Mizuto got a call on his phone from his dad in the middle of class. The teacher looked at Mizuto and raised his eyebrow.
“Well? Go ahead. Answer it, please. Put it on speakerphone while you’re at it. If you’re gonna disturb class with your business then please include us all.”
Mizuto nodded. “Yes ma’am.” He picked his phone up and pressed accept. Then he put it on speakerphone.
“Mizuto! It’s your sister. She’s in the hospital. Are you in class? Are you on lunch break? If you are, see if you can come to visit her.”
Mizuto stood up. “What… Aoi? Aoi’s in the hospital?”
“Yes. She’s been poisoned. Please come see her. This is a very serious situation.”
Mizuto grabbed his bag and ran out of the classroom. The rest of the kids stayed silent.
Mizuto opened the door to Aoi’s hospital room.
“HIRO?” He said as he walked inside.
His dad was sitting next to her bed, crying. Mizuto dropped his bag as he looked at the flat line.
“No… please don’t tell me… please… this isn’t real… is this real?” Mizuto ran over to Aoi’s bed. “There’s no way. There’s no way she was poisoned. What type of poison was it? How did she come in contact with the poison?”
Mizuto stared at Aoi’s lifeless body.
Mizuto’s dad looked up at him.
“Nobody knows anything. All we can do is hope the police can figure it out.”
Mizuto looked down at her.
“The police won’t do anything! They never do anything! They haven’t done anything for Ikari, and they did nothing to find out who Azu’s killer is!”
Mizuto’s dad went back to bawling her eyes out. Mizuto put his hand on Aoi’s forehead.
“I can’t believe this… this is a lot to handle…” Tears started to roll down his cheeks and fell onto Aoi. “Whoever did this will pay. I’ll avenge you, Aoi. I promise.”
After talking to the doctors, and detectives, Mizuto figured out where the poison came from. His granola bar. The detectives didn’t have enough evidence to apprehend Mizuto, but to Mizuto, it was all clear. He went home and sat down on Aoi’s bed. He looked around the room.
“The only thing she consumed all day was that granola bar… does that mean I killed her?”
Mizuto looked at her bookshelf. A piece of paper was poking out of a book. Mizuto walked over to the book and grabbed it. It was her favorite book. The Black Goat's Egg. Mizuto pulled the piece of paper out of the book. It looked like she was using it as a bookmark. He opened it up, and immediately noticed it was a letter. It was for him.
Dear Mizuto,
It was me who murdered Azu. I know you’re already mad at me, but hear me out. I never wanted to kill Azu. In fact, I thought she was a very sweet girl. She was very pretty and had the nicest smile. The worst thing I’ve ever seen was the scared face she had as I shot a crossbow at her. This is very hard for me to write. I just wanted to let you know that I was pushed to this point. Somebody had broken me. Somebody tortured me to the point where I’d do anything just to stop. This person locked me in their basement every night and beat me. Usually, they’d beat me with a wooden baseball bat. They wouldn’t do it to the point where my bones would break. They knew they’d get caught if that happened. Every night my blood filled that basement. I stopped eating, I stopped taking care of my body. I just needed the pain to stop. Then, they offered me something. They told me if I killed Azu then all this pain and suffering would stop. I refused, but after another month of abuse, I caved in. I couldn’t think properly at that point. They gave me a crossbow and I killed Azu in their basement. The person let me go free, and I returned home. That person deserves to burn in hell for what they have done. If you’re reading this, then that means they have probably already killed me. The person who did all this, the mastermind behind the whole thing is-
“Mizuto?” Naru tapped his shoulder.
Mizuto screamed and dropped the paper. “Holy crap Naru. You can’t scare
me like that. I almost had a heart attack.”
“Whatcha reading?” She glared at the piece of paper.
“Oh, nothing. Just an old essay Aoi did a couple of years back.”
“Oh? Let me see.” She went to pick it up.
“No.” Mizuto quickly grabbed it.
“Why not sweetums? Just let me take a quick look at it.” She looked up at
him. Her smile wasn’t there anymore.
“Why do you want to see this paper so bad?” Mizuto stepped back a little bit.
“No reason. I just wanna see how good of a writer sweet little ol’ Hiro is.”
Mizuto ran out of the room and into his. Naru sighed and walked out. Mizuto slammed his door shut. Naru started banging on the door.
“Mizuto… open the door. There’s no reason to be acting like this.”
Mizuto looked at the paper and saw Naru’s name at the end.
“Y-You? You killed her?” Mizuto asked.
Naru stopped banging on the door and chuckled.
“I didn’t kill her, Mizuto. It was Aoi. That’s what it says in that stupid letter anyways.”
“How would you know what’s in this letter?” He scoffed.
“Mizuto…”
“Don’t say my name like that.”
“Mizuto you don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
“I can’t. It’s too complicated.”
Mizuto locked the door and walked away from it. He climbed on his bed and lifted his window open. The cold breeze filtered through. Mizuto looked outside the window and sighed. The door busted open and Naru took a deep breath.
“Don’t you dare jump out that window, Mizuto Orozco.”
“And if I do?”
“You won’t like the consequences.”
Tentacles started coming from the ground. Mizuto dropped the letter.
“You… Those tentacles were yours?”
“Yep. Surprised?” Naru laughed. “Now please, come to me before you die. I’ll spare you. I promise.”
“Screw off, psycho.” Mizuto jumped out the window and landed on the snow.
Naru looked out the window and screamed.
“YOU CAN’T RUN MIZUTO! I’LL STILL BE ABLE TO FIND YOU NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO!”
