Akayuki (Red Snow) Chapter 3

Warning: The following contains mild strong language and mild violence. Reader discretion is advised.

Author's Note: I apologize for the delay. This is the complete third chapter. No breaking it up into parts. Yes, I kept the Michael and Laurie are siblings thing. Blame me for being born in the 1980s and my first Halloween movie being Halloween II (1981). I apologize for the terrible cliffhanger at the end. I won't leave you hanging, though.

Disclaimer: The following is a work of fan fiction. It is intended for entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance to actual persons living or deceased is purely coincidental. 

~o~

Chapter 3 

Mixter and two guards stood in front of the main house when my rickshaw pulled up to it.

Mixter’s smug smile nauseated me, but I didn’t let her get to me.

“Something the matter?” I asked Mixter.

“You are both under arrest,” Mixter announced.

“What are the charges, Mixter-san?”

She narrowed her eyes on me.

“You left the village without permission, Nica-sama.”

“Freddy is ill. I had to see him.”

Mixter ignored me.

“Guards, escort Nica-sama and her bodyguard back to the summer house and make sure they stay there until I say otherwise.”

~o~

My bodyguard scowled in the far-right corner of my bedroom. Mixter’s guards outside annoyed him. I’m annoyed, too, I wanted to tell him but didn’t.

Instead, I thanked him for taking me to see Freddy.

“Even though Mixter has us under house arrest.” I rolled my eyes.

My bodyguard stared at me, his expression blank.

“What should I call you?” I asked in the silence. “You never told me your name.”

He arose from his corner and approached me.

I tensed out of habit, but the reaction turned out to be unnecessary.

He removed a piece of parchment from inside the front of his robe and handed it down to me.

I took the parchment and unfolded it.

A note written in a feminine scrawl.

My name is Michael. I am 21 years old. I am mute due to an attack years ago that permanently damaged my vocal cords. I am also blind in my left eye due to an accident.

I am skilled in the kitchen as I previously worked in my family’s tea house.

I have no surviving family other than my sister.

I am licensed by the governors of the village of Haddonfield to carry a katana.

I looked up at my bodyguard, who had not moved the entire time.

“Did your sister write this for you?” I asked.

Michael scowled but nodded.

I refolded the parchment and returned it to him.

“May I call you Michael-san?”

He shook his head.

“Michael-kun?”

He shook his head again.

I scowled at him.

“No way in hell I’m calling you Michael-sama,” I snapped. He leaked out in my ire. He always did. Unfortunately.

I took a deep breath and pushed him back. Then I calmly told my bodyguard, “I’ll call you Michael if that’s all right since you don’t seem to like honorifics.”

Michael stared back at me. I decided this meant he was okay with the name arrangement.

“You can relax for now. Nothing we can do until Mixter and the other Elders make their next move.”

Michael nodded then returned to his favorite corner of my room near the doors.

~o~

The alarm sounded at midnight. I sat up in my futon, listening to footsteps scurry outside my bedroom door.

The silhouettes of Mixter’s two guards were no longer being cast against the rice paper doors. I searched the dark for Michael, but my bodyguard had abandoned me.

I muttered a curse and threw back the covers before crawling out of the futon.

“Ren!” I called as I dragged my body to the doors. “Lexy!”

My maids either didn’t hear me or were in trouble.

I banged on the doors with the palms of my hands.

“Help!”

The alarm continued clanging outside.

What was going on?

Sounds like someone needs my help.

His voice in my head. Followed by his nasty cackle.

No way in Hell, Chucky, I thought. You’ve already slipped out once. And that’s one time too many.

I tried to summon Ren and Lexy again. Still no answer.

“Jake! Devon!” The teenage boys who cared for the grounds and ran errands and messages for me. Like my maids, they also did not appear.

I had a horrible thought: What if they’re all dead?

I shuddered with fear. Then screamed louder, “HELP!”

A silhouette appeared against the door. A tall, skinny silhouette.

I held my breath as the door slid back. A white mask was the first thing I saw.

My eyes widened in terror.

No. This must be…

The masked ronin.

I drew in breath to scream.

The masked ronin stepped into the room.