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The wind howled in anguish. Leaves shrivelled in the plain dry cold.
It was black. Everything. The sky, the clouds, the air. Even the most hulky attractions of the park, the grotesque forms of the roller coaster tracks, the towering tree of the Ferris wheel, the cyclical chase of wonder on the carousel —all of it, shrouded in an ink blackness. A faint white fog flowed like frozen tears of the weeping winds, creeping through the creaks of the lifeless machines, some even pouring onto the bare stage.
Empty, left with nothing but a husk.
Silent, life was snuffed out by the dark.
It was a mistake to be here. It always has been. Tsukasa knew this.
How did he even get here? It was late. He should have been sleeping by now. He probably forgot something again.
…yes, that was it. He forgot something. What did he forget?
What is happening to me
Ah……right, his jacket. Right?
Stupid, Tsukasa. You’re so stupid. How could you possibly forget your jacket again?
It was backstage. He left it there. He was rushing back home because Saki was making dinner this time.
Excuses.
Tsukasa trod, with every step perfectly calculated, muffling his own walking. The air was cold and damp, almost like a blanket soaked in ice, sending shivers down his back. He could barely see anything other than the one luminous ball of orange inside the tiny cages of the street lamps.
Tsukasa hated this.
Inside hallow wet
A cry, a drip. It splattered on the ground.
Splat!
A ripped open wound, mucus gushed out.
Tsukasa must be hearing things.
too wrong
too new
Too far
He quickened his pace, finally bringing himself to the small storage room hidden behind Wonder Stage. He fumbled his keys out, jamming one inside the door lock and flung the door open.
The quicker he was, the faster he could get out of there.
Tsukasa’s eyes scanned the room, making out brief shapes and grey colours amid the darkness. There! Just resting on the prop box was his abandoned jacket.
Good. He found it. That’s good.
̸̱̟̩͇̮̜̱̙̂̀̅͆̿̽̒̇ ̶̗̹̝͉̗̜̚ ̵̘̠͓̱͚̬͕̀̈͐̆̈̄͑͊̈́̀ ̴̤̭͔͚̞̓̀̐͑̂̆̀͐͜ ̶̢͔̖̜̟̋̅̎̃̎̉̆̉̾̓*̵͈̝̖͊͗́̉̓͗͗̊̈͋ ̶͓͔̐̈͒̄͜͝ ̵͔̹̖͚̦͙̳̰̮̿̈́̋̒̅̽̚ ̷̗̼̝̣̆ ̵̱͚̺̤̦̺͇̎̔̏͗̕ ̸̘͈̫͓̱̰͝ ̶̞͓̩̺͓͂̉̈́ ̶͍̺͚̲̟̠͕̬̈͑̀̒̍͗͊͐
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It was wrong. Everything was wrong.
Cold melting
like a helpless little snowman
screaming without a mouth
alone under the flames of hell
You have gone too far this time.
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“ Tsuk as a ”
Tsukasa jumped.
It couldn’t be.
It couldn’t be him.
What was he doing here?
“...Rui? Why are you–”
Nothing. His mouth sewed shut.
Drip.
Drip.
Dripping. More dripping.
It dripped down from his face, down his neck, arms, and slowly to the edge of his coat.
His coat…covered in skin.
His legs were stretched like rubber, arms elongated like growing roots of a plant, thick slime-like liquid melting off his skin and muscles. His facial features were pulled, his entire body fused with his own clothes, his posture leaning towards the door handle, mucus and glue-like transparent liquid dripping away, not down, from his body to the floor.
That was not Kamishiro Rui.
That was definitely not Kamishiro Rui.
That was—
“h eeeee lllllp—”
Tsukasa collapsed to the floor and whimpered as he clutched his jacket with his clammy wet hands. Words were stuck in his throat as the thing approached closer, more sploshes of thick yellow liquid splat on the ground.
Rui was melting .
Tsukasa scooted further and further away from his friend —he didn’t even know if that was his friend anymore —until his back hit the wall. There was no way out.
Tsukasa was stuck with a monster.
…No, this wasn’t any monster. This was Rui. Rui was still in there he had to be—
His eyes.
His eyeballs.
They were rolling inside his eye sockets, as the nerves melted into a deep brown liquid, filling up his two holes as they slowly being pushed out of them —
Fear. There was also fear.
“R-Rui—”
Tsukasa wanted to shut his eyes and say that this was a nightmare, and one second later, he would be back on his bed crying alone in the night, but nothing happened. The thing in front of him was real, and Tsukasa didn’t know what was going on. He didn’t even want to question it. Whatever Rui was doing, it went horribly wrong it definitely went wrong this was wrong all of this was wrong —
A tumble. That was all it took.
One second Tsukasa was a breathing young man, the next he was forced inside the melting pile.
Rui’s entire body crashed onto Tsukasa, and everything was burning — it was like a bucket of melting hot glue being dumped onto him.
“p l ea ssssssssssssss
SSSSSSSS— ”
Tsukasa could scream, could shout, but he just froze in horror as he witnessed his friend’s slow death, watching his face morph into a lump of paint just two centimetres away from his eyes. With a pop, slimy translucent liquid burst out from Rui’s ribcage, ash white and boney, and splattered all over Tsukasa’s stomach. The liquid crawled and oozed out, moving towards his neck.
“iT h u U rt s”
Tsukasa couldn’t do anything. His waist was locked by the burning glue, his legs completely trapped within the melting flesh. This was it. This was his demise —dying in the melting hands of his best friend due to a failed experiment.
Tsukasa should be crying. He should be shrieking in horror, screaming and wailing as he struggled under the suffocating touch that slowly swallowing him. He didn’t.
He couldn’t even if he tried.
Pain. Rui was in pain, and he needed him. His body was quivering, shaking, melting and Rui was scared and confused and in pain and everything was collapsing and he was about to die and he needed him.
In the end, the horror in front of him was still his friend.
Tsukasa couldn’t leave Rui in agony and fear.
“R-Rui…”
His voice was cracked; it was eerily high-pitched. It didn’t matter.
Tenma Tsukasa wouldn’t let himself be scared of his best friend.
He was a star, afterall.
Tsukasa reached out to Rui, shaking violently as he forced his arms to pull away from the grasp of the melted flesh. Rui’s face was now drooping down with his purple hair, and his body was half turned into a thick puddle of liquid. Tsukasa gently touched the goop melting off from Rui’s cheek, trying to scoop it back up.
“Y-you’re okay, Rui, you’re okay, just —just listen to me, o-okay?” Tsukasa leaned forward, using both hands to cup the dripping liquid as if trying to mould Rui back to life. His hands were trembling, all plastered with sweat and the greyish-pink goo, but he had to keep going.
“I-I’m not leaving you a-alright?” Tsukasa shuddered, yet he still managed to contort a smile, “I am not leaving you alone.”
Some murmur came out of Rui, and Tsukasa saw long wet spikes of muscles —Rui’s fingers —wrapped along his forearm and sticking onto his skin.
Then, half a chunk of Rui’s shoulder just collapsed onto the floor.
Tsukasa’s breath hitched, and fear started to flood back in. He didn't want to see it. He didn’t need to see it.
Tsukasa lunged forward and hugged whatever was left of his director, burying his head inside his warm, bubbling embrace.
“I’m not leaving you….I’m not leaving you….” Tsukasa mumbled, repeating the line over and over again like a hypnotic lullaby trying to put both of them to sleep. He pressed close to Rui and his mouth was being filled up with the melting substance, which was supposed to be Rui’s flesh—
Tsukasa felt something running down his cheek. Was it sweat or his tears? He didn’t know anymore. All he knew was that he felt heavier and heavier until he started to lose the feeling in his limbs.
Then at one point, Tsukasa lost his mouth.
It was stuck onto the melting flesh, and he couldn’t tear it away. He tried screaming, tried shaking his vocal cords, at least a little bit, but it didn’t work. His mouth was one with the body, while the rest was slowly being swallowed and digested within the melting pile of flesh.
Tsukasa couldn’t breathe anymore.
But he was still alive, somewhere in the belly of this fused abomination. His body was scattered within its internal organs, mixed with Rui’s own flesh.
He was one with Rui, sharing the same existence and consciousness —and they will be together forever.
Forever.
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Drip.