The face behind the mask

As for the aftermath of our discussion yesterday, I’ll happily explain it to you. After listening on for a while, I had enough of it all, and told Naomi to shut up. Her face burned with anger as she began fuming at me, questioning what she had done wrong. Of course I could’ve told her exactly what pissed me off, but at the time my mind was so filled with anger that I didn’t felt the need to properly explain her.

Naturally, tension rose in our warm, and cozy home. It was so bad that we had to eat diner separately. And the same went for when we went to sleep. Since I was the one who started it all, I was blessed with sleeping on our hard, and cold couch.

Things didn’t improve the next morning. As Naomi was still mad at me, she decided that I would have to make my own breakfast. Being the one that never cooked in his life, not even once, this was quite the punishment for me; Despite Naomi still being mad at me, we did eat together this time. It wasn’t relaxing or anything, since the air was fairly tense.

As for my breakfast, I had to do with some bland cornflakes. I was sobbing internally while watching Naomi eat her breakfast full of nutrition. That came of course with having pissed her off, not that I could complain about it.

While I was chewing down some of the cornflakes, it was then that Naomi turned her head to me. Her icy gaze sent chills down my spine, as she began to speak.

“You've got any plans for the evening?” she said, as she put her spoon in her mouth.

Of course, I found it quite shocking she was even willing to speak to me, I couldn’t help but voice my concern.

“Why do you ask?” I asked her.

“Just wanting to know.. And?” her tone was emotionless, as she continued taking bites from her meal.

“No, I’m free this evening.”

“Excellent.” she faked a smile, as her face was still expressionless. She had her eyes closed too. “You’ll be coming with me then.” Naomi pointed at me, as her fake smile grew wider.

“Wait… What?” naturally, as she wasn’t making any sense to me, I couldn’t help but voice my concerns. My head tilted at an angle, as I narrowed my eyelids, almost shutting them close.

“You heard me. Since you don’t have anything planned this evening you’ll have the pleasure of going out with me.” she had put an emphasis on the ‘you’ part, and with great enthusiasm too. With the ice-cold tone in which she spoke it caused goosebumps to spread across my body. As I was getting scared for what might happen this evening, I continued eating my breakfast completely shaking the entire time.

During the day, nothing else note-worthy happened, expect the part in which Naomi proceeded to stalk me around the house for what felt like hours on end, just endlessly glaring at me. Honestly, I felt like escaping every time I felt her presence near me, but my fear for her grew as I saw her pupils, completely ridden of their lights. It gave off the same presence of that of a ghost, just casually waiting to snatch her pray.

Then came the evening, the source of my many worries, as I was silently nibbling on some toast I had made. Naomi came from behind me, grabbing my shoulders with immense strength. I swear you I hadn’t experienced anything more frighting than that, it caused my heart to skip several beats. But anyways. As she was coldly caressing my shoulders, she began speaking in an icy tone.

“It’s finally time, A-k-i-r-a.” she finished her sentence with a forced grin pasted on her face. The cold air surrounding me made me almost freeze to death, but as her grip tightened on both my shoulders, I couldn’t help but feel threatened.

And that is where we found ourselves now. After Naomi made me put on my best of the best tailer branded suite, and she herself put on one of her favorite dresses in her collection, we both walked out the door, heading straight into the darkened streets that were left almost vacant.

As the bright moon stood at its zenith, shining bright beams of light upon the city of Kyoto, we continued to walk down the path, with Naomi leading the way. So far as I’m concerned, I didn’t have any clue on where we might be heading to. I’ll be honest here, it made me quite nervous as I wrapped my hands deeper into my suite;

Now as I was mindlessly following Naomi’s lead, faint memories of the past came back flashing before me. One of them being our first date three years ago, as the circumstances were relatively similar, except I had the lead back then. Despite Naomi being in her sourly mood, her beauty still shone brightly as the clear gray dress she wore heightened her attractiveness. It fitted her womanly body perfectly, too much to be exact.

I had trouble looking away from it, as my eyes kept turning towards it. And then came the ultimate embarrassment that I felt in a long time. And why you may ask? Well, let’s just say that Naomi had caught me staring at her. My cheeks glowed red, as I quickly turned my head away from her. The awkward silence that filled the air, made it even more uncomfortable.

As my eyes were focused at the ground below me, I kept thinking about the events that occurred yesterday, in particularly the event in which I was almost suffocated, by that giant bastard of a man. I still haven’t figured out who that bastard was, nor his little friend; I clenched my hands into fists as I kept seeing their faces over and over again. With this body of mine, it would be almost impossible to get back at them. Which reminded me, about the other person who stopped that giant monkey from ending me there.

At the time, as I was still recovering my breathing, my sight turned back to normal. Despite of how much of a mess I was, I was still able to sneak a peak at the person who had spared me. As I looked at his face which could only be described as beautiful, I was overwhelmed with anger. Yes, it was a face that I had seen not so long ago, a few day back to be exact. It was Akemi, and as I thought back of that bastard’s face, I felt my expression darkening.

As we continued our walk in silence, it was then that Naomi began breaking the ice. Naturally, I ignored it all, since I was contemplating a plan to deal with those bastards. Since I was so caught up in it, it was not long before Naomi stood before me, with an angry look on her face.

“Hey, are you listening?!” Naomi yelled, making me snap back to reality. “Don’t you go and make a huge fuss in there, you understand!“ she placed herself in my line of sight, she pointed her finger at me.

“Alright, alright.” I said, as I looked away. In response Naomi pouted, her bulging cheeks filled with air.

We continued on walking for a few minutes, when Naomi had suddenly stopped before a luxurious restaurant. She turned around, staring right at me, and a soft grin had formed on her face.

“We’re here.” she said as she locked her arms with mine. My body kept feeling uneasy, like I was entering some battlefield or something. My heart started beating faster, and so to calm it, I took a deep breath in and out before entering the place.

When we finally entered, we were greeted by an employee. Her long dark hair reached the bottom of her back. Her facial features shone magnificent. Her uniform, though a standard one, fitted her body perfectly. She wore a wide smile.

“Good evening, How can I help you?” she asked, her tone really professionally.

“I have a reservation here.” Naomi answered, as she had let go of me.

“May I ask your name please?”

“Naomi, Watanabe.” the employee searched through her reservation list, and when she found Naomi’s name there, she straightened her back.

“I see, you’re table is over there near the window. Your guest has also arrived, and is sitting right there.” she pointed towards our table, and there really was someone sitting there. A guest? I mumbled. I didn’t think Naomi would invite another person and not tell me.

As we closed the distance to our table, the guest, the one who had been sitting with their back towards us, quickly stood up when Naomi had called out to them. From how wide their back was, I deduced that it was undoubtedly a man we would be meeting. But who was he really? A friend? Or someone I didn’t know.

The unease in my abdomen kept growing, as he finally turned around to face us. No way… As I looked at that man, my anger began boiling inside. It’s that bastard. Not in a million years could I guess that someone would’ve been Akemi. His smile widened as he greeted us. He began talking to Naomi, who was immersed in their conversation, while I stood there completely silent. That bastard glanced at me for a second, that smile turning into a grin.

That fucking bastard. Not only did he threaten Naomi after I got beat up by his underlings, he has the nerve to play innocent in front of her as well. If I really wanted to I could smack that grin of his face, but that would only get me in trouble, so I refrained from doing that, controlling my inner rage.

He urged us to take our seats, and took a seat himself. Then a waitress came to us, and asked for our order. After scrolling through their menu, I had picked something random, and said it to the waitress; The bastard said his item right after, then Naomi. After the waitress noted our orders, she promptly excused herself, leaving us with an awkward silence.

The air around us began chilling, as I and that bastard kept staring at each other. It seemed Naomi had difficulty breaking the ice, as she kept opening her mouth but no sound came from it. It didn’t matter though, even if we managed to talk to one another, it’s naturally that hell would break loose.

I mean, I’m already trying my best to control the anger within me from just looking at him, if you added the nonsense that he would spew on top of that, you best believe that someone isn’t returning home tonight.

The silence continued until the waitress returned with our order. She placed the plates, and quickly left.

As we were eating our meals, it was then that he began talking.

“How are your meals?” he said, as he looked up from his plate, looking at us. I didn’t feel like responding, so I continued on with my meal. Naomi on the other hand…

“I didn’t know this stuff would be so delicious. Am I in heaven?” tears of joy flooded down as she continued eating her meal.

“That’s fine too hear, thank you. I guess it was good a good idea to pick this restaurant then.” that bastard smiled, and began turning his head in my direction. “And you?”

Of course, I ignored the bastard. Seriously, does he really think he can play the nice guy after what he had done to me? Well think again.

As I continued on eating my meal, it was then that I felt something collide on my leg, I screamed inside as the pain from the impact intensified. I looked at the only suspect I thought. She looked at me, her eyes exposed her burning pupils to me. The scene was so frightening that the air around us tensed up even more. Sweat began dripping as I looked away from her. That’s when I noticed something off about that dude.

He kept on smiling, not the regular one he had put up this entire time, a rather vicious one so to speak. His pupils turned black all of a sudden. I was getting freaked out, as a dark, malicious aura began emitting from his body. After I blinked a few times, his empty smile returned, and the dark aura disappeared.

Did I just see things? I got confused for a moment there. What just happened? Was it my imagination? I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually did, since that bastard was pure evil, but it sure creeped me out. I slowly caressed my arm behind the table, the goosebumps were disappearing.

Naomi had stopped glaring at me already, and was now talking with him. As I persisted on not communicating with that bastard, Naomi had properly giving up on me, and so began breaking the ice herself. Now, watching them talk to one another sparked something inside me.

Something difficult to explain. I began feeling a mixture of emotions. Some part of me felt angry, while another felt jealous seeing them hitting it of together. But that wasn’t all. Somewhere deep inside me I felt.. scared?

As conflicted as I was about these feelings, I continued listening to their conversation. The subtle jokes the two were making, how they enjoyed spending their time together. Seeing them like this made me realize, what this conflicted feeling is.

I looked at one person in particular. Her smile shone brightly, as she immersed herself deeper in the conversation. It was like she completely forget about my existence. I couldn’t help but feel saddened by this. Were all the times we’d spent together mean nothing to her? The mere thought of that could crush me completely. I couldn’t believe it, or rather I didn’t want to. After all, she was my only hope, my beacon of light. If I were to lose her then …then.. I felt my emotions leaking out my body, leaving me completely empty.

Suddenly, my gaze turned back to the one bastard, the one that caused it all. Yes, I am indeed talking about Akemi. As I saw him continue talking to Naomi, he paid no attention to me. To him, I was someone who blended in with the mob, a background character so to speak.

My mind was slowly getting engulfed by the flickering of burning flames, the more I looked at that pathetic bastard the more angry I got. It had gotten to the point that I felt my body boiling. The bastard finally finished talking, when he looked at me. The way he hid his smirk without Naomi noticing was the breaking point for me. The only thing I thought that moment was that this bastard was dead meat.

As reason had vanished from me, I had put fork down. Naomi was looking at me confused, while that bastard was still grinning behind her back. I looked to both my sides, my gaze returned to the one sitting before me. I had forced a smile, and threw my plate at him. As he hadn’t anticipated this, he was unable to dodge it. His entire face was covered with remnants of my meal, some of the sauce I had began slowly gliding his cheeks, his outfit was also smothered with it.

When he was still processing what exactly had happened to him, I jumped from my chair towards him, giving him a hug jab to his cheek. He fell backwards, falling on his back. Not wasting any precious time, I continued assaulting him, primarily targeting his face. After giving him three or so more punches, that’s when I was pulled back by security. They began dragging me away, as the silence had turned into a chaos. Some employees went to check on Akemi, tending him.

As I looked at that bastard, despite being the one injured, he still grinned as if he enjoyed what had just happened.

It wasn’t long before the guards threw me out the door, entering right after, like I was just some trash they just disposed off. They left me all alone, as not a soul could be seen beside those leaving the restaurant. They ignored me as they walked to their vehicles.

And as for me, I was still lying on the dirty ground. For some reason my body refused to get up, that’s why I stared at the night sky mindlessly. As my mind was slowly drifting away, my view was suddenly blocked. It was a someone I knew really well. It was none other than my wife, Naomi. Her eyes staring right through me.

“What was that just now?” she said, her tone hinted nothing but disappointment.

A stress reliever.. Even though my heart was bursting to respond, I was so exhausted that I stayed silent.

“Why did you make such a scene? Didn’t you say that you would behave?” Naomi continued, her tone still the same.

Because that bastard is playing with you.. I thought. Naomi’s face came closer to mine. Her eyes were bloodshot, exposing her inner rage.

“Do you plan on laying down forever or something? Stand up.” she demanded, this time her tone vacant of any emotion.

I forced every ounce of my body to get up, and when I stood right, I cleaned some dirt from my suit. I faced the beast before me, she had her fangs ready for an attack. I was now at the mercy of this beast.

“Explain yourself.” it seemed my silence had made her angry, even more so than what I did inside the restaurant. Her hazel-colored pupils turned an even darker red color.

“Where should I start…” after taking a deep breath, I began opening up to her. At first I started explaining my worries towards that bastard. And as I continued on, I began exposing my insecurities to her as well. My expression darkened, and I adopted a wry smile.

As I was rumbling on about how much of a prick that bastard is, I felt a sudden painful sensation across my left cheek. I was flabbergasted of course, as I looked at the suspect, her palm glowed a full light red color. She gritted her teeth in anger.

“Is that what this is about?” she said silently, her expression darkened as well.

“What are you… Hugh..” as I was asking what she’s on about, I felt a sudden jab to my left cheek, sending me flying backwards. I fell on my back, as I looked at Naomi, who jumped on me. She sat on my stomach.

Fear began consuming me, as she followed up with another punch to my cheek. The force behind it was so strong that I felt my jaw breaking. Then she punched my right cheek, and then the other. The waves continued as I tried covering, shielding myself with my arms. Unfortunately, she still managed to hit me. With my only defense completely shattered, I could do nothing except receive her punishment.

“Why won’t you tell me anything? Why do you always keep me out of it? Is it because you think I’m not capable of helping you? We’re married, you idiot! So, please tell me? What’s wrong with you?!” I responded with silence, and looked away. I glanced back at her, and saw beads of tears flooding down her eyes, as she continued her assault on me. With each question she posed, her movement slowed ever so slightly.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?!” she slammed her fists against my chest, as she began crying. Her tone sounded of that of an angry child.

I couldn’t bring myself to answer her, even though the urge grew. As I responded her question with silence, she got up and looked at me, her expression darkened again.

“I hate you..” she said, as she ran off. I was still laying on the ground, my face still bruised and all. As I saw the moon shine at its brightest, I began questioning were it all went wrong.

I lost track of time, as I continued to stare at the dark blue colored sky. After my body recovered most of its strength, I got up, and headed home. The moment I entered, I took of my shoes, and wore my slippers. As I arrived at the living, I turned on the lights. A tingling feeling began assaulting my stomach, something felt off. It was awfully quiet, not a single thing could be heard. I searched around, first inspecting the kitchen.

Everything was left untouched, thus I began inspecting the other rooms. Nothing else felt out of place, as everything still stood on there place. It was when I checked my bedroom, when I found an unsettling discovery. Nothing felt wrong at first, but when I checked our drawers, I saw that Naomi’s clothing were gone.

The unease grew as I hurried myself back downstairs. There on the table, in front of the couch, there was a note taped on it. I grabbed it, and read its content. I fell on the couch behind me, with my back hunched forward. My face began twitching, as my arm holding the note started shaking.

Its content read as follows: ‘Thought that we should spent some time apart. Use the time to cool down, please. Yours dearly, Naomi.’ I gritted my teeth in anger, as I flipped the table in front of me. I began grabbing my hair, some of my hair torn from the pressure. At that exact moment, it was then that the tears I held up began streaming violently down my cheeks.

As my only beacon of hope had left me all alone, I couldn’t help but let out all my frustrations. With my mind completely exhausted now, I went to bed, where I continued to weep for the entire night.

The days flew by as Naomi still hadn’t returned home. As for what had now become a routine, I find myself wake up alone in bed. Completely demotivated to welcome the day, I hesitantly got up after my alarm kept pestering me for a while now. I turned it off, and looked outside the window. It was still relatively dark, with the sun just exposed. I opened my phone and looked at the date of today, and let out a big sigh.

My little vacation was over now, as today would be day I returned back to work. I headed towards the bathroom, and cleaned myself up. When I was done putting on my work outfit, I went downstairs, and made breakfast. After I finished eating it, I headed towards the door and put on my jacket.

I looked back at the silent living, these few weeks that Naomi left me were kind of depressing. The usual warm home that brought joy to my heart was now painted a dark gray, it pained me seeing this happen in such a short period.

Unable to bear it anymore, I exited my home, and closed the door behind me. I turned my back, and looked towards the sky. I felt small beads of water fall on my cheeks, as it started pouring. The day begun with bad weather, perfectly describing how I felt deep inside.

                                                                    …

Slap.

The sound echoed throughout the room, my cheek slowly turning red.

"How dare you ignore me when I ask you to do me a favor, huh?!"

A young man, who was of average height, stood before me. His hair was a solid brown color, his pupils had the same color as well. He wore a pair of glasses, and his facial features were average to say the least. His entire outfit beamed ‘rich’ as he showed of the latest and expensive luxury wear. For those that don’t know, he was my boss.

When I arrived at work, he had called me to his office. After we entered, the servant closed the door behind us. My boss came closer to me, and slapped me across my face. His face glowed red of anger, and the servant behind us was visibly shocked.

My boss proceeded to slap me several times before going to his desk, and serving himself some wine that he hid under his desk.

“Well, explain yourself dog?! I’m waiting!” he yelled as he jugged the glass in one shot. He began filling it again.

“Due to problems at home sir, I wasn’t able to..” as I was explaining my reason, he threw his already-emptied glass at me. It shattered on impact, some of it piercing through my skin. In one swift movement, I removed those, sounds of glass hitting the ground began echoing.

“I don’t care about your reason you asshole.. I just don’t believe a dog wouldn’t do as his master tells him.” he got up from his desk, and came close to me again. This time though, he was practically in my face. I hid my discomfort behind a emotionless expression.

“You better make up for it you prick.” he said, as my nostrils were attacked by a sudden stench. His morning breath, combined with the smell of liquor, really was a deadly combo. I held back from puking in his face and responded with a stern “Yes, sir.”.

He returned to his desk, when he gestures me to leave. I did as I was told and went back to work. As I got near the door, the servant looked at me apologetically.

My boring day continued as I was busy completing everything on my to-do list. That fucking bastard of a boss, he sure loved punishing people. As I just finished the last thing on my list, it was then that I received another task from that bastard. And you wouldn’t guess it, cleaning the men’s toilet room. I covered my nose, as the nasty smell of it made its way to my nose.

As I was about to begin, my phone began vibrating. I grabbed it from my left pocket, and saw that someone was calling me. It was my father-in-law, Youij Watanabe. I answered his call and began greeting him.

“Hi, what’s the occasion?” I said, forcing myself to sound as happy as possible.

“Have you seen Naomi lately?” I expected him to return the same energy as I gave, but instead I was met with a bitter iciness in his tone. He sounded quite exhausted.

“No, what happened?” I asked, quiet worried.

“You know that Naomi was temporarily staying at our place after your brawl together,”

That was indeed true, after Naomi had packed her things those weeks ago, the day after I received a phone call of my father-in-law himself, informing me about her whereabouts. I must say, I was certainly relieved after hearing she’s staying somewhere safe.

“So, what’s wrong?”

“You see, me and the family went on a camping trip for a week,” So what has it to do with Naomi? I thought.

“However she said she didn’t want to go, ‘wanting to spend some time alone’ or something.” I heard him scratch his beard.

“Then that means she’s just home right?”

“Well, we were expecting her to be home, but when we arrived just now, we didn’t find a single trace of her. That’s why I’m asking if you have seen her, surely you have made up by now, right?” I could hear the fear slowly consuming him, as his tone slowly pitched higher.

“Hey you’ve seen her right? She’s just at your place, right? Hey? Hey?! Hey??!! Why won’t you answer me, son?!”

Just hearing him go mad, makes my skin itch. I couldn’t possibly tell him I don’t know, I couldn’t get myself to it. It was as my father-in-law started rambling on, when I received a notification; Someone was calling me, as I read the caller-id, my mouth slowly opened widely. It was the missing girl herself, Naomi.

I hung up the call with Youij Watanabe, and answered Naomi’s call. I brought the phone close to my ear as I began speaking to her.

“Hey, your dad just called and he said you weren’t home? What the hell man, you said we were just spending some time apart, and you decide to run away all of a sudden? Where are you?!”

Instead of responding like a normal person, I was met with complete silence. I felt my blood boiling, as I gritted my teeth.

“We playing games now? Are you actually serious? Your dad is losing his mind because of you. And you think that’s funny?!” I knew that I wasn’t thinking rationally, but how can I not be. Especially after what she had pulled, I can’t believe that she wouldn’t give up already.

“Naomi! Answer me, dammit!” as I had enough of her nonsense, I yelled out. The silence was suddenly broken by a deep voice.

“This isn’t Naomi, you know.” it said menacingly. It then started laughing hysterically, slowly striking fear into me.

"W-who is this?" I asked hesitantly, not before taking in a gulp of air.

Beep, beep, beep. I heard, as the call was suddenly ended.

“Shit..” I slammed my fist against a wall near me, I began violently gritting my teeth. It wasn’t long before my phone started vibrating. I looked at the notification, I received a message from an unknown number.

After I clicking on it, I saw exactly what had been sent to me. It wasn’t a text or anything, but a picture. I had downloaded it first, then opened it. As I laid my eyes on that picture, I was suddenly consumed by fear, my heart began racing. Droplets of sweat glided down my cheek, as I made a run for it, heading towards my car.

As I just arrived near the exit, I heard my boss yelling at me from behind. When I was about to exit the building, he had grabbed my shoulder, preventing me from leaving.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?!” This freaking son of a bitch. I cursed him. I swear, I was this close to knocking the living hell out of him. My blood began boiling again, as I didn’t have any more time to waste. I shrugged him off, and was about to leave, but that bastard grabbed me again, preventing me from leaving.

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” he yelled as he came closer to me, I felt some of his spit drop on me. This was the last straw, as rage began consuming my mind, leaving no place for frivolous emotions such as mercy and forgiveness.

Now, with my chackles that held me back being gone, I turned my head towards the bastard behind me. My eyes turned bloodshot, striking fear into the little asshole, his legs began shaking rapidly.

“Out of my way,” I said as coldly as possible, my tone vacant of emotion. Immediately following it up with socking that bastards face with my elbow. I didn’t hold back of course, as it should. I watched him falling backwards, he landed on his butt.

As the pain finally registered, I saw him wailing in agony. Some of his teeth were missing, and blood kept coming out of his nose. The glasses he wore had giant cracks in them as well.

“Scum.” I added salt to injury, as I finally left the building behind me. Well, how do you like that for my resignation, you bastard! Without wasting much time, I quickly hurried myself to my car.

After I got into my car, I started the engine, and drove full throttle onto the road. I reached for my phone, and opened the picture again. After I looked at it closely, anger began enveloping my mind again.

On that picture, I saw Naomi taped onto a chair, Akemi stood next to her. He was smiling proudly to the camera. Someone else was with him, it was that giant monkey who whooped my butt a few weeks back. He stood behind Naomi, and with his left hand he squeezed her cheeks. From that photo, it seemed that Naomi was unconscious, her mouth was also taped shut;

At first I felt clueless of their whereabouts, until I noticed something in the background. It looked rather familiar, I struggled for a while until it hit me. It was our dining room. As I finally had a clue, I rushed to my house, riding through the red lights and all. After all, saving Naomi was all that mattered to me now.

It wasn’t long when I finally arrived near my home. I got out immediately as I parked my car nearby. I sprinted towards my house. After I kicked the door open, the first thing that caught my eye was our stuff being completely thrown around. As I didn’t wanted to waste precious time, I hurried myself to the dining room.

There, I was presented with a huge mess. Most of our furniture were either broken into many pieces, or just gone completely. The beige walls were sprayed on, insults targeting me were writing on it. I took a step forward, it was then that I felt something poke me.

I looked at it, it was splinters of glass spread across the floor. Between the mess was a photo, I grabbed it and brought it close to me. It used to be a photo of me and Naomi together, but right now my face was torn away; Naomi was encircled with red marker, dead skulls drawn beside her as well.

I felt my emotions leaking away, as anger slowly took hold of me. My expression darkened, as I had let go of the photo. Since those bastards weren’t here, I began searching around the house. I inspected every room, but all of them were completely vacant.

Quietly, I went to inspect the living, and there was when I found a clue. It was in the form of a letter, with “To pig-kun” in bold red written on it. I opened it, and read the one line out loud.

“Come to the public park at 08:30pm. Don’t be late or else…” I gritted my teeth, as I squeezed my hand into a fist.

“So be it, I’ll come for you bastard,” my eyes turned bloodshot, as my mind had been engulfed with nothing but revenge. “I’ll kill you, Akemi.” my voice echoed throughout the room, a cold breeze stroking my face.

The hours went by quickly, as it was now early in the evening. The moon was now a waxing crescent shining through the clouds that covered it. The wind began breezing, leaves spreading across town. I had just at the park, the place that bastard decided to meet;

I began walking around the area, in search of that bastard. There on an empty basketball field, I saw a figure stand in the center. I came closer, with silent steps. Perhaps by sensing me, the figure turned around, directly facing me. The light poles that stood at each corner of the field began brightening, the figure’s face became clear.

“Yo, A-ki-ra.” he said, the corners of his mouth formed a smile.

That bastard Akemi. His carefree attitude really ticked me off. I felt my anger rising, my eyes turning bloodshot, tensing the air around us. I slowly walked closer to him. With our faces were only centimeters apart, one thought was burning inside my mind.

That thought had broken the shackles, unleashing my thirst for revenge. My dopamine levels slowly rose, as I thought of the many ways that I would make him suffer. Just imagining his face filled with agony was enough to make sure I wouldn’t let him leave unscathed tonight.