Midnight dance


Chapter 1 - The Lord punishes every sin ...


Soft drops fell from the darkness into the depths and the hard earth under my bare feet had become soft over time. I noticed how the moisture also penetrated my hair and the cold rain turned it into liquid silver. It was late at night and the lights on the streets of the small village that I was slowly approaching had long gone out. Even the fire in the lanterns had to submit to this whim of the weather and its blazing power failed increasingly.

So I scurried quietly through the streets, hiding behind a wall, and caught a glimpse past the corner of a small house that stood here. The windows were fogged up from the inside due to the cold weather, while I could easily see how a faint light penetrated from one of the windows through thousands upon thousands of small water droplets, which banned their way over the pane from the outside.

I could hear them already. Their voices talking, even if it just sounded like a whisper even to a hearing like mine. The last light from a lantern flickered faintly above my head, which had just died out along with the lighter play of shadows on the floor around my feet. Noiseless, clad with feather-light steps, I reached my destination.

"Tsukune, look how beautiful she is.", Spoke a high, girlish voice.

"It doesn't matter to me what the old man will think of it."

A sound. A sigh that was played down by a movement of creaking wood.

"Too good to be honestly owned by someone like us. Especially you. Bring it back to wherever you stole it before you get punished for it."

"That is not necessary. Since it does not belong to anyone from the village, no one will miss it."

'Nobody!?'

I swallowed angrily before I tilted my head a little to one side and dared a dim look through the window. The only source of light was a burning candle on the small wooden bedside table, right at the foot of the single bed. And in the bright candlelight I spotted her graceful figure, sitting on a chair directly on the opposite side, my face turned towards the small, golden treasure in her hands.

'Poor, stupid girl! How I would love to come up with a punishment that teaches you the pain of loss and appreciation. '

"Stupid girl. What kind of crazy stuff are you talking about? Where did you get her from?"

Surprised and fascinated, I listened once more to the boy's youthful voice, in which the tone and choice of words were abstractly alien.

"From a dormitory in the abandoned castle."

"The lock? The lock?" The boy asked with sudden curiosity and had straightened out of his bed.

"Yes. Your beloved lock ..." the young girl whispered as she rose from the chair and disappeared from my field of vision.

Little time passed in which the boy named Tsukune stared interestedly at the thieving achievement until he took it in his hand and examined it more closely."Why did my sister steal a ... old and simple, little ..."

His fingers gently brushed the many fine engravings while it looked like he was trying to figure them out. He explored the accessory with groping fingers and turned it carefully in one hand when suddenly a mechanism was released that opened the valuable find in his hands.

"... jewelry box ...?"

'It was never a simple jewelry box. By no means, ignorant man. '

Again I let out a deep breath, my back touched the cold and wet wall of the house and I closed my eyes. I listened to the agonizing etching of the little screw, a sound of familiarity. The rough cracking of the mechanism, nothing less than a reminder of a time long past, to whose eerily sweet melody I listened intently ...



~ ° ~ ° ~ ° ~ ° ~ ° ~

Usuyami ni hikaru yokoshima na ake no hoshi
Kurokami no otome warau fuson ni

Nejireta omoi daite
Nai mono nedari no koe
Namida wa sasou "Kochira ni oide ..."

~ ° ~ ° ~ ° ~ ° ~ ° ~



Escaping the melancholy, a feeling as old as eternity itself, I turned my attention once more to the boy who was still sitting on his bed and the valuable object in his hands.

"A music box?" He stated and startled the next moment.

A disregarded growl against the darkened night sky rose from my throat to the surface as a bright light broke through the sky and briefly illuminated the window. But the storm was still far away. The melody had faded away with a clapping noise and for a minimal moment of suspicion I was seized by the instinct to flee.

Horror lay in two pairs of eyes - the mirror of his soul and mine - which stared straight at each other.

'Does he know I'm there?'

No. I could see his gaze getting lost without a fixation point. And yet I knew ... He had seen me.

I also felt the angry violence of nature. A dull rumble of thunder, which gave it a customer

"Bring her back! You will bring her back!" Shouted the young Tsukune with a trembling voice.

He had jumped frantically out of bed and seemed to strive for clear thoughts. He took turns looking around. From the window where I was standing, to his sister, who had just returned to the room and out again, into the darkness that surrounds me.

"Why are you so keen on it?"

The young girl sounded angry. She was noticeably frustrated by each other's constant teaching, which only made him sigh.

"Because this item doesn't belong to you, Shiana. And neither Claude nor I will tolerate you as a thief in the house. Besides, you had no business in the castle. How do you keep coming up with such strange ideas?" the younger girl.

"So you care about the place where I was? The castle and nothing else, am I right?"

With Spot in her voice and eyes, she took a few steps up to her brother. A slightly smug smile was drawn on her lips as she reached for the old music box in Tsukune's guarding hands with her right hand."Say, do you really believe in this fairy tale?", Shiana asked, casually brushing a few strands of her long, black hair behind her left ear with one hand.

"Of those godless stories and their equally godless creatures? Nothing more than ... some stupid ghosts?"

'What do you mean with that. Godless ...? '

Driven by curiosity and thirst for knowledge, I took a step to the side, but at the same time one step closer and stood back against the brick wall of the house so that I could see a glimpse through the pane at the same time. My subsequent gaze directed at the dark sky was short-lived, while countless, small drops of water fell on my face. Again the sky lit up, but notwithstanding this, and this time under the protective custody of invisibility, my attention was directed solely to the two young people. After repeatedly devoting his unsettling look to my direction, the boy shook his head in resignation.

"You seem to be forgetting, Shiana. But this fairy ..."

A bitter smile settled on his lips, whereupon he opened them distorted and barely noticeably pointed with his index finger at the right half of his mouth. However, this gesture, which made no sense to me, left me at a loss and I could not see anything particularly striking or extraordinary.

"It is omnipresent in people's minds. And it is all the more so for me."

Without the rebellion of a counter-pose, the girl lowered her head, the smugness had disappeared from her pretty face and her gaze rested on the small, silver and cross-symbolic pendant in the palm of her hand after she had reached for the ribbon around her slim neck.

"Are you going to tell him?"

"If you will listen to me for a change and bring her back, no.", Her older brother replied and a slightly triumphant look had crept on his face.

"Claude won't find out about it."

The crunch of wood could be heard as Tsukune fell back on the bed, accompanied by a hearty yawn and a weak nod of agreement. His eyelids sank carefully and an exhausted sigh stole from his mouth, while his sister's hand, closed around the pendant, moved gracefully.

"Take care until I get back."

"Hmmm ...? Shiana?"

A searching hand felt slowly over his chest, made its find, as gentle fingers carefully stroked the small symbol. He opened his eyes in surprise.

"Shiana !?" ...



I perked up in amazement, heard the sound of excited and quick steps. A noiseless jump, nothing more than an inconspicuous breath of air. A game of hide and seek.
I leaned forward attentively, leaning on the wet stone of the high wall with the hand of my right arm. My gaze flew over the many roofs and followed the figure, who ran hastily through the dark streets of the village.

"I admit, I'm surprised," I said softly, brushing some silver strands from my face in a casual movement of my hand."Are all people so capricious in their actions?"

I shifted my weight onto my right leg as I started to jump again. I felt the cold breeze and the wet rain on my skin, yes, even the electrostatic impulses in the air, when a new arc stretched across the black firmament for a brief moment before my feet touched the ground.

"Shia ... well ...?"

Slowly and deliberately, but still startled, I turned around and a suppressed, instinctive growl stole from my throat. I didn't move while I could feel my eyes, widened in disbelief, rest on me.

How could I be so careless?

"Have you completely lost your mind in your thoughtless carelessness? Just jumping off the wall like that."

All of a sudden, warm fingers touched my skin, closed around my right arm and I resisted the excitement of a surprised gasp and let it suffocate. For the first time in my entire existence, I thought I was freezing. I turned my head and my gaze followed the length of the arm, up from the shoulder and neck until I looked into the young face of the young man.

"Who are you?" I asked in a monotonous voice, defying this bizarre situation, because this situation did not seem right to me ... and even to allow someone of his kind to be close to me, but that was alien