• Crawling across the floor in the office, fear choked Mariko and she hid under the desk in the center of the room. A low, whispering voice echoed down the hall into the office.
    "Come now, wouldn't you like to try to fight?" A dark, silhouette hovered behind her then formed a male body. He looked young, but, simply put, deathly. His skin was pale and almost glowing underneath his dark clothes. If he hadn't been floating, his black, airy pants would've dragged on the ground. He chuckled to himself behind Mariko, earning a gasp from his opponent.
    Smiling with his arms tucked behind him, he said mockingly, " Boo,"
    She screamed and and jumped at the same time, causing her to bump her head on the bottom of the desktop. "Oww! What do you want from me?!" She almost yelled holding where she hit her head.
    "Hmm, oh," He groaned quietly, almost hurt. "you misunderstand my intentions. I mean you no harm, but if need be," he raised his right hand, palm up and opened, "then so be it."
    He closed and balled his hand into a tight fist. Mariko look at him strangely at first, but when his hand began to close, her muscles started pulsating. So much so to the point where she could feel every contraction as the man tightened his fist.
    "Ahh! Oh...p-please!" She screamed agonizingly. "S-stop! Please! I'll d-do as you wish! Just..." she was running out of breath. "s-stop..." she whispered faintly, wanting so much to scream.
    The man smiled. "Hmm...as you wish." He shrugged opening his hand.
    Mariko felt her muscles loosen, relieved that the pain was gone. "Oh...oh," she groaned. "Thank you!"
    "Heh, don't thank me just yet." He said with a smile then brought his hand to his mouth and whistled. "Come now, I have him here, my Lord,"
    A sound of howling soared through the lone office. A gust of wind filled the room and left as quickly as it had come. All went silent and dark. "Thank you, Kai," said a deep voice, "you always were the best among the Homunculi."
    Kai bowed gratefully. "My lord, I greatly appreciate the compliment, but I'm simply doing as you tell me to," his red eyes gleamed, "nothing more."
    "Yes, as usual, Kai. Please wait for a few moments."
    "Yes, my Lord," then Kai disappeared.
    Mariko felt faint again, but she swallowed and breathed again. "Umm, Sir? W-what's a 'Homuculi'"She stammered into the empty room.
    BOOM! "You'll speak when spoken to!" The voice roared. The room went silent again, and a translucent half-man descended from the ceiling. Six inches above the pelvic area and below was like a misty substance floating. His hair was long, about two inches below his shoulders, and had a strong upper body, which was bare. His body, or rather half-body, was covered by chains that just dangled over his arms and shoulders almost straight to the floor, and his black eyes were half-closed. Mariko stared at him and her mind went blank. The Lord sighed.
    "Now, Mari...where were we?" He smirked. "Ah, that's right. Heh," He threw a few chains at Mariko. One fell over her shoulders, across her neck, another one fell on her rather large chest to between her legs, and the last one fell behind her.
    "You must be still for this, Mari, or I shall be cross. Understand?"
    She nodded.
    The Lord smiled. "Hmm, good," and he snapped his fingers. The chain around her shoulders tightened around her neck until her skin was being pulled down, and her mouth was half-wide open, unable to breathe well. The chain behind her kept one end glued to the floor as the other end wrapped around from her top lip and around her head to forcefully pull her mouth completely open, her teeth sticking out like a skeleton's would. The last chain wrapped around her stomach, then around her legs and bent her backwards, which made her look like a gymnast making a "bridge" stance. She screamed so loudly, painfully. She felt as if she was going to snap in half, but she thought that would probably be better than this.
    "Oh God!" She cried, sobbing. "Please, stop! Stop it!"
    Kai returned. "May I, My Lord?" he asked bowing.
    He nodded.
    Kai smirked and peered upon Mariko. "My,my, look at you...aren't you in a bind, haha. Let's see...what is it you want?" He asked her.
    Tears streamed down her face, "Schop! Hleasch! I 'eg you! Schoooop!" She screamed, sobbing in excruciating pain. She couldn't take it much longer. She begged him to stop as much as she could, sobbing hysterically. Not to mention that because her mouth was unable to shut, she couldn't pronounce some of the syllables completely.
    "You want this to stop?" Kai asked. "Hmm, Let me think..." he mumbled. He closed his fist tight and she felt like she was going to explode inwardly, and she screamed more murderously and loudly than before.
    "AHHHH! Scho-o-op!!!"
    Kai chuckled. "Painful, is it? How about this? Does this hurt?" He traced his finger from her right thigh up her pelvic bone, across her stomach to the side of her face, where her tears were falling, and ran his fingernail over the tears to her eyes. Sobbing still, she suddenly felt a burning sensation across her cheeks and into the backs of her eyes. She just about shrieked this time, but she didn't know how to stop it. The burning though was coming from her tears, but because she couldn't stop crying, it burned even more so. Soon, her tears were replaced by blood.
    "Don't worry." Kai assured her. "This will hurt, I promise." He said with a chuckle. He readied his hand by stretching his fingers and wirst, cracking each bone to loosen it. Then he shoved his hand down into her mouth, down her throat. Choking, she tried to bite down on his hand.
    "Ah, ah, ah..."he hissed at her, closing his fist on the other hand, causing her body to pulsate painfully and she struggled uncontrollably with screams being muffled by his hand. More blood trickled down her face. "Let's not make this experience an unpleasant one." Even further his hand slid down to the center of the inside of her body he gripped a spongy tissue from the side of her fast-pounding heart, and ripped his hand out from inside her. Her eyes widened. She would've gasped, but she just couldn't. She sort of hovered there for a moment as her eyes went blank, then her body hit the floor with a hard thud. Kai held the tissue in front of his Lord.
    "Here you are." He said humbly, then he made a motion with both of his hands around the tissue and it hovered in the air in front of the Lord. "One freshly captured soul, Lord Soul Piper."
    The Soul Piper's mouth watered as he gazed upon his prize, and his eyes opened wide. The sponge burst with blood splattering everywhere suddenly and a tiny speck of what looked like a sugar crystal started to fall. The Soul Piper held out his claw and the speck floated to him, then he placed it inside what looked like a tube, and began to play a simple little tune on his hand-carved wooden flute for a minute.
    "Come, Kai. Let us return to Hethenlins. Then we shall hunt for our next hell-bound soul." He said with a smile. Kai bowed.
    "Yes, Lord."
    Lord Soul Piper opened a wormhole in the wall, and both he and Kai stepped into it, disappearing into the black abyss