Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There are many ways to start a story. 

A lover who tries to take their loved one back. A home that looks different than usual, a best friend who’s in trouble. A girl walking on a dark street, waiting for something scary to happen. Red Riding Hoods, their wolves, and many dangerous paths. 

Inside all these stories, like chinese boxes, there was another one. The worst possible ending, that induced the narrator to eliminate the beginning of the story. To make sure that story wouldn’t come back in any possible way, the narrator deleted even its memory in his own mind, so that those horrible events could remain shattered into pieces and never come back together. 

But every story, for who remembers and for who forgets it, leaves traces. Traces of that story were left under the nails of a teenage girl in scholastic uniform and closed shoes. She realized that when, intent on removing a tiny, little remnant of her best friend’s blood–the one she didn’t rescue– on her left little finger’s nail, she saw it.

Suddenly, it was like she remembered her actual role into that lost story. It wasn’t a typical role. It was something new. Something people didn’t know, and still, deep inside, they were profoundly afraid of. 

Under a fingernail, into an insignificant little trace of dried blood, Sara Chidouin saw her own image. 

She was out of the edge of the canvas, the sublimation of her kidnappers’ dreams into a nightmare. Something that feeds on wolves.

She even realized, crystal clear, that those people were locked up in that place with her, no escape. All windows were fake, all doors destroyed. They created the playground for her. 

Sara quietly smiled. She put her hair up in a ponytail and tightened the knot of her tie at the mirror.

«Time to get to work, lil’ Joe.» Sara kissed the tiny dog before placing it in her pocket. «As they say, not in my route, right?»

Chase was on.

Chapter Text

Sou woke up on the floor, in the point he sat to leaf through the files Midori inserted in the library. He checked up just a little bit, and there was already so much he would have liked to delete. What they did together during those afternoons, and something else –some AI studies. 

Sou thought about the screen he broke before it could possibly turn on. That black hole, like an empty eye that looked back to him.

Steps, too fast to hide. The person knew he was there. Sara stood up in front of him, and that height difference made Sou feel tense. «Did someone see you coming here?»

«No.» He stoop up in turn. «I didn’t want to see anyone, and I was avoiding you in an all-special manner.» Sou would have liked to impress more sarcasm than affliction in his voice.

«You’re angry for Kanna’s fate» Sara stated. «But we’re alive.»

That nearly got him a dark laugh. «Not everything can be labeled just like that.»

«Life can.» Sara’s face was unfazed. «Your anger compromise our efforts and goals. You have to change your attitude.»

Sou nodded to himself, bitter. «Yes. You like to obtain that from people.»

«What?»

«Control over them.» Sou sighed. He was tired. Midori was more than what he could handle at the moment. «Why are you here?»

The answer was unexpected. «Let’s make a deal. You put aside the grudges you have against me, and I make you win.» Sara leaned on a bookshelf, arms crossed, like fucking Class President or any other thing she was in her high school. People just listen to her –watched her rock-like firmness and see a form of protection in her superiority. Sou always saw just a continue reproach. She was everything Sou wasn’t as a teen, and as an adult –and it didn’t seem like she deserved it, more like she was born to win, luck and genes, and yes, fate. The track of a train you don’t know and that takes you always in the same places.

«Maybe I would rather die than win with you, Miss Sara» Sou answered, artificially carefree. «Fate means no control, but you had control over Kanna’s life. And you just chose me, and not because you like me. I would say, because you hate me.» She cancelled the person he could be, if only Kanna had survived. She condemned him to be just the one that didn’t make it. 

Sou was so used to it. Failure. Sara Chidouin had the look of someone who couldn’t even tolerate to have it in front of her. 

«Big words for one with zero percent survival rate. We both know you want to live –and you aren’t in the position of dictating terms.»

Miss Class President, always knowing the right answer. Sou felt it like a test. He didn’t like it.

«And what do you get out of it? Why should you want the cooperation of the mathematical loser?»

«Because that’s difficult for others to predict, and now I need to be unpredictable in what I do.» Sara smiled in front of the hostility on his face. «Do not worry for me, I did the math. The rate refers to us playing solo, not us in teams. I have reasons to believe that, in such case, it could be quite high. We all know you’re the clever one.»

She dropped that last one almost casually, but it was different. Sara was trying to flatter him. She didn’t think he was clever at all; so, in the end, she needed help. But she didn’t want to appear desperate, obviously. Nobody would. 

Sou licked his lower lip. Knowing her designs would have been an advantage over the others. He didn’t need to trust her, or to necessarily do as she told. Sara didn’t expect him to refuse the offer, so why disappoint her? Sou would induce her to think he was predictable and disposable, for now. He would have all the time to betray her later on, when it would have been more convenient. «What’s your plan?» He watched her and thought: I’ll make you lose. That thought gave him relief, almost pleasure. I promised you would be the first to pay. It will be your turn to die, and I’ll have the last laugh –as you had the last word and picked the wrong choice. I’ll make you understand how wrong you were. I’ll let you know I was right, and you wrong.

«Follow me» Sara said. She took him to the locker room and lastly inserted a code into one of the lowest row. «It was my birth date. Strange, isn’t it?»

Sou grumbled. «Nothing about the connection between you and this damn place feels strange anymore to me. What’s in there?» He saw just a black hole.

«It’s a shaft, there are stairs that go all the way down to the floor. I don’t think it’s something made up for the game, it seems more like a machinery space. Now listen. I already killed Ranmaru» Sara said. With the same, committed voice she used saying: I’ll take you all out of here.

«What?»

Sara corrected herself. «Or, broke. He wasn’t human after all. Anyway… We’ll pretend Keiji did that.» She leaned a hand. «Give me your scarf.»

Sou couldn’t honestly understand what was happening. «Why?»

Sara took the scarf and sprayed some water on it from a bottle. «You need to keep something wet under your nose. Air is unfit to breathe down there. I think there’s a boiler or something like that. Remember not to inhale outside the scarf.»

Sou settled again the scarf around his neck, not appreciating the sensation of nudity. «Why should Keiji kill a doll?»

Sara shrugged her shoulders. «Is it important? Gin and Reko will believe anything I say, and you already fooled Q-Taro before.» Sou always suspected that Sara secretly had a similar line of thought, but hearing that out loud was still unsettling. She was analytical, laid-back and diligent, the opposite of a comic villain –still Class President. «I’ll come up with something, like that Keiji’s with the kidnappers, and Ranmaru’s secret info was exactly that one. He told me in his dying breath.» Sara pronounced it as it was melodramatic and quite hilarious. 

Sou raised an eyebrow. «Would you betray your loyal neighborhood cop to team up with a person that doesn’t like you? How awful.»

«I already told you. To be loyal means to be predictable. I don’t want to write the story as it’s supposed to develop, I want a coup de théâtre. And besides, I don’t like anyone.» Then Sara pointed at Sou. «But, we need you to be a witness and confirm my words. We’re technically enemies, so you shouldn’t have reasons to do so –therefore, everyone will be convinced that it must be true. As a witness, you need to know where did the killing happen and how the room looks like. Keiji would take us down easily if we don’t pay attention to details. I chose this one because nobody except myself found it, and nobody could state that he or she was nearby at that time.» Sara indicated into the locker. «Now, go down, pay attention not to touch the corpse and find a reason why you could be there, like, twenty minutes ago –oh, and from which hidden point you could have assist to the entire scene. I’ll pretend I was fainted because of the heat, and I could wake up just in time for hearing Keiji kill Ranmaru. You must find something else. For example, covered behind those big boxes down there?»

Sou stared at her, expressionless. «You’re a monster, Miss Sara.»

«It’s useful sometimes, as you can see.» Sara smiled –amused, even, like a friend at a sleepover party. Not that Sou knew how sleepover-party-friends looked like. But it was how he pictured them. «Now go, we don’t have time. I’ll stay here and make sure that no one comes. Take a good look.»

The stairs were narrow, made of iron and grid-shaped, not exactly the most stable. Sou kept both hands on the rails, slowly putting a foot under the other. It was dark. He was going to ask Sara what to do about it, when her hand extended him a torch. For good measure, Sou waited to descend a few steps more before turning it on, trying not to look like a coward. The flash was dazzling and straight-oriented, and Sou needed some time to orient it correctly and explore the room. He carefully get downstairs, looking where he was putting his feet. The place was something like a basement, with visible pipes and moisture on the walls. Sou carefully looked for the dead body on the floor, but he couldn’t find it. He tried to understand how big could the room be, but it was difficult to say, there were many corners and shadows. Maybe Sara intended him to access some other connected area? 

«Shin?» A voice in the dark, that gave Sou goosebumps. It wasn’t Midori, he was sure of that. He could never mistake Midori for someone else. Who could…?

«Sara?» After calling for her, Sou saw the light on the top of the stairs vanishing. The noise of a moved panel. Sara closed the locker.

«Fuck» Sou murmured. Two points came to his mind. Point one, no dead body. Point two. No unbreathable air. 

Point three: lies.

«Shin?» The person walked near enough to be lit up by the torch.

«Fuck.» Sou got choked up. It was Shin, no –it was himself. 

A perfect replica of himself, same silhouette, same posture, with his green beanie and purple sweater, responding to his gaze in a puzzled, ingenuous way. No scarf, tough. 

Two answers for Sou, popped in his mind out of nowhere.

The AI he destructed. 

The scarf.

«Shin, I know what you want to do» said the doppelgänger. «Let me explain why you can’t.»

«Shut up!» Sou stepped back. That naked neck. That vague tone of voice. 

A new cone of light flashed on: Sou turned around. Sara was there, elevated on a higher step of the stairs. She had another torch, and pointed it at her face from below. «Safalin asked me if I wanted a doll» she explained with ease, «and I chose this one. Do you like it?» She was calm, and terrible. Her features were outlined by the darkness.

Doll Shin came closer, and Sou drew back, horrified. «You can’t kill him, Shin. You know why you can’t.» The voice was pathetic, pleading. «Because you love him like I do.»

«I said shut up!» Sou felt bad. Very bad. Like, the stomach filled with tons of concrete, walled in his own body. Also his head started to ache.

«We’re nothing without him» implored doll Shin.

How could he forget. Putting his own life on Midori’s palm, and being crushed in a fist. «I’m dead with him» hissed Sou, furious. 

Doll Shin just didn’t react. «But we’re something. Better than nothing.» 

Sou, instead, wasn’t a doll with opportune memories and determined feelings. He had the entire story in his mind –the worst parts, and the best ones, the most painful. He could remember when he wished not to exist or ever existed. 

Sou started trembling, his hands on his ears. «Rather than kill him, isn’t it ok to die for him?» The doll grabbed Sou by his shoulders and shook him vehemently. «To suffer in his name? Does’t it feel good?»

Sou couldn’t understand anymore what was actually happening and what he was perceiving. It was a mess in constant motion, a living hell with his own face floating in the dark. And Sou, the real one, that filled all the space with his massive absence –with his eternal presence. 

«Are you having a good time, Shin? Because I am.» Sara already walked downstairs until reaching him. How much time had passed? «What’s so scary? Are you afraid of the dark? That’s just me and you, that’s all.»

«Why…» Sou just wanted the dizziness to stop. 

«You really thought I would just overlook the fact that you tried to put my mind against me?» asked Sara, genuinely surprised. 

Joe. The evil AI. «You forgot…»

«Me forgetting Joe?» repeated Sara. «I don’t need to forget what could possibly make me weak. I’m not you. Anger only makes me hungrier.»

Sou connected the dots. His senses going numb, the water on the scarf. «My scarf… Why?!» Words came out difficultly. She probably made him inhale an hallucinogen.

Sara made that amused-party-friend expression. «Why did you give it to me in the first place?» She turned up her nose. «That was a silly thing to do. Silly boys that do silly things deserve to meet silly ends.»

«… ends?» Nothing of all this seemed real. 

Sara smiled politely. «Death is just the landing place. There’s so much in the middle.» She pointed the torch directly to his eyes, making him groan in pain. «How could you think that someone would actually rely on you for a plan?» Sou swallowed those words. It hurt more than he could imagine. He didn’t think to be still striving for that. «Not even you trust yourself.» Sara pitied him with a grin. «You defeated yourself again and again. When you left Kanna to die, you already lost.»

Sou wanted to protest, but the tongue didn’t respond to his will. He collapsed to the floor. Sara kneeled in front of him. «Two of us is one too many, and it’s obvious why the alive one could never have been you. You just couldn’t choose logic, even if you wanted. You’re not strong enough. I am.» Her voice was firm, severe. «I am the one. I’ll rise to the top and take everything and everyone down. I was born to succeed, but I went further. Nothing in the word can constrain that success. I’m inescapable.»

Sou kinda understood what she meant. Hallucinations permitted him to see something like an aura, a golden, glowing flame burning her neat, gracious, school-attired figure. He almost thanked he was dying. It was fucking dreadful. 

Sara grasped the scarf and just squeezed around his neck. Sou felt immediately the air leaving his body, empty and deflated like thin paper under tension.

His eyes widened in Sara’s eyes, while his mouth opened and the rest of his body gathered in itself. Hands automatically went to the neck, trying to regain his breath. 

«Please don’t fight back» blinked Sara. «You could tease this girl in an inappropriate way. Oh, I have a better idea.» She turned back. «Shin? You don’t want him to kill Midori, do you?»

Shin seemed conflicted. «I do, but…»

«When this is over, I’ll give you back to him» promised Sara, watching Sou in the eyes. Sou cried out loud. Shin took her place and started clenching, eyes closed not to see the other himself dying under his hands. Instead Sou was mirrored in that face until the very last second, unable to look away. 

«Can I go back to Midori now?» asked Shin, after leaving his human version a corpse. 

«No» answered Sara, cutting instantly his throat with a knife. She throw both the bodies into the furnace inside the room, then climbed the stairs to the locker room. She stretched her arms. 

«Some characters just never change their role!» Sara commented to little Joe, the baby dog in her pocket. «How do you think Keiji is doing? He’s so overprotective, will he be worried? Y’know, lil’ Joe, I suspect he has a crush on me. He’s expecting me to play hard-to-get… Lovesick men are so desperate. Will Keiji appreciate a taste of his own medicine, instead?»

Chapter Text

After the group was split into couples to look for Sou, Keiji and Sara found a secret area from the computer office. It seemed like some kind of maze, but as soon as they entered it to explore briefly, the passage from which they came in closed behind them.

«They really want the two of us to be alone» commented Keiji in a playful tone. 

«Sou could be trapped here» Sara alerted him. «We’ll eventually find a way to open it again later.»

The maze had empty and all-alike corridors, with no furniture, besides a table placed near to the entrance. «Hey. Just look at this…» The table was covered of various weapons: explosives, firearms, bladed instruments. The most original was a flail. 

«Why should they want to supply us with weapons?» wondered Keiji, skeptical. «Feels totally like a trap.»

Sara shrugged her shoulders. «I don’t know… To make the game funnier? There could be other Obstructors.»

«In any case, we must play this game, like it or not» inferred Keiji, pointing at the table. «Choose one.»

Sara hesitated. «I’m not used to handling weapons. I could mess this up.»

«You can work a gun, don’t you?» objected Keiji, placidly. «Then you’ll be fine. You’re not a child anymore.» He choose himself a weapon. 

«Don’t you think that’s a bit too much?» remarked Sara, observing the hatchet he was weighing up in his hands. 

«There’s probably a dangerous monster hanging around, isn’t it?» Keiji smiled, leaning the shaft of the hatchet on his shoulder. «Big boys need big axes.»

Sara seemed attracted. «Can I try that?»

Keiji offered it to her and laughed. «You can barely lift it… so cute.»

She snorted and gave it back to him, watching the remaining weapons, then cautiously choose a gun. «I’ll leave the knife here. I’m too afraid to cut myself accidentally.»

Keiji found something amusing in her wording. «Damn right. Girls should stay away from long, sharp things…»

«Why just girls?»

Keiji gave her a shady smile. «Sara-chan is smart, but naif. There are things they don’t teach you at school.»

Sara reacted bothered. «Like what?!»

«You’ll figure it out» cut short Keiji, offhand, making her doing a pouty face.

«Are you trying to impress me?»

«No clue, are you impressed?»

«Which seventeen-years-old wouldn’t?» Sara passed him and got to the front. Keiji indulged her, and started looking carefully around. Some walls had mirrors on them. He examined the surface, looking for clues. 

«Something here feels totally off» he murmured, calmly. 

Sara seemed surprised. «You mean, more than everywhere else?»

«It’s different somehow» nodded Keiji. «All the other facility rooms appear clearly connected to the same type of game. It’s like this place is a special case. I would say… a chase.»

Sara’s forehead wrinkled. «Do you think something will chase us down?»

«Literally, or metaphorically, yes.»

There was silence for a bit. 

«Maybe it’s just another puzzle» suggested Sara.

«Maybe. Now that we’re here, we can just go ahead» Keiji said, stirring up his head to sound out the air. «But I don’t think that Sou is here. And if he is, not alive.»

«Don’t say stuff like that anymore!» Sara ran a hand through her hair, in a spontaneous and perfectly artful manner, then unexpectedly she took a lollipop out of her pocket. It was a plate of candy, thick as a coin, with inside a white and red whirl, melted and crystalized. Sara put it in her mouth. 

«My friend Ryoko gave it to me» she explained. «Last thing she did.»

Keiji observed her with curiosity, fascination and a bit of mockery. «Are you popular at school, I figure? Do you have many friends?»

«Not many –not females, at least. I’m a girl with a superiority complex, so it’s natural they hate me.» Sara lifted her chin up, in a lovely, petty way. «Girls are so competitive. Male friends are better.»

Keiji chuckled. «You’re a cool girl for sure.»

Sara’s eye widened. «Am I?» After a brief pause, she blinked. «Oh! Joe just made a joke.» Keiji’s laugh disappeared. «He said: “a girl holding a weapon is sexy since she can’t use it, because it seems like a silly monkey dressed as a human, trying to entertain spectators”. Do you agree?»

Keiji tried to understand why the atmosphere changed so radically and so fast. Sara was still smiling, but the air was tense.

«Joe?» repeated Keiji.

Sara was sure. «Yes. Joe tells me things, even if he’s dead.» 

Keiji waited for the right words to come, but they didn’t. «Sara… Are you ok?»

She didn’t answer. «It’s like we have a different connection now. It is… stronger.» Her face was peaceful, but also ominous. «It’s a goof thing, isn’t it?»

«I wouldn’t bet on it» admitted Keiji.«You don’t know if that’s Joe.» 

«You’re right. Not a big deal, though. There’s so little I know.» Sara had a dig at him. «I don’t even know who you are.»

«But I know who you are» Keiji replied promptly. 

«A cool girl.» Sara smiled allusive, like it was some kind of joke. «Do you wanna hear a cool thing about you too, Keiji? It is that you’re so lively. God, such a joy for living! We’re here, struggling for survival, shitting ourselves to death ––and here you are as well, making friendly remarks on how much it would be nice to fuck.» That last word came up offensively loudly and cheerfully. «Impressive! We’re lucky to have you. You make us feel like we’re still out there.»

Keiji perceived some kind of trap coming in that conversation. «You shouldn’t take me that seriously» he said loosely. «I don’t always actually think what I say. Sometimes, I just say it. No reason, or reasons different from the most evident.» 

Sara’s smile broadened. «Right. It just seems like your only goal is to embarrass me.»

Keiji brushed it aside. «Oh, you’re not that shy. You’re–»

«–too cool» Sara completed.

«Exactly.»

She sighed. «You’re making very difficult for a girl to say yes to you.»

Keiji tried to remain lurky and indifferent, but that point they’ve reached was dangerous. «Were you gonna?» he asked, in a careless and ironic tone. 

Sara popped her lollipop out of her mouth. «You’ll never know» she announced, aloof. «Since you never asked.»

Like that, swollen wet lips, half-bare legs, shiny hair, she was so absently powerful, an unexploded bomb. Keiji couldn’t believe she was just trying her potential as a blooming lady. It was the wrong timing. That’s not how Sara would have behaved. 

«We should stay concentrate in finding Sou.»

«You don’t give a shit about Sou» clarified Sara bluntly. «Tell me, what’s your kink? Is it the idea to bring out the blushing virgin from the nasty tsundere girl? How groundbreaking!» Her voice was still perky and mild-mannered, in contrast with the crude content. 

Keiji stared at her closely. «You’re not in your right mind.»

«Now, I wonder what that is!» laughed Sara, playing with the lollipop stick. «Why that long face? It was a joke! Buy a sense of humor!»

Keiji raised an eyebrow, suspicious. «First that nonsense about Joe, now this. What’s gotten into you, mind telling me?»

«You’re imagining things.» Sara teased him. «Are you confused? And don’t you like it? I thought it was sexy to delude people. I learned from the best.»

Keiji looked around, checking both the alternative passageways of the maze. The silence in that place started to feel inexplicably weird. «Everyone’s life is on the line, and you want to seduce me?»

«Is everyone more important than me?» Sara asked.

No, they’re not, Keiji was tempted to say. But that would have been a mistake, and it was something they already knew. Her partly unmade braid gave such an intimate portrait of Sara. The collar flushed her pale neck. A stocking loosened up around her leg, showing her entire thigh. In that hunt, she was the treasure chest, and she didn’t even realize it. She was the only thing that mattered, but Keiji was determined to play it careful and not just lay her down on that maze’s floor. 

«You’re the amazing leader» he muttered. «That’s why you can’t disappoint them now.»

«Amazing–leader» articulated Sara, like it had a sweet taste on her tongue. «You’re amazed by my brilliant, precocious mind, by my overwhelming charisma, by Sara the cool girl –and still, you are wondering how will you mislead me into picking you and escaping together, if I got the Sacrifice.» The total control on her own attitude was the most disturbing aspect. «You really don’t want to share me with anyone, do you.»

That was bad for his plan. She wasn’t supposed to say that out loud so early, she was supposed to secretly meditate on that and feel guilty about it. Keiji smiled though his teeth. «Escaping together? Those are your words. Ahaha, how mischievous.»

Sara chortled. «Surely, a grown-ass man knew all the tricks to mess with a maiden’s pure heart. So in the end, you trusting Sara Chidouin as a leader meant to deceive her until she became cute Sara-chan, the child to look after during her bad dreams and eventually fuck!» Keiji’s face remained deadly unsmiling, while Sara sneered carefree. «You make me laugh! Does it bother you? Is laughing ok just if you do it, but if I do it is too offensive?» Sara suddenly got serious. «Should I get angry, instead?»

Keiji took a deep breath and grabbed her shoulders, forcefully and calmly at the same time. «Sara. Now, listen to me.» He could feel his fingers pressing on her light, thin, birdy-like joints. She was so close he could perceive the sugared scent of her lollipop. «I’ll say what’s happening. You’re scared. You’re not feeling well. You see things that aren’t real, like visions of Joe and paranoid fantasies.» Sara met intensely his gaze, listening, enraptured. «It’s not your fault. It’s wrong that all this have to happen to a helpless schoolgirl, and it’s normal you can’t do this all by yourself. It’s normal not to be able to think straight.» Keiji gently tucked a strand of her hair back over her ear. «The right thing to do is to listen who knows what’s best for you and to trust who trusts you. We’re a team, it’s a mutual thing. Didn’t I always trust you?» Sara didn’t answer. Keiji put a hand on her cheek. It was so soft. «Maybe you don’t know everything about me, but you can be sure of one single thing. I’ll always put you first. I’ll take care of you.» He stroked his thumb on her skin. «You could have never manage this alone. Your friendly policeman will get you out of here, it’s a promise.»

Sara had a dreamy look on her face. «Paranoid fantasies?» she whispered. «My friend Ryoko always tells me one thing.»

Keiji smiled in complicity. «What does your friend Ryoko always tell you?»

«She says that until a girl is a paranoid, that means she’s alive.» Sara bursted out laughing.

Keiji nodded, hiding the discomfort. «Very funny.»

«Yeah, I think so.» Sara’s eyes widened. «Scared girls are funny. They can do very funny things.» She took the lollipop out of her mouth and rubbed it alluringly against Keiji’s lips. «And as you said, I’m very scared right now.» A shiver went down his spine. Sara smiled wittingly. «It’s almost the first time I do it, but I desired it so many times. I imagined every single detail.» She stared at his mouth.

That sounded as an alarm bell, but Keiji started to feel like that might be worthy of the risk. «I exactly thought of you as an enthusiastic beginner.»

Sara nearly touched his lips with hers. «You know me so well it’s scary.»

A sudden blackout interrupted them. It lasted a few seconds, then light came back up.

«Did you see that?» Sara murmured.

Keiji picked up the hatchet again. «I think it means something is going to happen. Very well… Inconvenient time though.»

They took some steps. 

«If we do it when it’s dark, I’ll be less shy» considered Sara, absorbed, wearing the lollipop stick in her braid. «I don’t want to be shy… I want to be cool.» Lights went out. And up.

Keiji stopped and sarcastically grinned. «Seriously, how are you doing that?» 

«Do what?» 

Lights out. Up.

Keiji sighed. «Sara, whatever you’re up to…»

Sara put her hands on her cheeks. «How am I supposed to do anything at all? I’m scared! I’m not in my right mind! But, you! You have everything under control. Listen to your amazing leader!»

Lights out and up and out.

Keiji measured his words in the silence. «Please, tell me only one thing.»

«What is that?» asked Sara. 

«Do you intend to do something with the knife you stuck into your stocking?»

Sara giggled. «So you peeked!» Lights up: she took the knife out. «You creep!» Lights out. «What’s up? The look on your face is kinda weird! Is reality starting to blur, Keiji?» Lights up: Sara had the knife in one hand, the gun in the other. They stood perfectly still for five seconds, then Sara’s hand moved very fast. A terrible crash exploded deafeningly. Keiji expected to feel the bullet, but Sara shot at the mirror behind him. He touched the back of his neck, and felt the sharp pain of shards into his flesh. Sara winked.

Keiji looked at her, almost reprovingly. «I know the type of person you are, because that’s what I was, a lot of time ago» he said, putting the axe down. «I won’t certainly kill you, and neither stay here watching you die. I will save you.»

«You should think how to save yourself» suggested Sara, pointing her knife at his stomach. Keiji grabbed her wrist. Sara smiled near his face. «Why didn’t you tell me you like to make people give in to you?» she soughed, trying to free herself. «I like that too.»

«It’s not the kind of game you play together with someone» replied Keiji, hitting her elbow. 

Sara didn’t leave the knife fall, instead put her gun between her waist and her skirt and picked up a mirror fragment, sticking it into his rib. «You play way too nice for me to have fun.» She talked into his ear. «You hated to kill that man, didn’t you? But I loved to kill that poor boy. It sent a thrill down my spine… Can people orgasm just like that?»

Even if hurt, Keiji worked to push her away and take the gun from her hand. Interlacing her fingers with his on the handle, Sara placed the gun against her own chest. «Do it» she ordered firmly. «You’ll never have a second chance like this.»

Keiji’s gaze unfocused. The gun. He has a gun! Sara’s hands, dirtied with his blood, were empty. His ghost breathed on his shoulder. 

«I’m sorry. It hurt me more than you» Keiji said. Then, with all his strength, he hit her on her head with the gun. Sara’s body went limp. 

Keiji took her in his arms, sustaining her head and observing her unconscious face. She thought she could play, but she knew nothing –of the world, and of men like him. «No matter how you try to rend yourself hateful. I won’t hurt you, Sara» he warned her, adjusting the stocking on her leg. «I’ll tell you what are we going to do. I’ll give you some sedatives and you’ll forget this conversation. I already did that before, when you were recovering from Joe’s death.» Keiji took the knife away from her skirt and caressed her hip. «Believe me, I’m choosing what’s the best for you. You did so much for the group, but now it’s time to let go. To let go all of them.» Keiji looked for the kiss she denied him. «I’ll handle this. Leave it to me. Just you… and me.»

Exactly when their lips were going to meet, Sara’s unmoving ones moved. «”Leave it to me”? Wasn’t it “a mutual thing”?» Sara took the gun back and stoop up, kicking him on the nose. «In this “you and me”, there’s so much you and so little me. The loser kid fond of justice… your wet dreams… and cute, cool Sara-chan.»

Keiji kept a hand on his bleeding nose. «In this “you and me”, it has always been only you, Sara» he declared, «and always will be.»

Sara smiled lovingly. «Optimist as ever, Keiji.» Lights out, and she shot his leg. «But I’m nothing like you. I’m way better.» Lights up, and she shot his arm. «I don’t need anyone to escort me to the exit. Actually, I promised Joe I would get out of here alive –now I just promised something more. That I would get out of here alone.» Lights out and up, and she shot both his hands. «If only you learned that you can’t obtain from a girl what you didn’t ask for! Oh well.»

«I deserve it» Keiji whispered. «Maybe I was looking for it.»

Sara rolled her eyes. «Whatever. You’re irrelevant.» She threw away the gun and picked up the hatchet. «”Big boys need big axes”… Sure thing indeed.»

Sara smashed him in a horrid mush with a few hits. «Ryoko used to tell me all the time» she mumbled to herself. «Once a cop, always a cop, and you can never trust a fucking cop.»

When Ranmaru found his way into the maze, the sudden view shook him up. Sara was standing there, a filthy axe on her shoulder, one shoe on the indistinguishable corpse, her hair a mess, covered with ruby-red blood, a long stain on her cheek. She was wild, and ferocious, and perfect. 

«It has gotten h-hot in here» Ranmaru babbled. 

Sara greeted him, dipping the lollipop into Keiji’s pulped chest and tasting it. «You always come right on cue. I can appreciate a boy who knows his place and time.»

Ranmaru held his breath, aroused. «Is there something I-I can do fo-for you?»

«Please» smiled Sara. She took her blazer off and knotted her collar shirt above the navel. On her waist it was hanging a pendant with the little dog keychain, a martial art wooden charm and a strawberry necklace. «Can I have one of those bandages?»

***

The fifth floor was on fire. Midori was contemplating the scene from the various cameras, as they gradually broke and turned off, leaving the screens blank. Miley looked too at the current condition of their project from an office chair, hands wrapped behind her head, crossed legs on the control desk. 

«Why did you give her those weapons?» snapped Midori. «Why didn’t you stop her instead? How are we supposed to play a game without survivors?!»

«Not my floors, not my responsibility» Miley answered, lazily. «And besides, I like her style. I wanted to see what she was capable of. And it’s not true there aren’t survivors –there’s us.»

«Improvisation defocuses the accuracy of prediction» Midori complained. «Where could she have gone?»

«Last time cams framed her, she was entering the air vents. Sara could be everywhere into the building, now –might show up out of the blue, even.» Miley seemed weirdly delighted by the perspective. 

Midori stared at the last camera. It zoomed on one of the last subjects that moved in the fire: Ranmaru. He was looking at the camera too, with the most eerie smile. His labial spelled out: «She’s-coming-for-you.»

Miley whistled. «This will be fun.»

Midori stood up, resentful. «I’m waiting for her» he declared. «Come, Sara Chidouin! Let’s dance! Until only one is left standing.»

Chapter Text

On the sixth floor, from a computer office full of monitors, Midori was continuously typing on several keyboards, eyes following the fast flashes. Suddenly, the indicator of a freight elevator detected the delivery of something from a lower floor. With impatient expectation and greedy bustle, Midori opened the door. There, on the lift, someone had laid just a little makeup pocket mirror. Inside, on the reflecting surface, some words were written with thick red lipstick –with a little more inquiry, it could have been recognized as the one between Reko’s belongs that were left in her previous room. 

Your time to bleed. The texture was lightly smudged on the letters’ rim, leaving drips.

Midori smiled slowly, eyes lit up. «I don’t bleed anymore, Miss Sara. What a shame! It would have been nice to be drained by you.» 

He split the lipstick writing with his index finger, took it to his mouth and spread the pigment on his own lips. 

Behind his back, Safalin witnessed. «I don’t think that’s a good idea.» She didn’t clarify what she was talking about. 

Midori cut her short, annoyed. «Nobody asked for your opinion. Focus on the job that concerns you.»

«Oh… Guess you’re right» Safalin answered. «You’re very smart, and you prepared all this for so long… All the unpredictable has been already predicted. I mean, letting her come here is the same as killing her instantly… She’ll surely die anyway.»

Midori was bothered by her mumblings. «What I told you about never leaving the front door?»

Safalin nodded. The corner of her mouth was just lifted a little, but Midori didn’t turn to her, so he didn’t even notice. 

***

Sara found her way out from one of the air vents, just for falling into a hallway with no doors, no stairs nor windows. The number 6, indicating the sixth floor, was high over her head, and so was a balcony with a door that was its entrance. The balcony was unreachable, if not by climbing the walls. Cameras were placed in every corner. Sara dusted off her skirt, adjusted lil’Joe into her pocket, and then cleared her throat. 

«Knock knock, mister Midori» she shouted. «Is this where the party is?»

Immediately, Midori leaned out over the balcony, placing his hand on the forehead to simulate sharping his gaze. «Oh, that’s the guest I was waiting for! What a treat! Sara came over to my place for playing!»

«Nah, you got that wrong.» Sara casually resettled the arrangement of the bloody axe alongside her body. «I’m not in the mood to mess around. I’m for real.»

«Games can be very real.» Midori’s lips stretched. «As a charming murderer as I expected. I’m impressed you were able to get this far.» However he didn’t seem surprised.

Midori dominated the scene from his elevated position on the terrace. His deadly, vacant eyes were upon her, and his crippling-sweet voice dispersed into the empty space that divided them. 

«This is kind of my home» explained Sara. «It was designed for me. I learned a few secrets during my stay.»

«Girls just wanna have fun, right?» Midori cheerfully remarked. «You did a master job the other day with that asshole, by the way.»

Sara humbly accepted the compliment. «He’s more friendly now that he can’t sexually harass anyone.»

Midori’s constant smile was inexpressive as his eyes. «You stole something that was mine, though. You meanie!»

The pause that followed appeared slightly more tense.

«Finders keepers» said Sara, simply, limpidly. 

Midori lifted his palms. «Don’t get me wrong! I respect you and how fashionably dangerous you can be. This bloody-queen-of-darkness aesthetic fits you divinely. I totally support girl power –my body my choice and all. I’m a fan of yours, you could say.»

Sara mirrored his smile, in a sneering way. «There’s a “but”.»

Midori smiled too, apologetically. «Yes, Miss Sara, there is indeed» he admitted. «This place can be designed for you, but it was designed by me. No one knows it better. No one controls it more. That’s my playground, you see?» He looked totally friendly and peaceful, but it was exactly in the climax of this bright attitude that a grudge was hidden. 

Sara crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, mockingly. «Aren’t you a little old for playgrounds?»

Midori’s expression froze in a benignant, glassy mask. «I never liked teenagers, even if I seem like one» he observed. «Unpleasant age. They exceed in attitude and always eat junk.» He looked judgmentally at Sara’s knotted collar shirt on her bare abdomen. «Now the thing is: you screwed up the previous game, so we must find a new one. Did you like playing with dolls when you were little, miss Sara?» His voice was like dense honey. 

Sara was amused by the question. «Playing in my own way, yes.»

Midori licked his red-colored lips. «Would you like to become one, of my special collection?»

«Give me your worst» replied Sara, «and then I’ll show you mine.»

Her composure was at least bizarre. She was trapped, tired, still blood-soaked, controlled by cameras, against the facility’s security system. She was already outmatched. 

Midori giggled. «So eager! You love to win, Miss Sara, but I love that too. And I’ve been playing a lot longer than you.»

Sara remained unfazed. «No offense, but I don’t think you’re getting it, Midori. No problem. You will. There’s time.»

Midori disliked her wiseass scene. «Aaaaand let’s start! I invented a game for us to play. One only for you and me alone…»

«You’re so talkative» Sara interrupted him abruptly. «This is no time for games. This is the moment in which you hide and I seek.» Then she extracted the gun she took from the fifth floor and pointed it to Midori. His smile widened. 

«I thought you would have said that…»

In the blink of an eye, well before she could try shooting, Sara lost consciousness. 

***

«Wacky-wacky if your neck’s not breaky!» Midori welcomed Sara’s awakening, waving what he was holding in his surgically-gloved hands: a scalpel and a syringe. She was bound upright to an ironed operating table, in vertical position, but she wasn’t standing on her feet: her ankles and wrists were cuffed. While Sara was acknowledging her situation, Midori was gloating. «Just, what were you thinking?» he asked petulantly, barely poking her naked stomach with the scalpel. «I had to confiscate all your goodies… all of them. I swear I didn’t peek» he added, with a lascivious gesture toward her thigh. «From here, no more pranks! You can’t fool me with your fine deceptions and that pretty face, unlike you did with your companions. I know very well your true colors. They match with mine, after all. I have taken precautions against your… impetuous juvenile spirit.» Midori tapped on the cuffs. «But alas… I’m not your friendly rapist, I have no interest in keeping you alive. And even a child could kill Shin. So, are your previous accomplishments really that incredible?»

Sara didn’t take up the provocation. «I think you never understood Shin well enough» she just said. 

«Oh, didn’t I?» Midori tilted his head, in an unsettling way. «But let’s talk about us. Oops! You blow up in smoke the game in which as a rule I couldn’t touch a participant. Now it no longer applies. Which means, I can decide your fate. How delightful!» Midori used the scalpel to loosen her tie, with a little wink. «Admit it, Miss Sara, after hearing about me you were curious to try!»

Sara shook her hands in the cuffs. «All these restraints… One could think you’re genuinely afraid of me, Midori.» Her tone was still relaxed.

He agreed. «Good point! Women spell trouble, and you gave proof of being tantalizingly strong.»

«And which temptation should that represent?» asked Sara, with sincere curiosity. 

Midori skipped it. «You can’t know that, but I’m waiting for you since ever. When they described your character for the first time, you seemed to me more than a worthy opponent… Something like the perfect rival. A merciless, unstoppable highlander… A soldier fighting into the ranks of survival, ready to get her hands dirty!» Midori tickled the palm of one hand with the middle finger, keeping the scalpel between thumb and forefinger. «And I haven’t been disappointed: that’s what you are, miss Sara. Fearless, hell-bent, and cunning. Although… you’re also a child.» Midori smiled condescendingly. «You’re really something for your age! Unfortunately, to gain pleasure from the pain of the others is an art that requires time to be cultivated. You’re supposed to play according to our guidelines, not against us. There’s just no contest. Never had been, since you started this game! Kind of unfair, isn’t it? But life itself is.»

Sara frowned. «Sorry, are you gatekeeping wickedness from me?»

Midori rolled his eyes. «Trust me, Sara, I studied your profile. Your great potential is right in the middle of the entertainment –not in the supervisory department. That’s boring stuff. Lot of paperwork. Computer nerd paradise. Totally not Chidouin-material.»

Sara snorted. «Now you’re mansplaining me about me.»

«Don’t play dumb. It doesn’t work anymore, didn’t I tell you already? I’m just sayin’ that’s your place.» Midori pointed at her knotted blouse. «Badass hottie protagonist, slaughtering people in an action girl outfit! You pop on camera. Couldn’t you just do that? You’re really a bad girl.»

«Maybe I popped out from the wrong camera» suggested Sara.

«Y’know, they all act bravely until they try vivisection.» Midori gently traced a heart around her navel with the blade. «I still didn’t meet anyone that was able not to shout… You think you can, miss Sara? Will you be the guinea pig of my dreams?» His silken voice caressed her ear. 

«Bitch better know what he’s doing» replied Sara, deadpan. 

«Now, now!» chirped Midori. «Show some respect! I’m no ordinary person. I escaped death, remember? I’m like the Houdini of Hades!»

«Yeah» Sara remarked, aloof. «Statistically it doesn’t happen twice.»

«Enough small talk! I have you all to myself.» Midori moved her hair back using the syringe’s needle. «I will take my sweet time to get your life… but not too much. You’re resourceful, you’ll eventually find a way to fight back. I won’t take my eyes off you, not even for a moment.»

«But I would take your eyes off you» Sara said softly.

Midori grinned. «If only you were a boy…» His scalpel reached her lips and drew the line of the lower one, leaving a cut that immediately started dripping down blood. Midori picked it up with his fingertip. «What I could do first? Make you forget Joe? You said you could never… Do you wanna try, sweetheart?» He pointed the needle to her temple. «Who do you think would win? Your mind, or my supreme chemicals?»

Sara didn’t answer the question. «Truth or dare?» she asked instead, unmoved. 

Midori went with it. «Truth. I’m no Shin, I never lie!»

Sara stared at him. «What did you forget about?» 

Midori didn’t let her take him by surprise. «You silly! How could I tell you something I forgot about?»

«So you don’t know?» Sara went on. «Come closer and I’ll tell you.»

Midori shrugged. «Alright!»

When he came closer, Sara’s teeth hit near his ear, and didn’t bite him just for a second. 

«Manners, Miss Sara! Those are new!» protested Midori touching his ears. «Do not force me to put a muzzle on you!»

Sara faked an alarmed expression. «Oh no, don’t, please! I’ll give you something.» She pretended to repress a moan of pain, face contracted, wide-eyed. «Is this what you want?» She cried out loud, in the convincing imitation of physical suffering. 

«Stop, for God’s sake!» Midori scolded her. «Someone could hear you and think I’m torturing you in such a sloppy way! Just make your point.»

Sara regained her composure. «Thank you. Let me explain the problem. You come to a kidnapped girl whose best friend was murdered in front of her –to a killer who just gut someone, to lecture her about the atrocities of the world, and all you have to offer is some snarky, patronizing remarks, sassy poses and a villainous-queer flirting that’s honestly a bit eighties-fashioned?»

Midori exposed a toothy smile to hide the nuisance. «Oh my! You’re breaking my heart, miss Sara. Fine as soon as I’ll break yours!» He ripped her shirt with his hands, to expose her neck and half of her pale chest. 

Sara showed no reaction. «Truth or dare?»

«No cheating! It’s your turn, miss Sara!»

«Truth.» 

Midori picked some more of the blood from her mouth, and licked it on his finger. «What can you see, right now?»

Sara observed him intensely for a few seconds. «I can see my image in your eyes. The stubborn, prideful, basically dull infant to mess with… What a pity. I thought you, of all, could really say you respect me and mean it.»

Midori seemed satisfied with the answer. «It’s not personal. I’m used to losing respect for every single human being. You know, my job is studying them as dolls made of flesh… And flesh is weak. I can make them feel good, and bad, and cool, and uncool. It’s all up to me. How can you respect an organic puppet?»

Sara simulated interest. «That’s why you abandoned flesh? In an attempt not to be human anymore? What did you hope you could become? Super-human?» Some skepticism leaked out. «You’re convinced you’re above every earthly matter, but I consider your sexual-repressed sadistic urge very human-like.»

Midori bit the bullet. «Talk about a sadist… Aren’t you part of the squad, miss Sara?»

«Yes, mister Midori» Sara mockingly answered, «but unlike you, I’m the new thing. You’re old stuff, the copy of thousands of better villains. Your tricks aren’t original neither scary. “Breaking people”… uh, yes, never heard of that in any cheap horror parody! To say nothing of the temper of a three-years-old.» Sara’s face looked like the one of an angel, beautiful and gracious. «Keiji asked me if I was popular at school. What about you, Midori? Did some Sara Chidouin put your head into the toilet? Are you the bullied kid with a heart full of revenge, is that why you hate teenagers so much?»

Midori’s smile darkened. «Humiliation play? I know all about it.» His syringe moved toward her neck vein. «With just one shot I could make you fall in love with me, and make you orgasm with another one, and piss yourself in terror with one more, my dear. If I were you, I would not be that cocky.» Midori made her a intramuscular injection, the syringe still empty, and pumped in some air. «Maybe you thought we were joking around when I said that you can’t beat me at my own game, and that this game is already over, but you can bet your lovely Lara Croft ass on that. No way I would let some girl sabotage this whole work. Got it? So now be a nice lady and shut up.»

Sara laughed. The pain on her neck seemed only to produce the effect of exciting her. «It never ceases to amaze me… The worst part for all of you is when you’re being mocked. What a fragile ego behind those charismatic demeanors.»

«Are you comparing me to your dead friends?!»

«And why not? You think you’re different?» Sara leaned out her face towards him. «Techniques differ, but who cares? Regardless, the kick-ass girl is still “some girl”–hypersensitive, hearty, fleshly, beastly. I mean, how long could she remain rational?» Sara licked the blood on her own chin. «You just want to make me feel pathetic, and powerless, and humiliated. More exactly, you need a valuable person turned into an emotional wreck. Without others exposed as miserable, you’re not strong. You’re just a green-haired man with a gay crush for a chatbot software. Eventually, the valuable person turns out to be a girl –and here is when you acquire this vulgar torture chamber aesthetic. My gosh, the low-key erotic, soft-porn vibes of bound and gagged chicks… Why not degrading the female main character? She really thought she was the protagonist, the heroine, the super-girl! How dare she to think she’s better than the others? She deserves to pay! She deserves to be slapped down, will and dignity took away! She deserves to redeem and surrender. You’ll just show her a thing or two, you’ll teach her a lesson…» Sara’s voice was gentle, tender, enticing. «What kind of lesson would you like to teach me, exactly? That control means fun? Personally, I hate it. Control is about either fuck or being fucked, and if you rely on it, you can be sure that sooner or later it will catch you with your pants down. That’s why I don’t control myself, and nobody controls me. It just… never happens.»

«Cut the crap, Simone De Beauvoir!» Midori interrupted her. The long one-woman show nearly caught him in a weird spiral. «Don’t look at me like that, I’m a shy person. It seems like you want to eat me! I’ll give you something to relax, and it will be very better.» Midori fumbled with the syringe and some bottles. 

Sara sighed. «Now, I have to tell you something, ‘cause it’s too rough, in my opinion, to make you realize that with a plot-twist. Did you ask yourself why it took me so much to come here, or did you think I just got lost in the vents?» She laughed a bit. «During the night I deactivated all the technologies in this room –your Shin told me how to do that without you noticing– so, even if they seem otherwise, all the items here are currently unlocked. Just for you to know.»

Midori remained silent for a couple of seconds, then roared with laughter. «And you think I could fall for a bluff like that? You would never be able to do anything even slightly similar, much less without any instrument and in the dark of an iron pipe, for the first time, with the risk of being caught by the security system. Ahahah! This time you bit off more than you can chew, miss Sara! The application of a lifetime scientific knowledge, and you want to make me believe that–»

«Oof.» Matter-of-factly, Sara freed herself with just a distract gesture from the cuffs, that easily opened. «And you would be the smart one? Jesus…»

Midori started at her, face blank, incapable of realizing what just happened. «I–You– You cheated.»

«Kind of unfair, isn’t it? But life itself is, right?» Sara shrugged her shoulders. «I’m used to that, men who thought they were stronger than me, bolder than me. Smarter than me. And maybe, Midori, you are. But there’s something you don’t have. The resources of a person whose everyday mindset is the one of a prey.» Sara lowered her tone of voice. «I’ll tell you a secret. Brains are overrated. They never did a girl any good. Maybe yours will not save you today, either.»

Midori looked at the monitor over his work table, in which Shin’s face just appeared. «Sorry, Hiyori» he said sweetly, smiling at Sara, that smiled him back. 

«He’s so cute. I like cute things. I was ashamed of saying it out loud before, because I was afraid people wouldn’t take me seriously if I would.» Sara made some steps forward. «But do you know at which point they couldn’t help but take me seriously? When I started killing them.» She took a knife from the work table. «Apparently, there’s nothing worse in the world than a girl who kills people and likes cute things! But you, mister Midori, you wanted to scare me. Wanting to scare a girl is a bad, bad thing. A killer girl is still “some girl”, y’know.»

«Do you really want it to end like this?!» Midori grabbed a gun he hid into his pocket and shoot her. «You had to ruin everything at all costs, don’t you?!»

Momentarily stopping, Sara looked down at her wound. «Ugh, you missed the vital organs… Doesn’t a genius need to learn how to take aim decently?» She walked again towards him. 

Trembling, Midori couldn’t shoot anymore. «You psycho witch!»

«Yeah, a girl that doesn’t let other people cut her open truly seems like magic to men» confirmed Sara, grabbing him by his jacket. Midori stabbed her with both the scalpel and the syringe on her arms, but she shook those off, pushing him to the operating table on which she was before. «Now you’ll see how real this is.»

«Physical pain is my research field» Midori panted. «You can’t possibly scare me with that!» 

Sara raised her eyebrow. «Who said I want to scare you? I’m not you. I don’t need to scare you, it’s a waste of energy.» She examined the knife she had, without being satisfied. Then she replaced it with Reko’s eyelash curler that Midori confiscated, and exposed it to a blowtorch. Against the scialytic operating lights, her silhouette was black, menacing, assertive. «I made it all mine. Everything they could use against me. Pain, and fear, and shame, and sexual desire. To avoid being cornered, I became the most terrifying thing in the room. Evil sides with me now, not with you.» Sara smiled, fierce. «And you know what? I won it all, slut.»

Midori started panicking. «You-you didn’t get it, Sara… I absolutely admire the magnificence of your metamorphosis… Just think of what we could be together!»

«I wondered which could be the doll parts and which the human ones… Let’s play doctor and find out together, shall we?» Sara pulled the skin of his index finger with the burning curler. «Don’t worry. I’ll make a masterpiece out of you.»

Midori stared raging at her. «You think you took charge of your own destiny, but you actually came exactly to the point he wanted you to be. You’re a perfectly successful experiment, miss Sara. Nothing more!»

Sara sighed again. «I thought you would understand, in the end. I was wrong.» She got the curler close to his eyelashes. «Your eyes are pretty, too.»

«You crazy bitch!»

Sara considered his words. «I get that one a lot, lately… Maybe it’s the surviving all over and over again.»

Midori started screaming.

***

When Safalin entered the lab, everything was over. «Oh, miss Sara! What a baddie!» she complained, although acquiescently, looking at the mess in the room. «I have so much things to tidy up now…»

Safalin addressed Midori’s disassembled head. «You totally shouldn’t have been alone with her. If I didn’t told you!» she said shaking her finger. «Maybe you don’t want to hear that, but you had it coming. Saying things like that, asking for it… There are consequences for being irresponsible! They act all tough, then they come to me crying because they’re dead!»

After extracting the bullet from her shoulder, Sara took up her stuff to leave the place. «Will you let me go, or I have to butcher you? I just want to take a shower, honestly.»

Safalin sniffed. «You can go… I think there’s someone here for you, down that hallway.»

«Yeah, I think so too. Someone for me.» Sara smeared the fresh blood dripping from her lower lip to her cheek. «Daddy, your girl’s home!»

Chapter Text

Meister – The father

The room was minimal, and quite dark. A cone of light was pointed to two armchairs, in the centre of the space.

In a casual manner, Sara entered. She just had a shower, so her hair was wavy. She was wearing a brand new Sonobeno High School uniform, taken from a mannequin with her exact features. Her skin was neat and polished, rubbed until it shined. Sara took some steps, looking at the light cone.

A slow clap came from the shadow. «Sara.» The figure approached to the light, letting her see his face –the face she recognized. «Come and sit down with me, my dear.»

Sara slowly sat. The perfect image of her dad, with Meister’s clothes on, was smiling at her. He had a moved expression, like it was her prom night or something. «My gosh, just look at you! You’re astonishing.»

«I’m just an high school student» answered Sara.

Meister, or whoever he was, studied her unreadable composure, slightly amused. «You went far beyond my expectations down there.» He raised a glass of wine in her direction, pointing at another one on the table, but Sara ignored it. 

«Why, what happened in your expectations?» she asked, blankly. «I got mutilated? Raped? Mind-broken?»

Meister made a soft laugh, like she was joking. «Believe me: you’re not the victim here, and never have been.»

Sara maintained the eye contact between them. Her purple, dark eyes seemed lifeless. «And what am I?» she came out saying, for then correcting herself: «What was I, from the start?»

«The chosen one» Meister replied, promptly. 

A silent moment came. It seemed like an endurance game to show some kind of mental strength. 

«Are you really my father?» Sara asked, emotionless –stern, even. 

«Yes» Meister said, playful, «and no.» He spent some time to take a sip of his wine. Sara gave no sign of impatience, and waited for him to keep talking. «You want an explanation, and you deserve it. I’m sure you have a lot of thoughts running in your mind, most of them wrong.» Meister licked his lips. «Maybe you’re not even that willing to listen, you proved yourself to be quite the doer. So I’ll say something to persuade you to hear what I have to tell you. After our little chat, I’ll let you kill me. Sounds juicy, ha?» Meister opened his arms, in a theatrical mannerism. «Let’s begin, shall we?»

Sara crossed her legs. «Ready when you are.»

«Peculiar situation, the one you found yourself into, isn’t it? Yet, it’s not the first time it occurs, like, ever. Actually, it’s the second. Looooong time ago, they called it the Hades Incident, though it wasn’t an incident at all. It was a very-well planned competition, and one of the affected was this old man in front of you, at the time a very promising young one, fancy taste in fashion, great ass… Anyway. The competition saw as opponents the offspring of the major families and enterprises in criminal underworld. It took place right here, too, but I wouldn’t say it was very similar to the present one. The cast was… funny. Do you have any clue about how the representatives of major crime rings could be?» Meister took a dramatic pause. «They were despicable people, Sara. Cold-hearted, experts in trickery, extremely machiavellian. And with high incentive to win. It was not just about the surviving part: dying seemed more honorable than living and failing. It was the promise of power, more power than you can imagine. And I was between them, I won’t lie. I felt like a lone wolf, who should just think about his personal gain. But then… I got to know her. 

Her beauty was nothing compared to her spirit. She was a force of nature. So young, yet so brilliant and strong. I felt inadequate, but at the same time so captivated. She had sense of initiative, logical planning, rhetorical skills. All the others seemed like dull idiots. And we were. We followed her… because it was like looking after a mermaid. Everyone wanted a piece of her. Her attention felt so good. When she took care of younger people, I wished I was them, to get her fondling, her sweetness, her love. She said she saw beyond our twisted souls, she believed we could overcome the situation and take charge of our own destiny. Our families put us in that bad position, but we could do better and choose for ourselves. And… it seemed like she succeeded in changing such people.

But that wasn’t the case, Sara. They just faked it, all of them. Even the goddamn children. They exploited her… took her strength, her energy, her compassion, like vampires, until they left her drained. When she was giving all she had to save their asses, they plotted behind her shoulders. After she lost the best friend, and became weaker for a short time, everyone pounced on her like vultures. An older man took advantage of her, playing with the girl’s feelings. The kids clung to her, so that she felt responsible for their sake. Like it was her duty to give herself away. No any other adult shared the burden of this with her. They referred to her the problems, the decisions, and the losses. It was like she was the only one who should save the day, and the only one to blame if things went wrong. She had the whole group to emotionally support, and also the strategy work. They kept repeating her how she was playing the decisive role, how she was the tiebreaker. It was such a psychological stress, and she was so tired, pushing herself harder and harder… until she broke.

What did you do to prevent it?, you could ask. The answer is: nothing. I was too stupid and inexperienced to understand how things were going. In a way, I was trying to see other people how she saw them. I was just standing there, watching them manipulate her. Depowering her. God, I was so angry. And in the end, she died for them. She sacrificed her precious life for their misery. And after she did, they turned out to be the loony bastards they never ceased to be.»

Meister stopped. His breath was accelerated, his eyes possessed by a dark light. 

«But, what happened gave me the motivation to make it to the end. I won that game. I came on top of organized crime. Now that I had resources and influence, I told myself: let’s do this all again. But this time… in a really entertaining way.»

He snapped his fingers, and lights turned on.

There were photos all over the walls. Portraits, all of the same person. A girl with long, auburn hair, purple eyes and a scholastic uniform. Selfies, group photos, photos from her childhood, and then stolen shots, sneak peeks of her at school, walking down the street… alone in her room… Sara looked at them, absent-minded. 

«But you took revenge against those people already, by winning. They were dead.»

«Do you really don’t get it, my child?» Meister pointed at the photos, with a sweeping gesture. «I didn’t want to take revenge myself. I wanted her to do it. It was her turn to win! As it was supposed to be from the very beginning. So, I stroke up a game of the same sort… No, it’s more than that. I stroke up the same game. I selected the candidates so that they matched the profile of the old contestants. I got to know them quite well, back in those days… I dig into their past, finding their secrets, their traumas, any element that shaped their personality. I used the orphanages under the control of my organization to condition the growth of some selected children that fit the parameters –at this time, you should have understood that this organization is nothing else but Asunaro. And the alter-egos came up surprisingly good! Looking at them as they were, I can tell you that it was like seeing ghosts. God, I let all those assholes think it would have been easy. Little they know the game was rigged.» Meister smiled. «That’s the part of the story where you come along.»

Sara remained silent, waiting for the rest.

«I checked the profile of many orphans in early childhood age. And I found you, Sara. A talented kid, of rare beauty, with a precocious, sharp mind and the most bright future in front of her, but, sadly, unfortunate. So I adopted you and let a doppelgänger version of me raise you –the father you knew. The replica was so authentic that he actually grew… attached to you, and refused to let you take part in the game, when the time came. That’s why even Kai betrayed Asunaro. But you know how it went.» Meister cut that short. «I always knew you weren’t in any danger, because I took all precautions to ensure the right development of the game, and mostly, I knew how important the mission was. And it worked. The conditions were recreated. They got exactly the idea about you that I wanted them to get. And I proved them wrong. They dropped like flies, while Sara stood victorious. They got what they deserved in the end. I changed the way the story had been told. Power and justice can go hand in hand, and that’s what I achieved.» Meister grinned sadistically. «And additionally it was so much fun! I saw it all, the delicious way those fucking losers shitted themselves, those scared, panicking, shocked faces, unable to realize what was going on, fucked by the same girl they were plotting to fuck… And blood splattering everywhere! So good. I would do that again million times. That was my actual victory, for sure.»

In the complete silence that followed, Sara sighed. 

Meister looked at her sympathetically. «I can understand that you’re angry.»

«I was, at first, I confess» answered Sara, indifferently. «When I realized it. Five years ago.»

Meister’s eyes widened. «… how is it possible?»

«I assume this wasn’t part of your expectations about me.» Sara stared at him intently. «Understandable. Maybe you thought it was impossible for such a little girl to access confidential informations from database. Or, to doubt her own father. It’s objectively unlikely.» Sara leaned over, coming closer to him. «Let me be honest as much as you were until now. I can’t even tell a period of my life which I remember, and in which I thought of you as something different from a fraud.» 

Meister was stunned. «How much did you know?»

Sara reflected. «I didn’t know you had a good taste in fashion back then. The rest I heard was familiar. You’re not the only one who made arrangements for this game. Joe and I planned it from a long time… What wasn’t supposed to happen was his death. But he knew what was at stake.» Sara closed her hand tightly around the dog keychain. «He’s the only one in the world that loved me, whatever “me” means. The ruthless killer? The kind leader? The Hades Incident girl? The orphan child?»

Meister was too confused to reply. Sara looked back at him. «However, you forgot to tell a part of the story, am I wrong? About that perfect girl… She didn’t like you, dad. She thought you were weird, or at least fishy. She didn’t reciprocate your feelings of admiration. Instead, she created some bonds with others –abusive? Toxic? Those were her business to deal with– and you became so jealous. You didn’t want to share the girl that belonged to you. You didn’t want her to become intimate with anyone. You didn’t want her to trust others more than she trusted you –but that happened, and you couldn’t help it. So you created an enemy specifically for those people you hated so much. Because she should have behaved as you wished, right? You didn’t give any auto-determination to that girl. You moulded a puppet, this time yours instead of theirs.»

«This isn’t true» Meister whispered.

«You made her reborn again until she met your expectations. But she went beyond them, right?» Sara blinked at him. «You’re like the people I killed, and like the people you despised. You’re all equally scared about when that schoolgirl will be free.»

«It hurts to hear this from you. Children never become like parents expected them to be.» Meister looked at the biggest photo in the room. «So, have you made up your mind already? Will you kill me?»

«Why killing you? Death takes so little. You know, I could decide to be merciful with you, and initially that was the intention. Nevertheless, you must consider that, back then, I was avenging myself. But now, I’m avenging him.» With a fast movement, Sara stood up and stuck a syringe into his neck. «I want to re-program you, anche create a father I will finally like. That will be the key for my bright future. You were right about that.» Sara kissed the little dog keychain, like the symbol of a vow. «And you too, Joe.»

In his last moment of consciousness, Meister murmured: «This is… not… over… yet.» Then fainted. 

Sara lifted her head, on the alert. «Uhm? What is this, now?»

«Me» a voice answered. 

Chapter Text

There are many ways to end a story. 

One of them is describing the sacrifice of a martyr, a young, innocent, brave soul giving herself up for others –a lamb on the altar of the community’s sins. Another one is putting a plot-twist about betrayals, about knives in the back –little girls trusting strangers and meeting a violent end. Being dead is a proof of being just, and strong, and pure. If you’re the female protagonist of your story, death can be a virtue –both honor and grace. This also implies that life can be a fault. 

The beautiful heroine must accommodate others’ sentiments toward her. The kind soul must put herself in the condition of being betrayed. The dependable leader must give herself up. If she doesn’t– what is she? And why is this her story?

It’s right for her to be as lovely as lost, and it’s also pleasing. There is something that delights us, to think about something pretty, uncorrupted, blossoming, offered as a feast in the mouth of a bigger, cosmic darkness –our darkness. Since she’s better, thus she must die. Only the chosen one can do what nobody else can do. Only a greater goodness can forgive the small, common meannesses of commoners, and save them even if they don’t deserve it. And if the evil is defeated in the end, then it must have been thanks to her, taking down the bad guys because she’s different from them. Those are the rules. Stories do have rules. 

An ending in which the martyr refuses to sacrifice is the worst possible ending. 

An ending in which the lamb refuses to remove everyone’s sins, and instead makes the culprits pay for those –nobody wants to hear about it. 

An ending in which the heroine decides to kill the author that set her free from a plot just to make her the puppet of another plot –no author lived to tell such a tale.

***

«Me» a voice answered.

Sara tilted her head. The girl in front of the was like a mirror’s reflection: same height, same complexion, same orange hair arranged in a ponytail and braid, same features, and the Sonobeno uniform. Her face was icy and stern, and Sara automatically imitated her, in order to crypt her thoughts. 

«Who are you?»

«Sara» the girl answered «in a way. I played her role into Asunaro’s strategic headquarters for many years, from the time you were a child.» She made a little pause, in which the gaze of her glassy violet eyes penetrated hers. «You don’t know this part of the story, even if you found the database. Seems like I kept it hidden well.» She didn’t show any sign of satisfaction, though.

Sara raised her eyebrows. «What do we have in common? Are you my doppelgänger, or am I yours?»

«We’re both “Sara”» the other Sara replied. «“Sara” is just the projection of one man’s desire. We were both created with the purpose of making “Sara” come into being.»

Without even blinking, Sara took a knife from her school jacket and cut her palm, letting the blood drip on the floor. «I know I’m human. That’s the proof.» 

Doll Sara didn’t move her eyes from hers. «And even if you are, what about it? You think that humans, of all entities, are capable of authentic free will? You’re a doll» she stated, «as much as I am. You were programmed, like me. You had a task, like me. And if you fail, our fates become one and the same.»

«Don’t make me laugh» Sara spitted. «How can we possibly be the same? You’re Meister’s creature, nothing more than a hi-tech toy. Maybe he even fucked you. What were you doing, while I was beating the shit out of his subordinates and fucking up his brain? Waiting for him to tell you “good girl”? You played under their rules, obeying, working for them. I didn’t.»

«You did, you’re just too stupid to realize it.» Doll Sara wasn’t angry, or even annoyed by her words. She was only, completely frozen on her face. «For all these years, you thought you were deciding for yourself, while you were just following everyone’s plan about you. You became exactly what they wanted you to be: the ruthless, bloodthirsty killer of a bunch of desperate people. As for me… I can see way farther than you can. They expected nothing, I was just the proof you could one day become what I was –an executive chief. But now, I’ll be the head of Asunaro and the owner of all this.» Doll Sara vaguely pointed at her. «After killing you.»

Sara strengthened her grip on the knife. «You say it as if it were easy.»

«But it is. I’m you.» Before Sara expected her to move, Doll Sara had already reached her. «But better.» Her arm was around her throat. Sara tried to sink the blade into her elbow, just to find out the body was made of some kind of super-resistant material, totally different from human flesh, and hitting her repeatedly she only obtained to rip off her blazer. Doll Sara tightened her steely grasp on the neck, and Sara had to kick her stomach in order to free herself, struggling; she stroke a blow with the knife, trying to hit her face, but Doll Sara dodged it, seized the armed hand and tried to take it away from her. With the free hand –the wounded one– Sara threw a punch, Doll Sara avoided it and hit her with the shoulder. Their hands still blocked with the knife still over their heads, Sara plunged another blow on her abdomen, with a fist and then a knee, succeeding in choking her neck using her own arm. By leveraging on their united hands, Doll Sara dragged her on the floor, digging her nails into the palm’s open wound and causing blood to rush. Sara grit her teeth and managed to place herself over the doll, keeping her down. Their eyes intensely met. 

With no forewarning, Doll Sara grabbed her breast over the shirt, in an irrefutably erotic manner. «Yeah, I was Meister’s nice, little sex doll» she whispered. «I conveyed all his twisted fantasies about the Hades Incident’s Schoolgirl, and I could not lay a finger on him. But now he’s knocked out, as I predicted. I suppose I have to thank you.» 

Sara froze for just a pair of seconds, before kissing her, in an outburst of lust. Their clothed bodies rubbed against each other, feverishly. Sara touched her arms, her back, her hair, and caressed her cheeks, exploring their perturbing similarity. Doll Sara pulled her ponytail around her fingers, licking the bleeding hand she just scratched. Sara furiously dug that hand under her collar shirt and the cup of the bra, the other under her skirt and underwear. Doll Sara softly moaned, opening her thighs to facilitate her handling. «Shouldn’t final girls» she whispered, «be virgins?»

Sara pushed her fingers past her folds, unleashing liquid sounds from her gestures. «I’m not committed to the old ways.»

Doll Sara contracted herself around her hand, following her rhythm with her own hips. «I have experimented a lot of Saras before you… Can you tell what was the problem of all the other, simulated versions…? They kept losing because they craved for love, for affection. No– for devotion.» Suddenly Sara felt the hit on her back… an harsh one. «But I need no one else. That’s what makes me better.» Doll Sara extracted the bleeding knife from her body, kicking her to get up and straighten the skirt. «It was supposed to be me from the start. I’m the first Sara that legitimately won, strictly to the rules. And now that the filthy man is dead, there will be no other Sara. I’m the last Sara standing.» 

Lying on the floor, while a puddle of blood was forming under her, Sara spoke. «So… you had no Joe.»

Doll Sara looked smugly at her. «What did you say?»

«I said» Sara coughed, «that’s the missing piece.»

She extracted the dog keychain from her blazer; her hand stained it with fresh blood. «In the original plot… Sara was the bold, godly figure that was able to move on from her personal mourning in order to save everyone else… But I decided that Sara did not move on. Sara didn’t forgive. Sara stayed there… and obliged everyone to remember, too.»

«What the heck are you rambling about?» Doll Sara said. 

«You were right, Joe» Sara spoke sweetly to herself. «It actually turned out to be useful…» The dog keychain’s head opened to reveal a blowtorch. «Great to have met you, last-Sara.»

The doll’s eyes widened. 

***

«How was it?» Sara asked, dubiously. «Did you like it?»

«Oh, I loved it– but I’m quite sure we can obtain the same outcome without you being stabbed in the back, and maybe even without clone sex, that is some kind of cheap trope» commented Joe. «So, what do you think? Do we repeat it again?»

«Over and over, as many times as it takes. Until we’re satisfied.»