A/N: Thank you gor being patient guys~
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Chapter 21
When she finally unbolted the door, she rammed her shoulder against its hard surface, causing them to part ways. They opened, revealing a dark, endless room.
Suddenly, the candles hanging against the wall lightened one by one, chasing away the darkness as the fire made their way across the room.
Frightened, Yui's eyes darted around, finally focusing towards the far, middle end of the room, towards the crimson that painted her vision.
The sight in front of her caused the poor girl's legs to buckle.
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Yui's knees crashed onto the cold, hard floor, enough to create harsh bruises later on. But this pain, it was nothing. It did nothing to snap her from her current state.
Her eyes were wide with shock as she felt herself shake.
In front of her was a mass of red. It splattered over the white fabric, dominating the rusty brown as it soaked and stained. The colour ran down awfully white skin, reaching fingertips and toes that were lifted from the ground, creating brown and crimson branches before splashing onto the lakes made from blood.
The bloody, petite corpse seemed to resemble a human's. She hung there, and curtains of pink hair covered her face as her head was bowed, flowing down elegantly. The pink strands had tips that were caked with blood, a mixture of both dried and fresh.
But that was not what truly frightened Yui.
The pink-haired female was impaled by wooden stakes. They pierced mercilessly through her slim body from all directions, leaving little space to spare. The white dress she wore was torn before flesh and muscle and broken bones, gushing down in eerie grace. Its longer hems behind smooth, blood-stained legs were dyed red as it swam along the red liquid pooled beneath the female corpse.
Yui's hands were shaking over her mouth. She was struggling to breath, and her head felt heavy, heavier than a ton of bricks. The world was spinning around her, the colours becoming a blur.
Hot liquid poured down her cheeks, and she pulled her hand back to examine her fingers, realising—to her relief—that it was simply tears. Not blood.
"That's what happens when you stick your nose into other's business, nee Teddy?" Kanato casually said, stopping beside her.
Yui suddenly stood up and took a few staggering steps to the side. The room tilted before she threw up. More tears slipped down her cheeks, pooling on the ground to make lakes of their own.
Kanato simply watched her. His face was surprisingly grim. He was strangely quiet.
"Is your curiosity satisfied, mortal?" he finally said. "Or do you want to know more?"
Yui weakly shook her head as she sobbed through her hands. Her gaze remained glued to the ground, refusing to look anywhere else.
Kanato hummed. "Well, I guess you're different from the other worms. They tend to annoyingly yap in my ear, wanting to know about this...filthy thing here."
"Who..." Yui began quietly. "...who is she?"
Kanato suddenly looked furious. "You—!" He abruptly stopped and fell into silence. He then resumed in a calmer voice. "Fine. I'll tell you since Teddy wants you to know. Don't mistake it for concern. He said that it's only because you're slightly less annoying then the previous mortals."
"Th-Thank you..." Yui replied. She refused to move from her hunched position and down-casted eyes.
Kanato's eyes flickered to the bloody corpse hanging in front of them before they narrowed. It was the longest second before he spoke.
"Her name..." Venom was building up in his voice, and he suddenly seemed to be fighting with monstrous rage. "...was Sana."
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Ayato appeared to be walking down an endless road. The darkness had swallowed him up, snatching the sharpness from his eyes. It was not like his sharp hearing helped either.
Suddenly, he began seeing something dimly lit ahead of him. Dots of light began twinkling from either side of his vision, always running a step ahead of him.
Ayato went closer and reached out his hand, only to touch something cool and solid.
Familiar lime green eyes met his. Unmistakable red hair framed an unmistakable pale face. It was his reflection. He was touching glass.
Ayato then looked past the glass and saw trees starting to form, the leaves the darkness due to the odd, reddish glow. His eyes trailed upwards, becoming more and more confused as the glow became increasingly luminous. He saw blankets of clouds, and when it drifted away, he was met by a full moon almost redder than his hair.
Ayato blinked and returned his gaze to the trees lower down, as it swayed along the wind. His eyes widened, and the sight in front of him clicked in his head.
It was near the mansion, precisely in the building where Kanato's 'collection' was.
Ayato then spun around, startled when he was met with a familiar, dimly lit room. Beautiful waxed figures were lined along the sides of the room, gazing blankly ahead as their white, wedding dresses were spotless, hair neatly-groomed and their bouquets were still fresh and dark crimson.
Ayato tilted his head in puzzlement before he resumed his walking. As he expected, he was met by a wooden oak door. Unlocking the bolts, he stepped in and was welcomed by more darkness.
He rolled his eyes. The candelabras against the wall began lighting up one by one, and what he saw in front of him was completely unexpected.
Dread flooded through him faster than fire meets oil. His eyes were larger than that red moon outside, and he suddenly felt himself beginning to become human, suddenly craving for oxygen.
He took a great lungful of air and exhaling slowly. His jaw was clench and his eyes tightly shut as he was desperately trying to erase what his eyes saw.
He then reopened them, and his breathing immediately became ragged. The sight of the bloody female was still there.
He dragged one foot after the other, a hand reaching shakily out. Something was different. Something was very different.
The white, red-caked dress was no different from the original. The wooden stakes impaling her body weren't removed as before. The branches of brown and crimson that ran down her arms and legs, reaching the tips of her fingers and toes, were also still the same.
But her skin was different, this complexion being more fairer but...livelier. The figure was also leaner, the curves being more accented and the fingers and limbs were longer.
Her hair, however, was the most noticeable feature. It was different, appearing thick and straight instead of wavy, thin strands. But what was the most painful was that it resembled a starless, midnight sky instead of a field of pink roses.
Unexpectedly, the corpse moved, lifting its head. Cheeks were covered in ribbons of blood as they poured down her chin. The beauty mark was barely audible underneath her left eye, but it was still there.
The last thing Ayato saw were the blankest silver orbs.
Ayato sat upright. His eyes darted frantically around at the new setting. His hand was shaking as he brought it up to his face, and he stayed like that for a while before he suddenly jolted, the dream—no, nightmare smacking his senses straight.
He allowed anger, agony and shock to wash through him, and without waiting another moment, he disappeared, leaving behind messy pillows and crumpled blankets.
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"Sana?" Yui repeated in a small voice.
"Yes," Kanato said, his eyes absorbing every reaction of hers. "She was the first bride."
"How...how did she end up like this?" Yui asked.
The temperature in the room plummeted. Kanato bowed his head, his bangs framing his face to cover his darkening expression.
"She tried to kill something precious to me," he said, his grip tightening on his stuffed toy, creating wrinkles on its brown skin. "That disgusting, good-for-nothing piece of mortal trash!"
Kanato began screaming at Sana's corpse as he advanced towards her. "You should have died the moment you came here! How dare you have the nerve to do that to Guinevere?! YOU MADE HER LEAVE ME!"
His rage bounced off the walls, causing the walls to almost tremble and flames to squirm from the candles. Yui winced at the loudness. She shivered at the hatred in his voice.
"Louis was tolerable to," Kanato said, his shoes inches from the puddles of blood. He was holding Teddy's arm, leaving its body hanging by his side. "He definitely wasn't a despicable scum like you."
He then stepped the puddles, ignorant to the blood that soaked into his shoes. Ripples rolled across the liquid surface, as the sploshing of his drenched shoes disrupted the silence.
Kanato halted. He reached his hand out, and after effortlessly avoiding the wooden stakes, he gently gripped sticky, damp pink hair.
"But I'm pleased of how you look now," he said to the blood-covered face. "Red suits your disgusting face. It also says that bathing in blood will make you look younger."
"K-Kanato-kun?"
The lilac-haired boy turned his head, his eyes landing on an awfully pale Yui.
"...How long has she—Sana been dead for?" the platinum-blond girl asked. 'Her blood appears so...fresh...'
"Your brain isn't useless, mortal." Kanato began rubbed Sana's rough hair strands between his fingers as he spoke. "Blood dries up eventually, and it will no longer be its bright, crimson colour anymore. At first, Teddy and I thought that red paint will do. But that certainly wasn't pleasurable. It was boring. So we both thought, 'why not take actually, fresh blood? Ones that haven't lost their red.'"
Kanato then turned to Yui, sending her an unsettling smile.
"And so we did that. Every day or two they'd be a sacrifice," he explained without batting an eye. "It's such a pain, and sometimes I almost couldn't resist my thirst...But blood dries fast you see, and that means that Sana won't look tortured anymore. She'll look like her boring, dull self."
A giggle escaped Kanato's lips when his eyes landed on Yui's figure. "Look Teddy, she's trembling!"
"I...I—" Yui cried out when Kanato was suddenly in front of her, a fistful of wavy locks in his hand. She then watched as he unclenched his fist, her gaze following hues of pink and crimson tipped that began floating down.
"Teddy, what a wonderful idea!" Kanato exclaimed over his echoing giggles, his eyes widening further with excitement. To Yui, he said, "Say, why don't you become a sacrifice? You are a sacrificial bride after all, and I can make you like these other brides once I clean every drop of blood from your body. You can also choose your dress, but it has to be white because you're not that special."
"No...no thank you," Yui politely declined.
"I see. So you want to stay as your ugly, filthy self?"
"I—"
"You're no different from them, whether it be waxed or flesh." Kanato then sighed disappointingly. "And here I thought you would be more grateful."
"H-how can I be grateful because of that?" Yui replied. "The moment I entered this mansion I was already—"
She was cut short by a hand seizing her throat, squeezing her windpipe. She looked down through watery eyes and her gaze locked with violet eyes that swam with anger.
"How dare you?! I'LL SNAP THIS WEAK, PATHETIC NECK—" Kanato stopped when he felt an invading presence in the room.
He loosened his grip slightly around her neck and divided his attention towards his redheaded brother who stood motionlessly in front of Sana's hanging corpse.
"Why are you here, Ayato?" Kanato glared. "Stop interrupting Teddy and I!"
Ayato's knees gave out, crashing onto the floor. He then bent over, exhaling as he placed his face in his hands.
Kanato tilted his head. "Ayato?" He then walked up to him. "What's the matter? You're acting even weirder than usual."
"...Where's Guinevere?" Ayato's voice was hushed, muffled through his palms.
Kanato's irritation flared. "Why? What do you want with her?"
"...I don't have to explain myself to you, pipsqueak," Ayato said weakly.
Kanato dropped Yui onto the floor, causing a satisfying smack to ring through the air. The girl, however, was too unconscious to respond due to the lack of oxygen.
"You act like Guinevere's yours," Kanato said through gritted teeth, "and Teddy and I don't like that."
Ayato didn't respond. He stood up and turned to give Kanato a look. "This place reeks. You should stop killing people."
Kanato glared. "What I do is none of your business."
Ayato sighed. "Why don't you just burn her body already? This is way more problematic."
Kanato was silent for a while. Drawing Teddy closer to him, he finally answered in a quiet voice, "But then I won't be able to see her in eternal pain. I won't be able to see her tortured, because she'll just perish into ashes."
Ayato hummed in response, stony eye lingering on Sana's corpse. "Yeah, I can see benefits."
"Why were you acting weird earlier?" Kanato suddenly asked. "We were quite startled, weren't we Teddy?"
Along the walls, the candelabras' flames flickered before once again casting shadows over Ayato's fine features, bringing forth an appearance of worn-out hollowness.
The redhead simply glanced where Yui was lying motionlessly on the ground. "Get her to Reiji before she stops breathing."
And with that, he left as quickly as he came.
Upon being ignored, Kanato's frustrated scream could be heard beyond the vast trees surrounding the building that bathed under the moonlight.
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The sound of hair dryer stopped after a flick of a switch. Guinevere then unplugged the cord, and after swiftly placing it back in the drawer, she slid the bathroom door open, causing the steam to rush out of the door, squeezing between the white doorframes.
She barely reached the bed when something embraced her from behind. Eyes widening and body tensing, she spun her head round. At the same time, she reached her hand back in attempt to painfully haul a fistful of hair.
However, upon seeing who the culprit was, her hand stopped inches away from his red hair. She then exhaled in relief, arching her head back to lightly rest on his.
Noticing his hands tighten around her, she placed hers over them, and was once again caught off-guarded upon feeling them shake.
"Ayato, what is the matter?" Guinevere softly asked.
Ayato didn't respond. Guinevere's silver orbs warmed. She gently pried his hands off and turned around, dragging him in before closing the short distance between them.
"Was it a nightmare?" she said.
Ayato savoured her touch, sinking deeper into her warmth. "...Yeah."
Smiling, she watched his soft hair slip past her fingers, waiting patiently until he finally elaborated.
"You were dead," Ayato said quietly, "and you were right where she was."
Guinevere pursed her lips.
"Your body was... impaled in the same way...You were wearing the same white gown..." He squeezed her tighter. "...There was blood...everywhere."
"It must have been difficult to go through that." Guinevere then rested her cheek on his head, comforted by his intoxicating scent. Her hands tightened around him. "But I'm right here. Everything is fine now."