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Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no.
How did it all end up like this?
Her uniform drenched in an eerie red, her cream colored hair that cascaded down her shoulders in disarray. Yet she continued to run, through the woods, fear reflected in her ruby colored eyes.
Her legs ached, prompting her to slow down and stop. There was no way for her to be able to continue on, the moonlight guiding her now completely obscured by the thick treetops, giving the forest a more sinister image.
Something moved past by the corner of her eye. She wanted to run again, but try as she might, she was too exhausted to even move her feet.
There was something lurking around the forest, and it was currently watching her. She can't see it, but she can feel it's gaze burning straight at her.
Her heart beat rapidly against her chest when she heard footsteps slowly approach her from behind. It wasn't them, was it? Quickly, she had to move quickly back to her feet!
"Oh? What brings you here in this forest, all covered in that pretty red?"
A mischievous voice, belonging to a boy, spoke right next to her ear. She yelped and moved away from the culprit, her fear intensifying even further.
There stood a boy, somewhat looking close to her age, a calm yet ambiguous smile plastered across his face framed by short, unkempt black hair. What stood out the most about him was the golden color of his eyes that seemed to glow in the dark, staring back at her.
He seemed to go to her school, seeing as he was wearing the boy's uniform. Dirt clung to his clothes, however, as if he had just been digging into the earth like some sort of animal.
"What's the matter?" He spoke again, walking one step closer to her. It looked like he was trying to spark conversation, but honestly, it wasn't even a good attempt seeing as he had suddenly appeared from God knows where.
She tried to back away, but in a flash he disappeared right as he took one more step, before reappearing behind her, an arm wrapping itself around her waist and pulling her to his chest. Before she could react, however, she felt him press his nose to her hair, taking a quick whiff.
"You smell of blood. So much blood."
Her mouth quivered into a thin line. This boy… he wasn't to be trusted. She had to find out how to escape or else he'd—
"I don't mind, though. I rather like it." He chuckled, releasing his grip on her and letting her tumble down on the forest floor. She tried her best to get up and run, but her knees buckled from fear and tiredness, thus rendering her unable to get away from this strange person.
She felt tears begin to fall on her cheeks, and she was about to rub them away when the boy intervened. He wiped them off with a gentle caress of his thumb, as if he were a parent tending to a child.
"Don't cry. You're not hurt. That's not your blood, anyway. I can tell."
She froze on the spot, opening her mouth to make a sound, but unable to. The smile he had on formed into a smirk, as he continued to caress her cheek.
"My, my, Yashiro. Red isn't even your favorite thing to wear that much, you know?"
Was it really…?!
She could finally let out a sob, and her tears just kept falling uncontrollably as a sharp pain in her stomach suddenly made her curl up on the ground. What was happening? Why was this happening to her?
The boy knelt down beside her, stroking her hair as she wailed in agony, her screams of pain only echoing throughout the trees. There was no one to answer her, and no one to come to her aid.
"I told you not to cry." He merely observed her suffering with an amused look in his face. "Besides, you're not the one currently buried six feet under. It's only a manner of equivalent exchange, after all."
"It… it hurts… it hurts!!" Her voice rasping, body trembling from the pain.
She knew what she was getting into. She knew what the price she had to pay in the end. So why was she complaining?
Like he said, she wasn't the one buried six feet under.
Hey, did you hear? The forest next to the school has a spirit that can bring back anything you have lost.
It usually takes form of the thing you've lost. Mostly a person. They even say it can bring people back from the dead, with certain steps.
The pain eventually began to subside, and her crying began to slowly cease. The boy saw her succumb to her exhaustion at last. He gathered her up into his arms, not even caring if blood stained his own clothes.
I heard that when you sacrifice someone's life in that forest, you can get what you wished for. But the downside is, you're given the same scars as your victim. You're marked forever in the same place where you took their life.
He looked at the direction she had been running away from. At the far distance, he could see a crudely made mound of dirt, and a knife all covered with blood right next to it.
He'd ought to pick it up later. It'll be useful in the future.
They'll resent you. You may have brought the person you want back to life, but at the cost of someone else's. Would you be willing to live with this fate?
She whimpered in his arms, and he saw the horrid red that seepeed through the stomach area of her uniform. He could tell the knife work she done was sloppy, but it still did it's job in the end.
"You've done such a great job, Yashiro. Good girl." He cooed, kissing her forehead. He gave the makeshift grave one last look before turning the other way around, the both of them finally disappearing into the woods, never to be seen again.
A week later, a body of a student had been found buried in the same spot. Multiple stabs on the stomach was what had done them in. The murder weapon had never been discovered.
Around the same time, the whereabouts of Yashiro Nene hadn't been found whatsoever. And what was even stranger, was that they found the grave of previously deceased Yugi Amane desecrated, even with no signs of human intervention.
Murmurs circulated around the area. Were they connected, somehow? No matter how many times they asked, there only remained unanswered questions.
Perhaps it was better off that way in the end.