絆 | bond | gojo satoru

じゅうご | fifteen

絆 | kizuna | bond

15

Yuri

SHOCK HELD ME CAPTIVE FOR A HEARTBEAT, and then reality crashed down upon me like a relentless tidal wave. "No!" The word tore from my lips, a guttural cry of anguish that reverberated through the night. I fell to my knees beside her, hands trembling as I reached out, as if to undo the irreversible.

My heart pounding in my chest like a relentless drumbeat of despair. The pool of crimson beneath her seemed to seep into the very fabric of my being, staining my world in a haze of tragedy. Desperation clawed at my insides, and my trembling fingers reached out to brush against her cold skin, as if hoping against hope that this nightmare could be reversed.

"Please... Akira, wake up," I whispered, my voice choked with a raw ache that reverberated through the stillness of the night. The words were a feeble plea, a fragile thread of hope that threatened to snap under the weight of my realization. She was gone, forever torn from the tapestry of my life.

Blood continued to flow, a relentless reminder of the life that had been extinguished before my eyes. The crimson rivulets trailed through her hair like macabre strokes of paint, painting a grotesque portrait of our shattered dreams. With each beat of my heart, a bitter truth took root – my desperate pleas were nothing more than echoes in the void.

Tears blurred my vision, my voice a broken melody as I uttered words that felt like knives twisting in my chest. "Don't leave me," I implored, the words an anguished whisper that hung heavy in the air. "We were supposed to escape this hell hole together. I thought... I-I thought..."

A hollow ache settled in the pit of my stomach, an emptiness that matched the void that had taken root within me. Akira's absence was a chasm that threatened to swallow me whole, a reminder of the fragility of life and the cruel whims of destiny. Her sacrifice, her unwavering loyalty, had brought us to this moment, a moment where hope was cruelly snatched away.

"Please... don't leave me," I whispered, my voice a fragile prayer that was carried away by the wind. The world seemed to stand still, as if mourning alongside me, and I was left to grapple with the devastating reality – that even the strongest bonds could be broken, even the most valiant hearts could be stilled, and even the purest of intentions could be consumed by darkness.

Amidst the suffocating grip of despair, a sinister voice slithered into my consciousness, its words a venomous echo of malevolence. "That's what she get for prying into matters that don't concern her," it hissed, the words dripping with malice and cruelty. "Her fault, isn't it?"

I hardly spared the voice a second thought, a mere whisper of malevolence in the cacophony of my grief. My world had narrowed to the lifeless form cradled within my arms, the stillness of Akira's body an unbearable weight that pressed down upon my soul. Tears flowed freely from my eyes, my sobs echoing in the cold night air.

The voice persisted, a relentless taunt that sought to pierce the armor of my anguish. But I remained steadfast, resolute in my refusal to grant it even a fragment of my attention. What did the cruel words matter in the face of the heart-wrenching reality before me? They were mere echoes, insignificant in the grand tragedy that had unfolded.