The Ones Who Survived

Chapter 1: Seiko

In a busy house Seiko sat, her siblings were sleeping but she had stayed awake; this behavior having become a new trend for her. She would sit on her bed hugging her knees a mournful smile on her face, for her troubles she could only express to close friends, the ones who also knew her woes. This however was not the case at home. At home no one knew Naomi. Naomi was treated as a figure of her imagination.

Even months after the incident she was plagued by nightmares, hallucinations, and a constant anxiety that she tried to hide with her positive and uplifting behavior, which had worked for a while.. but bottling it up only made it worse, her normal tactic of trying to convince herself it was just a bad dream was almost maddening.

Despite everything she thought and hoped, she had proof it wasn't. The friend who had sacrificed herself for her was dead, and she had caused it. The last words she heard from her ate at her mind. She just wanted to get home and forget this happened, but Naomi got mad at her, it was crushing , her words rung in her ears for the longest time causing salty tears to stream down her cheeks followed by wails as she wandered alone through the old creaking school.

Seiko still remembered the events leading to it, a soft call from Naomi, calling her upstairs; all sense of reason was lost to her in the blind happiness caused, rushing into the bathroom where the voice rung only to see her friend hanging by a rope.

The hope had dwindled and died. She had screamed for so long, tears dropping mixing with blood from screaming. Eventually calming down to light gasps and cries, leading to a crushing silence. Seiko was alone. Her friend lost hope. Shifting up she never could shake the feeling of being lost, until at least, she came across the others, Ayumi, Kishinuma, Satoshi, Yuka.

Even then when she had found some hope, one by one they had met to a tragic end, leaving her alone. The only thing keeping the darkening from taking control is the lingering threads of hope in the dark. Then it happened, Mayu, Shig, ms Yui, she found them. They escaped and came back to this reality. Only to find out Naomi was gone.

The only remnants of her existence are the three items in her possession, the medicine she gave her, Naomis ID, and a photo of them together. Just seeing them now is enough to make her feel ill, despite this she keep them
close to her person.

Seiko was only calm around them or ms Yui, ms Yui helped her keep calm, as Seiko cried to her very often and talked about what happened; the brunt of the psychological damage having been taken by herself and ms Yui, since they were the most affected by the deaths. Shig and Mayu seeming to have healed fastest, and rather not even mention the existence of heavenly host or its events. Leaving Ms Yui and Seiko to confide in each other.

Seiko told her how she loved her friend, talked about their sleepover shortly before the incident. Though things have been growing odd lately, she had been receiving strange phone calls from a weird number, if she answered she only received static.

It seemed like something Ayumi would have loved to research, but now it was time for her to do her own detective work.