Inai Ni Yami ((Within Darkness)) {{FINISHED}}

Inai Ni Yami ((An Original Story)) Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Now, I can see you guys are so welcoming to me, and want me to join your little group of bandits," I said, speaking in the most calm, lethal voice I was capable of using. "But I don't have any plans in doing so. You can do whatever the hell you want, just leave me out of it. Actually, I should be making my way to the engineers right now and-" Chains shot out from nowhere all at once, easily constricting themselves around my body. I startled gasp left my lips as I hit the ground with a thud, my body encased by nothing but chains.

"That's enough, Key," Kuro said, standing up and bending over me, no doubt to pick me off the ground.

I didn't allow it, muttering, "Shadow Cape," under my breath and shifting my arms through the shadows enough to free them and point a gun at Kuro's forehead. He froze above me, lips parted. "Touch me and you die permanently," I growled, pushing the gun against his forehead and ultimately pushing him away.

"Key," was all he had to say before more chains whipped out, strangled my gun hand and then twisted it downwards so that the opening was pointing straight at me now. I clenched my teeth, unable to break the chains. "Now, Eve, I want you to put your guns away. Obviously you can't do anything so it's better if you just listened to me and stopped this game." He took my chin in one hand and tipped it up, forcing me to glare up at him. Dark blue eyes flashed mischievously.

"Shadow Cape!" My body began to shift out from the chains, and I almost let out a victory screech... only to have my body be shocked past the normal volts that kept us kagami walking and moving about. I shrieked, only to fall back to the ground. After that, I was in a blind daze of nothingness. None of my senses were working properly, and neither were limbs.

"That was maybe too much..." came a dark, deep voice. Keisuke.

"You think?" Yuki, I assume, since she's the only other female in the room. "How many volts did you use?" Someone picked me up, only for me to hit the ground again. "Don't touch her! She might... um... shock you." Heh, like that was going to happen. Wait... that girl... don't tell me she-

"It's perfectly fine. I'm already in her mainframe... there's nothing remotely wrong with her." Remotely? Then what is wrong? And how the hell is he in my head? Then, as if my mind was a room itself, I found myself sitting on black ground, white words flashing before me. Hi, this is Daisuke, were what I read.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I waved my hands at the words, and a second later new ones popped up.

Takeyama wants to know if you're feeling bad or anything... Oh, Key said he's sorry for shocking you badly. This... this has to be some joke. The hacker... has hacked my head and now I'm talking to him in my mind through white words? This is just unimaginable. Well? The words flashed brightly like signs in my mind.

"I am not fine. Why the hell was I shocked?"

Because you were planning to leave. We can't have all our life's work demolished just like that.

"I don't care about your life work. I care about getting my position as Head Chief back."

That isn't going to happen, whether you want it or not.

I huffed out a breath, exasperated. "And why the hell's that? They clearly made a mistake when it came to firing me. Stupid Rio thinks he has all rights to me just because I'm the kagami of a Dorei princess or whatever. I don't even care about that! I'm not a Dorei now, anyway, so why the hell does that ma-"

You're a princess?! A DOREI princess?!

I rolled my eyes, laying back down. "My original is. I'm not," I answered curtly. There was a long silence where I was left to my own mind. My own thoughts... How am I going to live without being in the Recuperation Group? It was the first thing that came to mind, and it bothered me because honestly... being a part of that group was the only thing I'd known since the day I was created. And now... now what?

No more privileges... No more protection... Your abilities are worthless... can't be used if they'll be taken away immediately the moment your caught... You don't have anyone to trust... Takeyama's will leave soon, and when he does... You're all alone.

"No..." I gasped out, clutching my chest. Lies. They were all lies. I could manage in ShiroTech... I would manage in ShiroTech. I didn't really have to interact with anyone. I didn't need friends. I'd been going without them from the beginning, so what's the difference now?

The difference is that you're weak... Pathetic on your own. Choosing a life of solitary confinement... It's like your asking to Die.

I almost slammed a fist to the ground when I realized something. That voice... it couldn't be my mind. While kagami's had minds and conscious thoughts, they didn't have more than one. I shouldn't be hearing these words... Not unless... Not unless there's an empath doing this to me. And I know Rika wouldn't do this, which left one last option. I stood, fists at my sides. "Yuki, stop this right now!" Just as the words left my lips, I was forced back into consciousness. My eyes burst open while my body jerked forward. Everyone around me jumped back.

"What the hell are you trying to do to me!" I yelled loud enough to be heard through the thin walls, hiding a smile when everyone else made a show of knowing I'd done just that on purpose.

Yuki turned narrowed, beryl eyes flashing with anger. "I'm trying to put some common sense into you!"

"Common sense? Lying to me is common sense to you?! Because that's so very logical," I growled, throwing my own death glare her way.

"It's not my fault your being ignorant! Because sooner or later, you will care about those things! You will be lonely and you definitely will want-" the pixies rant was cut short by Takeyama raising his hand up, a leading air surrounding him the moment the action was made. He turned frozen eyes my way, chilling me with the single glance.

"Guys... would you please leave me to speak to Eve-"

"It's Evelyn!"

"-for the moment?" he spoke as if I'd never interjected, eyes dangerous and... intense. If only I could know what was going on within that mind of his... Know what it was that made him look at me that way now. I heard the door shut, pulling me away from his eyes and to the entrance to our room, where his little group of delinquents had exited. "Now, Eve," he continued in that same, deep, dark voice that commanded for full attention and allegiance. My god, did this guy have extra pheromones in his voice or something? "I want you to understand that you're life before today? Gone... and it'll never come back. Even if you refuse to join us..." He cupped my jaw without warning, leaning closer and pulling me deeper into the deep waters of his storming eyes... "But things can get better. We can escape together... I even have some friends outside... Dorei's that would e ecstatic to have you with them. Just say the word... say yes..."

He leaned in so torturously close, warm breath touching my cool skin and heating it up slightly. My eyes had slowly closed by then, barely open into slits as time seemed to slow down along with my breathing. His eyes stayed open the whole time, even as he tipped my face up a little more and touched his -warm?!- lips to mine, a simple tease of what he could give me. Emotions flared within, the kind I'd never had to worry before today. The kind I hadn't known existed before today. Kuro... I mean, Takeyama pulled away, slipping his hand away from my jaw even as I wanted to pull him close by the collar of his black shirt to do more...

What the hell's wrong with me? Without thinking, I brought two fingers to my lips, shocked into silence. This... this was beyond wrong. It was practically an unsaid taboo that existed around us kagami's yet... why did I like the feel of it? Why did I enjoy the simple pressure of skin against my own tender lips? And why now? Why today?

"Say it." Takeyama turned those cold eyes, devoid of any warmth, my way. "Tell me," he growled in a huskier... darker voice. One that left me breathless and in need of him again. What was with me? Why was I acting this way? "Eve-"

"Alright!" I answered without thinking, feeling frustrated, pressured and just plain beat. This had to be one of the longest days in the history of my life... And then suddenly Takeyama tackled me back onto the bed, pinning me down by my wrists and my legs tangled in his own.

With a smirk, he leaned down so that our noses touched. "Have I ever told you, you're going to be the death of me?" Before I could respond, he was pinning me down by the lips too.