Until It Hurts | Part 4 x reader

7

we got more fan art! you know what that means~~~ extra long chapter!

(not sure how to tell yall this but this fic only has 3-4 more chapters :/)

an afternoon on vivre island was never dull, never plain, like those in other parts of the world.

gorgeous creme-toned clouds float high above the earth in marvelous shapes, enchanting those below them in a mystical wonder as they passed by. 

Birds of all sorts, both foreign and native, had their fun playing in the cotton ridden sky, weaving between the air with the sense of freedom drugging their mind.

all the way down on vivre island, these wonderous clouds can be seen, shielding those outside from the blazing sun-- or more specifically -- the corpses littering the streets of the town.

it took almost no time for (y/n) and shizuka to reach the main part of the island, for all they had to do was cut through the woods (and of course say hi to tina), run through a little thicket of forest and pass her tent, then go behind the convenient store and run half a mile.

shizuka, for better or worse, expected the streets of the town to be less... disturbing.

to be fair, it's not like anyone would expect to see a dead child first thing, slumped against a wall with their jaw torn off and eyeball dangling out of their socket, upon arriving to the desolate wasteland.

"this is... insane! how many people died here?" shizuka mumbled, tearing her gaze away from the kid.

"the whole town? we weren't too many, but enough to fill up the streets, apparently." (y/n) laughed, walking forward and stepping over a stray body in the street.

"you know all of them?"

"i do. rather, I've seen them all at least once in my life." they motioned for shizuka to follow, and as she did, she caught herself gagging at the sight of rats munching away at some poor souls tongue. "i haven't talked to everyone, so some names might be hard to remember, especially after all of this time."

the sound of cockroaches buzzing inside a mans skull echoed down the street and drew the conversation quite, all eyes on the corpse housing bugs in its body a few feet ahead. while first perceived as a threat, the dead body was soon brushed off as nothing more than a snack for whatever insect or animal finishes it off first.

(y/n) didn't seem to care all too much about any of the people laying limp in the towns square, mindlessly stepping over a schoolboy with silver hair as if he were just garbage in the street.

"...how can you be so calm?" shizuka started, head twisting left and right with sorrow, eyes always meeting one deceased person or another. "isn't this unbearable? it's hard enough without knowing a thing about all these corpses."

"i... dont know? i got used to it, maybe." (y/n) hummed, scooting the body of a large kid with a pomp aside with their foot, clearing the path ahead. "there we go."

shizuka stared at the loner with what could've understandably been anger, but also sudden realization-- all sparked by them nudging a body aside. "i have a feeling i'm starting to understand why you're coping in certain ways..."

her voice was far too low for (y/n) to even have had a chance of hearing, which would probably be a good thing, if anything. the last thing she needed was to trigger the mentally disturbed person with a bat in their hand.

~

a stone patterned path caught the treads of rubber soles, dirt engrained into the thin spaces left between them, and allowing weeds of different sorts to sprout from the undergrowth.