Asylum (Chapter 27)
Title: Asylum - Chapter 27
Characters: Kato Shigeaki, OC, Tegoshi Yuya, Masuda Takahisa, Koyama Keichiro, Yamashita Tomohisa, Horikita Maki, Ryo Nishikido, Fujigaya Taisuke, Kimura Takuya, Gackt.
Rating: G13
Disclaimer: I own the story ONLY
Summary: Welcome to hell…
"This place has never been so smelly," Tegoshi whined.
He was full on crazy-Tegoshi mode. Shige had forgotten how annoying he was but at least they were out of the vents. The air in the rooms and the halls felt saturated, somehow heavy and difficult to breath in and there was a pungent odor and it got worse as they got closer to their destination.
His ankle was a constant throbbing pain and he was starting to limp. Tegoshi had been right, adrenaline rush was the best. However, that was not the worst part. The worst was the murmuring in his ear. He had heard them before but now the words were distinct and there was a single voice and it kept drilling into his head. He wondered whether the rest were suffering the same.
He kept quiet, though.
Of course you keep quiet, you are still an outsider. They don't trust you even if it's been how long since you came here?
A year, almost a year.
And they still keep things from you. Even Erika. She still has her secrets with Tegoshi. Do you want me to tell you...
A scream interrupted the voice in his head. They had been hearing those screams on and off but now they were too close so they hurried to hide in one of the rooms.
This particular room had a small window at the top of the door. The frosted glass was broken giving them a view of the outside when they brought the desk to the door. They wished they hadn't.
Those things were not only looking for them, they were killing each other. If they had nothing else to attack, they went against one another, like the ones outside now. There were four of them and they were practically hacking at each other and they kept going. Bloody and broken, they kept going.
They stopped watching. Those things hadn't seen them and they couldn't keep watching the gore outside.
"Can we move on from the vents in here?" Shige asked.
Tegoshi looked at Erika, who gave a small shrug.
"We are not sure. Probably, but if we aren't sure, we could take a wrong turn and end up lost. It's a labyrinth in there if you don't know exactly where you are going," Tegoshi explained.
"When we started using the vents, we got lost all the time before we figured out the right turns. But there are still places neither of us knows how to get to," Erika added.
Ah that we, that we never includes you. Look at them, they don't seem to...
A heavy hand on his shoulder stopped the strange rant in his head.
"We all hear them," Yamashita said. "None of us has said anything yet. Frankly, it's giving me a headache, a bad one. I hear your thoughts, the voices mirrored in them and I have my own voice talking crazy."
There was a silence for a few moments and the only sounds that could be heard were their breathing and pounds and thuds with a wet quality still coming from the outside.
Tegoshi broke the silence. "I didn't say anything because what they say has nothing to do with the people here. They say they have Massu and that he is screaming..." He ended in a shrug and scrunching up his nose. "It's a lie, I can tell," he ended with a dismissive wave of his hand. Shige was not sure whether he knew it was a lie or just hoping it was.
"What I hear is a lie too," Erika said and murmured something that sounded like ‘probably’ to Shige but he couldn't be sure. She looked at him and the corner of her mouth lifted a little. Shige frowned not really understanding but decided not to ask. Whatever they had been hearing was intended to drive them apart, to make them fight. Probably that way they would be more vulnerable.
"Mine was lying too. It's still more annoying than Tegoshi ever was," Shige said.
"Aaww, thank you."
"It wasn't a compliment, you idiot," Shige scoffed.
"Mine are just general doom messages. We will all suffer in hell, nothing we don't know already. Koyama, isn't something you want to say? Or maybe ask?" Yamashita encouraged.
Koyama looked away, focusing on the door, and shook his head. Yamashita was about to say something but changed his mind. Finally he said: "Okay, we need a way out of here. Those things are still out there. Do we wait until they leave?"
"Erika, maybe we could try what we did at first to know the way. Is Sophie here? Or anybody else?"
Erika shook her head. "I haven't heard anybody."
"What are you two talking about? What's your ghost friend got to do with this?" Shige asked since nobody else seemed about to.
"I would ask Sophie, or some other ghost, to go before us to tell us what was ahead. But I can't hear anybody now. And I doubt anybody would answer. I haven't heard Sophie since that meeting with Kimura sensei and G."
Shige squeeze her hand. He could imagine how she felt. Someone you have known for years suddenly stops talking to you has to hurt, whether that someone was dead or alive. The fact that now they knew that Sophie might be her grandmother could only be messing with Erika's head even more. God, Shige wondered how they had not gone completely crazy with all that was happening.
Maybe they had.
"Stop thinking so much about everything," Biceps said rubbing the sides of his head. And yes, Shige had used that nickname on purpose, knowing the man would hear him. Yamashita rolled his eyes but otherwise ignored the telepathic slander. Instead he said: "So, there is no one to ask to lead the way,"
"No," Erika answered.
"Liar," Koyama spoke up for the first time.
Yamashita sighed. His headache wasn't the worst he had ever had, but it was a constant throbbing at the back of his eyes that was getting slowly, but inexorably, worse. He had been paying attention to Koyama's thoughts all day, as soon as he had realized something was festering in the other man. Shige had been having a similar problem but it wasn't so bad, he wasn't entirely believing the voices, they were gnawing at his head but not as much as in Koyama's. Koyama really believed what the voices were saying, for some reason. Barely realized that the voices didn't come from his own head.
Erika was just staring at Koyama with wide shocked eyes. A reaction like that from the man was unusual to say the least, more like it had never happened before. Koyama usually went from being causally friendly to gently quiet. He had never really snapped at anybody. Not even when had been in the bad shape he had been when he first arrived at the institution.
"Kei-cha..." Tegoshi started tentatively, for once sensing the atmosphere, but was interrupted.
"How long have you been hearing her? Why didn't you ever tell me?" Koyama asked looking straight at Erika in agony and pent up anger.
"Who?"
"Stop denying it! She's always been here with me and you never said anything. She wanted to talk to me, and you never told me!"
"Who!? I don't know what you are talking about!" Erika backed up against the wall as Koyama's tall frame towered over her.
"Lin! She's been talking to you and you never told me!"
"I swear, if she did, she never said who she was."
Shige got closer to Koyama, but before anybody could do anything Koyama grabbed her neck with both hands and banged her head against the wall. He hadn't even consciously thought about doing it, not even Yamashita himself had been prepared for that.
They wrenched Koyama off her only after the three of them combined forces.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Tegoshi yelled.
Koyama kept throwing punches at them. "If you had told me..." He started but was silenced by Shige punching him.
Koyama screamed and ran for the other man, but Yamashita tackled him to the ground just in time. Tegoshi dove to pin Koyama's arms to the ground.
"She doesn't know what you are talking about!" Yamashita shouted right in the face of the man under him. "The only one who knows it's me and only because I took it from your head. Your dead girlfriend hasn't been contacting any of us. What you saw was not real so Calm. The fuck. Down!" Koyama stopped struggling and lay there breathing hard.
Shige was kneeling next to Erika, who was gasping and massaging her neck. Shige was gingerly touching the back of her head until she winced.
Tegoshi thought that Koyama was finally in control, so he slowly let his arms go, a part of him still expecting the other man to start resisting again. When he didn't, Tegoshi quickly crawled in all fours to where Erika was now sitting.
Yamashita looked beneath him to Koyama. He didn't need to ask if he had calmed down, he was focused on his thoughts. He would not be unprepared again.
Slowly, he let the other man go. Koyama turned on his side grabbing his head. Partly due to Erika's pain, and partly due to the mess in his head.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"Sorry! You nearly ripped her head off!"
"Shige..." Erika started.
"He is right," Koyama interrupted. "I just couldn't... I wanted to think she was still around."
"Maybe. I only know who the voices are when they tell me. But I would have told you. I swear."
"I know. I'm sorry." Koyama turned back to Yamashita. "I'm tired and I don't think we can win this. How can we when we don't even know what the hell we are doing?"
"So, what?" Tegoshi asked. "What do we have to lose? I don't want to live the rest of my life either locked up or having nightmares and hearing voices until I really do go crazy, do you?"
"Let's keep going. Whatever we do, we cannot leave the others." Yamashita stood up helping Koyama.
The five of them started walking, making sure the way was clear. They knew they were close. They heard screaming again. Their first reaction was to look for a place to hide but then they recognized the voices and ran faster until they were met by something they had not expect.
~~~~~~~
Masuda regained consciousness and figured he hadn't been killed. If he had been, he would hurt less. His neck burnt and his throat ached. When he tried to move his arms, he felt the pull of ropes biting into his wrist on his back.
There were people speaking. He couldn't really place the voices but he could hear what they were saying.
"Why are you doing this?"
"We are collecting what is ours," a female voice and a male voice said at once, perfectly synchronized.
Masuda opened his eyes and was thankful the lights were dim. His sight focused and he could see Kimura sensei and the other man both lying seemingly unconscious.
"When did this happen? When did you change?" Someone was asking.
"For a while now. They were still screaming inside until recently, but realized it was futile and now they are in peace, like you will be," both Fujigaya and Maki said at once.
"Where is Massu?"
That voice Masuda recognized at once. He tried to called out to Tegoshi but his voice was gone.
"Give in and we'll get him for you. You two can be together in the afterlife. You all can. We only need your bodies."
"Yeah, you keep saying that."
Masuda noticed he was hidden behind something, he couldn't tell what it was. He tried to move hoping he would be seen.
"Because it's the truth," the eerie perfectly synched voices kept saying. "And what can you do now? The two people who knew what to do are lying here unconscious. We need your bodies, but we don't need them unharmed, we can survive and repair any damage that may occur. You can accept us or we can torture you until you do. You are ours, you cannot escape."
Tegoshi was scanning the room looking for Masuda. He knew he had to be alive, but he was worried about the state he would be in.
"Yamashita, Maki is waiting for you..."
So they were going for the low blows.
Masuda probably gave in too. How long has he...
Tegoshi ignored the voice inside his head. That was a plus of being used to getting possessed, he could distinguish very well which thoughts were his and which were alien. He saw movement out of the corner of his eyes. Masuda.
"Massu," he said and darted towards him only to be pushed back so forcefully that he literally flew and crashed against a wall. Probably not the best idea to run like that.
He was now behind Maki and Fujigaya. He stayed on the floor, motionless, partly because he wanted them to forget about him but mostly because he felt dizzy due to banging his head against the wall. He could see Massu. He was awake but he could see the other man was hurt. Kimura was on his side, facing away from him.
He looked at where G was lying and was startled to see his eyes opened. He nodded and Tegoshi knew what he was trying to say. He knew what he had to do, he had remembered what he had told G after he had been possessed. He actually knew what to do. He just didn't like it. He didn't want to be the one to do it, either.
"We are tired of waiting." As soon as Maki and Fujigaya said that, a soft wind started around them. It grew stronger steadily and quickly until it became a whirlwind that impeded much movement. Even though the noise and movement, Tegoshi noticed that they were both saying something, chanting was more like it.
Sticking close to the ground, Tegoshi crawled to where Massu was still lying, curled up to the side, probably protecting himself as best he could from the wind and the things flying around them. They were lucky the room had been almost empty.
"Massu!" He wasn't sure the other man would hear, and he didn't want to shout and risk drawing attention to himself.
"Massu!" He repeated, this time closer.
Right when he thought the other man was unconscious or, god forbid, worse, he moved. He turned around and mouthed, "T-Tegoshi?"
Tegoshi gave a sigh of relief. "Hang on, I'll get the ropes off you." And the fact that he didn't add anything on the lines of 'in other circumstances I wouldn't mind you in ropes' was a true testament of how scared he was.
He looked up and saw the others untying the other two men on the floor. He helped Massu sit down, he looked pale, almost green, and around his neck there were deep dark bruises and scrapes. He had been obviously choked until he passed out. Thank god those things needed them alive... alive didn't mean in a good physical condition, though.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
The other man didn't answer, in a swift motion he enveloped Tegoshi inside his arms in a bear hug that cut his breath but he couldn’t bring himself to care, he just reciprocated with his own vise tight hug.
"Are you okay?" He repeated.
This time Massu nodded. "Are you?" He mouthed again. But this time Tegoshi noted that it was not that the other man was mouthing thing, his voice was raspy and nearly gone. Tegoshi lightly traced the marks on the other man's neck but before neither could do anything else there was a loud sound, like a great rip, which brought them back to reality.
In the middle of the room, the long old and run down table that had dominated the place before, was torn in half and there was something that could have been described as a tear in the air that went from the ceiling to the floor. It was irregular and there was a red glow that seemed to move and every time it did, glimpses of the other side was visible. There was something that looked like a red rock formation, like a sort of bizarre canyon and then the things started to come out.
None of them could have describe them, they were like nothing they had ever seen. And Tegoshi started to feel it. The crawling under his skin, the numbing in his extremities. It wasn't coming from the tear in the room and it didn't feel like when he had been possessed by the suzerain. There was a difference when he was possessed by a demon than when a spirit did. He couldn't explained it, only feel it. And now, they were not alone with the entities, there was something else, something that had once, not long ago, been human.
He, for it was definitely a male presence, was trying to get in, take over him but it wasn't threatening, not really. He held his breath when he realized what was going on, who was trying to take over. Tears were forming in his eyes but he forced them back.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw G moving but he was unable to stand. The man looked straight at him. Kimura seemed out, still, and Tegoshi was the only one who knew what to do.
They had to call the gatekeeper and this was their chance to do it.
Tegoshi reached out and grabbed Masuda by the neck to bring him close, crashing their lips together in a sloppy deep kiss.
He looked at Masuda, who was looking back wide eyed and shocked. Tegoshi smiled and brought the other man's head close to whisper into his ear "I love you," then, he kissed Masuda's cheek, lingering for only two seconds.
He turned around, not waiting for an answer from the shocked man. Tensing, he waited for G to make the move and he hoped it was fast because he might change his mind any second now.
G went for Maki. She was stronger than she should have and defended herself easily from G, who was more than twice as big and still wasn't more than a distraction. But that was all Tegoshi needed as he gathered every ounce of strength he had and ran as fast as he could and barreled into Fujigaya and, with the momentum of the run, they both stumbled into the gate that had been opened in the room. The mass of energy swallowed them.