Beautiful Demise

Bhairavi could watch the world outside her small prison all day. The vibrant greens of the grass and the startling blues of the skies were enough to make her forget her current predicament if only for a moment. A moment of happiness that was quickly doused however when the door knob across the room rattled out a warning as it slowly turned.

Forgetting the beauty and serenity that lied just beyond a layer of glass, Bhairavi scurried to the far corner of her bed curling up in a defensive ball. She watched apprehensively as the door slowly swung open revealing a slightly annoyed Deidara. Upon seeing the uneasy Bhairavi, something akin to interest flickered in his eyes.

“So they brought you here un?” He asked sweeping his eyes around the quiet room Bhairavi had made residence in. His unimpressed expression made her realize for the first time just how plain and empty her room really was. While its walls were unadorned lacking in decoration and imagination, Bhairavi saw beauty in its simplicity. The starkness of the box she was confined in made the sunlight that filtered through and the lushness of the forest beyond the glass wall appear that much more beautiful and lively.

She watched him take in her cage, his unmoved expression made obvious and she began to feel something for him akin to pity. Pity for this man who could not see past the emptiness and the four walls of plaster to the beauty and wonder of the world outside.

“Why are you here?” She asked making her voice strong and clear so that he would not hear it waver. Before he could answer the door to her prison flew open revealing a second intruder. He bounded in a flurry of red, black, and orange. At first, Bhairavi shrunk away in fear because she thought it was Pein, but when bouts of childish laughter erupted from this new trespasser she knew that this was someone else entirely. His face was hid behind an orange mask as if to make him seem childish and harmless but Bhairavi recognized him exactly for what he was. Evil. In the beginning, she thought it was Pein who corrupted the hearts of those around him feeding off the misery and the sorrow that they carried in their souls, but now she saw the truth. Pein was created by shadows. This creature with the orange mask made the shadows. They seeped from him like puss does a festering wound and suddenly, the light she basked in was gone replaced with this terrible putrid shadow that was a man.

“Tobi is here senpai!” He exclaimed gleefully and Bhairavi was glad the orange mask he wore concealed his expression. Bhairavi could not hide the small gasp that escaped her lips when his masked face turned to look at her. “Pretty girl! Tobi likes the pretty girl!” when he gleefully approached her, all of her built up bravado seemed to crumble around her.

“N-no! stay away from me!” She screamed and when she tried to scurry away, her foot tangled in her sheets causing her to sprawl out painfully on the floor. She quickly regained her footing and dashed to the farthest corner in the room where she flattened herself against the wall desperately wishing she could disappear.

The thing that was Tobi tilted his head the side in a seemingly questioning manner as if he wasn’t quite sure how to deal with her. “Sempai! Why does pretty girl not like Tobi Tobi is a good boy!” He squealed.

“She’s always like that un.” Deidara stated but he too was beside himself. Even he could see that Bhairavi’s reaction was a bit more overboard then it normally was. This fact alone surprised him. He thought with Tobi’s childlike behavior and unthreatening appearance, Bhairavi would be scared of him the least. He was baffled to find that she seemed to fear him the most.

“Why are you here?” Bhairavi asked again, unable to prevent her voice from cracking this time at the end.

“Relax yeah? We’re just here for a little lullaby is all un. We were just curious about the new celebrity the zombie brother’s drug in and just thought we’d stop by for a visit.”

“Well you’ve seen me so now get out. Take that monster with you.” Bhairavi said and Deidara frowned when he saw how her eyes never flitted away from the seemingly unthreatening Tobi. They were the wide eyes of someone staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. The kind that seemed to scream and beg the shooter not to pull the trigger.

“We’ll leave, but only after this little canary has chirped out a tune yeah?” Deidara persisted and Bhairavi opened her mouth to refuse, the insults she wanted to throw at him right at the tip of her tongue, but then she saw Tobi eagerly leaning forward and she bit back her response. Not wasting any time she lifted her voice up in song, a small verse that was hurried but still sung in piercing clear notes and for a few moments, the room was suspended in frozen wonder at the pure honey coated sunshine that flowed from her lips. When the verse ended Tobi clapped his hands wildly and Bhairavi cringed away a look of panic flitting across her face.

“I’ve sung for you. Now make him leave.” She said and Deidara could hear how the fear and desperation coated her voice as if her very voice itself was weeping.

“Tobi is a good boy!” Tobi threw into the heavy silence that settled around them and Bhairavi didn’t know just how long she could stand being in the same room with that monster.

“Tobi likes pretty girls singing! Tobi will come back because Tobi is a good boy!” He said and he bounded out of the room leaving Bhairavi and Deidara to their awkward silence.

When Deidara turned to leave Bhairavi whispered something to his retreating back making him pause.

“Please don’t ever bring that monster here again.”

Before Deidara left Bhairavi to her own devices he voiced the same question he had been mulling over ever since Tobi had made his appearance.

“Why Tobi little canary?”

The silence seemed to stretch as Bhairavi stared blankly at the wall and Deidara began to wonder if she was even planning on answering him. When she replied her voice was quiet and halting as if she was unsure she should even say anything at all. Though quiet and small they seemed to shout into the silence and fill the room up with their soundless warnings.

“Because he would have us all perish so that he might sit atop a throne made out of our corpses.”

After Bhairavi’s encounter with Tobi, her heart leapt into her mouth every time she thought she heard the door knob twist. Although she was visited by an array of akatsuki members in the days that followed, Tobi was not among them. Even though he did not visit again, the fear of the possibility never left her.

Many days would pass and many requests for her songs would be made. She refused every last one much to the frustration of the Akatsuki members who visited her. She could tell they wanted to strangle the tunes out of her but with Pein’s strict orders not to touch her they were forced to settle with hurling angry insults her way instead. Watching their infuriated expressions and gazing out her small window was the closest thing Bhairavi felt to joy in the Akatsuki base. Pein still came to visit at least once a week and she had no choice but to belt out harsh angry versus to him so that she might keep that small ray of joy in her life that was her room. It seemed she was visited by all in the Akatsuki base, all but one. That one was unfortunately, the one person she didn’t mind seeing. Sasori.

She was both pleased and disappointed that he did not come to see her and she was confused about this strange mix of emotions for Bhairavi had always felt emotions so purely. Why did he not come to see her? Why did she want to see him? He was one of her captors. He was a murderer. Yet strangely enough, she still wanted to see him.

It was a month into her captivity before it was him she saw step through the door instead of Pein. When he entered the small room, night had already fallen but Bhairavi was not tucked away in her bed. She was instead crouched on the floor next to the window allowing the silk of the moon to caress her still form in its soft waves. Bhairavi had always preferred the sun but she still loved the gentleness of the moon. When he saw her there with her head tilted back, the silver light of the moon illuminating her face, Sasori almost lost his breath.

He remembered momentarily forgetting where and who he was as well as who he was looking at. Instead of a small girl curled up next to the window, he saw a slight fairy resting her wings while she basked in the glow of the moon. He was brought back to reality when she raised her head to look at him. Her eyes simmered like two golden coals beneath heavy lashes as she peered out across the gloom at him.

Not wanting to startle her, he carefully and quietly closed the door behind him.

“W-who is it?” She asked and Sasori approached her slowly afraid that sudden movement would frighten her further. He hadn’t even reached the small pool of moonlight before she had guessed who he was much to his surprise.

“Sasori? Is that you?” Her voice was small in the fragile silence of the room giving Sasori the strange urge to comfort her. He needn’t have to answer her for he had reached the light of the window and Bhairavi could now see the features of his face. For a moment, he stood there uncertainly as she traced the lines of his face with her eyes. She took in how his long lashes brushed his pale cheeks when he blinked and how his auburn hair, a shade darker in the moonlight fell across his forehead in soft waves. Sasori didn’t quite know what to say for he had wondered into her room purely by impulse. He had no reason to be here and he was just about to make an excuse when she spoke.

“I was waiting for you.” She whispered and for a moment, something in his chest expanded. When he slid to the floor next to her she did not move away from him but instead tilted her head in his direction so that her bewitching eyes might follow his every action. She did not smile but he thought he saw something akin to joy dance in her eyes and Sasori was once more filled with confusion.

“Why?” He asked and he watched as her own face clouded with the same confusion that seemed to plague him.

“I – I’m not sure.” She finally whispered. “I just….was.” Somehow the silence that settled around them was not uncomfortable. It settled around them like a warm cloak as if attempting to bridge their two souls together. Bhairavi wasn’t sure who made the first move, but sometime deep in the night, her cold hand had found someone else’s to hold on to. Sasori in turn wasn’t sure why he couldn’t let it go.