A/N: So this is the special chapter I was talking about... It's a Deep Sea Girl story, with a few characters from the cast of H&S. Sorry if you thought it was going to be better, but I called it special because it's kinda a crossover between two Tabomsoft RPG horror games. Think of it as a written movie for a TV show. Yeah, sorry for the short and crappy previous chapter... Seriously though, Deep Sea Girl gets like, no love. No fanart or fan fiction (until now), just walkthroughs and tutorials. Well...enjoy.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARI!" The crowd gathered around the seven year old girl cheered, their faces and voices full of mirth. But it was anything but a happy birthday that day, Ari begrudgingly thought as she watched the creepy film projected on the theater's wall, seated in one of the many rows of red chairs. She didn't know why someone was trying so hard to get her to accept these locked away memories as she explored the Deep Sea Aquarium, which had turned into a puzzling nightmare when she came here with her (currently missing) mother as a treat for her birthday, but she just wanted it all to stop. She was happy with her life, with her beautiful mom, and her hard-working dad, all living in the luxury of a high rise apartment in the Korean city.
The film rolling out before her sea-colored eyes proved otherwise.
~ *** ~
Ari's heart was pumped full of joy, like a balloon being filled with too much helium, about to burst into an explosion of the excitement and hyperactivity in her chest that came with youth and the fact that her special day, in which she would be showered in gifts, had arrived after waiting so many months. They decided to host the party in the apartment her dad had worked many hours each day to keep theirs, it housed more than enough room for all the guests and her family was wealthy enough to provide food, extra seats for people to sit in, and more. Blue, white, and black balloons hung in the air in the large living room, some of them shaped like fish. Two long tables were lined up against the wall, brimming with all kinds of refreshments. It was like a buffet, entire meals set out, consisting of many types of meat and vegetables, for relatives and friends to pile onto their plates. A punch bowl filled to the brim with red juice sat in the midst of it all, a practical fruit cocktail floating around in it. On the second table, were desserts; cookies, muffins, candy, any sweet a kid would yearn to sink their teeth into, the centerpiece being her big three-layer birthday cake, which was decorated with blue and white icing speckled with fish-shaped sprinkles.
Speaking of fish, Ari, a pale girl with long ebony hair that held a blue tint, was admiring her new pet, a cute little blue and silver creature that flitted around in the small square fish tank she held. It was a gift from her dad that he presented her with that morning, and she watched over it almost all day. If that wasn't already obvious, Ari had, or, has, a fascination with fish and a love for all marine life that lived in the seas. She would never tire of visiting aquariums, the few times she got to do it.
"What will you name him?" A familiar voice spoke up from behind her, startling the young girl. She turned to stare, wide-eyed, at her cousins, all three returning her stare expectantly as they waited for an answer. One was a boy, two were girls, all of them with black hair. Without warning, morbid faces made of blood appeared on them, their mouth jutting out rows of small sharp teeth like a piranha's and their eyes lifeless, black, and beady like a shark's. However, the visage ended in a mere two seconds. The eldest, one of the females of the group, was the one that spoke, her icy blue eyes sharp and cold, looking as if they were chipped from a block of frozen water. Ari always shivered when that gaze was directed at her. Her lips remained shut, now pressed into a thin line. She glanced at her now open bedroom door, light, music, and loud voices spilling in from the adjacent rooms. She had isolated herself in there because she always preferred quiet, peaceful moments to herself.
"She's talking to you, demon." The youngest, a boy by the name of Eun, snapped. They always called her that. She wasn't a demon, she was an angel, her father always told her that, it was the nickname her mother gave her when she was still growing in the womb, the kind woman lovingly patting her belly as she spoke to her.
Ari felt bravery swell inside her, the fact that adults were nearby encouraged her to stand up for herself, knowing her cousins couldn't get away with tormenting her in such a crowded place. "I-I'm no demon." She murmured. She meant for her voice to sound firm and unafraid, but it came out as quiet and quavering. She was more successful the second time around, speaking clearly now. "And I will name her Aria." That had been her mother's name, dad had told her once. Her name was purposefully chosen to sound similar to her mother's.
"Naming a fish after your dead mom?" Jae sneered, the second eldest girl with shoulder-length black hair and brown eyes. "Are you brain damaged?"
"I see no wrong with it." Ari replied, setting the tank down on her nightstand and grabbing a shaker of fish food. She sprinkled a bunch of odd-smelling flakes into her palm, crumbled them into powdery pieces, and dropped them into the water. The fish immediately darted up to the surface, pecking greedily at its lunch.
"Don't overfeed her," Kim, the tallest female cousin with a black side-swept, choppy fringe and long black locks cascading down her back, said with the authority of a parent. She was a preteen, either eleven or twelve, but always seemed to have the maturity of a young adult. "You'll kill the poor thing, just like you killed your mother." A smirk crept upon the older girl's lips, knowing how much it pained Ari to constantly hear this.
"I didn't! I didn't I didn't I didn't!" Ari's wails could break the most frozen of hearts, could falter the steeliest of gazes, but Kim remained unfazed at the sight of the psychological damage she inflicted on the poor girl. She continued with a matter-of-fact, harsh tone that drilled into the seven-year-old's eardrums, branding each word inside her head.
"She died because you were born." Kim shot back, voice dripping with hatred. "You know why everyone's faking being happy for you? Because your birthday is the anniversary of her death. Yet you feel no guilt, you laugh and play like you're not the reason your dad cried for years to my mom after her funeral. No one in this family loves you except my uncle. In fact, he's the only one who doesn't wish you were never born."
Eun added his own two cents. "You are a demon! Our moms didn't die when they had us, because we were normal. You're a freak who doesn't have any friends!" Plenty of mothers have died during childbirth, just because hers was unfortunate enough to be one of those numbers, didn't mean she was unnatural, something evil that shouldn't be loved. However, Ari's young mind crumbled because no one had told her that she wasn't at fault for Aria's demise, not even her father who didn't even have the time to kiss her on the forehead before he rushed to work. And that's how her delusions started.
Everyone would be happy if my mother were here.
~***~
ARI HAD HAD ENOUGH, she shot up out of her seat and yelled out furiously in the large empty room. "MY MOTHER IS NOT DEAD!" How long had it been since she yelled? Her eyes, which usually looked so empty and dead, now shone with the emotions she kept bottled up inside of her over the years. No longer did they hold a blank stare, but shimmering tears that threatened to spill. She was almost surprised to hear the sound of her own voice. She usually just silently reacted to her mother's words, a tiny smile playing on her lips as she listened. Her mother spoke for her, her mother was he-
Ari's eyes widened like a full moon as she spotted a figure sitting up front, one that looked just like how she did when she was very young. It was the apparition that kept occasionally appearing to her as she explored the abandoned aquarium full of puzzles that required more intelligence from her than she knew she had and monsters that frightened her so much she was nearly paralyzed from terror. The miniature, spooky version of her turned its head slightly to the left, as if halfheartedly attempting to look in her direction, then disappeared. Ari was barely able to steady her wildly beating heart before the little girl, whose long fringe completely covered her eyes, appeared next to her. The young teenager could only gape as she parted her deathly pale lips.
"If you accept the truth, you will be free of suffering." That being said, she vanished from sight again, and the film, which had lagged and frozen up, as if due to Ari's outburst, continued playing out.
~ *** ~
"Ari, sweetheart, how are you liking the party so far?" A woman with short, silky raven hair that stopped at her chin and coffee brown eyes asked sweetly.
Ari stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she heard the abnormally kind voice. She had started sobbing brokenly in her bedroom, and her cousins, claiming to be disgusted by the noises she made and the snot running out of her nose, left her alone. Eventually, she forced herself to calm down, knowing people could walk in on her crying by herself in her room, which would embarrass her. She was just on her way to mindlessly stuff her face with cookies to cheer herself up and pretend to be friends with the kids who attended her party.
Aunt Mei stared at her with warmth in her eyes, red lips stretched into a smile as she gazed down at the small girl. Glancing at her father, Lee, who was standing next to the woman with a weary expression and occasionally glancing at his wristwatch, she knew why her aunt was being so uncharacteristically loving. Usually, her brown eyes held a stern, resentful stare. She was the mother of Eun, Jae, and Kim, who was just as successful as her father, she had the fashion of a businesswoman about her. She always acted like she didn't give a damn about her niece when there were no other people around but her and her children. She was left in her care often, when her dad went to work.
"It's great!" Ari beamed, the two adults towering over her finally realizing she was holding something behind her back. What she said next shocked them into a full minute of silence as the ecstatic girl revealed a plush penguin toy to them. "My mom gave me my gift early, just a minute ago!"
Lee and Mei exchanged concerned and puzzled glances. Lee, a man decked in a crisp black suit with neatly styled brown hair, bent down on one knee and set a hand on his daughter's shoulder, eyes flickering with sympathy. "Ari, we talked about this. Your mother died a long time ago, when you were born." Her aunt remained speechless, arms folded across her chest with a frown twisting her features.
Ari tilted her head slowly to the side at him, like a confused puppy. The action struck the man as unnerving. He was especially disturbed when she started giggling like he told her the funniest joke she'd ever heard, and ran away. But the uneasy feeling dissipated quickly, as he knew she was just a child and wanted to use her imagination to create herself her own ideal mother. It was natural, right?
Mei thought otherwise.
And so did everyone else.
Ari went around the party, showing off the present her mom gave her. The looks she received varied, some were full of pity, some were just confusion, a select few held fear at the possibility her mother was interacting with the girl as a spirit that never passed on, others were worry towards her mental health, and the rest were judgmental, scathing looks by the younger partygoers. Lee hated the attention brought on him and Ari, people walked up to him and shared a piece of their mind about the situation, stress came to him easily. He wondered where she got the toy penguin. He thanked every god out there for the fact that the party would end very soon, since his heartless boss would not give him the privilege of having an entire day off to celebrate his little girl's birthday. He attempted to unwind by mingling more and helping himself to whatever he liked on the snack tables.
Things only got worse when Ari's cousins heard about her imaginary mother.
~***~
AS IF GIVING HER TIME to process all the events she just watched, the old-timey, holographic screen faltered again, black specks popping up and wavering over the frozen image of a grinning, child version of Ari. She wondered how this was even possible, no one had recorded the party that day, she was sure. Her final thought on all the bizarre happenings in particular was that things would be a little easier for her if she accepted this was something supernatural. But why was this all happening to her? A devil, mimicking a younger her, wants to see her come to terms with the 'truth'? No. Her mother was not dead. She was real, as real as the warm tears that freely poured down her cheeks. She felt her warm embrace, hung on her every word, she truly saw the love in her eyes that was just for her, the heartbreak on her face whenever Lee ignored the woman, gave his daughter a warning look, and tiredly shuffled to his bedroom in the middle of the night.
"If my mother is dead, then who was I talking to for all this time?" Ari demanded to the air, looking around to catch a glimpse of the small, ghostly child. "Who gave me those presents for my birthday? Who took me to the aquarium for my birthdays when dad forgot about me each year?" She pressed, her voice breaking at the mention of him. "Kids can't go in by themselves. Where did I get the money for tickets? None of these things ever happened." Her ponytail whipped around as she searched for anyone who dared to confront her and deny everything she said.
There was nothing but deafening, unsettling silence for a good two minutes, allowing her pulse to stop thumping hard enough to feel it against her skin. It was as if someone was giving her time to cool down, or thinking over her reaction. This time, no one spoke or appeared to her. The film, colorless except for a few splashes of vibrant hues, resumed, and she forced herself to sit back down, fingernails biting into the leather armrests of her chair and knuckles whitened as she gripped them tightly. She remembered, during her normal visits to the aquarium, when everything didn't turn into hell for her and high-spirited people bustled around her, how she loved to sit in this exact theater and watch documentaries and educational yet entertaining movies about marine life. She wished it were like that now, she wished she had simply fallen asleep and she would soon wake up with her head resting on her mother's shoulder, who would nudge her awake after whatever they were watching ended.
But did things really ever go the way Ari wanted?
~ *** ~
"Ari, where's your mom?" Kim began her little experiment, still looking like a strict teacher looming over an ill-tempered student as she scrutinized the girl. Eun, Jae, and a few other kids watched from what they presumed was a 'safe' distance, ogling as if Ari were a particularly interesting specimen they'd never seen before.
Not in the mood to speak with her, Ari shrugged and replied curtly, "In the other room, I guess..." She was playing with her new toy penguin, and another, older toy of hers, giving them squeaky voices as she made them converse with one another.
"You told me she died!" The little girl of a couple who happened to be Mei's friends shouted, pointing at her. She didn't remember her name, but her face was faintly familiar. "Did you just say that for attention?!"
"I never said that." Ari muttered quietly, her back still turned to them. "You're delusional." Kim silenced the nameless girl by putting a palm out in her direction before asking her little cousin a barrage of questions. Does your mother disappear and reappear? No. Does your mother look translucent? No. Does your mother speak to you all the time? Yes. Does she speak to anyone else? Yes. Do you believe she's a figment of your imagination? Of course not. Every single one of them confused Ari.
Kim traded looks with the others, before they all left her by herself. Later on, when it was almost time for the birthday song, cake, and presents, they approached her again as she idled in the corner of the room, practically invisible to those around her. They presented her with a wrapped box, topped with a ribbon. "It's from all of us." Jae told her when she accepted it. She should've sensed something was off, she wouldn't be surprised if they placed a ticking time bomb inside. But her mother, keeping a watchful eye on her from a few feet away, encouraged her.
A flurry of hissing snakes were flung at her by some kind of mechanism within the box as soon as she removed the lid, and Ari shrieked in horror before scrambling away. Kim exploded into fits of cruel laughter, the others following suit. She knew someone, either Lee or Mei, mentioned her phobia of the scaly creatures, and decided to play a little prank. They weren't real of course, otherwise Ari would've been admitted into a hospital for venomous bites (which she didn't mind too much), she had bought her little 'gift' from a prank shop that also sold fart putty and fake vomit.
Ari locked herself in her room for almost a full thirty minutes, skin paler than a sheet and paranoia fraying her nerves like a machete steadily severing rope. She could still hear the sharp hissing of the snakes, echoing in her mind and whispering into her ear. She saw their eyes hatefully glaring at her from shadowy corners. She saw red holes continually dotting the length of her arms and legs, as if invisible fangs were piercing her flesh. She was sweating profusely, immobilized with fear.
Then, like a glorious miracle, light fell over her as her mother cracked the door open and smiled angelically at her. "Ari, daddy is looking for you. What are you doing cooped up in here?" Aria giggled pleasantly, gesturing for her to get up and follow her out the room. "It's time for cake and presents." Instantly, her misery was washed away.
Ari didn't even feel remotely uncomfortable when everyone pressed in from all directions to watch the birthday girl blow out the seven candles on her cake. They'd just finished singing, many different voices intermingling, along with her mother's, even though she was given weird looks for it. Once the melodious chorus of 'happy birthday to you' was completed, Aria chirped happily for her to blow out the candle flames, which swayed peacefully this way and that. That's when everything froze up again, looking horribly distorted for a few seconds. Then, the film, the color of aging, yellowing paper, continued; only, Aria was no longer there.
"Blow out the candles, Ari!" The seven year old said, much to the blatant confusion of the friends and family gathered around her, encircling the table with the cake, paper plates, and plastic cutlery. She slightly turned to face her father. "Isn't it wonderful? Our little girl is growing up! I should've gotten my camera!" Murmurs rippled through the crowd as Lee furrowed his eyebrows, causing creases in his forehead. What was she prattling on about? Why did she just refer to herself in third person? Ari then faced Mei, cheeks dimpled with a smile. "She's starting to catch up with Jae!"
"Ari, what are you doing? Blow out your candles." Lee hissed through clenched teeth.
"She's mentally unstable." Kim piped up like a doctor coldly giving a diagnosis, standing next to her little brother and sister on the other side of the table. Mei shot her the same expression she was giving Ari. "Something's wrong with her, mom. She says she sees and hears Aria. But we all know she's dead." Kim coated her words with fake concern and sympathy, relishing the humiliation her sibling was bound to feel at the fact people thought she was crazy. Ari looked up at her, bangs splitting to reveal two piercing blue eyes that almost sightlessly stared through her skull. Teardrops silently dripped down her pale face as her mother, who'd suddenly appeared again, vanished from thin air beside her. Everyone was rendered speechless by the spectacle.
"Ari. Blow out your candles, sweetheart." Lee practically pleaded, brushing some of her hair behind her ear in a gesture that wasn't out of love, but anxiety. Hoping he could coax her into breaking the awkward moment. Ari hesitantly leaned in, and quietly obeyed, snuffing out the small flames with one blow of air. There was some half hearted applause that lasted for a few seconds.
"Time for opening presents, I suppose." Aunt Mei said flatly with a small sigh escaping her lips unnoticed. "Give her ours first." She wasn't enthusiastic to see Ari's reaction to whatever they gave her, she only wanted to leave sooner. The joy of the special occasion had been snuffed out along with the candles, a few people wandered elsewhere and another few prepared to go home.
Kim, satisfied with the change of atmosphere she caused, strutted right up to Ari with a wrapped box in her hand. The younger girl slowly opened it, discovering an aquarium-themed coloring book and a pack of crayons to go with it. "That was nice of you, Kim." Lee said warmly, hiding a nervous smile. She didn't respond, eyes burning holes into Ari to drink up the sight of her depressed state. To possibly get a few more rivers of tears out of her, she whispered loud enough for only the two of them to hear, "We'll forgive you, Ari, if you kill yourself, too." The sociopathic girl originally planned to drag her suffering out further before baiting her into suicide, but she just couldn't wait any longer. What came next was the last thing she expected Ari to do.
It's always funny, you know, when you think things can't possibly get worse for someone, but then they do.
Ari found her voice again, and spoke in an emotionless tone that managed to send shivers sweeping up and down the other girl's spine. "But will you forgive me," she began, fingers closing over the thick handle of a machete knife waiting to sink into cake on the tabletop. "For this?" With one swift motion, before anyone could stop her, Ari plunged the blade into Kim's stomach, digging up as much strength as she could to bury it as deep as possible into her flesh. Fresh, crimson blood sprayed Ari like a sprinkler spouting water. Who was the first to scream, Kim or Mei, she didn't know. But the sounds were bloodcurdling, they rang in her ears and snapped her out of her manic trance as she watched her cousin thump against the floor and her aunt rush to her aide.
Everyone was completely in hysterics, Mei was torn between screaming profanities at Ari and consoling her bawling daughter who was quickly losing blood. Lee gawked at his little angel in disbelief, in shock and horrified. Several voices yelled for someone to call the police or an ambulance, and fumbling fingers quickly dialed numbers on phones that trembled within people's shaky grips. Jae and Eun held each other tightly, terrified for their big sister and crying almost as hard as Kim. No one could believe this seven year old girl, so adorable and innocent, had just stabbed her own cousin right after she gave her a present.
Ari's grip on the knife loosened, and it clattered to the floor. Her vision was swimming, as if she were underwater. She swayed from side to side, as if unable to balance herself on her own two feet. The party had transformed from happy, to awkward, to downright chaotic. It felt like all the sound had been turned down on her surroundings, like someone had the TV remote to reality and lowered the volume to a percentage where everyone's voices seemed muffled. Everyone's frantic actions seemed slowed down as Ari could hear her heartbeat bellowing in her ears like a deafening drum. She looked at her pale trembling hands, blood splattered on them, forever tainting her skin.
Mommy, what did I do?
Aria appeared beside her, looking as bright and cheery as ever as if nothing had happened. She chuckled, stroking a lock of the child's hair. "Ari, you're such a bad child."
Before she knew it, Ari was falling to the floor like Kim had, swept into unconsciousness by the pure madness that had occurred on the day that was supposed to be special and full of fun. The last thing she heard as her eyes shut was her father, yelling her name.
"ARI!"
~ *** ~
"That never happened. The entire party was perfect." Ari was struggling to maintain her composure, growing furious at the false memories being shown to her as she glared at the freeze frame of her fainted, child form. "I ate cake with mom, and me, Kim, Jae, and Eun played Hide and Seek afterward. I did not...stab her, no one was ever mean to me, and my mother. Never. DIED." As soon as she snappishly said that last word, a girlish giggle sliced through the thick silence of the aquarium's darkened theater, as if the ghostly apparition that disguised itself as a seven-year-old her found amusement in what the thirteen-year-old was saying.
Ari, even more enraged, stood abruptly before marching into the long aisle that split both rows of chairs apart and making a beeline for the exit. But, it was locked, and no matter how many times she desperately tried to open the door to escape, it wouldn't budge. She searched under the red seats for a key, hoping one would be hidden for her somewhere, but no such luck. She grasped the end of her yellow raincoat very tightly and steadied her breathing as if to ground herself, loneliness seeping into and filling every fiber of her being. She wanted to get out of here to continue the search for her mother. She knew she had to be looking for her too, and worried sick.
"You're so funny!" A high-pitched, undeniably cute voice cut through her thoughts, making her heart skip a beat. Ari quickly yanked herself from under one of the chairs and sat up, now that she was crouching she was nose to nose with the little blue-haired girl. It was like staring into a mirror that gave a peek at the past, Ari was mesmerized at seeing her younger self's face looming in front of her. The child was smiling like they were playing a game, and continued in the same tone as before. "I will gladly end all of this here if you put your sin to rest and accept your reality. I suppose I had enough fun already."
"My...sin?" Ari questioned slowly, as if mulling her words over. "Where is my mom? I want to go home. I don't know what's happening." She whimpered, on the verge of tears. "If you're causing this, please stop. I don't want to see anymore. Please."
The child, smile vanishing without a trace, stared stoically at Ari, the intensity of her gaze could still be felt despite the fact her eyes weren't visible. "Watch. Then Leave." She said finally, turning around. Her fringe, a dark veil hanging over her eyes, swished and revealed a glimpse of a glowing violet orb that seemed to paralyze Ari's soul. Then, she disappeared. Her last sentence repeating itself in Ari's head like a broken record, she begrudgingly took a seat in the chair closest to her, staring up at the film projected on the theater's wall. Just this last imaginary scene, she thought to herself as it unfroze and played out. Then I'll leave, find mother, and forget all these lies. This last one.
~ *** ~
The hospital was an endless, boring, confusing maze of hallways and rooms with stark white walls and polished flooring that squeaked underfoot. The air smelled suffocatingly strange inside, like medicine, sterilizer, and hand sanitizer. Ari, holding her father's hand and clutching her stuffed penguin in the other, walked into the waiting room, clothes still wet from the downpour of rain outside. Lee parted from his daughter to speak with the lady at the desk, a sense of urgency in his voice. Young Ari watched her respond but couldn't make out what she said before he rushed back over to the girl, grabbed her hand again, and hurried through the corridors bustling with the activity of visitors, nurses, doctors, some patients, and other staff. There was the occasional dull artwork hung up on the wall. She took it all in disinterestedly before innocently gazing up at her father.
"Daddy, is mommy coming here too?" Ari asked. She wasn't given an answer as her eyes traced over every little detail of Lee's face, trying to determine what emotion his expression held. He had bags under his eyes, his lips were pursed, and his eyebrows were drawn together. Finally, they arrived at a room, where hushed voices spoke inside. She could hear this mechanical, continuous beeping from within as well. They just stood outside the door for a while.
"Ari, stay right here for a second, will you?" Lee said with an unreadable expression, releasing her hand, opening the door, and stepping inside. However, he failed to shut it all the way, and Ari peered through the crack curiously. She could see Kim lying in a white bed, a needle buried painfully into the skin on her hand with weird devices and machines surrounding her, some of which she was hooked up to. To Ari, it looked like aliens had abducted her and used her as an experiment for their advanced technology. Her preteen cousin appeared to be sleeping peacefully under a thin white sheet, which put the seven-year-old at ease. A doctor stood stiffly with a white coat adorning his body, talking grimly and quietly with Mei as she paced around, looking anything but happy. Her head instantly snapped up when Lee entered, and she looked angrier than she'd ever seen her, with a hint of distraught and sadness.
"How is she?" Lee asked worriedly.
"How is she?!" Mei shot back furiously, voice breaking and cheeks flushed red. "Your daughter nearly killed her! My precious baby almost died because of that crazy bitch!" She watched without regret as her brother in law flinched.
"Vital organs were punctured. She lost a lethal amount of blood." The doctor informed, sighing at the sight of the girl laying on what could be her death bed. He held a clipboard in his big, gloved hand.
"Ari never even liked to hurt a bug. I never knew she could be so violent!" Lee stammered weakly, dabbing perspiration from his forehead with a tissue. "Something must've happened."
"Who's watching her now? Is she home alone?" Mei inquired more calmly. Lee glanced nervously at where little Ari watched them, and her aunt followed his gaze and scowled. Fear snatched the girl in a tight grip, clutching her heart ever since she heard the woman call her by such a horrid name that should never be used to refer to a child. Hatred consumed every feature of Mei's face, worse than every glare she ever sent her niece's way. It was enough to make Ari close the door and flee down the hallway, tears flowing freely down her face. In the present, older Ari felt horror flash through her as the camera seemed to cut back to Mei's expression of murderous rage, which became even more haunting as her face mutated to look like it was mixed with a shark. Her eyes were cold and lifeless like black marbles, human nose replaced with solely two slanted nostrils, gills on the side of her face, and her jawline had disturbingly elongated to fit rows of bloody, sharp teeth inside her mouth. In seconds, her normal features returned.
There was an obvious time skip as the setting changed completely. Ari was sitting sullenly in the back seat of a car, buckled up. She didn't look seven anymore, she looked like she did when she was about eleven, wearing leggings patterned with teal fish scales and her hair tied into a braid. Mei was driving the car, taking her frustration out on the steering wheel and the drivers that passed by them. Her long fingernails, painted red, pierced the wheel and she jerked it with unnecessary force whenever she needed to round a corner. She shouted obscenities at whoever honked the horn at her as she carelessly tore down the busy streets, ranting and raving to someone over the phone she pressed up to her pierced ear.
"Okay, I admit, I'm still a little pissed she didn't get a sentence. But not surprised; she was seven years old, and Lee is wealthy enough to get a very good lawyer. But I have to take care of her almost every single day! I lost my job because of this!" Mei ranted, eyes narrowed as they avoided stealing a peek at Ari in the rearview mirror. "The children have been scared to even talk around her for the past few years! They shut themselves in their rooms when I bring her over! Kim is scarred for life!"
"Auntie, I'm hungry." Ari whispered, mustering the courage to speak. The last thing she'd eaten was dinner, her cousins were given bigger portions than her, as always. Of course though, it was as if her words were never heard.
"She shouldn't be living with me, she should be put into a hospital 24/7 for her issues! I'm not a psychiatrist! She never listens! The pills aren't working, she still thinks her mom is with her. Every time someone tells her different, she throws an insane fit! She had to be tranquilized once! In public! I haven't been so humiliated in my entire life."
"Can we get something to eat?" Ari asked hopefully, ignoring the uncomfortable subjects being brought up by her aunt. Didn't she realize those terrible memories upset her, too? However, Ari said nothing and thought nothing about the sentence "she still thinks her mom is with her." As long as she focused, she never would think anything of those types of comments, so she tried and tried again.
Mei's angry voice was toned down a couple notches, and she took on a calmer, more reasonable demeanor. "Yes, I know, she is just a child. But children should be punished for their actions, too! She-" She paused as if interrupted by the person she was talking to, then sighed. "I know... But sometimes, I still can't help but blame her for Aria." This last statement seemed to strike the girl like a lightning bolt. Blame her? Why would anyone blame her? She didn't kill her mother...did she?
I did no wrong.
Ari's hands twitched as she dreamed of wrapping them around Mei's throat, a bloodlust curdling inside her that both terrified and excited her and filled her heart with dark desires. The most terrifying aspect about this was the fact the storm raging inside her was never shown on the outside, her face remained emotionless, no one could be sure when she would snap if at all. How could any god let her mother die, but allow this vile woman to live? How could any god grant such cruel children like Kim, Jae, and Eun a mother, but leave her alone with a forever-busy father who would leave her to doubt if he truly loved her? Ari's birthdays were forgotten, her obvious pain was overlooked, her social life barely existed, and even Lee wanted to ban her from visiting aquariums on her own, where she could forget the daily hardships of life for a while, even though no one would take her.
Ari couldn't control herself. She screamed and unleashed her wrath upon Mei, who frantically struggled to juggle driving the car and fending off her scratching hands, and didn't stop until she blacked out. Before she awoke in a hospital room with a sympathetic doctor watching over her, whom she wished was her father, she had a vision of herself sinking into the depths of a beautiful blue sea, being pulled by an unseen force into the deep darkness below her. Despite this, the deep sea girl couldn't feel more at peace. Surely, her mother would be awaiting her in the inky gloom with open arms.
~ *** ~
Ari didn't even have time to loudly deny what she witnessed on the screen, which had faded to black before disappearing altogether, the light from the projector in the middle of the center aisle dimming. Another monster, with a large green fish head and bloody butcher knife, burst into the room from the only exit, heading for her at a speed that nearly gave her a heart attack. It was glowering hatefully at Ari with deep red eyes, a snarl on its thick lips that showcased teeth so sharp she had the silly thought she could just cut herself by looking at them. She jumped out of her seat and ran in the opposite direction, waiting until it followed her, huffing and puffing through its toothy maw like a freight train, into the aisle. The girl looped around the rows of chairs on the left side of the theater and suddenly her life's most important goal and accomplishment was to make it through those double doors, and she refused to look behind her. The fish monster, scaly, webbed hand holding the knife twitching, didn't take the long way around and simply pursued her by squeezing through the narrow spaces in between the lines of red seats. With its menacing demeanor that could make a grown man leak urine through his trousers, one would've thought she had killed its mother in cold blood.
Don't look back, just think about where you're going. Even Ari's thoughts sounded panicked and breathless as her legs pumped and her yellow boots, matching her raincoat, thundered against the floor, even as she left through the exit. Not long after the monster chased after Ari until she darted around a corner and they both disappeared, the blue-haired child materialized into the pristine hallway decorated with impressive framed paintings and photos of deep sea monsters. Small and pale with a plain gray shirt that fitted her like a dress, she looked like a homeless or poor human. But she was neither of those things.
Another figure, more boyish and a little taller, presented itself beside her out of thin air, nothing but a human-shaped flash of white until the colors were restored to its form. It was another very pale child, a male that looked twelve or thirteen with coal-black locks that messily crowded around his face and formal attire from the Victorian era. He wore a mysterious, hazy expression on his face that made him seem sleepy, and the most interesting feature about him were his dazzling, otherworldly violet eyes. They seemed to bore endlessly into anyone he stared at, and made one want to examine each intricate detail of the iris as if it were a particularly captivating gem. His name was short, simple, and cute: Sue.
"Hey, you can't just barge in, you know!" The little girl snapped, the creases in her face the only visible traces of her irritation. As always, her eyes were hidden.
"Ai," Sue acknowledged, nodding, "the princess wanted me to check on your progress." The boy said fluently, his voice slightly feminine and smooth like water from the rapids of a river cascading over stone. He talked like a gentleman, one who'd kiss a woman's hand in greeting. He perked up at the high-pitched squeal from somewhere nearby and the slam of a door, which was followed by an unearthly roar that resonated throughout the halls of the aquarium. At this, the boy's lips quirked up at the corners ever so gently, a barely noticeable smirk. "I'm guessing the girl is still being tested?"
Ai giggled, elated, and clasped her hands behind her back. "I really did try to make it quick and end it here, just to get Priscilla off my back. But she was so persistent, and refused to believe anything other than what she thought was true! Unlike that little rich girl you played with." She then crossed her arms, a vein bulging visibly on her forehead. "She was so ignorant! I wanted to snap her in two."
"A good example of Sloth." Sue speculated. "Her laziness to accept the fact that her mother is dead will only make things harder for her. She chooses to play pretend, and imagine herself a perfect life, instead of facing her issues head-on and recovering from her loss." Anyone who knew him would recognize the look on his face and the tone of his voice, it was the one he gave when he was highly interested, particularly in any human his job forced him to encounter. They were intriguing creatures after all, even if he was one himself at some point, he thought this. It was all so interesting how Ari's mind worked, how it chose different aquatic animals to represent the people in her life. The doctor was an octopus, the aunt was a shark, her cousins were piranhas, and there was even the rare occasion of a sea creature standing for someone she didn't see daily, like the crab who called her a bitch. That was a bully at school, who liked to pinch her arms and watch her silently squirm as he did it.
"So, she's another weak simple-minded little girl." Ai stated simply, shrugging her shoulders a bit. "I doubt she'll listen to me anymore, so her mind will probably stay dead. And she won't be any use as a guard. I mean, it's not like she's getting much help from anywhere, either." Yes, Ai knew about the doctor who genuinely cared for the thirteen year old, but even he knew that, with a family like hers, recovering from her mental illness would be near impossible despite his best efforts. Mei, that prideful woman, hated her with a passion and would often burst into his office to pick her up rather than her father, against the man's protests. Lee's love for Ari was true, but he was ridiculously oblivious to the neglectful and emotional abuse his daughter faced, and he couldn't even remember her birthday for hell's sake. She might as well have been growing up alone.
A small mysterious smile slowly graced Sue's features. It was calm, yet devilish. Serene, yet eerie. "Ai, are you interested in making this entire ordeal a little more fun?" He drawled, turning to her.
"What did you have in mind?" Ai asked, a grin stretching across her pale face. A thrill ran through her at the thought of being naughty again.
"As you've said, it's very unlikely for her to snap out of her little syndrome." Sue continued, a wicked gleam in his eyes. "So when she eventually is sent to be Judged, another small offense won't alter her sentence much, will it?"
"Sugarcoating never works with me." Ari snickered. "What are you planning to do, oh clever one?" The only reason she didn't snap at him to "spit it out already!" was because she was in a good mood, and therefore had a little more patience than usual.
"I want to see the Ari that goes utterly beserk when someone breaks her precious little fantasy." Sue chuckled darkly. Any trace left of his harmless, sweet demeanor completely shattered. He imitated being lost in thought, tapping his chin. "Come to think of it, isn't that another deadly sin she's committed? Wrath? We can't just overlook that, now can we? Did everyone forget?"
"We'll remind them." Ai beamed, as if their devious plotting was completely innocent. She clasped her hands behind her back, delighted at the fun they were going to have. After a few seconds, Ai frowned as if puzzled. "But how are we going to bring that part of herself back in her? She believes her mother is alive, so she believes there would be no reason for her to feel anger."
"Easy, the form you've taken will prove to be quite useful." Sue replied, rocking back and forth on his heels nonchalantly. Ai loved being seven-year-old Ari, she liked the thought of representing a sinful child, and her appearance met her satisfaction. "Tell the girl you're really her, a part of herself she trapped inside her own mind long ago that created a physical manifestation to prevent any further damage on her mental state. Only, dumb it down a smidge so she'll comprehend."
"Aren't I lucky to follow a guard who's so much like me!" Ai extolled, the familiar fondness she felt for her partner in crime returning in a fit of butterflies fluttering in her stomach. "But, erm, how will telling her this do anything?"
Sue resumed explaining articulately, his patience remaining intact despite how many questions the young demon was asking. He lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug, the cold look found in his cat-like eyes betraying his smile. "Convince her violence is the answer. That is what many humans believe anyways. At the end of her journey to 'find her mother,' remind her that her mother is dead, and tell her you're the wrath that wants to return in her in order to end her suffering. That's what she wanted when she plunged a knife into her cousin, that's what she wanted when she attempted to hurt those related to her on numerous other occasions. Remind her every single step of the way of what she has done. She can't ignore the truth forever."
"What if she doesn't comply?" Ai inquired, doubt stirring within her. "What if she refuses me?" Her high-pitched voice darkened as she said this, the mere thought of that made anger, like an overflowing boiling cauldron, bubble inside her small form.
"Then possess her and do it yourself." Sue said, as if it were nothing and no difficulty or consequences would come out of it.
"Hey, I can't do that!" Ai cried, in disbelief that he'd even suggest it. "That's breaking the fourth wall, we can't get away with that as easily. Priscilla, the oh-so-wonderful 'princess of Purgatory,' watches over us like a hawk! I'm surprised she's trusted us with this much time alone!"
"I suppose you do have a point." Sue sighed, disappointed. "But at least there's still the possibility she'll accept your offer. Not only that, but if she doesn't, one last, good scare never hurt anyone." There it was, that smile again, complete with cute little dimples that made one want to pinch his cheeks.
"Like when you chased that little rich girl with the mutant sewer monster! I loved that part of the story." Ai gushed, her voice full of pure adoration. Sue liked telling the story of Dorothy to those who were intrigued enough to listen, especially the other guides like him who admired his cruelties when 'playing' with the girl, despite their past together. Had they taken joy in the fact his humanity had left him? Ai could only assume that. She continued mischievously, "I have learned from her memories that Ari has a phobia of snakes, so I could use that as inspiration! This will be so much fun!"
"And you can continue to play with her even after she's tested." Sue laughed gleefully. "As long as you'd want, until you grow bored of her. She might be a little...late in being Judged, but I've never seen any harm in it."
"You really are a devil, Sue." Ai giggled. Weren't they all, technically? Yes. But Sue was the most devilish of them all, everyone knew, and he fully intended on keeping it that way.
"Born that way." He replied coolly, turning and walking away. She could see him take his golden pocket watch out of his maroon blazer and stare at it. After a few steps, he vanished altogether. Thinking of her responsibility-turned-game, so did the creepy blue-haired child, but not without a giggle that echoed in the air even seconds after she departed.
A/N: I'm downloading the game Hide and Seek 2 so my fanfics for it can be better and not based on walkthroughs. Hope you enjoyed, please vote and comment if you did, that would be greatly appreciated. Also, sorry for not giving details on Kim's lethal injuries, I'm not good at hospital stuff so you'll have to forgive me. I just wanted to write a story of Ari's background, she's a real troubled little girl, and for some reason she appeared, much older, in Tabomsoft's The Exorcist. I might play that game too, at some point, and have the characters in there meet with the cast of H&S. I'm going to try to update often, like every two days if I can.