Chapter 1: Angels and Demons; Hope and Despair

A warm cascade of light bathed my bedroom in a golden glow. Outside, birds sang a song to greet the new day as waves repeatedly kissed the shoreline in an everlasting rhythm. A cool ocean breeze drifted through my open window and tapped lightly on my exposed chest. I opened my eyes and immediately sneezed.

The pleasant setting around me twisted away until it appeared as nothing more than a painting on the other end of a hallway. I struggled to recall my dreams from last night, but the pieces were already falling apart until the fragments disappeared completely. My nightmares were as relentless as the waves, crashing into my subconsciousness every night only to pull away as soon as I tried to grab onto them. No matter how blue the sky was outside, I couldn't shake the dark and heavy feeling in my heart.

I dragged myself out of bed slowly as if it was the first day of school after a long summer vacation. Ironically, it was a Monday, but I knew that I wouldn't have to worry about school ever again. The concept of long lectures and educators was a long forgotten past that I found hard to recall. That past belonged to someone else, not me.

The world had ended, after all.

There was no need to worry about school anymore.

I tried to not look in the mirror as I entered the bathroom, but it was impossible since the room was so small that the mirror practically covered an entire wall. My fist tightened against the sink counter, anticipating another one of my "episodes."

When I looked up, I found myself staring at the only thing I could see in mirrors these days. The figure that stared back at me behind the glass was none other than the devil himself. It was the demon that I had tried to run away from ever since The Tragedy had ended. But how could a man run from his own reflection?

I pulled at my short, brown hair in frustration and watched as the devil before me mimicked my every movement. He, too, pulled at his long, untidy hair while his glowing red eyes burned with the pain of a million tortured souls. He opened his parched, bloody lips and let out an animalistic cry that rattled his hollow cheeks.

Hot tears filled my eyes as the horrors of the past unfolded before me in flashing slideshows. I shut my eyes tightly, but I could still see the victims falling one by one like a hailstorm. Their screams filled my ears like a symphony of despair. No matter where I went, there was just no way for me to escape the demon within. I guess this was God's special way of punishing me.

When I opened my eyes again, I noticed a small light from the corner of my eyes. Suddenly, a girl with light, lavender hair and bright, kind eyes appeared in the mirror. Her angelic presence was a complete foil to the devil. Even when she turned to look at the monster next to her, she smiled forgivingly and grasped his hands softly. They looked at each other with a deep longing in their eyes. Together, they turned around and faded away. Just like that, the mirror before me returned to normal, and the phantasmagorical scene was replaced with the image of an ordinary high school boy.

"Why do I have to go through this every morning?" I asked myself, but I already knew the answer to that.

I deserved the pain and the guilt. I was the one who killed her, after all. As she laid bleeding out in my arms, pleading for me to recognize her face, I turned a blind eye as if I was greeting a stranger. With the powers I had, I could have saved her, but I didn't.

Tears began gathering around my vision. It wasn't manly to cry, but at that moment, it felt as if my heart was shattering into a million pieces. "Even after all the terrible things I've done, you are still with me."

Tears filled my eyes once more as my memories of Chiaki came pouring down like a waterfall. After all the terrible deeds I had committed, she still forgave me. As she laid dying in the arms of a stranger who could not recognize her, she still forgave me. In the end, I was never able to say what I wanted to say to her ever since we first met.

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