Null Life: Last Day

Chapter 3

As Hori was told about what she had apparently done on that day, she experienced the phenomenon of visions, memories that were never seen and remembered before. And in the memory, she was standing next to the former headmaster. Seeing herself in third person. It seemed as if something, or someone else entirely, was watching her commit this grim doing. She saw her hand peeling apart, into what looked like contorted flesh becoming long tendrils. She began to stare at her hands, wondering what was happening, why she was this way. Why not an ounce of memory nor knowledge was in her mind apart from this disturbing happening.

"So you're telling me that I'm some monster?" She said. With these supposed new memories forming, her head began to ache painfully. She kept her composure as the pain began to lessen shortly after. It was as if Hori's brain tended to itself. Heqled itself, rapidly. Aiko shook her head. Hori then realised she didn't want to see her as one of the special infected despite witnessing the Headmaster's fate. Her mother's hold tightened. She was now upset, but her care was still apparent. "How is my dear Hori not in trouble right now...?"

Others saw what happened with us too,"Aiko continued, '"But you or someone else did something to make them unable to recall anything as they walked away." Hori suddenly looked past them, frightened by something. Her face turned pale. "Some really weird girl just walked by, in the hall!?" They both spun around and backed away. After a few moments, evergone cautiously peered into the hallway. Nothing but an eerie silence filled by the sound of Cicadas outside. At this point it probably wasn't some home invader to them, but just a prominent spirit wondering the house. One that was more than visible to the naked eye. "Do we have any talismans, Mama?" Hori said.

"Yes we do. Let's go get them." She replied. The fear of being alone even for just a few minutes was something they could easily acknowledge without even expressing it. Aiko and Asahi followed, because they settled on forgetting bravery. It would be too much for their minds. The group grabbed plenty of neatly stored tags from the closet of her mother's bedroom. "What did the girl look like?" Her mother asked.

"Tall, long dark hair protruding from the hood, wearing clothing oddly similar to Kuragari in that image of him on the News..." Hori explained. Her mother's turned grim. Only she could recall what she saw on the News. This girl that was scaring them, her walking by so suddenly yielded no plausible assumptions. What was the point with such a theatric? Hori hoped she would actually show herself, instead of looking at everyone with glowing pupils and acting like some lost ghost walking all around the house.

"I figured I'd show myself, now that you bring it up." A woman spoke at the door way. It wasn't a sure fright, but a sudden hair raising feeling for them. She was accurate to what Aiko described. Up close, her eyes were as normal as they could get. There was nothing but tension in the air now.

"Who are you, what are you doing in my home!?" Hori said. Hori then realised that she was one of the wanted targets on the News, keeping quiet about it. She didn't respond. She only glanced at each one of them before turning around and leaving. Hori didn't want to make this any worse, so she simply watched in silence to make sure this stalker left. Her Mother put the tags back under the bed and pondered on what to do next. They each acknowledged that they felt some sort of reluctance, some instinctual warning to themselves, to not try and subdue the home invader for the police. It was the sense of danger. Hori wondered what the purpose of her being here was for after the lingering dread subsided.

"I'm sorry." Hori whispered.
"No, I am. I just... wonder how you'll fare, out there?" Aiko replied. "Knowing that you might end up facing people who'll find you to be the familiar face of the wanted target they saw on TV?"

Hori had forgotten about that exact problem. But if people somehow forgot about all traces of her wrongdoings, then she'd be able to keep silent and calm when being out in public. Yet something gnawed at her, something dark. Something that once happened, and was once forgotten on purpose. Hori recalled a time whenher father would always resent her presence, claiming that she was some bad product of something, or someone. Hori naturally deemed it a correlation to Aiko's explanations from earlier. This all happened until he decided to leave her and his partner behind while in a fit of paranoia, of fear. They still didn't know where he was, but eventually agreed that he was a waste of their thinking and no longer mattered, especially after all of his nightly returns home clinging onto terrible moods. A long time ago, Hori came close to punching him square in the face, but held the anger back. Her tensed hands felt harder than a brick to her at the time. The strong sensation that came with the hard fists became elusive after sometime.