Chapter 43 - The Girl Wants to Be M*rdered

⟨ Chapter 43 ⟩ Chapter 43. Discount. * * * Thud, Snap, Thwack. A festival of those who turned their backs on reason, morality, and ethics was unfolding. Like a torch burning on raindrops, feeding on oil, madness devoured the people, sustaining itself by conducting a grotesque dance fueled by chaos. Sharp stones, rotten wood, and rusted iron. Objects sufficient to inflict harm were hurtling through the air, colliding with an innocent child. "...Ow!!...Ah, Aah!!" "—You crazy bastards!!! Stop it, stop this madness!!!!" Unable to even defend herself, Alice took the brunt of it all. Unable to merely stand by and watch such a sight, I found myself spewing words of vulgarity that I had never dared to voice before. That child, begging for forgiveness, rubbing nonexistent hands together, what did she ever do wrong? Cowering completely, not thinking to resist, not even attempting to flee, what crime did she commit to deserve this? The child who, through tears, was calling out my name with desperate longing, did she truly appear to you as the cruel witch you claim? The ropes, pulled taut with every movement, tightened around my limbs until I could no longer feel them, constraining me even further. Nevertheless, my words never reached them. They continued their actions, mocking me, as if to showcase their audacity. Even while I witnessed everything happening before my eyes, I could do nothing but scream, unable to free myself from even the thin restraint holding me in place. "S...ister..." "...Ah...Aah...!!" No matter how far I reached, my hands suppressed behind me, I could not touch the child. Accused of a crime she did not commit in my stead, I could not extend a single helping hand to the suffering child. And that was the most miserable part of it all. Yet, I could not turn my gaze away from that scene. Because this was my sin. "It's me!! It was all me!! So stop it!! Take me instead!!!" "—I'm sorry, Hahn." Amidst my parted lips, a torn piece of fabric was shoved in. The stiff white piece was part of Alice's clothing, long ripped, lying on the floor. Even as I struggled to spit it out, Remie's persevering grip effortlessly overpowered my resistance, successfully stuffing it into my mouth. With the very hand that had captured Alice, with the hand that tore her clothes, she once again silenced me. Preventing any proof of Alice’s innocence. Preventing me from uttering any words of apology for this situation to the child. So I could survive by sacrificing Alice. "But...you need to live too, right..." "—, —!!" ".....I'm sorry." Remie's trembling hand gently patted my twitching head. Though a small comfort, neither her words nor her actions could provide solace to my heart. While unintended, despite never wishing for this, it was a consequence entirely brought upon by my own doing. Remie's terrible actions. Alice bearing all the sins. All of it. Mouth sealed, I roared like a beast. Bound tightly without the possibility for my hands to touch, unable even to pray despite the cloth choking me, with knees bent to the floor, I merely longed for heaven to answer. Even if the recipient of that prayer was a demon, it didn’t matter. Anyone who could save the child would suffice. Even if the price of the prayer was my soul, if it allowed me to aid the suffering child before my eyes, it would be enough. So please— Caw, Caw— "—Trash." As if a deity answered my supplication. A powerful wind blew. ** On an indistinct day in late autumn, a time when I and Alice truly opened our hearts and became friends. Resting against a tree, with Alice lying atop my lap on a bed of fallen leaves, idly playing with strands of my hair, I had once asked her a question out of curiosity. "Alice, why do you like the color black?" "Hm?" "...Just, I noticed you seem to like it." She stopped her playful, somewhat enjoyable touch that was simultaneously ticklish and pleasant, and with a cocked head of curiosity, looked at me. Although I felt a small disappointment wishing she would continue, I wanted to hear Alice’s thoughts, so I pressed on. In a world where the color black is generally avoided. No, it was beyond avoidance; it was akin to an aversion, perhaps an innate instinct embedded within people's very genes, leading to extreme disdain for the color. Even infants, newly born and untouched by learned prejudices, would burst into tears at the sight of my black hair and eyes. As if they were instinctively petrified by it. Perhaps because of this, Alice, unlike Remie who nonchalantly overlooked it, took a fond liking to my hair, likening it to the night sky, making her seem a bit peculiar in my eyes. Not that I ever thought ill of it. I wasn't questioning her actions; I purely wanted to understand why Alice felt this way. And her response was: "Because it's the same color as Ellie's hair." A somewhat anticlimactic answer, given it was someone else's name. I showed a sullen face, hinting at my slight irritation as I asked her. In retrospect, it was embarrassing to pout before a ten-year-old. "...Ellie, sister?" "Yeah! Saeli, sister!! My family! Umm...she told me not to tell anyone, so this is a secret...but just for you, Sia, I'm telling you!" "Huh...? What's that?" "—Ellie has hair that's as black and clean as yours." Alice's words, wishing for black hair like her dear ones, took me by surprise in many ways. First was the shock at discovering someone who shared hair the same color as mine. And realizing that such a gentle and lovely child had only two close people, including me, was another startling revelation. It seemed that her guardian tended to be excessively overprotective of her. Yet, seeing the pure nature of Alice, it was somewhat understandable. After that, the conversation revolved primarily around this person named 'Saeli,' whom I assumed to be Alice's guardian. Of course, every piece of information came with the mysterious disclaimer, "You mustn't tell anyone—," making it all the more suspicious. I considered trying to establish a connection, pondering if she might be from the same region, but hearing about her dislikes for strangers and her preference for avoiding meetings left me choosing to abandon that line of thought. And that memory remained just as it was, a chapter closed. A matter unrelated to me. At least, that's what I believed— —CRACK!! The sound, which could barely be attributed to the wind, carried a sinister and violent undertone. In the space between hearing the cries slicing through the air and my face being splashed by a hot liquid, I forced my eyes to open against the fierce storm to understand the situation. Soon, I realized that my efforts were futile. Before me stood someone who hadn’t been there moments ago, presumably the cause of the current chaos. Sway, sway. Black hair fluttered. "........" ".......What?" For a moment, even though I saw what had transpired, I couldn't believe it. Accepting the idea that my eyes had failed seemed more plausible. Scrunch, Crackle. In front of me, a woman held a mouthful of unidentifiable flesh. The woman, somehow having pierced through the crowd to reach here, was gently cradling Alice's bloodied body with utmost care. Crunch, Rip-Rips. Sound after sound reached me, each more incomprehensible than the last. Her mouth, grotesquely wide, opened and closed repeatedly, while the flesh gripped in her mouth sprayed blood everywhere. Even my face, caught unaware, was no exception. What appeared to be the size of an adult’s forearm, or undoubtedly the forearm of an adult man, vanished into her mouth in mere seconds. Not even a bone was left behind. Her mouth, which accomplished this impossibility, closed as if it had never happened, leaving me shivering at the incredible, surreal scene. What was that? What on earth is going on? I wasn't the only one who instinctively felt fear at her lips, crimson yet slightly parted. Beyond, save for a single man, presumably the owner of the arm, screaming, no one made a sound. The sound that emerged was so melodious, I struggled to believe it could originate from that mouth. "I was mistaken to believe and leave it to humans." "........." "After all the suffering, to have held even a shred of expectation from humans...is deeply shameful." Her voice, both cold and hot, was peculiar yet the only way to describe it. Her tone was polite, defying belief for a person who performed the grotesque act of savoring a human arm. Yet to me, such politeness was even more terrifying. As though it held back wrath. Suppressing the urge to break apart at any moment. Nonetheless, the coldness and hostility within her words matched and even surpassed her prior actions. What could she possibly be thinking? Her eyes, pointed skyward, squeezed tightly shut as if unwilling to view anything around. "People are supposed to exist among other people...So I've thought—" ".....Who are you?" "—But clearly, that's only for some people." The eyes of a beast settled on us. They were redder than any blazing flame. Within those eyes, elongated vertically, lay pupils not meant for humans. The woman hardly seemed to acknowledge the staggering utterances of the village chief, let alone turn her head toward him. Slowly, she walked forward. This was a monster. Despite having never laid eyes on one before. Though regarded as existences of mere stories until now. Even as I watched, this woman was unmistakably something beyond human. "...Ah...Aah..." "W...witch...!" The people who hurled stones just a moment ago stood frozen, like frogs entrapped by a snake’s gaze, unable to flee. In stark contrast to her savage stare, the woman soothed and caressed the child in her arms with delicate care. Slick, Slick. Her crimson tongue traced Alice's blood-soaked face with slow precision, revealing the child's original skin. Watching the rhythmic bob of her throat as she swallowed the collected saliva was nauseating, but I couldn't pull away my gaze. Unlike me, her hair seemed to condense the very essence of darkness. Her eyes burned red, akin to a sunset. I recalled a semblance to something I'd heard, as fragments of conversation with Alice surfaced in memory. "—Kill them all. Leave none alive, not a single drop of blood spilled." Caw, Caw. In the darkening sky, as if in reply, crows filled the heavens with their song. From amidst the underbrush, beasts of unknown origin bared their fangs and approached. Saeli. Alice's guardian. The one Alice claimed as her sole family. The monster bared its teeth at everyone. ** With the atmosphere thick with tension, the gravity of the situation played out in the eerie silence that followed the initial uproar. Everyone stood paralyzed, the dire reality of what unfolded before them settling into their bones. The mere existence of this otherworldly being, Saeli, defied the natural order, touching upon myths and fears hidden deep within the human psyche. ** In the depth of that dark encounter, where fear met despair, the world shifted. The air buzzed with unspoken words and suppressed screams as the unnaturally serene aftermath of Saeli's revelation echoed louder than any chaos that had come before. ** Saeli’s presence alone, so unlike anything human, bridged the realms of nightmare and reality. The terrified villagers, their hearts gripped with the chilling realization of confronting an existence so vastly unfathomable, stood in mute testimony to the haunting scene unfolding in the heart of their village. ** While everyone else remained immobilized by fear, Alice remained nestled safely in the embrace of her guardian—Saeli's protective instincts as undeniable as the storm brewing within her fiery eyes. ** The wind wafted through, carrying a message within the rustling leaves and the rhythmic fluttering of crows’ wings—a herald of the reckoning to come. ** And in that charged silence, with Saeli standing as both shield and weapon, the line blurred between savior and force of nature. The storm that had swallowed up reason, morality, and ethics now rumbled quietly within, promising a reckoning that would leave no soul untouched. **