Shadows unseen

3-The crash

Graduation day had come and gone in a blur. Y/n Okkotsu stood outside her middle school with her certificate in hand, staring at it as if it might hold the answers to everything she'd been running from. She should have felt relief—this was supposed to be the start of something new. A fresh chapter. But all she felt was exhaustion like the weight of years of loneliness and fear had finally settled deep into her bones.

The curses had stayed away today as if granting her a brief reprieve, but she could never truly escape the creeping sense that they were watching from the shadows. Middle school had been a battlefield of whispers, cruel jokes, and curses only she could see. Now that she was done, she hoped the worst was behind her.

Her parents were waiting for her in the car. They smiled, called her name, and congratulated her as she climbed into the backseat. Her mother turned around, her soft eyes filled with pride. "You did it, sweetheart."

Her father grinned as he started the engine. "Let's celebrate. Dinner out, your choice."

Y/n smiled weakly but couldn't shake the knot of unease in her chest. She wanted to be happy, to feel the weight of middle school finally lifted. But something was wrong. She could feel it.

The rain had started shortly after they left, droplets drumming steadily against the windshield. Her parents chatted up front, the warmth in their voices so normal, so comforting, but Y/n felt herself drifting, her eyes drawn to the foggy world outside. Her hands gripped the seatbelt a little tighter. There was no curse today—none of the usual grotesque figures that haunted her—but the quiet storm of fear still churned within her.

Her father glanced back through the rearview mirror. "You alright back there, kiddo?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but the words never came.

The headlights appeared suddenly, blindingly bright. The sound of screeching tires and the deafening crash of metal on metal echoed through the world as everything spun out of control. Y/n's body was thrown sideways, her vision a blur of shattering glass, her mother's scream, and the thunderous roar of impact.

Then, silence.

When Y/n opened her eyes, she was on the side of the road, rain pouring down, soaking her to the bone. The world around her was eerily still. The car lay in a mangled heap of metal and shattered glass. Blood pounded in her ears as she dragged herself toward the wreckage, her body screaming in pain.

She barely made it a few feet before she saw it—the twisted, lifeless forms of her parents. She screamed their names, but the silence that answered her was deafening.

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The days that followed were a blur. The funeral came and went. The people who approached her to offer their condolences seemed distant, their words hollow. Y/n couldn't process it. Her parents were gone. Just like that. Everything she had left was torn away in a single, brutal moment.

The house felt too quiet now. The only thing that filled the silence was the relentless ticking of the clock, the same monotony that echoed inside her head. The curses were back, hovering just beyond her vision, but they no longer scared her. The pain of their presence was nothing compared to the gaping hole in her chest.

Weeks passed, and with every day, the emptiness grew. Y/n barely spoke and barely ate. She stayed in her room, curtains drawn, as the weight of her grief consumed her. What was the point of anything anymore? Her parents were dead. No one would miss her. No one cared.

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4 months passed. 4 months of silence, of meaningless routines, of existing but not living. The world outside felt distant, and Y/n barely noticed the days slipping by. But on the day she finally decided to walk home after leaving school, something changed.