Chapter 8
1042 Words
“I'm sorry.” the kid— the ghost— the kid I was talking to a while ago carefully said in full sincerity.
He looks sad, regretful, and awful.
My mind was in chaos as I stared at him fully. His sad blue eyes are sore and puffy, those eyes are also swollen and bruised, his nose is well-shaped, yet his lips are swollen and have cuts in it. He has bruises in both his cheek, in his jaw, and even in his forehead.
The kid is wearing a uniform, a grade ten from Kokosai— same with my school, but it's not clean given the blood and dirt in it.
He took a step going near me that made my fear come back. With all my might, I get up and turn my back on the kid before running away from him.
Without hesitation I ran on the moist soil of Aokigahara forest. Without any navigation, without any signs where to go, I kept on running with my heavy breathing.
I just saw a ghost—no, I talked to a ghost. Wishing this was a nightmare, I closed my eyes, making me blind by the darkness. The next thing I knew I was kissing the soil. I felt tired, I couldn't get up.
Tears started to pour on my face again. Falling into the soil feels like I came back to the living reality. To the world full of cruelty.
I nearly killed myself, if it was not because of the ghost— the ghost!
Roaming my eyes around, the adrenaline rushed on me as I got up and ran again. I fall a lot of times, I can feel my hurting knees and toes, my heart is pumping loud in fear.
Looking back, there was nothing or no one after her. She seemed alone in the empty forest but it's unnerving. Seeing a ghost, talking to a ghost rather, made her lose her mind.
She heard and has read a lot about ghosts but none of those didn't make her believe in it. Not until today on her supposed death day. To see is to believe and negativity really attracts spirits.
Her right foot failed in her step making her fall on the ground once again. The sound echoed in the forest making it more scary than it is.
Eagerly, wanting to get out of the suicide forest, she got up once more and stiffen.
The ghost. The kid. The ghost kid. The ghost.
“D—don't come near me!” she shouted in fear, stepping backwards with a trembling cold body.
The kid— the ghost slowly nodded as if it understood. Then, he took a deep breath before pointing a finger somewhere. “That is the way out.” he's almost whispering.
Unable to process the information, she just stood there and assessed the kid in front of her. Her fear of ghosts is still there, but the kid made her heart clench in pain and pity.
By looking at the kid, it's appearance, state, figure, it's awful and horrible. It made her weak. It mirrors what she feels inside.
A lone tear escaped from her eyes. She can see herself in him.
“The way going out is on your left.” he instructed again, more volume this time.
Slowly, her eyes traced his finger. There she saw nothing but darkness yet her body made its way onto the direction in a very slow manner. Leaving her thoughts behind, making her mind in a blank space.
Her steps were slower than a turtle. Like a human walking mindlessly.
The white floral dress is now full of mud and unstyled ripped clothes. Her white cardigan is nowhere to be seen, probably got teared up and fell on the moist ground of Aokigahara forest. Her white sneakers aren't white anymore, they're black and full of dirt.
Zyosei is like a walking pile of mud and dirt. Thinking about the long day she went through, a tear escaped her eyes and got followed by one after another. For the nth time of the day, she cried again in her horrible state.
The world did not allow her to leave from the very start. All the hindrances paid off and here she is, walking down the moist ground to its exit.
Hours ago, she went there to end her pain. Now, she's walking back crying because of it again. She's regretting that she went here.
The bystander violating her— the man hinders her motives to be here. How dumb she was to still go.
Walking in the moist soil of the forest feels like forever. The darkness seems like there's no end and she can feel all her limbs aching in pain. Physical activities aren't her thing so it's a shock to her body feeling the wild adrenaline into her minutes ago.
She can feel her aching body, the coldness that the wind blew without her cardigan. She feels naked wearing the unstyled ripped dress that ends an inch below her toes and has no sleeves. Her jet black hair is now messy like she didn't see a comb for a month. With her sore and puffy eyes, tortured chapped lips, she felt exposed.
Seeing the arc of Aokigahara forest— the arc she entered earlier, she pushed herself to run within, to get out of the forest that let her go through a very rough day. The forest that made her feel a lot of pain— both physically and emotionally, the forest that made her fear turned upside down dealing with the natural things she always feared up to dealing with something unnatural, more like supernatural.
Without looking back she got out of the forest to her relief. Her breathing was deep as she stepped out of the arc. It was dark— the natural darkness brought by the night.
Feeling tired, she kept on walking until her knees fell on the ground spreading the tiredness all over her anatomy. Her eyes droop heavily with her body slowly sinking making her lay. With the stars and the moon above, she lost her consciousness and got swallowed by the darkness of slumber.
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Day Biasca
- Writer
