Fists and Lipsticks 2: The Silver Crescent

CHAPTER 41: Bottles

CHAPTER 41: BOTTLES

Even silence could cry.

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The bullet pierced through the cold air and drilled through Kosuke's chest. Everything around him came in a blur, spinning then fading little by little. The colors around him withered as his senses shut down one by one. He became deaf to the raucous sounds that rattled his surroundings as he collapsed, his fall seemingly played in slow motion. He felt the furious gushing of blood out of his system, draining him to the point of exhaustion. The pain was excruciating, insufferable, and unimaginable.

He felt as if he was an arm's length away from the door of Death.

Too soon…

No...

This can't be the end…

I can't die just yet…

Ayane-chan…

AYANE-CHANNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!

"I CAN'T DIE YET!" Kosuke immediately sat up, his right palm pressing against his perforated chest to stop the profuse bleeding. His eyes were wide open, his breathing intense and irregular.

He glared at the grinning man before him that held the gun which launched a bullet right through his heart. He clenched his fists tight in perfect rage. His knuckles clicked from the forceful clasp. His fingers tingled with the bitter frost.

As he slowly regained his consciousness, however, Yoshifumi Rei vanished from his sight. The highway, the jammed cars, the group of men in dark pink suits aiming guns towards him, the cold and glacial winter wind – everything faded away after his exhausted eyes managed several more blinks.

"I'm… alive?" Cold sweat rolled down profusely from his forehead. "What happened?"

His gaze fell upon the queen-sized bed on which he sat on, covered with plain white sheets. Upon finally removing his right palm from his supposedly-bleeding chest, he soon realized that he did not have a gunshot wound at all. Instead, he found a brand new bandage wrapped around his torso which covered the already-healing incision wounds dealt by Crosse Williams’ clawed gloves several days ago.

"Where am I?" Kosuke surveyed his surroundings. He looked to the left and saw stacks of bottles on the wall. He looked to the right and saw stacks of bottles on the wall. He looked to the ceiling and found a chandelier made of bottles.

He rubbed his eyes. Probably, he was too exhausted that his vision began playing tricks on him. It did not make sense at all. What the hell was he doing inside a bottle museum?

When he looked around once again, however, he realized that was not imagining. Every corner of the room had shelves loaded with bottles. As he turned towards his bedside table, he found another three bottles on top of it – two were empty, the other half-full.

Kosuke bent forward and reached for one of them, reading the bottle label aloud. "Champagne?" he exclaimed.

"Oh, I love that one, uh-huh! That's the one you sent me before, remember?"

Kosuke looked up and saw Saori by the doorstep. She was wearing a fuchsia night garment that extended only up to her mid-thigh. She was barefooted, her hair tousled to every direction. She wobbled from side to side as she toddled closer to him, holding a half-consumed champagne bottle on her grasp.