I wake up in a small dark room. The walls are rusty grey with dirt and grime all over them.
"How did I get here? What's going on?" I ask nobody. My voice only echoes. There's a door a few feet from where I'm laying on the ground. It's big and black and foreboding. And there's something taped to it. I walk over to it. And then I see it. It's a flower. A lily…
The death flower…
Now that I'm freaked out I turn and look at the rest of the room. Well really there's nothing to look at because I can't see the other side. It's too dark. And that's when I hear it. A soft whimpering sound like an animal… No wait, like a human, someone I know. I wrack my brains trying to think of whom the voice belongs to.
"S-Sato-san…" The voice whimpers.
Takagi…
I try to call out to him but my throats dry. I can't speak anymore. I take a few steps towards the whimpering. I can see the outline of a shape. It looks like Takagi is curled against the wall with his knees to his chest. Our eyes meet for a second.
He's terrified.
Something's wrong. Takagi doesn't have eyes like that. Red and glinting in the light slipping through the cracks in the door.
"S-Sato-san help………." I try to tell him that it's ok, that I'm here. But I can't. I can't talk. And then there's light coming behind me. I try to turn around. And in that split second I see something I never want to see again.
Takagi is even worse off than I'd thought. His sleeves are torn and the skin beneath them is a mess. It's cut and bruised. His legs are no better. I can tell, even from a few feet away, that he's been stabbed in the leg. It looks like he'd attempted to bandage it with his tie, and failed miserably. His cheeks are hollow and there's blood in his hair and on his face. But his eyes…
Bloodshot… wide and fearful… dark circles… tears…
Takagi is crying. His eyes focus on something behind me as a shadow passes over us. I turn around. But I can't see. It's so bright outside, I'm blinded. I see a figure. An outline. And the figure's holding something. It flashes.
It's a knife… A bloody knife…
My scream wakes me up.
"Takagi…" I say to no one. I look around my room. No one is there. Just me. I turn onto my side and tell myself it's only a dream, that Takagi is safe sleeping in bed. Or pulling another all-nighter.
I won't let anything happen to you Takagi…
And I won't. Even if it kills me.