One Week [Closed]

Thirty thou-... Thir-... Thirty thousand dollars?! He really was loaded. Holy mother of goodness! "Of course I'm excited! Erika needs to be with me, not some monsters like them." Ayumi explained. She kept smiling and smiling. She was so happy. She wanted to cry tears of joy, but refused. Not right now! She'll do that when she officially has her sister. "Oh. It's fine. I lied about my name and almost stole from you. I can't blame you for thinking that. I deserved it, but I won't do it again. I promise you that." she said and stood up from the couch. She stretched and felt so relieved. "I do want to go now, but wouldn't they be asleep? I'd rather not anger them by showing up in the middle of the night like this..." She said, but thought about something, "I guess if they're running shady businesses though, they'll likely be up at this time... I just want Erika back. It's up to you. What do yo believe is safest for us and her? I'll listen to you. You're probably better at this kind of stuff than I am anyways."

Tonight. Ayumi was going to get her sister back tonight! This only made her more excited. Her friend, the money wizard, brought her a coat and she happily took it. She was bouncing around so much now! She couldn't have been happier! There were butterflies in her stomach over this. Excited and nervous. She just hoped Erika was okay. She followed Snopy out to the car and hopped in. "Whoa..." she said, impressed by the car as she sat down. She described where to go and saw that yes, this place was quite lively at night. Once they parked, she lead him to the apartment building by hand. She stepped inside and walked up to one of the doors. "Mister Ashida, it's me, Ayumi Hirosaki!" she called out excitedly, "I'm here for my sister please. I have your money, all of it!" The room went quiet.

"She can't be serious..." "There's no way she came up with that money so quick."

"Mister Ashida?" she leaned against the door and knocked again, trying to hear things better. The door opened and Ayumi smiled, "Hello Shiro. I have the money." The man eyed her suspiciously and then eyed Snopy. "Oh, this is my friend, Snopy. Kinda nervous coming down here at night, so he offered to come with me. He's the one that is helping me with the money actually!" she explained. Shiro looked back and forth between the two of them and then opened the door to let them inside. Ayumi looked back to Snopy and lead him in, still holding his hand, and went and sat on the couch she knew she was allowed to sit at. The room was dark and the smell of smoke and booze was strong. Mister Renji Ashida, the 'big boss' was sitting in a large chair. "Alright, Ayumi... Where's the money, if you got it?"

"Give it to 'em." she said and then watched as the men would count it.

Ashida waved that cash over to one of his henchmen and they began to count it while Snopy began his questioning. Snopy did a good job at pointing out Yakuza values and even catering to Ashida's obvious ego. Ayumi, seemingly ignorant to what most of this really meant, sat in silence and let the men talk. She wasn't going to interrupt when they were having a conversation. Ashida, a cigar between his fingers, flicked the ash from the tip and chuckled at Snopy's words. The man nodded along with a lot of it and smirked. "Yeah. I get what you're talking about, but family is family. The girl's volunteered for it, you see..." Ashida leaned forward on the couch and motioned toward Ayumi, who lowered her head in shame, "Her sister didn't want to see her fall like that. The younger one, Erika... trusted Ayumi and her Father to get the money together, ya know? So she took her place. It's been three weeks since then and that bastard keeps bringing up his own damn debt... You know, we asked him the same thing? It was like he was tryin' to give the girl to us. Hehe, but the man's got a problem. He partakes in our... business as well. Your father's been a customer for a long, long time."

Ayumi was shocked and completely disgusted in what Ashida was telling her. She looked away in shame, hiding her face from both Ashida and Snopy. Ashida sat back into the couch and looked over to his men. "It all there?" he asked. "Yeah, every bit of it." the man replied and everyone turned to Ayumi and Snopy, looking suspiciously at them. "Tell me, Ayumi. You've been workin' three jobs and could barely keep up that shit-hole," Ayumi flinched, "...your father calls a store. How the hell did you come up with this amount of money? You know borrowin' from any other branch ain't gonna get you nowhere. We don't approve of that kinda dealin', you understand, girl?" Ayumi just nodded nervously. Her mood had changed and the excitement was gone. "I know the rules, Mister Ashida. I've done no such thing. My friend here, Sno-..." "You give her the money?" Ashida interrupted and stood up, "What are ya... some rich motha-fucka from up town?" Ashida and his men laughed, but Ashida nodded along. "Alright. I see. But you see... We got a problem here." Ashida looked over to Ayumi, "Your sister... Well, she's one of our best girls now. The men like 'em young, ya know what I'm saying."

Ayumi's smile dropped. Her heart began to race and she immediately broke out into a sweat. "Um... Y-Y-Y-Your best... girls?" she struggled to say it. Ashida sniffled and pulled up his pants. "Uh, yeah. Got four times that amount just so some fat-fuck from uptown could pop that little one open... So we want double to replace lost revenue." The men all laughed again, though one guy in the corner seemed annoyed and frustrated at what was happening here. Mister Ashida, though laughing as well, was feeling off. He did have a hint of guilt showing on his face, but had to play most of it off to save face. "Look, Ayumi... You can have your sister back once you've paid up what losin' her will cost us, but it's been a month since your Father handed her over. Little thing ain't the same." Ashida explained. "You gave me a week." "Huh?" "YOU AND YOUR  MEN STRIPPED ME DOWN, BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF ME, SHOVED MY SISTERS UNDERWEAR IN MY MOUTH, AND LEFT ME IN A GOD DAMN ALLEY COMPLETELY NAKED! EARLIER TODAY, THEY SAID I HAD A FUCKING WEEK!" "Uh... They lied?" Ashida shrugged, actually unsure of what to say to her now. "Go get her sister, gents." "Which one is she?" "Erika... Youngest one. On the third floor." The men hesitated for a moment, but nodded and walked out the room. Ayumi was doing her best not to cry. She was too late to save her sister...

Ayumi was automatically confused, but when people began storming the room, she became frightened. She sat there, stuck in shock and unsure what to do. None of them were coming after her, so she was okay right? She watched everything go down and listened to the things Snopy said and was even more confused. Who was this man?! How did he orchestrate this!? Who were all these people? How was this even happening!? She watched in awe and was rather impressed with the way Snopy completely destroyed Ashida. A part of her was cheering him on, telling him to kick that bastards ass, but Ayumi had no real idea how to react or what to say. When the money was shoved into her hands, she just looked at it confused. "I-... uh..." she looked up to Snopy and heard him mention her sister.

"Right." she said with a smile as she was snapped back into reality. She'll ask him about all of this later. "Third floor, third floor, third floor." Ayumi had shoved as much of the money as she could into her pockets and began running up the stairs. She pushed back other people that were obviously working for Snopy, moved passed rooms that were being investigated. She saw other girls being freed and was happy that her sister was next. She finally got to the third floor and began searching through the rooms. "Erika?!" she called out. There didn't seem to be much up here. Most of the rooms were empty, except one, where two of Snopy's people were standing at. "Erika! Is my sister in the-..." she had started running forward again, but she was stopped by one of them before she got to the room.

"Miss, I need to ask you to stand back. Don't come any closer." the man said. Ayumi just looked back to Snopy. She wanted to see if her sister was in that room. The man looked up to Snopy and merely nodded. Ayumi saw this and became more worried. She suddenly pushed passed the man and ran toward the room to look in before anyone else could stop her. When she got there, everything fell to slow motion. She could hear her own heart beat. Her eyes widened and her face immediately went pale. Ayumi suddenly ran forward, screaming "Erika" at the top of her lungs. Her sister was laying there, cold and lifeless. "Erika wake up! Wake up! Erika! No! Erika!" Ayumi began shaking her, crying her eyes out and screaming more and more as she shook her sister's lifeless body.

Ayumi couldn't function. She didn't even feel his hand on her shoulder. She just kept crying. She pulled her sister into her arms and began rocking back and forth, crying so hard that she went from screaming to holding her breath. Her eyes and face were red. Tears just kept streaming down her cheeks. Her body was shaking. "No." she said with a stressed tone, like she was having trouble keeping up with herself. "No, no, no." she continued on sobbing, "Sh-She trusted me. She trusted me to bring her home... She took my place. It should have been me. It should have been me. Why?!"

Ayumi kept crying, unaware of the person looming over her. It was a spirit, her sister's spirit. Erika was crying as well, but not because she was dead. She hated seeing her sister this way. "It's not your fault." Erika sat on the bed, placing a hand on Ayumi's back, knowing her sister couldn't feel it, "I'm sorry Ayumi... I'm sorry. It's not your fault. Please don't cry. I'm okay now..."  Ayumi was able to stop the louder crying for a moment. She stared off at the wall, mouth wide open, and holding her breath. She was thinking about something and was finally able to calm down and breathe normally.

"I wanna go home..." she said, her voice cracking. Erika walked through the bed and to the other side to look at Ayumi's face. "No." Erika shook her head. Ayumi's eyes were dull, almost as lifeless as her sister's body. "I need to go home." Ayumi said. "NO! I'm not stupid Ayumi. You're gonna ruin your life that way." Erika said, but Ayumi couldn't hear her. Ayumi stood up and covered her sister up. "I'm going home." Ayumi walked out of the room. "AYUMI NO! YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO YOURSELF! I'M FINE! AYUMI! DON'T DO IT! NOT FOR ME!" Erika tried to reach her sister, but she just couldn't.

Erika was too concentrated on her sister and unaware of the fact that she could be heard by the others around her. She just wanted Ayumi to hear her. That's it. When Ayumi left, Erika finally noticed because the blond man said her name. She didn't have time to ask about being seen by a living person. "She's going to kill him. I know she's going to kill our Father." Erika explained. Snopy's next question was something she had to think a moment about. "He's evil. Mom died, so he tried turning to her, to make her have sex with him, but she refused. They fought a lot because of that and he just kept drinking more. She thought he was going to try with me, but he didn't think I was as pretty as her." Erika held her hands in front of her chest. Yeah, her boobs were quite a bit smaller than Ayumi's were. And then that question came. Erika's face blanked. "I turned eighteen yesterday. We couldn't leave without bringing the matter public, especially with the Yakuza involved. Ayumi didn't want me to have to deal with that kind of attention, so she said she'll protect me until we could move out. She tried, but... Some things you just can't fight." Erika told Snopy everything else he asked and watched him leave. There was one last thing he heard before he was out of the building, "Please save my sister!"

Ayumi had left the building and walked straight toward her home. She didn't live too far from here and was ready to destroy her life to get revenge for her little sister. She couldn't handle the pain anymore. He needed to die. Her pace was quicker than normal walking. She wanted to get their fast. With every step she took, her expression became more distorted. Instead of sadness and pain, anger and insanity took hold. She began imagining how it would feel to end that man's life, how Erika would feel knowing that their disgusting Father would never hurt another woman again. "Two is more than enough..." she mumbled. In fact, she kept repeating this sentence over and over and over again as she walked through the city. People avoided her, stepping aside when they saw the look on her face. Ayumi made it to her street and picked up an old iron pole. She dragged it along the sidewalk, that echoing scrape easily heard throughout the neighborhood. "Two's is more than enough..." she continued saying. She was soaked, but didn't even notice it had started to rain. She heard someone say her name and turned around in time to see Snopy block her path, but not quickly enough for her mind to realize it wasn't Erika. So yes, Snopy was greeted with an excited, "ERIKA?!", and then disappointment.

Ayumi's face changed from disappointment to anger when what he said registered. She attempted to step around him, but he blocked her path. She went the other way, but he stopped her again. The house was right there, but she wasn't allowed to reach it. With wide and anger filled eyes, she looked up to him, dropped the pole and pushed at his chest. She wasn't strong, so the force behind her push pretty much put her on her own ass. She fell back and was caught, but she immediately pulled away from him and backed up. "What do you know about it?!" she shouted, waited a moment, and yelled again, "Nothing!" Ayumi looked around again, then back to the house. She just fell to her knees and shoved her face into her hands. She buckled over completely and just cried again. The lights in her house turned on and an older man in striped boxers and a tank-top stepped out, a bottle in his hand. "What the hell's going on out here?!" the man yelled and walked over to see what was happening, "Ayumi, what are you doing out here? Get that little ass of yours inside. You tryin' to get sick? You get sick, your sister ain't ever coming back home." Ayumi snapped. She grabbed the pole again and stepped rather swiftly around Snopy and went to swing the pole right at this drunk's head, "DIE!"

When metal hit flesh, there was a moment where Ayumi smiled. Her blurred vision allowed this, but soon things came into perspective. It wasn't her Father that she hit. It was Snopy. Her eyes widened, her pupils dilated when the fear struck her heart. She didn't move. She was stuck in that position while he spoke, the pipe right next to his head while he talked some sense into her. This isn't what her sister would want and she knew it. Her sister loved her and she loved Erika more than anyone in the world. Snopy understood it, at least some of it. They had both lost sisters? She began to shake as he continued on. The pipe quickly became too heavy for her to hold up. Her arm shook violently as she brought it away from Snopy's head and then dropped it. The high pitched noise of metal clanking off of concrete echoed through the neighborhood. It was in that moment that Ayumi almost seemed to snap back into reality. It hurt, but she couldn't cry. She felt like she ran out of tears to cry.

Ayumi wasn't looking at him when he turned, so when his voice became annoyed, her attention snapped back up to him. He was talking to her Father, that disgusting piece of filth standing on the other side of Snopy. Ayumi was still shaking. Half of it was from the cold, but the other half was the amount of sadness she felt and the adrenaline she had rushing through her was finally calming down. She almost felt sick to her stomach. She wasn't able to stand. That final line Snopy spoke of squeezed at Ayumi's heart. It's not fair. Erika should be here, not him. This pig should be the one dead. Erika was sweet, loving, and kind. Why did she have to be the one to suffer. It just wasn't fair! Ayumi tried to stand up again, but slipped and fell back to the concrete. She was soaked and felt completely drained of life, so she decided it was time to just lay there as the rain came down on her. "I don't wanna be here anymore..." There was a part of her that wasn't just talking about this location...

Ayumi closed her eyes. "What would he even know about it?" she asked herself. Snopy didn't even get to know Erika, yet he acted like he knew everything her sister was thinking. How frustrating. It was even more frustrating that his "guesses" were correct. Ayumi was limp in his arms at first, but she stiffened and looked over his shoulder toward her Father, who literally waved them off and took another drink. She was silent the entire trip. She barely noticed when they were out of the rain. He laid her down on the bed and it was quickly soaked. She didn't care how uncomfortable it was though.

"Because of this." she repeated in a slight whisper, "You act like 'this' is such a small, insignificant thing." Ayumi slowly sat up and stared at him. "If you haven't noticed, I'm not you. You say you lost your sister, fine, you understand part of what I'm going through. I spent years dealing with that bastards neglect, thinking that one day it will all be over and Erika wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. I worked extremely hard to bring in more and more money just to get my sister back, before the third job it was just two so I could cover my Father's disgusting drinking habits."

"I did everything for her, to keep her safe, to bring her back..." Ayumi shook her head and scoffed, "Emptiness and despair... That's what revenge leaves, from what you said. Well, I would rather feel completely empty that what I feel now. I would rather be dead than remember this life. I have nothing left. I have no reason to continue on and don't you dare tell me I do..." Ayumi shot him a death glare, "It's bullshit. I've lost everything. I don't even have a home and, unlike you, I don't have the money or power to fill the void that my sister has left. I can't go have fun or work to try and get through it."

"So no, I'm not hungry. I don't want to eat. I want my life to have not been wasted. I want to have run away when I had the chance. I want to turn back time and bring my sister and mother back from the dead, so UNLESS THAT CAN HAPPEN, I have nothing." Ayumi lowered her head and fought off tears.