Requiem

Night Comes Again

I stared at the bloody writing on the wall, dumbfounded.

CHECKMATE.

The silence swelled, and the air was pregnant with tension as each of us tried hopelessly to decipher it. Why checkmate? Was this death the last step before a finale? My gaze lowered onto the body itself, taking note of the letter 'A' on the side of her neck. Slowly, studying the rest of her corpse, I eyed the fatal blow. I eyed her hands, with certain fingers cut off. I gasped out loud.

“We're going back to Rimona,” Akito said in his usual disinterested tone. He put a hand on my shoulder, further startling me. I spun around on instinct to glare at him but he ignored it. “K, 'you staying?”

The silver haired girl nodded. Akito said something under his breath in reply that could be interpreted as being along the lines of 'good', but otherwise he made no further comment. With that, he turned to exit the scene, with Mika and I behind him.

The return trip proved to be uneventful. Occasionally, Akito would narrow his eyes at the road atlas and give Mika the directions. Sometimes with harsher tones than others.

“There you go again, cursing at the driver...”

“I'm not cursing,” he retorted.

“Well, you might as well be.” Mika took the second exit out of the roundabout, hitting the highway right on the speed limit. “It's like, the next street, not this, every two sentences.”

“...” Akito cleared his throat. “Whose fault was it that we somehow wounded up in a ghost town in the first place?”

Mika replied without missing a beat.

“The people who designed the roads, duh.”

When we arrived back at Rimona, it was well into the night. The moon was high in the sky and the streetlights lined the empty streets. The temperature had dropped a few degrees since the afternoon and, needless to say, I was a bit cold and hungry. I figured that grabbing a snack whilst we were still in the Capital would have been one of the wiser options, but no one felt up to it after seeing a bloody corpse.

“Just go home, Sage.” Akito opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle. I followed him promptly, the car having stopped near my residence. “Your parents would be worried by now.”

He walked me into the private estate, standing there for a moment before turning to leave with a wave. Exhaling, I unlocked the apartment's door and entered.

As it turned out, my parents were a bit more than 'worried'. Mother was livid, waiting by the door with a frown on her face. I hardly got two steps into the house before being taken by the collar and pinned to the wall, the fist so tightly against my throat that breathing was almost difficult.

Where were you?

Capital.

This was beyond the level of a bad premonition. I averted my gaze solemnly, realizing that the ordeal had just started.

Who were you with?

Classmates.

Why didn't you answer my Goddamn calls?

...

She pressed her fist harder against me. I had screwed up, more than I thought was possible. The heaviness grew from my chest to consume the rest of me. Trying to get rid of the regret and escape the wrath, I flailed. Finally I managed to free myself from her vice-like grip.

I thought you got kidnapped! I was on the verge of calling the cops. Why are you doing this?

She begged, refusing to stop until I uttered a word. An explanation. I desired to spill out all the otherwise horrific details, but telling her every speck of the unbelievable truth seemed far from the thing to do. It wouldn't placate the situation at all.