Wednesday, May 10, 2006

   Chapter Four
Chapter Four- Murders in the Castle


He stroked her cheek gently with his finger as she woke. She screamed and tried to lash out, but was still bound in the cursed ropes.

“Princess, calm down,” he cooed in his smooth, soothing voice. “I won’t hurt you.”

“Let me go!” Shinji roared.

“Not until I get to talk to you for a while, my sweet Princess.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“But why deny your title? You should flaunt it. Use your power… You could have so much more…”

“But it’ll always just be things, just material things. I don’t need stuff. I need my family,” she stated angrily.

“Oh, you’ll get over them quickly once you’re my bride, Princess.”

“I will NEVER marry you!”

He smiled. “I beg to differ, Princess. No one refuses Koru Lazuko, King of Exile.”

She gasped. “B-but what about Taren?”

“Ah, so you’ve read the papers. Obviously not the later ones. She’s dead, Shinjite. She died 13 years ago in that mysterious fire at her house. They found her remains safe in her mother’s arms,” he said with a smirk.

“But she… I… No, she’s alive! She lives with me!”

He blinked. ‘The gas can’t still be affecting her brain…’ he thought. ‘Is she telling the truth? But… She can’t be… Mother told me that she died…’

“Did you not hear me, you dope?! She’s NOT dead! I don’t care what your stupid mother said. She’s ALIVE!” Shinji yelled at him, pretty annoyed by then.

He gave her a strange look. “Alright, if she’s alive, where is she?”

“She is, and I don’t know! Last time I saw her was before that stupid sleeping gas overcame the three of us,” she said with a death glare.

His eyes widened slightly. “What color is her hair?”

“Black with one red streak, why?”

“Oh, no reason,” he said as he started out of the room.

Right as the door closed, her ropes fell off. She was immediately at the door, beating on it.

Just before he closed the door, she’d heard him think, ‘Now I must take care of that little hybrid pest. Another effortless task.’ And the glint of his dagger being drawn shot under the door.

She was crying and beating on the door. “Taren! Taren, no! Be careful! Don’t let him…”

She slid down the wall and cried, knowing that soon, her kid sister would be murdered.

I was sitting in a corner, having just woken up. I was staring at the beautiful room around me, everything in perfect shades of green.

A knock on my door. I blinked. “Uh… Y-yes?”

The door swung open, revealing an older form of the boy I’d met nearly six years ago.

“H… Hi, Koru.” I bowed my head slightly.

“Taren?”

“Y-yes?”

“I’m so sorry… Everyone told me that… That you’d died…” he said, and moved towards me with open arms.

I ran into his arms, hugging him tight. “Koru…” I whispered.

He wrapped his arms around me in one last embrace. His mouth neared my ear, and I was expecting sweet words of love and apology, but instead I heard this: Now die, scum.

He had pulled the hidden dagger out of his sleeve and buried it deep in my side. I fell over, but pulled it out quickly and stood, healing my wound quickly. When he realized that his attempt had failed, he drew his sword and ran it right through my chest, directly under the collarbone.

Back in Shinji’s room, it was quiet… She was sitting in the same place she had sunk to the floor earlier, wishing for some company.

“I guess nothing happened after all… I would’ve heard something by-”

She stopped mid-sentence as a blood-curdling scream, full of hurt, betrayal, and pain rang through the castle.

“Taren!” she screamed as she began to beat on the door again, until she broke down crying.

Her door slid smoothly open and in walked a familiar dark boy. She stood in one fluid motion. “Sekitan! You have to help Taren! Sh-she’s with Koru a-and h-he’s-“

Sekitan nodded and crouched beside her, hugging her quickly, then disappeared.

She sat, blinking, and thought about how similar Cole and Sekitan are, no matter their differences.

Sekitan appeared in my room behind his brother.

Koru was standing above me, laughing, watching my blood pool around me. Watching me choke and cough up my emerald blood. Watching me die.

“Koru! What in the hell do you think you’re doing?! Move aside.”

Koru’s sweet and comforting, yet frighteningly evil laugh rang in my room. “She was an intruder in my castle.”

“You brought her here!”

“That’s no matter.”

“You killed your betrothed!”

“She was my betrothed? Oh, woe is me, for my love is dead, and I am her murderer,” he said sarcastically, then laughed.

My eyes had glazed over. I was still conscious, although I wished I wasn’t. The pain was the worst I’ve ever felt in my life, and it had only been worsened by betrayal.

“Koru, move aside.”

“And what makes you think that you can tell me what to do in my own realm, dear brother?”

Sekitan’s hands glowed black. “Because you won’t have a realm if you don’t. You seem to have forgotten the close relationship between Princess Shinjite and Taren, and that the Leviathan is still being kept inside Shinjite. She’ll rip this entire place to shreds.”

Everything suddenly went black as I saw Koru moving away, making sure to step on my head (fracturing my skull in the process) on the way.

Sekitan quickly but carefully picked me up, and then disappeared to Shinji’s room.

“Princess… I have her.”

When she looked over, she saw Sekitan’s arms covered in my green blood, along with most of my body. I’d been lying on my side, so the sword was sticking out of both sides of my torso, along with a (nearly black) green spot on my side where the dagger wound’s blood had dried.

She gasped and tears came to her eyes. “P-put her down. Quickly.”

He set me down and she swiftly pulled the sword out, green blood instantly pouring from my open wound. I was ghostly pale, and Shinji began to heal me.

A few minutes later, all my wounds were healed, but I still had two scars from the sword, and a swollen purple gash from the dagger.

I gazed over at the dark boy who’d saved me. “Thank you, Sekitan…” I said, still slightly in awe, first from betrayal, then from seeing how the evil, cold, heartless dark could be sweet, nice, and kind…

He nodded his head slightly, not even glancing over. “Don’t mention it…”

Shinjite was sleeping in her ocean-colored bed, every so often turning, tossing, or mumbling something to herself. I smiled and thought, ‘She looks so peaceful… Yet so… So troubled…’

I looked over at Sekitan again with wide, curious green eyes and I felt the twinge of a schoolgirl’s crush take over my heart. ‘No,’ I thought. ‘This is SO not happening… Not Sekitan! He’s just so… evil!”

He looked over, and I quickly turned my head. He rolled his dark eyes at my immaturity and went back to whatever he was doing and the most awkward silence rolled over the room.

Suddenly, breaking the silence, Shinji sat straight up, waking immediately from her sleep. “They’re coming…” she said, looking to me with horrified eyes.

“They…?” I asked, confused.

“Your… Your parents…” she said, staring at the door.

I grabbed my two axes which were floating in the corner and growled at Kiza. Before Shinjite could even say anything, I was running out the door, searching for my parents whom had been brought to life by Inverse magic. I had to get to them before they got to her.

I wasn’t sure what they’d be like… I had my suspicions, of course. I’d always remembered them as the happy couple and us the perfect family… When they were alive, that is. Looking back at the picture I have at them, they seem like the perfect, average couple… What I didn’t realize then was that they were Kazi’s lackeys, they despised the girl who would one day become my sister (and try to make me hate and kill her!), and they’d bound my soul with my evil lightning ancestor, Kiza.

The more I thought, the more angry I got at them. The more I got angry, the better my fighting skills. I was prepared to fight my parents to the death. What good had they ever done for anyone? They hadn’t. They were the bad guys now and I had to protect my REAL family.

The sparks started flying off of my body as my anger grew to an almost uncontrollable level. They were growing near… And I could feel it.

I saw a tall, muscular man wandering down the hallway. His hair was cut short and spiked. I could tell that he was my father, a wind, because his hair stuck up in the same nature as Shinjite’s. He’d received a shock that his body would never let him live down. He wore loose, non-restrictive sky blue clothes, perfect for fighting in, and they matched his hair perfectly. His hair was a beautiful sky blue that shimmered shades of dark blues and light purples in the light.

My mother was walking beside him, her long, flowing hair more crimson than the blood of a human. Her kimono was patterned like a thunderhead, dark and ominous. She looked me over with her electric yellow eyes, and I could see the wonder and confusion as she tried to comprehend why her daughter would stand before her, ready for battle.

I remembered that they’d replaced those absent years with false memories, and they still thought I was their perfect little daughter. Nothing was wrong, come here and give mommy a hug. She’ll make it all better.

“Hello, Taren. Isn’t it time for your daily training? Why are you not with your sensei?” my father asked innocently.

“You’ve been lied to,” I said coldly, still walking towards them. “I’m not your perfect little girl anymore.”

“What are you talking about, dear?” questioned my mother as she blinked in shock.

“You’re with Kazi, and I know it. Kazi is my sworn enemy, no matter the close relationship we had in my early teens. He is set on either killing or marrying Princess Shinjite.”

My father blinked. “But you’ve already sworn to kill her.”

“I’ve done no such thing! She is my SISTER, and I am training with Sekai and Kaji Da to protect her from evil such as you!”

“But-” my mother tried to start.

“No! You died! You aren’t who you used to be. Inverse magic has made you this way. After you died, I went to Shinjite’s house, then was kidnapped and taken to an orphanage, Mother! I finally got free and I went back to live with the Princess and my NEW family! I have a child, Dad! You weren’t around then, and if I have anything to say about it, you won’t be now!” I cried, tears in my eyes.

My mother gasped, and my father began to reprimand me. I’m hurting her feelings. I’m breaking her heart. How could I do this? I know how I could do this. These are imposters. Fakes. They aren’t real and never will be.

“I want to fight you for real,” I said as I glared at them.

“You want to fight?” he said. “Then fine. We’ll fight.” He readied his weapons and took his stance.

‘Mother’ stared at him in horror. “Get in your stance,” he ordered, and she followed his direction.

We stood there for a moment, but it felt like an hour. We were both waiting to see who would move first.

I began to blow, harnessing the wind’s power, and charged up my hands.

He laughed. What he didn’t know was this wasn’t, by far, my strongest attack.

A small, five foot tornado made entirely of lightning appeared in front of me. Another laugh from my ‘father.’ My emerald eyes flashed with yellow lightning bolts, and I clapped my hands, making the tornado explode into one five times its original size, tearing a hole in the ceiling.

My “mother’s” eyes widened.

I sent the tornado straight for him, knowing that she could take the hit because of her lightning heritage. Instead, she put up a barrier to protect him.

I raced towards them, ready for physical combat. A few moments later I was wiping my father’s blood off of the wind axe and my mother’s off of the lightning one.

I turned around and headed back for Shinjite’s room.

I couldn’t believe it. They were finally gone. My parents were dead. Again. And this time, I was the one who killed them. With their own weapons, nonetheless.
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