Dark corner

Chapter 1:Part 2

The first thing Reiko saw when she opened her eyes, was a very bright light. So bright it was that, she shut her eyes as soon as she opened them. Then seeing that she couldn’t remember where she was, she squinted and trying to look around. But that didn’t help much, the bright white light wouldn’t go away. Then suddenly, she heard someone weeping lightly and a few murmuring voices.

Bang!

“Aw... Crap...”

        The sound she heard startled her so much that you’d think she was hearing for the first time after a hundred years.

“Sorry to scare you like that, I wasn’t being careful”

The white light suddenly went dark clearing up Reiko’s view. She caught a glimpse of a black felt like object and touched it, wanting to make sure she wasn’t dead or something. She touched the black felt and realized it was Black velvet. Looking up, she saw it was attached to the window.

Curtains?

A black figure ran to Reiko’s side and grabbed her hand from the curtains and held it tight in their own hands. Reiko felt like there was a stream of warm water dripping down her palm.

“Mom…?” Reiko stammered as she looked up and saw the figure’s face. It was indeed her mother. There were streams of water rolling down her chin. Suddenly she turned and looked the corner. Reiko followed her mother’s gaze and caught sight of another person who seemed to be causally sitting on an old couch reading an ancient-looking book. This person seemed to be shirtless.

Then all of a sudden, Reiko smelled the scent of a familiar smelling cologne. She jolted up from where she was laying and looked down. Just as she expected, she saw a black t-shirt with ‘Playboy’ written in big bold red letters.

Of course, who else would wear something like this?

“YUKIO?! You-”

“Just be glad I found you in the middle of nowhere,” He said as if he knew what she was going to say next.

“Wha-“

“By the way, Mrs.Furukawa, you should seriously do something about her spontaneous fainting thing,”

“wai-“

“..And that roaming hobby of hers will get her into some major trouble someday. Please make sure you lock your door, and windows if you want, when you’re out, ‘cause you don’t know what’s going on in her head….”

“What are yo-“

“Oh make sure you give my shirt back once you’re done sitting on it.”

“SHUT UP!!”

Reiko felt her ears hot and red and her cheeks burning. She was surprised Yukio knew what she had been doing all along. She looked away, when she saw that Yukio was shooting her a grim look. She hated being observed so closely. She knew Yukio could see right through her like glass. She just wouldn’t be able to keep calm tolerating this creature with absolutely no brain in his head, who somehow managed to turn out human, and got named Yukio.

Reiko’s mom sheepishly chuckled.

“Yes I’ll keep a close watch on her…but for now…how must I thank you?”

She glanced at the fidgeting Reiko, then she looked back at Yukio.

“You not only saved my daughter’s life, but also tolerated her stupid nonsense.”

Reiko’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe her mom was actually saying that. She glanced at Yukio who was making an ‘I know’ face and she thought she was going to go red in the face and explode. When Yukio saw that, he grinned slightly from the side. Reiko felt like she’d punch that grin right off of that monkey’s face.

“Just one more thing…” Reiko’s mom looked at Yukio with a slight pleading expression. “I’ll be out the whole week due to some emergency work that requires my attendance at another city not too far from here, so could you please take care of Reiko while I’m gone?”

Reiko thought she heard one of her veins pop.

This day couldn’t possible get any worse can it?

“Pretty please?”

Reiko was ready to kill herself now. Her mom was actuallypleading, not just to any person but to this monkey.

“Pretty please with a cherry on top?”

“Sure.”

Reiko wasn’t expecting that answer from Yukio, definitely not a person like him. She had to make sure she heard right.

“What?!”

“Sure”

“Thanks!”

Reiko’s mom hopped up and ran to the door and grabbed her polka dotted umbrella and purse.

“Toodles, kids!”

The door closed with a slam and Reiko’s mom was out.

Reiko wasn’t going to believe that this woman was actually crying a second ago, either.

“You’ve got to be kidding, right?”

She turned and saw that Yukio was nowhere in sight.

        She suddenly felt strange being alone in someone else’s house. She began to look around cautiously.

I wish Yukio would stop his strange disappearing acts…its creepy here.

She turned her attention to the black velvet curtains. She touched the soft surface carefully looking at it up and down. The curtains had golden rims made of lace around the edges which made it look like a gown instead of a curtain. The gold rims shone even when there was no light in the room.

Then other things caught Reiko’s attention. She leaped down from where she was sitting and stood still for a moment when she felt a bit dizzy. Just when she looked up she spotted a strange looking shadow. She moved closer and realized it was just a torn leaf against the window. As she moved around she heard her floors creaking and sweaking under her feet.

“This place sure is old…”

She walked up the couch that Yukio was sitting in and glanced at the old ancient looking book, she saw him reading. She picked it up and patted some dust off of the cover. The cover was in perfect shape, it was the pages that surprised Reiko.

“That’s odd...These look like they were made on purpose…”

The pages had hundreds of scratches and torns.

“I wonder who could do such a thing to these poor books”

 She flipped through the pages and suddenly stopped at one page. The page was in fine shape except there was a picture in the middle of a young woman in her gown.

Before Reiko could make out what exactly she was seeing, the book was snatched from her hand and dropped to the floor. Reiko, being startled, stepped back. The room had sudden darkened up and the temperature dropped several degrees lower.

“Umm…Yukio?”, She stammered suddenly feeling she wasn’t alone in the room. “This isn’t funny.”

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a black mass beginning to form. She suddenly remembered why she had fainted and started getting that same feeling. The air was being chocked around her neck and her vision began to go dark once again.

Something’s wrong!

She dropped on all fours helplessly.

Then suddenly the air was filled by a bloodcurdling scream.

“YUKIO!!!”