Chapter 40: Monster

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As Akashi rushed to the hospital hearing the news of his father, he saw Aihana sitting at the corridor of the hospital, right outside of his father's cabin.
Even though her face was layered with light makeup, her expression appeared to be distressed and scared. She looked up to the red haired man when he hurriedly approached her.

"They said you can't visit him now." She informed him. "Don't worry, Sei-kun. Apparently it was a mild heart attack."

Akashi sighed and he ran his fingers through his hair. As if there wasn't enough on his plate already...

"Is something wrong?" She asked him.

He turned to her properly this time, locking his gaze with her inquiring green orbs. He saw confusion, worry, anxiety in them but not the thing he predicted he'd see and that was the knowledge of what was truly wrong.
Aihana might be many things- clingy, jealous, obnoxious but not completely lethal. She'd never go that far or rather she didn't have the courage to go that far. One look into her eyes, and everything was clear was day to Akashi.

'It wasn't Aihana. She wouldn't go as far as kidnapping a person.'

"Nothing." Akashi replied shortly as sat down beside her. His father assistant soon appeared in front of them and informed them about the whole situation. It was just as Aihana said, it was mild attack; it might leave some lasting after-effects but he'll recover soon.

No matter how much Akashi loathed that man, he was still his father, his own blood and the only family he has left in this world. He let out a sigh of relief.

Aihana looked at him and slowly put her hand on his that was resting on his knee. Instead of lightly and very subtly pulling back his hand like he always did, he gripped her small, warm hand firmly.

As the orange haired girl felt her heart fill with pure joy and relaxation, she lightly rubbed his knuckles and softly muttered, "It's alright, Sei-kun. You're not alone."



_



*warning: description of physical violence ahead.*

She was alone.

As the leather whip lashed onto her body with a skin-splitting sound each time, she reminded herself of the cruel fact again and again.

"H-how did y-you know that I returned to my home? I n-never told y-you that,"

"Aw, my Ena is finally figuring things out!"

"T-tell me..."

"Yes, you didn't tell me, but you did tell some people, didn't you?" She grinned as she lashed her. "Think of which one of them could've ratted you out. Which one your lovely friends wouldn't think twice to stab you in the back."

A number of people knew that she returned to home. Akashi Seijuro, the generation of miracles, Shu, Tsunada, Mrs. Nakamoto... her mother...

She was alone.

It surprised her how even after all these years her body was so familiar with the pain, her ears were so familiar with her own scream, her eyes so familiar with the blood. It was almost eerie. Tears kept streaming down her dirty, bloody cheeks making her vision blurry.

Haruka Kajanoka.

The girl she considered her best friend since she fled from the Akashi's, the girl she cared for like a sister, the girl whom she thought shared her pain and suffering equally, the girl who was the one and only person she trusted... turned out to be the sister of the monster himself.

Haruka Kajanoka, the eldest daughter of the Kajanoka family and the elder sister of Shinosuke Kajanoka.

"Why, yes, I'm the sister of my precious Shin. Surprised?" The familiar twisted, sickening grin etched across her face as she looked down at Ena. She hit her again. "Why are you? No one told you that Shin had a sister, but no one told you that he did not have a sister either, did they?"

That same twisted way of talking in circles. Ena slowly and painfully looked up at her. No words came out of her lips as she stared at her with hazy eyes. Maybe she was teetering on the verge of becoming completely delusional, she was seeing a reflection of 11 year old Shinosuke in Haruka when they had very little similar attributes between them.

"Who's gonna come save you now huh, Ena? Where's your oh so dearest husband- no, wait, ex-husband?" She laughed out loud, the maniacal sound echoed.

"Y-you're a m-monster," Ena muttered. "J-just like your s-sick b-brother and the r-rest of y-your f-family..."

Suddenly Haruka stopped her lashing. She looked at Ena as she threw away the leather whip on the floor. She pulled out a chair in front of the panting girl and sat down.

"Say, you people, you and your dearest Akashi, labeled us- me and my precious brother and my family as the monsters, when you and Akashi are nothing different." Haruka grabbed Ena chin and forcibly made her to look at her.
"You two are the same. Akashi killed my brother and my family. It was under his order that they were murdered. Say, is he so different than us? And tell me, you knew everything, didn't you? You knew he killed them, and yet you stayed silent. You scorn us yet you're consumed by revenge yourself. Given the opportunity, I bet you'll enjoy it too, torturing others, I mean. You have a monster within yourself too, Ena."

"Wrong!" Ena's voice was low yet firm as she looked at her former best friend. "Y-you're wrong. A-Akashi is not like y-you people, I am not like you p-people. You torture people for your own p-pleasure, without feeling any r-remorse or guilt. You have no empathy, you h-have no heart!"

"Why are you still able to talk huh?" Haruka got up from her chair and puller out a needle and a ball of thin red yarn from her pocket. "Let me fix that, 'kay? You won't mind, would you?"

Ena didn't voice out a word as the brown haired girl stepped towards her and  pulled Ena's lower lip harshly with her fingers. With a needle in her one hand and holding her lip with the other, Haruka pressed the needle on her lip, piercing it quickly, in a clear attempt to sew up her lips. Ena let out a muffled and horrified scream of agony and pain as she started fidgeting on her place and trying to move away her head. Haruka didn't utter a word as she pierced her lower lip with the needle that was attached to the red string while smiling widely and was about to make the first stitch when she was interrupted.

"Wait,"

Ena's line of vision was blocked by Haruka so she couldn't see who it was as she whimpered silently. Haruka turned her head silently. "What?"

"If you sew up her mouth, you won't be able to hear her screams. Isn't that your favorite thing?"

_

A/N: Unedited.

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