A Friend's Home

Chika’s home was only a street away from the apartment building that Ryu and his family lived in. Tucked into a small corner, squished between two larger buildings, was a lone two story house. It had been in Chika’s family for generations and was the oldest building in the surrounding area.

Ryu stood outside of the small gate. Chika’s family name “Saito” was etched into the top metal bar.

Ryu let out a hurried breath as he put his hand on the gate to push it open. He had run the entire way to Chika’s house from the train station, but he had no time to catch his breath.

As he put a tiny amount of force onto the gate, it swung open.

It wasn’t locked.

That was the first sign that something was wrong. Chika and her family never left the gate unlocked like that.

Ryu looked at the house again. There were lights on- at least two upstairs and it seemed the living room light was on downstairs. Their brightness peeked through the windows from behind mostly closed curtains.

There was another light though. One that was barely peaking out from the front door.

The second sign that something was wrong: the front door was ajar.

“Chika?” Ryu called out for his friend as the front door swiveled easily on its hinges.

He was met by silence.

Just in the entrance was the shoe storage. Ryu slipped off his sneakers and pushed them to the side. Chika’s shoes were there as well, but no one else's.

Her shoes being there told Ryu that she was still in the house.

“Chika!” Ryu yelled out his friend's name again as he closed the front door with a thud.

The light from the living room was spilling out into the hallway right in front of Ryu. When he peaked his head in, no one was in there. The living room was connected to the kitchen as well, and Ryu could hear a sizzling coming from the stovetop. It was accompanied by a distinct smell of burnt meat. As he walked over, he found that one of the burners was still barely on and that a piece of meat that was being cooked had been burned in the skillet. It seemed that Chika had tried to turn off the stovetop in a hurry and had barely managed not to. Ryu flicked the burner off and grabbed the skillet. He mourned for the piece of meat as he threw it away and stuck the skillet under some running water in the sink.

“Ryu!” Chika’s voice, wavering from something, rang out from upstairs.

“Chika?” Ryu called out her name again as he left the kitchen and began to ascend the stairs to the upper floor two at a time.

The second story consisted of two bedrooms and a storage closet. One of the bedrooms was the master bedroom that Chika’s parents slept in whenever they were home. The other was Chika’s room. Besides the light in the hallway, the only other light on was the one in Chika’s room. Her door was slightly open. It was enough for the light and sound to escape, like the whimpering that was becoming louder as Ryu got closer, but not for Ryu to be able to see into the room.

“Hey, Chika,” Ryu’s hand pushed open the door. “Your front door was open and-” His words suddenly caught in his throat as he finally saw why Chika’s voice had shown signs of fear, both on the phone and when she had just called out to him.

Chika was on the opposite end of the room to the door. Tears were rolling down a face puffy from those very tears. Her clothes were a mess, rivaling that of the room around them.

And around her neck was an arm.

She was being held back.

Held by the woman behind her.

Hair as white as snow cupped a face hardened in anger. Murky dark blue eyes seemingly stared straight into his soul. Very little of her light skin was showing, mostly covered in black clothing that seemed like it would melt into the night if it needed to.

“Don’t take another step closer,” Her voice was clear and low. “If you do, her head gets blown off.”

While one of her arms was wrapped around Chika’s neck, holding her close, the other was holding a pistol to the temple of her head. The woman was serious.

Ryu put up both of his hands in submission and slowly took a step to the side. He wasn’t trying to get closer, only to fully get into the room as he had still been in the doorway. “Okay. Okay. I won’t do anything. Please let her go.”

“Nope, nuh uh. That’s not how this works. You don’t get to make any requests.” The woman shook her head before using the hand holding the gun to motion for him to back up a bit.

When Ryu did as she gestured, he quickly found his back up against a bookshelf.

The woman and Chika were standing in front of Chika’s small desk next to her bed. On their other side was a closet indicated by a rolling mirror that acted as its access point. Behind Ryu was the bookshelf he had run into. It ran most of the length of the wall, only leaving some space for the room door to swing fully out. To his right was a small balcony with a sliding door.

“What do you want?” The question was the only thing that Ryu could think of. He had no idea why the woman was here, or what she wanted with him. She was clearly using Chika to get to him, but he didn’t understand why.

“What do I want? Well, a drink would be nice, but I don’t think I’ll be getting a good Sunrise anytime soon.”

The woman’s words spurred a memory in Ryu. He had seen this woman before.

“You! We’ve met before! At the bar. You were there! Last night… Right before…”

“Right before one of you murdered my partner with magic.”