The Angel of Death

IV

And then I landed. I expected the ground to be harsh and unforgiving but it turned out to be quite soft and warm. But when I opened my eyes, I was greeted with total darkness; it was pitch black. Normally at night, there would be some luminance from the streetlights or the moon that would provide some shadows and shapes in the nothingness. Here, I could not make out anything at all.

"Hey," a disgruntled voice announced, "can you please get off me?" I swallowed my gasp of surprise and quickly stumbled off what I had previously thought was the ground. I was about to mouth an apology, but just as my feet touched the dirt, I felt something warm brush against my ankle. I let out a shriek and jumped away as fast as I could.

"Are you alright?" My attention turned towards the voice again. I instinctively nodded but was flushed with embarrassment when I realized they probably couldn't see me in the dark. 

"Yeah," I mumbled, " but who are you?"

"I'm Asher and you just kicked my leg." 

"Sorry about that, but I didn't mean to." I heard a groan and some rustling from his direction and held my hand out for him assuming he was trying to get up. "Here, take my hand."

"I would love to, but I can't see," Asher chuckled. How could I forget again? As soon as the words left his mouth, my face reddened and I quickly withdrew my hand.

"Sorry for being so stupid," I said, " I just wanted to help."

"It's fine," he answered, "besides I think it's a good idea for us to hold hands so we both don't get lost in the dark." My cheeks flushed. I don't think I've ever held someone else's hand before. Let alone a boy's.

I paused for a second and asked, "So, how are we supposed to hold hands?" The task sounded easy enough but I didn't know where to start. Were we supposed to play a game of Marco Polo? I was never good at that game so I wasn't sure how it would go. I almost jumped when I heard him clap his hands together.

"I know," Asher jubilantly proclaimed, "how about we reach our arms out and spin in place until we touch each other?" I thought he was joking but after a few seconds of dead silence, I found out he was really serious.

"Sure." I felt like an idiot as I spread my arms like a young bird preparing for flight. As I begin to spin around, I felt my fingertips brush against something. I questioned, "Is that your hand?"

"No, I still haven't managed to touch anything yet." I immediately pulled my arms back. My heart froze in my chest when I felt something grab my hand. My stomach churned and I repeatedly swung my arm in an attempt to free my hand.

When Asher broke out in giggles, I stopped flailing my arms and let out an annoyed sigh. 

I protested, " You aren't funny."

"Sorry, I couldn't help it," he teased unapologetically. "Once a scaredy-cat, always a scaredy-cat, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"Remember when I accidentally made you jump–" He interrupted himself in a fit of laughter.

"No? What are you talking about?"

"Wait—Emi you can't be serious?" Asher gasped. "When's our anniversary?"

"Is this another one of your pranks?" I felt his grip tighten around my hand. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, he answered.

"No, but at least this explains why you've been acting so weird," he sighed. "You've lost your memories, right?" I paused for a moment and tried to remember. But I couldn't. Not my friends. Not even my mom and sister. I couldn't make out anything: their names or faces. Nothing besides the swimming incident. My face heated up and tears welled up in my eyes. "It's alright, I'm here for you Emi." He squeezed my hand.

He told me that we've been dating for two years. That he was part of the school's diving team. That we got together over the summer before my sophomore year after he tried to teach me to swim. I listened in shock as I tried to process everything.

"How did you end up here then?" I asked.

"Well that's the crazy part," he said, "that's the only part I can't seem to remember. Everything else leading up to this is crystal clear though."

Deep in my own thoughts, I chewed on my lip. Who was the mastermind behind this? And why were we the ones chosen to participate in this horrible death game?

"Can you think of anyone whom we wronged in the past?" I asked him.

"Eh, we're only high schoolers," he sighed, "I don't think we could have caused anyone enough harm to warrant being in a death game. But no, you were always really a goody-two-shoes."

"But the fact that we're here...." I trailed off. I shook my head. It's time to stop thinking about the past. We have to focus on surviving in the present. "Do you know where the others went—"

"Run!" A blinding white light flashed in our direction. I felt Asher pulling me away from the scene. We clamored out of the exit and watched as Apollo and Lillith followed. Asher hurriedly shut the hatch door behind them. I waited for them to catch their breath before interviewing them about the scene. Both twins held on to each other tightly for comfort. Their faces were pale and contorted with fear.

"What happened?" I inquired, "what were you running away from?"

"Monster!" Apollo blurted, "there's a m-m-monster—"

"—and they were trying to k-kill us," his sister added.

Suddenly, I heard a thump coming from under the hatch door. Startled, the twins screamed and inched themselves further away from the door. With a thud, Lillith dropped the flashlight she was holding onto earlier. 

Muffled voices emerged, trapped on the other side. Wait, but could it possibly be the others? Jun, Alexander, and Katsuo. It wouldn't be fair for us to lock them down there, especially if there were blood-thirsty monsters down there too. I turned to Asher, searching his face for any hints on how to proceed.

Asher grabbed the flashlight from the floor and turned to me. "I have an idea."

"Don't open the door," the twins pleaded, "please! pretty please!"

"We'll do anything you say now, big brother Asher!" Apollo offered, "so please don't open it!"

"It's a little too late for that," he muttered, "you should've listened before you went on your own. And then those guys went after you y'know. It would be unfair to lock them down there, especially with the monster you're blabbing about."

"They're probably dead now!" Lillith cried out, "don't risk our lives for theirs!"

He shot a menacing look at the twins, and they quieted down.

The thumping grew in both intensity and frequency. The voices also seemed to be more urgent.

He motioned for me to open the hatch door while he shone the flashlight toward it. I obeyed him and lifted the hatch.

Chaos erupted and my hand almost slipped off the handle of the latch door. A bobbed-hair girl stumbled out and collapsed on the ground while Asher rushed to close the door, but not before someone else managed to get their hands on it.

"Katsuo?" 

He crawled out of the crevice, bloodied and beatened. I noticed he was in bad shape and raced over to his side to help him out. 

Boom! I felt someone push me down as something detonated behind me. The explosion rang in my ears and my consciousness began to dim.