The alleyways, tangled together by indiscriminate construction, were like a maze. I wasn’t even sure where I was heading anymore.
After running for a long while, I was out of breath. I checked to make sure he wasn’t chasing me, then hid behind a corner.
It was lucky that it was dusk. Orange light had begun to stain the sky above the buildings, which were otherwise nothing but bleak concrete. The left side was deeper in color, so that must be west. At least that let me figure out roughly which direction I was going.
That was all, though.
I’d never been anywhere near this area before. Even if I managed to escape these alleys, there was no guarantee I’d know where I was.
And if I tried asking a passerby for directions...
“...In this state, I should be glad I don’t get caught by some brave model citizen.”
I glared miserably at the handcuffs that still clung to my wrists. Handcuffs—the ultimate symbol of “I’m a criminal.” I could try pretending they were a toy, but...
The problem wasn’t just the cuffs. My face and clothes were both soaked in blood.
No, “soaked” wasn’t quite right. It was more accurate to say I was completely drenched in it.
The blood on my face had leaked from the gash on my forehead. The blood on my clothes had been smeared on when I climbed over the corpse of the police officer whose head had burst open during my escape from the police car.
“I wish I could contact Hitokawa...”
My phone had been taken by that Ghoul. It was a brand new model, damn it...
If I couldn’t reach Hitokawa, I could always try finding a CCG branch and asking for help. However, that plan was also blocked by the reality that I had no idea where I was.
To be honest, what I wanted most right now wasn’t to run away from here, nor was it to land a hit on that Ghoul.
“Eto...”
I was just worried about Eto.
I worried about that child, who had left home to procure food on her own because she felt responsible for my deteriorating state.
Please, let her mission have failed. I didn’t want her to get hurt.
But if she had succeeded... if she had witnessed death with her own eyes for the first time, it would have left a deep scar on her immature heart.
I had to go back to Eto. But not now.
Right now, I wasn’t even sure if I could survive. If I died like this, then Eto...
Die... Eto... I... die...
“...Ugh!!”
My upper body doubled over as if someone had slammed the back of my head with a heavy blow.
It felt as if hundreds of snakes in my stomach were rioting to crawl up my throat, threatening to tear through my belly to get out.
My hands and feet trembled uncontrollably, as if I’d been electrocuted, and my vision shook so violently I couldn’t tell up from down.
Now that the immediate danger had passed, I began to realize my own condition. A Ghoul hunting me, a murder committed right before my eyes, the smell of death clinging to my skin... my mind rejected it all with the ferocity of a child throwing a tantrum, and that psychological trauma manifested physically.
A panic attack.
This one was more intense than any I’d ever experienced. It was so severe that I wondered if I might die from the attack itself rather than from the Ghoul.
Having a panic attack when a Ghoul could be chasing me at any moment only served to make the situation worse.
I fumbled inside my chest pocket for my medication. But...
“It’s gone...?!”
The pill case that should have been in my pocket was missing.
Then I remembered the police car flipping over and the chaos of tumbling around. I must have dropped it then.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!!!”
Even as I spat out a stream of curses, I forced myself to stand.
I didn’t have the luxury of lying here until the attack passed. If I didn’t suppress it with medication, the attacks would keep recurring and drag me down.
I had to get home. I had to get the spare pills from the shelf.
If I didn’t deal with this attack first, I wouldn’t even be able to formulate a plan to handle that Ghoul.
Moving with a desperate urge to flee from reality, I staggered forward. The end of the alley came into view, revealing a road where cars were passing by.
And then... I saw the only lifeline available to me.
***
“There aren’t many customers today...”
The taxi driver leaned back in his seat and sighed, gazing at the darkening sky.
He’d only picked up three passengers all day, and all of them were short-distance fares. At this rate, he wouldn’t even make enough for gas, let alone a birthday present for his daughter. He couldn't help but sigh.
So he prayed to the heavens. Human, Ghoul, ghost—he didn’t care what it was, just please let him get a customer.
Whether God truly existed or not, not long after that prayer, he heard the rear door open.
“Welco—!”
The taxi driver, who had been trying to smooth out his grim expression to greet the customer brightly, froze with the smile still on his face.
A passenger had indeed entered. However, he was far from a normal one.
He was a man absolutely caked in blood—so badly that it couldn’t possibly be a fashion choice. His forehead was split open to the point where he looked like he belonged in a hospital, his breathing was ragged, he was drenched in a cold sweat, and he was shaking ominously. That alone was enough to put him well outside the bounds of normal, but the finishing touch was that both his wrists were bound in handcuffs.
The taxi driver was suddenly seized by the urge to completely retract the prayer he’d just sent up to heaven.
“Mister...”
“Yes, yes! Please, speak!”
At the voice, which sounded as if it were suppressing something intense, the taxi driver answered with rigid alertness.
“Pick one. Do you want to chat about why I look like this? Or do you want to quietly take all the money in my wallet and floor it to the ○★◇ villa?”
“...”
The hesitation was long, but the action was fast.
He started the engine and tore down the road like a professional racing driver.
To him, human, Ghoul, or ghost—it didn’t matter. As long as they paid, they were a customer.
***
After emptying all the bills in my wallet into the taxi driver’s hands and leaving only a few coins behind, I got out of the taxi.
I told him not to report me because I wasn’t a suspicious person, but I doubted the driver would actually listen.
Then again, even if he did report me, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
“Huff... huff...”
Clinging to the wall for support, I made my way to the elevator and reached my apartment. My hands kept shaking so badly I couldn’t get the key into the lock; after several failed attempts, I finally managed to open the door and stumble inside.
The house was quiet. Eto still hadn’t come back. While that worried me, I felt an ironic sense of relief that she wouldn't see me in this state.
Thud!!
Without even taking off my shoes, I collapsed in the entryway. Perhaps because I had finally reached the safety of my home, exhaustion crashed over me all at once. The panic attack seemed to be subsiding, but it still clung to my body with a vicious grip.
Leaving a trail of wet blood on the floor, I crawled toward the shelf where the medicine was kept.
Pushing myself up to reach for the pill case was more of a struggle than I’d expected. In the end, I knocked everything on the shelf onto the floor just to get my hands on it.
I took out two anti-anxiety pills and tossed them into my mouth. Trying to swallow them without water caused them to catch in my throat, triggering a coughing fit. I managed to force them down with saliva.
“Haa... haa... hoo...”
I sprawled out on the floor and caught my breath.
As time passed, I could feel the attack easing. Perhaps due to the medication, the pain from my wounds also dulled considerably.
Once I could move my body with some degree of ease, the first thing I did was find a piece of wire in the toolbox.
I didn’t have any actual lock-picking skills, but after wrestling with the wire for a long while, I finally managed to pick the handcuffs off my wrists.
I threw the cuffs aside and went into the shower without even taking off my clothes, washing away the blood and grime. As soon as I got out, I stripped off the blood-soaked clothes and grabbed the first-aid kit.
I sprayed disinfectant on the wound on my forehead, wrapped it in gauze, and secured it with white tape. I ignored the rest of the minor scrapes; I didn’t have the time to treat every little cut.
That Ghoul would definitely come after me again. I held information that was far too dangerous for him to ignore.
After changing into clean clothes, I headed for the house phone.
I tried to recall Hitokawa’s mobile number—the one I’d saved but rarely used.
“3478... no, was it 9?”
With uncertain confidence, I punched in the number. I waited silently as the ringing sounded through the receiver.
Ring... ring... click.
“...?”
What happened?
The ringing, which had been going through just fine, suddenly cut off. I put the receiver down and picked it up again, but now there wasn’t even a dial tone.
“What’s going on?”
I needed to reach Hitokawa as quickly as possible, and now the phone had suddenly stopped working...
Broken? Was it really just broken? The timing was far too perfect for that.
...I desperately prayed that this feeling was nothing more than my imagination, but heaven did not grant my wish.
Thump.
I heard something land heavily.
Was it by the front door? No.
The other side. The balcony.
On the railing of the fifth-floor balcony—a place no ordinary person could possibly reach—sat a police officer soaked in blood.
“Hii~ there~?”
That damned Ghoul in the police costume moved his lips with a smirk.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register