Chapter 8

Chapter 8

This bout of pain lasted far longer than you had expected. It was only after the bell rang at [6:00] that you finally staggered to your feet, shivering.

Your mind, having just clawed its way free of the agony, was still sluggish, but you could at least form simple thoughts again.

The first difference you noticed was your eyes. It was as if a thin veil of mist had settled over your vision. Everything looked hazy and indistinct. Up close was still manageable, but anything even a little farther away was reduced to rough outlines and blurry blocks of color. Before your eyes, the world had become a giant abstract painting.

Next, you realized that the poster now showed only empty spectator stands and half of a charred basketball at center court. The books on your desk had also turned into sheets of blank paper. You flipped through them frantically, but not a single mark remained.

And behind you, where you did not see, a withered petal drifted softly from the vase at your bedside and fell to the floor.

You raised your head and looked out the window, letting out a long breath.

Your bloodshot eyes stared unblinking at the setting sun until tears began to spill from them.

The pain of dying over and over had long since accumulated into a raging undercurrent deep within you. The fury you had suppressed for so long rolled like magma inside a volcano. Why me? Why me? Why do I have to bear all of this? As you thought this, you suddenly burst into wild laughter.

Soon, as two pigeons flew past outside the window, your laughter stopped abruptly.

It was as if you had figured something out. You simply stood there in silence.

Your silhouette was lonely and resolute.

Time: [6:30]

Your parents “came home from work” right on time. You did not stay in your room. Instead, in a complete departure from your usual behavior, you smiled and went forward to greet them. Then, under their disbelieving gazes, you drove the fruit knife into their hearts. Under the pressure of their blood, the spray unfurled through the air like a red bolt of silk.

When the blood had drained away, they became two black shadows, slowly scattering into the wind with the ashes.

You did not know if it was your imagination, but you seemed to catch a glimpse of them smiling.

What were they smiling about?

Carrying that question with you, you left the house with the blood-dripping knife in hand, without saying another word.

After that, you saw even more bolts of silk. In your increasingly blurred vision, the crowds turned into strange blocks of color. All you had to do was aim the knife at the hearts of those blocks of color, and you could erase them. The color of the blood began to change as well. At first it was red, then blue, green, yellow… until at last you saw rainbows gushing forth, filling your eyes.

How beautiful, you thought.

Meanwhile, wherever you passed, the walls of the apartment building behind you began to weather and peel away inch by inch, and the leaves on the trees began to wither. By the time you finally arrived at the villa’s front gate, the entire residential complex had completely collapsed into ruins. With a thunderous boom, dust and smoke blotted out the sky.

You did not stop for even a single step.