POV: Isozaki Izumi.

I'm sitting in a red leather chair in freezing darkness.

My breath started making small clouds on its own when its met by the coldness of this darkness.

I used it to warm up my red colored fingertips.

But the cruelty of the darkness, like hands, warped itself around my neck and started choking me.

Just when the humid darkness started suffocating me, a small light shined in front of me, in the shape of a person's back.

I couldn't feel the pain of the frosty air, staring at the cozy light.

The light transformed into a shape of a recognized back, a back that I used to gaze at when I was ignorant.

It was the back of a person whom I will never forget. A person that kept pulling me on crazy adventures. A person that made my life as colorful as possible then took every color of my world.

As soon as I realized it, I reached my frozen hand toward the comfortableness of this mellow light.

My ears which didn't hear anything a moment ago caught a tender-hearted voice,

"Isn't it more fun this way?"

The light surrounded my hand then shifted into a human hand, that extended from a kid smiling as brightly as a star shining at midnight.

The sun shined it's yellow warping it around both of us, yet the cold air from before remained around me.

Seeing the boy clearer now, I moved my iced trembling lips,

"K-Ken...ta..."

The boy's blue clear eyes sparkled with faint light and quickly pushed me into a bush with him, he whispered thrilled,

"That was close, they almost caught us."

He flashed a smile my way, that twitched my heart.

A voice from behind me whispered back,

"Kenta, why should we hide on our way to eat lunch?"

I turned to see a boy with anxious cherry colored lips that eagerly moved randomly, he kept crossing his trembling hands.

I moved my numb hand on my stomach as I felt uneasy looking at this distressed boy, he seems so awfully familiar.

"Izumi, you idiot!"

The boy with the bright smile from a moment ago now turned into a beast with a huge frown,

"Isn't it more fun this way!?"

Hearing that I finally realized, that this uneasy boy with the curly red colored hair was the younger version of me.

The sun's light started diming, and my head started ringing so loud, I couldn't take it so I wrapped my head with my hands.

Everything around me started fiercely spinning around.

The scenery started changing from the bright backyard to a dim lit closed off room.

I stood up, checking my surroundings.

I heard a cry coming from a door at the end of the room, I moved toward it gulping.

As I reach to touch the doorknob, the door started creaking open revealing a scene I wished to forget.

My hand fell down, swaying back and forth till it stopped.

I just stood there looking at the younger me sitting with his back on a wall trembling,

"W-Why?"

I closed my eyes and moved my head to the side, wanting to avoid the scene that is yet to come.

"It hurt... please stop..."

Hearing my own voice sobbing and crying for help, I quickly reached for the door to close it.

And the headache returned and the landscape started changing from the creepy dim room to a closed valley.

Not wanting to see any of this anymore, I fell on my knees, put my shivering hands on my ears and closed my eyes,

"Listen, Izumi, people are greedy! And for their greed, they will do anything! They are demons wearing a skinned mask! Don't ever trust them!"

Hearing the voice of the boy from before, I opened my eyes to see him putting both of his hands on the shoulder of my younger self.

My younger self who had scratches all over his body fixed a smile toward the boy and said with affectionate voice,

"I still trust them."

The boy clenched his jaw, and raised his hand and slapped the younger me.

The young me started crying and sobbing and between his cries, he desperately explained,

"But I trust you."

The boy's cheeks fluttered bright red, he coughed before he started stuttering,

"W-Well... I guess... not all of them..."

The boy put his tiny hand back on my younger self-shoulder and smiled with mischief,

"You're not bad either."

My heart started tightening, I reach to my chest and grab my shirt,

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

I started weeping as I wipe the tears falling on my cheeks.

And yet again, the landscape started changing again but this time without any headache, it returned to the cold darkness.

I stared blankly as the remains of my tears continued to fall out.

A small light was in front of me, I yet again reached for it.

The whole darkness faded into whiteness, revealing a room.

My legs were tied to the legs of the chair I was sitting on and my body was tied to the back of the chair.

"You're crying again?"

I shifted my eyes toward the voice, to see the resentful Nao sitting on a chair staring at me with a knife in his hand.

"You bastard!"

I shouted with anger at the sight of him.

I violently try to get out of the ropes tying me up but seeing how tightly tied they were and seeing no way out of them by myself, I glared at Nao and yelled with hatred in my voice,

"Untie me, crazy bastard!"

Nao stood up and moved closer to me, the corner of his lips moved to the side, then he whispered in my ear smirking,

"Do you think I would have tied you up if I'm going to untie you when you ask me to?"

He fixed his posture and stood tall in front of me,

"You really became shitty, huh,"

He brought his face closer to mine and forced a smile on his face,

"It's funny how people believe anything when I just fix a smile on my face, huh?"

I frowned in disgust, I can't believe I was tricked by this sorry excuse for a human being.

I spat on his face provoking him.

He wiped the spit with his hand and looked at it for a while, then shifted his eyes toward me, I continued to glare at him.

He reached for the tissues on the desk in the corner of the room and wiped his hand using one before exiting the room.

As soon as I can't see his figure anymore, I quickly examined the room for a way to get out.

I see the knife Nao was carrying before at the desk.

This is a chance to cut the ropes! I smirked at the stupidity of Nao.

I started moving the chair toward the desk as quietly as possible.

My stomach started aching from the wound I got from Nao but giving up is definitely not an option.

I fell on the floor and the pain worsened.

I crawled my way under the desk with every bit of strength I had left.

Now I just have to make the chair stand on its feet again.

Suddenly, I got lifted from the ground.

"Eh?"

The chair got fixed on its feet like I wanted but it was too late.

Nao was already back and raised me up.

I stared at Nao's irritated face,

"T-This is not how it looks like, there was an earthquake and I ended up like this."

Nao held the back of the chair I was sitting on and dragged it to its original spot.

He's back already? Where did he go? Toilet?

"Hey, isn't this enough for a joke? My stomach hurts so much, let me go to the hospital, I'll tell them it was an accident don't worry."

Nao got down to pick an object from the floor.

My mouth opened wide and I tried harder to get out of the ropes as I see the hammer in his hand.

The annoyed expression on Nao's face faded into a huge grin,

"I read a person can survive a broken neck if the spinal cord doesn't suffer from severe injury. Shall we test that?"

Seeing his serious face, I had lost every hope of ever getting out of here alive,

"Haa...Haa...You got to be frigging kidding me..."

So, this is how I will die?

I don't want to.

I'm scared.

Why should I go through this?

Not wanting to admit the end, I tried to get some reason into him,

"You... do know that you'll be a murderer ...right?"

Nao stared at the floor for a while before looking me in the eyes and with a voice full of hatred he said,

"But you're immortal."

At that sentence, I felt an uncertainty and the earth crumbling beneath my feet.

Only the words I heard when I was a child started ringing in my ears,

"And for their greed, they will do anything! They are demons wearing a skinned mask! Don't ever trust them!"

Despite the sun in the sky shining its rays of light through the window, I felt the world losing its color.

Trusting people was a mistake then, and still is a mistake now.

Nothing changed at all, I haven't changed at all.

I won't trust anyone ... I can't... not anymore.

My scream filled the room when Nao stabbed my knee with the knife.

"How can you be thinking about something else in this situation?"

It hurts.

It hurts.

It hurts.

When I realized what he has done I yelled at him,

"What in the friggin hell do you think you're-"

He started pushing the knife further inside my knee, the pain sheeted through with a terrible intensity.

He pulled the knife out, I started catching my breath from screaming my lungs out in pain, then began pleading for my life,

"Please stop... I beg you"

Like he didn't hear a word I said, he stabbed the knife again on the same spot.

The suffering didn't decrease at all, the more he stabbed that spot the more I agonized in despair.

I stopped feeling any sensation in my left leg, noticing that, Nao stabbed the knife and didn't pull it out.

He picked the hammer again and stood in front of me.

My body started twitching in fear, I couldn't move a muscle or even say anything clearly as my throat is dry from all the screaming.

"D-don't..."

Nao swayed it in the air a few times before landing it on my neck.

A cracking noise resounded, as I struggled to breath.

I couldn't get any air inside anymore.

My vision started getting blurry.

I faintly saw Nao's figure moving toward the door.

Someone else entered the room and pushed Nao on the floor.

And a tired voice said between huffs,

"You're not the monster, he is... or rather what is inside him."

Then I heard a loud gunshot.

I looked at my shirt and see it being dyed in red.

Blood started dripping from my mouth onto it coloring it in darker red.

And with no strength left in me to stay conscious, I dropped on the floor.

A world where only people who betray, use and hurt others exist in.

I have finally left this filthy world.

-End of Chapter 8-