Chapter One
It's raining.
Why am I even surprised, she thought, that it was raining on a day like this?
Heaving a shuddering sigh, she shoved her hands deeper into jacket's pockets, hoping to conserve some semblance of warmth, despite the heavy sheets of rain pelting her already soaked form.
As if the universe were laughing at her, headlights lit up the path in front of her as a car rushed past her, causing a wave of freezing to crash into her. She stopped walking and closed her eyes, barely reigning in a scream of frustration. Because pouring rain isn't depressing enough.
Having just about given up with trying to keep any part of herself warm, Ren raised her face to the darkened sky, letting the grumbles of hundreds of people shoving past and the ever-present sounds of inner Tokyo fade until she couldn't discern one from the other.
Next you know, I'll be struck by lightning.
Heaving another deep sigh, she lowered her face and started walking again, stopping only once she reached her destination.
Almost lazily, she dragged herself into the store, grabbing a basket along the way. As her shoes squelched against the tiled floor as she browsed the aisle, she gained many sympathetic glances from the other shop goers, all of whom had been smart enough to drive or bring umbrellas. Stupid people and their stupid fore-sight. Not wanting to spend any longer than she had to in the ill lit store, she powered through her shopping, shoes squelching every step of the way, ignoring how the shopkeeper glared at her for trekking water. It's not my fault the sky decided to open up drown all of Tokyo in torrential downpour. Not that she much to buy, just a few essentials.
Her gaze landed on a box of Chocolate Pocky's.
Maybe just one.
Absentmindedly putting the box of Pocky in her basket, she looked over everything she had collected, straining to remember if she had everything on her water destroyed shopping list, while simultaneously trying to calculate the overall price.
Satisfied that she seemed to meet her budget, Ren decided she had grabbed everything that she could and made her way to the counter. However, she paused halfway, cocking her head slightly at the noise. What is that? It's too loud to be a train. Once again ignoring the look she was getting from the shopkeeper, she crouched, placing her palm flat against the floor, not quite sure if she was imagining the sensation or not. There, another tremor. By now, she could see other people pausing and looking around in confusion, which soon turned to horror as they realised what was going on.
At first no-one moved, their brains unable to make sense of the input from their ears and feet. The ground was now violently trembling and the noise quickly escalated from a slight rumble to a deafening thunder. Then, like a switch being flicked, everyone started to scramble for safety, all of them on the autopilot mode that all-consuming fear creates. Ren abandoned her basket and scrambled out of the way of falling food products and shelves. The walls scream and the lights flicker rapidly before going out all together.
It was as if her brain had shut down. Everything blurred. Time sped up. Cracks appeared from beneath the breaking tiles. Fear and panic ensued as the ground shook up and down, as if the entire place suddenly fell from the sky and struck the earth with mighty impact. She scrambled up to her feet but most immediately lost balance and was reduced to crawling as she tried get away. Where exactly she was trying to go, was a mystery.
Impossibly, the trembling got worse, and with it, the screaming. Ren could barely hear her own heartbeat over the piercing shrieks of the other shoppers, as she got shoved out the way in their desperate panic to flee.
Then the world titled on its axis.
Truthfully, when she looked back upon her memories, it was not the world that tilted, but the small grocery store, when ground underneath it split and broke apart, causing massive, chasmic rifts everywhere. And Ren, having just been pushed to the floor, was too disorientated to save herself as everything started slant downwards, taking her with it.
As she flew of the edge, she caught a glimpse of something impossible, and time slowed for a second – a single second.
There, just hovering, seemingly unperturbed by the panicking people and falling debris. It's black and smoky form was vaguely human, and – though she had no way of knowing – in that singular second, it seemed to be staring right at her.
But time sped up and she was falling.
And then-
Nothing.
The first thing she heard, was silence
The first thing she smelt, was dirt.
The first thing she tasted, was blood.
The first thing she saw upon waking up, was darkness.
The first thing she felt upon waking up, was a cold, chill like electric shock running up and down her spine, radiating from her leg. It felt like there was gnome with a chainsaw inside her leg. It was a shooting pain, but somehow, that wasn't accurate enough. That was too slow. It fired, like a canon, following the line right up to her hip. It took everything in her not to scream, instead, reducing it to low moans and groans.
After what felt like hours – but in reality was minutes – a sort of numbness set in, allowing Ren to think beyond the hazy mist of pain. Without her realising it, her eyes had squeezed shut, like they were trying to block out the pain. Opening them, they took a few seconds to adjusted to the darkness, but it didn't take too long for her to realise that she seemed to be underground.
Now, more than before, the smell of dirt was present. The ground was hard and uneven, jagged rocks and loose pebbles digging into her stomach as she laid there, still catching her breath from the effort of keeping her screams to herself.
I must be under the shop, she thought, vaguely recalling how she had slid and fall into the chasm. It's a wonder I survived a fall like that.
She shifted slightly, causing more fiery pain race up her body. Evidently, not without consequences. Knowing for certain that she had broken a leg – because what else could it be – Ren hazarded a guess that she probably had more injuries that were being overshadowed by said brake.
She whimpered.
I wonder how long I've been down here. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing. Do they even know I'm down here? Highly unlikely. Would anyone even think to look for me? Let's not go there.
More time pasted.
Sometimes she was conscious, other times she was barely lucid enough to discern reality from dream. Often, when she wasn't completely consumed by pain, she pondered the shadow she thought she saw before she fell, wondering if it was real or a panic induced hallucination.
She was leaning towards the latter.
She was losing blood. More blood than I have to spare. Although she couldn't be sure, Ren was quite certain that she was starting to spend more time dreaming and less time conscious. Even then, conscious was a poor word of choice for muggy state of mind she fought to stay in.
Sometimes she thought she heard whispers, but they were too faint for her to say for certain. Probably wind passing through open space.
The cave had an exit. For the longest time now, it had been taunting her, daring her to move, to crawl out. How much time has passed now?
She knows she should move. She knows she should try to get up, try splint her leg, try to anything . . . but she couldn't. If it wasn't the pain from her leg, it was the pain from her arms. If not her arms, then her ribs. If not her ribs, then her head and so on and so on.
Is it possible for the dark to become darker? One by one she felt her senses being to fade. Already the pain began to fade, although not due to her wounds miraculously healing. Her eyes had slid shut a long time ago, no longer wanting to see the doorway to possible freedom taunt her, like a juicy streak held just out of reach by a piece of string. She could no longer taste the metallic tang of blood in her mouth, something she was grateful for despite knowing the absence of her senses wasn't a thing to celebrate. Around the same time, she could no longer smell the rich, earthy scent that had previously calmed her.
Whether it was because her sense failed her or because she wasn't breathing through her nose, she couldn't tell.
Strangely enough, it was her hearing was last to go. How can you tell that you can't hear if all you can hear is silence? But no, not quite silence. I can hear the air, the wind passing through the cave, like the chime of small bells.
Bells?