Mansion in the woods.

Chapter three

Alias woke up the next morning to see that he was alone in the room. A noise rang from outside and he looked out to see Hoshiko talking to the man in the black robe that was sitting under the tree the night before. On top of the large rocks was what seemed to be a nest of some sort which he hadn't noticed from the ground. It was large and unlike any he had seen before. He didn't let it bother him too much and he decided to go down and see Hoshiko to get some more information.

He grabbed his swords from his bag and he started to make his way down to the back yard to talk to her not sure what she will do. Bandages still wrapped his stomach where he was stabbed. The blood that stained the bandages had darkened from time.

The morning light trickled in through the crack of the door as he opened it up. The man in the robes looked to see Alias and scowled slightly. Hoshiko smiled mischievously before pulling out her flute again. Alias grabbed his sword's handle quickly but Hoshiko did not charge him. She began to play a song, it was sweet and melodious. It sounded like the lullabies his mother used to sing to him when he was little.

The wonderful tune flowed through his ears and he smiled. His eyes closed and he absorbed himself into the song. The notes soothed him and he smiled. The sound was wonderful, he had never heard music so perfectly played.

Alias opened his eyes again to see Hoshiko standing closely ahead of him and smiling. Her flute was no longer in her hands and he noticed the handle of her sword poked up from behind her shoulder. “Did you like my little song?” She asked him with a mischievous smile. His eyes widened at the surprise of her standing so close to him.

The detail of her iris was clear now, the crossing pattern of red on red amazed him. Her eyes were beautiful in their own way. Her eyes were unique, the bright red was similar to that of a rose at full bloom. A color that seemed to be almost painted on by a master artist.

“Y-yeah,” He stuttered out finally. He was nervous, he wasn't used to really thinking about others. He remembered the day he found his little sister again after she was taken. She was almost exactly like she was before on the outside, except for the claws. Massive steel blades came from her fingers stained with the blood of fallen victims.

Their village had been devastated by the abductions and project releases. They roamed the alleyways and back roads of the town. Most people who remained starved in their homes afraid to leave their houses in search of food. Alias was able to stay hidden during the kidnapping raids, but the rest of his family wasn't as lucky. They were carried away by men armed with cattle prods turned so high they could knock out a full grown bull with just one poke. The would shock them and carry them to their large armored trucks and carry them away.

Alias found his sister about a year later. She was patrolling the streets of their village. He saw her and started to run to her. “ Saria!” he called to her. But she wasn't the same innocent little girl she was before, she was a killer. She looked up to him and smiled, little did he know that she saw him as a target. Alias ran faster and faster towards his sister and he almost made it to her, then she pounced.

She dove at him and knocked him off his feet. He tried desperately to catch his breath again. The girl pulled herself to her feet and turned to him again. She jumped at him again, but this time he anticipated it. He grabbed a broken piece of wood that littered the street and he drove the point through her chest and pinned her to the ground.

She scratched and pulled at the stake, screaming. Alias saw his sister struggling and tears rolled down his cheeks. “Saria?” he whispered to her but she just responded with a screech. Alias couldn't stand to see his sister suffer anymore and he kissed his hand and put it on her forehead. He then lifted a large rock and dropped it on her skull with a sickening crunch.

Alias knelt down and kisses his sister's forehead and wept. Tears filled his eyes and streamed down his cheeks. He had killed his sister, he just killed somebody. The one person in this world who he was supposed to protect, just had their life taken away by him. He will never forget that he killed her and he won't let anyone else he loved die even if it meant he would die to protect them.

“Alias!” He snapped back to reality to see Hoshiko looking back at him. “Are you still with us?” she asked him slapping his cheek lightly.

“Yeah, I'm alright.” He replied blushing slightly. A slight smile appeared across his face before he leaned against the boulders that held up the large nest. Hoshiko stood next to him and spun her flute nimbly through her fingers doing a similar trick Alias does with his knife.

“You were really thinking hard about something, it must have been pretty bad to get you that out of it.” Hoshiko broke the silence. Alias looked away and his fists clenched turning his knuckles a pale white.

“It’s nothing to worry yourself over, it happened a while ago. I can’t change it so why bother others about it?” he replied still looking away. A small tear slid down his cheek but he didn’t move. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see Hoshiko looking at him with a soft maternal smile. Alias sighed and smiled, “A lot has happened since I was a kid, I’ve seen a lot of pain and suffering of the people I loved and sometimes it’s hard to handle. I just fight through it all and I remember my family, I still hope to find my parents how they were but I don’t think that will ever happen.”

              Hoshiko looked to him and sighed a bit. “I made friends while they imprisoned me.They would break your spirit and beat your memories out of you. I watched my friends get taken off down that hall and I would never see them again. They tried to break me but I wouldn’t let them get to me, I wasn’t going to be broken. They dragged me off and cut me up, they did things to me I wouldn’t wish upon anybody else. Though they do, everyday more and more people are carried off and beaten to a pulp then put back together into a completely different person. I was able to escape before they broke me, but I will always have the scars of what I saw and what I felt. I watched my friends die at the hands of the scientists that were trying to ‘improve’ them. I have to stop the labs and stop this from happening to more people, I just need a way to do it. I’ll have to leave here eventually. Whether that means I’ll succeed or die, I don’t know, but I will fight until my last breath.”