Haruhi stared at the photos of Hayato Tarumi and Tsubaki Kamigamo that were posted on the bulletin board to remember them. She couldn't believe that two more Ouran students were murdered, and one was a person she considered a friend. Tamaki had not taken the news well. He was close to Tsubaki in high school, and even though they drifted away from each other since Haruhi and Tamaki began dating, he still cared for her. When Kyoya told the club members who the victims were last night in the group chat, Tamaki didn't respond. Haruhi called him as soon as she noticed his silence and he told her that he needed time to process it. So, when she called him this morning about school, he said he didn't think he had the mental capacity to go, but he would be willing to drive Haruhi there. Haruhi just told him to rest and had the twins drive her to school.
Haruhi placed down the bouquet of flowers where the little memorial was set up for the two and began walking to class with the twins.
"I can't believe two other Ouran students were murdered," Kaoru said. "This is getting scary."
"We should be fine though, right?" Hikaru asked. "Hayato and Tsubaki had connections to Seika. So if the killer is killing people connected to her, we're alright…right?"
Kaoru bit his lip nervously as he looked at the two of them. "I don't know. The Host Club was close to Seika when we were first years in high school. Won't that alert the killer?"
"I doubt it. I mean, no one in the club really liked her. The only person she even liked was…" Hikaru grew silent, and Haruhi could feel both their eyes look down at her. They were talking about Tamaki. She knew that Seika and Tamaki were close back in high school before she came, but after Tamaki threw her out of the Host Club for bullying Haruhi, they never really talked after that. She doubts the killer would be after Tamaki if they were targeting people close to Sekai, but she would be lying if a part of her wasn't worried that Tamaki would be on their list.
…
For the next few days, there was tension in the air. Everyone was on edge. Some students even had their bodyguards accompany them to school just in case the killer would show up and try to attack them. Haruhi thought some of them were overreacting since not all of them were friends with Sekai, but whatever made them feel safe.
Tamaki offered her his bodyguards to her, but Haruhi refused. She didn't need more people following her everywhere. She already had the Host Club who did that. Also, the club had Mori and Honey, who were martial arts champions. She thought the killer would have a death wish trying to mess with them.
It was Friday night, and the group decided to go to a joint to eat and play some pool. Haruhi had invited Mei and Kasanoda to join since Mei had been begging to go on a double date. Even though this wasn't what Mei was asking for, it was the closest she'd get with Tamkai's work schedule.
Haruhi watched at the table as Tamaki and Kasanoda played pool. Hikaru and Kaoru had just come back with people's drink orders and took a seat next to Haruhi.
"So, who's winning?" Hikaru asked.
"Do you really need to ask?" Haruhi snorted as she watched Tamaki's ball miss another pocket.
"Geez, this is almost too sad to watch," Mei said as she took her drink. She stirred it and took a sip. "Hmm, not strong enough."
"Not strong enough?" Kaoru scoffed. "I literally watched the bartender pour half a bottle of vodka into your drink. How is it 'not strong enough?"
"If I'm not gagging from the alcohol, it's not strong enough. I want to get drunk. Not buzzed."
"Geez, what's your alcohol tolerance woman?"
"Not much," Haruhi answered for her. "Also Mei, I don't think getting drunk tonight's a good idea. There is a killer out on the loose. I don't want something to happen to you because you're drunk."
Mei just waved off her comment. "Nothing is going to happen to me."
"That's what every victim in a horror movie says," Hikaru murmured before taking a sip of his own drink.
"And besides, I don't even go to your school. So what would the killer want with me anyway?"
"I can think of one," Kaoru said.
"Please enlighten me."
"You're dating the son of one of the most infamous yakuza groups in the city. Seems like that would be a good reason." He stated as if it were obvious.
"But the killer is not killing people connected to the yakuza." Mei rolled her eyes. "Even if they did, they would be dead in a matter of hours. Ritsu's family doesn't fuck around."
She made eye contact with Kasanoda and blew him a kiss. He blushed a deep red and tried to focus back on the game.
Hikaru made a gag sound to Kaoru at Mei's flirting and he chuckled. She glared at the two of them.
"Don't be jealous that I'm getting more action than the both of you."
"Who says we're not getting action?" Hikaru said with a sly smirk.
"Oh yeah, I forgot you have a girlfriend. Whatever the fuck her name is."
"Shiori."
"Where is Shiori anyways?" Haruhi asked. "Didn't you invite her?"
"Her parents are not letting her out after dark because of the murders, but I plan on visiting her after this."
"So, that means I'm Ubering home then." Kaoru chuckled. Hikaru playfully jabbed him in the side.
Haruhi smiled at them. She was happy that the twins were finally putting themselves out there and dating. They had been on a few dates with girls, but none of them interested them until Hikaru and Shiori were in a history class together and partnered up. They had known each other from the Host Club, but since Shiori was always one of Tamaki's guests, they never really talked. However, in class, they found out how much they had in common and soon began dating. If Haruhi could remember correctly, it's almost been a year for them.
Kaoru had a girlfriend for a few months before she had to move back to England. They were long-distance for a bit, but they both decided that it would be best to break it off since they didn't know when the next time they would see each other, but they remained friends.
Haruhi took a sip of her drink and went back to watch her boyfriend play pool. He hit the ball and it made the 8 ball go in the pocket. Usually, that would mean he won the game, if he still didn't have five striped balls left. At least he tried his best.
…
Once Haruhi got home, she spent a little time with her father before he had to head off to work, and then she began studying. Even though it was midnight, she wanted to get some reading done. With everything that has been going on, she's begun to fall behind, but she was committed to catching up. Even if that meant being up all night. She literally had to bribe a tipsy Tamaki that she would spend the night at his house next week if she could go home and study alone.
Haruhi jumped awake at the sound of the landline ringing and looked at the clock. It was 3 am. Damn, she must've been tired since she barely read ten pages. She rubbed her eyes and looked over at her landline, which was still ringing. She picked it up and saw that there was no caller ID. It could be her dad calling from the bar. Usually, when his phone died he would call the landline to inform her, and for some reason, the bar number never had caller ID.
"Hello?" She yawned answering the phone.
"Hello, is Ranka Fujioka home?"
"No, sorry. Can I take a message?" Haruhi leaned her head in her hand. Irritated that some guy was calling her her father at three o'clock in the fucking morning.
"Uh, yeah…uh, sorry. I know it's late, or er…well early."
The man on the other side of the phone was acting awkward. He was cursing to himself. Haruhi was beginning to become more intrigued. What did this man want with her father that made him so nervous to speak to her? Could it be possible that he had a new boyfriend? A small feeling of joy warmed her heart at the possibility. It had been so long since he had been in a relationship. Almost five years if she remembered correctly. She just wanted him to be happy.
"Look, my name is Yamato. I am your new neighbor in apartment 205. Ranka had planned to come over to drop off medication for me. I broke my leg last week, and since I live alone Ranka offered to get it for me. I took a nap since the medication makes me tired and woke up a few minutes ago and didn't see a text or call from Ranka about it, so I wanted to see if he was alright."
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Haruhi apologized and got up from the couch. "My dad is at work right now, but I remember seeing some medication on the table, so I can check to see if it's yours."
"Thank you so much. I would really appreciate it."
Haruhi began walking over to the kitchen. She was a little sad that this wasn't her dad's new boyfriend, but she was glad that her dad was taking time out of his day to help out a neighbor. He has always been friendly like that, even if the person didn't reciprocate.
Haruhi rummaged through the few pharmacy bags that were on the table before she came across a name that wasn't her or her father's.
"Yamato Fujino?"
"Yes, that's me."
"Ok, thankfully he grabbed your medication. He must've been busy that he forgot, but he can bring it by tomorrow."
"Actually…if you don't mind, could you bring it to me now?" He asked, still seeming apologetic. "I'm just in so much pain right now that I don't think I'll be able to fall back asleep without them. If not, it's fine. I could find a way to cope with the pain…"
"No, no. It's quite all right." Haruhi reassured him. "Let me just put on some shoes and I'll head over."
"Thank you so much. I appreciate it." He thanked. "Your family has been nothing but kind to me. I guess it's true when the other neighbors said you two are cut from the same cloth."
Haruhi chuckled as she slipped on her sandals. "Yes, that's something I'm very proud of."
"Your father is very proud of you too. He always talks about your accomplishments whenever he's over."
Haruhi smiled. Even though she would tell her dad that most of the things she did didn't mean anything thing. She always was flattered when he bragged about her. Although she wouldn't admit it. Also, he mentioned her father coming a decent amount of time. So maybe they were a thing?
"Oh, he does?"
"Yes, he does. He talks about how you've always been at the top of your class and that you even filled out all the paperwork by yourself to get into Ouran Academy. That is something to be extremely proud of. I heard they only bring in one scholarship student a year."
"Yeah, that's one of the things I'm most proud about."
"He also said that you were training to be a lawyer, just like your late mother. He says you have a fighting spirit just like her and you'll be a great lawyer."
"Seems like he talks to you a lot about me." Haruhi teased. Hoping the hint she was throwing at him would uncover his and her father's relationship.
Yamato laughed. "He sure does. He also talks to me about your friends too. He does say some choice words about your boyfriend though."
Haruhi rolled her eyes. She knew that her father wasn't the biggest fan of Tamaki, but she thought that after four years together he would finally accept their relationship and begin trying to like Tamaki. She's going to need to have another talk with him.
"Yeah, he sure likes to do that." She pocketed Yamato's medicine and switched the phone to her left ear. "I'm about to head over to your apartment and I'm on the landline, so I'm going to need to hang up."
"Oh, ok. No problem. The door should be unlocked."
"Unlocked at 3 a.m.? That's not very safe."
Yamato chuckled. "Yeah, well. I thought your father was going to drop off the medicine, so I kept it unlocked for him."
"Yeah, sorry about that again."
"It's no problem. You're bringing my medication to me now, so it's all dirt under the rug."
"Ok, I'll be there soon."
Haruhi went to hang up the phone, but Yamato's voice stopped her.
"Oh, and Haruhi?"
She placed the phone back to her ear. "Yeah?"
"Be safe. You don't know what type of things are lurking out there in the middle of the night."
He then hung up.
'That was weird.' She thought but just brushed it off.
She headed over to Yamato's apartment, 205. Haruhi knocked on his door to alert him that she was there before opening it.
"Hello, Yamato? It's Haruhi, I'm going to put your medicine on the kitchen table if that's ok?" There was no response. "Yamato?"
When there was still no answer, Haruhi just shrugged it off. Maybe he was in the bathroom and couldn't hear her. All that mattered was that he had his medicine. She walked over to the kitchen and put his medication on the table.
"Alright Yamato, I put your medication on the table. I'm going to head home. If you need anything else, you can call us later today. I hope you're able to fall back asleep."
There was still no answer and Haruhi took that as her cue to leave. For someone so talkative on the phone, he sure was quiet in his apartment. She began heading towards the door and stopped when she noticed that his bedroom door was slightly ajar. She knew that it was rude to invade someone's privacy by going into their room without their permission, but something seemed off to her. She could barely see an outline of a figure through the crack of the door, and it seemed to be leaning against the wall. Haruhi began to worry that Yamato might have hurt himself trying to get to the living room to greet her and she wanted to make sure that he was ok. She went over to his room and knocked on the door.
"Hello, Yamato? You're not responding and I just want to make sure that you're ok." There was still no answer, and Haruhi wouldn't be able to live with herself if she left without checking and something did happen to him. "I'm coming in."
She opened the door and what she was greeted with was horrifying. The room was trashed with clothes and furniture scattered all over the room. Blood was smeared on the walls, accompanied by what looked like slash marks from some type of weapon. The Queen mattress was toppled over and had bloody handprints smugged into it as if there was a struggle on it before it was thrown to the floor. There were also deep stab wounds into it, one having blood stained around it.
Her eyes then travelled the trail of blood on the floor to the man it had come from. Yamato, a middle-aged man that Haruhi had seen in her neighbourhood for quite a few months, was sitting up against the wall lifeless, a horrified expression plastered on his face and multiple stab wounds in his chest and neck.
Haruhi quickly covered her mouth before she could let out a scream. She couldn't believe what she had just seen. A man had just been murdered in her apartment complex, but it didn't make any sense. She was just on the phone with him only a few minutes ago. How the fuck did this happen in such a short amount of time? There is no way that was possible.
Then Haruhi noticed something drastic. The dead Yamato didn't have any cast or brace on his leg. Also, if he did have a broken leg, there was no way he could've trashed this room like this, most likely trying to save his own life…and now that she thought about it. The man's voice over the phone didn't sound older. He sounded around her age…
It was a fucking setup!
Haruhi turned to run out of the apartment, but as she turned, the killer was already behind her. Before she could react, he went to slash her side with his knife. Haruhi let out a pain-filled scream and out of instinct punched the killer in the face. He wasn't prepared for that amount of strength coming from her and staggered back a bit, giving Haruhi enough time to get back into Yamato's bedroom to separate him from her. However, as she tried to close the door, the killer used his body as a barrier between the door to keep it from closing and continued to try slashing her with his knife. He was able to graze her a bit with the blade, but Haruhi began slamming her body against the door to try and get the killer back into the other room. She could hear him grunting with each body slam she did and could feel the door closing more and more. With one last strong slam, Haruhi was able to close the door and lock it. Finally, with a barrier between the two of them, Haruhi could look at her wounds. The gash on her upper arm was pretty thin. As if it was like a paper cut, but more painful. However, the gash on her side was bleeding a lot. Her clean white shirt was now stained with dark blood as it oozed out of the cut. She whimpered as she held her hand to her side, trying to put some kind of pressure on it to try and stop the bleeding. It didn't look too deep, but fuck did it hurt.
There was pounding on the door and Haruhi let out another scream from the sudden noise.
"Leave me alone!" She cried out. "Leave or I'm calling the cops!"
The banging stopped and there were a few moments of silence before Haruhi could hear a long high-pitched sound as if something had just been turned on.
"I've got to say, for someone so petite, you sure do pack a punch." The killer snickered. The same voice from over the phone. "I'm really impressed."
"I said go away or-"
"Or what? You're going to call the police?" The killer laughed. "Don't you remember that you left your phone in your apartment sweetheart?"
Shit, he was right. Haruhi had left her phone on the table where she had been studying. She didn't think she would have needed it to deliver medication to her neighbor. She could cry, she had no idea what to do. Everyone was asleep in the complex and no one would be able to hear her unless she screamed very loud. But since no one heard Yamato struggling, even her, there could be a chance that her cries would be ignored as well. There was no chance of her escaping out of the window since they didn't open wide enough for an adult body to fit through. She was ultimately fucked, unless she fought back. There was a huge chance of her losing, but if she was going to die tonight, she wasn't going to die without a fight. She began searching the room for any type of weapon that she could use and her eyes landed on a thin vase. It might not do too much damage, but it could be enough for her to get away. She grabbed it and held it tight in her trembling hands.
"You're awfully quiet in there." He knocked on the door. "Come on, let me in. I don't plan on killing you. All I want is to talk!"
He used his fist to punch through the door, causing Haruhi to cry out again. She knew her apartment complex had cheap doors, but she didn't think someone could put their entire arm through it.
With a hole now in the door, the killer used his arm to find the handle to unlock the door. Haruhi panicked. She needed to do something quick or he'd be in the room with her at any second. Without thinking, she used the vase she had to hit his hand. He let out a loud curse and retracted his hand from the hole. He then looked through the hole at her so she could clearly see his Ghostface mask. She couldn't see it, but she knew he was smirking under it.
"Well, well, aren't you a feisty one? I like that. It's always more fun when the prey fights back. Makes the hunt more satisfying!"
"What do you want with me? I have nothing to go with Seika or her family."
"I don't give a shit about Seika." The killer seethed. "I want you!"
He kicked the door, and since it was already weak from him pounding on it, it immediately flew open. In an instant, he charged at Haruhi, who was just barely quick enough to dodge him. She used the vase to hit him in the face.
"Fuck! What is with you guys and fucking vases?!"
She hit him again, making him curse even louder, but when she tried to hit him again, he grabbed it.
"Enough!" He took her weapon from her and threw it to the wall, shattering it on impact. He then grabbed Haruhi's neck and pinned her to the wall. His long, slender fingers squeezed the sides of her throat. Just barely allowing her to get air as if he was teasing her with it. "I've always pictured this in my dreams. My hands around your throat. You gasping for air. It truly is erotic, isn't it?"
Haruhi tried to loosen the grip around her neck, but his hold was too tight on her. He brought up his knife and began tracing it along her cheek until it was under her chin. He was having fun torturing her. Was this what he did to the other three victims before killing them? Playing with them as if they were his toys until he got bored.
She needed a way to get out of this, and from how he had his body pressed up against her, it was hard for her to move. But she was able to move her legs a bit. She just sure hoped that this guy truly was a "guy" down there.
"What do you want with me?" Haruhi gasped out. Trying to distract him.
The mask looked away from the knife and made eye contact with her. He stared at her for a few moments before he finally answered. "You affect people with your presence, even me. I am doing all of this because of you."
"Because of me? How-"
"All the people I have killed have been a nuisance to you. Even that fish-lipped bitch who kept flirting with your man. You might be good at hiding your emotions, but I can see right through you. I could see the irritation in your eyes. Especially since your boyfriend always flirts back."
"You don't know him!" Haruhi hissed, she couldn't believe she was fighting with a killer about her boyfriend, but she felt like she had to defend him.
"Are you sure about that?" The voice chuckled menacingly. "I know all of the members in that ridiculous Host Club of yours. Tamaki Suoh, Kyoya Ootori, Takashi Morinozuka, Mitsukuni Haninozuka, Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin. Hell, even Renge Houshakuji." He leaned his face closer to hers. "And you, Haruhi Fujioka."
Haruhi took the opportunity with his guard seemingly down to knee him in his groin, and luckily, she seemed to have hit her target. In an instant, the killer let out a loud groan and released her as he hunched over in pain. Haruhi ran past him and headed toward the door, but fell as the killer grabbed her ankle. He tried to crawl on top of her, but Haruhi kicked him in the face, making him fall back again. She then got up and sprinted out of the apartment, where she was greeted by the landlady in her pyjamas and hair rollers.
"Haruhi?" The landlady exclaimed as Haruhi ran into her.
"We have to go!" Haruhi cried as she tried to push the landlady away from the apartment. "We have to go before he gets up!"
"What's going on? Why were you in Yamato's apartment this late." She then noticed Haruhi's appearance and cried worriedly. "Oh my god, did he do this to you?"
Haruhi shook her head, still trying to get the landlady away. "No, Yamato's dead. The killer is in there. We have to go before he kills us!"
Without a second thought, the landlady let Haruhi drag her away. She knew Haruhi wouldn't feel safe in her own apartment, so they went into her office to call the police. Haruhi sat in the office and cried and the landlady tried to tend to her until the police and ambulance came. She barked at her husband to get her supplies and to keep a lookout for the police and the killer. Within a matter of minutes, the police sirens were heard and they were surrounding the apartment complex. The landlady brought the paramedics to Haruhi, who was still seated on the floor crying. Holding onto the painful gash on her side. With help, she was able to get on the gurney and was rolled into the ambulance.
"I have to call my dad." She cried. "I have to let him know where I am."
"We'll call him at the hospital." The female paramedic assured calmly. "Let's just tend to you right now."
