Akamizu - 赤水 - Chapter 6 "The Haunted"
Title: Akamizu - 赤水
Author: Zion Shadowlet
Beta: butterflysaga
Characters: Uruha, Aoi, OCs
Pairing: Aoi/Uruha
Genre: Horror, Romance, Supernatural
Rating: NC17
Summary: After the sudden disappearance of his fiancé Usagi, Kouyou travels to a remote town to find her in a place known ominously as “Akamizu” where she is in the powerful grip of a strange man who has taken up residence there. But what the young Kouyou doesn’t expect is that he too will fall to the mysterious charm of this horrific place.
Warnings: Vampire Fiction. This isn’t your twilight style vampire story though. If you want a beautiful glamourized vampire story, this isn’t it.
Chapter 1 - Red Water | Chapter 2 - The Wandering Women | Chapter 3 - Love Demon| Chapter 4 - The Lonely | Chapter 5 - Fear
It still felt the same as the first time Yano realized as he stepped out of the cab and into the quiet town of Maya. Taking his time, he panned his gaze across the empty landscape void of any people or any living thing for that matter. The engine in car hummed in the background. In the distance, he heard the faint sound of a bird’s yelp piercing the cool air. He turned around and paid the hefty fee for the long cab ride there. Giving the driver a generous tip, he bid his farewell with a tip of his shaggy old hat and turned around. As the cab driver drove away quietly, Yano had a peculiar feeling in his gut that with that man’s departure, he had passed a definitive moment.
He was now alone. Unless of course Mr. Takashima was still alive. The townsfolk to him, hardly counted at people. They had gone about their lives unwilling to cease the murderous string of that monster. They had let him purchase that decrepit old mansion as his lair. Girl after girl after girl had come and they knew. They knew that ultimately they would die there and still, they had done nothing to prevent it. Were they cold? Yano wondered. Or was there something broken or twisted about them? Perhaps it was fear.
With nothing but a small sack and a suitcase, he made his way to the hotel. The sack was filled with the same three changes of clothes he had for the last four years, two ratty old dress shirts with matching black pants, a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with the New York Yankees logo written in the center. The T-shirt also had yellow mustard and sweat stains. Yano only owned one pair of shoes and he was wearing them now. In his suitcase, he carried with him a toothbrush, toothpaste, a comb, several books, a small journal, three pens, an audio recorder and his most precious item, an old semi-automatic that he had kept in a shoebox in the closet for the last 5 years. He never touched the thing but last night as he prepared for his trip, he had unearthed it from the dust and spider webs. Slowly he handled it the way a priest might treat the sacred items of the church. He took it apart and cleaned it. Japan had ceased to sell bullets for this make and he had none left in the box. The gun held the last bullets it would ever fire, two and when he looked at them in the lamplight, the light bounced ominously off of them as if the fates themselves had picked out these little drops of metal for something very important.
He wondered if a bullet could kill a vampire.
The innkeeper’s eyes widened in surprise and dread when he saw Yano walk in. He immediately stood up and leaning forward as if he were about to bow politely, his body in shock locked up and he stood there frozen.
“I know. You must be happy to see me,” The detective said sarcastically. Without wasting anytime, he reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a photograph of Takashima Kouyou. He had recalled the young man mentioning that he had played in a band. Using an internet search engine, he was able to find a picture that a fan had posted. In it, his hair was done up nicely and he was wearing make up and beautiful shiny clothes. It was highly unlikely that he had come to Maya looking like this but beggars can’t be choosers Yano said to himself. He presented it to the old innkeeper. “Have you seen this man?” he asked him.
With a silent nod, the innkeeper said he had.
“Is he here?”
“He checked out a room,” the old man stuttered. He had yet to blink. “But-um…well, he went up to Akamizu and left all his things here.” He didn’t know why he should tell this outsider so much but he figured that if he remained mysterious, that would only make things worse.
“How long ago was that?” To the innkeeper’s surprise, Yano didn’t seemed at all moved by the information.
“About 2 days ago…maybe more, maybe less…The days here…they all seem the same after awhile. It’s hard to keep track you see,” he laughed nervously. Yano had the feeling that behind the old man’s back, he was twisting his small wrinkly hands.
“Do you know if anyone from the town sent out a search party?” He was certain that they hadn’t but he had to ask if only to make a point.
“No, they haven’t.”
“Figures,” he said in a loud mutter and returned the picture to it’s home. “Do you mind sir if I take a quick shower here? And if it’s not a problem, I’d like to look at the young man’s room and the things he left. I’m not sure if you remember but I’m a private detective.” He placed his hands in front of him and stood up straight and it was evident that he was very proud if not a bit arrogant Compared to how he had appeared to Kouyou at the café, he seemed like a different person. He was calm, cool, detached. But he was a man of personas. Even now, Yano didn’t know which one he really was. Like masks, he switched them depending on what he needed but for the most part, he was more like an actor than anything else. He enjoyed his work because it had allowed him to live in the realest kind of drama. In a way, he saw himself at times like a vigilante or a public servant but in truth, he was just a man who got caught up in the story. He was the perfect person to be drawn into the myth of the vampire. It thrilled him and in this enthusiasm, the otherwise cowardly man mistook his desire to be a part of something special for bravery.
“The young man hired me to find his fiancé. I’m sure you remembered,” he continued. “Since he has yet to return, I think it would be in his best interest.”
The innkeeper was unsure. Informing the local authorities that the young man had gone missing was ridiculous in fact, he hadn’t even crossed his mind until Yano had said those words. But there was no police force in Maya itself nor were there firefighters. Most of the population was old or otherwise distanced from normal society. The mayor would have no interest and besides, what did it matter? What had gone in Akamizu they believed had nothing to do with them. Everyone pretended not to notice. They heard nothing, saw nothing, said nothing. It was a lie and they all knew it but to maintain their way of living, all of the townsfolk abided by this unspoken law.
“Alright,” he finally agreed. “Let me show you where the bath is and afterwards, I will bring you to the young man’s room.”
“Thank you.” Following the innkeeper to the back, he entered the small room and bringing all of his things in there with him, locked the door.
No one could be trusted.
***
He couldn’t understand why he was still here in this lonesome place.
It had occurred to him when he slipped out of his old kimono and stepped naked and filthy into the clean and cool water of the stream that he could easily and with little effort return to town, go back to the hotel, grab his things and disappear forever.
He wouldn’t go back to Tokyo. He wouldn’t go back to that old, dead life. The courage to face Usagi’s parents evaded Kouyou that he knew for certain. What words would he say? He could see himself sitting there across from them. As if they had never moved from the moment he had left them, they would be sitting in the center of their sofa, the father’s arm around the weeping mother’s. They would look up with their broken faces, their bodies bent over. At that moment, the mother would look oddly like Usagi. Her red tear stained face would be too much for him. Unable to face the intensity of their grief as it filled the room and came at him like a flood, Kouyou would look down ashamed. He would sit down quietly and the words would escape him. They would be caught in his throat trying to choke him.
And then the fear would take grip of his heart so forcefully that he feared it would squeeze the pulsing red organ so tightly it would burst. He would sit there, remembering in the blur of memory the young girl’s death, grappling inside with the myriad emotions that filled his soul with an electricity that sent his bleeding and shredded, dead heart back to life. Sorrow. Grief. Pain. Regret. Anger. Confusion. Love. And he would be ashamed that at that moment, he could think only of himself and not of Usagi or her parents. He would think only of the hunger to see the vampire again. Why, he didn’t understand but if the desire burned inside of him like a fire, the memories of Aoi felt like ashes rising free in the air and the sensation was itself beautiful.
With cupped hands, he brought the clear water to his body and began to wash himself. He knelt down and wet his hair, his face, his underarms, his chest. Was it the magic? Kouyou wondered. Or perhaps he really did love him? All he knew was that there was something in him that possessed him so thoroughly that inside felt empty in Aoi’s absence, a hole carved out perhaps by the sudden joy he felt when he was with him. Did it matter what it was? All that mattered now was that he needed him.
A bird’s cry pierced the air and cut through the silence that at this late hour filled the forest. Uruha instinctively looked up. Sitting perched on the limb of a tree gazing down at him he saw the bird. It’s large black eyes directed towards him.
Lying now outside of Aoi’s door, curled up with his white kimono around him loosely and his face up against the floor, he thought of the image of that bird of prey perched there as if it had been watching him all along.
The lantern light bounced off the smooth wooden floor of Akamizu. How long has he been lying there? Uruha had fallen into a daze staring off, his eyes out of focus as night crawled forward. Morning would be coming soon.
Second after second, moment after moment, clawing forward slowly. He would wait there until Aoi immerged. He wasn’t going to go anywhere. There was nowhere to go.
This place no longer scared him he realized then. The women had marched along these floors and yet, he was unmoved now by the horror. The thought of their dead bodies being dragged across the very wood that his face was now lying against caused inside of Uruha no repulsion. In a moment of perverse wonder, an image of his own body swallowing inside of it all the dead souls that had wandered around in Akamizu flashed through his imagination but again, he was indifferent to it’s morbidity.
Could a person’s body like a place, become haunted?
He turned onto his back and closed his eyes.
Perhaps that was the same as being in love.
He comes inside of you. Touches you. Runs his hands through your hair. Presses his forehead against yours and smiles. And when he presses his lips against yours, he sends his ghost inside of your body along his breath and tongue.
Possession.
“Are you sleeping?” His eyes snapped open. Above him, Aoi was standing there, looking down at him. The vampire walked silently like a panther. Seeing him above him suddenly, Uruha’s heart jolted in fright.
“Are you okay?” he asked quickly getting to his feet.
Aoi didn’t answer. His face, gaunt and pale fell as he looked away from him. With a bitter smirk, he folded his arms and walked past him.
Uruha followed him, “You look sick.”
“I’m not sick…” His reply was thick and painful.
“Hungry…”
“I’m fine,” he pressed his hands against his face and rubbed it violently. “You should go. You…really…should go.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Uruha, please.” He wouldn’t turn around to face him. “I’m afraid…alright?” he turned his head as if he wanted to look at him but couldn’t.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Fuck you, alright!” Losing his temper, he finally turned around to face him, his black eyes blazing in anger. “If you stay, you stupid bastard, I may kill you and…and…”
“We’ll figure something out…I can…I can cut my arm and drain myself…something…we can figure something out….”
But Aoi was adamant. “No,” he said. “I’m not taking any chances. Uruha, you don’t understand what its like being this way. You don’t understand that need, the hunger… What it’s like. I don’t want to look at you and think about it, alright? I don’t want to look at you and think only of eating you. I don’t. You can give me that much, if there is something in you that cares for me beyond this,” he looked around as if searching for a word that alluded him and in disgust finally said “mutual desire…what is this? Lust? I’m tired of it.” His eyes had fallen in defeat and he looked weary and weak. “Tired of it,” he muttered.
Uruha said nothing. But he had come to a conclusion. Inside of his heart, the organ possessed as it was, twisted around in its sickness.
“It must sound ridiculous coming from a monster like me,” the vampire had grown so weak, that he could no longer stand. Slumping down to the ground, he said in a sigh, “I love you too much” and buried his face in his hands. “As pathetic and bizarre as that sounds.”
Several seconds marched on in silence and the sickness grew inside of Uruha so much so that there was not an inch of him that wasn’t infected.
“I love you too,” he said.
“Don’t say that…Just leave…”
“I love you,” he repeated and moved toward him. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”
“You don’t know what you are saying.”
“I do. I do know what I’m saying.” He rested his hands on the back of Aoi’s shoulders. The skin there was white as bone and as cold as ice. With his breath hot and heavy, Uruha said in a voice oddly clear and measured: “I’d sell my soul for you.”
***
Detective Yano stepped tentatively into Akamizu with his hands wrapped around the handle of his gun. It was early morning and the two lovers had been sitting there, saying nothing. Uruha had rested his head against Aoi’s back and closed his eyes.
The sound of the intruder’s steps echoed throughout the room and abruptly stopped when Yano had seen them there on the floor. The two parties stared at each other in deep silence, each regarding the significance of this moment. The old Detective was at a loss for words. He had thought that he would walk in and find the young man dead but never would he have imagined that he would come in to see him embracing the beast.
The vampire was the first to speak. Standing, he said, “If you are here to save him, take him.”
Uruha looked up in shock and anger.
The Detective pointed his gun at the vampire and the trembling in his hands could easily be seen. “Where are the girls?”
“Dead.”
“All of them?”
“All of them. Now take him away from here,” Aoi grabbing Uruha’s arm, pulled him up and pushed him towards Yano.
He had come here to save Kouyou Takashima, that was for certain and any other survivors but Yano too had come to slay the vampire. In his ignorance, he thought that the goodness of his intentions would somehow see him through to the end and like the heroes in movies, he would ultimately prevail. But Yano was divorced from reality but even worse so, he was divorced from the deeper and darker desires of human nature.
“You know I can’t let you live,” Yano announced.
Aoi let a short laugh and smirked. “You would be doing me a favor,” he remarked bitterly and turned his back to him.
“Mr. Takashima, he has put a spell on you I’m certain of it,” he said to him quickly. “Leave this place and wait outside.”
Uruha however just stared at the side of his face. “I know…” he said and looked down. He couldn’t remember the last time he had acted. “He killed my fiancé, Mr. Yano….”
The Detective’s breathing grew rapid as his nervousness began to mount. “I know, kiddo,” he said trying to be comforting. “Get out of here before he kills you too.”
“Aren’t you a Class A Hero?” Aoi laughed outright, his back still turned to him. If he were going to be shot, he didn’t know if that would actually kill him but he knew that if he watched Uruha walk out of Akamizu, his heart would break. He would give himself this last indulgence and spare himself the pain.
“I want to do it,” Uruha suddenly said. “I want to shoot him. If it should be anyone who kills him, it should be me.”
“There is a part of you that hates me, huh?” The vampire let his head fall.
Yano unable to deny Kouyou his request, reluctantly handed him the gun.
He had never fired a gun in his life but he had seen the action in movies and on television. You wrap your hands around the handle, you rest you finger on the trigger. Yano had come prepared to shoot immediately. The gun was loaded. The safety off. A surreal calmness enveloped Uruha. It came over him as if he were being surrounded by warm water. His pulse steadied. His mind cleared.
“Aoi,” he said lifting the gun up and pointing it at the back of the vampire.
“DON’T HESITATE!” Yano shouted at him, his nervousness and fear finally breaking. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t relieved when the young man asked for the gun. Although he had come to play the hero, Detective Yano was ultimately an old coward.
“When I told you I knew what I was saying, I meant it.”
Aoi lifted his head up. His breath stopped in his lungs as the realization of what Uruha was about to do set in.
“I love you,” he finished. With a quick motion, he turned and pulling the trigger shot poor Yano in the center of his thigh. The blood gushed out in rapid bursts, like a tsunami of red water. Yano let out a short fearful cry as he recoiled. The animal instinct kicked in and the wounded man realizing what Kouyou had done began his slow and painful retreat. Turning his back on him, Yano with his limp leg attempted to run, leaving behind a thick, fresh trail of fragrant blood.
Uruha though was calm. Lifting up the gun once more, he fired the final bullet into the other leg. Like a heavy sack, Yano fell to the ground in a loud thud.
Silence.
And then the pathetic whimpering.
Without turning around, Aoi asked “Why didn’t you just kill him?”
Uruha looking down finally realized what he had done and what he was willing to do. A trickle of regret fell through him only to fade away with the thought that without this, Aoi could not survive. Before he had come here to Akamizu, he had hated himself because of his apathy, for his lack of love but now, with that feeling of love, he was willing to become a monster. “Eat him,” he said.
“Uruha…”
“I know you can smell it…I saw the look on your face last night. You can’t resist.”
“You shouldn’t…”
Uruha not wasting any more time walked over to Yano. His cries now could barely be heard, muffled as they were by this spit and the ground. The shock had come over him and left him immobile and unable to react. He had heard the young man’s orders to the vampire to eat him but he could do nothing. But now with Uruha’s hands on his collar, Yano’s senses revived and he began to scream again.
“Do it,” he angrily ordered. “He’s going to die anyway. If you really love me, you’ll do it.”
“Uruha, I can’t let you do this to yourself.”
“Fuck you,” he threw Yano down in front of the vampire. The blood now made circles on the floor of Akamizu glittering in the morning light that came in through the courtyard.
Aoi glanced up at Uruha’s face. His eyes were clear and steady and the expression bold and direct. He meant this. “Please,” he said to Aoi.
Uruha was right. He hardly could resist. The scent of the blood rose to his nostrils. The hunger that had grown dull and deathlike inside of him revived and raged inside of his body burning his insides like a fire. Kneeling down, he gathered Yano’s trembling body in his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to him and barring his sharp teeth bit down into the screaming man’s throat.
Author: Zion Shadowlet
Beta: butterflysaga
Characters: Uruha, Aoi, OCs
Pairing: Aoi/Uruha
Genre: Horror, Romance, Supernatural
Rating: NC17
Summary: After the sudden disappearance of his fiancé Usagi, Kouyou travels to a remote town to find her in a place known ominously as “Akamizu” where she is in the powerful grip of a strange man who has taken up residence there. But what the young Kouyou doesn’t expect is that he too will fall to the mysterious charm of this horrific place.
Warnings: Vampire Fiction. This isn’t your twilight style vampire story though. If you want a beautiful glamourized vampire story, this isn’t it.
Chapter 1 - Red Water | Chapter 2 - The Wandering Women | Chapter 3 - Love Demon| Chapter 4 - The Lonely | Chapter 5 - Fear
It still felt the same as the first time Yano realized as he stepped out of the cab and into the quiet town of Maya. Taking his time, he panned his gaze across the empty landscape void of any people or any living thing for that matter. The engine in car hummed in the background. In the distance, he heard the faint sound of a bird’s yelp piercing the cool air. He turned around and paid the hefty fee for the long cab ride there. Giving the driver a generous tip, he bid his farewell with a tip of his shaggy old hat and turned around. As the cab driver drove away quietly, Yano had a peculiar feeling in his gut that with that man’s departure, he had passed a definitive moment.
He was now alone. Unless of course Mr. Takashima was still alive. The townsfolk to him, hardly counted at people. They had gone about their lives unwilling to cease the murderous string of that monster. They had let him purchase that decrepit old mansion as his lair. Girl after girl after girl had come and they knew. They knew that ultimately they would die there and still, they had done nothing to prevent it. Were they cold? Yano wondered. Or was there something broken or twisted about them? Perhaps it was fear.
With nothing but a small sack and a suitcase, he made his way to the hotel. The sack was filled with the same three changes of clothes he had for the last four years, two ratty old dress shirts with matching black pants, a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with the New York Yankees logo written in the center. The T-shirt also had yellow mustard and sweat stains. Yano only owned one pair of shoes and he was wearing them now. In his suitcase, he carried with him a toothbrush, toothpaste, a comb, several books, a small journal, three pens, an audio recorder and his most precious item, an old semi-automatic that he had kept in a shoebox in the closet for the last 5 years. He never touched the thing but last night as he prepared for his trip, he had unearthed it from the dust and spider webs. Slowly he handled it the way a priest might treat the sacred items of the church. He took it apart and cleaned it. Japan had ceased to sell bullets for this make and he had none left in the box. The gun held the last bullets it would ever fire, two and when he looked at them in the lamplight, the light bounced ominously off of them as if the fates themselves had picked out these little drops of metal for something very important.
He wondered if a bullet could kill a vampire.
The innkeeper’s eyes widened in surprise and dread when he saw Yano walk in. He immediately stood up and leaning forward as if he were about to bow politely, his body in shock locked up and he stood there frozen.
“I know. You must be happy to see me,” The detective said sarcastically. Without wasting anytime, he reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a photograph of Takashima Kouyou. He had recalled the young man mentioning that he had played in a band. Using an internet search engine, he was able to find a picture that a fan had posted. In it, his hair was done up nicely and he was wearing make up and beautiful shiny clothes. It was highly unlikely that he had come to Maya looking like this but beggars can’t be choosers Yano said to himself. He presented it to the old innkeeper. “Have you seen this man?” he asked him.
With a silent nod, the innkeeper said he had.
“Is he here?”
“He checked out a room,” the old man stuttered. He had yet to blink. “But-um…well, he went up to Akamizu and left all his things here.” He didn’t know why he should tell this outsider so much but he figured that if he remained mysterious, that would only make things worse.
“How long ago was that?” To the innkeeper’s surprise, Yano didn’t seemed at all moved by the information.
“About 2 days ago…maybe more, maybe less…The days here…they all seem the same after awhile. It’s hard to keep track you see,” he laughed nervously. Yano had the feeling that behind the old man’s back, he was twisting his small wrinkly hands.
“Do you know if anyone from the town sent out a search party?” He was certain that they hadn’t but he had to ask if only to make a point.
“No, they haven’t.”
“Figures,” he said in a loud mutter and returned the picture to it’s home. “Do you mind sir if I take a quick shower here? And if it’s not a problem, I’d like to look at the young man’s room and the things he left. I’m not sure if you remember but I’m a private detective.” He placed his hands in front of him and stood up straight and it was evident that he was very proud if not a bit arrogant Compared to how he had appeared to Kouyou at the café, he seemed like a different person. He was calm, cool, detached. But he was a man of personas. Even now, Yano didn’t know which one he really was. Like masks, he switched them depending on what he needed but for the most part, he was more like an actor than anything else. He enjoyed his work because it had allowed him to live in the realest kind of drama. In a way, he saw himself at times like a vigilante or a public servant but in truth, he was just a man who got caught up in the story. He was the perfect person to be drawn into the myth of the vampire. It thrilled him and in this enthusiasm, the otherwise cowardly man mistook his desire to be a part of something special for bravery.
“The young man hired me to find his fiancé. I’m sure you remembered,” he continued. “Since he has yet to return, I think it would be in his best interest.”
The innkeeper was unsure. Informing the local authorities that the young man had gone missing was ridiculous in fact, he hadn’t even crossed his mind until Yano had said those words. But there was no police force in Maya itself nor were there firefighters. Most of the population was old or otherwise distanced from normal society. The mayor would have no interest and besides, what did it matter? What had gone in Akamizu they believed had nothing to do with them. Everyone pretended not to notice. They heard nothing, saw nothing, said nothing. It was a lie and they all knew it but to maintain their way of living, all of the townsfolk abided by this unspoken law.
“Alright,” he finally agreed. “Let me show you where the bath is and afterwards, I will bring you to the young man’s room.”
“Thank you.” Following the innkeeper to the back, he entered the small room and bringing all of his things in there with him, locked the door.
No one could be trusted.
***
He couldn’t understand why he was still here in this lonesome place.
It had occurred to him when he slipped out of his old kimono and stepped naked and filthy into the clean and cool water of the stream that he could easily and with little effort return to town, go back to the hotel, grab his things and disappear forever.
He wouldn’t go back to Tokyo. He wouldn’t go back to that old, dead life. The courage to face Usagi’s parents evaded Kouyou that he knew for certain. What words would he say? He could see himself sitting there across from them. As if they had never moved from the moment he had left them, they would be sitting in the center of their sofa, the father’s arm around the weeping mother’s. They would look up with their broken faces, their bodies bent over. At that moment, the mother would look oddly like Usagi. Her red tear stained face would be too much for him. Unable to face the intensity of their grief as it filled the room and came at him like a flood, Kouyou would look down ashamed. He would sit down quietly and the words would escape him. They would be caught in his throat trying to choke him.
And then the fear would take grip of his heart so forcefully that he feared it would squeeze the pulsing red organ so tightly it would burst. He would sit there, remembering in the blur of memory the young girl’s death, grappling inside with the myriad emotions that filled his soul with an electricity that sent his bleeding and shredded, dead heart back to life. Sorrow. Grief. Pain. Regret. Anger. Confusion. Love. And he would be ashamed that at that moment, he could think only of himself and not of Usagi or her parents. He would think only of the hunger to see the vampire again. Why, he didn’t understand but if the desire burned inside of him like a fire, the memories of Aoi felt like ashes rising free in the air and the sensation was itself beautiful.
With cupped hands, he brought the clear water to his body and began to wash himself. He knelt down and wet his hair, his face, his underarms, his chest. Was it the magic? Kouyou wondered. Or perhaps he really did love him? All he knew was that there was something in him that possessed him so thoroughly that inside felt empty in Aoi’s absence, a hole carved out perhaps by the sudden joy he felt when he was with him. Did it matter what it was? All that mattered now was that he needed him.
A bird’s cry pierced the air and cut through the silence that at this late hour filled the forest. Uruha instinctively looked up. Sitting perched on the limb of a tree gazing down at him he saw the bird. It’s large black eyes directed towards him.
Lying now outside of Aoi’s door, curled up with his white kimono around him loosely and his face up against the floor, he thought of the image of that bird of prey perched there as if it had been watching him all along.
The lantern light bounced off the smooth wooden floor of Akamizu. How long has he been lying there? Uruha had fallen into a daze staring off, his eyes out of focus as night crawled forward. Morning would be coming soon.
Second after second, moment after moment, clawing forward slowly. He would wait there until Aoi immerged. He wasn’t going to go anywhere. There was nowhere to go.
This place no longer scared him he realized then. The women had marched along these floors and yet, he was unmoved now by the horror. The thought of their dead bodies being dragged across the very wood that his face was now lying against caused inside of Uruha no repulsion. In a moment of perverse wonder, an image of his own body swallowing inside of it all the dead souls that had wandered around in Akamizu flashed through his imagination but again, he was indifferent to it’s morbidity.
Could a person’s body like a place, become haunted?
He turned onto his back and closed his eyes.
Perhaps that was the same as being in love.
He comes inside of you. Touches you. Runs his hands through your hair. Presses his forehead against yours and smiles. And when he presses his lips against yours, he sends his ghost inside of your body along his breath and tongue.
Possession.
“Are you sleeping?” His eyes snapped open. Above him, Aoi was standing there, looking down at him. The vampire walked silently like a panther. Seeing him above him suddenly, Uruha’s heart jolted in fright.
“Are you okay?” he asked quickly getting to his feet.
Aoi didn’t answer. His face, gaunt and pale fell as he looked away from him. With a bitter smirk, he folded his arms and walked past him.
Uruha followed him, “You look sick.”
“I’m not sick…” His reply was thick and painful.
“Hungry…”
“I’m fine,” he pressed his hands against his face and rubbed it violently. “You should go. You…really…should go.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Uruha, please.” He wouldn’t turn around to face him. “I’m afraid…alright?” he turned his head as if he wanted to look at him but couldn’t.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Fuck you, alright!” Losing his temper, he finally turned around to face him, his black eyes blazing in anger. “If you stay, you stupid bastard, I may kill you and…and…”
“We’ll figure something out…I can…I can cut my arm and drain myself…something…we can figure something out….”
But Aoi was adamant. “No,” he said. “I’m not taking any chances. Uruha, you don’t understand what its like being this way. You don’t understand that need, the hunger… What it’s like. I don’t want to look at you and think about it, alright? I don’t want to look at you and think only of eating you. I don’t. You can give me that much, if there is something in you that cares for me beyond this,” he looked around as if searching for a word that alluded him and in disgust finally said “mutual desire…what is this? Lust? I’m tired of it.” His eyes had fallen in defeat and he looked weary and weak. “Tired of it,” he muttered.
Uruha said nothing. But he had come to a conclusion. Inside of his heart, the organ possessed as it was, twisted around in its sickness.
“It must sound ridiculous coming from a monster like me,” the vampire had grown so weak, that he could no longer stand. Slumping down to the ground, he said in a sigh, “I love you too much” and buried his face in his hands. “As pathetic and bizarre as that sounds.”
Several seconds marched on in silence and the sickness grew inside of Uruha so much so that there was not an inch of him that wasn’t infected.
“I love you too,” he said.
“Don’t say that…Just leave…”
“I love you,” he repeated and moved toward him. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”
“You don’t know what you are saying.”
“I do. I do know what I’m saying.” He rested his hands on the back of Aoi’s shoulders. The skin there was white as bone and as cold as ice. With his breath hot and heavy, Uruha said in a voice oddly clear and measured: “I’d sell my soul for you.”
***
Detective Yano stepped tentatively into Akamizu with his hands wrapped around the handle of his gun. It was early morning and the two lovers had been sitting there, saying nothing. Uruha had rested his head against Aoi’s back and closed his eyes.
The sound of the intruder’s steps echoed throughout the room and abruptly stopped when Yano had seen them there on the floor. The two parties stared at each other in deep silence, each regarding the significance of this moment. The old Detective was at a loss for words. He had thought that he would walk in and find the young man dead but never would he have imagined that he would come in to see him embracing the beast.
The vampire was the first to speak. Standing, he said, “If you are here to save him, take him.”
Uruha looked up in shock and anger.
The Detective pointed his gun at the vampire and the trembling in his hands could easily be seen. “Where are the girls?”
“Dead.”
“All of them?”
“All of them. Now take him away from here,” Aoi grabbing Uruha’s arm, pulled him up and pushed him towards Yano.
He had come here to save Kouyou Takashima, that was for certain and any other survivors but Yano too had come to slay the vampire. In his ignorance, he thought that the goodness of his intentions would somehow see him through to the end and like the heroes in movies, he would ultimately prevail. But Yano was divorced from reality but even worse so, he was divorced from the deeper and darker desires of human nature.
“You know I can’t let you live,” Yano announced.
Aoi let a short laugh and smirked. “You would be doing me a favor,” he remarked bitterly and turned his back to him.
“Mr. Takashima, he has put a spell on you I’m certain of it,” he said to him quickly. “Leave this place and wait outside.”
Uruha however just stared at the side of his face. “I know…” he said and looked down. He couldn’t remember the last time he had acted. “He killed my fiancé, Mr. Yano….”
The Detective’s breathing grew rapid as his nervousness began to mount. “I know, kiddo,” he said trying to be comforting. “Get out of here before he kills you too.”
“Aren’t you a Class A Hero?” Aoi laughed outright, his back still turned to him. If he were going to be shot, he didn’t know if that would actually kill him but he knew that if he watched Uruha walk out of Akamizu, his heart would break. He would give himself this last indulgence and spare himself the pain.
“I want to do it,” Uruha suddenly said. “I want to shoot him. If it should be anyone who kills him, it should be me.”
“There is a part of you that hates me, huh?” The vampire let his head fall.
Yano unable to deny Kouyou his request, reluctantly handed him the gun.
He had never fired a gun in his life but he had seen the action in movies and on television. You wrap your hands around the handle, you rest you finger on the trigger. Yano had come prepared to shoot immediately. The gun was loaded. The safety off. A surreal calmness enveloped Uruha. It came over him as if he were being surrounded by warm water. His pulse steadied. His mind cleared.
“Aoi,” he said lifting the gun up and pointing it at the back of the vampire.
“DON’T HESITATE!” Yano shouted at him, his nervousness and fear finally breaking. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t relieved when the young man asked for the gun. Although he had come to play the hero, Detective Yano was ultimately an old coward.
“When I told you I knew what I was saying, I meant it.”
Aoi lifted his head up. His breath stopped in his lungs as the realization of what Uruha was about to do set in.
“I love you,” he finished. With a quick motion, he turned and pulling the trigger shot poor Yano in the center of his thigh. The blood gushed out in rapid bursts, like a tsunami of red water. Yano let out a short fearful cry as he recoiled. The animal instinct kicked in and the wounded man realizing what Kouyou had done began his slow and painful retreat. Turning his back on him, Yano with his limp leg attempted to run, leaving behind a thick, fresh trail of fragrant blood.
Uruha though was calm. Lifting up the gun once more, he fired the final bullet into the other leg. Like a heavy sack, Yano fell to the ground in a loud thud.
Silence.
And then the pathetic whimpering.
Without turning around, Aoi asked “Why didn’t you just kill him?”
Uruha looking down finally realized what he had done and what he was willing to do. A trickle of regret fell through him only to fade away with the thought that without this, Aoi could not survive. Before he had come here to Akamizu, he had hated himself because of his apathy, for his lack of love but now, with that feeling of love, he was willing to become a monster. “Eat him,” he said.
“Uruha…”
“I know you can smell it…I saw the look on your face last night. You can’t resist.”
“You shouldn’t…”
Uruha not wasting any more time walked over to Yano. His cries now could barely be heard, muffled as they were by this spit and the ground. The shock had come over him and left him immobile and unable to react. He had heard the young man’s orders to the vampire to eat him but he could do nothing. But now with Uruha’s hands on his collar, Yano’s senses revived and he began to scream again.
“Do it,” he angrily ordered. “He’s going to die anyway. If you really love me, you’ll do it.”
“Uruha, I can’t let you do this to yourself.”
“Fuck you,” he threw Yano down in front of the vampire. The blood now made circles on the floor of Akamizu glittering in the morning light that came in through the courtyard.
Aoi glanced up at Uruha’s face. His eyes were clear and steady and the expression bold and direct. He meant this. “Please,” he said to Aoi.
Uruha was right. He hardly could resist. The scent of the blood rose to his nostrils. The hunger that had grown dull and deathlike inside of him revived and raged inside of his body burning his insides like a fire. Kneeling down, he gathered Yano’s trembling body in his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to him and barring his sharp teeth bit down into the screaming man’s throat.