Disclaimer and Warning:
All characters, plot holes, and etc. are courtesy of Effey Wang (2003)
Like usual, contains drug use, [underage] smoking, statutory rape, non-con, killing, hacking, stealing, prostitution, homosexuality
This story is purely fiction. Any resemblance to real people or situations is merely coincidental.
Story is not in proper order.
The brightly crimson stained moon rose quickly through the sky, as it passed through the windows, the shadows cast the glowing shape of a long cross over the silhouette of a sitting boy. Avoiding the bleeding body of a nameless soul which lay next to my feet, I slowly walked forward, the entire room spinning in a blur of black and white images around each resounding footstep.
Forcing a voice out of the depths of my inner self, I began to speak without a thought, "Will you give you eternal love and loyalty to me?" Trying to ignore the silence of the dark and endless castle, I continued on until he stared up at me through emotionless red eyes. I held my hand out so that the boy would be able to see it and even without speaking, if he accepted my hand, I would know his answer. He looked down to his hands lying limp at his side on the darkly patterned stone. I could feel the shadows creeping further down my body as the moon fell faster still. Looking up at me again, he lifted his bloody hand and placed it within my own pure white gloved fingers.
"Yes, my prince. Even if it is to the pits of hell, I will lead the way for you." Stands of long hair fell around his face, the color of a faraway ocean reflected from his hair, and I briefly saw a small smile.
system.sc.rew
Staring at the almost blinding white color of the ceiling as I lie in this white bed covered with the stiff white blanket, I have finally realized that if I die now, there would be no one who would cry for me.
That is what I told myself the first night I arrived in this hospital. Maybe if I had bled to death on the stretcher, we would be able to meet again.
The sound of heartbeat continuously echoes in my head, pulsating through my body, wrenching away all my thoughts until they become only an odd sensation of dizziness.
"You must feel pretty bad."
I tried to turn my head towards the speaker, pain searing through my body.
"A desperate love. That's why I hope never to fall in love." As he spoke those words, I wanted to crawl out of this white haven and disappear. I shut my eyes, hoping that he would stop talking and simply leave.
"Suzuki Yukari, the strongest player in the Blood of the Last Rose tournament that was held last month. You are his lover, am I correct? " I was really beginning to hate his voice, but I attempted to speak, my voice coming out barely above a whisper, eyes still shut against the white lights which burned onto my face.
"I--I was. But he disappeared right after." I opened my left eye and looked at the man through the corner of my eye. Dressed in a plain black business suit, he stood calmly next to the bed, black hair falling across his face as he stared at me through mist-filled dark eyes.
"I see. Well, there has been some odd things happening in the company which creates the Blood of the Last Rose game for some time now. Project.nightmare. Please look into it. I'm sure you will find your beloved Suzuki Yukari is in this unfortunate mess as well."
Pulling out a pen from his suit, he scribbled down a few words onto the small pad of paper by the bedside lamp.
"My name is Hye Song. Please contact me if you need any help." The black-clad man began walking towards the door before he paused for a moment and looked back over to me.
"Please remember the name Phantasmagoria." He pushed open the door with a loud creak and disappeared into the hall. I stared over for a minute longer at what the man had written.
Once Upon a Nightmare
From deep within my conscious mind, I could remember having once been told those words.
Walking alone down a dimly lit road alongside the creeping darkness, I could feel my body shivering from the cold fingers of a winter night even through the large black jacket I wore. Crowds of people hurried on their way, pushing past me and disappearing into the moving shadows the same way they had appeared. The buildings on both sides of me seemed to grow in size with each step I took. The deathly frozen air slightly stirred as I walked deeper into the busy night street. I felt a small cold spot on my face, and I reached my fingers over only to feel a small drop of water running down my cold cheek. I looked up into the eternally blackened sky and noticed the thousands of miniscule white dots spread in random patterns across the expanse. I lowered my face towards the asphalt road again and hurried on.
No matter how far it seemed I had gone, the road only continued on and on until I was forced to a stemporary stop next to a flattened brick shop. 'a large glowing crimson letter sign sitting above the glass walls stoned down onto my face, the letter 'P' flickering ever few seconds. The words 'Once Upon a Nightmare' revelated itself to me as I read the entire titled. Directly below sat a black and white dressed human mocking doll inside its white glass case. I slowly placed my fingers aginst the window as if wanting to touch the inner soul.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw form within the dark building, a silhouette of a large doll sitting far from my eyes. The living doll turned his pale china-like face towards me, long black hair which was tied up at both sides spilling across pale, woman-like shoulders, painted colds eyes piercing through the glass and through the depts. of my soul. The figure stood up suddenly, his large white dress falling behind him in a cascade of silk trapped in a earthly word waved from side to side as he stalked stiffly to the outside me who stood staring in.
"Mizuki? Are you Iwanage Mizuki?"
My eyes fluttered open only to be blinded by the hospital lights above me. I rolled over to turn away from seeing the speaker, expecting once again the black business suit wearing man.
"I hear you tried to die." A small laugh echoed through the room.
Resisting the urge to tell my visitor to simply "shut up and leave me the hell alone, " I forced myself to face the annoying speaker: a boy who looked only a bit younger than myself with neatly combed golden hair and a matching crowd tipped slightly to the side on his head. The boy's blood red eyes stared unblinking over my own weak body as I lay helpless in the hard white hospital bed which seemed to swallow up my entire corpse. This body, however, was dressed in a red and black checkered long sleeved shirt, which had a large obvious zipper up the center with an obsessively oversized heart ornament. Hi stepped towards me, and I could see that his large black pants dragged out behind him like a Victorian era skirt, falling lifelessly when he paused, and he grinned in my general direction.
"As if you couldn't recognize me--I'm Jack." He responded to my questionable glade.
"Would you mind sharing a seat with me?"
A boy dressed in the color white. The white which I have trying to escape. Just at that moment, the neon red light briefly passed over his body, illuminating him. An angel covered in the deep blood red of a dying
Fixing the color of his shirt, Hye stepped in through the glass doors, his eyes first going towards the large machine in the middle of the room out of habit -- A large mess of wires and various colored lights. In the middle of the electronics sat a small boy, wires curling around every part of his body, eyes covered by a tinted visor. The older man looked towards the workers standing in the room watching the boy's slightest movements.
"Why do you have him hooked up already?! It's not ready!" Sending a shock through the room, many of its occupants looked up to see the angry man running towards the oversized equipment. Reaching over and grabbing a fistful of wires, Hye began pulling out whatever he touched.
"Stop it Mr. Song! We're in the middle of testing!" A man in a plain lab coat hurried towards Hye. This only proved to anger Hye even more, as the back of one of his hands came in contact with the side of the scientist's face. The remaining employees looked on in horror as Hye continued his rampage.
"Shut up! You have a boy connected to this thing!" Hye pulled out another handful of wires, and the lights which had been surrounding the boy suddenly shut off. After a few moments in a hushed silence, the scientist had crawled back onto the floor began surveying the damage done to his precious experiment. The businessman then quickly walked over to the boy and pulled off the mask to show terrified eyes staring up at him. Hye glared over for a second at the scientist before he pulled the child from the electronic monster, and gently set him onto the cold, hard ground. Without any attempt to remain in the erect position, the boy slipped downwards, his knees hitting the floor loudly.
"Kei." Leaning over, Hye brushed the black and white streaked hair away from the boy's eyes and dropped the handful of wires. Suddenly straightening himself again, the man began walking towards the double glass doors. He looked back over his shoulders at the boy sitting next to the machine, calling out the name once more and pushed through the exit.
Through misty black eyes, the boy looked towards his rescuer, and let out a small smile. Unsteadily getting back onto his feet, he walked awkwardly toward the streaming sunlight, gently increasing the pace until he was pulled into an embrace by the stronger, disappearing into the white.
"Kei, are you alright?" Hye loosened the black tie around his neck, and looked over to the adolescent who sat uncomfortably under the unwavering gaze of the older man in a white bathroom which seemed to completely veil the boy. The silence that Kei responded with gave Hye an odd feeling. He reached out to touch the boy's forehead, but slipping lower into the gown, Kei avoided contact with the boy, a warm crimson blush rising across his face.
"They gave you the drugs didn't they?" Hye questioned Kei in a whisper. Knowing the answer, Hye continued, "Don't take any more of it. You should probably throw it up before it completely messes up your body."
Kei nervously looked over the fuzzy collar, his soft voice slightly muffled by both sarcasm and the garment, "Aren't you the one who designed this? Wouldn't you want to see the fruits of your labor?!"
"That is correct, but this was never supposed to be tested on little boys." More shame and silence built up between the two before Kei finally replied, "I'm not a little boy. I can handle it just fine. You're hardly a year older than I am."
Pausing to think for a moment, Hye sat down next to Kei and put his hand on the striped hair.
"I know." Without a thought, the man leaned over and kissed the boy gently on the head.
"Mr. Song! Please wait a moment!" Hye turned around to see a blonde haired man in a grey business shirt, about his own height running down the hall towards him. Hye walked back into the small room in order to give the two a bit of privacy to converse.
"I heard about what happened yesterday--" The man paused next to Hye for a moment to catch his breath.
"Oh yes sir. I'm terribly sorry about it." Hye began in a sugary innocent voice. The figure stood up and replied in the same mocked tone, "Oh, I quite understand."
The face distorted, and a cruel and bitter smile played upon the man's lips as he stole closer to the black suited man, his right hand pressing the oaken door shut with a stifled slam.
"With that face of yours, you look so much like a women." The fair-haired man's fingers began finding themselves around the waistband of the other man's pants. His grin grew wider as the tiny metal clasp released, and his hands slowly moved lower.
"It's a wonder you still have a dick." Hye gave a small gasp as the stranger accented his words with a tight grasp.
"Ah, which reminds me. I wonder if you do this to that horny little schoolboy you stole from us. How many times did you come inside that little whore?"
Forcing my eyes shut, I heard my own voice rising over the constant stream of moving cars, "You don't understand! You don't get it! You don't get it at all!" I could guess that he was staring at me, but I didn't have the courage to open my eyes.
Somewhere, I knew it. That everything I had once believed in, came to an end. For that short time, I had almost believed that this thing people call "love" could exist after all, in a decaying and rotting world like this. That my shattered heart could be mending with hands of another.
I distinctly remember turning towards his calling voice, catching only a faint glimpse of his dark silhouetted body against the setting sun, burning into the back of my mind the afterimage of an immortal hero.
And it was at that moment, as I saw the red light of a tall building flashing across my eyes, that I thought
