櫻花開了幾轉

I scrambled up against the grimy stone walls in the cell. It was dark here--dead in the night. Droplets of water were dripping ominously down onto the floor from an elevated place somewhere in the prison. For a while, it's all I can hear. Drip, drip, drip.

Then for the first time in what feels like ages, there are footsteps; light and springy. Almost . . . happy.

She's here.

I know it.

Sure enough, within a few seconds, the echo of the even footsteps has amplified and come to a full stop outside me cell. I'm cloaked in the darkness, so she has to squint in order to see me.

The keys jangle threateningly in her grip. She's absolutely sure of herself.

She toys with the keys, and I sense her gaze upon me, trying to smell fear.

Then, finally, she thrusts the metal key into the hole in the door to the cell and opens it, then closes it behind her. Her touch is light and breezy--she knows what she will do. She has the abilities to do it.

I can see her in the moonlight--her face sharp and beautiful. Pale skin, brown hair and blue eyes. Hard blue eyes. Ice blue.

She was almost attractive . . . save for the small, slim, hand-long cylindrical object in her grip, as red as her blood-crimson dress. She activates it with an ease about her.

"You know why I am here." And the twin blades shoot out from either side of the cylinder; standing at its full height, it is even taller than her.

I do not reply. There is no need to. This will all be over in a matter of seconds.

Instead, I rise, facing her. My silhouette is cloaked in shadows.

"You will not even honor my presence with an acknowledgement?" She asks, mocking--the predator circling her prey before she closes in.

Once more, I am silent. I think about what she might do. Perhaps she would simply impale me and be done with it? Slash me across the throat? Slice me up limb from limb? No matter.

She smirks, suddenly. Then, raising the double-edged blade, she stabs me in my solar plexus.

Ah, so that's how.

And we both stand inert for a few seconds.

And she pierces me deeper.

And my eyes glow green.

"Surprise."

She flinches, confusion and fear in her eyes. She tightens her grip on the blade and, with one swift maneuver of the elbow, she wrenches the blade out through the right side of my body.

Well, if you could call it a 'body'.

The weapon collides with the wall from the force with which she acted, causing sparks and the rather pleasant sound of steel colliding with stone.

I don't even move.

"Are you finished yet?"

"Barely." She quips and attempts to backhand me across the face. Her warm hand comes into contact with cold, cold skin.

She knows something is wrong now. Terrified, she stumbles backward.

"Who- what are you?" She stammers, floundering to gain her footing.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I advance, cloak billowing up about and above me, blotting out the moonlight from the window completely. She fumbles for the door. I seize her by the neck.

Warmth. I miss that. A warm woman.

My grip tightens. Her neck constricts, resisting for a few seconds before submitting to my strength. She rasps and flails her arms. As I crush her neck, her larynx and other muscles, and warm, warm blood come bursting out of it, and her eyes are frozen open in pain and anguish.

Soundlessly, I push the grates of the cell door open and step out, making my way through the din of the now-buzzing cells. They had heard something happening in my cell. When they turn to look at me, deathly silent, simply walking by, I know they can feel the chill.

I smile at them. They shrink back, nightmares already shooting up in their subconscious. It's almost flattering to know they'll all be dreaming about me tonight.

Steadily, I plunge into the weathering nothingness ahead.