“So you joined them? That’s how someone got scammed and murdered at the back alley of Phantoms! You naive idiot! Idiot Sota!”

The day was running late and I hurriedly walked back home for a dinner party I forgot was happening. Mom and dad invited Aki and Maria for dinner before they departed back to Italy. I was supposed to be there, too. But still, I was taking my damn time.

“It doesn’t sound safe, Sota.”

“It’s something like a private investigation job. People do it all the time.”

“Sounds too much.”

“It’s going to be alright. David sounds like a nice dude and his daughter is really adorable. Also, Hathaway was—”

“Was?”

“Kinda cute and reliable.”

“Ha?!” I could hear a loud thud coming from the other side of the call.

“Violette, are you okay?”

“What kind of moronic excuse is that? That’s not a good reason to start a job!”

“Okay, that was me messing with you. She seemed like a dependable person. I doubt working with her is going to be a problem. Lady Justice is trustworthy, Vi. She’s also pretty cute.”

“Stop calling m— stop calling her cute!”

“I know, sorry.” I laughed it off.

“You should really rethink this. Dealing with Diegesis is dangerous, especially those who evolved into Fairytales.”

“Huh?”

“What?” She said, followed by a pause.

“Nothing. No, nothing.”

“Anyway, take your time to think about it all over again. I can’t have you go off and— Sota, are you listening to me?”

“Sorry, Vi, I’ll call you again.”

The Eighth was dead silent that evening. It caught me on an alert. It was barely nine in the evening so I’d expect people walking back home or children’s voices from the houses. But even the street lights were unusually dim tonight. I felt a little uneasy and it forced me to hasten my steps. Just a few blocks and I would reach home.

A hum. I could hear a droning hum filling the air. My steps felt heavier and my vision was getting slowly distorted. Despair, human. I could smell it. That same voice as before. I could hear it inside my head. That same feeling. I noticed that I was inside a boundary, one that was huge enough to cover the whole block.

My legs started to shake uncontrollably but I tried to fight it, running as fast as I could to reach home. The closer I got, the darker everything became. That drone humming sound got louder and louder, disturbing any focus I had left.

In the distance, a green light shone through the window of a particular building. No matter how distorted that two stories humble house in the middle of an elite housing complex got, I could instantly notice that it was my home.

There was nothing else in my mind other than my parents, Aki, and Maria. The five of us were supposed to have dinner together. I could barely breathe when I reached the gate of my house. Rushing myself inside, I didn’t even notice the unlocked front gate or the opened door. “Dad! Mom! Aki–”

Shunk. Pressing me into suppressed silence was the tip of a massive pole, stabbing me in the stomach and pinned me to the wall. It was a spear-like weapon wielded by someone who was waiting in the living room. His feet were in a puddle of blood, surrounded by unmoving bodies of my family and Maria. The compound eyes of his fly-shaped mask pierced my very soul who was trying its best to pull that spear out. The lower half of his face was uncovered, revealing the grin he had under the crimson moonlight—ear-to-ear.

“No sensory of pain and rapid healing factor, I see.” He started to laugh hysterically. “What an ironic discovery!”

Despite not feeling any pain, I was failing to pull that spear out of my stomach. “Who are you?” My heart was racing. My voice was struggling to come out.

“Do you know what’s lacking from Crystalline City, Kagura?” He lifted Akira by the hair revealing his weakened face. “Excitement! Drama!”

“Sota… run…” Akira opened his eyes slightly. He was still breathing.

“Aki! Wait for me! Argh!” My hands got slippery with blood gushing out of the wound I had. It became harder and harder for me to pull that spear out.

He grabbed Akira’s neck and raised him up, a few inches above the floor. Akira gasping for air was the only voice ringing in my ears, echoing without ever stopping. Feed me your despair, human, was the only voice that followed.

“But you, Kagura Sota, are fascinating. To think that Caladrius finally took a liking on someone! That pain, that despair in your eyes, that inability to feel your own happiness—unlucky episode, you said? Here, let me give you another one of those.”

My grip gradually weakened. I was panicking. My eyes couldn’t look away from Aki’s flailing legs that were getting slower by the seconds.

“Let go of my brother!”

Following my scream was the hysterical cackle of the man in his otherworldly getup. The eyes of his mask pulsed rhythmically along his voice. Green.

“Yes, Kagura! Feel it! Embrace it! Show me the voice of that despair. Let me fix that wasted potential in you.” he stopped laughing as the whole place was filled with silence. His curled lips flattened. No. “Let this be the last push for your growth.”

“No! Don’t! Please—”

“This is what you need, Sota! One last push for the lives that you wished for!”

“Don’t! Please, I beg you, spare him! Kill me if you really need to. He doesn’t deserve—”

Snap. 

As if it took all of my senses away, the sound of Akira’s snapping neck robbed me of all last drop of sanity that was left. You need my help, don’t you, human? Give me all of your pain and I’ll send them back to those who have wronged you.

Losing all reasoning in my head, “gladly,” I said under my breath.

Instantly a tremendous surge of pain came rushing down all paths of my sensory nervous system. I screamed out in agony but with that strength was piling up to the roof. My arms and legs moved on their own to the wall, pushing me along the handle of that spear. That man was elated by what he had seen happening. I grabbed that pole once I was out, as my wounds were rapidly closing itself.

“Yes! Yes, Kagura Sota! Embrace that awakening of yours! Today will be marked as the day of your rebirth. I, Beelzebub, will be the witness of your conviction—”

Shunk!

With the last ounce of might I still had left, I stabbed his throat. The droning hum, the piercing hysterics, the pulsing green lights—they’re all gone. What’s left was the agony flooding the living room of that childhood home of mine. My legs and arms shook without end, along with the pain that was slowly subsiding.

He smirked.

“Shit—”

Beelzebub’s flesh and blood turned to a swarm of flies, flying past me in a chaos, stopping behind my back. He transformed back into his human form.

“Remember who gave you your reason to live now,” he said before vanishing.

Maybe it was due to the loss of blood. I lost all the will to stand up and fell on my back, holding the spear that turned to a knife as the boundary broke away. I lied down, lifelessly, in a pool of blood from all the four people around me. Turning my head towards Aki, I could see the mark of that man’s hand disappearing from his neck.

“An unlucky episode, huh?”

As the boundary breaks down, reality will reshape itself to make sense of everything. I faintly heard the police force closing in to our house, probably because someone heard all the screeching pain.

Even then, tears wouldn’t come out. I just wailed—a wail that could be heard from miles away as the streets were changing back to its lively self.

It was of hopelessness.

It was of pain.