The Faces We Do Not See

Chapter 02

You wake up to the sound of your alarm beeping loudly. You grab your phone tightly, cursing yourself for purposely picking the loudest and most annoying alarm you could find so you'd HAVE to turn it off.

You sit up in bed, light filtering into your vision. You roll the blinds up to look down on the busy streets, cars drive by slowly and people cover the sidewalks, your eyes grow heavy as you look at the alley way from that night, the girls image burned into your retinas.

You grab a f/c jacket and some comfortable f/c jeans. You lock your door behind you and make your way down the steps to the street. After the coast is clear, you run across the street to the alley.

Your breath hitches as you turn into the opening, the smell of blood still present but faint. You examine the area you previously saw her body, dried blood that had seeped into the cracks of the pavement still remains, but other than that it had been cleaned.

You kneel down to where you remember her body being, leaving a small bouquet of roses. A voice is heard from behind you, "What are you doing mister?" You turn to see a little girl standing at the entrance of the alley way, you walk towards her, "A uh...a friend of mine passed away..." you paused, wondering if that was okay for you to say.

The girl looks behind you to the flowers then back to you, "Wow, you're so nice! I wish I had a friend like you." You look down at her with soft eyes, these are the people you must protect, this girls smile fills you with determination.

"Ah, thanks, do you have many friends?" You kneel down infront of her, getting a better look at her face. She had big blue eyes with brown hair and wore a dark green jacket that hung open, revealing a white shirt with a pony printed on the front.

She frowned and looked away shyly, "Not very many..."

You laugh lightly, "Well thats okay, you don't have to have a lot of friends to be happy, as long as the ones you do have are good ones."

She smiles again but before she could say anything her mother approached, calling her name that you couldn't quite make out. "Oh that's my mom, I gotta go, bye mister" she waves to you before running off.

You stand and smile, feeling better from the interaction. You make your way back to your apartment, making sure you have everything you need. It wasn't much. Just a suitcase with clothes and a tooth brush, along with other essentials.

You step onto the bus and find the closest seat. You take out your phone and look at the news, skimming through notifications until you come across one in particular, "THE BUTCHER ON THE RUN?", you tap on it, opening your news app, and taking you to a page that read "The Butcher, also known as Diehara Shinbaki, has been found hiding out in the 13th ward." Below the paragraph was a picture of a large man in a mask that looked to be stitched together, it was an array of dull grays and pale whites, in the middle were two eye holes that revealed black eyes with red irises.

You continue reading, "Diehara Shinbaki, born 12th of December, 1974, 6'7 and 215 lbs. Little is actually known about him, as he murdered his parents when he was 14, and since then has been on the run from the CCG."

"They've been chasing this guy for 26 years?" You find yourself in thought, how could a ghoul evade a group like the CCG for that long?

You look out the window as the bus stopped. You stand up, dragging your suitcase behind you as you step off the bus. You walk through the gate onto the campus, students scatter across the area, chatting and laughing. Ypu are immediately greeted by a boy who looked around your age, "Yo, are you new here?"

"Uh...yeah, I'm y/n l/n but you may call me y/n." You say with a polite bow.

"Ah right, right. I'm Irideki Himari, but my friends call me Iri" he reciprocates your bow with his own.