Kaoru froze in shock as he watched Kyo snack on Shinya. He couldn’t stop shaking. Toshiya also went white with shock. Kaoru took a glance at Die and saw that hot tears streamed down silently. Kaoru could feel his own face burning.
“Why …” Die said quietly almost whispering. “Why did it have to come to this?”
Die turned to Mavros who was standing not so far away. In a fit of rage, he lightning sped to the sorcerer catching him by surprise. His hand clenched around Mavros’ throat.
“WHY DID YOU DO THIS! HE DIDN’T DESERVE TO DIE!” screamed Die.
Even as he violently shook Mavros, Mavros retained his creepy demeanor.
Kyo was done hollowing out Shinya and turned his attention to Toshiya. It all happened too fast for Kaoru. Kyo had picked a rock from the ground and smashed it on Toshiya’s head. Kaoru heard a loud crack as the skull caved in from the impact. Die was startled by the noise and turned his head to see Toshiya on the ground unconscious with Kyo tearing entrails out. Die tried hard to blink away the tears, but he couldn’t stop them from falling. He brought Mavros closer by the scruff of his neck and punched him in the face. Mavros only returned a grin. Die punched him over and over again until blood spat from Mavros’ lips.
“Give in to the anger!” Mavros laughed through his swelling face.
Die could feel the rage boiling within ready to spew and bubble intensely. With every punch he threw, he could see Shinya and Toshiya’s dead bodies. He wished deep down inside that they would spring back up at any moment to assist him in beating Mavros, but they would not stir.
“I think this is enough,” Mavros announced through his puffy lips.
His free hands produced a small dagger and pierced it easily into Die’s chest. Die let out a short gasp and watched the red bleed over his already soaked clothes. Mavros chuckled with the bloody dagger in his hands. He tossed it onto the grass carelessly and turned to walk away. Die could feel the end coming for him. It was creeping on him like Death hovering right next to him. He saw Mavros walking closely to the ledge of the mountain.
“What are you doing? You’re bleeding,” said Mavros.
Die walked closer clutching his stab wound. His weak hand couldn’t stop the overflowing blood from dripping. Mavros only furrowed his brow slightly with disgust. Die staggered to his assailant. With his final strength, he pushed the unsuspecting Mavros over the ledge. Mavros screamed in fear as he fell. It was not a soft hill of moss and crunchy leaves he tumbled on, but a deep rocky crevice. His screams echoed and were cut short. Die peered over to see. Mavros’ body was sprawled at an unnatural angle. Good, Die thought to himself.
As he turned around, he saw that Kyo appeared right in front of him. Kyo dug his claw into Die’s chest and pulled out his beating heart with the main arteries still attached. Die gave his final look at Kaoru before keeling over to die. Kyo pulled the organ free from its appendages and gouged at it. The blood spurt across his face as he hungrily devoured it. Die crumpled by the ledge lifelessly spilling warm blood on the dry grass.
The three lifeless bodies around Kaoru painted him a crimson nightmare to endure. He felt sick seeing so much blood at once. The stench was only beginning to affect him. Yet Kyo here was eating as if it was nothing to him. The overwhelming guilt flooded Kaoru. He had watched all his members hunted like prey and slaughtered like livestock, yet he was unable to do a thing, but quake in fear. Kyo looked at Kaoru, but wary of the blade in his hands.
“I’m too late.”
Kyo the spirit looked regretfully at the bodies.
“Why didn’t you kill me?” said Kyo.
“If I destroyed your body, your soul won’t have a vessel to go back to,” said Kaoru.
“Kaoru, stop it.”
“No … you don’t understand.”
“Kaoru,” Kyo said firmly. “It’s clear to me now.”
“What’s clear?”
“I’ve been dead the whole time. Body or no body.”
“Wait … so you knew all this time?”
“Yes, I knew. I wasn’t having an out of body experience. You think I wouldn’t notice after hanging around so long? It pained me to tell you so I feigned ignorance. The dead are not suppose to be in the world of the living. You need to destroy my body now. It’s been marked. No good will come to it even if I possess it.”
Kaoru looked down at the blade. Time had come to a full stop for him.
“I can’t do it. I can’t kill you. Not even if it’s not you.”
Kyo gave Kaoru a smile that was strangely calming. It put Kaoru’s nerves to rest.
“All that body transfer and soul stuff I was talking about, it wasn’t all a lie, but … I was well aware what was going on. I just couldn’t accept it, my own death. I wanted to find out why as much as you all wanted so I gave you all motivation as if I was alive. I’ve been selfish for denying my death and dragged you all into this. Look what happened.”
“Kyo, no. It isn’t like that.”
“I am not afraid of death or the afterlife. I’ve lived without regrets. I can move on from here. You need to avenge all of us by putting an end to this. Don’t worry, it’s not going to hurt me. You know I hate violence. It’s my body committing these heinous acts. You have a duty to stop it.”
“Ok. So what am I supposed to do now?”
“I will possess the body, but most likely it will reject me since it’s been marked. The blade you have is tainted with a spell to destroy all flesh no matter how invincible it is. All you have to do is to strike my heart while the body is possessed.”
Kyo hovered to his flesh body.
“This is goodbye,” he said.
He merged with the body and it stood still.
“Quick! Before it rejects me!” said Kyo.
Kaoru stood face to face with the frontman. His wavering hand brought the blade tip to where the heart was located. In an instant, he felt a sharp pain in his own stomach. Kyo’s claws dug through Kaoru’s body leaving a bloody mess.
“This is goodbye,” Kaoru winced.
He plunged the machete straight into the heart. Kyo retracted his arm and touched the blade. His skin melted as soon as it touched metal. He screeched in pain as if burned alive. The flesh that had regenerated successfully before now withered away exposing muscle and bone.
Kaoru couldn’t see anything, but the sky above his head as he lay on the grass. He didn’t want to watch Kyo flailing and tossing on the ground, but the piercing screams violated his ears. The pain from the wound was gnawing away at Kaoru, but he couldn’t care less at this moment. He was growing colder and colder and he was sure it wasn’t just the autumn breeze. He was going to die anyways. He had no strength to move even a finger. There was no one to call for. He would die here without anyone knowing.
“Now’s probably a good time to look for the sleeping rock.”
Kaoru rolled his painful body over on his stomach. He dragged himself slowly over the grass mounds. The chunky pebbles and twigs only made the journey less smooth. His numbing fingers brushed the grass away.
“Aah. So you were right here the entire time.”
He ran his sticky fingers over the smoothly carved dragon hidden in the soil. Its stone body was coiled like a snake as if it was resting. The blood coated the rocky scales in dying vermillion. With one hand on the rock, Kaoru closed his eyes to the darkness.
“Why are you here?”
Kaoru noticed he was standing in a brightly lit room. Kyo was looking at him concerned.
“I’m asking you why are you here?” he said sharply.
“I dunno. I think … I died,” said Kaoru.
“You weren’t suppose to,” said Kyo.
“I’m sorry.”
Kaoru saw that the rest of the band were also present. They were free from bloody rags and were dressed in fresh clothes like they were before they left the inn. They looked glumly out a window. Kaoru also joined to look. It was the forest floor with their dead bodies.
“Guys. I think it’s time to face reality,” said Kyo.
The white room disappeared and they appeared in the forest. They each walked to their corpses for a final look.
“I wonder what happened to Mavros,” said Shinya.
“Burning in hell as we speak,” said Die.
“Kyo it’s been so long,” said Toshiya.
“I suppose it’s been ages. Over a year to be more exact,” said Kyo.
“Do you think anyone is going to find us?” said Toshiya.
“I dunno. Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t,” said Kyo.
“It looks like you found your sleeping rock,”said Die pointing at Kaoru’s corpse.
“When the darkness preys, look for the sleeping rock. That’s what it told me in my dream,” said Kaoru. “So I found it, but now what? Did I go on a wild goose chase for nothing.?”
“We all tried hard. We did our best. You did your best,” said Kyo.
Shinya crouched to the ground hugging his knees. He poked at his own lifeless body against the tree. The way his own neck snapped made Shinya shudder as he now touched his own neck, making sure it was still intact. Toshiya refused to look anymore at his own corpse. The bloody mess from his cracked skull was enough to make his stomach hurl. He turned to face Kyo to distract himself.
“I want to thank you for always helping us one way or another,” said Toshiya.
Kyo scratched the back of his head and turned his face slightly.
“I had to do something. Even though it ended up like this right now, it was still worth it,” he said.
“Was it worth it being gutted alive by you?” joked Kaoru.
“Hey! I got kicked out of my own body. Maybe if I could possess it longer, you may have succeeded,” said Kyo.
“And then what?” said Kaoru. “I did succeed. It’s just that I ended up dead. I don’t know how I would face life if I was the only one alive and you guys are gone forever.”
“Aww. Are you trying to say you will miss us?” teased Die.
“Stop it, Die. We’re dead,” said Kaoru with a tinge of pink on his cheeks.
“But I’ll really miss Miki. She will be alone at home probably waiting for me endlessly,” said Die.
“Who’s Miki? Are you hiding someone at home? You kidnapped some poor underage girl off the street? That’s a crime,” said Toshiya.
“No! Miki’s my pet cat,” said Die.
“Miki’s probably going to forget you. She’s probably cuddling with a new owner right now,” said Toshiya.
“Shut up. Miki saved my life. She’s special,” Die argued.
“If I remember correctly, Shinya owns a pet Chihuahua,” said Kaoru.
“He’s definitely going to miss me,” said Shinya sadly. “I already miss him.”
Kyo snickered. “You guys are so weird. This is why I don’t hang out with you guys.”
“Kyo, don’t you have something or someone you miss?” asked Die.
Kyo pondered for a moment. “Hm. Not really.”
“Are you sure?” said Die.
“Aah. There is something.”
“What is it?”
“I want to have kakigori again. I regret not having enough of it.”
“You really do have a sweet tooth.”
“Kaoru has one too,” said Kyo.
“What! Don’t drag me into this,” said Kaoru. “Kiwi popsicles don’t count.”
“I like sweet things too,” said Shinya.
“Like what?” asked Die.
“Strawberries dipped in condensed milk,” said Shinya.
“That’s not a sweet tooth. That’s called being a child,” said Die.
“How do you even decide on these things,” said Toshiya. “I remember you eating ice cream one time.”
“That was once in a blue moon. Besides it was super hot that day. You know how much I hate sticky weather,” said Die. “I stayed in an A/C room the entire day.”
“Amen to air conditioning,” said Kaoru.
Kyo laughed. “Is this how we’re holding our own funeral? Picking at each other’s eating habits.”
“We might as well. It’s too morbid looking at my own corpse like that,” said Die. “We all died so terribly. You don’t even have a corpse left.”
“That’s true. I look like really bad pudding,” said kyo glancing at the grass where his remains lay.
“Eww. Don’t say that,” said Die.
“I think I look pretty good,” Kaoru said proudly.
“My hair is so messy and my jacket is all ripped. It was expensive,” said Die.
“No one cares about your hair,” said Toshiya.
“I do,” said Die.
“I bet management is getting something out of this,” said Kaoru.
“Our sales will skyrocket and not a single yen will go to us,” said Die. “So-and-so is dead? Well that’s too bad ‘cause this money’s going to us, the management.”
“Goodbye potential new condo space. You were almost mine,” lamented Toshiya.
“It feels like a total waste though. You found the rock and you ended up dead,” said Kyo.
“Honestly I don’t know why I even bother trying. It was a dream I had out of nowhere and I believed it,” said Kaoru.
“But didn’t your dreams all have some important message in it?” said Kyo.
“When the darkness preys, look for the sleeping rock. Well, Death preyed on me and look what it did to all of us,” said Kaoru. “Speaking of which, where is Death? Shouldn’t he be here to pick me up for a bus ride?”
“He gave you a halo right now,” said Kyo.
Indeed a bright light had suddenly appeared behind Kaoru. The rest of them shielded their eyes from the growing glare. The grass melted away leaving a very white space.
“Is this … the afterlife? Heaven? Or maybe Hell?” asked Toshiya. “Are we moving on?”
Kaoru couldn’t quite answer this. He was done with this earth, but it didn’t feel like the underworld was beckoning for him. He had expected flames of Hell, but this didn’t seem like Heaven either. Yet Kaoru sensed that the ethereal light was coming from something supreme, something more important than his very existence.
Even when the darkness preys, light will always come to bury it.
*****
BGM: Revelation of mankind by Dir en grey
How should I say this? What a gruesome way to end the story. Just kidding. This isn't the final chapter. There is still ground to cover, but it's nearing the end. If you enjoyed reading it, leave a comment, give me a thumbs up, and whatever kids like to do on their phones these days.
