Slaves of Insanity

Part 3

Uta groaned as he tried to hide from the bright rays of light filtering in from the front of the store. He had fallen asleep in the chair. He sighed as he stood up and stretched, popping the bones in his back. He mentally cursed himself for falling asleep in such an awkward place. He was about to head over to the coffee pot when a strange sound stopped him in his tracks. It came from the back of his store. It was a soft kind of shuffling. Uta had momentarily forgotten about his guest in the back room. It sounded like she was conscious now so Uta decided to go check on her. He made his way slowly to the door and hesitated before opening it.

"Um...Hello." He whispered quietly as he slowly opened the door. He looked around the old storage room. The blanket he had covered the woman up in, was now lying on the floor, empty. He knew she was still in there. It took him a moment to find her curled up in the corner. Her knees were pulled into her chest. Her arms wrapped around them with her head tucked into them. It looked as if she was trying to hide from him. Uta took careful, steady steps towards the woman, only to have her pull into herself even more. He knelt down in front of her and reached a hand slowly out, placing it on her arm. The woman flinched when he done so. "Hey. I'm not going to hurt you." Uta mentally smacked himself. He was never very good at trying to comfort people. The woman slowly looked up at him. Her blue eyes met his black ones. For a moment she seemed to relax, but that was short lived as she quickly scurried away from the man's touch. Uta sighed heavily. He slowly followed her to where she was now huddled. He sat down on the floor next to her. "My name is Uta. You're in my shop. You're safe now." Once again the woman looked up at him. She stared at him as if she was taking in every single feature he had. She craned her neck out to see his eyes better. She was like a curious child. Uta noticed dried blood around her neck and collar. Juuzou must have cut her good when he was pulling on it. Uta's eyes seemed to lock onto it. What did she...taste like? His mind dwelt on the thought. She wasn't human, and she certainly wasn't a ghoul. What did that maker her? He had so many questions he wanted to ask. His thoughts were interrupted by a soft gloved finger tracing over the tattoos on his hand. He looked at her questionably. She was acting as though she had never seen a tattoo before. How? Almost everybody has at least one these days. He held his hand out for her to look at. At first she flinched again, looking up to Uta's eyes. She hesitantly took it in her hands. She held it up close to her face, taking in every detail. Uta watched her curiously. "Where are you from?" he asked more to himself than to her.

She paused her inspection and looked at Uta. She pointed at the door. Of course. Why would he have thought she would have actually answered him. Thinking back to yesterday, he hadn't heard her make a sound. Not even when Juuzou was trying to crack her skull open like an egg. It hit him then. He looked the woman in the face and whispered his revelation. "You can't speak...Can you?"

The woman slowly shook her head 'no' and gave Uta an apologetic look. Uta sighed and leaned his head against the cool wall of the store room. What was he going to do now?

The chime of the store door rang out alerting Uta that somebody has entered the store. It immediately made the woman recluse back into herself, dropping Uta's hand. Uta stood up and looked back at her as he exited the store room "I'll be right back."

He quietly closed the door and turned to whoever it was that came in. "Welcome." He greeted as he made his way closer to the visitor. The person was standing with their back to Uta, admiring one of his masks that hung on the wall. The sight of white hair made a lump of dread knot up in his throat. Surely Juuzou hadn't found him so quickly. The visitor turned and smiled at Uta.

"Hey, Kaneki." Uta sighed. "What can I do for you?"

"I had an accident and tore my mask." He said with hints of guilt as he handed Uta the black mask. "You seem nervous, Uta, Is something wrong?"

Uta shook his head softly as he took the mask out of Kaneki's hands. Examining the tear and walking over to his work station. The mask was torn across the cheek. Uta shuffled in the drawers to find his needle and tread. Kaneki absentmindedly walked around the shop as Uta set to fixing the tear. Uta's eyes would wander up every now and then when Kaneki got close to the storage room door. Kaneki's eyes kept examining the door and then he would move on, only to find himself in front of the door again.

"How did this happen?" Uta asked him trying to pull him back away from the door.

Kaneki looked back at the mask maker and then back to the door before he walked over to where Uta was sitting. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Uta stopped sewing to look up at him. He raised an eyebrow at the white-haired ghoul. "Try me."

Kaneki sighed as he sat down on a stool across from Uta. "Last night I ran into somebody...well...something. I-I don't even know what it was. At first I thought it was a human, as I got closer I seen it wasn't. When it turned around I seen it was a man, He was wearing a mask, so I thought he was a ghoul. I couldn't pick up his scent though. All I could smell was blood. He looked like he was looking for something. I approached him and as he seen me, he immediately attacked me with fucking scalpel." He paused as his eyes drifted over to the door again.

"A scalpel?" Uta asked inspecting his stitching on the mask.

Kaneki nodded. "Yeah, he caught me off guard, he actually landed one on my face."

"Did you kill him?" Uta asked as he handed the mask back to its owner.

"No." Kaneki mumbled quietly. "I left, but then I decided to follow him. I followed him for a long time. He still acted as though he was searching for something. He regrouped with more of them. They all had the same overwhelming smell of blood. Each one looked different though. The guy I followed wore a blue mask, the others looked completely different. They were talking about finding somebody. They're looking for a woman."

Uta tried not to show his emotions. He tried desperately to not look in the direction of the door. Did he have the one they were looking for?

"You don't say" Uta mumbled placing his chin in his hand and resting it on the counter, seeming uninterested. "What did the blue mask look like?" He asked wondering if it was one of his creations.

"It was blue, dark blue. The mask had black where the eyes should have been, with black streaks oozing from the eye sockets. Also it had no mouth." Kaneki said trying his best to remember all the details about it.

"It's not one of mine." Uta whispered to himself.

"It didn't look like one of yours." Kaneki agreed looking back to the door. "Say, Uta, What's in that room?"he asked nodding his head in the direction of the storage room.

"Storage, why?"

"It smells funny." Kaneki mumbled as he stood.

"I'll make a note to clean it out then." Uta said amused.

"You do that." Kaneki nodded and thanked Uta for fixing the mask before he left.