Ice Queen

Disclaimer: Konami has Silent Hill, Takahashi has Ranma. I got squat.

Note: This is my favorite chapter, for those of you who wish to run, too bad, the doors are now barred.

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The hall was dirty and grimy in a different way from the rest of the nightmare of a town. The floor was covered with frost, dirt, water, leaves, and dark stains that conjured up grim visualizations of their origins. The ceiling seemed not to exist; just an open black void above her that threatened to swallow her up if she stared into it for too long; yet still the claustrophobic feeling remained as if there was an above barrier slowly lowering upon her. The walls had pale faded wallpaper covering them, reminding Nabiki much of a derelict home of centuries old. Strips of it were peeling away, even possibly clawed off, like someone desperately tore at the walls in a vain attempt to escape. The wood behind the paper was something that felt too hard, brittle, and coarse, as if it could splinter into Nabiki’s flesh just by touching it. The smell of immolated flesh and hair remained still a fresh scent her nose, even though she felt she had been walking down this corridor for an eternity. She wanted to gag and wretch, but other agonies remained precedent upon her.

She wanted to lie on the ground, curl up into a sobbing ball, begging for whatever gods existed to end this nightmare. She wanted to put her gun in her mouth and pull the trigger, embracing the unknown to escape the known hell that held her captive. She wanted to gnash her teeth, scream in fury, claw at the walls, leaving her own marks of madness, and rip this horrid place apart brick by brick. She wanted to give in to every last primal urge and emotion she had right now to cater to the thundering beat dictated by her pounding heart.

But no, she couldn’t, not yet.

If there were people alive here she would try her damnedest get them out; they were important to her too. Names that silently moved her mouth and tongue without her realizing it, pictures of faces that flickered in her mind’s eye like a slide show, smiling and laughing precariously like they didn’t know their final fates. A whole town of faces and names and descriptions likes and dislikes; she idly though of how much money they owed her accumulated to take her mind off her despair. The entire history of the place that she had grown up in, from her history lessons of Nerima being a simple horsing district, to its current commerce and community. She realized she was beginning to have difficulties fitting any of it back together; she couldn’t remember what the name of that Chinese girl with the bike was, nor could she place the face to the name Tatewaki Kuno. The only thing that stayed the same was the image of her town and it’s name. Nerima.

And that was why she refused to give in. That was why she had to push all of that fear, anger, and everything else as far away as she could; why she refused to succumb to the madness that beckoned her like a soft, dim glowing light in the dark. Call up that facade of ice, that constantly sarcastic and cynical voice of contempt, the professional manner that had gotten her through so much. Let the madness stay bottled up, put away, and wait until she had that bitch in the veil’s throat in her hands. Then she could vent her frustrations… in full.

But not yet, a hysterical Nabiki Tendou would be a failure to everyone.

It took her utmost will to convince herself that that was her name.

The hall ended abruptly, as if the end just appeared before her, at a wall with a glass door in it. There was an OPEN sign placed on it and a list of business hours, almost as if in mirth and mockery of her predicament; if she had checked her watch, she would have found she had a full five minutes before hours ended. Having no other option but to turn back, Nabiki pushed open the door; an electronic chime rang out as she broke the light sensor, the cheery, welcoming noise jolting her.

The room was a dramatic change from everything else she had seen in this place so far. It was a beauty salon. What was more was that it was a pristine beauty salon. Every surface, every item, even the air itself, seemed to be clean and fresh and ready for patrons. The fluorescent lights on the ceiling, in perfect working order, gave everything a shimmering flourish. There were tables for manicures, covered with polishes in all kinds of colors and shades, big black chairs with the hair dryers attached to their backs, mirrors on every wall showing her haggard form at every angle, and two rows of a blueish-green colored barber chairs.

Nabiki wrinkled her nose, as she spied sitting in one of the chairs was a familiar, if unwanted, face.

Mercy was sitting in one of the chairs. Idly tossing a bottle of pink liquid soap from one hand to another. “Hiya Naoko.”

“It’s Nabiki.” She replied with a quiet, tired, and raspy voice. She couldn’t even look at her directly, just standing by her made her fists clench involuntarily.

“You look tense…am I upsetting you?” Mercy asked, giving Nabiki a concerned look in the reflection of the mirror before them

Nabiki took a deep breath making the decision to just ignore her and keep her mindset goal-oriented. The goal being to get the hell out of here and away from her “No... no…it is just…how did you arrive here?”

“Same as you did probably, walked through a wall and down a creepy hallway.”

Nabiki grunted as she scanned the room. There didn’t seem to be another way out other than the way she came in. “How did you get in here? Is there other ways out?” She asked, staring at the ceiling trying to decide if she should risk poking around up there.

“There’s no way out Nabiki. Believe me I checked.” Mercy replied calmly and fluidly as if she knew Nabiki would undoubtedly understand her.

Nabiki sighed in defeat, unconsciously switching back to her native language. “Maybe there’s a puzzle or something like in the toy store.” Nabiki began to scan the shelves for anything that looked odd, out of place, or missing. “How long have you been stuck here?”

“Longer than I care to say.”

Nabiki shook her head; her best attempts to ignore the girl’s unpleasant qualities had been in vain. Even the familiar attitude when addressing her was ticking Nabiki off now, something anyone versed in conversational Japanese would…wait a minute, since when did she….

“Mercy-San, Nihongo-o hanamasi-UFFF!” She had turned around just in time to let the heavy, and very solid, bottle of soap smash into her face.

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“You have too many items Miss Tendou.”

Nabiki blinked. “What?”

The smiling woman standing behind the cash register repeated herself. “You have too many items. You can’t take out this many.” The woman in the fancy purple dress smiled as her right eye popped from some sort of strain; whitish fluid and blood dripping down her cheek. She pointed down at the counter, continuing as if nothing was wrong. There was a multitude of small dolls on the counter.

“But…I need to get them all, I need to get them all back home.”

“You don’t have enough for all of them. I’m sorry.” A horrible crack as her left arm snapped under the tension of the muscles surrounding it, causing a large piece of bone to protrude out from the skin. “You have enough for most of them, but not these two.” She pointed with her good hand at a ragged torn doll in a green dress filled with coins, and a kung-fu action figure in a tuxedo. At the same time huge gashes seemed to erupt all over her body like incisions made by an invisible serrated blade. “You have enough to buy one.”

“Can’t we make a deal?” Nabiki enquired, hoping her own business savvy would award her now as it had so many times in the past.

“I’m sorry. My manager is watching.” She whispered in an apologetic tone, as she cocked her bleeding mutilated hand at a man in a blue coat covered in blood. He was standing over a man in a white button down shirt. The man on the floor had an axe buried in his skull. “He’s very strict.”

“Ah.” Nabiki nodded. She bit her lip and brought her black veined, blood red hand to her chin. “So what can I buy?”

“Well…you could buy those two if you forego the rest.”

“Well, can you give me a moment to get enough?”

“I’m sorry. If you don’t make a choice I’ll have to sell them to the girl behind you. She has enough to own all of them.” she pointed behind Nabiki, just before her arm fell from her shoulder.

Nabiki didn’t even have to turn around to know who it was.

“The one time you need money you come up short.” The voice said from behind her said tauntingly. “Nabiki, you idiot.”

“Well Miss Tendou.” The blue-coated manager had taken the woman’s place behind the register. “What’s worth the most to you?” He said calmly as he shot her in the head with a revolver.

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Her head hurt. Her head hurt a lot.

“Wakey-wakey Nabiki.”

“Mmmph…” Nabiki blinked her eyes open, finding herself lying on the floor. Her head was spinning and painfully throbbing. She tried to shake herself back into focus, and only managed to make herself feel sicker. A blurry form bent over her with a condescending posture in its body language.

“Oh stop being a baby,” Pure malice in the voice ran like ice water down her spine. “I didn’t hit you THAT hard. I guess I’ll be nice and let you get your bearings before I get started.”

The dizzy blurry world reconstructed itself into recognizable order, and to Nabiki’s dismay found that she still hadn’t woken up from this nightmare. Looking up at the person standing over her she narrowed her eyes and voiced that niggling notion of suspect that had haunted her since she met Mercy,. “You killed your sister and her husband, didn’t you?”

“Cutting to the chase huh?” the woman chuckled in undue mirth, “Heh, why not? I guess I must have lusted after the man my sister loved. Hmm, nooo, maybe that wasn’t it… Maybe I’m insane and this is just a fevered hallucination of mine. Maybe this is my entire fault, after being seduced by that missionary and I’ve been injecting White Claudia into my veins for months. Oh! Or maybe I’m dead, after being slaughtered with everyone else at the wedding and this is my eternal punishment.” Mercy sighed, shrugging, “Perhaps I just killed myself one day after all the schemes, layers of distrust, and loneliness compounded upon me.”

Nabiki tried to get up off the floor but stopped seeing… something… holding her gun and had it pointed at her. “What are you? Who are you?” Nabiki asked trying, and failing, to hide the fear in her voice.

A crackling noise started to become audible, like the sounds of sun-heated bleached bones snapping from sudden cold. “I’m whatever you wanted me to be Nabiki. I was summoned by that girl to keep you in this town,” The creature before Nabiki waved the gun in a lazy sway before the prone woman’s chest, before continuing in a sing-song voice, “so she could do whatever it was that she wanted to you.”

“So there never was any Mercy?” Nabiki enquired, realizing she had been alone at all fronts. Perhaps Ryoga’s appearance wasn’t real also.

“Maybe there was once, some blond woman dying in a ditch after being slashed across the stomach. It doesn’t matter anymore.” Some of her hair was falling out, and replaced by sickly purple and black legions growing on the bare scalp. That crackling sound got even louder now and small crystals started to form at the corners of her mouth. “I’m yours and yours alone now.”

“W-what do you mean?” Nabiki regained control of her emotions, though her fear was still potent. She began to slowly position herself, preparing to take any advantage she could gain. She considered the time it would take for the monster before her to react if she were to, hit her arm out of the way. If she could wrest the gun from it then, a single bullet would hopefully end her current adversary. Right now though she just needed the thing to keep talking.

“Now, now, I expected you to be sharper than this, ‘master’.” The thing’s lower jaw had frozen over and the frost continued to spread. It continued, now sounding like there were two voices talking at once and off-sync. “You made me like this Nabiki. I mean, really, do you really think ANY American looks like this? Then again, you were always one for stereotypes.”

Nabiki doubted that any human at all looked like she did right now. The frost, or whatever it was, covered her face now, her eyes locked in place in a piercing stare. The cracking sound of forming ice still continued as it crept down the rest of her body, turning her skin a pale sickly blue laden with patches of frostbite. She shank, almost unnoticeably, maybe a few inches, just enough to make her as tall as she was. At the change taking place before her, Nabiki’s fear began to grow again, “How? How did I do this?”

“Your power.” The thing laughed as Nabiki’s puzzled face. “You think you can come into Silent Hill and have it leave no mark you? You may have come here on your own free will, but this town still holds you in its thrall. She would have had the same hold on you, and your power would have been neutralized if she had used more then that photo,” Nabiki noted the amount of bile in her voice, and filed that curiosity away for another time.

The monster continued. “Silent Hill is like clay to whoever touches it. Your will distorts God’s world as much as theirs does. That’s why I became yours, you wanted someone to hate instead of yourself to take away the guilt you felt at your hand in the wedding, you wanted someone to be everything you despised in yourself so that you may lord your better traits over them. And, now because of that you have to die. I won’t let you further pervert this place with your will. More importantly though…you want someone to punish you, for all the bad things you’ve done. I’m sorry to say Miss Nabiki Tendou…”

The things face had completely frozen over taking an icy sheen. Nabiki just shook her head in disbelief. The thing’s face was perfectly reflective so that when Nabiki looked at it, she saw her own face, warped and disfigured, staring back at her.

“That you really do hate yourself.”

Nabiki lunged for the gun arm. The creature casually stepped to the side and Nabiki went sprawling across the impeccably clean floor. The next sensation Nabiki felt was the creature’s foot landing hard on her back and her vision went blurry again. Slowly, in a world of pain, Nabiki managed to pull herself up onto her knees.

CA-CHING! A cheerful sound rang through the store, then the sound of feet approaching her. The feeling of her own pistol, her vision was returning again, against her skull.

“Sit down.” The thing’s voice sounded like her own now, only a horrible grating crackling sound accompanied it as well. Nabiki obeyed the command. One’s options were limited with a gun against your skull. However tears were starting to form in her eyes and it was hard to keep her vision from blurring.

The thing then threw a mass of dollar bills in Nabiki’s lap. That sound earlier had to have been the register. She picked up a few bills and glared at the creature. The thing pushed the barrel against her skull a little harder. “Stuff them in.” It said in the same crackling voice.

Nabiki almost grinned. So this is what was going to happen? Humiliate and torture the Greedy One by choking them with money? How cliché. She slowly put one of the dollar bills in her mouth giving the creature a look of pure hatred. She wanted to make this last as long as possible, it was humiliating but she could endure, it gave her the time she needed to make a plan.

Getting pistol whipped by the creature sharply derailed her train of thought. “Not that hole you little bitch.” The thing with the frozen face said. “The other one.” She motioned with the gun.

Nabiki’s eye slowly widened as the color drained from her face. “No…please…”

“Everyone knows that Nabiki Tendou only loves money.”

Nabiki choked back a sob as she grabbed a handful of the bills and began. Nabiki made a small grunting noise and winced. Her mouth clamped tight.

“Oh, now none of that…” The monster said amused throwing another wad of cash at her. “Let’s her some vocalization…in fact…say his name.”

She shook her head. She received another slap across the face, now she knew for certain her lip was split. The dark red blood dripping down her chin, she could suck in on her teeth and taste the sticky salty fluid go down her throat.

“Say his name you whore. Say the name that makes your heart flutter a little.”

A soft murmur.

Another slap. “LOUDER!”

“…rnma…”

Another slap. “SCREAM IT, “ The thing shrieked. “THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED RIGHT! LOVE AND MONEY AND POWER….NOW SAY HIS NAME!”

“RANMA!” Nabiki threw her head back, her eyes rolled skyward back into her skull.

A long quiet pause…then Nabiki slowly curled up into a ball and started to weep.

The thing just smiled as it looked at the quivering mass.

“Was it good for you too?”

Nabiki leapt up and with a near feral snarl charged at the creature.

“Please.” The monster calmly kicked Nabiki hard in the chest and she literally flew back across the salon floor. She crashed hard into the jukebox and it started up. The muted whirring as the CD was lifted into place and put upon the turntable. Then, at a deafening volume that seemed to make the items on the shelves shake the music began to start…

Ahhhaaaahhhhaaa ah ha ha…

Uptown girl! She’s been living in her up town world…

Nabiki shrieked and clamped her hands over her ears to try and block out the blaring sound. It did little good as Billy Joel’s voice dug into her brain, and the frozen face thing grabbed her by the collar and dragged her back to the middle of the floor.

Bet she never had a backstreet guy!

BET HER MOMMA NEVER TOLD HER WHY!

“Remember Nabiki, this hurts me just as much as it hurts you.” The creature smashed its fist into Nabiki’s nose.

I'm gonna try for an uptown girl

She's been living in her white bread world

As long as anyone with hot blood can

And now she's looking for a downtown man

That's what I am

Again the monster hit Nabiki square in the middle of the face. A hard crack and Nabiki actually for a moment found herself detached from the pain. Her mind desperately trying to keep up. The only thing she could think about at that moment strangely was how expensive the surgery would be to fix her nose.

And when she knows what

She wants from her time

And when she wakes up

And makes up her mind

The monster slammed her fist into Nabiki’s face for the third time bringing her back to reality and the pain that came with it. There was no doubt that her nose was a ruin now. She could barely breath now without feeling something salty drip down her throat. She dropped to her knees and gagged, drops of crimson staining the immaculate floor. Blindly she crawled around, sobbing; her hands outstretched trying to feel her way around.

She'll see I'm not so tough

Just because

I'm in love with an uptown girl

You know I've seen her in her uptown world

She's getting tired of her high-class toys

And all her presents from her uptown boys

She's got a choice

“Poor Nabiki. Can give it out but can’t take it. Now let’s see if we can-ufff!” The monster fell to the floor as a result of the leg sweep Nabiki did. Nabiki got up and firmly planted her foot on the creature’s chest. With an almost maniacal glee, she raised the baseball bat over her head and then brought it down hard, aimed at the creature’s frozen face.

Uptown girl

You know I can't afford to buy her pearls

But maybe someday when my ship comes in

She'll understand what kind of guy I've been

And then I'll win

Nabiki brought the bat down. It impacted with a satisfying crunch. She did it again, another crunch, she started to giggle and laugh. Another swing, another crunch, faster now, she was in hysterics as the blood dripped down onto her shirt. Another swing, another crunch, each one seeming to grow in ferocity and impact, she didn’t feel fatigue really. Hell every time she heard that crunch, hear the thing grunt in pain and agony, she felt her body surge again with even more power.

And when she's walking

She's looking so fine-ine-ine!

And when she's talking

She'll say that she's mine-ine-ine!

The thing grabbed the bat on the next swing down. Ripping it out of her hand it swept the floor and knocked Nabiki’s feet out from under her. She landed hard, and her stomach revolted against her, making her vomit blood and bile all over the checkered floor. The creature grabbed the back seat of her jeans and in one swift motion ripped them down the middle and pulled then down around her ankles. Then it pulled her back upright and ripped open her shirt.

“White lace? My my my.”

She'll say I'm not so tough

Just because

I'm in love

With an uptown girl! Uptown girl!

She's been living in her white bread world

As long as anyone with hot blood can

And now she's looking for a downtown man

That's what I am

Nabiki backed into the corner, her arms mechanically trying to give her some form of modesty. Trying to pull her clothes back into their usual place. “No more…” She sobbed begging the monster to stop. “No more…”

The frozen thing just grabbed her bandaged arm, the one with the burns covering it and gave it a hard twist, causing some of the blisters beneath the bandage to rupture and pop. The thing picked up a comb filled jar of blue Barbicide and slowly began to pour the blue antiseptic fluid on her open wounds. Nabiki, throat raw, only managed to whimper.

“No…”

The creature nodded and lowered the jar nodding. “You’re right…” Suddenly it smashed the entire bottle of barbicide into the side of her face. “That’s MUCH better!”

The thing let go and Nabiki staggered back collapsing into the corner. Before she left its grip the thing managed to rip off the rest of her shirt and pants, leaving her in just her undergarments, and bandages. Writhing on the floor in the barbicide, vomit, bile, and blood.

Pain. That was the only thing in her world. Every sense, every nerve, time itself seemed to stop just to let Nabiki know exactly what pure pain was.

And the only sound she could hear was Billy Joel’s voice.

She could honestly feel her mind start to break down. She had started to give up, let Silent Hill kill her; she didn’t care at this point just to end this torture.

Uptown Girl, you know…

“What are you doing here?” The thing suddenly asked. Nabiki tried to turn her head to see whom It was talking to. “What are you going to do with th-“ BLAM!

You know I’m in love…

The sound was deafening to Nabiki and she saw the Thing stagger back into one of the chairs.

She’s my Uptown…

The Girl in the Bloody Bridal veil walked into view. She was carrying a shotgun in her hand, chambering another round. Predictably, at least for here, receiving a full shotgun blast to the chest didn’t kill the thing. It was actually struggling to get back up. That was until the Girl in the Bloody Bridal Veil stuck the barrel of her shotgun against the thing’s forehead and pulled the trigger.

Nabiki noticed that her vision was getting hazy and black. She didn’t even bother to fight it this time and she slipped again into unconsciousness.

My Uptown giiiirrrrlllllll…..

Lavender. That’s the first thing that came to her assaulted mind. The color lavender. Something warm against her cheek. A fresh bandage being wrapped around her wounds. She tried to move her head.“Nabiki, Nabiki, Nabiki. Why do you have to act like such a dummy?” She heard that familiar far away voice say. “You know you can’t die yet.” A soft damp feeling on her forehead, a soft sponge wiping away the caked on blood. “You should take better care of yourself too. You’re always trying to outsmart people,” Something being wrapped around her arm and more of the caked on blood and…other…fluids being gently wiped away. “You need to understand that you can’t do that here.” A hard tug on her arm and pain shot through her body. “You can NOT outsmart Silent Hill, you can NOT outsmart the Order, and you can NOT outsmart me!” Each time the voice said ‘not’ it was accentuated by another painful tug.

Her vision was starting to clear up. She couldn’t move for some reason. Someone in jeans and a shirt…and that veil…it was her! Wait…she had just saved her from that thing…but…hadn’t she been doing her damnest to KILL her?

Don’t think about that just yet! Her mind screamed. Focus on trying to move again!

Nabiki tried, but nothing. Either she was too hurt or, far more likely; the girl had done something to keep her in place. Her vision came back into focus and saw that she had been strapped into the chair by a judicial amount of duct tape.

The Girl in the Bloody Bridal Veil finished her nursing and lifted one hand to place it on Nabiki’s cheek. The track marks and ruined veins on the inside of the arm apparent to Nabiki’s sharp eyes.

“It’ll be all over soon.” She patted her on the cheek. “You’ll see, this is for the best.” She turned away and picked up a black goblet from the counter.

“And now, I consecrate thee…” The girl used the whitish fluid inside to anoint her forehead. “Second of the Sacred Ladies. Mother of Wisdom, Mother of Betrayal, Keeper of Sin, cast in the image of God Herself.” The girl opened Nabiki’s mouth; her body still not responding to the messages her brain was giving her, and poured in the white fluid down her throat.

“Now…stand before the Avatar of Valtiel, the Favored of the Red God, purify yourself in rage. So that what you hold, may be cleansed from this world.”

A large object was dropped in her lap.

“And help pave the way to Paradise.” The Girl walked away. “Amen.” Nabiki tried to move again and found her hands slowly beginning to respond to the commands and her vision returning. The object in her lap was the shotgun the girl had used to kill that thing. Before she could take it and use it against the Girl in the Bloody Bridal Veil, a cold shock ran through her body. Her eyes felt like they were on fire. She saw her hands; slowly the veins became raised and turned a sickly black. The rest of her skin was turning a deep red. The buzzing sound in her head arose and got louder and louder and louder. Then, once more, blackness.

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“Mason, H?”

“Here. Knife to the stomach.”

“Mason, C?”

“Here, slashed my own wrists.”

Nabiki blinked. She was back in Furnikan, standing in the doorway to her classroom. There was her homeroom teacher Mr. Futaba. Taking role, just as normal…but…

“Bennet, C.”

“Here. Shot to death.”

“Cartland, D.”

“Here, knife in the stomach.”

She turned to look at the class. These were not her classmates; she didn’t know any of them. They all looked…normal though. No blemishes or twitching tumors, no vibrating faces. The only thing that seemed odd was that they were all shackled to their desks.

“Schriber, J”

“Here. Killed by Sullivan.”

“Birlew, D”

“Here. Burned alive.”

Their feet were bound to their chairs, hands lashed down to the tops of their desks, a chained collar attached to the back of their chairs, and more chains wrapped all around them. Every one of these people locked into their seats by all the chains and the locks holding them in place.

“Townsend, H.”

“Here, Sullivan as well.”

“Galvin, E.”

“Here, Sullivan again.”

“Tendou, N.”

Nabiki blinked in surprise hearing her own name.

“Tendou, N?” Her teacher asked again. Apparently he didn’t see her standing just outside the classroom.

“Nabiki Tendou? Has anyone seen Nabiki Tendou?”

Nabiki was about to open her mouth to announce her presence when a warm hand clamped over her mouth and pulled her a few steps back. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you Nabiki.” A dry, male voice said from behind her. “Unless you want to end up like them.” The hand released gently and Nabiki spun around to see another American. He had brown hair, glasses, and a little bit of stubble on his face. He wore a white shirt and a brown vest. In the middle of his chest was a rather large gaping wound that was bleeding freely. “This is just another trap. Go in there on your own steam and you’ll never leave Silent Hill.”

“Who are you?”

“Just a friend with similar interests.” He said smiling. “You better open your eyes Miss Tendou. You’re in trouble again.”

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A gasping start and Nabiki found herself…in her own classroom? Was she still dreaming? She pinched herself and found herself to be very much awake. She took another look around her environment. No, she was still in Silent Hill. The classroom was western in style. Also posters of a list of the 50 state capitals and American presidents dotted the walls. Of course, there were also desks with rotten bento boxes, and another poster of a pop idol on another wall. What was going on?

She slowly walked to one of the windows and looked outside. She felt sick looking at it. There was Ukyo’s restaurant next to Maxine’s Toys…the park by the lake now looked like the one by the reservoir in her home. It was impossible for her to tell now, the buildings stretched and warped in an arcane mix of styles. She didn’t know where she was any more.

“Silent Nerima.” She chuckled grimly to herself. She looked out of the window one more time and she saw it. Among all the chaos, the streets and store not making sense or moving around, changing positions, there it was. Her home, the Tendou Dojo, unchanged, just a short walk from the entrance of this school. No question to where she had to go now.

She took a step back from the window, and then paused to look at herself in the reflection. The girl had done a good job patching her up. She had even managed to reset her nose in place and bandage it.

The girl had also changed her ripped and filthy clothes with a very familiar lavender dress. It was her bridesmaid’s dress. The same one she wore for the wedding. She still had her baseball bat, but the girl had taken her pistol. She had, though, replaced it with the shotgun and three boxes worth of shells.

“I’ll be sure to return these.” Nabiki mumbled as she figured out how to load the shotgun. She also was figuring out in what part of the Girl’s body she would return the shells into.

Walking out of the classroom she rounded the corner and headed for the stairs, she needed to go down one more floor to get out. She paused halfway to the stairs having heard a grunting sound coming from the classroom that was apparently next to the one she had woken up in. Getting her weapon ready she carefully opened the door and looked inside.

The only thing in the middle of the room was one desk. On top of the desk was a small pile of pictures of Akane, covering the surface. Sitting in the chair was a person in a boy’s school uniform. Nabiki found herself very surprised to recognize the person sitting there.

“Hikaru? Hikaru Gosunkugi?” Nabiki asked in disbelief. The figure nodded; ceasing in whatever action he had been doing when she came in.

“I thought I told you not come here!”

“Yes you did.” He replied in a very soft voice.

“I would have expected you of all people to know how dangerous it is here!”

“I know.” He said getting up from the desk.

Nabiki slowly backed away from Hikaru. He had that same horrible bleeding smile plastered over his face. All over his eyes was what looked like layers and layers of tissues, dried and encrusted. Still it didn’t seem like he had any problem seeing where she was. “Hikaru…what…your eyes…”

Gosunkugi chuckled. “You know, the old saying’s true Nabiki.” He took a step towards her and she took another two away from him. “It really does make you go blind.” Slowly he took out of his pants’ pocket what had to be the largest handgun she had ever seen. A .352 Magnum, one shot from that could conceivably blow her face off. He pulled back the hammer.

“Would you give me a ten second head start?” Nabiki almost kicked herself for saying something as stupid as that. However she couldn’t exactly think of anything else at the moment.

“Sure!” Gosunkugi said. “One Mississippi…Two Mississippi…”

Nabiki ran, she could hear that thing inside Hikaru still counting down. She had to get out of here or else she would have to…no…killing monsters was one thing but an actual human, someone she knew?

“Nine Mississippi…Ten! Ready or not here I come!”

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Author’s Notes: Yeah I’m going to Hell for this one. I couldn’t help myself, I did a song fic. I hope you don’t mind. Thanks to WFROSE, read, review, death threat, etc. No Ryoga this time, I’m going to be taking the requests to heart and making his own story, so look for that in the future. (Probably after G&S is done)

Oh and go see the Silent Hill movie coming out too.