Hit and Run

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An engine revved up as squealing tires clawed at the asphalt. She knew she was too old to be behind the wheel of a car, but she didn't care. This was the only way, it had to be bloody- whatever her son had tried to do on the mountain that day wasn't enough. Her weathered old jaw aches as she clenched it, every muscle in her body tensed as she drove through the streets of her hometown. She knew she wasn't far from her target, it would be walking back from school any second now. Rika's grandmother sat in the drivers seat in a cold sweat. Panic gripped her as she knew she'd only have one chance to get it right once and for all. She would end it there.
"A sacrifice of blood, to cleanse the soul." Rika's grandmother whispered as she set her eyes on the crosswalk. Her old hands shook as she gripped the steering wheel like it would spring to life from her hands and run away the second she got close to Rika. Then she spotted it. There was rika walking with yuta her smile was bright as she walked quickly in front of him and at times circling him if she thought he was going to slow. That day was just like any other. Yuta and Rika had been in school for a month now, and everything was going swimmingly. Until the cry of rubber tires screeching to life broke the serenity- accompanied by a sickening sound. It was the unmistakeable sound of flesh squelching and giving way to dense bone that snaps clean like balsa wood.

Rika's grandmother had run her over in the crosswalk, making sure to crush her skull flat. So the evil would die with her.
The impact of the car popped her brain out of her crushed skull to land in front of yuta. His childish innocence forever stained with the blood of his childhood sweetheart. Rika never felt the pain. But her death was not instant.

Rika's eyes opened to an inky blackness, warm and soft like being enveloped in fur so black it absorbs light. She could hear two heartbeats, along with the cries and screams of the innocent people who had witnessed her gruesome death.  Then one of the heartbeats began to beat faster as she heard that oh so familiar voice,
"Rika-Chan...?" Yuta managed to squeak out as he stared at rika's dead body. Suddenly both heartbeats started to hasten.
'No. No. No.' rika's soul cried out as the heartbeats grew louder and louder the second heartbeat now inching closer as rage began to fill rika's soul. The dormant cursed energy in the soul suddenly erupted like a volcano, leaving waves in the realm of cursed energy. Like nuclear fission cursed energy boiled within her soul leaving her feeling nothing but envy, resentment and refusal to move on.

"I REFUSE. I WILL NOT LEAVE YUTA. WE DESERVE TO BE HAPPY. I DO NOT DESERVE TO DIE."

She screamed into the inky darkness As she laid in limbo.  cursed energy rippled and flooded around her- the door that was contained within Rika broke.
Furious at the thought of her life being ripped away from her so suddenly  rika gripped onto the cursed energy around her.
"TAKE. ME. BACK." Rika demanded, as she watched her ashen twin form out of the cursed energy she grabbed.

Stunned by the formation of her Ashen twin's hand in her grip, rika finally understood what that humming was. Determined to get back to the land of the living she began clawing at the double demanding she take her back. Yet Her ashen twin did nothing but smile as Their heartbeats grew defeaningly loud. The two began to lose their physical forms forming into small balls of highly compact and dense energy.  The two began to resonate as they rapidly spun together building up speed and force until the two energy sources smashed into each other, merging into a brand new being all together. With this newfound understanding of her inner power this child clawed her way back through the cursed realm and into the land of the living through her own pool of blood. Eventually reaching the surface rika saw the image of yuta looking down at the pool of blood.
"IM RIGHT HERE!." She said as she reached out of the pool of blood and grabbed onto yuta's legs
"Yuuutaaa...yuuutaaa...in the future..we are going to get married!" She screamed out as she ripped her new form out of the realm of cursed energy and into the land of the living once again. In absolute shock yuta only glimpses a more monstrous form of rika before losing consciousness.

Now free from the cursed realm or anything outside of it, rika took a new form beside yuta, Even though he was not totally aware of it. After all he thought his vision of rika's monstrous spirit reaching out of the pool of blood was nothing but a shock induced hallucination. Yuta gripped his chest and cried. The shock and his emotions clouded his ability to see cursed spirits- he was in the thralls of grief and could see nothing past his own tears.
Though After yuta was taken away from the scene of the crash, it did not take long for rika to reveal that she was indeed still with him. That next few evenings while doing homework in his room he got the unshakable feeling someone was in the room with him. With only his lamp on he glanced around the room expecting a shadow or a person to be standing there beside him. But he saw nothing. Not wanting to ignore it anymore yuta took a deep breath.
"R-rika Chan..? Are you still here with me?" He asked aloud as he gripped his pants and shut his eyes tightly, almost afraid. When he heard nothing his muscles relaxed and as he opened his eyes Rika was standing right there in front of him. There was a soft glow around her, as she gazed at him with her hands behind her back. She smiled brightly as yuta gasped and began breathing heavily. His eyes widened and his knees shook. Tears prickled at his eyes as they rolled down his cheeks. Rika tilted her head and finally spoke
"You can finally see me now, yuta." She cooed as her own emotions began to well up, making her cry as well. As yuta's knees gave out from underneath him he expected to fall right through rika's grasp like one of those cheesy ghost movies. But instead he felt a warm embrace time only slightly different from that of a normal human.
It was now Rika's turn to catch him, just like he did all those years ago at the hospital. Stunned and consumed by emotions Yuta wrapped his arms around rika and cried into her shoulder. Rika hugged him close as they both sat on the ground crying.
Their souls began to resonate with each other, their emotions and thoughts mixing and mingling with each other symbiotically.
"I'm so happy...you're really here Rika-Chan...." Yuta cried as he hugged her even tighter. With this rika sniffles as her tears dried, she was just happy he could see her again, and know her presence was around. 
"Mhm I'm really here yuta, and I'll always be here." Rika cooed as she stroked his hair and cuddled him.
"Even if others don't see me the way you do, I'll be here." She said as she looked in the mirror across from them- seeing only a black mass of energy cradling the still human Yuta.

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