Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Bedlam and Vertigo ❯ Annihilation ( Chapter 1 )

DISCLAIMER: Fushigi Yuugi and its characters are not mine and never will be. I only own the story.

Miaka Yuuki ran through the sidewalk, dodging the pedestrians who were in her way. She nearly rammed into a couple of sauntering businessmen, knocking the leather briefcases out of their hands. "Gomen nasai!" she apologized, craning her head to look at the two glaring men as she continued sprinting to her destination. Maybe she shouldn't have worn a skirt and sandles that day. But she was too hyper to just walk to her mother's apartment. She wanted to go and celebrate her twentieth birthday with the people she cared about most.

Looking up ahead, she saw a crowd gathered around the glass window at a TV repair shop. Miaka slowly caught up with them, wondering what all the fuss was about. She found small television sets displayed there, all turned to the same news channel. Everyone assembled there was staring intently at the screens, obviously very much into whatever was going on. The Suzaku no Miko spotted a familiar female student nearby. "Hey, Haru-san," she said, "What's going on?"

"Some major report," Haru replied, not taking her eyes off the screen. "About several murders that happened at that mental hospital two blocks away from school."

"Arigatou for the update, Higashi-san," the newscaster on the TV suddenly said. Miaka turned her attention to the screen. A lady with wavy shoulder-length black hair and a tacky-looking fuschia business suit turned from the male anchor next to her, Yama Higashi, to the camera in front of her.

"As some may know by now," the female anchor said solemnly, "Kurai Zannen, a patient of National Mental Institute, has escaped the facility approximately three hours ago. Please take precautions when out on the streets and inside your own home. Lock all doors and windows and try as much as possible to avoid being out during the night. Beware of this man. He was put into the hospital in the first place for his murder sprees, killing his victims, including his sister Tani Zannen, for bizarre, unacceptable, and unexcusable reasons. Zannen was put in a padded cell in the corner of the main building, always having an eye kept on him. Explanations on how he was able to escape is still unknown. We'll keep a lookout--"

That was all Miaka wanted to hear. She was frightened at the idea of some crazy man chasing after people. As she left, she noticed that the number of people in the crowd had shrunk significantly. It's nearly night already and no one would want to be caught dead out here now, she realized. She crossed the street again and found the apartment complex she used to reside in (before she moved out to live with Taka) not too far in the distance.

"I wonder what Keisuke, Taka, and Yui-chan are doing for me this year," the miko wondered out loud, her head already thinking of a happier topic. "Last time, they made the biggest chocolate cake and gave it all to me." She smiled at the memory of her birthday celebration the year before. She stopped grinning as soon as she felt a mysterious chill.

"Nani...?" she mumbled as she froze in place. She knew something wasn't right, but she had no idea what it could be. Maybe it was just the fact that a psychotic serial killer was on the loose somewhere nearby, but she couldn't be too sure. She started hurrying home, afraid someone lurking around would grab her or something. She laughed to herself, dismissing the feeling as just being too worried.

The sun was completely set as soon as Miaka headed inside the complex, taking the elevator up to her floor. The closer she got to her mother's apartment, the more excited she got. It was her birthday and Taka hinted to her that they were going to do something different and special for her. She had an idea that it wasn't a party, for the place was too small and they couldn't have found a place to rent, otherwise Miaka wouldn't be going to her mother's apartment. Or probably they would lead her to a party. Miaka smiled in spite of herself and went on to the apartment door.

Miaka found the hallways too quiet and too cryptic. The fear she had earlier was starting to push itself back into her, causing the Priestess to have goosebumps all over her thin, bare arms. Her mother was the only one living on this floor, the floor Miaka always considered the spookiest.

Nothing's here, Miaka assured herself, crossing her arms over her chest to keep from shivering. No one's here. Don't be scared.

It wasn't until she reached the end of the hall to where her home was that Miaka seriously started to panic. The door was open slightly ajar, with some light spilling from inside the living room. Why is the door open?

The Suzaku no Miko carefully tiptoed to the door, pushing against it gently. She looked around and discovered that there was no one in sight. She shut the door behind her and locked it. There was cake, cookies, gelatin, and other sorts of sweets on the table and a large banner that said HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIAKA! WE LOVE YOU! put up on the wall, but the Priestess felt suspicious. Where was everyone?

"Okay," she called out. "I'm here! What are you guys doing?" She grabbed a cookie off the tray and started munching on it.

She got nothing but silence. "Hello? Yui? Taka?" She moved on into the kitchen, in case someone was trying to be smart and hid there.

"Mom?" she called out, getting worried. She stood there in the middle of kitchen, waiting for her friends to come out and yell out "Surprise!," but nothing came. From the kitchen, she idly moved her gaze over to the front door again and gasped. She never noticed this when she walked in, but there was a streak of sticky red substance on the wall by the hinges of the door. She cautiously walked out of the kitchen, not taking her eyes off the mysterious marking on the wall.

"Oh my God!" she gasped as she made her way out of the kitchen, seeing the cause of the red mark, dropping her cookie on the floor. Tears welled up in her eyes and they slid down her cheeks, one right after another. "No," she cried, "NO!" She fell to her knees, the sobs racking her body.

Lying against the wall, covered in his own blood, was someone she knew very well. Someone she had known her entire lifetime. Someone she loved with all her heart. Now he was gone for good.

Miaka shakily touched his cold, gory face. "Onii-chan," she whispered, her voice barely audible, "who did this to you?" She contemplated the damage done to her brother. His face was battered and beaten to a pulp. Even his dark blond hair had managed to become completely bloodstained. She looked to the floor. A puddle of now dried blood had formed by his arm. The gore covered nearly every inch of his shirt and there were a couple of circular holes in them. Gunshot wounds, Miaka thought heartbrokenly. She delicately touched the hilt of the knife that was thrust through his heart. "Keisuke," she breathed, bursting into tears again. She started shaking his shoulders vigorously, not believing any of this. "Wake up! Dammit, WAKE UP! Keisuke!" She let go of him, not caring about the red stains that appeared on her hands nor about anger reflected in her usually untainted vocabulary. She whimpered pathetically. "Shit..."

So much blood, Miaka thought, turning her back on her dead brother. Her feet wobbled as she tried to stand. She felt so weak. Miaka just wanted to sit back down and pass out. Her eyes were too teary to see in front of her.

She stepped on the cookie she was eating earlier. She didn't notice the mess it made. She didn't give a damn.

She was about to head into the hallway to explore when she heard a sound coming from the pantry, as if something had fallen. She gasped and whirled around. She wiped her tears away with her hands and glanced at the pantry door. Is this some kind of sick joke? she demanded silently. She walked slowly back into the kitchen and reluctantly reached for the doorknob. Miaka knew she had to open the door, whether she wanted to or not. She wanted to know what was going on and why her brother was lying dead. Maybe now, she would find out.

She twisted the knob and pulled the door open slowly. Nothing extraordinary jumped at her as she swung it open. She took a step forward into the dark area. Right then, she felt something liquidy on the floor. Miaka unwillingly looked down, finding that the stuff she stepped on was red. "Oh, no," she murmured, backing away. She was about to run for it when she saw an open aluminum can roll out. She picked it up and examined it. "Tomato soup," she read, sighing in relief. She set the can on a shelf.

Still, she felt something just wasn't right.

Miaka stepped further into pantry and felt something brush her leg. What was that? She moved away to turn the lightswitch on and then turned back to the thing that brushed against her.

Tetsuya's dead body.

Miaka put a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out. Besides from the multiple kitchen knife wounds in his chest, Tetsuya's sunglasses were broken with blood streaming down his cheeks, revealing that whoever killed him poked through the lenses and into his eyes. "Oh, God...T-Tets-suya..."

She then realized that Tetsuya's arm was over someone else in an attempt to protect him or her. And that someone else was also dead.

Blonde hair.

She couldn't keep herself from sobbing out. "Yuiiiii!"

Miaka slumped against against the shelf in the back wall. "Why?" She stared at her best friend's beaten face. Yui had been slashed several times in the face and twice on the neck, leaving the blonde to choke on her own blood. "YUI-CHAN!" she yelled again anguishly. She looked once more at Tetsuya's body and started crying harder than before, for now three people she cared about so much were gone. This can't be true! This can't be true! NO! They can't be dead!

Miaka cautiously touched the blood on Yui's neck. It was sticky and slightly warm. Definitely real. Definitely recent. None of them would play a joke like this on her.

Never.

She stared at the liquid on her fingers. Then she touched her index finger to the floor and drew a heart on it with the blood. After doing that, Miaka drew a slash with the substance left on her hand over the heart, indicating how horrible she felt.

After moments of silently mourning, Miaka finally stood up again, stepping over her dead friends' bodies, and walked out, but not after nearly stepping on the soup again. Miaka grabbed the doorframe for support. She looked closely at the soup and saw that there was a darker red within it. Blood.

Miaka reached the living room glumly, staring at the red stains on the floor. Why?! Why them?! What did they do wrong?

"Tetsuya, Yui, Keisuke," she murmured under her breath, the sound of their names creating a painful hole in her heart.

Miaka wobbled and grabbed the back of a nearby chair for support. She suddenly felt very sick.

Another person's face started dancing through her mind. "Mom..." Miaka stumbled into the hallway and peeked through her mother's room. She snuck in and glimpsed at everything around her. It all seemed normal enough.

The door suddenly shut behind her. Loudly. Miaka jumped in surprise and spun around, scared out of her mind. Seeing what was there, she screamed.

Hanging on the back of the door, by her neck of all places, with the blunt hook jutting out, was Miaka's mother.

"Ok...Okaa-san!" Miaka gulped at the gruesome sight. Blood was still dripping to the floor. Her mother's pale face was forever frozen in fear, her eyes and mouth wide open in fright. The hook used to be white. Now it was a light red. Blood was splattered on the door behind her, creating a grisly backdrop. "Mommy..." she weeped, calling her the way she used to when she was little. She felt like a little kid again, crying for her mother when she got lost in the supermarket.

Gathering all of her courage, the Miko approached her mother's bloody body, trying to hold back her feeling of throwing up right there.

Before she could get any closer, she heard a sickening crack coming from her old room. The Miko was starting to fear for her life. "Who's there?" she called out.

Just as she suspected, no answer. Miaka managed to open the door and scurry out, the door shutting itself behind her. Turning to her left, she saw from the crack under the door that the light was on. Someone was in there.

Keisuke behind the front door, Yui and Tetsuya in the pantry, my mother on the back of her bedroom door... Miaka thought. Who's next?

She sidestepped to the front of the door and slowly and quietly put her ear against the door. All was silent. Then she heard a painful moan coming from inside. Her eyes grew wide. "Taka," she hissed fearfully. Not taking any precautions, she pulled the door open, letting it crash into the wall behind it. She needed to get to him before it was too late.

What she saw pained her so much she could barely stand up. She held the doorframe to steady herself. She shook her head violently, not believing what appeared before her eyes.

See ya later! =D