Fiction (Update)
Why, yes, back on schedule (even if barely so...)
Anyway, hope everybody enjoys reading, even if the chapter is a little shorter than the last ones. But I just had to go for the cliffhanger of doom... That aside, please tell me if you notice any grammar or spelling mistakes as I've gotten the impression my spelling checker isn't quite doing its job <.< ...then again, it might just be my brain failing...
Random cheers for the amounts of snow and cold this year - even if public transport pretends it's the day after tomorrow. It's awesome and it was even more awesome when a not-very-reliable source predicted -30°C for next week (doubt it's going to happen, but will be very happy if it does).
Now, without further ado:
Title: What Should Have Never Been Found
Part: 8/??
Genre: Suspense
Wordcount: ~2600
Warnings: life-endangering situations, cliffhanger.
Characters: Tezuka, Fuji,
Summary: Due to circumstances, Tezuka is forced to make an after school trip to a house belonging to friends of his grandfather. Fuji accompanies him and encounters something unexpected.
Disclaimer: PoT is not mine (which is probably for the better)
Prior Parts: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Eight
Fuji took a deep breath.
The person before him ought to be dead. As dead as the cats whose mangled cadaver had been placed inside his locker - not standing in front of him with an ill-omened smile on her lips. And he ought to be running as if hell was after him, yet his feet wouldn’t move.
The snow-covered ground around them remained silent and empty. Sunlight had never been so cold - yet since the last clouds had disappeared overnight the entire world had turned into white, frozen hell.
“Surprised?” Mori-san, or whatever being that had adapted her looks, tilted her head, copying a gesture so commonplace among Fuji’s female classmates. He fisted his hands inside the pockets of his coat, telling himself to remain calm - even though his mind was a mess of shattered impressions and he couldn’t even form a clear thought.
His lips wouldn’t move - whether this was from the cold, the shock or his lack of knowing how to respond, he did not know. But if he uttered a wrong syllable now ... One word was capable to decide fates, Yumiko had emphasized more than once, and Fuji could only pray he not yet spoken a foolish word to decide his own fate.
‘”Come in-“ was all he had said to the cat before he had abruptly realized his mistake. Had that already been fatal? His head started spinning.
Hadn’t things just started making a little bit of sense? Tezuka was the one of interest for the spirit, not him, and Mori-san ought not to have been involved, yet here he stood. Was their encounter with the cat even related?
...or was he perhaps trying to connect completely unrelated events to each other and ended up with a wrong conclusion?
An icy wind tore over the ground and Fuji shuddered.
Mori-san remained unruffled. Her curly white hair blended perfectly with the snow behind her and Fuji couldn’t help wondering what was going on. Had he been so utterly wrong?
What had he overseen?
“Are you mute?” Mori asked abruptly. Fuji’s head jerked up and underneath the smile painted on Mori’s face he could see darkness coiling. Those eyes did not hold the friendly sparkle of the woman he had seen on the photo.
There was cold amusement tainted by annoyance.
Whatever was happening, he could not afford to slip up here. Fuji pressed his lips together and forced his panicked mind to focus, to ignore the pounding of his heart for the moment.
He did not understand the situation, yet there was a chance that given time to put the pieces together he would be able to figure out. As he took one more glance at the woman in front of him, for the first time he consciously noted her attire - the thin grey cotton coat worn to a pair of matching loafers suited the image of a kind, elderly woman, but were not made to be worn in this weather.
Fuji eventually dared to speak: “You aren’t Mori-san.”
The smile widened. Those lips ought to have been blue from the cold long ago, yet they remained a soft pink. Unconsciously Fuji pulled his coat tighter around him.
“But don’t I look like her?” the woman in front of him asked, spreading her arms in a movement smooth enough to befit a person half her age. “If not, tell me who you think I am.”
Fuji bit his lip. The park was utterly abandoned; nothing but snow and trees and a couple of crows - and he couldn’t even hear the sound of the traffic anymore. How long had he been standing here already?
Steeling himself he continued. “You aren’t human.”
He should have become suspicious the moment he had entered the park and found himself all on his own. Many students used the park for a short-cut to school, so the undisturbed white surface ought to have struck him as odd at once.
“Indeed.” She chuckled. “But if you’re waiting for me to introduce myself, I’m afraid I won’t comply.”
Fuji frowned. The cold had numbed his face and he barely even felt his cheeks move anymore. “... what do you want?”
He dreaded the answer, even if he wasn’t certain he would receive one. In spite of the mind-blowing confusion a little voice in the back of his head insisted on reminding him of how the icy air was slowly killing all feeling in his limbs. If he moved now, he’d be unable to even run.
“You mean what use I have of you. I doubt my goals are of any importance to you.” She glanced toward the horizon, which sunlight and snow had painted blinding white. “Classes at your school start soon, don’t they?”
All sensible thought vanished from Fuji’s mind.
“As a matter of fact, I need you to call your friend.” The grin practically grew while Fuji’s face lost its last vestiges of colour. “You know which one. He’ll join us on the little trip.”
He stopped breathing as she stepped closer. “And you’ll be the reason he comes along.”
+ + +
Classes were about to start, when the phone resting in Tezuka bag abruptly started ringing. With an irritated sigh he pushed aside his math book and reached for the small device, wondering who would be calling him at this time.
He kept the phone with him for emergencies only, though people apparently did not understand his concept of “emergency”. Oishi had called him more than once late at night to consult on various topics concerning the members of their tennis team, Inui shared more data than Tezuka cared for and his mother enjoyed abusing the phone to send him grocery shopping.
As his eyes caught hold of the caller id however, his heart skipped a beat and he hurriedly pressed the 'accept' button.
"Fuji?!"
Why would his friend be calling? Fuji ought to be in the classroom three doors down the corridor - unless something had happened.
He pushed his chair back, stood and left class to head over to Fuji’s, his mind already entertaining infinity possibilities for what could have occurred. But the voice that greeted him made him stop cold.
"Is that you, Tezuka-kun?" Dark amusement coloured a smooth, female voice and a shiver ran down his spine.
"Who is there?" Tezuka asked, barely able to keep his voice from trembling. Icy air that penetrated the thin corridor windows easily burned in his lungs. He could see students hurrying toward the school outside, cars passing by - normality.
The woman on the other end chuckled, shattering the picture. "Please don't tell me you have forgotten me. You always enjoyed playing with my cat when you were younger. "
For a split second two pictures flashed in front of Tezuka's eyes, overlapping. Himself, barely older than seven, in a garden, trying to make a tiny black cat follow him - and dark red blood running down the blue-painted metal of their school lockers, an eyeball rolling toward him.
Tezuka's eyes widened. "Who is there? And what..."
He was interrupted by barely subdued laughter. "You're certainly going to remember me once you see me. But that aside, I guess you’re interested in what has happened to your friend."
Outside the world glittered white under a wide blue sky as if nothing wrong was happening. Tezuka remained silent, clenching his fingers around the phone. Hadn’t Oishi asked Kikumaru to accompany Fuji last night?
... but that had been last night. And Kikumaru, unlike Fuji, was not an early riser.
Before his mind could even begin berating himself for his oversight, the woman carried on. “Oh, am I wrong? You aren’t interested in that boy’s fate? How strange...”
Blood rushed into his head and Tezuka had to gather all his self-control to calmly pose the question that sent his mind into overdrive. “...what did you do to him?”
He could practically see the woman on the other hand smirking. “Nothing yet. But do you remember the pond at the park near your school? Let’s just say the ice is rather thin...”
Tezuka suppressed a curse. He turned on his heel and marched back to his classroom, not caring for the other students he practically ran over. The curious eyes following his back remained unnoticed - he needed to get to that park as fast as possible.
He did not even dare to think of what would happen if he failed.
“I’m waiting.” The voice whispered through the phone, soft, yet full of dark, barely veiled threats. “But don’t make me wait too long...”
+ + +
Tezuka grabbed his coat and disappeared from class before Oishi even had chance to ask him what was going on. Cold sweat was beading his back as he hurried down the corridor, disregarding more school rules at once than he had broken in all his three years at Seigaku before now.
Icy air hit his face the moment he left the school building, but he barely noticed. The frost made breathing difficult, yet his mind barely even noticed the burning cold filling his lungs. A hurricane raced through his head, tossing up memories, thoughts - and the logical part of his mind was screaming.
What was going on? Had Fuji not told him the truth yesterday?
His friend had appeared honest - or maybe that was merely what Tezuka wanted to believe? Maybe he had purposely accepted the wild story Fuji had presented him with, simply because deep in the back of his mind he had already sensed the truth ran far deeper.
But why now? Why the cat in Fuji’s locker - why target them when the spirit wanted to gain entry to a house more than 100km away from their school?
He sped up as the park came in sight, breathlessly glancing left and right to catch. The pond was a little to the left, hidden behind a tree grove and already his heart pounded loudly. Not a single person in the entire park - had he picked the wrong one?
Tezuka dared not to think of what could happen if he made a mistake now. He had no idea what was going on, what that thing wanted of him, of Fuji - yet he only knew he couldn’t let anything happen to Fuji. If he had been more insistent yesterday this might not have happened.
If he hadn’t allowed Fuji to accompany him to that house in first place, none of this would have happened.
Just when had he made the one wrong decision that had thrown two lives out of order? If it was only his own, it’d be already bad enough. That he had gotten Fuji right into this as well however was unforgiveable.
And should any further harm befall his friend…
Ice spread through Tezuka’s heart.
Instead of even trying to remember where the park’s paths were, he marched straight through the snow, barely avoiding stumbling over obstacles hidden underneath the white layer several times Horrible images haunted his mind - what if he was already too late, what if…
His eyes caught sight of the pond and two figures standing on the ice.
Obviously they had seen him as well. One of them - Fuji he guessed, but the sunlight and the snow were blinding his eyes and he could hardly make out more than dark silhouettes - raised its arms, waved frantically.
No sound reached Tezuka’s ears, yet he slowed down. Those waves did not bide him closer. It seemed rather that…
Fuji wanted him to stay away. The moment he stepped past the grove’s outer trees, he could hear his friend shouting, heard the woman chuckling - and could scarcely believe his eyes.
Mori-san stood on the ice next to Fuji, completely unruffled by anything. The expression on her face was nothing like Tezuka remembered it to be, her entire demeanor was that of an entirely other person. Yet she looked exactly the same.
Was this the same as what happened with her cat?
Tezuka’s stomach twisted and Fuji’s yell stopped his mind from depicting the conclusion.
“Don’t come closer! Tezuka! Stay away!” Fuji’s voice was hoarse, yet the determination carried over the last remaining ten meters of snow covered ground separating them.
Fuji did not move from his spot - what were they doing standing on the ice anyway? What convoluted power was at work here?
“Run away! She’s only using me so you’ll come! Don’t!” Fuji yelled.
Tezuka hesitated.
Mori-san chuckled, sensing his inner turmoil. Fulfilling her demands - regardless of what end those were for - could not result in anything good. Yet not to give in and abandon Fuji to his fate defeated the purpose he had come for.
“Don’t, Tezuka!” It was almost pleading. “Don’t do it!”
Fuji’s safety was his highest priority. Tezuka pressed his lips together and walked forward, ignoring Fuji’s cries for him not to, while his heart was slowly being torn apart.
“You need to step on the ice.” The Mori-san look alike told him with a faint smile when Tezuka stopped. “Otherwise…”
“Don’t!” Fuji interrupted her sharply. “Tezuka, think about it! This isn’t Mori-san; in fact this thing isn’t even human. Think about what might happen if you do what she wants you to. Those wards weren’t set up without a purpose!”
Tezuka’s voice of reason, barely audible over the pounding of his heart, piped up at that. While he did not know that things objective, the hints were already horrid. To take this further….
Fuji continued, calmer, but not any less urgent. “Your grandfather’s friends did not seal up their house so thoroughly if there wasn’t something potentially dangerous they were protecting. Tezuka, if this falls into the hands of…”
Neither of them had noticed the sudden darkening of Mori-san’s face.
Tezuka’s eyes barely caught what happened.
One moment Fuji stood on the ice, reasoning with Tezuka. Then a crack echoed like a gunshot through the silent park and before Fuji even had a chance to finish his sentence, the ice underneath him had given away.
Tezuka’s heart stopped.
Dark water sloshed over the rim of the fresh hole, but no trace of Fuji and in the back of his mind he could only think that this couldn’t be true, this couldn’t be happening and this could only be a nightmare stemming from the deepest abyss of his soul. Mori-san smiled darkly, gazing down at the icy water into which Fuji had fallen, unperturbed by the hairline cracks in the ice under her own feet.
“Your friend was talking a little too much for my likening.” She said to Tezuka. “As interesting as it would be, I don’t want to spend all day here watching you make a decision.”
Tezuka couldn’t tear his eyes away from the gaping hole, praying for Fuji to resurface. Just when the water stirred, Mori-san turned a gauging gaze upon him.
With a smile colder than the water she had pushed Fuji into she said: “You know, like this you’d probably have up to ten minutes to make your decision before your friend is beyond saving. But…”
An abrupt gesture from her made Tezuka glance up.
“That is too long for my taste.”
And normality shattered. Tezuka could do nothing but stare horrified as the ice closed up the hold in seconds, defying all laws of nature. His mind screamed - yet all he thought of was Fuji trapped under the ice.
Without oxygen.
Without a way to safe himself.
“Your friend has five minutes if he’s a good swimmer. Though given these conditions, I wouldn’t actually give him more than two or three.” Mori-san informed Tezuka lightly.
“It’s up to you now.” She continued, amused at the horror written all over Tezuka’s face. “I’ll make it easy for you. If you want to save him, agree with my terms and step on the ice. If you don’t, well, I don’t think your friend would blame you. ”
She shrugged.
“You’ve got two minutes, maybe less, so you’d help all of us if you could decide fast.”
tbc
Anyway, hope everybody enjoys reading, even if the chapter is a little shorter than the last ones. But I just had to go for the cliffhanger of doom... That aside, please tell me if you notice any grammar or spelling mistakes as I've gotten the impression my spelling checker isn't quite doing its job <.< ...then again, it might just be my brain failing...
Random cheers for the amounts of snow and cold this year - even if public transport pretends it's the day after tomorrow. It's awesome and it was even more awesome when a not-very-reliable source predicted -30°C for next week (doubt it's going to happen, but will be very happy if it does).
Now, without further ado:
Title: What Should Have Never Been Found
Part: 8/??
Genre: Suspense
Wordcount: ~2600
Warnings: life-endangering situations, cliffhanger.
Characters: Tezuka, Fuji,
Summary: Due to circumstances, Tezuka is forced to make an after school trip to a house belonging to friends of his grandfather. Fuji accompanies him and encounters something unexpected.
Disclaimer: PoT is not mine (which is probably for the better)
Prior Parts: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Eight
Fuji took a deep breath.
The person before him ought to be dead. As dead as the cats whose mangled cadaver had been placed inside his locker - not standing in front of him with an ill-omened smile on her lips. And he ought to be running as if hell was after him, yet his feet wouldn’t move.
The snow-covered ground around them remained silent and empty. Sunlight had never been so cold - yet since the last clouds had disappeared overnight the entire world had turned into white, frozen hell.
“Surprised?” Mori-san, or whatever being that had adapted her looks, tilted her head, copying a gesture so commonplace among Fuji’s female classmates. He fisted his hands inside the pockets of his coat, telling himself to remain calm - even though his mind was a mess of shattered impressions and he couldn’t even form a clear thought.
His lips wouldn’t move - whether this was from the cold, the shock or his lack of knowing how to respond, he did not know. But if he uttered a wrong syllable now ... One word was capable to decide fates, Yumiko had emphasized more than once, and Fuji could only pray he not yet spoken a foolish word to decide his own fate.
‘”Come in-“ was all he had said to the cat before he had abruptly realized his mistake. Had that already been fatal? His head started spinning.
Hadn’t things just started making a little bit of sense? Tezuka was the one of interest for the spirit, not him, and Mori-san ought not to have been involved, yet here he stood. Was their encounter with the cat even related?
...or was he perhaps trying to connect completely unrelated events to each other and ended up with a wrong conclusion?
An icy wind tore over the ground and Fuji shuddered.
Mori-san remained unruffled. Her curly white hair blended perfectly with the snow behind her and Fuji couldn’t help wondering what was going on. Had he been so utterly wrong?
What had he overseen?
“Are you mute?” Mori asked abruptly. Fuji’s head jerked up and underneath the smile painted on Mori’s face he could see darkness coiling. Those eyes did not hold the friendly sparkle of the woman he had seen on the photo.
There was cold amusement tainted by annoyance.
Whatever was happening, he could not afford to slip up here. Fuji pressed his lips together and forced his panicked mind to focus, to ignore the pounding of his heart for the moment.
He did not understand the situation, yet there was a chance that given time to put the pieces together he would be able to figure out. As he took one more glance at the woman in front of him, for the first time he consciously noted her attire - the thin grey cotton coat worn to a pair of matching loafers suited the image of a kind, elderly woman, but were not made to be worn in this weather.
Fuji eventually dared to speak: “You aren’t Mori-san.”
The smile widened. Those lips ought to have been blue from the cold long ago, yet they remained a soft pink. Unconsciously Fuji pulled his coat tighter around him.
“But don’t I look like her?” the woman in front of him asked, spreading her arms in a movement smooth enough to befit a person half her age. “If not, tell me who you think I am.”
Fuji bit his lip. The park was utterly abandoned; nothing but snow and trees and a couple of crows - and he couldn’t even hear the sound of the traffic anymore. How long had he been standing here already?
Steeling himself he continued. “You aren’t human.”
He should have become suspicious the moment he had entered the park and found himself all on his own. Many students used the park for a short-cut to school, so the undisturbed white surface ought to have struck him as odd at once.
“Indeed.” She chuckled. “But if you’re waiting for me to introduce myself, I’m afraid I won’t comply.”
Fuji frowned. The cold had numbed his face and he barely even felt his cheeks move anymore. “... what do you want?”
He dreaded the answer, even if he wasn’t certain he would receive one. In spite of the mind-blowing confusion a little voice in the back of his head insisted on reminding him of how the icy air was slowly killing all feeling in his limbs. If he moved now, he’d be unable to even run.
“You mean what use I have of you. I doubt my goals are of any importance to you.” She glanced toward the horizon, which sunlight and snow had painted blinding white. “Classes at your school start soon, don’t they?”
All sensible thought vanished from Fuji’s mind.
“As a matter of fact, I need you to call your friend.” The grin practically grew while Fuji’s face lost its last vestiges of colour. “You know which one. He’ll join us on the little trip.”
He stopped breathing as she stepped closer. “And you’ll be the reason he comes along.”
+ + +
Classes were about to start, when the phone resting in Tezuka bag abruptly started ringing. With an irritated sigh he pushed aside his math book and reached for the small device, wondering who would be calling him at this time.
He kept the phone with him for emergencies only, though people apparently did not understand his concept of “emergency”. Oishi had called him more than once late at night to consult on various topics concerning the members of their tennis team, Inui shared more data than Tezuka cared for and his mother enjoyed abusing the phone to send him grocery shopping.
As his eyes caught hold of the caller id however, his heart skipped a beat and he hurriedly pressed the 'accept' button.
"Fuji?!"
Why would his friend be calling? Fuji ought to be in the classroom three doors down the corridor - unless something had happened.
He pushed his chair back, stood and left class to head over to Fuji’s, his mind already entertaining infinity possibilities for what could have occurred. But the voice that greeted him made him stop cold.
"Is that you, Tezuka-kun?" Dark amusement coloured a smooth, female voice and a shiver ran down his spine.
"Who is there?" Tezuka asked, barely able to keep his voice from trembling. Icy air that penetrated the thin corridor windows easily burned in his lungs. He could see students hurrying toward the school outside, cars passing by - normality.
The woman on the other end chuckled, shattering the picture. "Please don't tell me you have forgotten me. You always enjoyed playing with my cat when you were younger. "
For a split second two pictures flashed in front of Tezuka's eyes, overlapping. Himself, barely older than seven, in a garden, trying to make a tiny black cat follow him - and dark red blood running down the blue-painted metal of their school lockers, an eyeball rolling toward him.
Tezuka's eyes widened. "Who is there? And what..."
He was interrupted by barely subdued laughter. "You're certainly going to remember me once you see me. But that aside, I guess you’re interested in what has happened to your friend."
Outside the world glittered white under a wide blue sky as if nothing wrong was happening. Tezuka remained silent, clenching his fingers around the phone. Hadn’t Oishi asked Kikumaru to accompany Fuji last night?
... but that had been last night. And Kikumaru, unlike Fuji, was not an early riser.
Before his mind could even begin berating himself for his oversight, the woman carried on. “Oh, am I wrong? You aren’t interested in that boy’s fate? How strange...”
Blood rushed into his head and Tezuka had to gather all his self-control to calmly pose the question that sent his mind into overdrive. “...what did you do to him?”
He could practically see the woman on the other hand smirking. “Nothing yet. But do you remember the pond at the park near your school? Let’s just say the ice is rather thin...”
Tezuka suppressed a curse. He turned on his heel and marched back to his classroom, not caring for the other students he practically ran over. The curious eyes following his back remained unnoticed - he needed to get to that park as fast as possible.
He did not even dare to think of what would happen if he failed.
“I’m waiting.” The voice whispered through the phone, soft, yet full of dark, barely veiled threats. “But don’t make me wait too long...”
+ + +
Tezuka grabbed his coat and disappeared from class before Oishi even had chance to ask him what was going on. Cold sweat was beading his back as he hurried down the corridor, disregarding more school rules at once than he had broken in all his three years at Seigaku before now.
Icy air hit his face the moment he left the school building, but he barely noticed. The frost made breathing difficult, yet his mind barely even noticed the burning cold filling his lungs. A hurricane raced through his head, tossing up memories, thoughts - and the logical part of his mind was screaming.
What was going on? Had Fuji not told him the truth yesterday?
His friend had appeared honest - or maybe that was merely what Tezuka wanted to believe? Maybe he had purposely accepted the wild story Fuji had presented him with, simply because deep in the back of his mind he had already sensed the truth ran far deeper.
But why now? Why the cat in Fuji’s locker - why target them when the spirit wanted to gain entry to a house more than 100km away from their school?
He sped up as the park came in sight, breathlessly glancing left and right to catch. The pond was a little to the left, hidden behind a tree grove and already his heart pounded loudly. Not a single person in the entire park - had he picked the wrong one?
Tezuka dared not to think of what could happen if he made a mistake now. He had no idea what was going on, what that thing wanted of him, of Fuji - yet he only knew he couldn’t let anything happen to Fuji. If he had been more insistent yesterday this might not have happened.
If he hadn’t allowed Fuji to accompany him to that house in first place, none of this would have happened.
Just when had he made the one wrong decision that had thrown two lives out of order? If it was only his own, it’d be already bad enough. That he had gotten Fuji right into this as well however was unforgiveable.
And should any further harm befall his friend…
Ice spread through Tezuka’s heart.
Instead of even trying to remember where the park’s paths were, he marched straight through the snow, barely avoiding stumbling over obstacles hidden underneath the white layer several times Horrible images haunted his mind - what if he was already too late, what if…
His eyes caught sight of the pond and two figures standing on the ice.
Obviously they had seen him as well. One of them - Fuji he guessed, but the sunlight and the snow were blinding his eyes and he could hardly make out more than dark silhouettes - raised its arms, waved frantically.
No sound reached Tezuka’s ears, yet he slowed down. Those waves did not bide him closer. It seemed rather that…
Fuji wanted him to stay away. The moment he stepped past the grove’s outer trees, he could hear his friend shouting, heard the woman chuckling - and could scarcely believe his eyes.
Mori-san stood on the ice next to Fuji, completely unruffled by anything. The expression on her face was nothing like Tezuka remembered it to be, her entire demeanor was that of an entirely other person. Yet she looked exactly the same.
Was this the same as what happened with her cat?
Tezuka’s stomach twisted and Fuji’s yell stopped his mind from depicting the conclusion.
“Don’t come closer! Tezuka! Stay away!” Fuji’s voice was hoarse, yet the determination carried over the last remaining ten meters of snow covered ground separating them.
Fuji did not move from his spot - what were they doing standing on the ice anyway? What convoluted power was at work here?
“Run away! She’s only using me so you’ll come! Don’t!” Fuji yelled.
Tezuka hesitated.
Mori-san chuckled, sensing his inner turmoil. Fulfilling her demands - regardless of what end those were for - could not result in anything good. Yet not to give in and abandon Fuji to his fate defeated the purpose he had come for.
“Don’t, Tezuka!” It was almost pleading. “Don’t do it!”
Fuji’s safety was his highest priority. Tezuka pressed his lips together and walked forward, ignoring Fuji’s cries for him not to, while his heart was slowly being torn apart.
“You need to step on the ice.” The Mori-san look alike told him with a faint smile when Tezuka stopped. “Otherwise…”
“Don’t!” Fuji interrupted her sharply. “Tezuka, think about it! This isn’t Mori-san; in fact this thing isn’t even human. Think about what might happen if you do what she wants you to. Those wards weren’t set up without a purpose!”
Tezuka’s voice of reason, barely audible over the pounding of his heart, piped up at that. While he did not know that things objective, the hints were already horrid. To take this further….
Fuji continued, calmer, but not any less urgent. “Your grandfather’s friends did not seal up their house so thoroughly if there wasn’t something potentially dangerous they were protecting. Tezuka, if this falls into the hands of…”
Neither of them had noticed the sudden darkening of Mori-san’s face.
Tezuka’s eyes barely caught what happened.
One moment Fuji stood on the ice, reasoning with Tezuka. Then a crack echoed like a gunshot through the silent park and before Fuji even had a chance to finish his sentence, the ice underneath him had given away.
Tezuka’s heart stopped.
Dark water sloshed over the rim of the fresh hole, but no trace of Fuji and in the back of his mind he could only think that this couldn’t be true, this couldn’t be happening and this could only be a nightmare stemming from the deepest abyss of his soul. Mori-san smiled darkly, gazing down at the icy water into which Fuji had fallen, unperturbed by the hairline cracks in the ice under her own feet.
“Your friend was talking a little too much for my likening.” She said to Tezuka. “As interesting as it would be, I don’t want to spend all day here watching you make a decision.”
Tezuka couldn’t tear his eyes away from the gaping hole, praying for Fuji to resurface. Just when the water stirred, Mori-san turned a gauging gaze upon him.
With a smile colder than the water she had pushed Fuji into she said: “You know, like this you’d probably have up to ten minutes to make your decision before your friend is beyond saving. But…”
An abrupt gesture from her made Tezuka glance up.
“That is too long for my taste.”
And normality shattered. Tezuka could do nothing but stare horrified as the ice closed up the hold in seconds, defying all laws of nature. His mind screamed - yet all he thought of was Fuji trapped under the ice.
Without oxygen.
Without a way to safe himself.
“Your friend has five minutes if he’s a good swimmer. Though given these conditions, I wouldn’t actually give him more than two or three.” Mori-san informed Tezuka lightly.
“It’s up to you now.” She continued, amused at the horror written all over Tezuka’s face. “I’ll make it easy for you. If you want to save him, agree with my terms and step on the ice. If you don’t, well, I don’t think your friend would blame you. ”
She shrugged.
“You’ve got two minutes, maybe less, so you’d help all of us if you could decide fast.”
tbc