Chapter 4 – Hidden Chambers of a lonely soulClouds began to cover the crescent moon. The sky darkens and people roaming among the streets occupied by their daily lives lessen with each passing minute.
Dirty, cold, and hungry a little girl adorned in pink unknowingly makes her way down a random street. Clutched in her hand was a teddy bear and strapped across tiny shaking shoulders was a bag.
Setting a free hand over her stomach, beautiful, exhausted eyes thoughtfully made their way downwards for a brief moment before moving back up again in search for the source of the pleasant aroma that seem to linger in the air.
Advancing towards an open stall the small girl stared on hopelessly at the freshly made snacks before taking in a big sniff of air with closed eyelids gathering a small hint of delight that built up in her once more.
“Would you like something?” questioned a lady adorned in a green apron from inside the stall. The women looked like she was in her mid twenties. Around her neck was a thick golden necklace with a pretty green pendant and on her finger a shiny gold ring, the kind of jewelry you’d never expect to see on ordinary people.
Encouraged by the woman’s smile the girl gave a shy nod. “What would you…” The woman’s gaze shifts down to the girls necklace and then back up to the girl. “My what a beautiful necklace you have…” She laughs “I’m sorry what would you like?”
Bawling her hand up to her mouth the girl points to a colorful section. “Ah, good choice those are really good.” Picking up the snack the women wraps up half of it in a thin sheet before handing it carefully to the young child.
Upon receiving the snack the girl’s eyes shimmered in delight. She felt the warmth against her hands and wondered if she were in a dream. Moving the delicious piece of colored bun to her mouth the girl proceeds to sink her teeth into it but just before that could happen the women in the stall reaches over and snatches away the snack from her hands.
“Hey, pay-up first.” She sticks out her hand as if to receive payment from the girl who is now starring at the hand out in front of her. “…I don’t have any money.” Replied the innocent girl. This response only pissed off the women. “What? No money? ...ughh where is your mother?”
“...Mama?...my mama is gone…” There was sadness in her voice that was all too familiar. The women only gave the girl a disgusted look. “Your mother’s dead!? No wonder, I have a daughter I need to feed too thankfully she’s not a mess like you or I’d kill myself also.”
What the women said struck a cord from inside the little girl and pained her deeply. “…I’m sorry” Although it wasn’t right for the girl to apologize to the women especially after the heartless words that the women had just said to the girl she felt that she needed to before leaving.
“No you can’t leave yet, don’t think that you can just leave after dirtying my food, pay up now.” As she says this she looks around the area before continuing.
“But… I don’t have any money.”
In a quieter yet harsher voice the women goes at her again. “Let me see your necklace.”
“Eh?” The girl muttered out confused.
“Don't dodge my question by playing dumb.” The woman grabs a hold of the girl’s hand and moves to grasp the girl’s necklace. “No!” The woman snaps the necklace off of the girl and releases her hold.
The ill-fated girl can only stare tear-filled at demon who disguised herself as a rich-looking angel. The women stared intently, obviously awed by the quality of the necklace that once laid safely upon a dirty, scrawny neck.
“Scam! You little brat, if you don’t have any money leave don’t just stand around here you’re stinking up the place and scaring off my customers. You’re lucky I didn’t call the police on you so leave.”
The girl stood there silently scared until an unexpected person shoves the woman causing her to lose balance and crashing against her stand but not hard enough for everything to fall apart. A warm hand intertwines with the hers and she is dragged hurriedly down the street, the evil woman’s voice still screaming behind them as they fled.
At the cool sound of hurried footsteps, the girl corrects her facing to the front. Pulled forward by someone's hand, she increases her pace.
Pulled by the hand, the girl did her best to keep up with the stranger. She did not know this person but had just been through way too and was in no mood to care anymore. Nothing no longer mattered to the girl for she has lost many things dear to her heart.
While not a genuine designated trail they were on, they veer off from the trail that had
any semblance of a trail and proceed by parting the grass that they have encountered.
Faster, faster, faster, faster...
The hand pulling hers strengthens.
‘Is that woman still chasing us?’
‘Why are we hurrying so?’
The girl pound at the grass under her feet, rushing forward.
Zaa!... The sound of the wind brings chills up her spine.
Suddenly, her field of vision opens wide. At this point, they're probably far out at the edge of the city. The area looked ancient and deserted. The buildings seemed like they were going to collapse at any time, colors rusted and faded. What seemed like abandoned railroad tracks filled the place.
After stopping abruptly behind a shabby warehouse the girl quietly eyes the stranger for an action as the person carefully peaks from the corner of the building perhaps to check if there were any followers.
Sliding down the dirty wall the stranger pulls the girl abruptly to sit next to her on the ground.
As the stranger turned to face her she was greeted at the sight of a girl around her age, her short black hair slightly wet of what the girl would guess to be her sweat. She wore the best smile the girl had seen in a long time and her soft brown eyes, gazed at her with a friendly glow.
“Are you alright?” The strange girl asked.
Nodding her head dejectedly the girl brought up her knees, wraps her arms around them and lays her head down. She was tired, and her neck ached from the pull of her necklace. Her moment of silence was unexpectedly broken when ruffles were made from the other girl. Raising her head up the girl was faced with a delicious piece of colored bun.
“Here eat this.” The short haired girl offered to the younger one. Her eyes doubled in size upon receiving the snack, it was the same kind from the evil woman’s place.
“How did you get this?” asked the curious girl.
“Why’d you think we were running?” laughed out the shorter haired girl. All the younger girl could do was stare at the other one. Her laugh definitely had something angelic about it that warmed up the younger one’s insides and that was enough to bring up her mood.
“That lady was mean, stay away from people like that.” As the girl finished her sentence she takes out another snack bun and starts eating it. “It was inappropriate of her to say such things, not right at all. It’s scary how some people can be so heartless and cruel…those words…they hurt me too.” As much as the girl would like to say those words with a straight face the walls to her heart seem to crumble away.
Though the stranger seem to be deep in depression she quickly recollected herself, took a deep breath, wiped away tears that may have escaped, and turned to face the other girl with a smile softer than the one before but still holding it‘s charm.
“You don’t have a home right?” Asked the older girl as she places her warm hand over the younger one’s. “Why don’t you stay with us? I’m sure boss would gladly accept you.”
“Boss?” asked the younger girl “uhnn” nodded the older one. “With boss and the rest of us.” She really didn’t’know anything about this girl or what she meant by boss and the rest of us but every time the girl smiles everything seemed brighter and she willingly agrees with the idea.
“Let’s be good friends huh? I was always alone until I met boss, I‘ll be there for you when ever you need help I promise.” The girl stuck out her pinky and her ring finger and brought it up to the younger girl who in turn squinted her eyes, confused at the gesture.
“What are you doing?“ The girl blinked out adorably.
“You don’t know? It’s called pinky swearing.” This only knitted the younger girls eyebrows together before it sank in.
“ Oh, I know that!” The girl laughed, a wonderful thing that seemed impossible just a few minutes ago.
“I was confused because you had two fingers sticking out.”
“Oh, I’ll show you!” The older girl chuckled out.
She smiled down at the younger girl and lifted up both of her hands.
“I’ll count them one by one. Watch the last fingers!”
The girl hugging her teddy bear tightened her embrace obviously intrigued and ready to watch whatever might happen.
She began counting down her fingers until…
“…6, 7, 8, 9.5,10”
“Ah, your fingers!”
The older girl flexes down her two last fingers freakishly a couple of more times before giving an explanation. “You see, my pinky and my ring finger move at the same time no matter what I do.”
“That’s so cool!” Astonished by the show the little girl clapped her wildly together.
“So, what do you say? I mean if you don’t mind my weird finger that is.”
She stuck out her odd fingers yet again but now after a brief second is met with another.
Happy that she has made a new friend the younger girl smiled sheepishly to herself before realizing something. “Ah, your name!”
“Oh right, I forgot.” The girl laughed out before continuing.
“My name is Shimizu Saki.”
--------Miyabi’s eyes fluttered open. Everything looked blurring. She blinked a few more times. Her hands reached up to rub her eyes. It was still early in the morning and there was very little sunlight.
She had been rather impressed in the beginning by the room’s spaciousness, its ridiculously expensive furniture as well as state-of-the-art entertainment facilities, and the impeccable aesthetic sense with which it was designed and decorated but now in her eyes everything did not seem all too extraordinary anymore and yet aside from the luxury her room was grim as always.
Another day, another day of suffering. Suffering, meaningful suffering, not for Miyabi herself, but for someone who made her this way, for someone who didn't care, for someone who wouldn't shed a tear if the mother of a child dies in front of their eyes.
Miyabi could die. Her body could die. Nothing would change if that happened though no justice would be served. There was no substitution or replacement. Miyabi longed for death. She longed for all this suffering to end but her soul couldn’t, it cries in agony, the fire inside her heart reawakens making her blood boil and old scars reopen. A being, cursed to go through a lifetime of suffering.
Rising from her immense bed, the high back of which faced a massive thick glass pane with the view of indescribable beauty from a height of a thousand feet, she quietly crossed the room, slowly to the bathroom and turned on the tap.
The water felt cold on her hands. It was always so cold, and that was how she wanted it, just like how she always felt inside her heart. She remembered the time when she was little. How the old Miyabi used to be such a cheerful girl.
The regular check ups the doctor performed on her were uncomfortable, but there had been high hopes. But the cruelty Miyabi had endured when she was a child had destroyed her hopes long ago. And it turned her heart cold.
As Miyabi splashed the cold water on her face, her body started shivering, but it was nothing uncommon. It happened every time. When she was done using the sink she took a big huff of air, resting the palm of her hands on the edge of the sink counter, she stared flatly into the mirror.
The girl staring back looked so different...different from whom she was at school, different from which she was when she was around certain people.
‘Am I a monster?’ Miyabi inwardly asked herself with a serious face as if the clouds would open up and give her an answer, she waits patiently in deep thought.
Nothing but total silence goes by…and a crooked smile quivers its way up the girl’s lips followed by an uproar of laughter. Moving her right hand off the edge of the sink and onto the glass mirror Miyabi answers herself. “Nah, just a cursed being…”
A tear rolls down Miyabi‘s cheek, something that still astonishes herself. It has happened more than once, there’s no warning, she doesn’t feel anything and yet this lone tear manages to escape. She no longer had control over her own tears...was it a curse or a blessing?
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Under the blue sky, Risako steps one foot in front of the other, another morning, two weeks had past since the new transfer student arrived, the exams are over, and for everybody life goes on but for Risako things haven’t exactly been pleasant.
Risako walks the path she's always taken to school ever since she found out that another also took this same path. She got up early, walked faster, slower, just to catch a glimpse. Every day bag in hand, moving from that empty space into another, walking until the sunlight filled up what was desolate, just a head of her, just walking through crowded concrete buildings.
An old woman's cat flicking its tail as it lays upon the window sill lazily. The pots of messily arranged flowers trying to bud, trying to survive, the clear air as it hits her face with every motion forward just to catch a glimpse, the back, the simple flutter of hair over the shoulder, always holding her arms before her to carry her bag. The girl gets dropped off from a luxurious limo a couple of blocks away from school.
Risako could only guess that perhaps the girl didn’t want anymore attention then what she was already receiving.
"Natsuyaki..."
Natsuyaki-san haven’t exactly been as friendly as she was like their first meeting, ever since her incident with Sengoku Minami that is. Although her name had been cleared like it rightfully should she still felt embarrassed around the girl.
Natsuyaki Miyabi is all that the student body talks about these days. She seems to fascinate more people each passing day, captivating them with those beautiful features of hers as if anyone who has had a taste of her scent will be spellbound. The only person who hasn’t been drawn to Natsuyaki Miyabi according to Risako’s knowledge is her best friend Airi but even Airi can’t seem to get Miyabi out of her head.
It wasn’t as though Risako was stalking the girl it was just that there was something about her eyes that drew Risako to her. Ever since the day she had witnessed them under the tree, she couldn’t get the image of the girl’s lonely eyes out her head. Although she had only seen them for a split second they felt familiar as if she had seen them before, as if she could almost recognize them.
Realizing she passed the area she’d usually see Miyabi walking she stopped to look over her shoulder and back to the front again. She wasn’t there. Squinting her eyes a little and looking anxiously ahead, trying hard to make out the figures of students up ahead of her, her eyes searched desperately for the girl.
“Is Natsuyaki-san late today?…” She asked quietly to no one in particular.
“No, she’s on time today.” A familiar voice from behind causes the young girl to turn around abruptly, surprised to find herself facing the girl she had just been looking for.
“Na-Natsuyaki-san!” She stuttered “You scared me.” Putting a hand over her chest she sighed out in relief. But of course slowly turning away obviously embarrassed.
Miyabi catching on and taking advantage of the situation walked slowly towards the girl and leaned in. She stared intently at the girl’s flushed face expression, smiling that mischievous, toothy grin of hers that people rarely see. Risako still red as a tomato tried hard not to look at the other girl whose presence was slowly closing in on her.
“Looking for me?” Miyabi asked slyly.
The girl had her head tilted adorably as she slightly pouched out her feathery lips, finding herself at a loss of words.
“You have something you wish to tell me?” Hearing no response from the girl, Miyabi’s smile only widens.
“Risako, why do you take this path to school when you live in the opposite direction?”
“Ri-Risako?” The bashful girl hesitates at the usage of her first name.
“Oh? Are you uncomfortable with me using your first name?”
“No, I mean…I was just-wait how do you know I don’t live-” She gets cut off.
“Don’t you live near Yajima?”
“Huh?…urm” Risako nodded, finally peering over to look at the other girl’s face who was now closer than ever.
Caught in a awkward staring contest, Risako finds herself staring back deeply into the mysteriously beautiful eyes of Natsuyaki Miyabi. It was different and that alone surprised her. Unlike the day under the tree her eyes were unreadable. The only thing she saw in them were a reflection of none other but herself, as if the girl’s eyes had transformed into an unbreakable mirror that locked away all it’s secrets and treasures in that chamber.
“Risako?…”
“Eh?” She snaps back to reality. Realizing just how deeply she had just analyzed the other girl an ecstatic vibe ran through her body. She didn’t even realize that to anyone who might have witnessed their little moment, could have mistaken it for a passionate exchange of nonverbal communication between lovers. She couldn’t be risking her life for that kind of misconception, fans are overly obsessed these days.
“I’m sorry I have to-” Risako quickly made an attempt to escape but fails miserably as she finds herself faced to face again with Miyabi who had pulled her back in place. There was an odd silence that came with the dreamy look Miyabi was giving her and as if it had set off a switch from inside of her, her heart beat accelerated into a terrible panic.
‘Oh no…what’s happening?…’ Risako inwardly asked herself confused by the actions of the other girl. But everything only became worst when the girl started leaning in on her. Blinking in thought of what to do next she ran out of ideas and tightly shut her eyes. She waited for what she thought was going to happen but not the lips of the other girl’s did she feel but a finger sliding off her chin as if it were wiping something off.
“What’d you do eat chocolate frosting for breakfast?”
Snapping her eyes open to reality yet another time she looked at Miyabi’s finger in horror and quickly took out her handkerchief from within her pocket and wiped hurriedly at her mouth. God knows she rather choose the beating of jealousy-frenzy-fueled fans than an embarrassment such as what just had happened. She knew she shouldn’t have sneaked that cake in this morning! Look at what it’s done to her, she looks like a freakin’ stalker with chocolate frosting all over her face! She could die from embarrassment any minute now.
“You’re leaving school with Yajima today aren’t you? I owe her some ice-cream after school you want to come along?”
“Ice-cream?…”
“Yeah well, I have to go see a few teachers before class starts so.. I’ll see you in class later then.” Miyabi waves a small goodbye before turning away leaving Risako to stand there alone. She gave a loud sigh, thankful that the awkward moment have passed.
But It wasn’t long before that thought backfired on her. Miyabi who had taken at the most six steps ahead of Risako had turned her head to the side, and without a gaze spoke out something that completely caught her off guard.
“Don’t tell me you’re interested in me too?”
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Okay...I know it's been three years I did move to another state and blah but whatever you know I am making excuses I'll try to update but that's only happening if people actually read this story please comment tell me if i should stop writting sorry it's kind of boring now and there are alot of grammar issues but im a noobie so have pity! 
Topic: Immoral Vengeance [Chapter 4 – Hidden Chambers of a lonely soul] (Read 10834 times)