𝙵𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚝 | 𝙼𝙷𝙰 𝚇 𝙵𝚎𝚖! 𝙾𝚙! 𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙳𝙴𝚁

21. "The Girl in the Mirror."

All eyes were on you. Only you. Everyone's eyes were filled with different emotions. Some looked relieved to see you breathing and standing in front of them, some looked confused and unaware, and others had an expression of pure nothingness and just stared at you— dead in the eye. A lump in your throat was evident, and you felt a drop of sweat roll down the back of your neck. The gazes of those you don't know made you nauseous. You wanted to run out of the classroom, but you promised the male named Haruto that you would be okay.

"So... let us welcome your fellow classmate back— [Surname]." Aizawa, your supposed teacher, concluded.

"..." The classroom was silent. Great, now isn't this just very welcoming? Oh, you are so at ease right now, you could smile and blow up the room.

"Welcome back, [Surname]." One finally spoke up. A girl with short brown hair and round cheeks smiled, although there was most definitely a hint of sadness. You returned her smile with your own unsure smile. Your eyes met with a certain green haired boy who was quite familiar.

Hell, all of these people are familiar.

"W-Welcome back." That same boy you locked eyes with spoke up, though he was not smiling. He genuinely seemed scared of you. In reply, you nodded to acknowledge him.

Everyone else was silent.

It made you... sad for some reason. Maybe because they knew... you, but you did not know yourself?

"Anyway... [Surname], you're free to return to your seat over there." Aizawa cleared the obvious tension in the air. You fiddled with your fingers, your nerves spreading like wildfire in your body as you walked over to your assigned seat.

-

You wanted to eat alone, and so you did. You ate by yourself— like usual... Did your "other you" eat with others? Was she genuinely friends with others here?

A soft sigh escaped your lips. The opportunity for socialization finally came your way, and here you are throwing it out as if it is nothing. Perhaps, it is that fear of that situation repeating itself. You hugged yourself, trying your absolute best to comfort your lonely soul. The endless anxiety every night crawled into your mind— waiting on that old mattress, seeing if those zombies would burst through that door and take your flesh and life. That world... that cruel desolate world left such a bad taste on your tongue. It plagued your mind to even think about it. And to just... wake up here, a world full of powers with the information that you had gotten here a year ago... How should you even feel about this entire ordeal? You don't even know yourself anymore. Any time you look in that mirror, you see the young female who suffered enough in that walking dead filled planet. At the same time, you missed it. So much. Home. No matter how cruel it was, that place was your home... before the incident. It flashed in your mind— again, the bloodied, unidentifiable corpses of those you loved. And then him... a swan dive off of the roof after an argument the two of you sad little children had.

"I had to."

"No. No you didn't have to."

"No... no I had to...!"

Your desperate pleads echoed in your mind.

"I hope you jump off a bridge and die a lonely death, [Name]."

A gasp escaped your lips, your eyes wide. You never jumped off that bridge in hopes to live and get away from those zombies. Your conscience had led you there, using the undead as a pathetic excuse to lead yourself to die. You were trying to die for your sins. You wanted to die.