention of said lady, and I remembered that I didn't know how much time I had for myself to escape before she or the beast were back. I quickly put the art works back where they had been placed before, and aborted my previous mission to look for my bag.
I had to run away, with my bag or without it. It was a life or death situation, and I had to save my life even if it meant losing an object that I treasure dearly. My mother would forgive me, or so I hoped. She would still be in my heart forever, and she would still love me regardless of all the stupid things I always did. If she were still with us, she would have naturally chosen to see me back to my family alive, even if it meant losing her most preferred jewelry piece in the process. It was one of the qualities I respect the most in mothers that they always sacrificed everything they had, important or insignificant, for the sake of their children.
I quickly dashed through the big front door of the building to find myself in the dead garden. I had no time to observe so I started running for my life. But no matter how much I ran I never reached anything. The mansion stood on top of a hill that was surrounded by woods in every direction. The woods seemed to be infinite, and it hit me that with my human speed I probably needed a few hours' walk to reach an inhabited town, unless I could find shortcut roads in the forest, or maybe obtain a horse somehow.
Unsure if I could actually make it out of the maze of woods alive; in one piece; and before the nightfall, I continued running terrified, with my eyes squinting to prevent tears from falling.
Until I bumped into something, causing me to fall on my back.
I bumped into an enraged, furious, purple-haired beast.