Cardinal sins and smaller delights (Short stories 18+)

[Rangiku]

Murder, meal and William Shakespeare

Antonia married too young, the exact year she gained the legal right to do so. But one could never tell that she was a “rusher”. On contrary, she was a calm girl, quiet, eloquent and with good manners. A lady. It was more apparent now that she reached the age of twenty two. The sudden marriage was the only thing that stood out in her harmonic life. Well.. not counting the occurrence that is about to happen tonight.

It was a late evening and she was sitting in the leaving room, reading Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare. But... she was reading only one paragraph, over and over again. The dinner was still warm and served at the table, waiting for her lovely, rarely clean husband to commence. And like expected, the smell of her meatpie did drag him out of his all-day nap. She heard him as he pulled the chair to sit down, not waiting for her to join. A small cough left her lips and she closed the book, looking at it few more seconds before going over to him and kissing him on the cheek. She then sat as well, and cut the meatpie, of course-serving him first, a polite girl that she was. The atmosphere was rather quiet, as he still felt uncomfortable that she found out he had a mistress and even had the pleasure of meeting her. But that was almost two weeks ago and, for some strange reason, there was no turmoil over it. Not once. Well, having a naive wife has it’s perks, he thought to himself. However, after a while, the silence at the table started to bother him. She was always quiet, but this is too much. Well, here goes nothing...
“What?” He muttered mouthfulled as he looked at her. Offensive is the best defense. “Are you just gonna sit there and watch me as I eat?” Small pieces of meatpie were flying out of his mouth as he spoke. “Is this about Jenny? Huh? You have something to say? Then say it!”

And finally, her little red lips opened and quiet, calm voice rolled out of her mouth. “I do, my love. I have a question.” She looked so calm and peaceful, one might even say-icy. “How does she taste?”

At the same time he bit on something so hard, it shattered a piece of his tooth. He pushed the chair back and spat out the meatpie along with the some blood and object that hurt him. His eyes widden to this sight. It was an earing. Jenny’s earing. He knew because he bought her that not so long ago. He looked over the table, not at his wife but his meal. A sudden realization hit him, why she was so calm, why that pie had strange aroma. He bent down and coughed, seconds before the meal started gushing back from his stomach.

Antonia took the fork and knife and started to cut her piece. “Oh!” She casually and softly slapped her forehead and then spread the napkin in her lap. “There. Manners, Antonia, manners.” She immerced herself in this delicious meal as her husband was screaming incoherently, spitting out the pieces of her hard labor. She tought about Shakespeare’s tragedy-such a masterpiece.

[Rangiku]

Visitor

The sounds of people rushing past the young, female shinigami were blurred. Their appearance was blurred as well. She could hear a hectic “Take her to the barracks!” from time to time, but could not force herself to look up. She was exhausted and her head was dangling as the two other shinigami were struggling to carry her. The pain in her chest was excruciating. Her first encounter with a real hollow did not go well, all those years at the academy didn’t prepare her for this. She was remenacing those days, days without any real worry or fear, moments before she passed out.

She woke up the next day or, to be more precise, the nurse’s heavy footsteps woke her up. “You have a visit, miss!” Oh, dear… Those words almost popped shinigami’s eardrum, while the nurse was fixing her pillow. “Alright, alright… Let them in.” She wasn’t really in condition to have visits, but being alone only allows her to think about the previous night, and the brutal loss she went through and all she wanted is to forget. The nurse stomped away and at the same time letting the person come in. It was a male shinigami, but she could not tell which one, since he was hooded. She expected her best friend Nalia, but any company will do to keep the thoughts away. He waited until the door behing him closed and then slowly walked over to her bed, sitting next to her. She realized she was rather exposed, having more bandages than clothes and pulled the cover up a little. At the same time the man pulled back his hood, revealing his face. His hair was dark and mid-long and even though his eyes looked cold, he was grinning. But all this did not cought her attention. Her eyes were starring at that partial white mask that was covering the half of his face. He was a hollow. Not just any hollow…it was the hollow that massacred her last night. Her lips opened as she was ready to scream but he swiftly covered her mouth. The effort to scream made her chest wound reopen and bleed. That wound was cross-shaped and used his other hand to caress and smear the blood along the vertical line of the cross. He made a hissing sound before he spoke. “Did I hurt you?” The sarcastic grin never left his face. “Do you hate me?” He his hand away from her mouth and leaned closer, she could feel his breath on her lips as he whispered. It was a cold breath. “Our fight was soooo boring.” The tears rolled down her face, she could smell him now, it reminded her of the brutal encouter. He continued, unaffected by her tears. “I’ll give you plenty of reasons to hate me, so that next time you can provide me some…” he sighed “…entertainment.” In contrast to all this, he kissed her shivering lips. Is she going to die now, is this it? She couldn’t stop the tears and her body was frozen from fear. He bit her in the end, almost making her bleed, then backed away, standing up. He gave her a smile before departing.

The second he left, she started coughing and sobbing, crying like a bullied child. She rolled out of the bed, the cross-shaped wound was bleeding and soaking the bandages. There was an eary silence coming from behind the closed doors as she staggered towards them. She opened them swiftly and immediately stepped on something rather hard and unpleasant. She looked down. It was a blood stained vertebrae. Her eyes followed the bloody trail down the corridor. The piles of flesh scattered around indicated his recent presence and “entertainmant”. She managed to let out one, loud scream before falling to her knees, crying. It has begun. The reason number one.

[Rangiku]

Under The Bed

Ever since Spiderette could remember, Monster lived under her bed. Not the kind of monster that would keep her awake or try to scare her. No, this one was different. This Monster was singing lullabies from below while she was just an infant in a cradle. That would make her crying stop that instant and make her giggle. Even her mother could not pull that trick. Everyone said she was a nice, calm baby, nobody knew her secret.
As she grew up, the connection developed and they began conversing. There was never a point where Spiderette was scared by the eary voice that would normaly send chills down everyone’s spine. No. For her, the Monster was the best listener a child could have when her mother scolds her for touching the cookies before the lunch, it was a substitute for diary through her teenage days. Every night, it was there, under the bed, listening, replying, giving her comfort. Sometimes she wondered what the Monster looked like, but she respected the silent agreement-it was obvious that Monster didn’t want to have it’s appearance revealed, otherwise it wouldn’t be hidden away from her eyes. All she was knows is it’s voice – a voice so deep, and yet so silent, detectable only by her ears. It sounded like a strong wind passing between thousand tombstones. She could even feel the cold breeze coming from the sides of her bed when it spoke. It always put a smile on her face, while she layed relaxed, with her hands behind her head and gazing at the ceiling.
But her life outside of that little piece of heaven was far from harmonic. She was a peculiar young girl, who took interest other girls her age didn’t. She never tried to adapt to her environment, which would actually mean decreasing her intelligence. This, of course, wasn’t accepted well by her classmates. Needless to say, every second in school was a pure hell for her, she hated every second of it. And at the end of every long day, Monster could detect her rage. She tried to hide it, because it was a subject she didn’t want to share even with her morbid, bedroom pet. Spiderette considered that rude, but necessary, no matter how many times Monster insisted. But it knew. It could smell her tears and every time she let a quiet sob, there was a strange, clawing sound coming from beneath the bed. Every drop of Spiderette’s pain weighed million tonnes for the Monster.
Finally, the last day of that hell called school has come. Monster was awfully quiet that morning, didn’t even greet her after she left the room. The trip to school lasted less than usual, so it seems, she was eager to see the end of this day. She stopped before the classroom door and sighed. It was very quiet. Wasn’t there suppose to be an ecstatic rumble of the half-brained teens inside? She shruged and entered the room, only to be welcomed by the warm, awful scent and echoing silence.
The classroom, however, wasn’t empty. Oh no, every student was there, sitting calmly and facing the blackboard. She took one shivering step inside, unable to believe what her eyes were seeing. Every single one of them was skinless. It looked like they are wearing a full body meat suit. Their eyes seemed wide open but that was only because they were missing eyelids. Spiderette gazed at this obscene sight for few more minutes, then slowly and silently, left the room. The trip back home lasted even less. Luckily, her parents weren’t home when she entered the house, she wasn’t able to come up with a good lie right now, about why she came home earlier. She threw her school bag on the ground and then threw herself on the bed, eyes still widened in disbelief. Her hand was dangling from the side of the bed as she layed there in silence. For the first time in their lives, the Monster reached up and touched her hand. It’s fingers were snow white, thin and long, with curved claws. And in this particular day, there was some bloody tissue sticked on them. The moment it touched her, her hand was almost numb from the cold. “Spiderette… I had to…” The unholy voice broke from under the bed. Spiderette gently intertwined her fingers with Monster’s bone-like sticks, smiling and looking up at the ceiling. Her warm touch calmed the Monster. And Monster’s cold touch calmed Spiderette. That is the point when words are needless.

[Rangiku]

Delicious

The table was set in this nice, quiet, dark, little room. The only light source was provided by the candles on it. Buffet was obviously prepared for one person. There were some boiled vegetables and various pots with colourful sauces, all in all, it looked very rich and inviting. The main course was kneeling on the big plate right in front of the only chair that was at the table. It was a beautiful girl with long, straight, brown hair and large green eyes. Her skin was a bit tanned and shiny. There were some mint leaves scattered on her lap, courtesy of the kitchen chef. The room was warm enough not to bother her bare, exposed skin. She looked calm and was facing the beast that was sitting in front of her. He, on the other hand, wasn’t a pleasant sight. A large, menacing looking Minotaur with long, curved horns and a golden snout ring. However, his behaviour was quite civilized. His hands weren’t really designed for holding a fork, but even so, he somehow managed.
He didn’t not commence with eating just yet. His eyes glared and traveled from one part of the girl to the other. Occasionaly there were some quiet sighs from his part, and every time he sighed, the girl tilted her head in wonder. She hesitated a little before speaking. “Is everything in order? Shall I return to the chef?” The beast sighed again, casually gliding the fork along her thigh, showing no interest. “No, no… Everything is fine.” But everything was not fine. All these years he raised and nurtured her for this moment and yet, somehow, this doesn’t feel right. How come he never noticed how soft her voice is and how her green hues glimmer in half dark. It annoyed him now. All those little details irked him. How can he enjoy his meal when there are so many distractions? He sighed again and signaled her to turn around. She quietly obeyed, repositioning so that now her right side was facing him. He leaned forward a little and it only made things worse, as her beautiful scent met his nostrils. This was too much for him. He neatly placed the fork back to it’s place, on the left side next to the plate and slowly lowered his massive head in her lap. She was so warm, so soft, he swiftly pushed the hot air out of his maw, droplets of his drool were wetting her thigh. That silly girl was smiling, even though she’s the main course, ready to be eaten. She loved this sudden, gentle outburst, it was something she always dreamed of, and she was happy she got her wish come true before her end comes. Her fingers were brushing through his fur, taking advantage of this moment of weakness. This pleased the beast to the point that he forgot about his hunger, forgot that this is the food that’s touching him. His upper labial retracted back across his teeth, in something one can only describe as anger and swiftly pulled away from her, angry that he allowed himself this kind of behaviour. Beasts don’t do silly stuff like this. He stood up and walked away from the table, heavy hooves almost breaking the floorboards. He just stood in silence, facing away from her and the table, before finally speaking. “Go away. I’m not hungry. I won’t say this twice.” Almost disapointed, the girl slided off from the table, looking at him with sad, wondering eyes, but dared not to reply to this, leaving the room in small, rapid, barefeet steps. He waited for few more moments then hooved back to the table sitting down. He immediately started to munch on the vegetables from the table. Vegetables, that he despised.

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