Perpetual Embrace

Chapter 4: Shall we die together?

It was morning, and I was getting ready for work. It had been a week since I started working at the company. I hadn't slept at all because Watanabe never missed an opportunity to give me extra hours, as if he were trying to break me.

Physically weak and mentally faltering, working at this company was more exhausting than enduring my parents' strict upbringing. But I had accepted reality; there was no point in fighting it. I would work until I broke, until I collapsed. Hope had vanished, and I did not care anymore. I had become the final form of an empty shell.

Upon arriving at work, Watanabe greeted me.

"Hey, how's it going? You have some serious dark circles. I hope you're taking care of yourself."

He knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to get rid of me, who had caught the boss's attention, so that I would not surpass him. Maybe I could have done something about it, but... all this mattered little to me.

Now that it had been a week, the people in our office knew me well and started giving me unpleasant tasks, claiming seniority. They knew very well that no matter what task they gave me, I would complete it within the deadline. I never refused anything; my mind was so empty.

12:00 AM

I went to eat in the cafeteria, and this time I picked a plate of gyozas. I was so tired that I sat at the first table I saw without paying much attention to who was there. When I looked up, I saw the woman I had seen the other day. I hadn't seen her since my first day. She was thinking about something, I felt like and surely did not notice me.

While I was eating, I accidentally dropped my phone, which snapped her out of her thoughts. Our eyes met for a few seconds, and looking at her influenced me. It wasn't attraction or love, but I felt like I was being drawn in, like a star facing a black hole. She had triggered something I hadn't felt since I was noticeably young: curiosity.

I apologized and left the cafeteria.

As usual, Watanabe gave me extra work to do, but with the additional tasks from my seniors, it took me even longer than usual to finish everything.

3:00 AM

I had finally finished, but I felt my body starting to crack. I was beginning to reach my limits. As I left the building, I ran into the woman I had seen twice in the cafeteria. I hadn't intended to pay attention to her presence and was just planning to go home, but unexpectedly, she started to talk to me.

"I felt it."

I wondered what she meant, so I asked her.

"At the cafeteria, I saw it in your eyes, the emptiness, the despair, just like me."

I felt like we were alike, her and I, but what was the point of talking about all this? What would it change?

"What is your name?" She said

"I'm Keith, and you?"

"I'm Eve."

I did not understand her at all.

I did not understand why she had approached me, what she wanted from me. She intrigued me more and more.

"I could see it in your eyes in the cafeteria; you have lost all interest in life, moving like an empty shell... just like me. To be honest, I was planning to end my life today. I wanted at least to have the choice for that."

I realized that I had never considered the option of ending my life.

She continued,

"Since you are like me, I thought maybe you also wanted to choose how you wanted to die? To have the opportunity to make a choice, to choose your future."

For reasons I did not understand, despite her vacant gaze and aura, I felt like I was seeing a light, a light I had never seen before, the light of emptiness.

"What are you on, Eve?"

She looked at me with a smile and her lifeless gaze.

And asked me,

"Shall we die together?"