Utsukushi - Banana Fish

Chapter 32

I sat on the bed with my knees to my chest and my hands entangled in my hair, practically ripping it out.

I could feel my whole body shaking. It hurt to breath.

All I could remember was going back to the house and Yau-Si. Then, I woke up here.

I was back in New York somehow, and I was in Golzine's house- my prison.

I had woken up in my old room- it was like this was their version of a bad joke. I didn't bother trying to scream or kick the door. I've been through that before. It never does any good of course.

So here I was, sitting curled up like I was crazy and hoping this was just another bad dream.

When I had finally reached a point where I accepted this was reality, I slowly crawled off the bed and went to the window. I could tell the sun was setting from the orange hue coming in through the frosted glass.

I went back to the bed, lying down facing the ceiling.

My body began to tremble again, but not from fear of this place, but fear for the others. Where are Shorter, Eiji, and Ibe? They were in the house with Yau-Si.

And what happened to Ash and Max once they came back, or if they came back at all.

Not knowing is what made me afraid.

-

Almost two days passed by now, not counting the amount of days I was unconscious previously.

Nobody ever came into the room. I didn't have food or water. Knowing Golzine, he was just trying to weaken my body.

When the sun started getting low and the light outside slowly dimmed, a knock on the door startled me.

It opened and a woman walked in. I knew her- it was Angeline. I've known her for years. Golzine would always send her it to get me ready for dinners and events to "look pretty."

She gave a sad smile. Even though she worked for Golzine, she was a kind and empathetic lady who was just as stuck as I am.

Angeline didn't speak the whole time. From her behavior, I knew we were being watched.

She led me out of the room and a couple doors down to a bathroom. I knew it was useless to try and run away as soon as I got out of the room, so I just obliged. She let me take a quick shower. Afterward, she began to do my makeup. Then, she dried my hair and curled it.

She took me back to my room where there was a black dress laid out across the bed- someone else had come in and set it out.

She helped me into the dress. It hugged my skin and went all the way to the floor. Angeline topped it off with a pearl necklace and black heels.

Before leaving, Angeline looked over her shoulder at the door for a moment, and then came in close to me. She cupped my face with one of her hands, giving the same sad smile. "You've got this." she whispered. Once she left, the room felt even emptier than before. I felt sick not knowing what was going to happen now.

—

I sat on the edge of the bed, my foot nervously tapping up and down on the floor. About 30 minutes passed before the door opened again. This time, it was a few guards.

I quietly took a deep breath, trying to steady myself. My hands slightly trembled.

I was escorted out of my room and directed toward the dining room. They opened the doors for me, revealing a full table. There was Golzine, Arthur, Yau-Si, Ash, Max, and Ibe. There was no Shorter or Eiji in sight.

Golzine gave a disgusting smile. "There you are, sweetheart."

The six chairs were evenly spaced out around the table, but there was a seventh empty chair placed right beside Golzine. When I lived here before, he use to make me sit directly next to him and eat dinner with him every night.

My skin prickled at the thought of having to do it again now, and after finally getting away from this.

"Sit." he said. I bit my tongue and slowly made my way over and sat down. "Utsukushi." Dino turned and lightly whispered to me.

Utsukushi was a Japanese word a foreign senator once used to describe me to Golzine at a dinner party. It meant "Beautiful."

My skin was crawling as I looked straight ahead, not even acknowledging what he had said.

Ash stared at me from across the table. He seemed calm, but had a look of fear in his eyes.

"Should I be surprised you're here?" I asked, turning to Yau-Si when I noticed he kept staring.

He gave a small chuckle. "Are you?"

"'Yau-Si' is that even your real name?"

He smiled. "My name is Lee Yut-Lung. A pleasure, Rose."

A Lee? That would mean-

"Enough chit-chat nobody gives a shit." Arthur  said, his chin resting on his palm with a bored look on his face.

"I'm afraid you've already missed dinner, but we've been waiting for you. I have a surprise for our lovely guests." Golzine said.

There were guards surrounding the entire room, and as he said this they all raised their guns at our heads. They ordered us to stand up and restrained our hands behind our backs. Golzine left the room.

They then led us all down the hall. I already knew exactly where. I'd been here too many times before.

However, when we neared the room, I was split off from the others. They took me to the balcony of Golzine's execution room. Entering the balcony, I saw Golzine. There were others seated on the balcony with him- senators, military men, and others i didn't know.

A guard kept his gun on me while I stood beside them.

Golzine leaned over and whispered to me. "Try anything and I'll kill all of them."

I didn't say anything. I could only watch as they dragged Ash, Ibe and Max into the room below. Ash was chained to Golzine's "execution post" where I've seen him torture and kill people before. Max and Ibe were tied to one of the support pillars.

Guards lined the room below, along with Arthur, a man I didn't recognize, and him- the man who killed griffin.

Anger rose through my body at the sight of him.

I was shaking from both fear and anger. A ringing in my ears got louder and louder, it completely cancelled out the voices around me.

No matter how hard I tried to breath, it felt like no oxygen was reaching my lungs.

There was yelling, even laughter. But it sounded so far away. And then the room went silent.

I had realized why. Eiji was thrown into the room below. Opposite of him, the other door opened.

The ringing completely stopped in that moment. Everything became clear. But I struggled even harder to breath now.

Shorter stumbled in looking distraught. Arthur wrapped his arm around his shoulder, a knife in hand. He pointed it at Eiji. "Remember him?"

Shorter looked up at Eiji. Fear contorted his face.

Arthur handed him the knife.

"Kill him, Shorter."