Blood Games

By DragonMage

Notes: Okay, I'm gonna try something new. And I when I say 'new', it means I have no goddamnest experience in writing this kind of stuff and it's gonna overall suck! *V* So, um, don't kill me while I butcher this...

Prologue

"Meiran! I'm home!" Chang Wufei shouted as he closed the door of his and his wife's new apartment suite. "Where are you, woman? Aren't you supposed to be cooking?" He had meant it as a joke since his wife hated his "chauvinistic" attitude so he always used it once in a while to annoy the hell out of her. They always ended up in the funniest bickering sessions that kept them both amused for the whole night as they made dinner and possibly watched some movies before going to bed.

They had been married the old fashion way--an arranged marriage. Even in this day and age, their parents had set up an arranged marriage. They had only gone through it because they knew it was necessary and they didn't want to displease their parents. Besides, right after they got over their disagreements they got along fine. Wufei knew Meiran didn't love him like a lover and didn't expect anything from him, and she knew that Wufei was gay and didn't expect anything from her except to cook occasionally and be the traditional "Chinese wife". Maybe they will have children one day but right now, that just wasn't the thing for them. They were too young to have children.

He smiled faintly, ready to relax after a tiring day at the University with students and papers to correct, and turned on the living room lights. It was a bit strange to have the house this dark but he saw nothing out of the ordinary. Sometimes Meiran liked the house dark, mostly because she could then pull out candles and light them all over the place. Meiran had a strange quirk for candles and fire.

Wufei followed the light that lead to the kitchen, expecting Meiran to be there, muttering underneath her breath about women and cooking and something about it being the future and that *men* should cook. He was surprised to find that Meiran was no where in sight but the pot was on the stove, cooking and there had obviously been some activity of cooking around here.

He frowned. "Meiran? Mei-Mei, where are you?" He walked out of the kitchen and headed towards the stairs. Half way there, he tripped over something in the way. He caught himself against the wall and cursed softly. He looked down and his eyes widened.

There, on the hallway floor, laid Meiran. He couldn't see her in the bad lighting but Wufei knew something was very, very wrong. He stumbled over to the hallway lights and flipped them on. He turned around and stifled a scream. Meiran was completely covered in her own blood, her beautiful clothing stained with the near black color. Her dark eyes were wrenched open and stared unseeingly with fear at whoever was her attacker. Her pale, smooth throat was slashed open and blood still seeped from the gaping wound.

"Oh gods." Wufei clutched his stomach, feeling sick as he stared at his pretty wife, lying there, cold with death. Tears filled his eyes and he numbly dropped down beside his dead wife, his legs unable to support himself any longer. He didn't dare touch her, didn't want to feel her cold skin or her sticky blood against his own flesh. And gods, there was so much blood! So much!

<Nononono! Who could have done this? WHO?? Why would anyone do this?> Wufei thought, his throat closing and his stomach lurching. <Mei-Mei...oh gods, Mei-Mei!!> Finally, Wufei couldn't hold it in any longer. He crawled over to a spot a few feet away from Meiran and threw up everything he had eaten for the day. He knew he was weak but he couldn't help himself. Gods, he had never seen so much blood before. His poor wife! Who could have done this to her? And why??

When his stomach was finally emptied of all its contents, he fell back away from it and leaned against the opposite wall. He didn't look in the direction of Meiran's body in fear he would throw up again or start crying like a baby. They had not loved each other like lovers but they had cared for each other and it hurt Wufei to see her like this, dead. Murdered!!

Anger filled Wufei, finally, and he struggled to his feet. He stumbled over to a phone in the middle of the hallway and picked up the phone. He quickly dialed for the police.

"Hello? I'd like to report a murder..."

~*~

A year or so later...

Wufei grabbed the mail from his metal mailbox and stuffed it into his bag before starting up the stairs to his new apartment. He had moved out of the old apartment where his wife had been murdered and into a new one in another city. He just couldn't stay. It hurt too much. It was easier to be away from it all.

He had gotten a job at the local high school, a change from his times at the University, but he didn't care. He liked teaching at the high school even though everyone thought he was too young to actually teach. So what if he was barely eighteen years old? That had been a problem when he taught at the University. Most of the college students couldn't believe someone so young was teaching *them* about philosophy!

He had adjusted to everything and he was starting to get some semblance of real life except for the times when he remembered Meiran. It hurt a lot and sometimes dumped him into depression for just a little while, but he always managed to pull himself out. He was starting to live life again after mourning for almost a year.

They had never found out who was Meiran's killer. There had been no evidence whatsoever and the police closed the case as unsolved after a few months. Wufei had given up as well. He had offered to pay anyone almost anything to find the Meiran's murderer but no one came up with information and soon they just gave up. Maybe someday the case would be solved, but not right now.

Wufei threw his bag onto the table in the middle of the small kitchen and pulled out his mail. "Junk, junk, junk, bill, bill, junk, bill...What the heck is this?" Wufei stared at the neat, flat white envelope with his name written in big, bold letters across. There was no return address and no stamp. Someone had personally delivered it.

Frowning in curiosity, Wufei ripped open the envelope and pulled out a single letter folded three times over. He pulled it out. The first thing that caught his attention was the large trademark on the top of the stationary paper. It was black circle with two swords crossed in front of it and red colored ink dripping from the blades like blood. For a moment, he remembered the blood that had soaked Meiran's body and clothes but he shook off the image. In the middle of the two crossed swords of the blood had the letters BG in old gothic print.

Wufei then read the letter:

Dear Mr. Chang,

If you wish to find out who the murderer of your late wife, Chang-Ron Meiran, please follow the directions in this letter.

Wufei's dark eyes progressively widened as he read the instructions mentioned in the first sentence. At the end, there was a flourishing signature with the name 'Zechs Merquise' printed on the bottom of it to make some sense of the impossibly elegant--and unreadable--signature.

"Oh, gods," the Chinese teenager whispered as he finished reading and then reread it. After he was done, he forgot everything about school and tomorrow's lesson. He immediately went to his room and began to pack. Finally, he was going to have a chance to find Meiran's killer.

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And that's the prologue. I hope I'm doing this right...I've never really done adventure...

Started: April 28, 2001; 12:39pm