DARK RED [ITADORI Y.]

―II. BAD FEELING

CHAPTER II. BAD FEELING

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"LOOK, all I'm saying is that unless I actually do it, there's no way that it can hurt me,"

I shrugged, tipping back in my chair. Oyama looked at me, her eyes half-lidded in annoyance. She kicked my chair, making me choke out a gasp. Had Yuki not been standing there, I would have fallen and probably cracked my head open.

"Now you're just abusing her," Yuki said, placing my chair back onto its legs. She placed the tray of our food down onto the table, and Oyama and I both perked up.

"Did you even hear what she was talking about doing?" She asked, leaning over to grab a fry from my hand. I pouted at her.

"I'm not so sure I want to know," Yuki sighed. "But, tell me anyways."

"She was going to try and flip from the top of the rock quarry into the lake," Oyama said.

Yuki glanced from me to Oyama, and then again. "I...don't see the issue? There's a diving board up there. People jump from it all the time."

"Thank you!" I exclaimed, tossing my hands in the air.

"But it's Y/n," Oyama emphasized my name. "She literally gets hurt doing everything because she does something stupid with it!"

"Yeah that's a fair point," Yuki replied, placing a sandwich in front of me and ordering me to eat it.

"You guys have no faith in me," I pouted.

"I wonder why," Oyama and Yuki said in unison, making me hang my head in defeat.

After we had finished eating, we gathered our school bags and began to head home. We hadn't realized it before, but the sky was darkening, and none of us had brought an umbrella.

"Ah, I really hope it doesn't rain," Oyama whined, looking up at the sky. "I just bought these shoes."

"My mom said something about a storm this morning," I said, also looking up at the gray sky. "But I didn't think she said it would be today."

"It's Japan," Yuki sighed, raising a hand. "What do you expect? Tomorrow it'll be snowing."

"It's September," Oyama laughed.

"You never know," She hummed, making us all laugh at her.

As we passed by the street corner, where the bus stop was, it left us with only half a block until we got to my house. However, I felt my steps halt, and my body go rigid. Oyama and Yuki noticed that I wasn't following, and stopped, calling out my name.

For some odd reason, I had suddenly become so overwhelmed with fear. It was so immense and so sudden that it had taken me off guard. The intensity of this fear was nothing compared to any kind or form of fear I've ever experienced before. I could feel my body shaking, my grip tightening on my bag so much that my knuckles were starting to turn white, and my hand shook from the force.

"Y/n?" Yuki called. "What's the matter? Why do you look so scared?"

This was odd. This was very odd. So odd that it felt...wrong. You know that feeling you get in your stomach when something's not right? Yeah. That's all I could feel right now. My stomach swirled, and I swallowed the lump forming in my throat, raising a hand to my neck as I did.

"Y-Yeah!" I said, shaking my head. "J-Just got a--a bad feeling, y'know?"

"You look terrified," Oyama frowned, reaching to take my wrist. "Come on, let's go ho--"

The three of us froze at the sound of a deep chuckle. The voice sounded distorted and grew in volume with each passing second. The person drew in a breath before laughing even louder.

We looked at each other in pure fear, every bad possibility running through our heads. We'd always been taught never to walk alone, but nothing had ever happened to us before. We'd been walking this same road since we were in primary school. Of course, we were also taught what kind of danger men could present to us, especially if we were alone.

It didn't help that now the rain had started, and started heavily. We were drenched within a few seconds. The sound of it hitting the metal tin roofs would have been deafening any other time, but now it seemed as if it couldn't be any quieter compared to the laughing.

We exchanged a glance. Yuki parted her lips, slowly mouthing the words: 'three, two, one'. When she mouthed the final word, we bolted. Throwing our bags behind us, we took off down the road. The three of us all ran track together, so we were pretty fast, faster than whoever was behind us.

Or so we thought.

Oyama screamed, making Yuki and I quickly stop. I slid on the slick ground but flipped around quickly and in just enough time to see Oyama fall. No, she was tripped. She spun onto her back, screaming and kicking her legs.

"Yuki!" She screamed. "Y/n! G-get it off me!"

I scrambled to my feet, running towards her. "There's nothing there!" I exclaimed, grabbing her arms. As I tried to pull her back, it was like something was keeping me from doing it.

Like a game of tug-o-war, I tried to break the force on whatever was pulling Oyama back. She was crying, and Yuki and I both tried our best to get her back. And whatever the hell it was, it was strong, because Yuki and I were not weak girls. We threw shotput and discus, and those were not light, so I know for a fact with both of us pulling, we should have been able to get her back.

"It hurts!" She screamed, kicking her legs. "Ow, ow!"

"It's gonna pull her leg out of the socket!" Yuki yelled.

I saw her grip loosen in fear of hurting her. The moment it did, she was ripped from our hands. She screamed, her palms slapping against the wet concrete as she was drug away quickly. Yuki and I were in utter shock, frozen in place by what just happened.

We were so confused. But I knew that Oyama was in danger. She was scared and confused too.

I ran forward, jumping over our discarded bags as I chased after her. Yuki yelled my name, but after a second, I heard her footsteps following me. We both called Oyama's name, our voices being drowned out by the sound of the heavy rain.

We watched as she was drug into the vacant house down the road, and the door slammed shut. Yuki and I stopped at the gate, our chest heaving as we tried to catch our breath. Water rolled from my hair and from the bridge of my nose, dropping onto the ground with the rest of the rain. We shared a glance.

Without saying anything, we grabbed the top of the gate and jumped over it after Oyama.

[Chapter II. End]
[Image belongs to me]