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The colors of the foliage burned Shigeo’s tired eyes as he tried to go forward. Squinting at the fluorescent green tree trunk in front of him, he saw a path going to the right. He cautiously stepped onto it.
Shigeo tries to steady his breath, but it was hard when his heart felt like it was about to explode. He had the feeling of being hunted, but he couldn’t tell by who- or what; just that if he doesn’t keep moving they were gonna get him. He could tell there were creatures in the shadows, but they disappeared as soon as he turned to look at them. He couldn’t hear his footsteps on the ground; it felt like there was fog in his head.
Everything hurts. Shigeo doesn’t know why, just that his left arm aches and that if he looks at anything for too long his eyes start to pound.
There’s someone in front of me.
The hunter. They’ve stepped out of hiding. Shigeo jolts to a stop.
Do not let him get you.
The hunter is staring at him; they take a step forward. Shigeo forces his head up, looking at them directly in the eye. The hunter breaks into a crooked smile. You think that will stop me, boy?
The bright pink leaves surrounding the path rustle. Shigeo sees eyes in the shadows out of the corner of his eye, but doesn’t dare to break the eye contact.
If you don’t attack first, they will.
Shigeo does not like violence. But something tells him that if he does not subdue the hunter now, something terrible will happen. It feels hard to breathe. The hunter is still smiling.
Through the haze in his mind of attack attack attack, Shigeo brings his hand up into a right hook, hitting the hunter directly in the face. They stumble back. Shigeo blinks his dry eyes. There’s blood on his knuckles. The hunter chuckles, wiping the blood off their cheek.
Woozy as his mind is, he is glad to have made them stay back.
The hunter initiates the eye contact this time, looking at Shigeo from under their hood. Their eyes are empty, with emotions barely contained in the darkest depths.
You won’t get out of this alive.
A raven caws in the distance. Shigeo sees fluorescent blue crows landing on the tree branches surrounding the confrontation. The air fills with dread. His head fills with panicked static.
He wants to run. There is nowhere to go. There’s a razor blade in his pocket. Shigeo pulls it out.
The hunter tilts their head. My my, isn’t this peculiar?
“You don’t seem to be the violent type. Why is there blood already on your blade?”
Shigeo stays silent, but the hunter knows what he’s thinking.
Don’t try to pick my brains, hunter.
Peculiar indeed.
“So? Will you fight back?”
Shigeo runs into the hazey, purple bush. The hunter follows.
-
Shigeo tries to rubs the blood off his hands using the salty sand around. He leaves the razor blade on the ground as it is.
It had been quick work to slash the hunter apart once he figured out the layout of the wild clearing they stumbled into. He tied their hands with their own thick hair and backed away.
He knows it won’t hold them for long, even as tree roots start to wrap around the hunters limbs.
In the blink of an eye, Shigeo crosses the clearing and dives back into the fog of the jungle.
-
He’s acutely aware of sand digging into his back as he stares back at the hunter. They’re saying something but he can’t hear over the static in his head. The treetops are so loud. There’s a hatchet in their hand and a rope around his neck. They raise the hatchet. He closes his eyes.
-
Shigeo wakes slowly, blinking away the blurry image of a hatchet over his head. He sits up and stares down at his baby blue blanket, willing his senses to come back into focus. The static is replaced by the far away noises of the household getting ready for the day. There is no blood on his hands. It is bright outside, and the world is at a normal level of saturation.
He rubs his eyes and pretends the wetness in them is from the harsh sunlight.
“Shigeo, time to get up!”
He gets as far as looking into the mirror only to realize the hunter is staring back. Shigeo ignores it just like he ignored how familiar the razor blade and rope looked.
Buttoning up his uniform, Shigeo steps out from his room.
Time to get on with the day.