"...wake up."

That voice echoed in my head and I opened my sleepy eyes. As I stood up, I started looking around. I was in a place utterly white as if someone had painted a whole room in that colour, but, as soon as my eyes and mind woke up completely, I realised that there weren't walls...that place seemed to go on and on.

"You're finally awake."

I turned my gaze to the voice direction and froze up with fear. Before me, there was this skinny girl, who looked to be 16 years old, and the only clothes she had was a white dress, which reaches the knees. The skin was pale like a corpse, the hair was short and white, the eyes were black and lifeless, the mouth was sewed off with a metal wire and her cheeks were hollow. The throat was cut, and blood flowed without stopping, the same for the abdomen that was torn apart and the only things that didn't look dead were the hands, the skin colour there looked more like that of a living person, but my eyes widened when she turned her palm toward me. There were faces on both hands, that were changing continuously; I could notice the skin that was moving at every single change, it was unsettling.

I wanted to scream: "What the hell are you??!!", but nothing. I was too scared and my body wouldn't collaborate.

Those faces were looking at me and started speaking, without stopping changing.

"Don't panic, I'm not here to hurt you."

That voice seemed to belong to a girl and it was somehow relaxing, it was giving a completely opposite effect to her appearance. I slowly calmed down and my heartbeat, which until 2 seconds ago was beating fast, was slowing down; that creature must have sensed it, as it started speaking again.

"Now, tell me. Do you remember who you are?"

I opened my mouth to speak but I stopped immediately...I couldn't remember anything.

"What's wrong? Did you forget everything?" the creature asked.

I slowly nodded.

"I see. This explains why your body is in this state now." the faces said with a little smile.

"What do you mean-" I looked at my arms and they were slowly disappearing.

I, a person without a single memory, was disappearing without knowing anything and it seemed my emotions were also disappearing.

At this point, I asked the only questions I could think of:

"Why am I here? What is this place? And what the hell are you?"

That creature said with a calm voice:

"I’m surprised you still don’t understand…you are dead."

"...how-" I was going to ask something else, but that creature interrupted me.

“And this is the Realm of the End, a place for people that can’t reincarnate because they did something so bad that they don’t deserve it. Just like you.”

I looked around and said: 

“Y-You said “people” but…Why am I the only one here?”

The creature with a big smile on both hands replied with a different voice, a ringing one like a little boy’s

“Because you are the worst human being ever. Congratulations!”

I was left speechless and confused. All of this, didn’t feel real.

The right hand seemed curious and asked:

“Are you confused? Do you want to know how you died?” 

“Yes, please!! All of this seems so unbelievable!” I promptly replied, without a second thought.

And the left hand said, still using that calm voice, that was becoming irritating:

“Unfortunately, you can’t know that…at least for now.”

“And when will yo-” Before I could finish my question I fell to the ground, hitting my face against the floor. I was so concentrated on what was happening that I didn’t notice the feet were vanishing and the creature sneered at that scene.

“That was funny. That’s right, you don’t have much time left, so I’ll go straight to the point. Let’s make a contract.” the right hand said.

“A contract?” I said after raising my head just to look at the hands.

“You’ll get a new life, but it will be different this time, you will not be a worthless human anymore. You’ll become a Nylict.” the faces said, and this time, the eyes of the “dead” girl were looking at me.

That freaked me out a lot and as I tried to not look at those eyes, I asked at the faces

“W-What is a Nylict?”

“To make it simple, you will get powers, many of them from a powerful being like myself. They will be useful if you want to find the truth behind your death.” the hands said, while the dead girl’s eyes were still looking at me.

“A-and what would you gain from this? S-since this is a contract, I’m sure I’ll have to do something for you or, at least, you’ll get something in return.” I said, while my legs were disappearing completely and the same was happening to my arms.

“You’ll discover that soon.” the hands said with indifference this time, they probably started to be tired of all my questions.

“...and what if I refuse?” as soon as I asked this, I could feel something was changing in the air. It wasn’t the right thing to say.

“...Let me show you what would happen in that case.” the hands spoke with indifferences.

The girl started walking towards me, meanwhile, a second pair of arms grew out of her body and as soon as she was close enough, she lean down towards me and put the new hands on my eyes.

“E-Ehy! What…” I started to feel lightheaded “...are you…doing…” My eyes were slowly closing. 

“Now, have fun.” after saying that, the faces started laughing maniacally. That’s the last thing I heard before losing my senses. 

———

I woke up again, I don’t know for how much time I was knocked out and this time I was in a room. As I looked around, I noticed it was really small and the walls were all white. There was a window, a narrow space for the toilet, a sink and a shelf; for that little bathroom, the floor was made of wood, while for the rest of the cell, it was tatami and there was a rolled futon. Both my shirt and my pants were light blues. 

I could hear someone lamenting from the other side of the wall… 

‘Am I in some kind of prison? Maybe, this is my actual(and terrible) life and all of that was a dream but I still can’t remember anything.’ And I would have much preferred this to that nightmare.

After some hours, the cell’s metal door opened and a prison guard entered. He was Japanese, seemed to be over 50 years old and was looking at me with tired eyes while I was sitting with my back against the wall.

“It’s your time, £&$%m£&£l-san.” the guard spoke in English, but I couldn’t understand the last word 

‘Was that supposed to be my name?’ I thought, but it wasn’t my main concern now and I asked confused

“Sorry, but it’s my time for what?” 

“For your execution.” the guard said. “Did you forget why you are here?” he asked sarcastically and didn’t expect my question.

“Yeah...can you…remind me what I did?” I asked, still confused and his reaction quickly changed. He was angry. His eyes were full of hatred and it almost seemed they were going to come out, plus the way he was gritting his teeth gave me the impression he was going to transform into a monster.

“Are you joking?! You killed them! You killed my fucking family and many more people!” he suddenly shouted out loud, full of rage.

Hearing him, another prison guard arrived in the cell, he seemed much younger than the other one, maybe he was in his 30s. He started to speak with his colleague in Japanese, it seemed the younger one was trying to calm down the older one, who was still angry and almost impossible to tranquillize.

‘I killed many people and now I’m on death row…why can’t I remember anything?’ I was lost in my thoughts and I tried my best to reorganize them. 

‘So, that wasn’t a dream and that monster was real..? And what if this is real too? In that case, maybe I can find a way to esca-’ My thoughts stopped when I started feeling like someone was looking at me and I slowly looked back at the guards, they had stopped talking and now were observing me with bloody eyes.

-You are dead- 

I could clearly read it in their eyes and in fact, killing me was their intention. In the blink of an eye, they were already close to me, they both took me by the arms and dragged me out of the cell. 

While being dragged through the corridor, the other prisoners were looking at me through the window of their cell door, just their eyes were visible and they were whispering “Die scum.” 

“Useless piece of trash.” 

“You are even worse than us.” 

“Shameful bitch.”

“Die. Die. Die.”

As I started to feel more and more pressure, my heart started beating fast, I started sweating and my breathing was becoming heavy 

“PLEASE PLEASE! I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”. 

The guards didn’t consider what I was saying. I was panicking at immeasurable levels, I started moving my arms to free myself from their grasp while trying to keep my feet firm on the floor to slow their walk, but it was all useless and after some minutes we arrived at the execution chamber.

There was a rope hanging from the ceiling and was tied to four rings, two on the wall and two on the floor, they were keeping the rope slightly taut.

At that point, I stopped screaming as I was tired, my throat was hurting and I was slowly accepting my fate. While the guards were helping me to reach the rope by using a stepladder, some memories started flashing before my eyes, they weren’t from this life but different ones, and in all of them, I died in horrible ways. I was seeing them clearly and at the same time, I remembered the conversation with that monster and thought aloud “So this is what happens if I don’t accept” I understood what those memories meant “eternal suffering, that’s what awaits me…”

“Eh? What the hell are you saying?” the old guard said and as he put the rope around my neck, I took a deep breath and screamed the best I could 

“YOU! MONSTER OR DEVIL, WHATEVER YOU ARE! I ACCEPT YOUR OFFER! I ACCEPT YOUR POWERS! JUST…” I started crying “...don’t…let me die like this…” I expressed while sobbing.

There were some seconds of silence in the room. The first to break that silence was the old guard who was close to the stepladder and was looking at me coldly.

“...No one can save you. Not even the devil.” he suddenly kicked the stairs making them fall, and I was going to fall too if it wasn’t for the rope. The last thing I heard was my neck snapping, and everything went black.

———

I suddenly woke up(again) while screaming. When I calmed down I looked around me, I was in a hospital room with my arms, legs and head completely bandaged and I had a respiratory mask, while the heart rate monitor was beeping like crazy.

“What happened…? Is this real? Was that just a nightmare?” I stormed my mind with questions and sighed in relief once I realised that the nightmare had ended. 

“I still don’t remember anything but considering how I’m bandaged I probably had an accident…” I jumped to that conclusion “Yeah, it must be this. I hope it’s this.” 

“Oh my- you woke up!” I looked towards the voice direction, there was a nurse and saying she looked surprised it wouldn’t be enough to describe her face.

“I-I have to call the doctor!” she said in Japanese before leaving. Thanks to her, I was already sure of something. I was still in Japan and I could understand their language, which meant I was Japanese or, at least, I knew how to speak it

After a minute, the nurse returned with the doctor, that started to check up on me. The doctor didn’t seem too old, at least in her 40s, while the nurse seemed to be in her 50s. During that check-up, they removed my oxygen mask and started removing my bandages.

“It’s incredible. It looks like you have healed completely, but yesterday you were in bad shape..how is this possible?” the nurse said while removing the bandages.

“What…happened to me?” I asked.

“Don’t you remember? Three weeks ago there was an explosion in a building in the Saitama prefecture, it collapsed and you got buried alive. When the rescuers brought you here, you were on the brink of death and stayed in a coma until now.” the doctor paused for a moment, thinking about something and then asked

“Do you remember something about yourself at least?”

I slowly shook my head

“Post-traumatic amnesia…” the nurse said.

The doctor nodded and said: “Yeah, it could be it.”, she then looked at me and continued “Usually it can last from 1 hour, for mild trauma, to over 24 hours for a severe one. In your case, you got some severe trauma but you healed extraordinarily well, so it could take some hours. Anyway, to be sure, you will remain here for a few days.”

“Shouldn’t we keep him for at least a month? His conditions were severe-”

“No.” the doctor interrupted her and said rudely “He’s fine and we’ll do as I said.”

The nurse looked surprised by the doctor’s attitude and didn’t say anything else.

“Well, I’m off now. If you need anything you can call the nurses and remember to keep us updated once you get some memories back.” the doctor said and I nodded in response.

She smiled and then left me with the nurse, who was still removing the bandages while quietly complaining about the doctor’s weird behaviour.

I didn’t care too much about her and started thinking ‘Maybe, this is seriously my life and not just another nightmare. If so, I hope I can get my memories back soon.’ 

—25th October 2025—

Five days passed since I woke up and at this point, I remember almost everything. My name is Dai, I’m 25 years old, I’m Japanese and was born here in Tokyo. My parents died in a car accident 10 years ago, while I was at my grandparents’ house. I lived with them for 8 years and after finding a stable job as an English teacher, I moved into a small apartment. The only thing I don’t remember is what exactly I was doing before that accident in Saitama. But that was fine. All that mattered is that I was going to return home soon. 

I went to the bathroom of the hospital to fix my hair, they were black and not too long but still enough to become very messy. While trying to fix them, I start seeing something in the mirror, a weird red light coming from the palm of my right hand. I looked at it and I saw a weird symbol forming before my eyes; it was a rhombus with a red pupil in the centre of it and the same thing appeared in my left hand. I was confused, but that confusion became fear almost immediately because I realised one thing: the “nightmare”, the monster or devil, whatever all that was, it was all real.

 “ So…this isn’t my life…? Was this the body of somebody else?” I thought with a lot of anxiety and fear. All of this was just absurd…and I had the feeling that it was just the start of something even worse.