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The Rose Line	By : Rhonda Category: Gravitation > General Views: 2888 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Chapter 7: The Pact

Shuichi slumped against the bookcase. “Yes, I imagine that’d be it.” His heart fell, his head hurt and his body was weary. He hadn’t even heard the sneaky bastards open the door.

“Would you be so kind as to have as seat, Mr. Shindou?”

Sakano pointed to a chair with the sword.

“Sure. I got nothing better to do,” Shuichi said. He came from behind the desk and placed himself in a chair…as far away from the sword as he could get.

Sakano sat in the other chair and casually sat the sword on his lap.

Tohma sat in his chair behind the desk.

“How did you get the key to the study, Mr. Shindou? I know Eiri didn’t give it to you.”

Shuichi paused. “I found it.”

Tohma laughed. “Excellent! Mr. Shindou, you don’t know it, but you’ve been a surprise a minute since you’ve arrived. It’s been vexing, yes, but never dull.”

“Well, you did bring me here to entertain.” Shuichi held his head.

“Indeed I did.” Tohma saw pain play across Shu’s face. “I imagine you have a terrible headache right about now, yes? Mr. Sakano would you be so kind as to fix Mr. Shindou a remedy?”

Sakano hesitated, keeping the sword on his lap.

“Don’t worry. I am sure Mr. Shindou has no plans to go anywhere at the moment. And even if he did, he couldn’t. The drug in the wine I plied him with last night would bring down a horse if it drank enough.”

Sakano took the sword with him to the liquor cabinet and prepared the powder and water.

“And even after that, Mr. Shindou, if you could leave, you wouldn’t. Not in this state. Not with me holding the thing most dear to you in the palm of my hand.” Tohma tapped the box.

“I don’t even know what that is,” Shuichi said. “Although, if it has something to do with Eiri, I sincerely doubt you’d do anything to it.” Shuichi snatched the drink from Sakano and drank it down without fear or hesitation.

“After all, I’m not the only person in this room who finds Eiri most dear,” he added nastily after he’d finished. He shoved the glass back at Sakano.

“Be a dear, won’t you?”

Tohma shook his head in amazement. “You never cease to surprise me, Mr. Shindou.”

Shuichi was tired. His head hurt. He was certain he wasn’t going to live through the day. And despite all of his efforts, his friends and Eiri were no better off than when he’d come. In fact, now, because of him, they just might be a lot worse off than when they started.

“Can we just cut through the pleasantries and tell me what you’re going to do with me?”

“Don’t you mean to ask when I’m going to kill you, Mr. Shindou?” Tohma shot back immediately.

“Well, I was rather hoping you weren’t going to be so negative about it.”

Tohma laughed. “You can relax, Mr. Shindou. I have no intentions of killing you. Yet. I need you for a while longer and as long as you have value to me, you live. It’s just that simple.”

“Need me for what?” Shuichi was curious in spite of himself.

“I need you to solve several mysteries that’ve occurred since your arrival. I’ve tried to figure them out on my own and must confess, I’m no closer to an answer than when I began.”

Shu snorted. “Whassamatter? Foresight not fore seeing?”

Tohma’s smile left.

“You would do well to keep your cheek in check, Mr. Shindou. You’re not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.”

“Why did you drug me last night?” Shu tried to redirect Tohma’s sudden anger.

“I wanted answers to some of the aforementioned mysteries. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the…interesting before I could get a chance to question you.”

“And the first night?”

“Yes, the wine was drugged then too, however, I didn’t know then how much of a role you were about to play. I don’t think you knew then either.”

Shuichi blushed. “Why didn’t you just ask me?”

Tohma frowned. “Come now, Mr. Shindou. Knowing what you know, would you have played my little game?”

Shu thought about it. “Probably not.”

“There you go then.”

“But everyone drank the same wine. How come nobody else was affected?”

“Well,” answered Tohma, “the others have built up a tolerance to it. When they first arrived, I plied them with it as well to control them. Unfortunately, that particular drug, while most effective when it’s working, doesn’t take much to build a tolerance against. Anything stronger would’ve killed them and that would’ve ruined all my fun.”

“Too bad for you,” Shuichi mumbled.

“So I’ve had to resort to other means of control. As for me,” Tohma added, “I’m immortal. Even a drug such as that one rolls off me like water.”

Shu’s heart sank even further. He really was immortal. What the hell am I going to do?

Tohma gestured to Sakano who shoved a piece of paper in front of Shuichi.

Shu looked at it and felt his stomach lurch. Shit, it just kept getting worse! It was the Demon King’s poem that Mika had given him.

“Do you know what that is?” asked Tohma.

Shu sighed heavily. “Yes, it’s the pact set forth to the House of Seguchi by the Demon King himself.”

“No, imbecile, it’s a copy. That’s the copy Mika Uesugi gave you when you met with her and our cycloptic friend K the night Mr. Sakano came to fetch you.”

Shuichi went cold.

Tohma smiled. “Yes, Mr. Shindou, I know all about Mika Uesugi’s attempt to free her brothers. I also know that K has healed from his ordeal and now seeks a way to retrieve his lover and his ward along with a little vengeance for his eye.”

Tohma reached in his desk and retrieved one of the books Shuichi had seen earlier. Tohma opened the book and withdrew a thick piece of parchment. He slid it across the desk to Shuichi. Shuichi looked at it.

It too was a copy of the Demon King’s poem. This one however, was written with elaborate script in red ink.

Shuichi picked it up. PAIN! The minute he touched the paper, pain burned through him.

FLASH! A tree.

FLASH! A rope.

FLASH! A knife.

Shuichi blinked and gasped breathlessly.

“How very interesting,” murmured Tohma.

“What IS this thing?” asked Shuichi looking down at it.

“That, dear boy, is the true copy of the poem. The one written by the Demon King himself. Written in blood…on human skin.”

“EWWW!” Shuichi recoiled and dropped the ‘paper.’

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t someone you know.” Tohma said as Sakano picked up the sheet and gave it back to him. “The skin anyway…”

Shuichi looked at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Tohma ignored the question. “Notice anything different about the original?”

The skin anyway…the way he said it made Shu shiver. He looked back at the paper.

“It’s written in a different script.”

“And?”

“It’s written in blood on human skin!” The revulsion in Shu’s voice was evident.

“Not just the obvious differences! Look at the poem itself. What’s there that isn’t in your copy?”

Shu compared the copies side by side. It was the same as far as he could…oh!

The last stanza, the one that dealt with the west rose line on his copy was written in normal script. On the original, however, the entire thing was written in upper case letters.

DO NOT CROSS THE WEST ROSE LINE

NOR ANY LEAF UPON ITS TREE

LEST ALL OUR DEALS COME UNDONE

AND PAYMENT COME DUE FOR ETERNITY

“The last stanza is written in all capitals.”

“Correct!” Tohma beamed.

“Why?” Shuichi was confused. “What difference does that make?”

“All the difference in the world. And you’re about to see it!”

*** ***

The clock struck noon.

Shuichi looked up at the massive clock, which chimed just as he and Tohma and Sakano and his drawn sword were passing it. Its great brass pendulum swung back and forth with morbid precision. Abruptly doors that Shu hadn’t noticed before situated just below the clock face, popped open. Out popped a wooden maiden marionette and behind her a red devil marionette. She ran in a circle from the devil with the demon hot on her heels, hands out stretched in an eternal reach for his prey. The two figures revolved on a spindle and made a complete revolution in and out of the clock, once for each chime.

The clock was oppressive enough, but this display, all things considered, Shuichi just found grotesque.

“Cute isn’t it?” Tohma asked.

He *would* think it’s cute, Shu thought.

“After I told Mr. Sakano about my…unique situation, he bought it as a gift for me during one of his many overseas journeys in my employ.”

Tohma leaned down and whispered conspiratorially in Shu’s ear. “He has a terrible preoccupation with time.”

“I heard that!” Sakano said. “Speaking of, let’s keep moving. Time is fleeting and waits for no man.”

*** ***

Do not cross the line of roses

To the north, by the sea

Lest you lose your prescient sight

And never again the future see…

It was very breezy at the edge of the north cliff face. The sea far below was being driven in whitecaps toward the rocky beach that outlined the end of the land.

Shu looked up. The sky was overcast and gray. The way things looked, they were going to be due for a storm before long.

Behind him he could see the house in the near distance.

In front of him stood a long line of beautiful, astonishingly white rose bushes. They let off a sweet fragrance that might have been soothing had a big, sharp sword not been pointing at his back.

Shuichi turned to Sakano. “Must you? It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

Tohma smiled and shook his head again. “Amazing.” He turned to Sakano. “He’s right you know. We can be civilized can’t we?”

Sakano grumbled and put the sword away. He looked very disappointed.

Tohma turned to Shuichi. “This is the north line of roses, the one that’s mentioned in the first stanza of the poem. Beautiful aren’t they? They are the whitest things I’ve ever seen—even more white than the purest snow. This is one of the colors of the original Orishii crest and to my knowledge this color rose has never been duplicated anywhere else in the world.”

Tohma bent to smell one of the large blooms. “That was the genius of the Orishii. They were famed far and wide for these wondrous creations. Even the Emperor spoke highly of them. Yet, in spite of their horticultural talents and wealth, it was the pact that made their name famous. Before that they were just known as ‘The Rose Family’. It wasn’t until they’d been immortalized by the infamy of my bargain that the name Orishii even became known, let alone associated with them.”

Tohma looked at Shuichi. “I made them famous by destroying them. Isn’t it ironic?”

Shuichi answered back. “Don’tcha think?”

Tohma laughed and continued. “The roses form a box all around the property. This line of roses stretches all the way to the eastern boundary of the property to the right and to the western edge on the left. Just past where each rose line ends and just before the other begins, there’s a small break that’s large enough for me to comfortably walk through. I never have of course, being that if I did, I’d lose one of my gifts—this one being future sight. But the paths are there nonetheless, just to remind me that there’s a way out of it all if I should want it.”

Tohma smiled at Shuichi. “The Demon King is an insult to injury kind of fellow.”

“At any rate, my sight comes in the form of dreams that I must interpret. Over the years I’ve become an expert at it, with an accuracy rate of 100 percent. I’ve used my prescience to promote the name of Seguchi. I’ve used it to gain fortune by pre-guessing events, as well as knowing valuable information and getting it to the correct hands. People send messengers from far and wide to get a glimpse of the future. Will war break out? Will war end? Will my adversary seek election to office against me? The list is endless.”

“I have also used it for myself. To know when danger is coming. To know when I should strike to head off that danger. To recognize danger in its many forms when it arrives.” He looked at Shuichi.

“I’m talking about you, of course. I knew you were coming before you even knew it. My sight told me all about you. Where to find you. When to find you.” He smiled. “It even told me what you looked like.”

He stopped smiling.

“What it doesn’t tell me is why you’re able to do the things you’re doing to my house. I cannot see why it is that Eiri has taken such an interest in you when he absolutely should not be. It does not tell me why Hiro and Tatsuha do the things they do when they absolutely should not be. Most of all, it doesn’t tell me why these things have begun to happen with your arrival. Perhaps you could enlighten me?”

Shuichi shook his head. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I really don’t. As far as I can tell, I’m not doing anything I don’t normally do.”

He looked away. “Orgy not withstanding.”

Tohma frowned. “I see. Shall we?”

*** ***

Do not cross the line of roses

To the east, beyond the lake

Lest your captured heart break free

And never again their love to take…

They saddled horses for the next leg of their journey and they rode to the east in silence, across open pastures, up grassy knolls and through the beginnings of a forest.

While they rode, Shuichi looked around. He didn’t know the area well enough to try to make a run for it, but he kept his eyes peeled for an opening just the same. In the meantime, he wondered about Sakano.

Sakano rode just beside him (also discouraging a break for it.) As far as Shu could tell, he wasn’t being controlled. At least not like the others. Sakano’s eyes were clear and sharp and he came and went seemingly at will. He wondered if he was under another kind of control. Exactly what part did Sakano play in all of this?

“No, Mr. Sakano is not under my control.” Tohma called back without looking.

Oh My God, thought Shuichi, can this bastard read minds too?

“No, I can’t read your mind, Mr. Shindou.” Shu heard the smile in his voice. “It’s only logical that you should wonder about him.”

“I’m here of my own free will,” Sakano said. It was the first time he’d spoken directly to him since he’d arrived.

“So you believe in all this Demon King, immortality, pact business?” Shu asked.

“Don’t you?”

“I do now. He’s evil. He consorts with Demon Kings. Don’t you find that the least bit disturbing?”

“I find it all fascinating.”

“But why?” Shuichi pressed. “Why would you help someone like him keep innocent people captive for his amusement?”

“Because if I were to find myself in the same position, I’d do it too. Besides, it pleases me to do so.” Sakano finished shortly, ending any further questioning.

Shu shut up. So much for possibly enlisting his aid to help us.

They rode on in silence.

A short while later they entered a clearing, in the midst of which was a large, natural lake. They rode around the lake, near the tree line, at the edge of which, Shuichi could see the north line of white roses.

At the end of the north line was a path just as Tohma had said that led outside of the box. On the other side of that path was the beginning of the east side of the box. It was made up of a long line of deep Bordeaux red colored roses that ran south along the eastern edge of the property.

“As you might have guessed, this is the east line of roses. Again, this is a color of the Orishii and now the Seguchi standard and this color can only be found in a rose on this property in all the world. If I cross this line, then Eiri, my love, goes free and I can never again recapture him.”

A pang hit Shu’s heart.

“What’s in that box, Mr. Seguchi? That box is the same color as those roses.”

“How very astute of you, Mr. Shindou! Yet again I am impressed!”

Tohma withdrew the box from his riding coat.

“This box contains Eiri Uesugi’s heart.”

Shu shrank in horror.

“Not his physical heart, you oaf, the essence of it! The heart of his heart you might say. The thing that makes the physical muscle beat faster at the sight of beauty. The thing that makes it ring and sing for a person in particular. The thing that allows one to love and be loved in return. That is what’s in this box. It’s actually a part of the soul. Without it the soul cannot function wholly. It will return time and time again to try to rejoin itself to that part of it which is missing.”

“Why do you need that when you can just control him with a ring or bracelets like the others? What do you need that for when you’ve got jewelry?”

“Because I don’t just want to control Eiri’s body. I want him lock, stock and barrel. I want his mind, his body, his soul and most of all his heart. He was not willing to give it to me freely, so I took it. The contents of this box are what keep Eiri by my side, no matter the year, no matter the body. When the body you’ve grown to know so intimately (Shu blushed furiously) dies, his soul will come to me in the next body it wears. It will seek out the missing part of itself and stay close to it, which of course is where I am. Get it?”

Tohma stroked the box gently. “It’s really quite a clever set up. The others do not love me. And I do not care. But since I can’t have them running about willy nilly, I use the bracelets to control them. They are creatures with no memory of their lives before they came to live with me or will of their own.”

At this Tohma frowned. “Correction. They USED to have no will of their own. Since you’ve arrived, I’ve noticed a distinct difference in that particular aspect.”

On his horse, he leaned toward Shuichi. “Why is that? What is it about you that makes them able to defy the control of the bracelets?”

Shuichi thought about it. Tohma didn’t realize they could do it before he came! He vowed not to give away their secret.

“Maybe it’s because I’m so cute.”

Tohma gave him a hard, cold look. “I need answers Mr. Shindou. You need to live. Think about that.”

He turned his horse around began to ride back west.

“The ring Eiri wears only controls his body. Make no mistake, Mr. Shindou, he loves me. I have that love here in my hands, so when he says it, he most certainly means it. What I want to know is why he’s so interested in you? What is it about you that compels him to defy me to try to help you? Think about that and get back with me.”

Shuichi didn’t know what he felt most at that moment--sadness or anger.

*** ***

Do not cross the line of roses

That due south, guards family

Lest you gain your mortal core

And reign immortal nevermore…

“This is the south line of roses.”

Shuichi saw where the eastern red line met the southern yellow line. Shiny, deep gold roses, almost the color of gold coins, met burgundy with a path clearly separating the two. The south line of the rose line box ran east and west, parallel to the north line, Shu noted as they rode beside it. He also realized that they were touring the lines in a logical clockwise rotation rather than the criss-cross order the actual poem took.

Running parallel to the southern line was a series of headstones and grave markers. Shuichi could see from the dates displayed on some that they went back hundreds of years.

“What you are seeing is the House of Seguchi cemetery. This is the family that the poem refers to that the southern line guards. Many heads of state, ambassadors, advisors and cabinet members to the Emperor, and just as many other important and wealthy men and women of power that I can’t even begin to remember lay to rest here. As you already know, if I cross this line, I will lose my immortality.”

“What’s it like, immortality?” asked Shuichi. He couldn’t imagine being alive for so long that all of his family and friends died time and time again before his eyes. He didn’t feel sorry for Tohma, but he did at least understand his loneliness. A little bit, at least.

“That’s a surprising question,” Tohma responded quietly. He thought for a minute.

“After awhile, a couple hundred years or so, it’s nothing at all—just another thing. After having lived as long as I have, food all tastes the same. Sex all feels the same. The days all look the same. The nights all seem the same. The only burn I feel is my love for Eiri. And now, of course, my curiosity about you. So you can see how valuable you really are to me.”

Shuichi blanched. Tohma continued.

“At first, I was elated. Well, no, at first I was a bit scared. I couldn’t believe that I was truly immortal. I ran from swords and fights just like any sane mortal man. Then my invulnerability was proven to me when a person I cared for got a little too close to me…with a knife!”

Tohma smiled sadly. “That was one of the first Eiri’s that ever came to me. Before I devised the jewelry to control the body. He loved me. But he hated what I was doing to him. He figured he could live with the pain of losing the love of his life more than he could live with the pain of being controlled like he was. One night after making love, he slipped me more than a goodnight kiss.”

Tohma laughed out loud.

“You should have seen the look on his face when I woke up and asked him what the hell was he trying to do? Kill me???” Tohma cracked up loudly. “I had a KNIFE STICKING OUT OF MY HEART and I asked him if he was trying to kill me!!!!”

He wiped tears from his eyes. “The poor bastard died from shock instantly.” He sighed. “I really miss that Eiri. His name was actually Ari, but it was Eiri nonetheless. It was because of him that I realized that I did not have possession of his entire soul or his entire mind. That while the body might love me, the mind and soul knew better. I was upset at first, but then I realized that it wasn’t something I’d bargained for in the contract with the Demon King. I had asked for love, not a soul or a brain. And that’s what I got. That’s all I got. What’d I tell you? Insult to injury! It was after that that I came up with the ring. Then when his brother and sister started showing up, I used the same principle to create the bracelets. Oh, the memories!”

Shuichi slowed his horse and rode closer to Sakano after that. At least Sakano was honest about his dementia. Tohma, Shuichi concluded, was completely mad.

*** ***

DO NOT CROSS THE WEST ROSE LINE

NOR ANY LEAF UPON ITS TREE

LEST ALL OUR DEALS COME UNDONE

AND PAYMENT COME DUE FOR ETERNITY…

“Ah, here we are at last.” Tohma stopped the group beside the line of pink roses that made up the western side of the rose box that surrounded the Seguchi property. They were very near the gate, which made Shuichi wonder nervously if he could make a break for it. They were also perilously close to the tree and the rope that hung from its branches. Shu deliberately tried to ignore that tree and the rope, yet still, he could feel their presence settling over him like a heavy cloak.

He concentrated on the roses instead. This line was different from the others. While they were lovely to look at and filled the air with a pleasant fragrance, these roses were not the large full-bloomed beauties their fellow roses were. These roses were small and had petals that looked slightly crooked. The pink wasn’t the deep jewel tone he’d seen in the previous flowers but rather a soft, dusky rose that reminded him of early evening sunsets. He could also see that the line of bushes, which ran down the hill and out of sight wasn’t straight. It was obviously crooked and disjointed in places.

“Notice anything peculiar about these roses, Mr. Shindou?” Tohma asked.

Shuichi repeated what he’d just observed.

“That’s correct. These roses are very different from the others. You see, Mr. Shindou, the other roses are ones the Demon King himself caused to spring up from the ground once the pact was sealed. He simply waved his hand and they erupted from the soil, perfect full-bloomed specimens. One line for each of the three colors that made up the Orishii crest. Again with the insult and the injury. Those roses are also indestructible. Oh, Mr. Shindou, you’d have to see it to believe it, but those roses bloom year round, in even the harshest weather. Their petals never fall. Their branches never bend. Their blooms never wither and die.”

Tohma shook his head. “You can’t pull them up either. Hell, you can’t even set fire to them. I’ve tried both.”

He gestured to the roses by their side. “These on the other hand do wilt and die. They lose their petals. And as you mentioned before the line of bushes is very crooked.”

He looked at Shuichi. “Yet for all their seemingly frailness, these too are very hardy. While I can pull them up, set fire to them, knock them over and cut them down, they continue to spring up. I can haul the whole lot away and burn them to ash and the next morning, the entire line will be right back where they were with the same crooks and imperfections that were there before I started, right down to the last stem.”

He leaned in. “And do you have any idea why, Mr. Shindou?”

Shuichi looked at the fragile looking blooms. They didn’t look like they were capable of withstanding a strong breeze let alone what Tohma had just told him.

“No.”

“Really, you don’t know?” Tohma looked at him carefully. “Have you not realized that they are pink and there is no pink within the Seguchi, therefore Orishii, family crest?”

As a matter of fact, Shuichi hadn’t realized it.

“As I said before, the Demon King is truly an insulting fellow. He would have certainly retained the mocking theme he used with the rest of the roses, perhaps making the final line a mixture of the white and red and gold, or something like that, don’t you think?”

“I suppose,” Shuichi answered slowly.

“So why do you think he made them this ungodly color?”

Something dark was nagging Shuichi.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t, really?” Tohma watched him closely. “It’s because the Demon King didn’t make these roses. In fact, these roses have nothing to do with the rules of the pact at all.”

That surprised Shu. “They don’t?” He looked around, avoiding the tree. “Then what is the west rose line that makes the fourth boundary?”

Tohma smiled. “Why Mr. Shindou, I am surprised that you haven’t figured it out yet.” He paused. “Or have you and the answer you found hurts you too much to speak it?”

Sakano sat on his horse and watched quietly.

Tohma dismounted, then gestured for Shu to follow. He did. Tohma then put his hands on Shuichi’s shoulders and slowly turned him toward the tree. Shuichi tried to look away. Tohma wrenched his head back, forcing him to look at it.

“Don’t you see it, Mr. Shindou?” He bent and spoke softly, almost whispering in Shu’s ear. “Don’t you see the true west rose line?”

Shu was beginning to sweat. He tried again to look away. Again Tohma wrenched him back into place.

“The rope, Mr. Shindou. The rope that hangs from the tree.”

Almost involuntarily, Shu’s eyes slid toward that rope. He followed the old and fraying line from the branch where it was tied all the way down to the cut end. It swung loosely in the humid, pre-storm breeze. Almost before his eyes, the already overcast sky, darkened ominously.

Shuichi couldn’t look away. He felt sick. He was beginning to have trouble breathing. The symptoms he experienced the day he’d arrived, when he’d first seen the tree came back tenfold. He sagged against Tohma behind him for support.

“Ah, perhaps you do know the answer and just don’t understand it.” Tohma took Shu’s arm. “Let me help you understand it.”

He dragged Shu through the bushes to stand right under the tree, directly under the rope. Shu’s knees buckled and Tohma dragged him upright and shoved him against the rough bark of the trunk.

FLASH! Screams.

FLASH! The rope.

FLASH! Burning, painful wetness.

FLASH! “WHO DARES CALL THE DEMON KING KAA—”

Shu cried out and Tohma pinned him against the trunk.

“Do you understand now, Mr. Shindou—Shuichi? Do you know now why these roses are that terrible pink color?”

“No,” Shu was starting to wretch and gag. He was going to be sick. He couldn’t breath. His neck burned…

“Where else have you seen such a color?”

Shu gasped, trying to catch air.

Tohma slammed him against the trunk and snatched a lock of hair from his head.

Shu cried out in pain. Tohma held the torn strands up to his face.

“See anything you recognize, Shuichi?” He narrowed his eyes. “Or should I say, Junishi?”

Shu couldn’t speak. He couldn’t breath and he was bleeding fiercely. Bleeding from the gash in his throat! He moved his hands to staunch the flow. He could feel the blood, hot and sticky, flow over his hands and drip down his arms.

“I’m bleeding…” he croaked.

Tohma smiled. “Now you get it. You’re not bleeding, Shuichi. Junishi is. He’s bleeding from the wound I opened with my knife after I slit his throat from ear to ear.”

Shu’s breath was coming in short, painful gasps. He opened his mouth to speak but found he couldn’t.

“DO NOT CROSS THE WEST ROSE LINE…, the poem says. Not west line of roses, like the other stanzas. This is the true west rose line, Junishi. The rope above you where I hanged you. The line that hanged the Pink Rose of the Rose Family.”

“…NOR ANY LEAF UPON ITS TREE... This tree and the rope together make up the west rose line, which conveniently sits on the one road that leads to and from the estate! Insult, to injury, to insult! Junishi you and you alone caused these roses, these pink abominations to spring forth! And they keep springing forth, no matter what I do, just like you clung to life even after I hanged you! I cut your broken body down, slit your throat and used your blood to seal the pact. And wherever a drop of your blood fell a rose sprang forth. And ever after, you keep springing forth, coming back to torment me! Coming back to haunt me! Year after FUCKING YEAR, you turn up here, different body, different face and no matter how much I kill you, you still come back! And now you come back again, Junishi, only this time with those eyes and that hair!!! WHY??? WHY DO YOU COME NOW JUNISHI???”

Tohma slammed Shuichi forcefully against the tree.

“WHY?” Slam!

“WHY?” Slam!

“WHY???” Slam!!

Shuichi coughed. He sputtered. His eyes rolled back into his head. As he went out, he remembered smiling and he actually thought he spoke, though the voice he heard was not his own.

“Because I love Ayari.” The words echoed in the darkness.

End Chapter 7: The Pact.
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The Rose Line