site 25: Yuta Gamon

Wednesday, February 24th

The edge of the knife in my hands glistened a slick red. I wasn’t sure if that red was the color of the knife itself or the color of the blood.

I laughed.

I laughed very naturally. I tried to hold it back, and it turned into a chuckle.

Heh... heheheh... gwahah... I laughed a creepy laugh as I stabbed the red knife into Dr. Hashigami’s chest again and again. I could feel the dull sensation of ripping flesh beneath my hands. It was terrifying, but at the same time, joyful.

This was necessary, I could hear myself saying again and again in my head. This was how I could get a scoop for Kirikiri Basara that even the media couldn’t get. I’d get more hits. My name would spread all across the internet, and I’d have a ton more fans.

I imagined it, and I laughed again.

The bones were getting in the way, and the knife couldn’t cut too deep. I tried plunging it in a little harder. The knife sliced right between the gap between the bones and ripped through the flesh as it dug deep, deep inside.

The professor wasn’t moving, but his eyes were slick, shiny, wide-open, and staring right at me. Our eyes met.

Impulsively, I pulled the knife out from his body. I could hear him moan. I didn’t want to hear it, so I stabbed the knife back into the same place I’d put it a minute ago. I pulled it out. Then I stabbed him again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

His chest was turning red with blood. My hands were turning crimson, too. And the whole time, I could see my face reflected in his eyes. I could see myself, laughing—

“No, that’s not me!” I screamed. “I wasn’t the last thing the professor saw before he died! I just happened to be there! I didn’t do anything! When I found him, he was already dead! I wasn’t the one who killed him—”

“There’s no point in making excuses.” I could hear a girl’s husky voice in my ear.

And at the same time, the feeling of the floor beneath me vanished. My vision turned dark black, and the professor disappeared as well. I couldn’t tell if I was floating or falling. I even thought I might be floating in the water. I reached out my hand, but there was nothing for me to grab. The only thing with me in the darkness was the girl’s voice.

“You’ve got to live with a pain that’s MUCH greater than death. That’s your punishment, you understand?” Zonko appeared in the darkness before me, her tiny body floating amidst the black.

“I don’t understand.” I shook my head. “Help. Help me. Tell me this is all some kind of illusion...” Dr. Hashigami was dead. He’d been killed. Who did it? I had no clue. It wasn’t me. I’d done nothing.

“Really?” As she floated, Zonko’s cold voice stabbed into my brain stem. She was just a key chain. How could she talk to me like that? “Are you sure you didn’t kill him? Who could prove it?”

Prove it? I didn’t know. But I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it!

“Sorry, but you...” Zonko floated right up to my nose and whispered, her expression unchanging. “You killed the professor in a horrible, brutal way.”

When I woke up, I was lying face-down on my bed. The only things I could hear were the creak of bedsprings, and rain outside the window.

I looked at the clock, and it was almost midnight. The room was dark. But it wasn’t absolute darkness, like it had been before. Beyond the rain-slick windows I could see the darkness of the Kichijoji night, and the hazy lights of the buildings and streetlamps.

“A dream...” I sat up. My body felt heavy. I looked down and saw that I was still wearing my duffel coat. It was soaked with rain. That’s right. When I’d come home, I’d fallen into bed without bothering to change.

As I tried to take it off, my hand slipped into my pocket. And there it was. A tiny, cold lump. I took it out fearfully. It was a gold tooth. It wasn’t just a gold tooth, though. It was joined with a key.

I remembered the overwhelming stench of blood and felt like I wanted to throw up. My voice was a cross between a whisper and a moan. “Dr. Hashigami is dead.”

It wasn’t a dream, a hallucination, or anything else.