Ao whipped around and punched the mysterious figure, sending him crashing into the wall. He spat out blood and rubbed his cheek.

“You didn’t have to hit me that hard.” 

When Ao saw who it was, she tsked loudly. Just her luck, it was the fuckboy, the last person she wanted to meet. Wiping her arm where he touched, she looked around.

“Where’s the girl?” 

“Maya? Back in my room.” The boy’s eyes twinkled behind his lens-less glasses. “Why, you jealous?” 

In your fucking dreams you goddamn– Ao bit down her tongue. Unlike a certain someone who seemed to think with his other head, she knew now wasn’t the time to let her emotions take over. Her fists uncurled. There were nail marks on her palms.

“Stop stalking me.” Ao said. She knew it wasn’t a coincidence that they met, especially after being yanked like that. The ship was so big and here they were, together. Naturally, she settled on the one and only reason. “It’s disgusting.”

“I wasn’t stalking you. I was just going where you were going.” 

That’s the same damn thing. “How long?”

“I wonder… when I saw you leaving the hall?”

The hall? But that meant he saw… Oh god, everything. From processing her thoughts by talking out loud, to random shadow-boxing she did to clear her mind. Ao was a stoic person, but she now found herself —very reluctantly— reddening. The boy reached his hand out.

“Don’t.”

“I wasn’t going to do anything.” But the boy’s brazen grin said otherwise. 

Pulling up her jacket collar to hide her flushed cheeks, Ao awkwardly coughed, trying to change the topic. She couldn’t let her emotions take over. 

“So? Why are you stalking me?”

The boy’s expression hardened. This time, he didn’t deny the stalking allegation and only gazed aimlessly at the floor. The flirtatious icky vibes were gone, and Ao didn’t find him annoying to be around. So he can be normal too. But as soon as she had the thought that she much preferred him that way, the boy returned to his normal self. Ao scowled. It was cruel to tease a woman’s heart like that. 

“You pulled me in and I couldn’t resist. You’re different.”  The boy said, moving in close. “Do you remember your death?” 

Her death? Ao’s head started to throb and get dizzy. Vision blurring, she leaned against the wall for support as she winced at the pain. What the hell is he talking about–

The memories glitched back into her brain. Ao heaved, then sucked in air. Everything replayed before her eyes and she watched through a haze of static. She was on top of a building, she basked in the sun, she played on the edge of the roof, she laughed her heart out. And she jumped. She jumped and felt the wind rush past her ears for a good ten seconds before… nothing. There was nothing after. 

Oh yeah, I jumped and died. Ao mused. Being told she was dead should have triggered a cascade of denial, panic, disbelief, derealization and surreal questioning of her very own existence, just like in the movies. But the same way she would recall her breakfast the previous day, Ao recalled her death with clarity. It simply was. 

“I’m dead,” she said.

“Not quite right.” The boy stuck his hand towards her, giving her a charming smile. “I believe we haven’t formally introduced ourselves yet. I’m Ueno Hatsuharu.” He took out a knife that was hiding in over shirt the entire time. “And like you, I’ve died,” He slid it across his wrist, where faded lines scratched his skin. Blood oozed out. “But we’re not dead. Somehow, we’re still alive.”

Suddenly, Ao grabbed Hatsuharu’s wrist and wiped her thumb over the blood. It was warm. Then she rubbed her thumb and index together, feeling the texture. It felt about right.  Lastly, she ran her thumb down her tongue and… She paused. There was no metallic taste. It was slightly grainy too.

“Bloodplay? I didn’t know you were into such—” But Hatsuharu was cut short by Ao ramming her index into his mouth. He blinked dumbfoundedly, too shocked to flirt. 

“It doesn’t taste like blood.” Ao pulled her index out. A string of saliva trailed, then broke. She quickly wiped it off with Hatsuharu’s shirt, throwing up in her mouth. It was better if she didn’t think too much about where that tongue had been. “Therefore, it’s not blood. So we can’t be alive. At least, not in the way that we think.” 

“But– We’re here, aren’t we? If we’re not alive, then how are we…” 

“Limbo…” Ao mumbled to herself. “We must be in some sort of Limbo. But–” She focused on the memories she just got back. There was something missing. Not the memory itself, but from the bigger picture. When Ao tried to go over her life again, she realised that there seemed to be huge chunks of memory missing, as if they had been forcefully ripped out. 

So that meant… the woman called Ao standing right then and there, was only a fraction of her true whole self. 

“Hey, how much do you remember?” Ao asked. 

“Of my death? Well that’s easy, I was stabbed by…” Hatsuharu’s face scrunched. “Huh, I don’t know.”

“Don’t stop there. What else do you not remember?”

Hatsuharu fell silent for a few moments, looking more and more troubled as he thought about it. Then he laughed. Ao could feel his fuckboy side whispering to him like the Green Goblin mask to Norman Osborn. “I definitely know I should have more… friends with benefits.” 

“Kill yourself.”

“No, actually, I think I forgot some of my friends. It’s strange how I remember so little when it took up so much of my life.” Looking into Ao’s eyes, Hatsuharu smiled, playful and suggestive. “Maybe you could help me make some new memories?” 

A scream slashed through the air. It was loud enough for both Ao and Hatsuharu to hear very clearly, but too quiet for those in the hall to catch. 

“The hell?” Ao turned. With how large and long the hallway was, the scream reverberated from all directions and she couldn’t pinpoint where it came from. But that didn’t stop her from running off.

As Ao searched, Hatsuharu jogged behind her, a distance away. He didn’t seem to care much about the scream and was only following to stay with her. Face blank, his attention fixed onto her back rather than his environment. He felt no emotions towards her. He passed by a glass door and slowed.

“I think I saw something.” Hatsuharu peered out the door, where there was a promenade deck outside. Ao swiftly returned to his side, swung the door open and ran onto the deck.

They could barely see anything. Amongst the thick inky blackness, LED lights flickered.  Squinting harder, Ao saw what looked like a man at the edge of the deck. No, it was definitely a man.

He stood near the deck railing, struggling as something small squirmed and sobbed in his grasp. Ao instantly understood what was going on.

There was a child, and she was going to be killed by this deranged man.