Mom laid out the plates for dinner and my dad took some baroque sausages and put them on a tray. It was a bright sunny day out in the backyard of my house, and Alice was out on the patio sitting down in a rocking chair and reading a book. I was looking out the sliding glass door, looking out at the backyard. Eric was playing with the dog out back, throwing a tennis ball and the dog would bring it back. I had a glass of soda in my hand as I opened the door and walked outside.
There was a picnic table set up with a red blanket on top of it. Mom was sitting down, and dad was gonna sit down when they both looked at me.
“Hey there sport!” My dad cheerfully said. “Just in time, we’re about to have dinner. Have a seat.”
I walked over and pulled out a wooden chair and sat down at the table. My mom slid me a plate with some hot dogs on a bun, they looked so good my mouth was watering just looking at them.
“Alice! Eric! Dinner is ready!” My mother called out. Eric got up from the grass with the dog and ran over.
“Alright, hot dogs! Dad always grills them the best.” Eric said, quickly taking a seat next to me and grabbing a plate.
“You know it.” My dad responded with a hardy laugh.
“Alice!” My mom shouted. “I told you dinner is ready!”
“Sorry mom, I was just finishing a chapter!” Alice yelled back, closing her book.
“You and your books.”
Alice walked over and sat in between Eric and I. We all had hot dogs to eat and we chowed down on all of them, every single bite was delicious and I savored every single one of them. I had five hot dogs and some chips that Eric brought to the table. Drinking my soda and the taste goes down my throat and the taste soovers my taste buds.
Once all of us were done eating, mom got up from the table and took all of our plates and cups off the table and to the sink. She started washing the dishes, while my dad came up from behind her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
Alice jumped from her seat and ran back all the way to the rocking chair and immediately picked up the book and started reading again.
“Hey Lee.” Eric said to me, tossing a football into my arms. “Let’s play catch.”
I let out a smile and immediately got up from my chair. We went out to the yard and we started throwing the football back and forth.
“Come on, show me that arm of yours!” Eric shouted, as he started running back. I pulled my arm back and gave a hardy throw. Apparently I threw it too hard and it went over the fence of our yard and into the neighbors yard.
“Damn.” Eric said, looking back at me. “Looks like you're too strong huh.”
“Guess so.” I jokingly responded, scratching my head. I walked over to the neighbors fence and that’s when I noticed a sign.
BEWARE OF DOG
That’s what it said, it was all yellow with a blacked out drawing of a big dog.
“Looks like we’re not gonna get our football back.” I said, looking at the sign.
“Don’t worry!” Eric exclaimed as he started running towards the fence. “I’ll get it!” He jumped onto the fence and started climbing it.
“Wait! Didn’t you see the sign!?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” Eric said that as he climbed the fence and hopped over to the other side. The ball was very close to the fence and I leaned up on the fence, looking through the little holes. Eric picked up the ball and turned around to face me. He lifted it up in the air and waved it, like he was waving at me in a crowd.
Then out of nowhere, the dog came in and tackled Eric to the ground.
“NO!” I cried out through the gate. Eric managed to kick the dog off of him and threw the football over. He then took a running leap to the gate and grabbed onto it. He started climbing but it was too late. The dog bit down on his left leg and drove him down to the ground and got on top of him. He was screaming and I just watched all of this happen before my eyes. His neck was picked up by the dog and he snapped it. Eric’s loose neck was bent over as the dog chewed on him and I was left there screaming.
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I woke up in a sweat as I came to the realization that all of that was a dream. There was an arm that was wrapped around my neck and didn’t allow me to move. I looked down at the arm that was wrapped around me, and realized that it belonged to Jesse. She was right next to me, and we were basically cuddling because she was that close to me. I slowly lifted her arm off my neck and rolled over to get up so I didn’t wake her.
I rose to my feet and attempted to shake off the dream I just had, it felt too real to be a dream. Maybe it might’ve been those lucid dreams, those always feel real. I took a quick glance around the tent and saw the usual people in there. Nancy, Jesse, and Alice.
Wait!
I looked back to confirm my suspicions, and yes.
Alice wasn’t in her sleeping bag.
I quickly looked around the tent like five more times to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. But I wasn’t, Alice was truly not here in this tent. I looked out of the tent back and forth across the camp. There was still no sight of Alice anywhere.
Shit! Where the fuck is she!?
I ran out of the tent and started looking over every nook and cranny until there was no stone left unturned. No matter how hard I searched, I still couldn’t find her.
Where could she have gone?
Then I heard a noise, like a bunch of little rocks falling to the ground. It came from around the corner on the other side of the camp. Then I heard that all so familiar voice.
“Fuck!” That voice was no doubt Alice's. I quickly ran over there and turned the corner to see two little stone piles and one that Alice was quickly picking up because it fell apart. “Why can’t you just stay in place.”
“Alice, what are you doing?” I asked, slowly walking up behind her. Alice looked up at me as she stopped fiddling with the stones.
“Oh, I’m just-” Alice said, going back to pick up the stones and pile them all up. “Stacking up stones as a sort of burial for mom and dad.”
It then hit me on what she was doing now. We never did fully say goodbye to them, as all of that was in the heat of the moment that we never had the chance to.
“Is the one you’re piling up now for Eric?”
“Yeah.” She finished the stone pile, finishing it off by putting a rock directly on top. “I know what I said the night we slept here, but looking back on it. It was wrong for me to think that way. No matter what he did, he’s still part of our family.”
What Alice is saying is true, he’s still part of the family. But he still fucked up everything! He still went and fought Haruhiko, even when he knew the consequences of it. He knew that he was gonna die and he still fucking did it! It makes no sense! Why!? WHY!?
I clenched my fist and teeth in anger, almost biting my lip. I was getting so fucking angry and it’s reasonable too. We could’ve just been a happy family! Why didn’t we end up like that!? Why did I have to be born during this time!? Why can’t things just be better, why does it have to be so fucking shitty!?
“You can stay here and mourn if you want to. I’m gonna go back to the tent. It is pretty early in the morning.” Alice walked away, and went around the corner. I just stood there, looking down at all of the stones stacked up. Especially Eric’s pile, it made me feel so…so…
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Angry
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I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I just let it all loose. I kicked down Eric’s pile and started yelling.
WHY DID YOU DO IT!?
WHY!?
TELL ME WHY!?
YOU MESSED UP EVERYTHING!!!
EVERYTHING!!!”
Alice came flying around the corner and I fell to my knees still yelling.
“Lee! Calm down please!” She begged, holding me down to the ground.
YOU FUCKED UP EVERYTHING!!!
YOU FUCKED IT ALL UP!!!
THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!
I was balling my eyes out as Alice was talking to me but my own yelling was getting in the way. I couldn’t control myself at all, my mind was going blank and all I could do was yell and yell. Letting out all of my frustrations and anger out on the spirit of Eric and the stones that symbolized his grave.
I finally stopped and regained consciousness. Soon I looked up and Jesse was also there accompanied by Alice who was still hugging me as I was rolled up on the ground, tears still staining my face. My face red with all of the screaming and my vocal cords basically shattered. I’ve finally calmed down.
“You ok?” Alice asked me, coddling my head.
“Y-yeah.” I sniffled, still wiping the tears off my face like it was raining. “I’m ok now. S-sorry.”
Jesse looked down at me and kneeled down to touch my head. “It’s ok to let it out. It’s better than bottling it up and letting them all out at a bad time.”
Getting up from the ground I started to feel my throat, and there was an absolute hurl of pain. It was sore and raspy. It felt like I was breathing in spores from a swamp or something like that. Was I really screaming that much?
Jesse came up and patted me on the back. I started coughing, and every cough made my throat feel like it was getting punctured like spikes. I need something to drink, like water or even just some slop whatever. My throat hurts so much it’s quite impressive that I did this all to myself.
“I need to get a drink.” I said, my voice being crispy and raspy. “Do you have one?”
“Yeah come back to the tent.” Jesse said, holding my hand and dragging me along. We went over to the tent and she gave me her canister full of clean water. Not to say that it tasted good or anything palatable but it was enough to suffice. My throat started to feel better and the pain slowly went away. I got a chance to clear my mind from the anger and calm down fully.
A thought hit me at that point, who killed mom and dad? Who were the people that even did that? I could never know, or could I? I just remembered the existence of the kill history over at the bank, which shouldn’t be that far from here at all. Or I at least think so. Though, I only know how to get there using the streets and not the sewer. So I’d have to go all the way to the apartment buildings and walk from there. Taking the chance of being killed along the way, but I don’t really care at this point. I have so many questions, yet no answers.
When I was done drinking the water Jesse gave to me I turned to her and said. “I have to go somewhere.”
“Where?” She asked, taking the canister from my hands and putting it directly into her sleeping bag.
“Just need to go somewhere. I’ll meet with you at the Yurinami school.” I walked out of the tent and immediately turned down the corner and took the route back home. Jesse tried to stop me but I insisted on going.
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The route felt like I was taking a trip down memory lane, even though everything just happened in not even a week's time. I finally got to the manhole that led directly to the apartment building. I took a deep breath and went up the ladder, opening the heavy manhole to the sight of my old home.
I opened the manhole and the light blinded me like last time. Instead of seeing the apartment building, there was nothing. The building was gone, like it was picked up and moved somewhere else. I was even thinking I was on the wrong street but no. The street sign remained the same. So what the fuck happened to the building. Did the government tear it down? But why? That whole apartment building was government owned, so why would they just tear it down and leave the landscape beneath it rot? None of it makes sense.
My mind rattled around the reason why the building would just be stripped down like that. But, I needed it to slide out of my mind and start moving and stay out of plain sight. I remember the way we used to take when we were young, it all depended on the alleyways weaving through the various apartment buildings. It reminds me of…I shouldn’t think about him.
I got to the point where I was sure of where I was, I veered off and exited the alleyway and load and behold. There it was the bank.
There was no sign of a human in sight near the bank. But right next to the front doors, the kill history. The kill history is an ATM looking machine that is painted completely black with the United States flag on the sides of it. I carefully looked both ways before I crossed the road to get to the bank. Once I felt like the coast was clear I quickly ran across the street and directly to the kill history.
I got there and it was a plain black screen that didn’t display anything. There was a single button on top of a flat board just under the screen. It was a small red button, and when I pressed down on it the screen turned on to a blinding white. The flat board turned over and on the other side was a keyboard, the keys glowing a lime green. There were two little text boxes with ‘LAST NAME’ and ‘FIRST NAME’ appearing on the screen. I placed my fingers on the keyboard and typed out.
“Shelly Pulpis”
My mom’s picture popped up on the screen along with her full name, and home address. There were two sections, a kill history, and a cause of death. It was exactly as I expected, no kills in her kill history, but something was off. There was no listed cause of death, not even a single recognition that she’s dead. She was still being listed as alive.
That doesn’t make sense. I saw them lying on the floor with blood seeping from their bodies. There is no way they are alive. It has to be a glitch, it’s gotta be!
I quickly typed another name, my dad’s name.
“Derek Pulpis”
It was the same as my mom’s, except he had a couple of kills. He still didn’t have a cause of death, and he’s still listed as alive. I was still in the belief that it had to be a glitch, there’s no other possibility. I decided to look up his name next.
“Eric Pulpis”
This was now proof that my mom’s and dad’s kill history was incorrect. Eric had his two kills and his cause of death. He was officially listed as dead, and his killer was listed.
Runasi Haruhiko.
I immediately closed the kill history and everything with the kill history went back to normal, with the black screen and the small red button back on top. I was only left with more questions than answers. All of it doesn’t make sense, and it’s so confusing. Then, I felt something click in my head, or should I say. I heard a click at the back of my head and a hard object was now rubbing against my head.
“Look what we have here.” A mysterious deep voice said. “Lee Pulpis himself. The man everyone’s been talking about.”
Immediately knew what was happening, a gun was pointed at the back of my head. I didn’t even hear the guy at all, I must’ve been too focused on the kill history to even notice him coming at all. Now I’ve got myself into a tricky situation.
“Not gonna talk huh? What were you even doing at the kill history? Checking up on Haruhiko? To see if you can steal his one billionth kill? Try again.” The guy kept rambling on, but I couldn’t get a good look on his face or to even see for a second if he was distracted. I’m basically stuck here, listening to his insane rambles.
“Yeah, killing Haruhiko is the peak of anybody’s life but right here, killing THE Lee Pulpis, will put me on the map. Yet again, why would anyone kill Haruhiko in the first place? I know getting protection and money is great and all. But, he’s doing this world a favor, killing all of the stupid people like you in their place. Six feet under.” He pressed the gun against my head even further. “Now, it’s time for me to do the same. I’ll continue the mission.”
I knew what he was gonna do next, which made me jump into action and swing my arm back to hit the gun out of his hand. But then…
BOOM!
A gunshot ran out and blood splattered everywhere, and all over me. The guy’s head was blown off and he immediately dropped to the ground dead. I looked around me to see a familiar face from one of the catalog of people I know. But, there was no one else around that I could see. I kept looking back and forth, just trying to find somebody. There was literally no one around.
“Who did that!?” I shouted out, my voice echoing through the empty streets. “Hello!” No answer, only the sound of the light breeze rushing through the air. It then all came together like a puzzle piece. I remembered a theory I had when I was still left alive after my fight with Haruhiko.
He had to be keeping me alive so I could fight him again. He has to have people watching me and making sure I don’t die. That has to be it.
I looked along at all of the windows that were facing the bank or even had a sight of the bank and it made me more convinced that what I was thinking was right. I looked up at the sun and it was just in the right position for when Yurinami fight school is gonna start. Which means I got to head there now, I made a promise to Jesse.
I began to walk through the street as I became more confident, because I knew my protection was guaranteed and I now knew that I could basically do anything and I’ll be fine.
Because no matter what happens. Haruhiko will fight tooth and nail, so that I won’t die.116Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEJ23KXtIJr
