Illusion

A growl rose up through Midnight's chest as he turn around to look at Aru. The man was going upstairs to put his little girl away, as well as another child; neither of them being his concern. No, his problem had just become the man himself.

Did the fool think he was playing, that he was toying with him? Or did he really think himself safe. Perhaps he just didn't understand whom he was speaking too; that could be easily rectified.

Midnight would need to wait until Aru came back but once he did, well…

"Let the fun begin…"

Alice wouldn't worry about the four of them. She knew they were out adventuring and having a good time. Taking an extra night in this inn would be nothing big. Up in their room, Aru chased his children around and around, wearing out their ever-so-present energy. He tickled Marrissa, threw Takari up and down in the air and tackled Erika playfully, blowing raspberries on her belly. Finally, when they were all out of breath, Aru helped them change, wash their faces and put them to bed, giving each and every one of them a kiss and an "I love you."

He did love his children, from the bottom of his heart. It was all he had ever wanted in his life. His wife, a family. His master had said he was ill-suited for the sword... and he was right. But now he was retired. He lived a peaceful life with them and he couldn't be happier.

Once his kids were asleep, Aru quietly slipped through the door, closing it behind him with a soft click. They may have gotten their fill at dinner, but Aru, for one, had not. With thoughts on a big bowl of stew and something hot to drink - which wasn't booze, sadly - he headed down the stairs and back into the foyer, rumaging through his pockets for a bit of coin to pay for his meal.


Midnight stayed seated at the bar. The bartender himself laid in a pool of blood on the floor. Really, it wouldn't do to have anybody around for this. It took far too much concentration to invade a person's mind with his darkness. He heard the soft sound of steps on a carpet and looked up; his green eyes glowing brightly.

"Aru…" He spoke softly, "Why do you hate your family so?"


The samurai stopped short. He stared at the man incredulously. How did he know Aru's name? Then again, he had made a name for himself as a samurai. But why...

"You don't know what you're talking about," he said, slipping his hands into his trench coat pockets. Right there was his sword. He could fight back if he needed to. He could protect himself and his family. "Enough of the mind games. I don't even know you. If this has something to do with a debt, then just tell me so I can do my best to pay it off." But he wouldn't get Aru's family. He would fight to the death to protect his wife and children.

Midnight shook his head, "How legends can die in but a few thousand years of inactivity." He stood up and as he did so the room distorted around him. "I can see the future, Aru. Your lovely family will be murdered. You are a twisted man…" He smiled darkly before disappearing.

Once he disappeared, the entire room shattered like glass and all that was around Aru was darkness. "Your hatred is deep; like a seed in the ground it will grow until your mind has nothing but death on it." The smooth voice of the Katonian could be heard all around the darkness, "Your blade shall be your family, and family the food for said blade."

With those words the world slowly began to come back, but Aru was no longer at the bar. He had appeared in a toddler's room. A few stuffed animals were littered about the floor, and near the corner was a little girl, huddled in fear.

Her visible eye was wide as an unseen man made his way towards her. Only his shadow and a blade was visible for the moment. However, the darkness was soon lifted and another Aru stood there, his face blank and blood dripped from his blade.

"Poor Erika, she watched you run your blade through her mother's heart."

Aru screamed. A loud, deep, continuous scream. He saw he daughter cowering in fear... of him. He saw the blade dripping blood. His blade. "You bastard!" He screamed, pulling against invisible bounds that kept him from going to his child. His hands wrapped about cold, heavy chains and he pulled yanked and twisted, to no avail. "Stay away from her! Don't touch her!" He yelled, back arched as he tried to free himself. He was on his knees. If he could stand, he could have. But clamps bit down on his ankles and he couldn't budge an inch.

"Erika," he said sweetly, he voice shaking with fear. Fear for her. Fear that she would die again. She died once, in Wonderland. She hadn't been his daughter then. Not by blood. But Drakonius has reincarnated her as his daughter. His daughter. Not those parents who sent her away. His. His own flesh and blood with a wife he couldn't love more, even if he tried. "Erika, come here, sweety. It's okay. Don't be afraid. Come to Papa." But she didn't move. A loud sob escaped her as the blank Aru loomed overhead. How could Aru protect her from himself?

Midnight appeared in the darkness and stood right next to the real Aru, "You cannot protect her from the future, boy." He watched as the other Aru grabbed Erika by her throat and lifted her slowly up the wall. "Hmph."

Aru dropped his bloody blade and moved the girl's hair from her face before reaching towards her now uncovered eye. He slowly dug his thumb into the corner of her eye, pushing the digit deep into the socket before hooking it and tugging it out.

Erika of course has begun to scream and cry. They were the cries of a little girl betrayed by her loving parent. The screaming soon became hoarse as Aru fisted the hanging membrane and tugged it completely out, snapping the optical nerve.

"Nooooo!!" Aru screamed, sobbing. "Make him stop! Make him stop!!!" As Erika screamed, Aru wrenched at the chains, clanking and jingling reverberating through the room, as if the bounds were mocking him. Horrified, he watched himself yank out Erika's eye, his screaming, crying, scared baby girl. She no longer loved him. Feared him. Was so, so scared.

When the nerve snapped, Aru hung his head and vomited. He was worse than the girl who took ehr eye in the first place, worse than Denise. Insane, enjoying Erika's pain and screams. "That's not me." He choked out between sobs. "That's not me, damn it!" He yanked at the chains again, arms aching from the abuse. "Let her go! She doesn't deserve this! Let! her! GO!" He gave a final yank and the bounds tensed. Aru was reaching for her, grabbing at the air for his darling little baby. But he was stuck. Blood began to drip from his wrists and Aru continued reaching for her, straining from the shackles about his feet. Through the tear and snot that ran down his face was determination. He needed his baby girl free.

"Why fight now? Soon that will be you, child." He pointed towards Aru, his claws glowed slightly before darkness began to swirl around him for a moment, and the chains were soon turned into eyeballs; each one hard as the steel that chained him and were all linked together by nerves.

The other Aru pulled back his fist and slammed it hard into Erika's face, "Stop your incessant crying!" He growled out, slamming his fist into her nose. An audible crack echoed through the room as Aru continued to pound his fist into her small face. Her skull was slowly beginning to cave in on itself, turning her once adorable face into a bloody mess.

"A sad fate for such a small child…" He looked down at the eye balls that held Aru in place, "Oh look… she's staring at you." Indeed the eyes were. "I do believe she's dead though…" Midnight stated as he looked back towards the girl as she was finally dropped. There was literally a dent in her skull from the force of Aru's strike.

Aru cried, howling with grief. when he saw Erika fall, he could no longer recognize her face. The smiling, happy face that would mimic his own expressions. Just a mass of bones, flesh, and blood.

Aru sank against the chains, pale green eyes staring at him, accusing him. And still he cried. He took in a deep breath and exhaled, screaming like a wounded animal. The sobs shook his shoulders. He no longer pulled the chains, but bent down, forehead touching the ground, steamy vomit ignored. His sobbing never ceased. Loud cries, louder than Erika's, echoed through the room.

He no longer voiced words. Grief like this had no words to share.


Midnight placed a hand on his shoulder, "Let's see about the twins… shall we?" The room once again blackened. "You have a sick mind Aru for what you're about to do…" The room once again came into focus. Two girls were tied to a chair. Behind them was alice, impaled on a sword and hanging from the wall. Her eyes were open but blank; her mouth opened in a frozen scream.

Aru slowly walked into the room at this point; his hands still dripping blood from the brutality of his earlier incident.

"My precious children…" He spoke with a slight tinge of insanity to his voice, in his clean hand he held his blade, "Are you ready to go see your mother and sister again?"

Aru looked up. He regretted it, but his fighting began anew. "Let them go, damn it! Let them go!" Then he turned to his kids. "Marissa! Takari! Run! Get up and run! run far away! Run to Unka Drakonius! Cousin Ray-Ray! Run to them! Go! hurry!!" But they didn't react to him. Only stared at the fake one. Takari huddled behind her sister, tears staining her face. The blonde haired child looked up at Aru, fear and confusion painfully evident in every rigid part of her body. "Why, Papa? Wh-why would you... M-Mommy...."

"Just run!!" Aru screamed, convulsing against the shackles. "GET OUT OF HERE! RUN!!!"

Aru grinned far too wide as he moved closer to the children. "First let's make sure you can't run anywhere…" The fake Aru turned his gaze towards the real one and winked at him before slashing at Marissa's leg, cutting it off with ease. The little girl let out a screech of pain. Even Midnight winced at the sound.

Takari attempted to grab her sister and run herself but in smooth moment her arm was completely severed, and then less than a second later, so was her head.

"I seem to have gone overboard a bit… My dear daughter…" He grabbed the head by the hair and kissed the child's forehead before dropping it and turning towards Marissa with the same smile as she cried.

Again, he cried and howled. Again, his family accused him. Alice, hanging from above like the angle she was. Judging him. 'Why. Why why why. Why did you kill them, Aru? Kill me? Why?' Takari's head dropped on the ground like a ball, rolling to face him. Aru couldn't form any words to answer them. their questions, their cries, their please for savior.

they were dying again. Right in front of him. Just like last time. And he could do nothing either. Just like last time.


Aru smiled a little before sliding his blade across her stomach, it was a shallow cut, but it still bled profusely. When she let out another scream he smiled wider, "Good… I think I should stitch Takari up…" He looked at Marissa before he cut her head off.

Grabbing it by the hair before it fell he moved towards Takari's head and then back to the bodies. He pulled a large needle from his coat as well as metal thread and set to work. He stiched Marissa's head to Takari's body, and did the same for Takari. "Ah… my children are still so beautiful, even like this…" He smiled and ran his hand over Marissa's cheek, ignoring the blank look in her eyes and the way her mouth gaped open.

"And thus the end of your family; your future has been written." The darkness shattered and they were once again in the bar.


Aru fell to his knees. The tears and snot still ran down his face. He was silent, staring blankly ahead of himself. Those images. He couldn't forget them. He couldn't unsee them. He couldn't unhear their screams and cries and begging.

He squeezed his eyes shut, clamped his hands over his ears. It was a miracle he could move his arms, but he didn't think of it. He didn't think of the blood on his wrists and ankles. He didn't have the capacity to think of it.

Aru fell to the floor with a thump, his nails digging into his his skull. His daughters. His wife. His beautiful, beautiful girls. He killed them. He killed them. And he enjoyed it. That depraved look in his eyes, the sharp smile like daggers. Again, Aru vomited. But he rolled over this time.

He killed them he killed them he killed them he killed them he killed them. over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

And he had enjoyed it. Aru cried, loud howls choking off to sobs that were just as loud as he tried to regain himself. But he killed them. He enjoyed it. He killed them and they were dead. He lost them again. He was alone. He had no more family. He killed them all and he had enjoyed it.

Midnight jerked the man up by the collar with more force than his frame would have one think. He then walked out of the bar; dragging the man behind him, "Stop your whimpering boy." He growled out as he moved up the steps, uncaring of Aru's plight or the pain he was sure the steps caused him as he was forcibly dragged up towards his room.

Midnight smashed the door open that led into his and his families room, "I do believe this whimpering trash is yours, correct?" He lifted the man up, dead weight or no, and tossed him onto the floor in the middle of the room. "Do clean him up."

He turned around, "And if you come at me with any ill intent as I walk away… I'll destroy him and your family, Alice." And with that he left the room.

Dead weight was exactly Aru. He flopped on the ground, motionless. Alice had awoken with a start, glancing from Aru to the man who had brought him in. The children slowly awoke, mumbling to themselves. But Alice hushed them, and hurried to Aru, who was lying prone on the ground.

"Aru? Aru, honey? What's wrong?"

He looked up at her, his green eyes darting about before he saw her. Actually saw her. And the sobbing began again. He grabbed her, clutched her close to him. Unintelligible mumblings and sobs came from him as he buried his head in the nape of her neck. The children were wide awake now. Erika and Takari stood behind Marissa, who asked the important question. "What's wrong with Daddy?"

Alice had no answer. Aru was in no shape to give one.