Keiko was pacing her room. He hadn’t brought Rin back yet. He is taking longer than usual. Much longer.

The hours, or what she thought were hours, ticked by and still no sign of Rin nor the man.

“What do you think this mean, Shige?”

"I don’t know, it’s weird. So he’s never done anything like this before.” It wasn’t a question, but Keiko answered anyway.

“No. And Rin was really scared. I am too. Ever since I got here he never broke the routines. He always followed the order. Why change now?”

“I don’t know.” Said Shige. She was worried too. If what she thought was right…

They heard the man coming. He brought their food, but not Rin. She wanted to ask him, but they had decided that only Yuuko would try to talk to him, so she bit her tongue and said nothing.

She was scared of eating. She knew that whatever he was doing, she would be next.

She took a deep breath and started eating. Nothing happened for the next 4 meals. Still no Rin.

Breakfast time. Keiko ate and the now familiar feeling of the drugs kicked in.

“Shige” she said “It’s my turn”

“What? No!”

“It’s a new pattern, right? You have to figure it out and get out.”

“With two people? How can I figure out anything from that?? And how is that going to help you?”

“It was really nice meeting you. Maybe we’ll meet again. Bye”

“Kei-chan. Kei-chan, please, don’t fall asleep, please.” Shigeko started pounding on the wall.

“Shige? What’s wrong with Kei-chan?” came the voice of Yuko but Shigeko ignored her.

“Kei-chan, answer me!”

“What is it? Kei chan?” That was Takara.

Shigeko stopped pounding on the wall and fell to her knees. Then she heard the sound of the man coming and started again.

“What are you going to do to her? What did you do with Rin?” Of course the man didn’t answer. He went into the room and took Keiko out.

“Come back. Bring her back!” She kept shouting in vain. The other two girls were shouting too now.

Shigeko felt moisture on her cheeks, she was crying. She would be next and she had no idea how to stop it, how to stop any of it.

And her turn came. She refused to eat but she fell asleep and the man came in, used a needle to drug her and took her. And now only Takara and Yuuko remained.

“He’ll come for me now.” Said Takara. Yuko said nothing. There was nothing she could say. “But I won’t make it easy. If he wants to take me, he’ll have to fight me.”

Takara said she was strong, but still Yuko didn’t think she could take the man. She was hungry and tired and no match for him.

Yuko had tried to talk to him, but nothing.

“Here.” She said giving Takara some of her food. Since it wasn’t her turn, hers wouldn’t be drugged.  The man would see it sooner rather than later and drug Yuko’s food as well.

“Thanks. Everything is so silent.”

“I know.” And then, maybe because there wasn’t anything else to do, Takara started humming a song. It took Yuko a little while to recognize it through the wall, but in the end she started singing along. Their voices melted, Takara with a sweet voice and Yuko doing the high notes, their voices went up and down and by the time the song ended Yuko heard Takara crying. She tried to fight the tears. She took a deep breath.

“Go to sleep, Takara, I’ll keep watch.”

It took several seconds for Takara to answer.

“No, the first shift is mine. Go to sleep, I’ll wake you up if he comes… Yuko?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you. You…. I…”

Yuuko woke up to Takara’s frightened voice.

“Yuko? Yuko wake up, he’s coming.”

Yuuko woke instantly and heard his steps.

“Please, don’t take her!” she shouted. He was at her door, he was opening it.

“I’m not gonna make it easy for you.” Yuko heard Taka scream. She heard struggling and grunts. Then Taka let out a scream, it was desperate, frustrated and frightened at the same time and then nothing.

“Taka? Taka! No no no, please no!” the man was leaving the room. “Bring her back, please bring her back!” but the man was gone and she was alone.

 

Yuuko was sitting up on the bed hugging her knees to her chest. She was all cried out by now and she just stared, sometimes, at the wall, the pink wall, sometimes at the ceiling… the pink ceiling.

He had taken Taka some time ago, a few days counting the times the lights had gone out. She wondered when the man would come and take her. She wondered if he would keep her, and she didn’t know what was worse. She had been eating little, just enough to get the edge off her hunger and she felt weak. She missed Taka, she missed all of them. She even missed Rin’s swearing through the wall.

The man was coming. She looked at her almost untouched food. This was it, she could feel it. She didn’t have it in her to fight him and she hated that but still couldn’t help it.

The man came in. He had a syringe in his hand. Yes, this was it.

“What did you do to them? What are you going to do with me?” She stood up. She wasn’t going to fight him but wasn’t going to cower either. She didn’t expect him to answer since he had ignored her these past days, but she was wrong:

“Would you believe me if I told you I let them go?” he asked.

“Probably not.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to wait and see what happens to you.”

She hated him at that moment, but he was right, she probably wouldn’t believe anything he said, not after hearing Taka’s struggle and screams.

“Why did you take us? And why do this now?”

He put her head to the side.

“Well you belonged here. You are you. You are Pink.” He said as if it should have been obvious, as if all that nonsense made any sense. “And I can’t keep you because I have something else I need more.”

Yuko was done asking questions they were getting her nowhere. She looked down to the floor and the man said:

“Turn around.” She hesitated. “I can force you, but I really don’t want to.”