Ever since she was six Yukari would awaken to the horrors of the Dark Hour.
The first year had been better, but it was still horrifying. As the world she knew changed she would hide under her cover until she'd eventually nod off. She had even told her mother about the horrors after midnight, but realistically, she didn't believe her. She didn't dare her a second time, but she did manage to convince her to buy her a pair of headphones to wear at night. She stopped wearing them after a week. The howling would still haunt her ears even through the soft barrier.
The whole year had seemed like a consistent nightmare until a week after her birthday, when she had awakened to her bedroom window broken and glass shattered beneath it. After her father's death, many people began to harass Yukari and her mother. When it wasn't verbal the least they would do was pelt rocks at their house. Thinking that another assault of rocks was coming, little Yukari hid under the bed.
After a few seconds of waiting and listening, a wet splat broke the silence of the room. From underneath the bed she could only see the bottom half, but whatever it was wasn't anywhere near human.
She slapped her hand over her mouth to stop the sounds from slipping out as the intruder started to move -rather drag- its way across her room, inches away from where she was hiding. She managed to keep her whimpers quiet as it creeped past her to her door which was slightly ajar. It squeezed its body through the small crack, making a sloshing sound as it slipped through to the other side into the hall.
She could hear it moving down the hall. Her body started to tremble as her situation started to settle in. What was that thing? Her mom has always told her that monsters don't exist.
Her mom!
It ventured out into the hallway and her mom was still asleep in her room. She had to warn her.
She was trembling as she crawled out of her hiding spot and tip toed towards the door. Poking her head out of her door, sludgy black pools were left in its wake leading down the hall and stopping in front of her mom's room, the door also cracked open.
She tiptoed out of her room and slowly followed the semi-liquid trail to her mom's room.
"Mom?" Her hand was trembling as she lifted it to the door knob and pushed the door open further.
Her hand fell to her side as she shrieked.
On the bed where her mom should have been laying down fast asleep was a coffin, standing ominous and erect almost to the ceiling where her head should have been. The creature was beside it, trying to pry it open with it's gooey hands. From her hiding spot she could see it's inky, oozing body as it dripped, melted, ran and ruined their carpet, but what she couldn't see were the masks. The blue masks that were scattered across its body were the most terrifying part, each face stuck in an expression of pain and horror.
At the sound of her screams, those blue masks turned to her and she felt her stomach hit the floor.
Her feet responded to the danger before her mind could as they started carrying her out of her mom's room, down the hallway and out the front the door right out into the unknown of the outside.
This was way worse. Before she could only see the outside world through her window, but looking out through the window was such a smaller picture than she thought. She couldn't help the thought that she should've stayed under the bed, or stayed huddled under the blankets where she could at least block out her surroundings.
Now she wishes she could cover her eyes instead of her ears.
Large coffins, the same as the one in her mother's bed, were abundant. In the streets, on the sidewalks, on the steps of flats and apartments, they stood tall and foreboding as they towered well above Yukari's head.
She stepped back, in fear or in shock she didn't know, and there was a squelch that seemed deafening in the eerie silence when her bare foot touched something liquid. She looked down to see red as she lifted her foot out of the liquid. It felt sticky and warm despite the otherwise cool temperature. It reminded her of the time she scarred her knee. It was really bad until her daddy came and fixed it.
The howling came back, and it sounded way louder than it had from the shelter of her room and a closed window. But now there were other sounds to follow behind those howls: footsteps. And they were coming towards her.
Her feet took control again as she started running. She had no actual direction in mind, but she knew she had to go. She had no idea what was chasing her but she could hear it in constant pursuit behind her. She looked back.
Yellow glowing eyes stared back at her, attached to a shadowy body that seemed to billow and sway in shadows where even in the green glow of the moon it was still hard to see it. Those eyes pierced her in the dark, telling her one thing.
If it caught her, she wasn't leaving this nightmare alive.
She sped up.
She felt a load of relief when she recognized where her feet had taken her. It was a small walking trail that not many people in Kyoto knew about. Before her father died, he would take her to this walking trail every day she would get out of school in the spring. It was the best place to see the Japanese Maple trees.
They would walk along the trail with the ruby red maple leaves falling around them and she would hold his hand as she admired stared in awe and would tell her about the trees.
Sometimes her mother would join them and they would get ice cream from the nice man's cart that sat midway on the trail. She enjoyed her ice cream as her parents would be smiling down at her, then at each other, and laugh like it was the happiest day of their lives. Maybe it was.
She could see the spot where the cart would sit too. It was one of the two spots on the trail where there was a gap in the tree lining. The other was further ahead.
Yukari was almost there when the world spinned and an immense pain erupted in her side and in her back. Her vision became blurry around the edges.
Her ears caught the sound of snarling closing in around her. The wolves were prowling, stepping out of the shadows in favor of catching their prey within their maws. Their golden eyes pierced her as they slowly creeped forth on their four hairy legs, hunger glowing steadily in the eyes of hunters.
At this moment, her father entered her mind. She wasn't remembering the time they spent at the park or the time when he was with her mother. She thought of her final moments with her father: the night he left. She could still feel the gentle kiss he pressed to her forehead and the warmth of his hug and the sight of a brown briefcase in his hand as he promised he'd be back before she knew it.
She wishes she could've said goodbye to her mom at least.
Yukari raised her arms to shield her face and closed her eyes, awaiting the pain to come.
…
…
But it never came. She opened her eyes.
A body of black fur shielded her from the other wolves. A third wolf.
It snarled at the other two, baring its fang in a hiss that obviously told them to leave. The first two stepped back. Their tails did a quick twitch from the instinct of trembling between their legs and their ears started to show signs of drooping.
The wolf that chased her here didn't want to back down though. It lunged back and bared its teeth back. The newcomer didn't back down. It's paw was a blur followed by a painful cry. The hot-head backed off, a new set of fresh claw marks where his left eye had been. It ran away, the other close behind it, leaving her alone with it.
Her heart was racing as she stared at the panting canine in front of her. A wave of pain flared up in her side and a whimper escaped. She watched in trepidation as the beast tensed then turned its head towards her.
She gulped as she tried to put distance between them, but her back was literally against a tree and she was in so much pain her body refused to move much.
It circled it's entire body around and its eyes stared into hers. It left another reason for her to be speechless. Instead of golden this one's eyes were blue, a cool set of blue that temporarily replaced her fear with a touch of awe. The fear came back when he moved a paw forwards towards her. She flinched back and raised her arm back up to cover her face again.
A few seconds later something wet touched the back of her hand. She moved her hand to see its face much closer than it was before, its eyes boring into hers in an intense emotion far from hunger.
"W-what do you want?" Her voice was no more than a whisper.
It whimpered in response and ducked it's head down to her side. It nosed gently at her side, seeming to be careful to not cause her anymore discomfort or pain. It settled its body down beside her as it continued what she guessed was seeing if she was okay.
It almost looked docile laying down beside her, as if it hadn't just left a permanent scar on the wolf that just left. It's fur looked so inviting too. Maybe a small touch would be fine.
Her hand hovered before she laid her hand on its back. It tensed and she almost withdrew her hand until it let out what she thought was a sigh and stopped nosing at her side and laid its head on it's stretched out legs. She took that as permission to continue.
She started brushing her hand over it's fur coat, much like she would a cat or the horses she got to pet that time her parents took her to a ranch. It was just as soft as she imagined. Maybe even softer.
The blur in her eyes started to spread and she could feel sleep at the edges of her psyche. It was getting harder to stay awake. The last thing she remembers is falling and landing on something soft before the darkness took her.
Yukari woke up to the sun shining down on her face and her mother's worried face. Her mother had awoken in the middle of the night because she had a bad feeling. When she didn't see Yukari in her bed, she panicked. She had searched the house top to bottom and in every hiding spot she thought Yukari was small enough to fit into. She had almost called the police when she opened the front door to see her daughter at the bottom of the stairs unconscious with a torn strip of fabric wrapped around her wounded side.
Her mom asked her how she got outside. She didn't answer.
She asked if she had met anybody. Yukari said no.
She asked how her side and back became so bruised. She said that she fell. Yukari didn't change her answers, no matter how many times she asked. She wouldn't have believed the truth. Her mother made no arguments, but she took her to the hospital immediately after.
When they got back, she was quarantined to her bed and her mother never left her side. She slept most of the time anyway, though it was kind of hard to do so when there was a huge coffin by her bedside. She managed though.
It was a few nights later when she was laying down on her bed during the horrible hour, staring up at the ceiling and trying to ignore the small ache in her back and her bandaged side when the howling started again. Since she's back home the howling has been quiet. Now it's started back.
Listening to the howls she couldn't help but think about the wolf from that night. Could that be him outside?
She peeked to her side at the tall coffin beside her that would be her mother when the horrors stopped. If she came right back before it ended, she wouldn't even notice, right?
Coming to a conclusion, Yukari eased off the bed the best she could without bothering her injuries and ran to the window. Her little eyes scanned the streets out in front of her until a flash of black caught her eyes.
Then she was entranced in a world of blue.
There were so many drafts of this for this one-shot to end up going in this direction, but I can't say I hate how it turned out.
For some reason I've just been having a kick with ShuYuka content, but YuRise and ShuAnn starts drawing blanks. The next chapter will be wither ShuRise or ShuAnn though.
But in case I don't make, happy early birthday to Junpei Iori.