★ | I, Rhys Kakyoin | Jotakak

24 ★ Alamo

It isn't long before he takes me in his arms and I wrap mine around him. I've always felt so safe when he hugged me, like I'd be untouchable when he did, but knowing that this curse is highly likely going to kill me very soon, I'm not so certain of that anymore.

  After all this time. After all I've ever done this year. After I'd met Jo, found out about my feelings for him, started a relationship. After I'd made so many friends whom I sincerely cherish and would remember beyond my teenage years, and after I'd spent so much time and effort learning how to sword fight with Polnareff... I wonder if this world loathes me, if once I feel even the slightest bit that maybe, just maybe, I'm having a better life than I'd originally intended, it gets taken away from me again. I wonder if fate really just wants me to suffer. From the death of my birth father who I've never had the chance to even see or know his name, to the fact that I was cursed by an elderly woman who gave me my change at the wrong place, and at the wrong time.

  I wish I was just cursed a little earlier. Last year, perhaps. That was when I didn't have all of my beloved friends with me... when I was all alone with nobody to care about but my foster parents. That was when my Stand hadn't manifested yet, and when I'd believed my dreams to learn to sword fight would never come true. Those lonely years, they are what my lowest lows belong to. The year before, I was in a much different school. I had absolutely no one to talk to, nobody to confide in. None at all. And each time I was publicly humiliated, there was nobody I could turn to to help me, back me up. No Jo Kujo, no Arata Hinode, no Aito Miyagawa, no Mana Furukawa. It was always just me who relied on myself. And, to be frank, I wasn't even that reliable. Perhaps those were the days that I'd be happier than I am now about finding out that I'd soon be dead. I feel like it'd even put a smile on my face.

  But instead, it happens now... right when I'm beginning to think that life is going really well for me, I'm hit with a curse almost inescapable. How many people who have ever graced this Earth with this exact same curse survived it? Far certainly very few, and I doubt I'd contribute to the number of people who have. And so it's safe to assume that I'm going to die after probably being traumatised by the additional times I'd nearly died because of this curse.

  Eventually, I'll arrive at a crossroads and have two choices: tell everyone that I'm about to die or tell no one and try to survive. Frankly, it's a risk no matter what choice I make because if I decide to tell everyone I'm going to die, I'm going to cause worry and panic, and if I survive the curse it'll all be for nothing. If I tell nobody and try to survive it, I'm going to hurt my friends and my family if I suddenly die. Then I'm going to dwell in Hereafter and the street saxophonist would be right about how I'd died at such a young age. Why must this happen to me? ...Why did Kume-san curse me?

  I've been sobbing into Jo's shoulder for so long now that my tears have probably drenched his coat, the majority of my thoughts pondering how sudden it all is... for a moment, I want to pinch myself really hard because I cannot believe that this isn't a dream, that this is all real, that I'm really cursed. All because of one goddamn coin.

  "I'm going to die," I whisper shakily. "I'm really, really going to die."

  "There's a chance to survive. Yuri said so. She said so, didn't she?" Jotaro responds with a note of desperation.

  "No!" I shout, pulling away from him. "I'm going to die! If only a handful of people got to survive this curse then what chance do I have?"

  He remains where he is when I stand up, my fists clenched tightly while my tears run free. For a moment I wait for him to say something. Really... anything. His head tilts downwards and a shadow runs across his face. I swallow a ball of that was tightening my throat, my vision blurry. When really I know he won't say anything, I do. "What if... what if I'm going to die within this month?"