Was she barely twenty? Or even younger? The woman sat collapsed on the floor, trembling as she clutched something tightly in her arms.
Around her, a pale purple life-form like mist spun in circles, orbiting her body. The woman gritted her teeth at the grating, unpleasant metallic screeches of “Kih-heh-heh” and “Keh-heh-heh,” and pressed her hand against whatever she was holding to her chest.
Curled up in her arms was a little girl who looked like her daughter. Her pale face was still, eyes shut, twitching faintly as if she had long since lost consciousness.
The purple shadow, like a spirit, soon seemed to grow bored and stopped circling the woman. A huge shadow fell over her.
Knowing what would happen next, the woman squeezed her eyes shut and hugged the child in her arms as if she might break.
She curled up tighter, clenching her teeth as she accepted the situation.
The purple shadow came crashing down—
And she felt nothing at all.
The woman slowly opened her shut eyes and looked down into her arms.
The child nestled there was still unconscious, her face pale as ever. The woman was too exhausted to even wonder why she herself was unharmed.
Terrified that it might be playing some cruel joke, that if she turned around it might kill her, she was afraid to look back.
When she swallowed, she tasted blood and iron in her mouth. It seemed she had split her gums when she clenched her teeth earlier.
Again, a shadow fell over the woman as she sat there holding the child. Her expression went slack once more, and she shut her eyes again.
That helpless face would never have wanted this situation. If she had the strength, she would have struck the beasts chasing her and run.
But she was too weak—too small—to do even that. So all she could do was sit there, powerless.
Riiip.
The sound, like a curtain being lightly torn, rang in her ears. It was a small noise, but to her it sounded louder than anything in the world.
Feeling her heart thud once, hard, the woman let the strength drain from her body. As she felt herself go limp, she thought it was because she was dying.
Thud.
The woman’s collapsing body snagged on something. In her falling vision, she saw five toes and the black hem of a pair of pants hanging above them.
In an instant, the woman jolted awake and opened her eyes wide.
“Hey.”
A clear voice, devoid of any emotion. Only then did the woman realize that what was supporting her body was someone’s leg.
As the woman sprang upright, a clear voice came from behind her.
“Hmm. Can’t you speak?”
“I can. I can speak.”
Turning around, the woman sucked in a sharp breath.
Black hair that covered his waist, eyes as black as pitch, black clothes that covered his entire body so that only his hands and feet were visible. Unusually, his feet were bare. The man standing before her was quite handsome.
But the woman couldn’t take her eyes off the black current seeping out from behind his shoulders more than she could his face.
A black aura as deep as the night sky, impossible to measure. A sight that felt mysterious and, at the same time, carried an indescribable pressure.
“A dream?”
That was what the woman thought when she saw it.
Her heart pounded several times, and something trickled down from the top of her head. Feeling a liquid-like texture sliding from her scalp to her cheek, the woman raised a hand and touched her face.
Seeing the black, viscous slime ooze stickily between her fingers, the woman lifted her head.
Up in the sky, something was dripping down from a small purple sphere. Instinctively, the woman realized that the beast that had been toying with her earlier had become that.
At the same time, she understood that the man in front of her had crushed it that easily.
All that had changed was that she had been granted a little more time to live. A far more horrifying death had simply been brought vividly before her eyes.
And then the woman lost consciousness, unable to bear the dreadful future that would soon befall her as well.
Even as her awareness drifted away, she prayed to whatever god might be out there.
“At least let the child go without pain.”
Rather than share in the horrible future awaiting her, she wanted the child to suffer as little as possible.
And then—
“Damn it, how many times is this now?”
“Dad?”
At the clear little voice, the man lifted a hand to his shoulder and gently patted the small head.
“Nope. I was just talking to myself, my daughter.”
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register