The Bird and the Garden 2: Restart!

Chapter 48: Evil's Reality

When Y/N's eyes opened, he didn't recognize the ceiling above him at first. Then again, the only ceiling he had ever really bothered to look at was the one above his bed. He sighed, his energy sapped. He laid there, and he listened to the sounds of students going about their day.

... Students?

He sat up. He nearly let out a cry of shock. He was sitting in the hallways of Beacon Academy. All around him, students moved down the hall, some chatting away happily.

Only it was all wrong.

The students looked as if they were put together by a demented doll maker. Facial parts were in the wrong places, limbs moved at awkward, unnatural appearances, hair grew in abnormal areas, everything about them was wrong. Even the way they spoke was wrong; their language was grotesque and guttural, a thick soup of unintelligible words and clicks.

It didn't stop with the students. The hallways flickered and shifted, unstable with the fractured Reality. Y/N felt terror building in his chest. His head hurt. His eyes hurt, just looking at those things that wore the uniforms of his old school.

There was an awful sound from behind him. It sounded like the squeal of tires on the street. Y/N flinched, turning around. The color drained from his face.

It was Weiss. Or at least, that was who Y/N thought it was supposed to be. It wore her clothes, it held her appearance. The only difference was that it's skin flickered like a broken television. It didn't have any facial features, just a smooth surface. It's skin would never flicker to human skin. Just a mess of blue, pink, red, white, yellow, and black. In fact, the only reason Y/N suspected it even was Weiss was from the way it stood.

"W... W-Weiss...?" Y/N could feel his heart throb. The creature let off another shrill shriek, its hand moving calmly, as if it was having a normal conversation.

Drip.

Y/N's eyes felt hot. Was he crying? When he reached his fingers up and touched his face, he didn't see the sparkle of tears. He saw red. His eyes were bleeding.

Drip.

He didn't need to touch his nose to figure out that was bleeding, too. He looked back at the creature, tasting the coppery taste as the blood trickled past his lips.

"A-ah... Ahh..." Y/N's screams came out as nothing more than a soft sigh. His head felt like it was splitting into a million pieces, his mind unable to comprehend what he was staring at. His knees wobbled, knocked together, and with a soft thud he collapsed.

The creature stooped down, letting out another loud screech. It held no hostility in the way it stood, and its flickering hand reached down for him. Gently its fingers ran through his blonde locks, caressing him affectionately. A wave of comfort washed over Y/N, the hero looking back up at it. There was no more doubt in his splitting mind. It was Weiss's Soul, corrupted from Salem's Reality. And yet it made no move to attack him. That was when he realized - when the Souls were not being used, they were their normal selves, despite being a physical mess.

Slowly and gently, the creature helped him to his feet, carefully wiping away at the blood that obscured his vision. It stepped away, beckoning him to follow with another high pitched screech. Y/N didn't see any other option; after all Salem's Soul was nowhere to be found. He was beginning to question if it even had a Soul. Then again, if it didn't then he wouldn't have been able to enter its Reality.

As he followed Weiss down the flickering and shifting halls, he decided to ask a question that had been on his mind. "Erm... Weiss?"

The jumbled mess of flashing lights turned to him curiously.