, but that doesn’t mean you just go ahead and injure yourself. Don’t make me worry so much.”The second person to know about my power is my sister. It’s also the reason why we’re living apart from our parents. Because of that I always fear to cause her trouble. Seeing that I really reflected on my actions, she stops crossing her arms and gives me a smile.
“That’s a surprise. What kind of lunch-box will it be?”
That’s because I’m handling all the house ch.o.r.es normally, since you’re always home late from work, isn’t it.
“What did you cook?”
“Really?”
My sister continued in a low voice. “…So, in the end, it’ll be a deluxe pork chop lunch-box.”
“I’m glad. Though I would have been happier if you had said that a bit more honestly.”
“Then try to think how I feel when I was expecting a miracle.”
“Okay”
“…Okay”
I replied crestfallen.
“—The usual exposure of carps at the park gathered a large crowed of parents with their kids, who set the carps free into the river.”
As for me, I died….. She really scolded me for two full hours.
“The world sure is rotten.”
“Your grade of decay is just fine.”
“…Now onto the next news.”
“This morning at dawn, in Meitou, XX Prefecture, a patrolling police officer found the corpse of a man stabbed to death.”
The footage changed and showed a crossroad. Judging by the nearby buildings, it wasn’t all that far away from here.
“The man was cut at various places and the big cross wound on his chest makes the police believe that this case is related to the serial killer case currently occurring all over j.a.pan. The police is continuing their investigation.”
My sister murmured and I just nodded silently.
It was the name given to the serial killer that started killing people in a provincial town a few years ago and repeated his pattern over and over again after that.
But because such a incident never happened before, even a part of the police we full of doubts. Not knowing if all the murders so far were done by a single person, by a group or were just copycats, the investigation made no real progress.
“That’s what’s troubling us. Wait, this isn’t my case. Most likely Investigation Headquarters will handle it. I can’t really come to like these prefecture police guys.”
“You don’t know how the murderer looks?”
“Ah, the “Midnight killing Devil”, huh”
“Yeah. And because he seems to like showing off his existence, he’s thought to be young—HEY.”
“You’re making me spill cla.s.sified information. What now!”
The report about the murder case wasn’t all that long and finished soon. Guess it’s means they just didn’t have much information yet to make public. My sister works in the department for general security, which includes juvenile delinquency, so this case doesn’t really involve her, but it seems like she’ll still come home late at night. That’s when my brain switched into my hated household mode and I thought how I should prepare a menu for my sister that relieves her stress.
The relaxed atmosphere between my sister and I after dinner froze instantly…..d.a.m.n, not good.
My sister was calmly drinking her tea. But on a closer look I could tell. Her hand was shaking slightly, her eyes showed a fierce anger and she was glaring at the TV as if that mother were sitting right there.
“…I’m going to the convenience store for a bit.”
My sister kept staring at the blank TV without saying anything.
I was thinking about saying “I’ll be back quick”, but decided against it.
The moon was out. It was a waxing moon that looked like it cute the night sky in half. With a plastic bag in my hand, which had some random juice and snacks in it that I bought at the convenience store, I walked slowly as drag out my returning as much as possible while looking up at the dark sky.
….As a kid, I was violently abused by my father.
My mother died shortly after giving birth to me. My father deeply loved my mother, his wife, and totally went nuts after losing her. He quit his job, drowned himself in alcohol and didn’t leave the house anymore. At some point, he then starting using violence against me. That was the point where I came aware of my unusual power. My father started getting more violent with me. Punches and kicks were a given. Burning my skin with a cigarette or a lighter was a common occurrence. Sometimes I was also beaten with the wooden sword (ironically I asked my sister to buy for me), which we had at home. The strength of his. .h.i.ts made me bled and the anger in his. .h.i.ts broke my bones. At that time, my sister herself was still young and couldn’t protect me. But I can still remember how she still stood bravely between me and my father in an attempt to protect me.
His abuse against me got worse by the day. He thrown me off the roof. He stabbed me with a big kitchen knife. He threw me into open fires. He drowned me in the bath. He forced me to eat cigarettes. He even strangled me at night when I slept.
As soon as my sister graduated from police school and got a.s.signed to the Meitou station, she left the house with me. Running out of my mother’s savings and my father’s pension, my sister raised me while even working part-time. Because of that my father would have trouble in the future, but my sister and me didn’t have the time to worry about that, nor were we that forgiving.
However, the topic of abuse is an ultimate taboo at our house. Whenever the topic comes up nevertheless by some kind of happening, like a report on TV, my sister freezes up. I think that my sister suffered a kind of trauma after only being able to watch me getting abused by our father for over 10 years. As for me, I’m eternally thankful to my sister, who got me out of that h.e.l.l.
“Guess I’ll drop by the park….”
I changed my direction and headed for the public children park. Around 20 minutes pa.s.sed. I like lazing around, so it’s not that hard for me to spend time doing nothing.
…That’s when I stopped. I could hear some kind of sound. A strange sound of something hard cutting into something soft. And repet.i.tive at that. Over and over again. Was there someone…? I was wary, but my curiosity won slightly over it. I started to walk on. The blinking street light gave the park an eerie aura.
The person seemed to be a girl. Her age… probably around mine. She had semi-long black-hair that merged with the darkness. I thought she was wearing a thick coat, but I realized it was covered in a rain-coat. A raincoat… Even though there wasn’t a single cloud?
stabbing something?
The girl wasn’t alone.
The girl wasn’t sitting.
My instinct told me it’s dangerous.
CRASH. I froze up and looked at my left hand. f.u.c.king s.h.i.t! Maybe the store clerk packed it wrongly, but the plastic bag ripped and all the contents fell out. The canned coffee I bought early rolled away. What was that a.s.shole thinking, putting my ice coffee and meat-bun into the same bag! I was now in a crisis because of that!
I stood there frozen like I was glued to the ground.
She swung her arm. In the dim light I saw red blood dispersing. ….Okay, I’ll say it once more. I repeated to myself.
The girl suddenly turned around.
The face of the girl, perfectly divided into half by the light and shadow, was covered in blood. No, it wasn’t just her face. That’s where I finally understood why she was wearing a rain-coat. Bathed in her victim’s blood. Her arms, her torso, her legs, everything was dyed red. And in her hand she was holding a big knife dripping with blood.
No— To be more precise, it was once a man, now it was just a ma.s.s of flesh.
The cross-shaped wound carved into his chest.
My memories was stimulated and even though it wasn’t the time for it, I checked the clock on my cell. It was half past ten. Totally different from what the stories say!
d.a.m.nit— I gotta run. Every fibre of my body told me so. Run. Run. Run. Run. RunRunRunRunRunRunRunRunRunRunRun! The same word was repeated inside my head like a siren. Even if I can’t die, I still feel the pain. Getting my body messed up like that surely isn’t something I could bear. Hurry. HurryHurryHurryHurryHurryHurry,
“!”
STAB.
I froze up. No way?
The killing devil standing right behind me with her knife plunged deeply into my waist. Inhuman. There was so much distance between us before!
The killing Devil grabbed my shoulder. I tried to resists, but with a power unfit for a girl, she turned around my body. I looked straight into her blood covered face. It was a miracle that I didn’t scream. At the same time, she hit me on the same spot I was stabbed just now. I let out a groan and staggered. This b.i.t.c.h kicked me!
Then the killing Devil started swing her hand with the knife.
StabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStabStab.
The killing Devil was smiling happily and queer. Just like a kid who had gotten a new toy.
After enjoying the stabbing show for a while, the killing Devil stops her hand. I thought she would release me, but I was wrong. While she stood up, she pulled me also up on my collar. The light shone on her face. Looking from close up, she got a good build. Her pointed chin suits her sharp eyes. What the f.u.c.k was I thinking.
The killing Devil spoke for the first time.
She rotated her knife and grabbed onto the grip.
I’m pretty sure she engraved a cross on me just now. Now I’m one of the victims of the famous . What an honour. f.u.c.king s.h.i.t. Inevitability my a.s.s!“Now then— Farewell”
Just then—–
The knife in her hand deeply pierced into my heart.