Chapter Sixty-Eight Choice / Control of Death
I’m My Own High School Rival: Rika’s Arc: Of Fate and Future.
The air in my lungs grew sharper as we ran down the hall, followed by an increasing pain from my wound. I could barely hold myself together, but he, the boy’s father, was screaming at the top of his lungs, “Stay in your rooms! It’s not safe! Keep Daiki safe!” His wounds…
I slowed to a halt, legs feeling like limp sticks.
“I… I can’t go on,” I said, collapsing to the floor next to a crumbling green wall, breathing heavier.
I clenched my teeth and groaned loudly while holding the wound beneath my left rib cage through my blood-soaked shirt.
“Come on, we have to keep moving,” he said, voice shaking.
“My…my name is Antwon… Carter, please… find my family.” My words bled out through painful breaths as the cold dampness of my soaked shirt gave me solace.
“Antwon… stop talking like that…” Sniffles…
I lifted my heavy head to see him crying.
No one cried for me last time, no one knew…
“Hey,” I said, voice raspy, “I should be crying… not you.”
Pressing against the wall, I struggled to my feet, bent over, and leaned against the left wall.
“Look, I’ve left a snail trail… she won’t come after you… help me get to somewhere comfortable.” I groaned hard. “I need to sleep,” I said, each word losing resolve.
“But—”
“Shut up…” The air in the hallway stood still as I tried to breathe without pain, “she’s going to catch up, and we both die.”
I closed my eyes and fell forward… and felt my body become lighter. When I opened them, I was being dragged into a lounge with no windows… just a box.
“Stay here, don’t die. I’m going to get help, okay?”
He did this weird gesture with his hands, like I was going to get up and leave.
I groaned.
***
“He cried for me… us. I mean,” I groaned, alerting the empty lounge. “Sakura…Antwon, but none else.”
I took a deep breath that hurt more than it helped. I bent over in the chair I was sitting in.
“That jerk put me in a chair,” I said, as warm blood caused my shirt to cling to my skin.
I sniffled. “Why did a stranger cry for me? It’s all my fault.”
“Shh, Cross, you need to preserve your strength,” she said, slowly lifting my chin.
Her dress was stained with blood.
“Are… you real?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.”
She giggled, and I groaned.
“You could have lived a little longer, Cross, if you let me kill them both.”
She dropped my chin.
“Life… sucks.”
“I guess. Do you want me to end your life before I look for them? It will spare you pain.”
Why is it hard to think? A few more seconds would be nice. Just a few. That way I could… remember why I ran, why this hurts, and who I’ve hurt along the way. But, she’ll cut my throat… will it hurt?
“Spare… your pity,” I said, groaning.
“That’s the spirit, Cross. When I come back, I’ll kill you if you’re still alive."
I looked at the foot I injured. She wrapped it with scraps of the same white dress.
I didn’t plan to die… I- I wanted… freedom. I want to see… Sakura.
“Your name… What’s…?"
The world started to dim.
Stay awake…awake… stay—
My world shook, and when I opened my eyes, she was back, holding my chin.
“Don’t die before I can tell you, Cross.”
Tears streamed because my killer had pulled me back from death’s doors, and her face may be the last thing that I see.
“My name is Shizuka—Shizuka Kurobane, hun.”
“Good,” I said, summoning every ounce of strength in my body, “I’ll curse you when I die.”
She smiled, too warm. “Thank you, Cross. I—”
My chin dropped as she picked herself off the ground in a rush. But what happened?
***
Minutes earlier
I took the elevator to the second floor because the stairs were… unserviceable; shit, this building was supposed to be demolished.
Desperation filled me.
Calling Kami was smart. Tracking the phone was easy, and now, we just need to get him back.
The doors opened, and I stepped out into an empty hallway with flickering lights.
Crumbling, exposed beige walls and green doors… kind of tacky.
“It’s unsafe,” a voice echoed from my right; a man yelled while running down the hallway.
I stepped in front of him, blocking his advance, and considered what I would say.
He slowed to a stop, panting, and the blood on his orange shirt became clear.
I took a deep breath and placed my hands up, and he hesitated.
“Who… are you with her? P-please don’t hurt us, we just want to live our lives.”
His hair was messy, his shirt torn, and he looked exhausted.
“Hey, friend. My name is Rika. I’m not going to hurt you, and help is on the way.” I slowly reached into my pocket for the picture. “I’m looking for someone named Antwon Ca—”
“Carter,” he interrupted before I could remove the picture. “H-he’s on the third floor in the lounge,” he said in a rush. “I-I think he’s going to die!”
I turned, and the elevator was going up without me.
“Are the stairs good?”
“Yes!”
“Where are they?!”
Hang on, kid!
***
Racing up the stairs to the third floor, I followed the hand-drawn signs to the lounge. My head swirled, and my vision tunneled.
As I got closer, I could hear… a familiar voice, but it wasn’t Carter’s
Once I saw the door, I slowed my pace and steadied my breathing, feeling my senses sharpen as I tasted the blood in the air.
“Don’t die before I can tell you, Cross,” said the familiar voice.
Only Kami uses the name Cross, but that isn’t her talking to him.
My heart pounded, and I bit my lip to calm it. I pressed my back to the wall next to the door, listening.
Was she the killer, the one fated to kill me?
“My name is Shizuka—Shizuka Kurobane, hun.”
Shizuka…
Hugging the doorframe, I moved into the room deliberately. Antwon was sitting in the front row of a grouping of chairs, and Shizuka was bent over, talking to him. I relaxed my body and prepared to strike hard and fast.
“Good, I’ll curse you when I die,” Carter said.
I closed the gap quickly, and she didn’t notice. The stale air brushed against my skin as I listened to Carter’s fading breath, preparing to strike, yet the punch felt slow. So slow that she saw me, my fist. We made eye contact during the impact. And for a moment, I think she smiled…
The impact sent her crashing into the ground.
She recovered quickly, wielding a bloody knife.
I braced myself for her attack, but she took a guarded stance.
Why didn’t she attack me when she stood up? She couldn’t be more than ten feet from me.
“Well, I didn’t know we had so much in common. Same love hotel, same boy, and now this place,” she said, rubbing where I had struck.
I looked her over. A bloody dress, no clear wounds, and yet her foot was wrapped with a cloth soaked in blood. She backed herself to the far wall, but it was a slow retreat, which left a trail of blood.
However, Mr. Carter needed my attention.
I knelt down in what must have been his blood and took out my phone, pressing it between my head and left shoulder, calling Kami. The sickly smell of blood permeated.
“Hey, Carter, are you still with us?” I said, holding his head up and softly pushing him back into the chair.
He looked at me with faded eyes.
“M. Igashi,” he said, slurring the words. His head felt heavy.
I glanced at Shizuka, ensuring safety, who was fully pressed to the wall… If she were fast enough, she could run through the door adjacent to her, but…
“Yeah, it’s me, Carter. Just hang in there, okay. You’re going to be okay.”
“I haven’t found him yet,” Kami said through the phone. “And your buddies ain’t here either.”
I took a deep breath, holding the killer in my gaze.
“I’ve got them, Kami,” I said, holding back my rage.
“Them… who’s them?”
“Antwon… and his killer.” I checked Carter’s head for injuries. His right cheek felt swollen.
“No!” Kami screamed, but I could hear sobs weighing it down.
Shizuka’s eyes and face were red…
“Kami, come to the third floor’s lounge quickly.”
I hung up and started checking Antwon’s damp shirt.
Eventually, I lifted his shirt, feeling bad for doing this to one of my students, but I had to know where the blood was coming from. I found a knife sticking out of his belt and took it.
One stab wound under his left rib… she may have punctured something serious.
I positioned myself to watch her and ripped my low-cut shirt into a long strip. I then removed his shirt completely, balling it up and pressing it against his wound.
“Stay with me, Antwon.”
I wrapped the strip around his body and tied it into a knot, creating pressure. I then took my jacket off and put it on him to keep him warm.
“Antwon, look at me,” I said, cooing and gently touching his face. He was colder.
His eyes opened slightly, but he was woozy.
He groaned.
“That’s right, we’re going to get you out of here. I just need you to stay awake and take slow breaths.”
Loud footsteps came through the door.
“I’m… Oh fuck. C-Cross,” Kami said, stepping closer. “You piece of shit; I’m going to wring your neck for doing this to him."
I turned as she approached the woman in white.
“Kami.”
She stopped.
“I need you to take Antwon outside. They will be here soon, and having him makes you immune to the Court’s decree.”
The rise and fall of her chest matched my growing ire.
“Kami.”
She turned, walking toward Antwon, and picked him up like a small child.
“Please keep talking to him, keep him warm, or he might die, Kami.”
Kami nodded.
“H-hey, ya little heart breaker, don’t you dare die like this,” she said with wet eyes. “We need to meet up in Tokyo like we promised,” she said as her voice trailed off down the hallway.
***
“My name is Shizuka—”
“I didn’t ask,” I said, reaching my full height.
I turned to her, unchained by my obligations.
She limped further away from me, still pressing against the same wall.
“I see that you’re injured… who did it?”
She glanced at her foot, soaked in blood, as if she didn’t notice it, and smiled.
“Cross gave me this gift. It went through the bone,” she said, presenting me her foot. “He’s so strong for a boy.”
She was calm.
The room was filled with the smell of blood, but I didn’t know whose it was.
“Shit,” I said as the smell created a bitter taste in my mouth. “I don’t have any cigarettes… and I quit smoking.”
She limped forward a bit, still holding her knife.
“I couldn’t help but notice how you treated the boy’s wound. Are you a doctor?” she asked.
Silence held the air between us as we stared at each other.
I looked around the room, thinking of what might be our last time in this world… every chair was broken, save the first row. My eyes traced the blood from Shizuka’s foot to Carter’s pool.
I always thought leaving the Court was enough… that Trish and I would grow old and watch new blood fight our battles. But the gods… and fate… Fate.
Fuck fate.
“Me?” I said, stepping forward, drawing Antwon’s knife. “I’m whatever my queen needs me to be.”
She stepped back, returning to the wall.
“I’m a doctor, a blade, a hand, a hunter,” I said, closing the gap, her knife gently pressing against my chest, “but today, I’m your executioner.”
She smiled… and her knife lowered to her side… then she tossed it away, and it landed in Antwon’s blood.
“I… understand. I won’t fight the hand of the queen,” she said, like her words meant anything.
I turned away from her and walked to where she threw the knife. I could feel her watching me. I wanted her to watch me.
Standing over the knife she used to maim and butcher caused my heart to race as I circled the blade, feeling its magnitude, and kicked it back toward her, dragging Antwon’s blood back to her, indicting her.
“You don’t get to make that choice anymore. Now, pick it up and defend yourself, coward.”
She looked at the knife and smiled.