• A low sound escaped her lips as she neared the building. Why did it have to be here, she wondered as she climbed over that tall gate in the pathway, Surely he could have lived somewhere else. Why did it have to be such a scary place? She was filled with the thirst for answers that only contact with this one person could quench. Nothing could satisfy her more than knowing who had caused her loving brother’s murder; the murder of a man with no enemies and no real secrets.

    {…}



    From the window he watched her climb the fence. Rather than do what most other people would have done, he let a confident smirk slide over his features and turned to prepare for the arrival of an ‘unexpected’ guest. There wasn’t much to do, aside from dressing himself in a presentable manner. He sat himself in the main room and picked up a book that had been lying at the side table. Not a moment later he heard the door open with a quiet creak.

    When he looked up he noted that she was quite different from a distance than up close. For one thing her hair was a bit shorter than what he’d thought and the dark blonde he had expected was instead a fine white with very distinct gray highlights on the very tips of her bangs. Her eyes, though hardly visible in either way, were a nice chocolate brown tinged with green at the ends. She simply looked interesting, through and through. He could figure that her questions were quite the opposite; mundane and all together typical of a young child who had a relative murdered.

    Of course, he knew he would not be disappointed in the girl. He was never wrong about anybody; at least he hadn’t been since he was smaller. But you can’t be right all of the time, or rather you could but it’d be boring at that point. When she opened her mouth to speak he immediately cut her off with his own words.

    “You wish to know why your brother was killed and who committed the act, correct,” he said as he stared back into his book. With a snap the book closed and his cerulean blue eyes averted to her. Her voice came out with a clear yes, despite its seeming to shake. A chuckle rolled through his chest.

    “Well then, you’ve come to the correct place.The one you want to know the reasons as to why they were murdered is Kaito Shion. The first question, why was his in his room alone drinking a poisoned glass of wine. You know why, don’t you, Akira.” He circled the girl until he reached a second table on the other side of the room. He leaned up against it in such a way that he looked all the more smug than he had before.

    Akira, as she shall now be called, stared up at the man with eyes that were nearly dead. She could assume that he wasn’t much older than she, the age of fourteen. She could be wrong of course, she almost always was. It didn’t stop anything before.

    “The second mystery, why did the others in his branch of the family die? I’m sure there are reasons for this too but I’m sure you want to know if the culprit was in there as well. But you already know don’t you? You should, it all happened in front of you didn’t it? So why don’t you say the name of the murderer. Come, their standing rather close to you.” In a period of hardly five minutes he’d brought himself to about two feet from her body and leaned in to whisper to her. How she had wanted to believe that it wasn’t that one person, that she’d seen it all wrong. But she had been wrong in the end. She wished she hadn’t been.

    “Akira… If you don’t speak up something bad might happen. I’d hate for it to, really. You’ve been such a good girl.” His arms slipped over her slender shoulders as he spoke to her ever so softly. Her hair tickled him as he ran his hand through it. She was holding back the things she should say and the tears that wanted so badly to being falling out of her eyes.

    “Akira,” he said in a harsh and demanding tone. He knew that finishing the sentence wasn’t necessary. Instead he lightly gripped the back of her neck, emphasizing that something bad really would happen. And that he would be the one to do it.

    At first the name come out so barely audible that he tilted her head up to make it easier to hear her speak. No words were needed at this point, only actions to push her to saying the words. Slowly and softly she called out the name of the one who had rid this world of her brother. The boy let go of her neck and stepped back a foot or two with a much more terrifying smile on his face. Akira could have sworn that his eyes were almost red, but she knew better. They were the same blue with a more evil look to them.

    “…If you’d like you can run. I recommend it…”

    His voice seemed to have dropped a little compared to only moments ago and he spoke in fearful ways that sent chills down her spine. She could kill him and avenge her brother, but that would do nothing for her. Killing this murderer, this person who she had really known for such an extensive time, would only worsen her state. She would be on the brink of insanity. He told her to do it, to kill him in the same cold-blood that he had her brother; she wouldn’t do it.

    Akira moved forward at an unusually quick pace and pulled him into an odd and undeserved hug. He would have been confused if it weren’t for the fact that she would not and could not kill him. He’d been relying on that for this to go over smoothly. If he had been wrong about her it would have killed him. He was glad that he knew better.

    “Why did you…? What did he do?”

    “Akira… Sweet, innocent Akira. What hasn’t he done is a much better question. I could never forgive him for what he did to you. Leaving you with that… Monster you call a mother. He should have taken you with him, not let you stay there. I know better than to think you were fine. You’d stop by and there would places that were too sensitive to touch…” Tears filled both of their eyes with the words falling from his lips. She couldn’t hide them from him. The scars, the bruises, and now the tears she shed. He was virtually all knowing. Words slipped from both as they knew not what to say now. Maybe there was nothing to say or maybe they were too afraid to say it. As Akira began to speak he done what seemed to be a habit, cutting her off before she could talk.

    “I’m sorry. I told you to run…” A gasp flittered out of her lungs as he pulled away with blood stained fingertips. The pain finally hit her as she sank onto her knees.

    “I can’t let anybody know. This is a horrible way to protect you but… I’m sure that I can join you, but I don’t think I’ll be in the same place. At least where you’re going nobody can hurt you. Right?” He tried to smile but he failed on many levels. He could guess that the final words she said to him would be along the lines of ‘I hate you’ or another variation of it.

    And for the second time in his life he was wrong. The words fell from her lips as she looked up into his eyes with the most pure emotion that anybody who ever lived could muster. He felt ashamed to look into those eyes, guilty that he’d ended her, and devastated that she was gone before he could return the sentiment to her. For a moment, he pretended she was still able to hear him. He let the words finally fill the air around him before the idea left him.

    “I love you too, Akira.”