Dancing in the Shadows

I Am Thou

Drip drip drip

"What's happening?"

It left his mouth quietly. It wasn't meant to be heard by anyone. It escaped from his mouth in shock—fear?—as Riki looked up at the blood-like rain falling on his face.

He covered his nose, the smell of copper contaminating the air. Scratch that—it was blood.

He suddenly let out a yelp. Something cold and slimy was wrapping itself around his foot. He looked down and saw a black, dripping hand enclosed around his ankle. In a fit of panic, he pulled his leg away and stomped down on the arm, unnaturally bending when he pushed his foot down on it.

A screech sounded out, and the hand retracted, sliding under Riki's shoe. He slipped on the arm and fell down.

"Oh my god," he muttered. "What the heck was that?"

"Excuse me, do you need help?"

A man was towering over him, his hand outstretched.

Riki jerked his head up in surprise.

"Uh, yeah, I guess," he mumbled, taking the man's hand, pulling himself up. "Thanks."

But the man didn't respond. Instead, he was looking up and down at Riki. "Are you bleeding?"

"What?" Riki asked, confused. He looked down at himself, seeing the blood dripping from his sweater. He internally groaned.

That's gonna stain.

"Isn't it raining blood right now? I think it'd be kinda weird if there was no blood on my clothes."

The man stared at him, bewildered.

"Uh, never mind." He took back, awkwardly. "I'll just go back to my house."

He turned around and ran, not looking back, even as the other man yelled behind him to wait.

In all honesty, he had NO idea where he was going. He'd never been in Tokyo before. Well, his mom told him that he had visited, but was too young to remember it. That memory wouldn't help much, anyway. He couldn't imagine that younger him would document directions from Central Street to his aunt and uncle's house. He had no idea how his parents decided to let him use the subway alone in a city he didn't remember visiting before, while he was ELEVEN.

He sighed. "Ok," he thought aloud. "What am I trying to do right now?"

He tried to calm down and get all of his thoughts in order. People were looking at him strangely, no doubt seeing all the blood that the other person mentioned. It must have been enough for him to look like he was bleeding out to death, yet there he was, standing there with no complications.

Oh my god, I don't think I can do this.

He was drenched in blood, and if anything, the sweater was making him even colder. He shivered as a breeze passed by him, and wrapped his arms around himself.

Okay, he thought to himself. I should get somewhere dry, first of all. Now where exactly would that be?

"Of course," he muttered, annoyed. "The underground."

He turned back. He didn't know how far he ran, but it was enough for him to feel out of breath. He thought he had quite a lot of stamina from dancing, so the fact that he was out of breath must mean that he ran quite a distance. Luckily, he tried to only run straight, and turn right if there wasn't a way to go straight.

Alright then. Straight, then straight, then...left? Since I went right...

He chose left, and luckily, his surroundings seemed to be familiar. So, he kept going. Soon, he reached Central Street again.

Okay, now what? I have to get to the Shibuya Crossing, don't I?

He went to the end of Central Street where most people were crossing--and staring at him--to get to the Crossing. Unfortunately, that's when he realized something he should've been thinking about as soon as he realized he was covered in blood.

How are my sisters going to react, and most importantly, my parents?

They'd probably think he got stabbed or something. Or rolled around in a person's dead body. They'd all probably get really scared, and would interrogate him as soon as they found out that all he really needed was a shower, not a hospital.

He squeezed his eyes shut and groaned, this time, out loud.

"For god's sake," he mumbled. Although when he opened his eyes, he kinda wished he saved that phrase.

In front of him were these giant half-arches, almost like those bones you would see in the deserted wasteland of a video game, except they looked like they were made out of light wood or something. Cartilage? He's never seen cartilage before, but he can imagine it. He should probably search up a picture or something later. In between the arches was a staircase that also looked like it was made out of that wood-cartilage thingy.

He looked around at the people crossing, and for some reason, they didn't seem to pay any attention to it.

In fact, now that he was looking more closely, he realizes that the blood didn't stay on anyone's clothes but his own. It just dripped off of them as if their clothing was waterproof.

Blood-proof.

Whatever.

...

Water-ever.

Ok, focus! Am I the only one who's seeing this?

Riki had no idea if it was self-centered or whatever of him to think that, but it made sense! No one had blood on their clothes, they didn't seem to able to see the rain, and they were just ignoring that giant staircase-thing!

Now the question was whether he should stay away or investigate...

The reasonable choice would be to just get straight to the Underground, but he felt something from the giant structure. It was almost as if it was pulling him...

He didn't know where he was going. He wasn't conscious of his feet moving. He zoned out, until a few minutes later, he was mysteriously standing in front of the...thing...

"Seriously, what the heck is this?" he whispered in shock.

He suddenly became hyper-aware of how this must look to other people. He was staring, very attentively to this thing that other people couldn't see. What if there was a person on the other side, and he was just staring at them without knowing.

He looked around himself, they did seem to be staring at him, and one of them was even taking a picture. They were staring at his clothes, though, so it must've been the blood.

I should just go. At least, that was what he was planning to do. Instead, he turned around...

And yelled out in surprise.

Behind him was a...a thing. It SEEMED person shaped, but the face was dark grey, and badly disfigured. It was covered in a black robe with a hood, covering everything. Riki looked down and saw that its feet were shaped like normal human feet, except they were grey. It was resting on this wheel with six spokes, fire on the end of each of them.

He tried to back away, but ended up tripping on his feet, falling on the ground.

God, I know I've done some things, but if you let me stay alive, I PROMISE that I'll NEVER try to cut Konon's hair again as a prank.

...

...Is this really the end? I'm scared...I don't want to die...