Azumanga Saw

Chapter 1

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

The cry echoed around the deserted school, but no one answered. In the darkness, Kagura screamed again, but it was futile: there was no one to save her. Shit, she cursed silently. What's going on? "Please somebody! What's going on? Help..." her voice cracked and she fell silent, her occasional sobs echoing in the darkness.

Suddenly the lights switched on, illuminating the room. Kagura blinked, before glancing around, vaguely noticing the dusty, battered TV across the classroom, on the teacher's desk. She ignored it. The teacher just probably used it last lesson to show the class something, she told herself. Something that did spark her interest was the fact that the door had been left wide open. Yet someone had knocked her out and left her here alone, without a clue of what was going on.

After a quick scan of the room, she realised she was sat down. Part of her expected to be tied up or have her wrists tied to the chair arms, like in the movies. But she was free to move. The door was open: she could just walk out.

She stayed where she was. Something next to her caught her eye, and she turned to see a mirror attached to the chair arm. She frowned, before screaming as she saw her reflection.

The area around her right eye was covered with blood, which dripped down her face, mingling with her tears. There was a huge, bloody gash right next to her eye, which appeared to have been hurriedly stitched back together.

She let out a pathetic, sobbing sound. What's going on? She thought. What sick bastard would do this to me?

Someone has to help me. She raised her head, yelled up at the ceiling. "Help!" There's got to be someone here. The echo died away. Silence.

Her tiny flicker of hope was crushed. She felt sick as realisation swept over her. No one's coming. I'm going to die here.

"Why me?" she cried, tears welling up in her eyes. "What the hell have I done to deserve this?" She glanced back at the mirror, tears running like a pair of miniature waterfalls down her cheeks. Then she noticed what was around her neck.

It was an open mask, filled with sharp, deadly spikes. Like a Venus flytrap, she noted.

If it closed…

She opened her mouth to scream again, but just then the TV flickered on, silencing her. A little doll-like thing appeared on the fuzzy screen, black hair, pale face, and a crimson bow tie, wearing something resembling a suit. Cute in a totally evil way.

As she stared, it turned to face her. A voice began to speak, edited to avoid anyone identifying it. It was low-pitched, gravelly and emotionless, and the very sound of it turned her blood cold.

"Kagura, I want to play a game."

"Well what kind of a fuckin' game is this?" Kagura yelled at the screen. The doll continued.

"Your love of drugs has ruined you. Before you were a pleasant, well-mannered young woman, but now you bully the younger students, threatening them for money to support you addiction. You steal from anyone weaker than you. You don't care about anything, except drugs. Now you will pay for the crimes you have committed." The picture switched to one of a body lying on a table in a room, and Kagura realised that it was her. Confusion and fear swept over her as she stared at the screen. A few seconds later, the picture changed again, to an X-ray image of her right eye. She gasped, unconsciously raising her hand to touch the sore, bloody skin by her eye. The X-ray revealed that there was a key, buried behind her eye, slightly to the right.

"No, no, no… this can't be happening!" the last word became a wild, high-pitched shriek that lasted several long, crazed seconds. Her hands flew down to grasp the mask fastened around her throat like a deadly collar. She tugged at it, yelling and screaming madly. Then she fell silent, gasping for breath, wishing this was all part of some twisted, horrifying nightmare, and that she would wake up at any second, heart pounding, soaked in sweat, terrified, but safe.

But a larger part of her knew that this was all real, that she was probably going to die. No one was going to save her. She had been found out, and had to pay for her crimes.

The voice on the TV continued, and the screen changed to one of a model head, probably made from clay or something, wearing the mask. There was a ticking sound, and after a few seconds, the mask snapped shut, crushing the model. "The only way you can remove the mask is by using the key, which is located behind your eye. I have given you a tool, a tool that could save your life. Moving from the chair will set off a sixty-second timer. When the time is up, the mask will snap shut. Live or die. Make your choice." The TV flickered off.

The room was silent for a second, as the information sunk in. Then Kagura went mad. Her screams and curses before were nothing compared to this.

She screamed. She clawed madly at her throat, trying to rip the mask off. She caught her finger on one of the spikes, but ignored the flaring pain as a deep gash opened and blood began to flow. "Come on, get off!" she yelled, desperately trying to tear the metal apart. "Please!" tears began to flow again, as she screamed, frenziedly grabbing and tugging at the mask.

Then she stood up.

There was a click that seemed impossibly loud. Kagura realised what had happened. She froze, still clutching the mask.

She had set the timer off.

She could hear the seconds counting down, tick, tick, tick, tick. She was going to die. She had only sixty seconds left.

All at once, she fully realised what she had to do.

No more struggling or screaming, she stumbled across the room, eyes darting around in search of the tool that her captor had provided. Her gaze fell upon a tool box, which had been abandoned beside the open door. She briefly wondered if she could just dart out the room, run away. The door's open… But I wouldn't get far in a minute, she told herself. The mask would close. I have to stay and get the key.

She dropped to her knees and opened the tool box. There was nothing inside, apart from a scalpel that looked like something a doctor would use.

She gazed at the little silver blade in her hand, a sickening feeling twisting in her stomach.

Clutching the scalpel, the tool that could save her life, she staggered back to the chair and repositioned the mirror. She could see her reflection now while standing up.

She let out her breath, and breathed in again, this time holding it in.

She raised her arm, positioned the scalpel above her right eye. She placed the point against the flesh next to her eye, feeling its sharp point pierce her skin slightly.

Then she dug it in.

She let out a piercing shriek, and pulled her arm away.

"Crap!" she cursed, annoyed at herself. She felt blood trickle down her face, into her eye, down her cheeks, before pooling in the metal monstrosity around her throat. She glanced down for a split second and saw the spikes, dripping with her blood.

"C'mon, I can do this…" she muttered grimly. "Again…" She repositioned the blade, digging it in again. She screamed again, but managed to resist pulling away. She forced the blade in, further into her skin. All of her senses were screaming at her to stop, to pull away. She could hear herself screaming as well.

The agony was unbearable. She pulled away for a second time, and cursed herself. "Why can't I do this?" she yelled. At some point she had started crying again, but she hadn't realised. Now her tears dripped down her face and diluted the pools of blood in the mask.

She glanced up at the whiteboard, where a large digital timer had been projected. It was counting down.

Fifteen seconds left.

Why me? What sicko would do this? It isn't fair! No one deserves to die like this!

She gritted her teeth and tried for a third time to dig out the key. And for the third time she pulled away.

"Goddamn tool ain't saving any fucker's life!" she roared. She kicked out at the nearest thing to her, apart from the chair with the mirror, and a table went skidding a meter or so across the room. A spasm of pain shot up her foot and leg, but it was nothing compared to her eye.

Adrenalin coursed through Kagura's body; she let out a low, frustrated growl that sounded almost inhuman.

She glanced up at the timer again.

Nine seconds left.

She screamed again, desperation overwhelming her.

She reached up and stabbed at her eye again, ignoring the pain.

She didn't even bother trying to go round, to give herself a chance of maybe saving her eye. She just savagely stabbed at her eye, trying to gorge it out to reach the key.

Her eye was a ragged mess, half torn to shreds. She had the blade positioned behind it, ready to rip it out to reach the key, but her hands were slippery with blood, and she dropped the scalpel.

"Shit!" she screamed, kneeling down to snatch it up. She grabbed it and, on her knees, glanced up, eyes darting to the timer.

Four, three…

"No, no, no, no!" she screeched, reverting to desperately tugging and clawing at her throat again.

Two, one…

She let out a long, wordless, inhuman howl as the mask closed on her face. There was an audible crunch as the points pierced through her skull and stabbed into her brain.

Her body slumped forwards and lay still on the classroom floor. Through the eyeholes, eyes permanently widened in terror, one half gorged out, she gazed sightlessly at the cloaked figure stood in the doorway.