The Jack of Hearts | Chishiya Shuntaro

5

Warnings: slight depiction of blood and gore, also I wrote the moment of panic attack from the first person pov so some sentences might be triggering for some people.

Also no proofread, If you see any mistake please let me know :c

Stay safe and enjoy! 

♡♤♢♧

I heard the explosion when I was in the cell, and I was startled because I didn't expect another person to die so soon. Wondering who had been betrayed and whether it was because of the jack, I headed towards the main entrance. Ippei was walking beside me.

"Hey, Ippei, what's wrong?" I said softly, his mood not changing a bit since the beginning of the previous round. He still had no expression on his face, just walking absentmindedly. "Did someone say something?"

As we walked towards our usual spot, I quickly glanced around, but nothing caught my eye. I couldn't tell who was missing. "You know what you said earlier. The same goes for you too. Please tell me what bothers you so-"

While talking, I stopped when my eyes suddenly shifted to the screen in front of me, and my brain processed whose picture was blacked out. "What the hell?"

When I was conscious of who had died, I walked closer to the screen as if I was in a trance. It was as if what I saw was unreal and as if I would see someone else's picture when I got closer; all of these were tricks of my mind. But no, the second person who died was the boy who had lost his partner to whom I had told about the suit.

When my brain suddenly became filled with a noise of thoughts, the first thing that came to mind was the possibility of telling him the wrong suit.

Did I kill him?

Did I accidentally kill him?

No, it was heart. It is impossible for me to mix it up with other suits.

But was it heart?

Couldn't I focus because my mind was on Banda?

But it couldn't be. I couldn't be that inattentive.

''I guess that guy wasn't the Jack of Hearts.'' while my eyes were still fixed on the screen, I heard a female voice close by.

Unwittingly, I had walked to the group standing before the screen as usual. Chishiya and Ippei were also on my left, in their familiar places.

"What? I don't get it. Did we make a mistake?" Another woman spoke softly with sadness in her voice, making me look at her. She turned her back on the screen and wrapped her arms around herself. I saw sadness on her face, like her voice, and also regret mixed with it. While this observation and what I heard created a slight doubt in me, I looked at the group members one by one. They all had almost the same regret, the same bewilderment.

Except for the girl in the blue dress...

She was casually looking at her nails, a lollipop in her mouth, leaning onto the u-shaped guard desk. She raised her head and smiled at me when she felt my gaze. Her smile felt like it was not only a smile but with a hidden meaning that I couldn't exactly uncover.

The boy's fearful gaze and how he got up from the table when I arrived swam before my eyes.

And then, the girl called him to the pantry, accepting him into the group after he told his partner the wrong symbol.

As the things that had happened flowed back into my mind, I realized that I was clenching my fists in anger and that my nails were digging into my palms.