“Wake up. Wake up.” A voice called him from the darkness, but his eyes had no strength to open.

Rein was walking around the abandoned warehouse, searching for the secret entrance Arthur told him. But somewhere along the way, everything blacked out… what happened?

“Wake up, dear child.” Something hit his cheek, hard, but he felt no pain. Ah yes, recently he couldn’t feel pain anymore, nothing significant at least.

“Rein!” A voice called him. “Rein!” A familiar female voice. “Rein, wake up!” It was Iris. It was her voice calling him, but wasn’t she kidnapped? That was why he captured that girl, that why he went to the warehouse, to rescue her. So how could he hear her?

“Ah!” His eyes snapped open as his mind returned.

“Finally, you wake up.” A soft voice of an old man greeted his wake. Following the voice, Rein turned his head. “I’ve been waiting.”

The old man was grandfatherly, in his late fifties or early sixties, with big round glasses and a warm smile on his face. One wouldn’t expect this old man to be the culprit behind the recent serial kidnapping, but his presence there was enough to prove he was behind everything.

“You bastard! You will pay for this!” Iris scream reached Rein’s ears. She was tied to a wooden chair in the middle of a circle transcribed with mysterious runic letters. Seven other women circled her, laying with their body crucified to the floor. Their veiled face masked their scream of agony, but even then it was still very much audible.

The old man snapped his finger, and a piece of cloth flew around Iris and covered her mouth. ”Shh~ don’t be too loud. Our main guest is here.”

“I ... Iris?” Rein couldn’t believe it. It was her, there, in front of his eyes. “I ... Iris!” Happiness, sadness, sorrow, all swelled within his heart. His tears flowed as conflicting emotion clashed within his heart, draining his body of any strength it had left. He struggled to get nearer, but rope bound his limbs and body to a cross.

“Good. I know she’s the perfect bait.” The old man smiled.

Rein glared at the old man “What do you want?!” His voice, now filled with raw emotions of anger and contempt, lashed out.

But the old man only laughed. “What do I want? You!” He chuckled. “Iris and Friede Schmidt. The daughter of a very wealthy and powerful businessman. The man who controlled the magical drug trade in this continent. There are so many, countless even, men more powerful and more influential than you that I could threaten and blackmail with their lives, yet ... yet I choose you. Why do you think that is?”

With the knife in his hand, he cut and ripped Rein’s shirt, revealing the mark on his chest. Only, the mark was bigger now, much more complex and intricate than before, covering the entirety of his torso.

“Ahh~” He caressed the mark, with tenderness and love for a long-sought lover. Then his gaze snapped and locked with Rein. “You, Rein Constantine, are the key, to a new, better, more beautiful world.” He walked back without breaking his stare on the mark, like a painter admiring his beautiful masterpiece. “But you are, sadly, a rusted key. Rough, imperfect, and won’t fit nicely to the door I want to open. I need to bathe you, polish you, baptize you with blood and sin and… cruelty.”

He circled around Iris while caressing her hair. Her beautiful hair was dirty with mud and slime and dirt. “This,” he watched her with derogatory stare one would give a rabid mutt. “She’s merely a bait for you. Something to drive you forward, to do what is necessary.” He tapped her cheek. “Tell her, Rein, my dear Rein, what you have gone through. What you are willing to do to save her.”

“No ...” His voice was shaking. He couldn’t say it, not in front of Iris. He had prepared to face justice for what he had done. For Iris, he would commit even the most hideous of crime. But she mustn’t know it was for her sake. It would be fine if the blame was on him, he would carry it without complaint. Even if the world blamed him, Iris wouldn’t. Her tender and kind heart would only blame herself. He couldn’t allow it. “No ...”

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“TELL HER!!” The old man roared. He put the knife on Iris’ neck. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I don’t need her. I still have the other sister.”

“Friede ...” how did he forget about her. Surprised and happy as he was to meet Iris again, but to forget about Friede was just...

“Tell her now!” He pushed the knife, drawing blood from Iris’s neck.

“I ... I ...” He wanted to tell her, but his voice didn’t come out. The knife moved slowly, widening the wound. “I kidnapped someone.”

“Louder!”

“I kidnapped a girl! I sent her here! and gave her to him so I can save you! I killed her!”

The old man smiled and retracted his knife. “Good. Do you hear that, miss? That must feel so good, doesn’t it? To have someone love you so much he would commit a crime for you, kidnap for you, kill for you.” Iris released a muffled scream.

“Oh?” The old man faked a surprise. “It’s not enough? Do you hear that, Rein? She’s not happy that you kidnapped someone for her sake. It’s not nearly enough, she said.” he snapped his finger, releasing the bind that hung Rein to the cross and sending his body crashing to the concrete floor. “Go on then, prove your undying love for her.”

Even though his heart was rumbling with emotion, Rein still couldn’t feel the pain from crashing from that height or feel the coldness of the floor. But it doesn’t matter now.

“Come on, pick that up.” The old man pointed him to a knife laying on the floor. Rein had no choice but to pick it. “Now, choose from one of your seven brides.”

Rein couldn’t fake stupidity. He knew what he meant by seven brides, and with the knife in his hand, he also knew what the old man was demanding of him. To bathe in blood and sin and cruelty he said.

“Come now. Or do you want to be bathed by the blood of this special bride instead?” He put the knife on Iris' neck once again.

“Wait!” Steeling himself, he walked to the nearest woman laying on the floor. His hand shook and his knee trembled by the thought of what he was going to do. What Iris had to witness. The resolve to do whatever necessary to save Iris crumbled. The felt guilt and fear, dread and anxiety were too strong. He was weak.

“Open her veil and take a good look at your bride. And take off her gag.”

Slowly opening the veil, he saw the terror-stricken face of a girl. Why? Why it has to be her? He cursed himself. He chose the one closest to him, and it was the girl he kidnapped. There was no mistaking it. No way he could forget her face his whole life.

”Removes her gag, Rein.” Rein removed the clothes binding her mouth.

“Please! Please! Please! I’ll do anything, don’t kill me!” The girl uttered over and over again. “Please!” Her teary eyes pierced his heart, conscience, and soul. Even though he claimed to have doomed her, deep in his heart, consciously or not, he wished that she would somehow survive and escape the Dollmaker. To spare him the guilt and sin of killing her. Now, she will die by his hand.

”Now, consummate your marriage … by blood.”

She doesn’t deserve this. No one deserved this. But still, he raised the knife.

“Do it. Show how much you loved Iris!”

In moments like this, he wished his heart was a rock; he wished the numbness would overtake him; he wished he couldn’t feel anything, but he can. With his hand hanging over her chest, he gazed into her eyes. It was brown and round. Not much different from Iris. She had her family, like Iris. She had friends, like Iris. She had people she cared, she loved, and loved her back. Like Iris.

“I can’t!” He raised his gaze towards Iris. “I can’t.” Even for Iris, his hand refused to move.

The old man squinted his eyes. “For fuck’s sake-“ The old man raised the knife, ready to stab Iris instead.

And Rein brought down his arms. “AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” The girl screamed He raised the knife and slammed it down again and again and again, masking her bloodied scream with his own.

“No, no, no!” Rein screamed. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” blood splattered from the girl’s chest with each swing, bathing him with her fresh red and warm blood. Even as her body went limp, even as her scream stopped, his arm and knife never stopped. Dancing to the music of spilled blood.

Only after her blood stopped coming out did his arms stopped. By then, red painted his whole body. Rein gave the corpse underneath him a lifeless stare, and she returned with her own.

“Ahahahahhahahaahah!” The Dollmaker let out a maddened cackle. “Marvelous! Marvelous!” All trace of sanity left him. His kind face twisted so irrecoverably that nothing left of his former self was visible. “So exquisite! Pitiful! Poignant!”

He grabbed Iris’s head, who was trying to look away this whole time. “Look at that! Your groom, see what he would do for you!” He turned her face. “Come on! Say something, praise him at the very least!” All she could muster was a muffled scream. “What, not enough? Hehahaha! Do you hear that boy? It’s not enough! More blood for her!” Looking at the six other women chained to the ground only fueled the wicked fire burning in his heart. “Six brides to go, Rein! Do it! For IRIS!”