Bargain

Friends don’t kill each other.

So why am I dead?

Floating in the darkness, Airi ran through every mistake she could’ve made leading up to the crash. But no matter how she considered it, she couldn’t figure it out.

Airi had done what anyone would have done! Had she misjudged Kazuko? Had Kazuko harbored a deep hatred for Airi that she’d managed to hide all this time? Or, had she simply been infuriated by the fact that she’d gotten caught and decided to take it out on Airi? That didn’t make sense!

The only other thing she could think of was that Kazuko had felt betrayed by Airi’s lie to the principal. Which was ridiculous! Airi had done what anyone would have done in that situation.

Airi drifted restlessly. The dense nothingness was all the same, with only her thoughts to keep her company.

Death.

Was this where her mother had gone after the final beep of the heartbeat monitor? If Airi drifted long enough, would she find her mother? She opened her mouth to call her mother’s name.

Her mother’s name. What was it?

She couldn’t remember anymore.

Suddenly the darkness had teeth, bent in a knifelike smile. There was something wrong with that smile; it didn’t look like it fit on a human face.

The teeth spoke.

“How odd. Your soul should have faded away by now.”

Airi felt cold. “Faded away? I thought...”

“But if your soul hasn’t faded away, there must be a reason you’re still clinging on. Perhaps you’re unsatisfied with the way things ended.”

Airi thought of Kazuko’s eyes glinting murderously behind the wheel. “...It’s not fair. I didn’t do anything to her.”

“You didn’t? How dreadful,” murmured the teeth sympathetically. “Your life cut short by your own friend. How angry you must feel.”

Airi hadn’t particularly noticed it before, but now red-hot anger pounded through her veins.

“Such an unfair end. You deserve a second chance, don’t you think?”

Suddenly, Airi found herself missing the warm touch of sunlight and wind, things she’d taken for granted until they were gone. She wanted to live more than anything.

“I can help with that.”

Help?

That word snapped Airi out of the daze. No one helped anyone for free.

The darkness swam, and Airi got the feeling that something large was moving around her, though she could see nothing.

Don’t panic, she told herself. If it’s here, it wants something from me.

“So what do you want?” she asked.

“I want to make a bargain with you,” said the teeth.

By now, Airi was fairly sure that the thing was a demon of some sort. And she might be a fool, but even fools knew not to accept demons’ bargains. There was always some hidden caveat or trick.

“Let me guess. You want my soul.”

The demon laughed. “How charming. That seems to be a common belief among your kind. No, I need your soul intact.”

“For what?” Airi’s hands flew to her heart instinctively. To be honest, she couldn’t think of anything worse than death. Even if she lost her soul, she’d be alive.

“There is a world that I long to visit, but it is frightfully hostile towards me. But your soul is different.”

“You mean...”

“Human souls are flexible. You need only hide a small part of me within your soul. It will not hurt you.”

Airi didn’t believe that for a second. “What’s in it for me?” she demanded.

“A second chance,” breathed the demon, and a shimmering world appeared in the starless darkness in front of her. It was like an oil painting, greens and blues and whites layered thickly enough to touch.

Airi’s breath caught in her throat. “So I take a part of you into this world. And then what?”

The demon only smiled wider.

“This world will be destroyed, won’t it.” Airi watched white clouds swirl across the world’s surface.

“What does it matter? You’ll live on, body and soul.” Airi sighed in relief, then stiffened as the demon wafted closer to whisper right into her ear: “Isn’t that what you deserve?”

It is.

But Airi recognized such obvious flattery, having used it herself in the past. “Why me? Why not some other poor sap?”

“We have a lot in common, you and I,” the demon purred. “I wouldn’t have sought you out if I didn’t know you were the one who could help me.”

Looking at the demon, Airi doubted the sincerity of its words. She certainly didn’t think she had anything in common with it. But she had two choices: accept its bargain or vanish. Forever.

She looked at the darkness where the demon’s eyes should have been. “I accept.”

The next sound she heard was a terrible scream of triumph. She thought she would be torn apart by the noise, but then the pain hit. It was a migraine stomachache heartburn lovechild, a call-the-ambulance feeling that made her curl within herself. And then it was gone.

She pressed a hand to her heart and felt the darkness settle within her. She was just thinking that she could live with this when a writhing mass of darkness breezed past her and shot towards the world, poised to collide—

The darkness slammed into an invisible barrier, which lit up in a tapestry of rainbow colors that sliced through the darkness. The nothingness absorbed most of the impact, but even so, Airi’s skin tingled, and the demon let out a howl of rage.

When the demon retreated, the world looked unchanged, until Airi got closer. She saw the faintest of tears in its rippling surface, already beginning to weave itself back together. It was far too small for the demon to get in, but...

“In you go,” said the demon’s voice from all around her, and she felt the darkness push her down.

“Wait,” Airi said in a panic. “Tell me more about this world. What are the people like? Wha—” The darkness shoved her through the crack in the barrier, and the demon’s voice disappeared. So did the darkness and the silence, replaced by the sound of wind.

Tumbling and spiraling, she saw a deep violet sky impaled with the brightest stars she’d ever seen. They glowed and winked like colorful pins. She couldn’t see the crack in the sky anymore, but one of the stars seemed to have detached from the glittering tapestry above. It fell all around her, tugging threads of blue sparks.

It suddenly occurred to Airi that the demon might have tricked her, and she was about to splat into a meat pancake. She squinted below, but it was a dark blur.

There was an explosion of blue sparks, and she was submerged in ice-cold darkness that snuffed out the blue light of the star. Around her, the flickering star pieces sank, hardening into blue crystal. She tried to suck in a breath and filled her lungs with water. How embarrassing, to die again after just being reincarnated—

She remembered her bargain with the demon. It wasn’t likely that she’d be given a third chance at life.

Somehow she made it to the surface. Through gasping breaths, she swam for the shore and heaved herself onto land.

Glittering stardust sloughed off her skin. She turned and saw that the whole lake was aglow with eerie blue light. Even her footprints in the mud were sprouting tiny blue crystals.

That was her last moment of clarity before she sank to her knees. Her head seemed to be shrinking and expanding, squishing her brains to a confused pulp, and her skin steamed, billowing clouds of water.

What was all that blue light? Was it Kazuko’s car, coming back to hit her a second time? Airi laughed dizzily and fell hard. She needed to get up... get up...

Something colorful bobbed above her face. A bouquet of red poppies. It was a funeral, then. A funeral for Airi, because she’d died. Was that Kazuko, looking down at her with such concerned eyes?

“Why did you kill me?” Airi mumbled incoherently. She thought she might grab those flowers out of Kazuko’s hands.

But they floated just out of reach. She lunged to grab the flower, fingers closing... and passed out.