Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Bedlam and Vertigo ❯ Hunt ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: Another day, another re-vamped chapter...

On her bed was her fiancé, panting agonizingly. The now-too-familiar red liquid stained the bedsheets, making it a whole different design than the original abstract floral pattern. He had a gunshot wound in his chest and a long, regal sword that used to hang in the living room -- the family heirloom for incalculable generations -- was thrust through his stomach in into the mattress itself.

"TAKA!" she screamed, running to his side.

He looked up slowly and found his beloved next to him. Thank goodness she was there. Alive. "M-Miaka..." he whispered hoarsely, coughing up blood. "You made it."

"Who did this?" she asked, a flow of tears making their way down her face again. "Who...?" She grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

"I don't know," he answered exhaustedly. He brought his Miaka's hand up to his lips and kissed it. "The party...we wanted to surprise you."

"Oh, Taka," she sobbed, "You're not going to leave me, are you? You're the only one I have..."

Taka gasped in pain. "Miaka...I can't...stay...You must...move...on..." He started closing his eyes.

"T-Taka?" Miaka said. "Taka!" She noticed that his breath was becoming slower and more irregular. At this, she cried harder.

"Ai...shi...teru...Miaka...my love..." were Taka's last words, giving her hand a final squeeze before letting out an unhurried, ragged breath.

And he was gone.

"Taka!! TAKA!!!" Miaka screamed. "NOOOOOO!!!!!!!" She yelled like she never did before, feeling as though someone was ripping her heart apart. She kept on sobbing and hiccuping until she couldn't breathe. She stared at his peaceful face and wished she was dead along with him. She was alone. She had no one else in the world. No, not even her friends' parents. Yui's mother died from cancer about a year ago. Contact with her father remained nonexistent. Miaka hardly knew Tetsuya's parents and Taka's were always too busy to sit down and chat with her and get to know her.

Finally, Miaka stood up, her hand still holding on to Taka's. "Aishiteru..." she whispered shakily. As much as she thought about it at that moment, she decided that she couldn't kill herself. Taka, Yui, Tetsuya, Keisuke, and her mother wouldn't have wanted her to give up on life so easily. They wouldn't be happy to know she had lived an unhappy life.

I promise to you all, she vowed silently. She gently let go of Taka's hand. I will live my life to the fullest and make all of you proud of me. She could almost hear Yui laugh at her and tell her she's too ditzy to make someone proud of her. She could practically see Keisuke and Tetsuya guzzle down beer and come up with some stupid remark. Miaka could see her mother nagging her to try her hardest at college and she will succeed and make her proud. And Taka...he would say that he loved her no matter how many faults she had...

"You," sputtered an unfamiliar voice from behind her.

This interrupted Miaka's train of thought. She wiped the tears from her eyes and then whirled around. She found herself facing a brown-haired, blue-eyed man, about Taka's age, carrying a kitchen knife and staring her down, an evil scowl on his face. He was wearing a red jumpsuit indicating that he was a high-risk patient at the mental hospital.

The miko backed away immediately, instantly recognizing the face. The face she saw earlier, on the TV.

This was Kurai Zannen, the escaped patient from the National Mental Institute.

"You--!" He pointed a quivering hand at her, the blade glistening against the light.

"Ano..." she replied quietly, still hiccuping. She was too scared to run. Her heart was pumping faster than she thought possible. She could hear the sound of her pulse in her ears.

"You came back for revenge," growled Kurai, stepping closer to Miaka, "Tani."

She gasped. He thinks I'm his dead sister! "I-I think yo-you're making a mista-take," she stammered, watching the blade as it came closer and closer to touching her chest.

"People like me don't make mistakes," he rasped. "I thought you would stay dead. But you had to come back to be killed again." With a roar of rage, he ran at Miaka, knife aimed directly at her heart.

Miaka shrieked as she ducked down and covered her head with her hands. The blade hit the wall above her, creating a fissure. Coming back to her senses, she ran for her life. She slammed the door behind her and held the knob still as the Kurai furiously turned and twisted it. Pushing her back against the door, she searched frantically for a chair of some sort. She wasn't able to hold the door shut much longer. She saw the door to Keisuke's old room on her right. With all her might, she kicked it open. She spotted a folding chair against the wall next to the doorframe. Using her foot, she pulled it toward her. She took one look at the door and saw that a knife stabbed through it, inches from reaching Miaka's face.

With her back against the door, she unfolded the chair and tucked it under the knob, holding Kurai in. Then Miaka sprinted down the hallway and grabbed the phone off the hook. She held it against her ear and heard no dial tone. "Shit," she whispered.

The sound of breaking wood made her look up and drop the phone. Half the door was broken off and the patient was close to escaping the room.

Seeing that, the miko rushed around, looking for her mother's purse. She found it sitting in a chair around the dining table. She unzipped it and poured all the contents out, in search for her keys. "Come on, Mom," she murmured, "I know you always stick them in here..."

Kurai was punching the rest of the door down, making a hole big enough for him to walk through. He stepped one foot out of the room, his knife still in his hand.

"Yes!" Miaka rejoiced quietly as she picked the keys up from underneath a pile of crumpled up grocery store receipts stuck in her mother's bag. She stood up and ran to the door just as Kurai succeeded in coming out of the bedroom, taking big strides down the hallway.

The priestess panicked even more, fumbling with the keys and trying to open the front door. The killer was coming closer and closer, each step making Miaka more fearful. Suddenly, she dropped the keyring. "Crap!" she shouted. She bent down to pick them up.

This gave Kurai opportunity to catch up with his victim. He was only a couple feet from Miaka when she finally found the key she was looking for and stuck it in the lock. She pulled open the door, twisted the keys out and ran, not even bothering to close the door behind her. She heard a shot ring out. Miaka screamed and pushed herself to run faster. Her feet were starting to really hurt. But there was no way she was going to stop, as long as the mental patient was after her for an odd and crazy reason.

She scrambled down the foyer at full speed, knowing that the killer was shooting at her but missing his target. She reached the end of the hall and pressed the DOWN button for the elevator repeatedly, frequently glancing behind her. She did a double take and saw that the killer was hot on her trail. He stopped shooting, wanting to save the ammunition he had left.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Miaka heard the bing of the elevator door opening and rushed in. She pushed the CLOSE button hard and held it impatiently. The elevator's door ever so slowly closed. Kurai took this chance to fire once more at Miaka.

The bullet came flying straight at her face. Miaka suddenly lost the ability to move out of the way. She felt like she was going in slow motion. The bullet headed her way, the elevator closing, the smile curling up on Kurai's face, Miaka opening her mouth to scream. She closed her eyes, waiting for everything to be over.

Clang.

She cracked one eye open. She saw the bullet, but it stopped moving. She opened the other eye open and found that the elevator doors had closed just as the bullet was heading for her. It was stuck in the door.

Miaka felt the familiar shake as the elevator descended down. She sighed in relief and stared blankly and gloomily at the buttons. Her life was ruined. All of the ones of whom she depended on the most in this world were gone. Plus, she would probably die here and not have the chance to see her seishis' reincarnated forms. She wanted to cry, but all her tears were used up.

The elevator finally reached the first floor, her destination. She looked both ways to see if the coast was clear and hurried out the front doors to the parking lot. She spotted her mother's white Toyota Camry at the very end. The miko dashed through the spaces between the other vehicles, thinking she was safe.

From afar, a boot stepped out of the automatic doors on the other side of the complex. The mental patient spotted a figure running through the parking lot, keys in her hand. It was his victim. He snickered as he made his way toward her.

Miaka shivered against the cold night, stopping to lean against a minivan. She wished she had brought a jacket along. Once again, Miaka felt the familiar chill, the chill of a bad omen, and sharply looked to her right. Kurai was coming toward her, his gun in one hand and the knife in the other. The priestess gasped and took off, running to the car. Kurai broke into a run, slowly gaining on her. He pointed his gun at the sky and fired, scaring the brunette and slightly slowing her down.

The shot was so close. Miaka didn't know if she could make it to the Camry in time. She could see the car right up ahead, but at the rate she was going, she would probably be killed before reaching it. All of a sudden, she tripped on the concrete, skinning her knee and dirtying her skirt. Her leg hurt. Badly. It was throbbing with pain, with a drop of red making its way down her calf.

I can't give up! They wouldn't want me to! she told herself, picking herself up off the ground. Kurai was less than a yard away. Miaka quickly limped the rest of the way to the car and quickly unlocked the door. She slammed it shut and locked it. She searched the keyring for the car key. She found it and turned the ignition. It didn't turn on. "No!" she yelled, punching the steering wheel with her fists. She tried again. Nothing.

"Please," she begged the car, turning the ignition over and over again, only to have the same result.

Without warning, a knife stabbed itself through the window on the driver's side. Miaka screamed as shards of glass fell on her, cutting into her skin. She felt a strong hand grab her left wrist, attempting to pull her out. Miaka pulled against it. With her free hand, she turned the ignition key again. The car finally turned on. She pulled at the grip again, only to cry out in pain. A knife slashed at her arm. The blood dripped down the car window and down to the miko's lap.

With her right hand, Miaka immediately switched the gear to reverse and backed the car up. It crashed into the bumper of another vehicle, but Miaka had no time to worry about it. She pushed on the accelerator and sped down the lot, trying to lose the strong grip on her left hand. At last she felt the hand let go. From the rear view mirror, she saw that Kurai fell on his back on the hard pavement. Miaka drove out of the complex property and drove until she stopped at a red light at the first intersection she got to. She slowed her breathing down, trying to keep her pulse at normal rate. She felt hot tears against her freezing skin. Happy birthday to me, she thought mournfully.

Kurai watched as Miaka drove away. He pushed himself off the ground and stretched out his back muscles. He glared at the car as it sped down the road, his gun in hand, but then he lowered it. He had to save his ammo. He only had the very few in his gun and a small supply in the jacket he was wearing. He looked at a nearby truck. With one blow of his blade, he broke the glass of the window open. Kurai stuck his hand through and unlocked the door from the inside. He climbed into the driver's seat and closed the door. He searched the dashboard, the car shade, and finally found an extra set of car keys in the glove compartment. He smiled to himself. He always had a mysterious way of knowing these kind of things.

Pretty soon he could hear the car hum healthily. He laughed as he backed the car up and drove out of the complex, the wheels squealing loudly. I'm coming, Imouto-chan, he said silently, I'm coming to kill you. Again.