Warning: If you are triggered by hanging, please stop reading here! If you do continue reading, please leave a review to let me know if there's anything I can improve for later writing, or just general feedback on this oneshot in general.
It hurts…
Seiko numbly wandered about the school on her usual rounds. A searing pain was shooting up her throat, as was per usual.
I can't breathe…!
No, she knew she didn't even need to breathe anymore. You don't need air when you're dead. Yet her lungs screamed in agony, desperately clawing at her insides for more oxygen. Her head was pounding. But she had to force herself to ignore it. Because her throat would always burn. Her lungs would always scream. Her head would always pound and throb.
She was trapped in this hell for all eternity.
I hate you…
She could hardly even remember what it had been like before this sheer torture. She didn't remember the name of the one who had killed her. All she could ever think of, through the agony, was the short brown hair and dull, cruel eyes.
No… Don't hate her. Don't ever hate her… No hard feelings… friend…
She mindlessly repeated the words to herself, felt them fall meaninglessly from her ghostly tongue. A small part of her mind kept telling her to hang onto those words, to cling to them as tightly as she could. "Preserve your sanity," it had cried, "just wait and you'll eventually be free…"
The other part of her mind wasn't at all pleased with that sentiment. She wasn't escaping from this place. And if that girl was her so-called "friend", then why had she damned Seiko to this eternal nightmare? 'No hard feelings' her ass…
And that was when she felt the air around her stir.
She knew what that meant by now; it meant more of the living had come to this place to die. It wasn't uncommon at all, really, and she just tended to avoid the newcomers. Their presence only made her head hurt worse, as though she was forgetting something important.
But something was different today.
Today, she found herself moving to a space where two new, living girls wandered the empty halls. God, that word set her on edge. Living.
She'd been alive once, she was sure. She had been like the girls walking in front of her, chatting nervously as they futilely searched for a way out.
It made her sick.
The two girls had black hair and blonde, respectively, but Seiko suddenly saw brown.
She saw herself, alive, walking at the side of the girl with the cropped brown hair. Her murderer. They were laughing together, despite their terrible predicament.
She saw the black and blonde again.
And then she remembered the name.
"Naomi…" she whispered out loud. Yes, that was her name. Her best friend's name. Her murderer's name.
The shorter girl with black hair turned around, her brows furrowed. But she couldn't see Seiko. "Did… Did you hear something, Risa…?"
The blonde turned around with her friend and blinked before smiling cheerfully. "Your mind is just playing tricks on you, Yuki. But don't worry. We'll find a way out of here for sure! And then we can go get some ice cream, my treat!"
The girls faced forward again and began walking.
The blonde, Risa, was suddenly Seiko.
The black, Yuki, was Naomi.
Something broke inside of Seiko, and a voice urged her onwards. "Revenge. Take your revenge. Make Naomi suffer. Make her feel the burning. Make her feel the screaming. Make her feel the skull-pounding…"
The voice of reason, the one that protested, was soon swept away. She pushed her way into Risa's body, forcing the living soul deep into darkness as her own soul took over. It was surprisingly simple.
And now she had flesh and bone.
She had her body back.
And Naomi… was right at her side.
Yuki glanced at Risa, confused as to why her best friend had suddenly stopped. "Hey, what's wrong, Risa? Are you feeling okay? You look kind of pale…"
Risa's blank, hollow eyes shifted to stare at Yuki. The short, raven-haired girl couldn't help but flinch as an intense chill ran down her spine.
"Nao…mi…" Risa's body uttered, lurching towards Yuki as though it were a clumsy puppet being pulled around. An empty marionette doll.
"R-Risa…?" Yuki whimpered, backing away slowly. "C-c'mon, this… This isn't funny!"
"No… Hard… Feelings…" Seiko whispered from inside of Risa. A mad grin made its way to Risa's lips.
"I hate you, Naaaaooooomi…."
Yuki screamed as her friend suddenly lunged at her, and she took off running as fast as she possibly could.
Seiko knew exactly where she was herding "Naomi". And the school was eager to help, twisting and turning the halls until Yuki found herself cornered in the girl's bathroom.
"Risa?! Risa, why are you-?!" She was cut off when Risa's hand locked onto her throat, lifting her up high with an inhuman strength.
Seiko's mind instantly carried her through the memory of her murder, and she found that her hands-the ones that now had flesh-now repeated these actions unto Yuki… No, Naomi.
She forced the girl to stand on the rusty bucket she had once stood on, pulling the noose down over her head.
"R-Risa…!" Yuki choked weakly, scrabbling her nails at the rope around her thin neck.
Seiko stepped down before positioning her foot just right…
"RISA!" The girl screeched in pure terror, making Seiko flinch… but it was too late. The bucket clanged to the floor, and Yuki dropped like a stone, her own weight against the noose cutting her airway off completely with a final snap.
The soul buried underneath Seiko's grip surged back to the surface, knocking the spirit clean out of Risa's body. Seiko watched as Risa gasped and shuddered, and then her eyes met with the lifeless eyes of her friend, who now hung from the noose, swinging slowly back and forth…
"YUKI!" Risa wailed, crumpling to the floor. "No… No… God no…!"
Seiko felt another, new pain, this time in her chest. A single, ghostly tear dripped down her face as the tiny, dying piece of her mind remembered. It remembered everything. Naomi… Naomi had been possessed by the darkness… Just like how she had possessed this poor, innocent girl and forced her to kill her own friend…
A weak cry escaped her lips as it all hit her at once. This was her fault. She had wanted to kill Naomi, and now… Now more people were suffering as she and Naomi had…
She lost control of her mind, and the darkness came pouring back in. And this time, every part of her welcomed it fully. It took away the hideous pain. It made her forget the horrible truth…
She wasn't crying anymore.
She smiled.
She giggled at the pitiful sight in front of her, breaking into a full-on laugh as she heard the tortured soul of the girl she had just hung scream in agony.
The girl would know the same pain that Seiko felt… for all eternity.
And she, too, would lose herself. She, too, would embrace the feeling of the darkness cradling her fragmenting soul.
She and Seiko both would be just two more mad souls wandering the halls, dragging the living into their hell…