Tatemae

Day 3 - Mid-Day - Echoes of Life; Once

"It's too small."

"...it's just for the ceremony."

"Just for the ceremony! JUST FOR THE CEREMONY! What on earth do you mean by that?"

"I just mean that this doesn't matter as much as you think it does..."

"IT MATTERS A WHOLE LOT!"

"Calm down... ok? It's not that weak."

"This is an extremely weak prey! I can't believe you! And here I'd finally thought you were taking me seriously!"

"Lily, listen, we—"

"—I know you don't want me to become a Wendigo! It's not a secret anymore! But you can't stop me, and bringing this... THIS. What even is that?"

A laugh.

"Look at how that animal trembles."

My hearts are blistering. All seven of them feel like they're about to burst. Oxygen poisoning. Is that what this is? Oh God. The heart in the back of my throat feels like it's stopped. I mean, it obviously hasn't, but it sure feels like it.

I try to move and am met with rock even colder and harder than that which was in the cave. The cave! I'M NOT IN THE CAVE ANYMORE.

I feel a little like I'm in hell.

"Look at that thing! What even is it?!"

I force myself onto my elbows and push up against the rock until I'm able to see what lies before me. I am met with two girls gawking at me from the other side of a prison cell. Both have weapons at their sides. Beyond my cell and the girls is a wall of sorts.

"Are you even sure it's alive?" The smaller girl asks, poking her weapon through the bars. I'm too far to be poked by it, opting instead to remain cowering in a corner.

The taller one sighs. "Yeah. He's definitely alive." I recognize her. She's the savage who killed...

...are they all really dead now?

It's hard to believe. Gone. All of them.

"But he won't be alive for long... you should have seen how he—!"

The Fos murderer pauses.

"—How he what?" The other asks.

"Never mind."

"Sis, don't ignore me."

"Oh..." The murderer says, softening their voice. "It's really... nothing..."

The little girl stomps on her foot and she recoils, looking at her sister in shock.

"Alright fine! The idiot animal threw up at the sight of blood! It was damning hilarious!"

Lily looks deeply disinterested. "This is ridiculous. This isn't going to be a real ceremony with a pray like this! I'm supposed to kill a tough animal! A real challenge! It's my initiation into being a Wendigo, and this is how you treat it!"

"Lily..."

"—No, listen Poppy!" She yells. "You KNOW this isn't fair to me. You know how much being a Wendigo like you means to me. I can't... I can't believe you sometimes."

Poppy. I roll the name around in my head a few times. It doesn't exactly sound like the name for a ruthless, brutal murderer. Nothing about her says murderer. Not her pretty white hair, or her glassy eyes, or her petite build. In fact, the only thing that says murderer is the massive sword she has at her side.

That says murderer very much.

I force myself to stand up and the two girls watch me like they're confused. I look at my hands, and they're covered in black blood. Lumière blood. They're also covered in white dust from the cave in the Void, and thoroughly cut up like I scraped them along a grater. It's so hard to stand. My bones feel like someone's replaced them all with sand.