Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Sacrifice ❯ Skeleton of My Conviction ( Chapter 47 )

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Sacrifice

By: Melissa Norvell

Chapter 47: Skeleton of My Conviction

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"What is this?" Ko hadn't expected to find any bodies in a house so old and figured that anything that could have died in such a place would have already deteriorated over time.

Fife stared at a portrait on the wall of a regal, young man with mid chest black hair that had been parted in the middle and was straight and thick in nature. He wore a kind look on his face and had eyes a shade darker then his own. The feminine man concentrated on the portrait for a few moments before he spoke.

"This is my house."

"I thought so. I found this," the white-haired singer held up the name plate which bore his last name.

"Whoa…This place has been demolished," Chichiri looked at a bunch of boards that slanted down from the ceiling to the floor, leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling.

"It looks like a death trap," Zangetsu had commented on how dangerous it had been to be inside of an aging place. They had no idea of how old the house actually was and it was more than possible that it could collapse on them at any moment in time.

"It's hard to believe that someone could live here," Keiji glanced around at the boards. He didn't want to move because something could fall on him and injure him significantly. Colorful nostalgia flooded his senses as visions poured into his mind.

People were running and screaming in terror as a small child with green hair called for his mother over and over again but it seemed as if she had left him behind. He ran outside and stood terror-stricken as a winged figure stared him down with cold, unmoving eyes that were the faintest of blue.

'Run…' The figure said and in a blink, he had vanished as flashbacks gave in to reality.

'Father…' Fife thought as he stared at the portrait of the young man with long, black hair.

"Hey, Fife," he heard a voice call out from behind him.

"Hm?" He turned to see Ko standing there.

"That story you told us about your past, when your sister was with those soldiers, did she get killed by them?" The girl asked.

"Why do you ask?" Fife continued to smile, even though he felt very pressured.

"Because I found a small skeleton in what looked like the living room and I found a knife with a hair pin beside of it," Ko held up the intricate weapon. It had once been a very beautiful knife but years of corrosion and being out in the elements caused it to become aged and tarnished. There was a name inscribed on the side of the blade but it was not in her language, so Ko could not read it.

"What does this knife look like?" Fife wanted to make sure that it wasn't that knife.

She held it out and Fife walked over to her and picked it up, examining it carefully. He then showed the knife to the rest of his team mates. "This knife…is mine."

"What? Fife what happened here?" Ko had the feeling that things were not as they seemed. Something was very different about the situation, especially from what she had been told.

"Why is your knife by that skeleton?" Keiji narrowed his eyes at the young man.

"Well, wouldn't you like to know?" The blue-haired teen simply smiled in response.

Hiroshima looked over towards him and simply listened. He wondered what would come of this situation. It would warn him about events to come and how they would handle his situation when he brought up his issues to these kids. This would be a test to let him know how they could handle situations of a greater magnitude.

"Because…I killed that small skeleton," Fife admitted.

"What?" Keiji replied.

"I lied about saving my sister…I am the one who killed her."

"You lied to us?" Azmy asked in disbelief. Why would he lie about that? Did he not want to be hated that much?

"I did. Can you blame me? You're all so judgmental and yet, you don't want to be judged? It makes it very difficult to tell any of you anything. I know what you may think of me so I may as well tell you the rest because in your eyes, I am no more than a murderer and liar. I'll just have to hope that you will hear me out now," at this point in time, Fife didn't expect any sympathy.

"I'll listen to you," Keiji decided that it would be better if he heard him out instead of judging him. After all, he would only prove him right by acting condemnatory.

"Thank you," Fife smiled. He was glad that at least one person wanted to listen to his story.

"Why is her skeleton still here?" Chichiri wondered aloud. It had been a while and one would have thought that deterioration would have eaten away the bones but it still looked in very good shape.

"I killed her when she was fourteen. I then place a magic spell on her so that her bones could never degenerate. If the body never died then the soul can never be reincarnated, or so I used to think," the feminine one answered.

"Her soul was here but it left quickly," Hiroshima stated. It was true, the soul had been haunting the house but when Hiroshima had come inside, it had found out about his curse and tried to leave but the angel had captured it too quickly.

Tsurugi looked at the other angel and sent him a telepathic message. 'You absorbed it, didn't you Hiro-kun?'

'They don't have to know…'

'You're right…I hope they don't judge Fife too harshly. If they do then we can never tell them about ourselves, can we?'

"That man's picture on the wall," Fife pointed to the portrait that he had been staring at earlier. "He is my father."

"That's King Vasca of Sumeria," Hiroshima informed.

"So, you're a prince?" Keiji looked to the other male in surprise. He hadn't guessed that Fife was royalty. He almost couldn't believe it himself when he had found it out. All of this time, he had been standing in the presence of a Prince.

"Why didn't you tell us, Fife…er…Prince Fife?" Ko asked. She felt a little nervous now and didn't know why. There was just something about calling him Fife that seemed wrong now.

"Because I'm not directly related to him, he adopted me at a young age. I don't know who my real parents are. The skeleton in front of you is my sister, Angeline. She was Vasca's true child. I never liked her. She treated me like an outcast. She always told me how worthless I was and how I was simply a miserable human who never deserved to be in the presence of vampires. I was nothing but vampire bait and I would eventually be used as a food source for them," nostalgia filled Fife's head and dismal images floated through his mind in a past that he would rather forget.

'You know, I don't even know why you think you fit in here. It's more like you are a livestock animal then my brother.' A girl with short, flipped out, mint green hair replied as she gazed at him with scornful eyes which adorned the same color as her hair. The girl wore a brown vest and fuku-style skirt which was similar to those worn in Japanese Private Schools with a long-sleeved white, button-up shirt underneath it and black tie around her neck. She spoke to a small child, who appeared to be unisex in gender. The child had a very beautiful face with long, navy blue hair that cascaded well past their feet and at least four feet on to the floor. When one would take a first glance at this child, one would not be able to tell if they were male or female.

'What do you mean, Angeline?" The child asked in a calm, male voice. A lackluster look hung in his solemn eyes. They had been dulled by their depression. This boy wore a simple long brown shirt that could be called a dress. He wore no pants beneath it and seemed to look like a slave more than the royalty he was.

'Soon the vampires will feast upon your blood. They're just waiting until you come of age,' the girl commented.

'Come of age?' The young boy questioned. What did she mean by that?

'Honestly, humans are so stupid. Vasca-sama doesn't care about you; he just wants your blood.' Angeline told him with a sly smile on her face.

'It's not true. He holds me so gently and kisses my forehead. How can you cares something so tenderly and turn around and crush it?' Fife's eyes filled with doubt and sorrow. He didn't want to believe such a thing. There was no way that Vasca would ever hurt him. He had always been so kind to him.

'Touch lies just as words do. There really is nothing you can trust, my dear. Who would expect you to understand, you're only twelve.' Angeline remarked as she noted him of his immaturity.

'Just because I'm younger doesn't mean that I'm stupid.' Fife argued. Age had nothing to do with maturity at all in his opinion. It all depended on how you handled the circumstances set before you in life. He had been plenty mature enough to handle his situation.

'I'm fourteen. I have two years of experience on you. I'm also full-blooded. One day, if you live long enough, you'll be bowing and kissing my hand.'

'I'd rather be King Vasca's bait,' Fife frowned.

'Then have it your way, you little whelp,' Angeline looked angry with his backlash of a comment. It didn't matter to her, however. He would die soon enough.

'It can't be…It can't…' Fife thought as he sat in a mound of hay and looked down at his many blue locks that had spilled on to the floor when he had sat down. 'Vasca-sama loves me…He does! That look in his eyes when he holds me is one of love. He would never leave himself vulnerable, even to someone he was pretending to like…His eyes were always barely warm when he looked at people he was pretending to love.'

The boy pulled his knees in close to himself and tried not to cry as he sat in loneliness in what looked like a weary dungeon room.

"It was always like that between us and I wasn't about to believe that Vasca would lie to me," Fife narrowed his eyes in evident hatred for his sister.

"Vasca and I go back. He's not really the type to do something like that," Hiroshima noted.

"Yes, he's very kind. It's not to say that he's a pushover by any means. He does what he has to in order to rule Sumeria but if you get to know him, you'll find that he's a very sweet man," Tsurugi agreed with his lover. The two of them had known Vasca for a long time, so they knew the nature of that particular vampire. He had never acted in a malicious way towards them at all, so they would not believe that he would act that way towards his child either.

"That's what I believed," Fife replied, looking down.

"Do you not know?" Tsurugi looked a little worried for Fife. He didn't want Vasca's son to hate him because his sister had brainwashed him. It is a sad thing when a father and son do not even wish to see each other.

"I still love him like he is my own father. It's because of him that I killed Angeline," the prince admitted. "I killed her because she told me that she was Vasca-sama's favorite. I wanted him to acknowledge me and perhaps think of me as special, even though I'm a mere human so I practiced his spells and worked hard to be good at everything he was and outdo Angeline. I didn't want to believe that my soul purpose in life was to be vampire food."

"Did you ever ask Vasca why your sister was saying that?" Keiji asked. Perhaps it had all been a misunderstanding between siblings and perhaps a harsh case of sibling rivalry.

"No, I didn't want to break Vasca's heart by telling him that I had any doubts. Besides, if he were actually going to do that, do you think he would have told me?" Fife asked. No one in their right or wrong mind would tell you their plans if you were involved and Fife knew this all too well.

"Yeah, it was a stupid question," Keiji did feel a little stupid mentioning it now that Fife had called him out on it.

"I killed her with this knife," the feminine boy held up the rusted piece of metal. "It's a magical weapon that Vasca forged for me by himself. I was tired of her getting attention and stealing praise by taking credit for things that I really had done. She made herself look like a queen and me like a helpless child…So I killed her when she turned her back to leave. I don't remember anything after it."

"What about your prostitution?" The green-haired drummer asked. Was that a lie too? According to his past prior, he had gone to them in order to save his sister. Now that they knew that he was the one who killed her, why would he have a reason to go into that profession?

"I think I met them after I killed her. After all, I ruined by good standings in Sumeria."

"That's why you looked so paranoid about coming here," Chichiri noted. "I always knew you were crazy."

"So, you punished yourself by thinking that you'd be a disgrace?" Keiji had felt a little bad that Fife had been punishing himself this entire time but he had also felt that he deserved it for lying to them all so much.

"You could say that," the prince struggled to keep his happy façade but had found it incredibly hard to do.

"I don't know whether to be mad at you or feel sorry for you," the drummer remarked.

"What?" Fife looked a little caught off guard by his comment. He had expected something far harsher from the stoic boy.

"What do you mean?" Ko had also been caught off guard by Keiji's comment.

"It looks like you've already punished yourself enough."

"I wasn't looking for your sympathy but I didn't want your hatred either," Fife was a little relieved that things had gone as they did.

"They seem to be taking it well." Tsurugi looked to Hiroshima to see if he had approved of the way that they had handled the situation.

"By "well" what do you mean?" Hiroshima stood in his usual position, toy-soldier stiff with his head held high and arms folded over his chest.

"No bad remarks yet," his mate held up a finger and smiled.

"Bad remarks and bad thoughts are two completely different things," the legend wasn't quite impressed yet.

"Well, you could always read their minds."

"That would be boring," Hiroshima replied. Obvious answers lacked shock of any kind. If they truly cared, he wanted to figure it out for himself.

"So, you lied because you were afraid of what we would think?" Azmy seemed a little sad that Fife didn't trust her but she understood in many ways as well.

"That and I'm not entirely sure that I remember enough to tell you what happened for sure. I try to think but my mind is blank in portions and I'm not sure of why," Fife looked as if he struggled to find the answer but to no avail. Nothing came up. Not even the smallest shred of a scenario ran through his mind.

"Then Vasca should know, right?" Keiji asked. Surely Vasca had known about that event. Perhaps he could tell them all of what truly happened on that fateful day.

"I'm not sure if he could or not. I could simply just have trauma or amnesia that prevents me from remembering," the prince informed. "If that's the case, then the only ones who'd know would be the angels." He looked towards Tsurugi and Hiroshima as if to silently ask them for help.

Tsurugi looked a little disappointed. "I'm sorry Fife, but we can't give you that information yet."

"I had a feeling that may be it." After all, they would have told him before if they knew, wouldn't they?

"Don't be so glum, Fife. You'll find out all of the answers you need," the blonde angel smiled kindly at him. After all, he wanted to help the prince out as well.

"Is Sumeria still at war?" Keiji wanted to know what kind of environment they were going to be placed in.

"Well, Sumeria is at war off and on. There's a Catholic Community next to them. There are periods of peace and periods of war. It depends on what time you roll into the village," Hiroshima educated.

"Yes, from here it doesn't look like anything is breaking out but that's just a seat on the side lines," the blonde angel commented.

"Since you know Vasca then you can get us right to the castle, can't you?" Keiji looked towards the angels.

"If there is a war going on then it won't be that easy," the legend looked out towards Sumeria and seemed deep in thought.

"It won't be anyway. Sumeria is a very large country. It will take a while to get to that castle."

"I guess we should be glad that you're friends with the king. They'd know not to harm us if that was true," Ko replied.

"Not always," Tsurugi remarked.

"I don't know very much about vampires," Azmy noted. Until now, vampires had always been evil creatures in horror movies or myths and legends.

"I heard that there are rouge vampires in Sumeria who are not used to their urges. No one is as they appear and they'll turn you into a vampire if you're not careful," Zangetsu warned.

"Yes, it will be for the best to stay on our guard," Tsurugi advised.

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In the cloud-covered sky, high above the scarce buildings of Sumeria flew three demon-like creatures. Two of them appeared to be anthromorphic dogs, who were dressed in Roman helmets with large plumes and chest armor with shoulder plates. They were both white in coloration and one had black wings and the other bright blue. Accompanying the two dogs was a bird-like woman who lad long, red hair and horns that pointed down and curved around her face. She wore black vinyl that resembled a dominatrix outfit with high black vinyl boots and gloves. Green feathers covered most of her body and her face was a light ivory with two black bold lines that ran from the corners of her eyes down her face.

The three flew around, in search of something and the blue-winged dog man landed daintily atop of a tall tower.

"Say, do you really think King Vasca was right about the prince's return," the blue-winged dog man asked in a heavy British accent.

"I thought the prince was dead," the bird-like woman replied.

"My dear, he's a vampire. He'll hardly die under normal circumstances," the blue-winged dog man replied. He had faith in the prince and beyond anything; he would not believe that he was dead unless he had seen it for himself.

The black-winged dog man landed on a nearby spire. He simply stayed quiet as he looked out over the horizon with glass blue eyes that were framed with snow white fur.

"We've not heard anything from the prince in several years. It's strange that Vasca would talk about his return like this," the woman looked to the silent dog man.

"He looked dreadfully serious when he spoke of his return. It was almost as if the fact that he came back was awful," the British dog man looked a little worried. He didn't know what any of this meant but he had a feeling that no good would come of it.

"Do not forget, Vasca has his regrets that go unsettled," the silent dog man finally spoke up, his voice soothing and calm.

"So why are we handing around the outskirts like this?" The bird woman looked over to her two companions with green and purple eyes.

"Well, I for one would be delighted to see his majesty again. I think, however, Lord Treble as other ideas," the British dog man looked to his companion, who had been perched on a tower opposite of his own.

"I want to see him again, but there are other matters at hand," the black-winged dog man, now addressed as Lord Treble had spoken.

"Are you talking about Vasca's premonition?" The bird-woman asked.

"You mean when he said 'A Time of Ending' would be upon us soon?" The blue-winged dog man asked.

"Is that true?"

"Well, if King Vasca said it then it must be true. I've never known him to fib us, you know," the British dog man replied.

"I think it's true," Treble agreed with the other dog man as he and the bird-like woman glanced at him. "I too, have seen it befalling us. I think the return of the prince will signify the start of a war over an age-old theory."

"I see someone," the bird woman glanced over to get a better look at the strange group of people that were approaching the outskirts of Sumeria.

"Well, it looks like our prince has quite the following," the blue-winged dog man smiled as he recognized Fife in the middle of the crowd of people.

"He's in the presence of angels…Wait!" Treble saw Hiroshima walking with them. "That's-"

"Simply marvelous!" The British dog man put his hands together in delight. "We must go make ourselves known, right Zuri?" He looked towards the bird-like woman who nodded in agreement as they flew down to the group of people.

"Why is he here, I wonder?" Treble thought aloud before he decided to follow the other two towards the prince.

Chichiri looked up towards the skies as he saw the three demons headed towards them. "Do you guys have abnormally large birds in Sumeria?" He asked, a little nervous about what had been diving down on them.

"Not that I know of," Fife replied.

"Then what's that flying at us?" The blonde pointed.

"Be on your guard everyone," Zangetsu warned as everyone except the angels assumed fighting stances.

Undine looked at Zuri, who flew beside of the dog man. 'A harpy…' She then glanced at the dog men. 'And Winged Canines.'

All three of them made graceful landing a few feet from the prince and his group.

"Welcome back, my prince," Treble told Fife as he lowered himself to one knee and bowed his head. His green, mohawk-like plume lowered as his blue and black armor shimmered in the dim lighting and his pristine white long-sleeved shirt and poofy pants seemed to glow against his equally white fur.

'Something's not right here…If he isn't really a prince then why are they acknowledging him as one and bowing to him? Is he lying to me again?' Keiji narrowed his eyes at Fife in suspicion. He was really beginning not to trust anything that came out of his mouth.

"It's been a long time, my grace. I feel absolutely giddy inside to see you again," the British dog man replied. He seemed happy enough to see him and was jumping in joy.

"What's going on? Why are you all being so kind to me after all I've done?" Fife was very confused. He was an absolutely horrible person and yet, these strange demons welcomed him with opened arms?

What was going on here?

To Be Continued…