Everlasting Spark ~DARK 04~
She was floating in nothingness. Heavy fog surrounded her. There was no ground below her feet and yet she tried to take a step forward, what other option would she have anyway? Chiyo took a few steps, but it did not seem like she was moving forward at all.
What was this place?
The thick fog made it hard for her to see, but she felt as if she wasn’t alone. An unsettling feeling creeped over her, but her feet dragged her into a certain direction. It was as if something called for her.
“You finally came,” a feminine voice said.
“Who’s there?!” Chiyo tried to cry out, but the sound of her voice came out muffled.
Suddenly she saw a faint silhouette of what she assumed was the woman that called out to her before.
“You’ve finally come,” the woman’s arms reached forward and her hands cupped Chiyo’s face, “my Lilith.” The touch felt so familiar for some reason.
“Lilith…” the woman said, “why did you leave Adam?”
Chiyo’s eyes widened. There was no way, could it really be? She wanted to say something, call out to the woman in front of her, but there was no voice coming out.
Soon enough, she was alone in the foggy darkness again.
Rocking back and forth, back and forth. Like a baby in a cradle.
It had been a while since Chiyo felt so warm. She wanted to stay there forever, wherever this place was. But where was she? And what was this familiar scent?
Lavender and honey.
Shuu.
Chiyo moved her head slowly, the terrible headache starting to become more prominent. It must have been from before when she hit her head. She opened her eyes and saw his broad shoulders in front of her.
Was he carrying her?
Groaning softly, she rested her chin on his shoulder, messy blond locks tickled her cheek. He didn’t react.
“What happened?” she asked.
Her voice was groggy, and her head increasingly felt like someone has been pounding at it with a massive hammer for hours on end. She could see some of the other’s walking along the forest path in front of them.
“The limousine crashed,” Shuu said.
So, they were walking home? Chiyo leaned more into Shuu and closed her eyes again. She needed a little bit more rest and even though she knew she shouldn’t, she still couldn’t help but enjoy being this close to him. Just for a little while longer, she thought. Just for a little while she wanted to pretend that nothing bad ever happened between them; that everything was fine.
She couldn’t help but destroy the illusion.
“Why did you kiss her?”
Shuu stopped abruptly in his tracks.
“Get off.”
“What– “
“I said get off, are you deaf?”
Reluctantly, she complied.
Her legs felt wobbly against the ground, but Shuu did not seem to care and continued to walk ahead of her.
“Wait,” Chiyo said.
Shuu turned around. He was annoyed, she could clearly see it on his face. The way he looked at her practically screamed to carry on speaking already.
“Don’t you think it’s enough already?”
Her voice strained, trying to keep herself composed. She really did not want to cry in front of him and she clung onto that resolution desperately. How long did he intend to keep on going like this? Clearly neither of them was happy.
“Don’t you think you have proven your point enough?” she said, “I understand, you hate me, so stop it already.”
“Prove a point?” he huffed, “There is no point to prove. I could not care less about you.”
Lies.
Chiyo took in a deep breath. This was all too much for her to handle.
“Then why? Why do you keep on hurting me on purpose?!”
It was horrible having to admit that what he did actually hurt her. But how was she supposed to go on? There was no way she could go on living with him when he kept doing this to her. The whole thing seemed like a sick and twisted joke.
Her voice came out louder than she intended and made the others, who were already further ahead of them, turn around to see what was going on.
Shuu was taken aback but the girl did not leave him any time to react.
“Why did you show up to save me when I was being attacked, only to push me away moments after?! Why do you kiss others in front of my eyes?! Why do you do with my body as you please and then pretend nothing ever happened?! Yes, you’re so indifferent, aren’t you?!”
There was exactly one thing Chiyo hated about Shuu, and it was how he always pretended he didn’t care about anything. Her face felt hot, angry tears streaming down her cheeks, her resolution not to cry in front of him long forgotten. Out of breath from yelling all the things she kept inside her for so long, she looked up at him. Seemingly unfazed, he stood in front of her.
“Get off your high horse already. I don’t care about you in the least anymore,” he said. His voice seemed calm. Forcibly disinterested; she did not buy it.
“You’re such a bad liar,” Chiyo said in disbelief, “you can’t even look me in the eyes when you say that.”
“Do you think I owe you anything?” he made a step forward, glaring at her. “You’re the one coming here suddenly, expecting what exactly? Hospitality? Don’t make me laugh.”
Chiyo was speechless. Shuu rarely got angry in a way that he raised his voice like that. It scared her. Would he be able to do harm to her if she kept on pushing? Probably.
“Cut it out immediately, both of you!” Chiyo saw Reiji come closer out of the corner of her eye but kept on glaring at Shuu. His voice sounded distant to her.
“We have other, more pressing issues to take care of and all you can think about is starting this pathetic fight in front of everyone and put your pitiful failed relationship on display? You truly are good for nothing.”
They both turned to glare at Reiji. At least one thing they could agree on.
“Hurry up already,” he said, “Chiyo, I need you to fill me in on every detail about your encounter with Mukami Ruki, make yourself useful in some way at least.”
He turned to Shuu: “And you, frankly I do not care about what you do, as long as you keep out of the way.” Chiyo felt as if she saw Shuu roll his eyes at his younger brother before he put his earbuds back in and took off, leaving her behind with Reiji. She couldn’t help but actually feel embarrassed, it wasn’t really comforting to know that the whole family now was witness to how broken her relationship with Shuu really was.
She wanted to die.
Reiji was serious when he said he wanted to hear every little detail about her encounter with Ruki. She even had to explain her weird Mocha incident, which was the reason she ended up in the alleyway in the first place. There was not really much to deduct from this though, as she could be replaced with any other girl. Vampires did hunt for humans occasionally after all. On further thought, their meeting was hardly a coincidence.
When they arrived at home Yui told everybody about the weird dream she had while they were knocked out. A mysterious person had called her Eve and told her that she needed to find her Adam. Chiyo was not an expert on Bible studies, obviously, but it did not elude her that both their dreams mentioned Adam. She decided to keep the information about her own dream to herself though. Something told her it was not the right time to bring it up.
“Why did you leave Adam?”
That was what the mysterious woman in her dream had asked, but who was she? Chiyo had her suspicions, but could it really be? The touch she had felt had been so warm and loving. Almost like the one of a… Mother…?
But that was impossible, wasn’t it? She never met her own mother, that woman died during childbirth, and she was sure she would have never been this gentle towards her if she were alive. And why did she call her Lilith?
“Do you think those Mukami bastards might be behind the crash?” Subaru asked.
“Yes, it all is a little bit too convenient don’t you think?” Laito said.
Well, all those things happening at the same time did seem a little suspicious, Chiyo agreed with that.
“Indeed, it would be best to proceed with caution,” Reiji said, “we should keep an eye on Yui as well.”
Chiyo rolled her eyes. Yes, of course, let’s protect the human girl, while Chiyo was the one who almost got sucked dry. Obviously, that didn’t seem to be their priority right now.
Well, she also did not tell anybody about that before so maybe the fault was hers.
Moving on, everybody agreed it would be easier if Yui chose one of them to keep an eye on her. Ayato was the obvious choice; he was always swarming her like a mosquito anyway.
Chiyo kept on brooding over her own strange dream. She needed to find out who or what Lilith was first. If it was in any way connected it must have been something biblical. She doubted there was enough source material in the Sakamaki family library though; Vampires and the Bible did not seem like that good of a match. Although Yui’s sole presence in this house would have you believe otherwise. She did manage to find a copy of the bible, though Chiyo really did not feel like scanning the whole book for any mentions of that name.
There was the option to scout the school library for more source material, but she could also ask Yui for help. The idea of being dependent on a human displeased her.
She decided to keep that option in the back of her head, hopefully she would never need it.
The next day Chiyo made a beeline to the library, not even thinking about joining classes that night. The thought of accidentally meeting Shuu there made shivers run down her spine. She tried to keep her mind on the task at hand but nevertheless it kept on wandering back to the fight from the other night.
You’re the one coming here suddenly, expecting what exactly? Hospitality? Don’t make me laugh.
There had to be some deeper meaning to his words. There always was with Shuu.
Well, he wasn’t wrong probably. Since the order came from King Karlheinz there had to be some reason. Some reason related to the dream perhaps. Which in turn meant she had to get to the bottom of this first if she wanted to make some sort of progress! It wasn’t like she could just ask for an audience and ask the King what exactly he tried to do. She’d lose her head in the process most likely.
Suddenly, she felt strangely cold. She looked around; was someone stalking her? Her heart nearly stopped when she saw a pair of steel-grey eyes stare at her. Luckily, she had her emotions in check and suppressed the need to scream her soul out.
Him again!
“My, you look like a deer in headlights. I can’t say I dislike that frightened look in your eyes,” Ruki said.
Chiyo frowned at him.
“Maybe I wouldn’t look like that, if you didn’t sneak up on me like a creep,” she said.
Ruki, who had been sitting at one of the desks, looked like he was lost in thoughts for a second, before he stood up and leisurely walked over to where Chiyo was standing. She was now trapped between him and the corner shelf.
“I’ve been here for quite a while now. Maybe little girls like yourself should exercise more caution while being in a school full of monsters?”
Chiyo looked up at him, still frowning. Life was hard when all of your opponents were taller than you. She didn’t feel comfortable in Ruki’s presence at all, his aura had something she couldn’t quite place. Still, she forced herself to stand her ground. She was not gonna give away that she was actually a little bit scared of him.
Ruki looked her up and down and it made her skin crawl.
“I like the bratty look on your face,” he said, “or rather, I want to know which punishment would turn it into one of complete obedience.”
Chiyo’s eyes widened in shock and her face suddenly felt way too hot. She took a step back and bumped against the shelf.
Ruki let out a soft laugh.
“Did that excite you?”
Chiyo tried to regain some of her composure and forced her face back into the frown she was giving him before.
“Obviously not,” she said.
However, she wasn’t so sure herself. She just hoped it was convincing enough for Ruki to finally leave.
The bell rang, indicating the end of the first period and Chiyo could feel the relief. Soon the hallways would be filled with students, which would hopefully put Ruki off from pestering her further.
“That’s too bad,” he said and made his way back to the desk he had previously been sitting at. He collected the book that was still laying there before turning back to Chiyo again.
“You know where to find me if you ever change your mind.”
Chiyo watched him walk out of the library as she tried to calm her nerves again. Her hands were trembling, and her heart was pounding like crazy in her chest. What was this feeling? Disgust hopefully?
Something about Ruki made her unable to keep her emotions in check properly. Usually, she had minimal issue with staying stoic or composed enough, it gave her the creeps how it didn’t work with that person. She hoped that her book hunt would put her mind at ease at least.
