3:00pm
The two sat silently in the large black classic Mercedes Benz, Rei, with
her legs crossed, stared blankly as the city swept past her in a speed
that she was rarely privileged to experience. She preferred this luxury
compared to the old yellow bus, filled with irritable young children whose
only role in life seemed to be making noise, yet this car represented a
gilded golden cage… a life which she would be forced to lead for the coming
months. Its immediate destination was the same as the buses’, yet the indulgence
came with large, ugly chains, and she had no choice but to board it. No
matter how hard she tried to run away, she could never escape from her
father.
She was aware the presence of her companion, very much aware of him. Her senses were intoxicated by his appearance, the soft waft of cologne she noted was still the same, the one that she had once bought him for his birthday when he was her best friend, when he was her comrade. His face remained much the same over the years, the little wear and tear that was expected from living the harsh life in the political limelight, but beyond that, was the sparkle of life in his persona. He was not like her father, who was hollow beyond that steady looking shell, there was something beneath his face. She wondered if he had ever been able to touch that side of himself. The softer side of him that he had buried to shield it from the scathing media, the side that peeped through when he used to play with her in the backyard. Now, she wondered if that side of him would plainly vanish. She did not wish to judge him, but the Shinto priestess could feel that side of him reaching out towards her, appealing for her attention.
She could not but be overwhelmed by the feeling of familiarity of him, she was comforted by his silence, it had always been that way, he would always just sit beside her, allowing her space to think. Little had changed over the years, except a few things, unfortunately, it was enough to change the whole relationship between the two of them. He had once been her father’s personal assistant, disliking the world of politics, and swore never to have children in fear of neglecting them. He was now the hot-shot young politician, who had just announced to the world that he was to be married. Another political marriage that would be highly covered by the press, a mere political stunt.
She remembered the man who had only been 20 when she first knew him, fresh from university in England, he was like an older brother who looked after more than her own father had. She was 11 at that time, and he was her world. Now, seven years later, at 18 she was in her final year of high school, he was running as vice-president of Japan, the 27 year old man who would run the country with her father, the man who was unfit to be a father. He was no longer her world, and she flattered herself to believe her indifferent to what he did. His ideals were no longer ones that she approved of, but then… she had no right to give him approval anyway.
“Exactly what it sounds like.”
“Why do you want to help me?”
“Arr… No, you are misunderstanding me. We both want the same things, I am merely proposing for us to co-operate, I give you something, you give me something, and then we will work together to achieve the same things.”
“Why do you want this?”
“The same reason as you.”
The man stared at the other in front of him, dressed in elaborate dark purple and red robes, overflowing snake coils of hair, and eyes that would frighten anyone. He could look into the other’s eyes, only because his were the same, filled with the same greed, anger and wraith. “My soul, for your power, that’s it.”
“Correct, do you agree?”
“Yes, yes, yes! Of course!”
“Father? You are yelling.”
The man turned to face his daughter who stood in the doorway, “what are you doing in here Seira? You are spying on me.”
“I just heard you yelling, and now I see, at no one.”
“No one? What do you mean, no one?” Kyoru-san turned to the space that he had been talking to, the man in the purple robes had disappeared. Shaking his head, he looked once again, it was still an empty space. For a moment, he wondered if he had been hallucinating, dreaming the whole scene. “Leave me immediately!” He ordered his daughter without looking at her.
He heard the clatter of her high heels retreating from this side of the house. He dropped onto the floor, and banged his fists against the wall in frustration. Suddenly, a searing pain ripped through his body, a face appeared on the floor space that he had been staring at. Kyoru-san immediately recognised it, it was the same man. The man smiled at him, “you are satisfied, I am satisfied.” The face disappeared the moment that Kyoru-san nodded in agreement, but not quickly enough to hide the grin which had taken over that manic face.
Kyoru-san did not have time to wonder about the pain, as quickly as the face had disappeared something else appeared in place of it. He screamed in pain as a sudden rush of burning tore through his body, he felt as though he was burning from invisible flames that engulfed him. His whole body twisted and turned, convulsing into a heap on the ground, his legs sprawling beneath him, his lungs choked for oxygen and it was forcibly pumped out of him. It was a demonic roar that vibrated from deep inside his chest and larynx, an animal being trapped in the body of a man. And then, a creature seemed to drop on top of his chest, momentarily blocking the pain being inflicted from the environment, but it was replaced by something piercing into his flesh, like claws, digging into his body. The continual scraping and pulling from the four limbs of the creature took his breath away, he forgot to breathe, to feel, until the pain took over all his senses. He was on the verge of collapse, yet the bliss of unconsciousness never came, he could feel every move of the creature on top of him, scouring and tearing at the pulp that were his muscles, scraping bone and pulverizing more flesh. He begged it to stop, but it only intensified the attack on him. Kyoru-san could imagine the blood gushing out from the hole that would be in his chest, but there was none. There was no blood, there was no hole, but there was pain. As each strike connected with his body, he hoped that his senses would dull, it never happened, each hammering at his nerves, the rest of his body being tormented by a current of strange electricity-like sensations, it came not from without, but within.
His eyelids were forced open, pinned by unseen nails, his eyes opened wide without seeing, being pulled out of their very sockets by brute force, everything he saw flashed onto his retina, but the lack of oxygen made it impossible for him to understand what he was seeing. He was seeing without seeing. It was an amalgamation of expansion and compression, the compressing of his skull, and the expansion his brain, counteracting and thrashing between themselves. His veins exploding from the rush of whatever it was that was going in, but his skin tightened in defense. Every fingertip, toes, even the ends of his sleek hair screamed for attention, begging for the pain to end. He wondered when he would explode and die; saved from this intense agony that was being inflicted by God-knows-who.
His daughter and wife rushed to the doorway of the room at the sound of the animal-like roaring, only to see the corner of the room where he was being tortured, glowing in a brilliant shade of red and a black shadow clawing at his chest. Shocked, they did not move any closer, but saw his chest open, a light emit and drawn away, the black shadow replacing it. Like a man being electrocuted, his body danced and jerked in separate directions, his pelvis thrust outwards as he tried to stand, his legs bent, and his spine being tortured, convoluting into a humanly impossible twist. The whole scene lasted only for a moment, but long enough to cause pain to Kyoru-san, and fear in the others. He lay on the ground in his own sweat, exhausted and unable to move, the palms of his hand clearly displaying the mark of the black, upturned moon.