SUBMIT

can't escape, can you?

3.1k votes whaaaa? That's insane, and I'm incredibly grateful for those who vote and comment on this story! I hadn't expected much attention since I started writing this for my own self, but I'm glad that there are people who actually enjoy it :) Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this silly book!

『 I was your blessing, but you were my curse 』

There was no good.

There was only evil.

There was no justice or order.

There was only destruction and chaos.

There was no god born from Heaven's light.

There was only a monster that bled from the darkness.

Fushiguro Megumi learned that from an early age after his village was ransacked by an entity so malicious that their presence could be felt through the winds and the leaves, through the darkness and the shadows, and under the stones and soil.

When the entity arrived, he had been playing by the river that streamed just alongside their small settlement. His sister had been picking flowers just a few feet away from him, and when that thing arrived, they had felt the crawling of numerous chilling fingers up their spine until it grasped the back of their neck firmly. It held them in place, froze them and demanded wordlessly that they must not escape. Otherwise, they face something much worse than anything they could ever imagine in their tiny, adolescent brain.

There was only a brief sense of release when footsteps neared them, and when Megumi turned his head to see who it was, they were greeted by a person. They were a strange person with a polite, courteous smile and hands tucked in front of them as they spoke, "Please make your way to the village center. There is a meeting that all, including children, must attend."

They couldn't move.

They were frozen.

Even if those lips were stretching into a smile that was to exude a sense of warmth and benevolence, Megumi felt as if a thin layer of ice was encasing his skin. He shivered at the feeling, and he briefly glanced at his older sister, Tsumiki, to see that she hadn't even lifted her head to acknowledge the stranger. Her eyes were wide with dilated and shaking pupils that dug its gaze deep into the ground, as if wishing not to look anywhere else but below her to where it was stable and safe. He tried to call out to her, whispered her name urgently and fearfully as his body shook, but not even his voice was enough to bring her out of her frightened stupor.

The stranger was silent before they suddenly appeared before Megumi, their towering figure casting a cold shadow over the shivering boy. Swiftly, almost as if they were a gust of swirling wind, the stranger grasped tightly onto Megumi and Tsumiki's fragile and thin arms. Megumi yelled and screamed, bit and clawed at the stranger, and Tsumiki cried and slapped the strange person's wrist, but none of that deterred the stranger from dragging them away from the riverbank. Even when he tried to stand on his own two feet, the stranger's brisk gait made him stumble. His knees were being scraped and his ankles twisted, which birthed the sharp twinge of needles and throbbing to erupt.

"No, stop! Please!" Megumi sobbed loudly, and through his yowls, he could faintly hear Tsumiki pleading the same way. But the stranger was unmovable no matter how much they tried to resist him.

Though the journey from the river bank to their village was always a short and peaceful trip before, it felt as if the village had suddenly been moved miles and miles away. Megumi had felt as if the sun had fallen and the night had taken over. However, he came to realize that the 'night' was only his eyelids falling over as his face scrunched up in pain.