~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~23~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You've all ruined me!" The wide-eyed woman sobbed with terror in her voice as she lifted her hands.

Where was the young boy with glasses to save me?

Lifted her hands and then swiftly brought the knife they held back down. Tears flew from the woman's eyes as she.

Where was the apathetic man to console me?

As she pushed her knife in. "God forgive me," the woman gasped.

Where was the smirking man to tell his jokes?

The woman gasped, "God forgive me," she pleaded.

Where was the almighty man to make his promises?

The woman pleaded, but there was no reply. And blood spilled out from my chest.

"Forgive me!" I shouted and then gasped as my eyes shot open and my body pulled itself up from sleeping sideways on a couch. I heaved in huge gulps of air accented with dry, scratchy coughs from the thick smell of burnt out candles now coating my lungs. My shaking, clenched hands sank into the plush, warm cushions below me. Still panting, I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness and quickly learned there was nothing to adjust to. The specks of light leaking in from the window in front of me were doing little to no help. A soft persistent scratching noise echoed from behind me. Other than that, I could only hear my own thumping heart. I shifted myself off of the couch and placed a hand on the wall near the window. Looking out and below, I could see flickering street lamps lining a deserted cobblestone road. My eyes scanned up to an empty void of a sky that reflected my own eyes back to me in the glass, as if returning my gaze. I quickly pushed away from the window as I registered that my body was completely naked except for a pair of underwear sitting against my hips. My hand floated along the wall as I traveled behind the couch, down a longer wall still and finally to a switch. I flipped it up and shut my eyes quickly as the sudden brightness burned them. As I slowly blinked them back open, I could see immediately to the left of me a living room, which was in quite a mess. A knitted blanket half-hung from the back of the couch where I had slept. Strewn about the floor were roses, their wet petals wilted from pressure. Hidden in the carpet were thick shards of glass, now revealed by the overhead lights.

My gaze promptly fell down to my feet. I lifted each one, checking for cuts and found nothing. In fact, I had no bruises or wounds anywhere. Although I remembered some still being prominent earlier that morning. I started to lift my arm that I had, just the day before, removed bandages from, but stopped suddenly. My hands. Dark red dirt accumulated under my fingernails and in the lines of my palms. As I furrowed my brow, I felt a tightness on my skin. I lifted my hand to my face and felt a thin rough texture across my mouth and down my chin. I licked my bottom lip and grimaced as the overwhelming taste of iron filled my senses.

"Let yourself be vulnerable with me," I could hear a man's voice say from my side. I glanced back at the couch. The shadow of a man pleaded with a blonde woman who sat in his lap.

My hands flattened against the wall behind me. "Yama-..." I began. My body pushed itself from the wall and dragged itself towards the scene. I noticed two knocked over stemmed glasses, broken against the table. One sat in a puddle of mahogany red wine that dripped down the table's leg and soaked into the carpet below. And there was a man. "Yamad..." I mumbled. It was on the tip of my tongue. This man was more accurately described as a large, unmoving body rather than an actual man, let alone a man with a name. Its face was covered in dampened hair. The skin on the body's neck was torn. Truly and impossibly shredded. My hand reached to my own, unharmed neck. The blood that pooled into the deeper cuts of the body that laid in front of me were still glistening and fresh. The marking of two, paired, deep holes repeated across its skin. My tongue slid across my upper and then lower teeth, unconsciously checking for fangs, but felt none. My attention turned to a crumpled red dress that sat at my feet. As I bent down to grab it, I noticed it was now decorated with specks of blood and wine. I gave a small shrug and pulled it over my head and down onto my body. I made my way to the kitchen on the other end of the home. Squish. I stopped in my tracks just as I passed the table. I looked down. "Blegh," I groaned as I felt the cake stick against the sole of my foot. I turned and lifted my foot to scrape it against the edge of the table, avoiding eye contact with the body.

I tossed the white, now red stained, towel that I had used to scrub my face and hands with into the sink. I found my shoes near the front door and slid them on. Without sparing a last glance to the living room, I made my way down the staircase and into a quiet bar below.

I stood at the base of the stairs and could see a man standing behind the counter. "You're still here," he said to the girl sitting next to him. His hand rested on her head. "Can I take that to mean, maybe-" I tore my eyes away, but still heard, "That Rika enjoys my company as much as I enjoy hers?"

"Her name isn't Rika!" I shouted at the memory before I hurried past the counter. I could see his face mirrored in the bottles lining the walls. His gleeful, drunk, flushed face as he cheered with his patrons. His amused-with-himself wide grin that he wore as he blatantly flirted. As I neared the door, I saw his eyes darken with grief as he mourned. And his face reflected in the doorknob, as well, as I turned it. Horror and tears filled his eyes while he screamed out in agony as I left the first of many marks into the flesh of his neck.

I couldn't feel the ground under me as I ran and my feet hitting the cobblestone with all my might was the only sound in the entire village that night. What have I done? I veered around a corner so quickly, I nearly lost balance. Yamada, what have I done? Tears fell from my eyes and flew off of my face behind me. "Oh god," I sobbed. My running became slower and slower, until finally I could only cling onto a brick wall. I shivered against it as I attempted to steady my breathing and felt a lump in my throat. As I coughed to clear the blockage, the familiar taste of iron came up. I quickly lurched my body around a corner and into an alley where I fell to my hands and knees and emptied my stomach onto the gravel below. The scents of desserts and wine and blood and acid wafted through the wind that pushed itself between the buildings. "Oh god," I wailed. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. "Please, no more," I sobbed. "Please." My body fell sideways. My cheek pressed against the dirt-dusted gravel. I squeezed my eyes shut, seeking comfort in the darkness behind my eyelids.

I heard the creak from a door opening and then light flooded the alley. "The hell's all that racket out here?" I lifted my head off of the ground to see a man standing in the doorway. "Nah, looks like some beggar," he yelled an answer back inside to a question I could not hear. The man came closer. "Ey, drunkard, get a move-" He paused, now just a few feet away. "Well hello, doll," he grinned down at me. "Need a little help there?"

With great effort, I lifted myself into a sitting position and peered up at him. "No," I answered coldly.

The man let out a deep laugh. "Aw, c'mon, don't be such a bitch. With a cute face like that." He came closer and reached forward, gripping my face in his hand and squeezing hard. "You been crying, bitch? I'll give 'ya something to cry about," he grunted as he pulled my head up, lifting me to my feet.

"Leave..." I muttered as I dug my heels in, preventing him from leading me back to the door, "me," I raised my leg, "alone!" I yelled as I kicked the back of his leg, which buckled in pain.

"Are you fucking-" The man started, turning back to me. His eyes were enraged.

"Damn, Kakoro. Are you getting beat down by a little girl out here or what?" A second man snickered from the open door.

Before I could begin to move, the first man, Kakoro, stood back up and grabbed me by my arm. "She's fucking wiley, man," he hollered back to his friend. "Don't just stand there and watch, Hara!" The man roughly pulled my arm and pressed my body into his, trapping me into a bear hug.

"Let go!" I yelped. His grip was too tight to break free. But I knew I could make an escape if he moved to drag me to the door again.

"She's like a fuckin' alleycat" Kakoro grunted while laughing again. "But free pussy doesn't fall from the sky every night. Must be my birthday." His hand slid through my hair, gripped a handful and then yanked back. I bit my tongue, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of a gasp. "You're gonna make a real nice birthday present." He peered down at me, bringing his face close to mine. "You ever get fucked before, doll? Don't worry, I'll teach 'ya."

Splat.

Kakoro's grip on me unintentionally eased as he reached a hand to wipe the saliva off of his cheek and as he did, I pushed him away from me with all of my strength. My feet kicked against the ground to dash out of the alley, but before I took my second step, the other man, Hara, clenched my skirt's fabric and yanked me backwards.

"I'm gonna kill you after I split you into two, bitch," Kakoro sneered.

Hara held a knife to my throat. "Nah, he's bluffing," he chortled. "But if you try that spitting shit with me," the man's lips grazed my ear as he whispered from behind, "I'll kill you now and fuck you later." His knife pressed against my skin.

"Gross, man," the other man chuckled.

"Eh, I like my women quiet," the man behind me answered, nonchalantly. His hand wrapped around my front and pressed against my chest. I flinched, but said nothing. "Yeah, that's more like it," he murmured.

"C'mon, Hara. Bring 'er in before anyone passes by." Kakoro turned back to the door, gesturing for Hara to drag me behind.

"No, don't!" I yelled as Hara moved his hand from my chest and pushed me to walk forward.

"Tsk tsk, kitten." A familiar voice came from the sidewalk outside of the alley. "You couldn't be planning your first three-way," the voice continued as the man came closer, his long red hair dancing in the wind, "without inviting me, now could you?" Laito stepped into the alley, the light from the door illuminating an angelic light around him.

I could hardly feel the knife against my throat anymore. My legs shook in fear, but I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. "Lai-" I began, my eyes wide in shock.

"Yo, we found her first!" Kakoro grunted at Laito.

Laito, whose eyes locked with my own, smirked. "I haven't heard my kitten yell out my name in days," his head snapped to Kakoro's direction. "And you thought interrupting her would be the best action?" Laito took one step towards the man.

"Hey, hey!" Hara shouted. He held me tighter and pressed the knife in steadily. "One more step and this girl gets fuckin' cut."

Laito's smirk faded. "That's not very nice." His eyes emptied of emotion. "Yui, close your eyes," he directed.

I complied. And as I did, there were no longer arms around me. I tumbled backwards, my butt hitting the gravel, as the body that had been forcibly holding me up vanished, leaving only blood curdling screams that echoed throughout the alley. "Ah, Ahhh, AHHHGGG." I heard their shouts bounce between the two brick buildings on either side of us. "Oh God, what are you?" Cried out one of the men. It didn't matter which.