Chapter 3: Dead End Ahead

After hearing a crack, I turned around to face whoever might be there, but I saw nothing. Let me correct myself: I saw a shadow disappearing, but little more than that. For a moment, I doubted my eyes, but then I noticed a small, blue dog charm on the ground. I knew three people who owned that charm and, looking at my bag, mine remained affixed to it. Even if I couldn’t say only the three of us had one, this one felt like one I knew well. Not that anything especially stood out, but for some inexplicable reason, I instinctively knew this belonged to one of us.

That brought up the question of why they would run away after seeing me. Or perhaps it was just a coincidence that I found this here. Either way, I placed the charm into my bag for now as I followed the shadow. In this crazy world, I hoped to find something—someone familiar. Everything seemed odd to me as I looked around and saw warped trees surrounding me.

At a steady pace, I made my way through the forest that stank of rotten wood. The ground below me squished slightly with every step, despite somehow remaining firm. Everything about this surreal place contradicted itself. If it wasn’t so vivid, I’d have assumed it to be a nightmare. Maybe it was, but if I acted that way and it wasn’t one… I shuddered as a chill crept up my spine.

With each step I took, the wrongness subsided just a little more. The bizarreness slowly changed to a welcoming and comforting sensation. And although I knew that this only proved how wrong this place was, I couldn’t help but accept it. In my head, I understood I needed to flee this place, but I struggled to find a reason to. To put it simply, I recognized the danger, but also couldn’t do anything about it.

Even with that, I continued to travel through the forest until I finally reached the edge. Once I passed the line of trees, the entire atmosphere changed. The scent of decay transformed into one of stagnation; the squishiness became a firm, but unstable footing. The surroundings transformed into a wasteland of rubble, aside from a few scattered buildings barely standing against the ravages of time.

A single step had changed everything, as if having passed through an unseen curtain dividing the two distinct environments. And as I continued towards the nearest building, the lonely echo of my own footsteps accompanied me. The dark sun above cast a darkness upon the stark paleness of the ground, and only the bright shadows cast by the large buildings showed the natural color of the concrete debris.

I rested in the sun’s shade when I neared one building. Once I entered the shadow of the building, I expected a severe change in the environment. Indeed, the moment I entered the building, a sense of vertigo overcame me as I fell onto the ceiling.

Wondering when I had closed them, I opened my eyes to see a little blood on the ceiling below me. Fortunately, despite the lengthy fall, I got out with only a cut on my head. I looked up to see the lobby elevators wide open with no sign of the elevators anywhere. They must have fallen towards the roof. Noticing a shattered phone on the ground, I followed it up to find the lobby desk far above me.

Looking at the shattered floor tiles around me, I suspected one of these had inflicted the injury I sustained from my fall. I carefully made my way past a chandelier before I reached a crumbled wall. Looking past the opening, I saw stairs below. I looked upwards at the stairs spiraling towards the floor with the railings pointed down towards me. I couldn’t reach the door so far above, so I turned back to the landing below me. I considered turning back and exploring the ceiling some more, but looking back, I saw no other useful openings.

Unless I planned to lift an entire bed by myself, these stairs were the only path down towards the roof. If you asked me whether I had a reason to go to the roof, I didn’t, but I felt a need. Something urged me to continue forward. With no other options, I carefully grabbed onto the tangled bars jutting out of the ceiling and lowered myself towards the landing below before letting go.

I instinctively winced as I landed, despite the lack of pain. The stairs creaked all around me, and I froze until the echoes subsided. Only then did I realize I needed to breathe as I gasped for air. I carefully made my way downwards until I came across an opening in the wall, but exploring the room revealed nothing of value. Just a floor full of empty rooms, although I discovered a flashlight that I kept.

I continued to explore each opening I found as I descended, occasionally taking a rest in the sun’s shade when the walls opened to the outside. I lost track of how many flights of stairs I descended before I encountered a hole that drew me in.

As I entered the room, I noticed a subtle dripping from the dangling showerhead. There, water pooled on the ceiling tiles and dirty footprints trailed from the shower to the bedroom. Following the trail to the hall, I saw several suitcases piled up as if to form a blockade.

Climbing over the suitcases, I cautiously moved forward, checking each room one by one until I found one with cabinets and mattresses forming a barricade. Carefully, I peeked around where I could before I pushed where I could to dislodge the barrier.

“Who—who is there?”

“Akane? It’s me, Mari!”

“Mari? No, go away. Stay away from me!”

Akane’s voice trembled, and I could taste her fear—it was a little sour. Although I didn’t know why she asked me to stay away, or perhaps because of that, I couldn’t leave her alone. I continued to push the furniture around until I finally made a small space to crawl through.

“Akane, don’t worry, it is me.”

“Please stay away. I’m sorry, I’ll never do it again, so please let me be.”

Looking around, I could see a tiny figure huddled by the bathroom shower. The missing wall distracted me for just a moment, but then I noticed her eyes. The red glow of her eyes circled her irises as she looked at me with a face scrunched up like she had just seen a five-armed girl with tentacles sprouting from a tail. One hand held a red towel to her abdomen while her other hand wasn’t there. Instead, a ribbon hung limply from the stump of an arm. No blood dripped from that arm, but it wasn’t there.

“I’m sorry, so please forgive me. We were friends, right? So, you can let me go this time, right?”

“I—”

As I spoke, the world warped for a moment as if someone cut a few minutes of time. I suddenly found myself in a corner of the room, the dark sun dimming the now open room. I wondered how much time was missing, but more importantly, someone I knew well stood over Akane’s motionless body, tears falling from her glowing silver eyes. Two swords shimmered at her waist, casting a dim light against the sun’s darkness. The darkness of the room only made the tears stand out that much more.

“I was too late. I really hoped it wasn’t you, but I can’t deny it any longer. Mari, why?”

“Touka… I don’t understand.”

“How could you?”

I don’t get it. Why was Touka standing over Akane’s body? Where was her head? Where was Akane’s head? Why did Touka cry as she shifted her gaze to me? I thrust my hand to my side as I spoke.

“Why did you—”

My shout cut off, interrupted by an unexpected splat at my feet. A chill crawled through my body as I looked down at the object by my feet. The face of a friend stared at me, twisted in fear and pain. Fresh, red stains covered my uniform as if I had just taken a bath in red paint. That same red coated my hands that held the head until just moments before.

“I didn’t. I wouldn’t.”

“Then why are you smiling?”

I looked into the nearby mirror, and the gold and purple glow of my eyes distracted me for a moment. For a moment, I wondered why my eyes glowed in such strange colors, but then I saw it. Even in the darkness, the white curve stood out. My hands trembled as they reached up to touch my face, but I they only confirmed what I already saw. I, Mari, was smiling. One of my best friends just died, and I was smiling.

“This is a horrible dream. This can’t be real.”

“Mari! Tell me. Why did you kill her?”

“I didn’t kill her. I was just talking to her. She was so scared. Then I was here.”

Why was Touka accusing me of killing Akane? I didn’t understand—I couldn’t understand. A blade slid from the scabbard at Touka’s waist and pointed towards me.

“You killed them too. Why? Tell me, Mari.”

The tears trailed down her cheeks even as she drew the other sword with her hand. Her hand quivered as she leveled the tip at my throat. Despite the threat, I lacked any fear—I felt confident that her blade could never truly hurt me.

“I never killed anyone. You know me, Touka. I wouldn’t do that.”

“I thought I knew. If you won’t say, then I must execute my duties.”

In a flash, Touka appeared in front of me, her blades thrusting at my neck. I heard the boom only after her luminant silver eyes came close to touching mine. But her blade never touched me. Instead, a wail came out of her as the blades fell to the ground along with her knees. Her hands frantically grabbed at my blouse as she sobbed.

“I can’t. Not you. Please run.”

“Run from—”

I never finished my sentence, as the next moment, my body soared through the sky, only the pain in my abdomen and the glowing pink eyes staring at me hinting at the reason. Looking at the ground so far below me, I expected the fall to hurt a little.

Was there anything I could do?