Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Sacrifice ❯ Casket of Memories ( Chapter 6 )

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Sacrifice

By: Melissa Norvell

Chapter 6: Casket of Memories

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She could feel the air rushing around her as her limp form fell from the railing only a story down to the bottom floor. Blue strands flowed upward like small rivers. All sound was blocked out. It was as if she had lost most of her hearing and fell into an enchanted sleep with no way of waking before her demise. The shy girl could hear a faint male voice call out her name and feel a thump as her body hit something…Could it have been the ground? It didn't feel flat. This was more like a caress, the caress of another human being? Or was it something else?

Keiji landed as the knife followed suit, landing a few feet away. The blade dug itself into the ground, allowing it to stand upright. He held Azmy close to himself, protecting her from the impact as they both hit the ground

"The first act has failed," a feminine voice replied calmly with an underlying tone of disappointment. Things didn't go to her liking at all.

"Huh?" Kabuto looked over his shoulder to find the dark bride gone from sight.

Fife stood close to Keiji. His eyes were locked on the unconscious girl. No matter how concerned he was, he couldn't help but feel jealous. The drummer had promised to protect him but he had never held him in that manner. The way he held Fife seemed different or perhaps it was because he was looking at it through different eyes. Whatever the reason was, it made him uneasy.

"Will she be alright?" He asked.

"I don't know…I don't think she hurt herself," the green-haired boy glanced over as Kabuto walked up to them. He wondered where the man had been lurking all this time since he'd been silent through the course of events that had taken place so far.

"She should get some rest," he told them as all eyes locked to his form, staring him down as a stalking feline would its prey.

"I think you should tell us what's going on and I mean more than the basic story," Undine wanted answers. This was too serious to be ignored or passed off as a simple legend anymore. This was a matter of the highest priority.

The man had no response just locked his eyes to hers.

"Chichiri-kun's been gone a while," Fife informed.

"Chichiri?" Ko asked.

"I don't think he even followed us out here,” Keiji stated.

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The room all around him was the purest form of white, being very reminiscent of the psycho ward rooms. All that remained were one picture on each wall, an easel and a small modeling platform that was similar to a high bed of sorts. It was a block, rectangular in structure and covered with a sheet. On either side were flower and fruit displays that gave the model a sense of Greek beauty, behind that were many paintings that were standing up on smaller easels but they were covered by white sheets.

A pair of blue eyes remained transfixed on a large portrait of Ohanna which hung behind the model display. He appeared to be zoned out as if in a trance of some sort simply by laying eyes on her. The blonde mechanically reached his hand up to touch the surface of the painting.

"So beautiful…"

He ran his masculine hand along the surface of the picture, feeling the brush strokes and textures applied by the artist who painted it and thought to himself aloud. "Why am I so attracted to you? I know that you're dead but I can't help to think about you…Ever since I came here I found myself drawn to your portraits on the walls. I feel as if it's destiny that I came here."

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"His soul?"

"The very same," Hiroshima responded to the discussion that had taken place between the two angels regarding the situation at hand. "I saw him…in the afterlife."

"Ohanna knows. Doesn't she?"

"Yes," he agreed, "she failed to take over Azmy as a threat to make him save her but she doesn't need a sacrificial lamb now."

"Ohanna was able to easily take over Azmy because she frequently stays here. This gave her time to judge her…Since Chichiri was fond of Azmy, she figured that she could use her life to try and effect him," the other spoke.

"It's ironic in a way- a morbidly humorous way," Hiroshima chuckled. "While she was driving Azmy to suicide, he was pining after her in that artist's room."

"I'm a pretty good artist," Tsurugi noted his talent. "Perhaps I should paint you sometime."

"You should," ghostly blue eyes looked to his companion, "in that room."

"Oh…Of course," he smiled.

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A form appeared behind the blonde a few feet, glancing at him with cold, dead eyes. He turned upon feeling a frosty presence nearby. He then saw the bride from the painting, standing before him.

"Ohanna."

She gave him a hollow smile in response to hearing her name being called out.

"Why are you here?" He asked, turning a bit.

"This is my favorite room. The casket of my memories…" Her tone was haunting.

"Casket of your memories?"

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"We've got to find Chichiri. If Ohanna was able to make Azmy act like that," Ko ran down one of the main halls.

"She's fond of him."

Fife looked at Kabuto.

"If you go and look for him, something will happen."

"It seems that Azmy knew something Ohanna didn't want her to know, connected with the apparition or the weakest of us to succumb to possession," Fife guessed.

"She was possessed." Keiji carried the unconscious girl bride and groom style. He held her close to his body in order to keep her safe. Like hell he was letting something else happen to anyone else who was close to him. He had already nearly lost Fife, no one else was going to befall the same circumstances.

"She had a hollow look in her eyes," Fife took note. "She was completely void of emotions, and when she came to, in the middle of her fall, she reacted with surprise. If she had known she was falling before then she would have reacted sooner."

"Makes sense…"

"Let's get her to a room to rest and then we'll find Chichiri," Ko instructed. Azmy's health was important. After she woke up, then she could explain what happened to everyone.

As they ran, Undine stared at the side railing in deep contemplation. Her eyes were fixated upon the wooden structure. Keiji called out to her a couple of times, finally earning her attention. He told her that he wanted to go and that they shouldn't get separated as she agreed as Kabuto watched the two. Undine knew very well of the price she would pay if she dared to venture off from everyone and investigate alone.

"Kabuto knows something," Fife educated them.

"I got the feeling," Keiji responded. It had been obvious for a while, but tried to he might, he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Chichiri's been acting strange. Ever since he's gotten here he's been zoned, like he's not focusing or something," Ko was worried. Ever since they had met, she felt connected to him in a way that no other person could feel. They were the best of friends and she wouldn't allow any harm to come to him. He was Ko's most cherished thing.

"He does seem trance-like around Ohanna," Fife had noticed that himself.

"Do you think Ohanna's doing something to him? Like she did to Azmy?" Green eyes looked down to the girl in his arms who was still unconscious from her fall.

"We have to find Chichiri," The look on Ko's face twisted into something serious as she picked up her pace, running faster down the halls.

"Instead of splitting up, I'll keep Azmy with us until we find him," Keiji instructed as Ko agreed with a nod. Her mind might still be messed up from whatever that ghost did to her. He wasn't about to leave her to the ghoul's devices again. She was safer with them, than she was in that room.

"It's our best bet anyway. Kabuto told us to stick together and he seemed adamant about it," she said as they began to run up one of the flights of stairs.

"The room that Kabuto didn't want us to go in, it had pictures of Ohanna in it!! I wonder if Chichiri is there," Ko came to a realization. She had remembered how trance-like he got around her portraits and figured that he may have been drawn to one of them.

"Come to think of it, we lost him somewhere in that area," Keiji was on to something. They had to get down there, and fast.

"One problem," a look of comprehension hit Ko again, causing navy blue eyes to go straight to her form. "I don't remember where that room is." They hadn't stayed long enough for her to properly gather what the floor plan was like. It didn't help that this building was spacious and it was easy to get lost in it.

"We'll just have to try all of them," the drummer suggested his eyes darting around beginning to search for the correct door.

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"So that's it?"

"I need you to accompany me. Take me from this eternal casket."

"How do I do that?" Chichiri questioned. He had no idea of how to help anyone with that type of situation, but he was willing to try.

"I'll show you…Just follow my lead."

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Everyone ran into a completely white room that was reminiscent of the art room but this room was different. It was perfectly square and small, looking much like a bed room. It had exactly one small picture in the middle of each wall. As the three made it to the middle of the room Fife made a deduction.

"Wrong room," he said happily.

"There's nothing in these picture frames," Ko glanced at one of the pictures hanging on the walls. It was true, nothing was found within the depths of it. There was simply a black, shiny piece of paper behind the glass, "just a black picture."

Then as if by cue, an image flashed in the picture frame of a woman. Her hands were placed on either side of her face as if she were trapped in the picture by an invisible wall. Her face was twisted in fear, paranoia and utter despair. The woman looked as if she was screaming and her form was covered in blood. This caused Ko to recoil upon the sight of it. Fear ran wild through her body, trying desperately to burst through her sternum.

"What was that?" She almost gasped.

"What was that?" Fife asked the same question shortly after.

"I thought I saw-" Ko said in a panic as the door slammed fiercely behind her causing her head to jerk to the source of the motion.

"Crap," green eyes darted to the side.

"It's stuck," the other male tried to open the door but the knob wouldn't move. They had been locked in. Then he made yet another discovery. There was no sign of fear or panic within the confines of his eyes, just interest and an odd sense of peace.

"There's blood running down the walls."

"What?" Keiji turned to see that there was some red liquid in large amounts that had been creeping down the walls from the edges of the ceiling. It trailed down the white exterior, staining it's purity with death and sin.

"This is really freaking me out, guys," Ko backed up as she bumped into Keiji and Fife who were also back to back.

"I'd say this place is definitely haunted," Fife smiled. If this wasn't proof of it, he didn't know what was.

"Gee, I wonder what made you think that!?" Ko fumed as everything became pitch black. "Oh great, what now?"

A blood curdling scream echoed through the room. Fife looked to Azmy to see if the girl had stirred from sleep but she was still out like a light. It was surprising that anyone could have slept through anything like that. The scream was so loud that it could have made any corpse rise from the dead.

"She's out hard, isn't she?"

"You know…I really hate you for being happy at a time like this," Keiji glared through the darkness, somehow finding the blue of the other's kind eyes.

"Hem…" Fife sighed.

"How can it be pitch black in such a light-colored room?" Ko asked.

"I can't even see my hand," Fife held his hand in front of his face. He then placed it in front of Keiji's face. "Can you see my hand?"

"Mrghmpf…"

"Oops! Too Close!" He joked playfully as the lights flashed back on, revealing the two. Keiji with Fife's hand smashed in his face while carrying the unconscious Azmy. He moved Fife's hand to see that there were twisted shadows on the walls and splatters of blood as if the shadows had been murdered and their torment was leaking through in an artistic, gruesome way.

"This is dismal," Fife realized they were there.

"What the hell is this?" Keiji was shocked. The very scene sent chills up his spine. The shadows gave off an extremely dark aura.

"I feel like I'm in a horror movie," Ko stated.

"This is very real," the drummer reminded her of exactly what she didn't want to be reminded of.

"A lot of people died here and it looks like in a very violent way," Fife looked around at his surroundings, examining each shadow and blood splatter as if it were an art display at the museum.

"I'm tired of all of this mystery," Keiji looked perturbed. "I want to know the truth behind this Ohanna, before she hurts anyone else." No doubt all of this was her doing. She was probably trying to distract them from getting to Chichiri. That thought alone worried him.

Fife turned to him with eyes closed and a placid smile. "My, you're chivalrous all of a sudden."

The stubborn boy turned his head to the side and frowned deeply. "I'm not the one throwing myself on a sword blade."

"I did it for you," Fife's gaze turned serious and the intensity of it seemed to pierce through the drummer's soul with ease, striking something in his very core.

"Ungh," he recoiled, his stubborn façade disappeared and quickly was covered with buildup of guilt.

"These spirits are sad. They mourn their own loss and seek for a way to return to their own realm and move on from the mortal plain," Undine stated. Everyone in the House of the Dark Bride had their lives ripped from them far sooner than anyone should have. As a result, they felt as if they had unfinished business. They were forever trapped in limbo.

"Why are they looking at us like that?" Keiji glanced at the twisted forms all around them. "It's not like it's our fault that they're dead."

"No, they know who killed them."

"How do you know so much about this?" Ko asked the petite girl.

"I grew up here," she replied. "He showed me the legends."

"You mean Hiroshima?" Fife asked as a violent crashing noise echoed through the room and the lights came on. As if on cue, the pictures fell face down in synchronization and the glass shattered, allowing blood to leak onto the floor below, covering it in a crimson glaze. Everything fell in a moment of peaceful silence as a cheerful and pleasant air began to fill the room and the faint sound of instrumental music filled the air as if an upper class party of some sort were taking place in the next room. The faint sounds of laughing and light hearted conversation were muffled and low in tone and the lights flashed on, leaving the group standing there for a moment. Each one of them was trying to focus on the beautiful music and peaceful sound as the door slowly opened and everything outside was bathed in a soothing yellow glow.

"They're calm," Undine spoke.

"Let's keep looking," Fife said as the group ran out of the door. He was running a few meters ahead and smacked into a tall and dark form, ricocheting off of him and looking straight into the glassy eyes of Kabuto.

"Kabuto," Ko skidded a little to stop.

"I'm here to help you," he straightened his glasses.

"What? Whose side are you on?"

"My own, I am selfish but I cannot let the situation stand. I've let this go on for far too long. I'm tired of sacrificing lives." He couldn't stand back and watch the events play through anymore, as he had so many times before. It was time to act, before Ohanna's game became more dangerous than it already had.

"Sacrificing lives?" This was more serious than Keiji thought. Just what did he mean by sacrificing lives? Was he doing all of this on purpose only to have them act as sacrificial lambs? It would make sense with Azmy in her current state. There was little doubt in his mind that Kabuto was working with the bride.

"So that means that you're the reason that all of these people died, the pictures aren't really cursed, are they?" Fife asked.

"They are but I help out the curse." Kabuto admitted the terrible sins he had committed.

"You betrayed us?" Ko was half way surprised by his sentence. She thought he was suspicious and had something to do with the bride and the deaths of people in the house, but she didn't know what exactly. Seemed as if she was finding out as the events took place and after all, she did want to get to the bottom of the mystery before anyone else had gotten hurt.

"I have reasons."

"We have no choice but to listen to you now. You're the only one who can stop this," Fife now relied on Kabuto's knowledge to get them through their situation.

"Yes."

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"So, will you come with me and free me of this casket?" Ohanna reached her hand out for him to grasp.

"Of course Ohanna," Chichiri agreed, and took her hand obediently.

"We must perform the ritual. Let's go into another room that is more suitable for it to take place." Finally, Ohanna had her willing sacrifice. It was time to put her grand plan into action.

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"Where did they go?" Ko asked the dark man who was running beside of her.

"To the old art room," Kabuto answered.

"And where is that?"

"It's the room you almost went in. I'll lead you there."

"Why didn't you want us to go there?"

"Because a lot of people have died there," Kabuto opened the door. He had only been trying to save them from their demise but his plans were in vain. There was nothing present in the room. "I thought for sure they'd be here."

"Where could they be?" Fife looked to Kabuto, wondering if he had any suggestions. Out of everyone there, he knew that house better than all of them.

After a moment of silence, surprise and fear shot through Kabuto's form as he made a sudden realization. "This isn't good."

With that statement, he bolted out of the room, running at top speed. This was a grave situation. The man knew this was a race against time and if they wanted to save Chichiri then they needed to get to him quickly. Who knew what kind of plans Ohanna had with him, and right now, he didn't want to think about the consequences he would face if they hadn't reached him in time.

"Huh?" Ko questioned then bolted off after him. "What's going on?"

"They're performing a ritual. At the end of the ritual, your friend will die and assist Ohanna in the afterlife," he stated grimly.

"What? Why would he do that?" The girl panicked. She didn't want Chichiri to die. She didn't even know why he would even agree to something that was so bizarre.

"It's his true calling," Undine told her, running along side of the two.

"What? I don't understand. Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Chichiri is a vessel for a soul that resides in this house. In order for that spirit to join Ohanna, a mortal body must be sacrificed," Undine told her as the group turned the corner. Silent determination raced through Keiji's eyes. Upon entering the next room, everyone stopped dead in their tracks and uttered Chichiri's name in unison.

He and Ohanna were standing across from each other holding wine glasses with their arms entwined, as lovers did on their wedding day. Their eyes were locked in a deep gaze and a slight smile adorned the bride's painted lips. She seemed pleased at her victory over the mortals and wanted to show them her grand departure

Kabuto's eyes widened in shock upon noticing what exactly Ohanna was up to and he knew the situation all too well. There had been multiple times that this apparition had tried to perform this ritual with many different men.

"The ritual has already begun," he uttered in a light tone that was almost unheard by the others, his voice lost to the wind never to be found again by human ears.

To Be Continued…