Italic is flashback

Chapter 1: Blasphemy

Naoto p.o.v.

Granny Liza was staring at me with a kind smile, probably expecting my next question. And I have so many. I do not remember the last time a person has got me so interested. I mean, all of this seems so bizarre.
"…acts tough." "Excuse me, what did you say?" I ask miss Liza.
"It's all right Naoto. I understand that this is a lot to take." I feel myself chuckle. It was a bitter smile.
"I just can't imagine Haine… Kissing a girl and. No, I can't even imagine him being close to anyone."
Granny Liza laughs and then sips some of her tea. "They weren't a couple like that Naoto dear. They didn't kiss or hold hands." "They didn't?"
"It feels so weird… To talk about their relationship now, after 2 years. Her brilliant mind always found a way to calm him. Even after worst events. I remember once witnessing it."

Snow walked in a slow pace down the street, her work day over, a movie she rented in herduffle bag, a smile on her face a after a good day of work with minimal incidents. As she always did, she was counting her steps and seconds in her mind clock so that she would precisely know what time it is and how long it takes her to reach one destination.
On her way she also noticed the things that have changed in the street since she last passed it. Like how the trash can has moved by 4,7 cm and how someone slightly opened the second window on the fourth floor to the left.
She didn't want to notice and memorize all those things. But yet she always did.
She noticed how this morning when she get up Haine slept 4 minutes longer that her. She noticed how his hair was more ruffled after he got out of bed, meaning that he had nightmares this night.
That is why her pace was quicker than usual. He was in a bad shape when she left him today. Haine is unstable, yet somehow he can always calm him.
And she loves it that she can do that to him. She adores the look on his face when he stops being anxious and furious. Somehow then in that moment of his calming, the world and all of its problems felt so tiny.
But the bad feeling in her head just gets worse as her steps get faster to the point where she is practically running.
As she gets closer to her apartment block her mind is screaming. She runs up the stairs, no time to call the elevator.
Someone else is in her apartment, and it's not someone who is right now wanted there. It's someone who shouldn't see the chaos.

"Calm down boy!" Granny Liza had no choice, she had to yell. The white haired boy didn't hear her. He was gripping his head, he was grunting, he was trashing himself around the room. And he was bloody. He was soaked in blood.
The old lady was panicking by now. Although she couldn't see any wounds on him, the amount of blood on the floor, walls, furniture and the boy himself made her shiver uncontrollably.
"I need you to calm down Haine!" she yelled again.
To that the albino stopped and let out an agonizing scream.
"I am not needed! I need to die! I am a monster! There is no place for me in this world! I want to die! Nobody needs me!"

"I need you."

Just like that the madness in Haine's eyes disappeared. The shaking of his hands was slowly stopping. And he was holding his breath, staring into her green eyes.
Snow walked towards him, not slowly but also not too fast.
His hands reached out for her and he grabbed her, fiercely pulling her into his chest and crashing his nails into her back. It was the roughest, most painful embrace Miss Liza has ever seen.
Snow's hands moved gently and she started to brush his hair with her fingers slowly. To that Haine's grip on her only tightened.
"I need you." She said, her words echoing through the room and Haine's mind.
The air in the room slowly got thinner and the buzzing sound of panic in Granny Liza's mind calmed.

After some more minutes Haine let go of Snow and trough her white top Miss Liza saw that his nails left wounds on her back.
Snow turned her head just a little towards the old lady and smiled, her hands never leaving Haine's hair. He slowly lowered his head to her chest, growling, begging her not to stop whatever she was doing to him.
"Miss Liza, I think it's very nice of you to come here to thank me personally, but I always say that there's no need for that. I do what I can and that's it. Also thank you for bringing me groceries, I can see that you have personally delivered them to my kitchen."
Granny Liza smiled and nodded her head, then slowly turned around and left, closing the door behind her. The girl could always read her mind, but how she knew that she had left her groceries in the kitchen and carried them on her own was beyond the old woman. Whatever it is, she was tired and needed a nice rest after this.

"Hey Haine. I have borrowed a new movie. I'm sure you'll like it." She says as her fingers lower all the way to his neck, touch his metal collar and with her thumbs she gently raises his head. She stares into his eyes and for just a second she gets a thoughtful wrinkle on her forehead but before Haine could ask what it is that's bothering her she laughs.
"No, I think we'll keep things quiet for tonight." She says to him with a reassuring smile. He slowly nods his head and steps away from her.
"I have also brought some bandages from work for you. They'll help cover your collar."
She extends her arm in a slow invite. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up. Then you can help me clean up this mess you made." She says with a small chuckle leaving her lips.
He took her hand without hesitation.

"Haine was suicidal?" I was, intrigued. "He was, at the beginning. He saw no purpose to his existence. I do not know any more details about that, I am sorry my dear."
"Haine had told me about the experiments in the underground." I say, slowly ruffling the skirt of the dress that I borrowed earlier from Nill. I should get back there now that I think of it.
"Thank you for telling me all of this Miss Liza."
"It is no problem dear. I just wish she was still here, she could have helped you a lot, I'm sure of it."
I smile as I exit the tea shop.

It's so hard to believe in all the things that I have found out in these past two days. I don't care if it's true or not so long as it gets me down there.
First there's those crazy girls Luki and Noki. Then the experiments that have been done to Haine in an underground facility. And now this girl with a brilliant mind and no memory what so ever. How can anyone believe in all of that?
Could Snow also be from the underground? It is possible.
I might just as well have to help Haine find her if I want more answers. Someone as smart as they say can't be dead.

Haine p.o.v.

I need to apologize to Nill for my outburst earlier. I know she isn't mad at me, but I still feel sorry.
I don't understand how I got so close… to Snow. Maybe it was our bad dreams… Somehow we ended up sleeping together. Her presence scared away the nightmare, but her gone makes them worse. I can't even sleep on that fucking bed anymore; I just sleep on the couch. It's not comfortable, but it's not like I sleep much anyway.

I enter the church and stare at the scene before me. Out of all the things I could walk into, I walk into Badou sewing one of my Jackets and Nill and That Girl staring at him, probably having the same facial expression like me.

Walking in and closing the door I continue staring and say "For the first time ever, I am impressed."
"Shut up! You wanna die?" He then turned to the girls "And you too! Stop acting so surprised! This is what happens when you live with an older brother who's incapable of doing a single household chore."
He then turned his attention to Her specifically and yelled at her some more "And why aren't you doing this yourself!? How about you stop swinging that sword around and start fixing your own clothes…" Oh so it was her jacket "…Muscle girl!"

And so I almost choked to death. Muscle girl definitely fits her! Me choking on my laugh made her even more mad, so she started hitting Badou.
But we all calmed down when a soft sound reached our ears and we all turned to see Nill cracking up laughing. And that was something really nice to see.

After things calmed down, we all continued staring at Badou as he continued sewing our clothes. I liked the calm, that is until She spoke…

"How did Snow disappear?"

I felt my breath get colder and it's like I could smell blood just from bringing back the memory.

"I told her about Snow. Might as well finish the story." Badou said as he continued sewing, not even lifting his gaze to look at us.

Why did he tell her? Never mind that, why should I tell Her about Snow? I don't really care about telling her. It's not like it would make any difference now.

I think my silence lasted too long because Badou sighed loudly and spoke
"It was a very cold Tuesday night…" He then looked at me and gave me a stern look.

Fine. Fuck it.

"It was actually a Friday night." I said as I looked to the floor. My vision became dark as the memories came back. "Requiem for a dream was the last movie we watched together."

Haine was walking back to the apartment. He got the need to talk a walk after the last movie he watched with Snow. He did it often. The movies she chose were good, but at the same time heavy. So he usually took a walk through the dark streets to calm himself down. Not to get him wrong, Snow's presence was enough to calm him down, but sometimes he felt like…a burden.
Still, her laugh was calming and her touch soothing. She was his nature.

And he knew, he feared. Because if someone else, someone from the underground, knew of his light, they could use her.
They can hurt his light, because she is his everything.
With her, even the Dog in him is silent.

And so he thought, as he was walking with strangers. So many of them were passing him by. Whores, pimps ,murderers. But none of that bothered Haine. He just wanted to get back home, because the night was so cold, the air in his throat hurt.

Lost in his own thoughts, he discovers too late that the wandering strangers have gone. The streets were filled with eerie silence. As he looked forward, an all too familiar feeling coursed through him.

Fear.

Fear for her.

He felt himself running before he even thought it. Haine was a killer. Naturally born to be one. When he moved, it was like electricity. His moves were so fluent and precise, because his mind was blank, but one image in his mind.

Snow. In her white long dress, and that necklace with a bullet hanging on the chain. Barefoot. Smiling. Waiting for him. She will laugh at his paranoia, and reassure him again and again how she is stronger than all of them.

But she didn't know them. He did.

Glancing up he saw that the light in their apartment was on. Maybe…

Haine ran up the stairs with the same fierce precision, jumping over every second step, and as he opened the door, he saw her there, smiling…

Only she wasn't there. His mind had imagined it all. The apartment was the same as he left it. Nothing changed. No sigh of everything. But he couldn't hear her. He didn't feel her presence. She wasn't here.
He turned in the room, looking for a note. She always left a note.

There was nothing.

He ran back down. Maybe he missed something.
Running down, he saw exactly what he had missed.

On the handle of the entrance door to their building was a chain necklace. The bullet hanging on the chain was swaying in the wind. On the chain was a note.
The note red only one word written in blood.

Giovanni

The Dog in Haine's mind spoke
"I think we will have to kill him now, master."

"And that's it?" She asked me "Is that why you get so angry when you see him?"
I slowly nod my head and reach under my shirt and pull out Snow's chain necklace. Ever since that day I am barely able to control the Dog. And Giovanni has been popping up everywhere, provoking me. And I do love it when I see him. After all, my light is gone.

A sudden earthquake broke off the silence in the room.
It was such a loud…and familiar sound

Without noticing it I ran out of the church and to the streets. Running to the passage way above the train I watch at a giant black train speeds through. Why is it so familiar?

"If I try to follow it-" My words were cut off by Bishops voice "I doubt that would work."

I turn my head to see the bishop carrying a wounded old man.
The bishop continues to talk "There's a lot of hidden roads and secret passages in that direction. You would never find it." I look at the wounded man he's carrying. I know him. "What do you mean?"

Our conversation is cut short by an astonishingly loud scream. That Woman was screaming her longs out. Has she gone mad?
Suddenly she starts to fall backwards to my chest. I step to the side, but catch her arm before she could hit the floor. Tch. I look at her face. Oh, she just fainted. Then she's gonna be okay. I get her go and she drops to the ground.

A sudden loud explosion echoes through the air. The train must've crashed.

"This is getting serious." I hear Bishop say

The old man that was with him turns to him and starts asking questions that leave me surprised
"What were you doing back at the crash site? You were talking like you knew what's going on. Explain. After what I just went through, I have the right to know."

The bishop replied with a bitter laugh "Ignorance is bliss for you surface dwellers. It's not just the underground. The whole city's in danger. And you've been living your lives completely unaware of it."

"So then…" I speak "What exactly do you know, father? Why did you let Snow save me when you knew that I'd never find a way back to the below? I remember you saying that you come from the same past as me. So who are you? What are you trying to get me to do…Bishop? "

"Then allow me to reintroduce myself."

He pops his shirt open, and on his neck I see that he has…a collar.

"Special spine-modified armored squad Kerberos specimen number one. Also the first failed experiment. Code name: Ernst Rammsteiner. That is my name. I suppose I should call you brother or something… But you wouldn't like that. Would you?"

That crazy woman was placed in Nill's bed, with Nill watching over her. Badou took away the old man.
All that was left was Bishop and me clashing guns and swords in the middle of the church.

It brought back memories. We fought like that when I first woke up.

Our fight stops with my guns barrel on his forehead and his sword on my neck.

"I do appreciate what you've done for me, father. No matter who you really are. But that collar around your neck? That's a whole 'nother story. Specimen number one: Ernst Rammsteiner? There was someone who got out before me and was waiting for me on the outside? How ids that even possible? How am I supposed to believe that? What's wrong? Looks like that silver tongue of yours isn't working."

"And it seems you have begun to use yours again. Took you two years."

We stare at each other in silence and I try to collect my thoughts when the Bishop spoke again.

"Haine, listen. I need you to believe just one thing. Like you, I want to kill the sound that echoes in my head… The sound of that woman's insane laugh."

He removed his sword from my neck and turned around. He started walking towards the exit of the church.

"Oh, there is one more think I need you to know."
"What is it?"
"Snow is alive. And she is coming back."

I start to walk after him. What does he mean by that? She's coming back? Where was she? How does he know?
I reach him just as he's standing on the doorstep of the church.

"I don't know what she will be like when she comes back. Depends on whether she gets her memory back or not. But I will tell you this Haine. Her real name is Jane Doe. She is the only surviving and successful specimen of the experiment Eisblume. And she is the one who got me out of there.

AAAAA! So many cliffhangers in this one. The story is slowly becoming more complicated and thank you so much for those who have waited for this. Thank you also for those who have reviewed, I hope you do it again, it really makes me happy and motivates me!

Thank you so so much and have a nice day :D