「secret empire」ー 折原 臨也

Ch. 6: Memento Mori

A/N:

I'm trying to keep this story going. As I already said multiple times by now, it's really important for me to finish this, and trust me, I am not going to cancel this.

You would have to rip the keyboard from my dead hands.

This chapter might be a little confusing at first, but it actually is supposed to explain everything. It all slowly falls in place, just be patient c:

Heavy warnings for this chapter! Descriptive violence, blood, death, gore, all of it.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 

04/30:

Impossible. Simply impossible. Ridiculous even.

"Excuse me, miss?"

Jumping at the sudden sound of a voice right in front of her, Yuzuki turned her head. Eyes greatly widened, mouth also opened as a result of her jaw dropping, she stared at the man behind the counter.

"Are you alright?"

Even if she would have had listened to his words, she couldn't have thought of a proper reply. But since she didn't even pay attention to his question in the first place, she kept staring at him puzzled, before her eyes trailed off to the source of confusion once again.

The mere sight of it made her hands tremble and she felt faint and dizzy. Her focus lingered on that person, as if her eyes were glued to their figure firmly.

"I– I'm, uh... sorry, how much was it?" she quickly asked within a short breath and immediately regretted that decision. Feeling as if there was no more air reaching her lungs, she somehow ended up suffering from a coughing fit.

"Miss, do you want me to call someone?" the cashier proceeded asking in a worried manner. His try-hard sooth voice and careful choice of words left her even more startled. Was it that obvious that she had a hard time processing what was going on? Was she freaking out that much right now? Why couldn't she calm down? "A doctor, perhaps?"

Furiously shaking her head, since words had no place in between thick coughs, Yuzuki reached for her purse. Shaking fingers made it hard for her to grab the bill. At the time, she kind of felt like operating the world's tiniest bomb. One wrong move and everything would be blown into bits and pieces.

That person, of course, noticed the fuss the girl was making. As their attention was drawn to her and their eyes met, she froze for a second. Anxiety rushed through her entire body.

The strange sensation of paralyzation, confusion, fear, – strangely enough – felt all too familiar. At the time, her mind went blank and she couldn't recall the exact moment she had ever felt like this before, but she was absolutely sure. There was no way she could have been wrong about this.

It all came crashing down on her and she felt, as if her body actually was squished beneath the incredibly weight of this anxiety, that she could hardly express in any words.

If she was to believe in a God, this would have been the time for her to pray. To pray, she was wrong. To pray, this person was not who she assumed them for. But she knew better than that.

Praying was no use.

And the possibilities of her mistaking them for someone else were basically zero.

Back in the days, even the homo sapiens knew there were two logical tactics. Two ways to react to danger: fight or flee. To pick the coward way of running away sometimes was essential to stay safe. And so Yuzuki chose the wise way.