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Tsukasa woke up in the middle of the night, his senses coming back to him as the pain in his lips slowly returned.
It had been exactly three nights after that night Tsukasa had sewn his lips shut, and nobody seemed to notice anything wrong with him. Just as I expected, he would think. But deep down, I really miss everyone.
He blinked a couple times. Just as he expected, not very much around him changed, his lips were still sewn shut, and– oh.
His room seemed creepier and darker than normal. He wondered, What happened to the usual sparkle on everything in my room? Why does it look darker? He looked at all the corners in his room.
Everything seemed normal… almost. Why did something feel off about his surroundings? Tsukasa couldn't help but feel confused by the mysterious dullness of everything in his sight.
Tsukasa stood up from his bed and drowsily made his way to the bathroom. He rubbed his eyes, resisting the urge to yawn normally as it wouldn't end well for the skin by his lips. As he arrived, he caught sight of his own reflection in the mirror.
He definitely seemed better now physically; the skin around Tsukasa’s lips had healed enough last night to seem as though his flesh was now conjoining with the thread, healing into the stitches as though they were a part of his body. Aside from that and the dark circles under his eyes, everything else seemed okay on the outside.
On the inside, however, his thoughts were a jumbled mess. His guts felt at an all time low due to his malnourishment from stitching his lips. It was a big sacrifice and cost for shutting himself up, anyway– and one that he'd even expected of himself.
Maybe being silenced wasn't so bad after all. People stopped complaining about me for being… me. I don't have strong feelings about being stuck on a diet of just water and shame. But I wish I could go back to my normal self…
He felt so empty inside, and his thoughts seemed to scream at him all the time.
Eat something! You're just hurting yourself and everyone around you! Stop faking everything! You look sickly! The stitches itch so fucking bad! they'd call out to him, only to be left ignored. The most he could think back was, Look, I'm tired of hurting my friends… I can't keep making them all disappointed in me for everything.
Tsukasa had forgotten about his original reason behind going to the bathroom at this point– He noticed that he'd started to stare at himself in the bathroom mirror. His reflection was just as he thought– just the same.
He then heard something that seemed to be both behind him and by his side, at the door to the bathroom. It sounded like… an incoherent whisper…? It almost felt like Saki was the one trying to talk to him.
“Ts-Tsukasa…..” The voice whispered, like it came from someone standing right next to him. The voice was closer to normal talking level this time, and it sounded more like Saki’s voice.
Tsukasa quickly whipped his head to the side to see if there was anyone there, half expecting to see Saki standing right there. Saki, I know you're there. Tsukasa thought. I'm not fooled by your tricks–
Nobody was there.
Wait… What the fuck? Tsukasa blinked as hard as he could. Nothing in his view changed. Nobody was even there… not even Saki. He felt a chill run down his spine as he felt a sense of impending doom upon him. Everything in the house seemed to become duller and darker than before, like a haunted mansion.
More voices joined Saki’s voice, and they seemed to be coming out of nowhere. They started to get gradually louder and louder, almost until they were yelling.
“Tsukasa….?”
“Tsukasa…!”
“Tsukasa!!!”
He turned all the way around, and still nothing was there. Tsukasa was all alone in the dark bathroom, and he hadn't even turned on the lights.
Rui…? Toya..?! Mizuki…?!? No no no…… this can't be…!
“TSUKASA!!!” Another voice screamed from behind him. He turned all the way around, only seeing his reflection in the mirror…
But then, his reflection changed. Tsukasa nearly jumped as he watched it turn into a grotesque sight.
His reflection smiled, the threads around its lips ripping the flesh towards the ends of them. Blood began to leak from the puncture wounds from the original stitches’ location. The smile slowly became bigger and bigger, until the stitches at its mouth seemed almost as if they could completely rip out at any moment.
Tsukasa couldn't help but watch in horror.
That's not my reflection…! Wait, stop! His mind began to race. What is this?!?
Just then, the voices around him that mimicked his friends’ voices started to scream hurtful things at him.
“I never should have looked up to you.”
“You're a horrible brother.”
“You're so annoying!”
No, please! Tsukasa wanted to scream. Don’t do this to me! Only muffled whimpers could escape his lips.
His reflection in the mirror stared back at Tsukasa, almost in a mocking way. The reflection blinked its eyes, and they went from Tsukasa’s original yellow-to-orange orbs to a pair of dark, hollow eyes with only pitch-black irises. Blood began to leak from its mouth and eyes like waterfalls, and its face began to melt.
The voices from all around him sounded louder and suffocating. What's going on?!? I never wanted this to happen with my friends! What happened to them?!
“Go kill yourself! You don't belong here!”
“I HATE you! I'm NEVER performing with you AGAIN!”
“What the FUCK is wrong with you?! You're so fucking embarrassing!”
“You're such a shitty boyfriend. Besides, you don't deserve stardom.”
Please! Tsukasa screamed in his head. Stop! I can't take it anymore! The voices kept getting louder, and his reflection kept turning into a disgusting, grotesque monster. Tsukasa felt tears fall from his eyes and run down his face, painting his eyelashes and cheeks. He could feel the natural blush in his face fading.
In the mirror, its face had melted so much it was now beyond recognition and it didn't even look like Tsukasa himself. The reflection’s expression had now twisted into a creepy smile that Tsukasa couldn't bear to look at, with blood leaking everywhere from its fresh wounds. Tsukasa tried to avert his eyes, but as he did so the voices around him only seemed to get louder. They slowly turned from normal talking voices to suffocating, yelling ones.
“GO FUCK YOURSELF! YOU’RE ONLY GOOD FOR NOTHING!”
“I WISH I WAS NEVER YOUR LITTLE SISTER! YOU’D BE BETTER OFF DEAD!”
“FUCK OFF! WHY EVEN BOTHER BEING AROUND YOU?”
Tsukasa started to hear his friends screaming in the background, and he could feel his heart beating out of his chest.
The reflection-turned-monster started to climb out of the mirror, and Tsukasa took a step back. His eyes widened in horror at the monster as it reached out to grab him. His friends’ screams were now just mere screams rather than words, though they even seemed to be cursing his name.
No, please! Let me out of here! Tsukasa screamed in his head as the monster kept reaching towards him. He continued taking steps back.
Suddenly, behind the monster, he could see shadowy figures from behind it. As he took a closer look, they all seemed oddly familiar, and soon he recognized their faces and the colors of their hair.
The shadowy figures took on the appearances of everyone he cared so much about.
They all seemed to be screaming for help and in pain as they reached out to him as well, their faces twisted with agony and their bodies merged into one bleeding caricature, behind the monster as if they were its life source.
Though they were all screaming, their voices seemed to get louder, spitting more insults Tsukasa wished he’d never heard in his life.
Tsukasa could swear he could see Rui’s hand covered in blood attempting to grab his shirt as he kept backing away from the unsightly beings that had just escaped his bathroom mirror.
He took one more step back, and that was when he hit the wall. As he touched the walls, the tiles felt cold on his hands, and he slumped down, curled into a ball of fear. No, no! Please! his thoughts screamed. I don't want to be here any more!
The monster seemed to laugh at him, its perpetual smile still plastered on its face.
Tsukasa couldn't stop shaking, even as the monster grabbed him by the neck with a seemingly burnt, rotten arm, which was surprisingly warm to the touch.
The screams from his loved ones raged on from behind, and Tsukasa could feel his tears falling faster. Their shadows continued to reach for him.
With its other arm, the monster reached forward, slipped a bony finger under one of Tsukasa's stitches, and pulled as hard as it could with an insane force, undoing the whole thread binding his mouth shut. The hand around his neck gripped tighter, as if it were suffocating him.
The screams and curses of his loved ones rang louder and louder in his ears, and from all his pain and fear, Tsukasa let out a blood-curdling scream from the top of his lungs, his mouth now free but still stinging…
-
Tsukasa woke up in the middle of the night, at exactly 3:27 AM. He jolted awake with tears in his eyes and an instinctive attempt to scream, but the stitches were still around his mouth, keeping his lips shut. Only a muffled sound escaped from his vocal cords, and his breaths were now short and heavy.
The voices of his loved ones were now whispers as he felt his consciousness rushing back to him, and everything in his room seemed normal, its usual sparkles still gleaming in the night.
Upon the realization he was now awake, the voices of his friends and found family had long faded out. The only thing he could now hear was the deafening silence, occasionally interrupted by his sniffling.
His tears wouldn't stop falling from his eyes, and as they touched the stitches over his mouth he could feel the raw flesh pierced by the thread stinging from the salty liquid.
He grabbed a bunch from his comforter, and squeezing it tightly in his arms like a stuffed animal, he began to sob quietly. His body wracked with each sob and whimper that escaped his bound lips.
He wished he'd never see those figures again.