Chapter Text
My hand, I reach it out, but I can't see it in front of me, nor can I feel the air around it. Maybe I didn't move it at all. I opened my mouth to speak, and I'm sure I felt my vocal chords vibrate, but no sound emerged in the void.
...
Is this death? I had never expected it to be so, well, empty. I mean, I wasn't much of a believer in heaven or some holy afterlife, but... This is a bit too dark, too vacant. I didn't believe the 'afterlife' was lovelier than anything that the original life offered. I thought, maybe you'd be able to replay your fondest memories. Or you might be reborn into another life, even if your past one disappeared. I suppose I was incorrect.
I can't even move, I'm frozen. My legs, my arms, even my face. Are my eyes closed? Am I paralyzed? There's pressure closing in all around me, is that supposed to happen?
Does it really matter? At this point? If this is death, then I'm just supposed to stay here and wait for all of eternity? No fading away, I presume, and no movement? It's rather pointless, isn't it?
Should I have cherished the simplest things like walking? Hugging Nao before her tragic death, high fiving Jou after a hard exam, were those things I took for granted?
...
No point harping on it now, though. This is the end. Or, well it's probably just the beginning. The beginning of my meaningless, endless, insubstantial waiting. Waiting for something to happen, for the faintest noise, for —
“Sara?”
Huh? Am I not dead? Now that I think about it, if I'm in an empty space, I shouldn't be able to feel anything around me except, possibly ground under my feet. I feel something behind my back, and I feel a warmth clenched around my right hand.
...
Oh, waiting, huh? Waiting — for someone to pull me out of here
“Sara!”
I felt like my eyes were forced open, and a bright, white light blinded me immediately. Heaven? No, that can't be it, I recognize that voice, and it's not someone who's dead.
“Sara Chidouin! Wake the heck up!— ah, Sara!?”
“Shut up! You'll overwhelm her.”
Reko? I heard your voice, so clearly, so crisp. Did you die? Was the afterlife delayed? Or, was I truly, not dead? Is that a possibility? Am I asking too many rhetorical questions? Is this a monologue? I'm going on and on, huh?
I shut my eyes tight again. I pursed my lips to confirm I could feel the tightness of them against each other. I attempted to raise my hand up and it was pushed back down by another hand? At least I have my senses back.
...
What was that first voice? Not the first one to call out my name, but the one who spoke right before Reko. It sounded so awfully familiar, but I couldn't dare to think about that.
So I chose to open my eyes again. Instead of trying to overanalyze things that could be easily solved by just opening my eyes. So open your eyes, what are you so scared of?
I'm not scared anymore.
...
Slowly, but surely, I opened my eyes, letting them adjust to the light carefully.
Glancing around the room, I found myself on a hospital bed, a blood pack connected to my arm that I previously tried to lift up. Everyone from the death game was surrounding me, even the ones I presumed were dead. Or should I be more surprised about the alive ones? Is this life or death, I'm so confused. Sure enough, the most recent one to speak was Reko, I assume she was the one who pushed my arm back down, considering her position. Nao was sitting on a chair next to the bed, biting on her fingernails.
And when I looked over to my right, I saw them. The person who was holding my hand, keeping me grounded.
“Sara... Ya scared us there, we thought you wouldn't get out...”
When I glanced up at their face, I saw jarringly familiar round, brown eyes. A guy, with thick brown hair with yellow hair clips spread around the left side of his hair. A stupidly calm smile over his lips.
So familiar.
But so impossible.
Right?
Actually, I think it's not fair to talk about what's 'possible' anymore.
The guy sitting before me, on a chair by a hospital bed I lay in, was my high school best friend.
“Jou?...”
“Yeah, Sara. It's me. Don't panic, now—”
I couldn't stop myself, I lunged forward, my arms throwing themselves around him. I don't know what took me over, but I understand why I did it.
“Oh, Jou! Oh my god, I thought I lost you!”
“Ha...Sara, ya gotta be careful, moving so harshly—” He glanced past me, shaking his head at Reko, who grabbed my shoulder in an attempt to push me back down. But my hold on Jou stayed an iron strong grip.
“How is this possible, what's happening? Explain everything!” My voice cracked a little, but I really couldn't be bothered to care about anything like that.
“We'll explain, but please get some rest.... Nao was worried about ya, so was I. Everyone was. You were the last one to wake up.”
The last one to wake up, huh?
I remember so clearly... Gin offered to get in the coffin but I insisted I should. So I did, and everyone tried their best to kill Midori but it was a failure. I felt so much pain, so much agony as my body was drilled through from the bottom to the top.
Finally, Jou carefully separated from me after gently patting my back. Reko helped me lay back down, asking a couple questions like "are you okay?" "do you remember what happened?", about my general welfare. I assured her I was alright, but she insisted she stay with me in the room while everyone else went to lunch reluctantly. Nao also stayed behind, chatting with Reko quietly throughout. I heard my name mentioned a couple times, which makes sense considering how everyone is so worried for me.
Sometimes I wish I could've talked to Nao more about what happened before she was sacrificed.
Well, I'll get that opportunity later on. For now, I should sleep, huh?