Forget Me Not (Discontinued)

Chapter Thirty Nine: ⚠️Now Burn⚠️

TW: body horror and gore

I quickly slither through the trees into the mountains. Satoru, Chiko and Atuy are holding onto my back tightly as I go at break neck speeds. Satoru shouts above the violent winds, rain and thunder, "Takara make a right here towards the river! She's running along the water!"

I swerve to the right and barrel towards the river; that's where I see a hooded woman running along the riverbed as the late summer storm rages on. Red bolts cut through the air and stop mere inches away from her. My brother jumps off of me and runs towards her; his fingers armed with nekode claws. She dodge his swipes until his nekode gets caught on her hood and rips it off. I freeze in shock and turn into a human as I meet the hostile gaze of Iku.

"Iku...what are you doing here?" Chiko asks quietly as he stares at the woman who had watched us grow up.

"Please Chiko, don't act like you don't already know..." she says in a low voice.

"It's a shame I didn't get to try your kane mochi Iku, or should I say Fuyuko." Satoru jeers at the woman. "Heard it's top notch from your own victims."

She maniacally laughs with the howling winds, "You know...you always looked way too much like your miserable slut of a mother. I can barely see any of my Daiki's likeness in either of you despite sharing his blood."

I feel ice cold fear at the sound of my father's name...a name I haven't heard in a very long time. Chiko clenches his shaking fist, "Why? Why did you do all of this to us?! We never did anything wrong!!!" His voice is almost small and close to cracking. It's enough to almost make me attack this...this stranger in a blind fit of rage.

"Because that whore not only stole my Daiki through marriage but also took his life!! He's dead because of that miserable bitch!!" She prattles on about inane nonsense but I'm barely listening as I silently walk over to her. She turns her attention directly onto me, "Oh and here's the defect, what do you think you're gonna do mute?"

I don't sign to her or even give her any kind of response, instead I use domain expansion and pull her in. A golden bell hangs above as I continue to stalk towards her. She opens her mouth to talk but instead my inner voice echoes throughout my domain like a rolling thunder, "Do you ever shut up?"

My lips don't move and these words are not exiting my mouth but are being voiced in my domain. "So what happens now? Are you going to kill me?"

"Yes I am. You will die a miserable death just like your brother did...except it won't be as quick." My body transforms once again into a giant white snake; I stare down at her like the insect she is. "I don't even feel kind enough to let you have any last words, all that will leave your foul mouth shall be screams and ash."

Before she can utter another word, the bell falls down on her. I wrap my body around the bell imprisoning her and turn my body aflame. Her screams and wails are the only things I can hear. "Now burn."

Once I'm finished I turn back into a human and my domain starts to disappear; bringing us back outside. I finally see the aftermath of my attack and it is gruesome. Her skin is charcoaled and every breath she takes an ember exhales out of her partially exposed lungs. The rain hisses and sizzles whenever it hits her crispy skin. Opaque eyes that were trained on the stormy gray sky move to look at me with terror and lingering hatred.

She tries to speak but suddenly her head explodes. Satoru stares at her with vehement and a bit of her blood on his cheek as her neck continues to spurt out blood like a geyser. "You've done enough damage here, I'm not about to let you curse my wife's name with your rotting breath." He walks over to me and wraps his arms around me before whispering, "It's finally fucking over." I return his embrace as the rain slowly turns into a light drizzle.

⛈Four Days Later🌦

Darkness surrounds me as I continue to run through the forest. Shouting erupts from all around me as I continue to run for my life. A cold human hand wraps around my ankle and pulls me down; I'm small and defenseless against the hulking image of my father. His hands wrap tightly around my neck and squeezes.

"You're a monster now, a monster just like me."

I try to scream at him.

🌑🌑🌑🌧🌑🌑🌑

I jolt awake sweaty and somehow out of breath in bed next to my husband. My hands slowly reach up and lightly touch my neck; the exact place where my father was trying to squeeze the life out of me in my looping nightmare. Silently I crawl out of bed and make my way to Atuy's kitchen to find some sake. It has been three days since Satoru has sent his students back home; leaving the four of us to deal with the aftermath of this terrible situation. We've been doing a lot of covering up and preparing the bodies for burial. As it turns out Oki wasn't the only one she took away from us...she had also killed Kirawus the day before she died. We collectively agreed that she probably killed him once he found out the true nature of his wife. 

There's a quiet rustling in the kitchen, I peak in to find Atuy also self medicating. I walk up to him and tap him on the shoulder; he briefly startles before relaxing. I sign to him, Mind sharing? Pointing to the bottle of sake he pulled out.

He nods and pulls out two glasses and places some ice cubes in there before serving us sake on the rocks. We sit down across from one another for a couple of moments before he asks me, Did you have another nightmare about your father?

I down some of the sake before answering, Yeah I did. You still can't sleep?

He solemnly nods before asking, Do you need to talk about what happened?

Taking a sharp intake of breath I ask him, Am I a monster? Quickly without a second thought he shakes his head. Lately I've been wondering if in the end I have turned out like my father or maybe something worse. While I don't regret what I did to Fuyuko and I'd kill her a second time if I could, I can't help but wonder what that makes me.

You are not your father, if you hadn't killed her she probably would've gone on killing until she got to you and your brother. You did not kill her without reason.

Even after what you saw me do to her?

You are my family, not by blood but by something thicker. I could never see you as a monster and certainly not as the man who abused you and your family.

Atuy silently wraps his arms around me and pulls me into a much needed hug. Come tomorrow we will all have to say a final farewell to Oki, Kirawus and my mom.