Nodin Caldain: Mask of Kachiri 3 Prequel: A Case of The Ex, by TMS



"STOP! STOP!" TMS screamed. Startled, he woke himself up. "What's wrong with me?" He rubbed his eyes.

"Nothing, dearest Chimu." Odera sat on his bed.

"It's YOU... Leave me alone... I don't feel like playing with you today."

"Well, my child of my child's blood... You have a rather evil streak, now don't you? Maybe even a little like... Oh, maybe... Me?"

"Never. I would never hurt my own flesh and blood, nor the people I love or should love." TMS tossed a pillow at her. "Let me sleep in peace lest I should desitegrate your butt and see you in another millenium, scorched body and all."

"I think you'll find you can't resist my plot, boy." Odera held out her hands and a red glow overcame TMS.

"What are you doing?!" TMS began convulsing, unable to control himself. His eyes glowed a bright violet and burned. He closed them, or atleast attempted to.

"You are mine to control. You will ressurect the one Racku fears."

"NEVER! I would never hurt Racku!"

"Oh, then why have you already begun your work?"

TMS looked at his raised hand which was already spilling forth the fire magic that could recreate life. The only reason Odera needed him was shadow magic was imperfect at this. Fire magic was the only true way to ressurect perfectly. "NOOOOO!" he screamed, but it was too late. Annabelle Mushroom stood before him, perfectly beautiful and absolutely the girl Racku had fallen in love with and been hurt by. "Oh no... Racku, what have I done?" He groaned as Odera vanished.

***

Racku awoke, half-groggy, as the phone beside his bed rang. He picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Who is it, sweetheart?" Peach rolled over to face him as he sat up, the half-light spilling over him. His face was made pale by the direct light, his hair glimmered and shined in it's red glory. The half-light left shadows to flicker across his chest, but Peach could close her eyes and imagine perfectly how Racku would have looked in full light at that moment with the covers only pulled up high enough to cover him halfway, half-sitting in the dark with the phone cupped to his ear.

"Racku... Oh man, you're not gonna believe this... Ah... Shi... This friggin hurts... " TMS's voice paused.

"What's wrong, Chimu? You sound terrible..."

"Racku?" a girl's voice questioned.

"No... No..." Racku pulled the phone away from his ear. "It can't be."

"What's wrong, darling?" Peach looked at him, concerned. She leaned over and even in the small light her silver engagment band flickered. She knew that her father would solemnly disapprove if he knew that she and Racku were living together and not yet married, but she didn't care what most people thought.

He hung up the phone and looked at her. "Nothing... Nothing... It was just Chimu..."

"Oh? Alright..." Peach turned back and tried to drift of to sleep, eventually succesful. Her dreams were laced with nightmares, though. She imagined terrible pain and loss. In her mind's eye, something terrible had happened to Chimu, something so horrible she couldn't quite grasp it, and as it's end results took play, she saw a girl with her arms wrapped around Racku. Peach let out a shrill cry and then tossed the silver ring at the apparition. "NOOOOOOO!" She awoke to find her hand clasped by a slightly bigger hand with pale slender fingers. It was Racku's. "I love you..." she whispered, finally realizing that Racku hadn't been able to go back to sleep.

"I love you, too." He looked over his hair which shifted as he move closer to Peach and wrapped his arms around her. "Sleep sweetly, I'm here to protect you."

Peach drifted off again and this time she dreamt sweet dreams of her marriage, her fiance and the life they would live once they were married. She hugged closer to Racku without realizing it, still, and could not have been pried from him had anyone tried.

***

TMS stood up, the lamp beside his bed turned on. He was only half dressed, as was usual for him when he slept, but he quickly pulled on a shirt. "Dammit... I should have told him... How did she manage to grab the phone so quickly when she heard that name?" He looked down at himself. He was fourteen, slender, weak and still not quite decided on who he was. Responsibilites he'd only known for two years weighed heavy on his young shoulders and he could already feel the effects on his appearance. 'Thank the goddess it'll all be over once Racku is married...' he thought. But where had the girl gone was the big question on his mind. The door swayed back and forth and TMS realized it was open. "Oh, shiz..." he raced outside, his feet and heart pounding rhythmically yet crazily. He felt as if his lungs and chest were about to burst as he ran down hte hallways, but he couldn't stop now. He had to find her before she did more damage.

He stopped, breathing rapidly, as he thought of what he had in store. "I have to destroy her..." His eyes flickered back to their normal blue as this dawned on him. "Killing... Am I so cold-blooded I have to resort to this?" He collapsed to his knees, a tear making a wet trail down his face. "Maybe she was right... Blood is blood and I am her blood. There is no escaping that."

***

Annabelle stopped and looked back. She felt a pang in her heart. She wondered for a moment on how this came to be. She knew that it was the boy whom she had magically appeared before, but she wondered how she was so deeply connected to someone who had to be atleast two years her junior and that she knew not at all. He seemed sweet and innocent, but a pair of unearthly violet eyes that didn't seem to fit had shown at her from inside his head. Those violet eyes gave her shivers and reminded her of Odera. Then it suddenly dawned on her, something she didn't know at all but was absolutely sure of. Odera's blood coursed through that boy's veins. How she knew or didn't know she wasn't sure, but she felt sorry for that child, being related to such a wicked woman, then she paused to reflect. Could it be he was Racku's son? That he had fallen in love while she wasn't looking? She brushed the thought away. It was proposterous! Her Racku in love with another woman? Impossible!

***

Racku opened his eyes and saw his bright red hair mingling with Peach's bright blonde. He smiled faintly. Oh, if only their parents knew. They'd both be in great danger for their lives if their parents knew that they slept in the same house, in the same room, in the same bed and yet were only engaged. 'Or if Annabelle knew...' he thought and this sent shivers down his spine. He felts his hands clutched around her, his fingers touching her bare skin, his chest touching her bare back. He savored the feeling of having her close in his arms. She was the thing he cherished most, the most precious thing in his life. 'If I lost her...' he thought, the chill returning. He didn't want to think about it. He loved her more than his own life.

"Racku!" The voice that was just becoming masculine, yet had not left the feminine touches of boyhood, still in it's tender teens, called out. Racku looked up and saw the vague outline of TMS. "Racku, I'm so glad that I got here... Got Here first..." the boy didn't look well, and in fact looked worse than his normal frail and sickly composure. A youthful blush filled TMS's still sickeningly pale face as he realized that Racku was still in bed and Peach was laying beside him. "I'm sorry... I didn't..." then he remembered why he was here. "This is important.. .Anna... Anna... Annabelle is..."

"Racku!" the doorway was filled with the slender but obviously female form that towered above the short TMS. It was Annabelle. Without a thought Annabelle took a running jump and landed on the bed, throwing the offguard Racku away from Peach.

"Anna..." Racku gasped. The odd position she had landed in made a youthful blush cross his face. It wouldn't leave until he tried to push her off. "Anna, please."

"Racku?" Peach sat up, grasping the covers close as she realized that TMS was getting up from the floor.

"Ow... This is what I get in thanks for my fire magic... The magic which gave you new life...." TMS looked at Annabelle, who now lay sprawled on the floor.

"Anna, I'm 6 years your senior now. I don't need this. I'm affianced as well..." Racku sat up.

"What..?" Annabelle looked up and somehow it finally dawned on her that there was no connection left between herself and Racku. Years passed had worn away the boy she had loved and replaced him with a hardened man who just wanted his share of peace. On the verge of tears, she forced her gaze away, yet her eyes met the gaze of a strange pair within the darkness. There was still the traces of boyish-charm within the face she looked at, yet it had the look of one just becoming a man. She knew that even when that face became coldhearted, she would never forget it. It was strange how one could fall in and out of love so quickly, but she knew that in all her life, there was never a face she'd love as much as that one. It somehow pinged her heart in a way she had never known. It was like meeting Racku all over again. The bright blue that glowed as if by some magic unknown were soft, yet earthly. This boy that could only be a close relation of her dearest Racku had captured her heart in only a moment.

TMS closed his eyes. He didn't want his fears to come true. 'No...' Is this what she had intended? Had Odera wanted to destroy the bond between Racku and Annabelle, or was it just meerly coincidence that TMS's similar boyish charms, his kind and understanding face that held the features notorious to Kasara-Chiri would find their place within this girl's heart? He didn't want to know. He knew that when he opened his eyes, the wave would hit him to if it were Odera's doing, but if it wasn't and he did fall in love... He couldn't bare to hold the thought. He wouldn't be left alone for a moment.

"Chimu? Is that your name?"

TMS felt the bangs that had fallen into his eyes being brushed away by a slender hand. "It is... And it always will be for generations to continue." he opened his eyes, yet averted his gaze.

"You don't want to look at me... Do you see something you don't like?"

"How can I explain to a girl who has never known the real world what it's like to clasp on to the world that lies beneath, the true world?"

"I don't understand..." Annabelle paused. Then she was brushed aside by Racku.

"You will never understand, Anna..." Racku sighed. "My cousin is the visionary. You cannot see his world, he cannot share his world... He was destined for the lonely path of the world..."

"Racku... If only there were words, I would gladly teach everyone the beauty and horror that lies beneath the skin of this world..." TMS sighed. "The truth is..." he stood up. "Nothing is what it seems. Allow me to show you through glamour..." He tore away half of his face, shocking Annabelle. "Beneath my outer shell is this..." The face that glared back at her was not TMS's, yet it held similar features. the torn away half was a boy a few years older, his hair drawn back tight, his face scornful. TMS tore off the other half of his face, than tore off that face as well. "Beneath all of that still lies this..." The eyes underneath the shrewd ones were big and thirsty for knowledge, the eyes of a child. "And currently reigning supreme over all of this... Is this..." He tore off his face one more time to reveal Odera's. He quickly ripped that face away and the glamour ended. He was once again himself. "I'm more than I appear, yet less than is needed, but all that is hoped for and expected."

Annabelle stood, confused. She wasn't sure if she wanted to understand what that meant, but the last face had frightened her. she knew that face all too well.



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