A Tale of Horror

Chapter 5

By Amazon

Rowen pulled into the parking lot of the City Park and leaned back into his seat. On the way there, with the help of the picture, it had all fallen into place. Kaoru wasn’t hunting down Ryo because she was related to him, (they were complete strangers in fact, each being centuries apart in age and nowhere nearly blood related) it was because he was a carbon copy of Kiochi. "Guys?"

Four heads looked at Rowen. They had all been thinking about the picture and the events of the past day.

"Yes?"

"I think, in fact I know, why Kaoru wants to kill Ryo." Rowen half turned in his seat so that he could see his friends’ faces. Ryo was still recovering from seeing the picture and was a pasty white. He picked up the book and found the picture again. "This is why." He tapped the page.

"Not followin’ you, dude." Kento said.

Rowen sighed. "She wants to kill him because he looks exactly like Kiochi, to put it simply, she thinks that Ryo is Kiochi."

"And she wants her revenge." Cye finished quietly. Rowen nodded.

"Can’t we just fry her with our armors?" Kento asked.

"Look, Kento, this isn’t a Dynasty freak this is a centuries old ghost. I don’t think that our armors would work." Sage answered him before Rowen was able to.

Kento growled. "Then what do we do to get rid of her?"

Ryo looked up from where he was nursing his wound. "Why don’t we just tell her that I’m not Kiochi?"

"I don’t think it would work Ryo." Rowen shook his head. "She thinks that you are Kiochi and she won’t stop unless you’re dead."

"It would be worth a try though." Cye spoke up again.

Rowen sighed and fiddled with his forelock of hair as he thought. He heaved another sigh. "Maybe…but if she tries to kill Ryo again, we’re getting out of there."

Cye nodded and went back to chewing on his lip. Rowen put the jeep into drive and pulled out of the parking lot. He wasn’t so sure about what they were going to do but maybe it would work like Cye said.

* * * * *

The first thing the guys noticed when they stepped into their home was the fact that it was very chilly. This wasn’t a chill that you would get in the fall but a hair-raising, Goosebumps chill that you would get from watching a horror movie times ten. The Ronins rubbed their hands together and pulled their light jackets tighter around them.

"Hey, maybe she just wants to usher in winter early." Kento joked lightly, teeth chattering.

"Hahaha…that was so funny I forgot to laugh." Sage shot at the Chinese boy, teeth chattering as well. Kento glared back.

"Okay guys, let’s see if we can persuade her to stop this." Rowen ordered, involuntarily taking the leader position in the group. He did that sometimes.

The guys nodded and moved into the living room. The frozen droplets of blood were still there and they sent a tingle down the Ronins back. They could feel someone watching them and they had a pretty good idea who it was.

Ryo noticed, with much displeasure, that some of the blood had froze on the pipes and glistened, it felt like they were laughing at him. Like they were laughing and pointing and saying ‘Look at him, the little human, he’s about to get killed by a ghost! Haha!’ He shivered and turned his attention back to the rest of the room.

The couch looked like it had been picked up and hurled across the room, to where it lay now against the far side of the room. The coffee table had also been thrown across the room. And several of the vases in the room were cracked and the water they held was frozen. The flowers were also frozen in their perfection and held a thin layer of ice that sparkled in the light that came through the window.

"Geez, talk about a temper tantrum." Kento said as he inspected the coffee table. Cye nodded in agreement. He could feel something breathing down his neck but when he looked there was nothing there. But that didn’t mean that something wasn’t there.

Then the temperature dropped even lower (if that was even possible) heralding the arrival of Kaoru. All five Ronins took a step back. She appeared, wreathed in her white and bloodstained kimono’s, dagger gleaming in her hand. Her black hair was wild and her black eyes flashed angrily and the essences of sorrow that had been there were no longer there. Her eyes bored into Ryo’s, locking him there before she let out a screech of rage.

"I will get you this time Kiochi! You will run no longer!" She screamed as she launched herself at him, dagger aiming straight for his heart. He was fast enough to dodge her and he thanked all his battles for sharpening his reflexes.

Ryo swiped at her with a fist, forgetting for a moment that she was a ghost. When his hand went through her it felt like all his insides had been frozen and his breath caught in his throat for a second. Kaoru lunged at him again; not noticing the fact that Ryo’s hand had passed through her.

"Die!" Kaoru screeched as she lunged toward Ryo.

"Stop!" Ryo shouted as he dodged her again. "I’m not Kiochi!"

"You cannot lie to me! You lied to me once and I believed you, this time I see the truth!" Kaoru brandished her dagger wildly.

"I’m not Kiochi! My names Ryo!"

Kaoru regarded him with coal black eyes. "You are Kiochi. I will not fall for your lies again." She did not lunge at him but continued to watch him with piercing eyes.

The other Ronins started to move forward but were stopped by Ryo. Kaoru watched them and let out a cat-like hiss.

"I fell for your lies once, your lies of love and forever, but now," Kaoru smiled an icy smile and it froze Ryo to his very core. "I see the truth. The truth was that you never loved me! You loved her."

"No I didn’t."