Unravel the World

Ch. I ~ End of the Beginning

For a while, she just stared at the cyberpunk style gas mask hanging off the end of her bed.

She didn't want to admit, but this was really happening. Then again, in a way, it had to happen.

It was so surreal, even as she reached for the mask even as she slipped it over her mouth and nose with hands that shook like the falling autumn leaves outside her window.

But it all made sense now. She didn't want it to, but it did. She'd seen the scars, heard the rumours, and now felt it for herself. She stared at the mirror, then covered her left eye with one hand.

When she pulled it back, the iris was completely red, black extending to it from the eyelids, shooting across the pale skin like dark veins.

The fearful shaking in throughout her body halted like the air before a storm. She looked ahead with complete confidence.

She, Kuro Iriai, was a ghoul.

**********

It must have been her father that was the ghoul. There were cresent-shaped scars covering every inch of her poor mother's skin. Of course, her mother probably felt bad for him, sorry like he deserved it.

That was the main human downfall: sympathy. She must have felt so bad for letting him struggle alone for so long. She must have let him feed off her so he wouldn't die. He always went too far, but she let him. How was a human supposed to know what was too far for a ghoul?

Love is just an illusion, though, something to hide behind. The moment he found out her mother was pregnant, Iriai's father had left, as if it were okay to just abandon people's lives and forget the consequences. He disgusted Iriai, no matter how much her mother tried to defend him.

People like that deserved to be hunted by the CCG, deserved to die by their own kind!

But her mother had lied to her, too. For 16 years she had been lying. How was Iriai supposed to live like that?

That was why she had to leave.