Unforeseen Truth

Chapter 12

Guilt. Regret. Rage. Misery. And grief—these are the emotions that woke me up in the middle of the night. Now, the ghosts of my past keep coming back to haunt me in my dreams. I buried it deep to forget it, and it is just now beginning to surface. No matter how hard I try, it continues reappearing in my nightmares.

I stared at my hands, which were quivering with fear. However, I can still see Viera's blood in my bare hands. I gasped for breath as tears streamed down my cheeks.

"N-No..." I whispered, full of regret. "No...Viera."

The moment my head began to hurt, I moaned. I gripped my head slowly, but the pain that I felt turned into echoes of torment. The sound of the knife, the sounds of their screams, gunshots, and despair.

"I'm sorry..."

I sobbed and sank slowly into the agony.

"Arghh!" I screamed as I sobbed. "Maynn...Viera..."

How can I escape from this misery?

It was too awful for me to bear. Even with regard to the past that I was avoiding, I had no idea what to do.

When will this stop?

I tried to calm myself down by closing my eyes, but the tears wouldn't stop.

"T, calm down. Want to try some wine?"

Once more, the sound of his voice and the words he spoke soothed me. Why do I keep thinking about him and hoping he is here to console me?

I dried my tears with a bitter smile.

"Wine tastes bitter."

I stayed at it for a while until I decided to have a warm bath in the bathtub.

***

"Vaeille? Where are you?"

"Vaeille?!"

Raeim's scream jolted me awake; my body moved instantaneously while floating. When I awoke, I recalled what had transpired the previous dawn and how I had come to be in this bathtub. I rose up and continued to stroke my brow. The scars reminded me of the past as soon as I saw my naked body in the mirror, and I realized it was the reason I broke down earlier.

I stroked the scar on my thigh where Viera stabbed me with my knife. I fixed my gaze on it as if it were a tattoo.

All of my scars have a story to tell, but those stories were just excuses for me. Because of these scars, it reminded me how I killed so many people.

"Vaeille?!"

Raeim appeared at my bathroom's door unexpectedly. They were, however, more surprised than I was. I arched an eyebrow and wondered why they were at my home and why they could still enter without my permission. My reaction didn't last long when Lusk cursed loudly in front of me and immediately left while Raeim screamed, and she closed the door afterwards.

"W-Why aren't you answering, Vaeille?! A-And...you're fucking naked right in front of us!"

I was caught off guard by the suddenness of the occurrence and especially by the fact that I had only just woken up, and it was then that I realized I was naked while facing them. She asked me a question, but I refrained from responding out of shame. It appears that everything I had been feeling earlier in the morning has been abruptly replaced with the powerful emotion of shame.

I simply closed my eyes and looked at myself in the mirror once more. Where I can once again see the marks and scars on my body. The realization that they had seen everything made me sigh heavily.