Live to Die
There is nothing more freeing than to run. To repeat that simple cycle of movements as you feel the strength of your own body flourish and waver for as long as need be. All of the worries, memories and pains fall away in the primal effort to keep moving at pace. The breathing space that running offered the now retired Captain Takumi was second only to his dreams. The feeling of clarity was akin to keeping his head above water.
The Captain couldn't just run anywhere either, not the streets of his birth city amongst the visibly polluted air with the stink and noise of humanity. For a true escape he needed the visual tranquillity of the trees and flowers that only his neighbouring park could provide. Anywhere else and he wouldn't feel like he could fully breathe. Sheltered in a glass dome with filtered air it was only accessed through a toll, an expense that the Captain was willing to pay even with though it left a large hole in meagre pension.
Any time he regretfully had to travel to the inner city would always be a tortuous affair. He could hold his own keeping his troops alive under fire but dealing with the hustle and bustle of the crowds of inner Shanghai was nearly unbearable. Through the course of his life it seemed like society had lost its sense of community and decency. His wife had tried for years to reinforce in him a hope for people but even her tireless love couldn't rekindle that wasted ideal.
In his entire career he had endured the horrors of war and returned to her scarred only in his body. Even after they had taken his leg the memories never haunted him. His wife merely thought he was keeping his pain from her with the strength of a dutiful husband. That he only wished to spare her the horrifying details. The truth was he was traditionally raised and honour bound from a military family filled with men of stone. War never invaded home with it's pointless violence.
Battle was the duty of the men of the Takumi family. The family and home were the women's responsibility. They were looked down on from others for their views of women in combat, they respected fighting women but they wouldn't abandon generations of tradition. Takumi couldn't help but recognise glances as he pounded the pavement on this beautiful day. Dressed in a tank top and running shorts his scars were plain to see and his prosthetic leg augment garnered attention from the higher class runners and their obsession for the perfect body. His disgust was evident on his face as he passed their fake smiles, he knew that fitness wouldn't last under the hardships of military service. Their porcelain perfection would shatter under the pressure.
Some of them ran to solidify their confidence within themselves but Takumi's daily routine was his only escape from the pain of her. Finally after two hours with his body bathed in sweat and his mind somewhat recollected he left an oasis of peace and exited the dome into another realm. A tsunami of humanity.
His chest began tightening as he entered the endless horde of pedestrian commuters on Shanghai's chaotic footpaths. His vision was clouded to the backs in front of him as they walked in a unified pace of hurried frenzy. In the morning rush hour he sought the breath and sight of fresh air and gazed to the sky instinctively. A view of the sky was a distant hope as his eyes met buildings of monolithic proportions. Human construction grasped at the sun, blocking her light with fingers of engineered steel. These pillars of civilization shrouded the district's pathways in near constant shadow making the park Takumi's only daily source of natural light.
There were no conversations between members of the throng only grunts of discomfort as they each pressed against each other, desperate to reach their respective jobs. Takumi even in his tired state from the run was forced on by the heel-clipping shoes at his back as he rode the train of the daily human grind.
Just as the teeming crowds sparked his anxiety he gazed up to see the street sign he was looking for and he charged to the side, pushing and shoving until he escaped the undertow. He paused for a moment to catch his breath and let the pain in his chest subside. Her voice echoed in his mind soothing his anxiety with her gentle tone until his tired heart settled. With his breathing finally under control he continued on in the journey of his daily routine.
He escaped the crowds into a shortcut through a desolate underpass that most if not all civilians avoided. Nicknamed Purgatory by local law enforcement the entire underside of the raised freeway was taken over by some of the city's homeless. Most of them to his disgust and shame were ex military and no matter how much the politicians railed against this fallen fate of the nation's heroes their number only continued to grow.
Their tax funded survival skills were developed so they could make a home in enemy territory in every corner of the galaxy. Now those skills kept them alive as the people they swore to protect ignored their hellish reward to their bravery and sacrifice. Campfires littered the area beside beds made from anything from blankets, cardboard to even newspapers. A tent was considered hot property and often fought for.
Takumi walked through confidently, he could hear his name being called out a few times and he smiled and waved back. When he had the money he would purchase food and water to distribute amongst these brothers and sisters in arms. He continued to make his way through Purgatory without haste or apprehension, occasionally stopping to check on some of the residents before continuing on. Upon reaching the other side he gazed into another raging torrent of humanity and braced himself for crossing the river of willing slaves and wasted dreams.
He pushed against the tide as it flowed downwards, without apology or recognition of his ailment they crashed against him. They were so desperate to work jobs they hated to buy things they didn't need that they didn't care who got in their way. The sea of faces briefly formed a gap which revealed his salvation situated below massive screens advertising unaffordable milestones for the masses.
He reached the other side and swiftly entered the apartment block where he lived and he was greeted by the familiar, lingering scent of human settlement as a young child's protesting cry sounded from a floor above. When it was first built the walls were a clinical white but now from years of neglect they were a dirty smoke-stained yellow and littered with ugly, mindless graffiti. Some of the apartment's doors were left open as Takumi passed by them, their residents ignorant of being a nuisance as they mingled loudly in the hallways. As he ascended the building towards his apartment on the fourth floor he couldn't help but notice certain residents conducting criminal activities as they sold narcotics outside their homes without fear of consequence.
Finally he was on his floor but the door to his apartment was blocked by two young boys who grinned as they saw him approach. They passed him without saying a word and he discreetly passed them a few dollars each. It was a simple arrangement, they watched over certain apartments when the owners were away so they wouldn't be robbed or vandalised. If he didn't pay them his home would be ransacked the next time he left it.
He swiped his keycard along the lock before the door slid open and he entered with a feeling of relief and sadness. Instantly he saw her resting on top of the table beside the balcony door, the love of his life nestled inside a featureless, black porcelain jar. He walked over and tenderly brushed his hand against the orb as the bittersweet image of her smile rocked him from his foundations. He immediately regretted touching her as he realised he was in dire need of a shower. He silently cursed himself for jeopardizing her purity with his dirty hands and left to take a shower.
Once washed and refreshed he heated a meal of chicken and rice and without complaint to its lack of flavour consumed it as he listened to the sounds of the world pass him by through his open balcony. His apartment was spartan and immaculately kept through military discipline and respect to his wife's standard. Completely lacking in decoration except for the table in which her ashes rested. Plastic flowers lacking scent surrounded a photo of her pale, smiling face framed in dark wood with unlit tealights surrounding the vase. It was the focus piece of his existence, a minimalist expression of her existence, a mere shadow of how the light of her life filled his heart.
Such a lost love was a double edged sword that tormented every pleasured memory of her with a vicious duality and the ever sharpened pangs of loss. He attempted to escape the hurt with the continuation of his daily ritual as he tidied away all signs of recent habitation. Once his home was cleaned to her liking he rested himself on his throne beside her and lit the tealights. With the sweet scent of lavender filling his nostrils he laid his head back and closed his eyes before sinking into the conscious dreams of a life past.
In this meditative state his memories of her were so strong he believed he could feel her beside him. He could feel the warmth of her body against him as the entrancing smell of her hair settled his tumultuous heart. His need for her was agonising and he reached for her only to feel the cold coming form the open balcony door and the memory of her ghost drift away from his yearning reach.
Cursing he leapt up and moved to shut the door only to see a lifeless crow nestled against the balcony wall, he knelt down and lifted its dead weight and she flooded his mind again. He was holding her as her loving heart failed her and robbed him of the better half of his soul. He felt her panicked tremors as he fought against her last strength, helplessly holding her in his arms as he pleaded for her to live. He remembered the exact moment when he felt the life leave her body as she grew limp in his terrified, shaking grasp. He rested in that hospital room for what seemed like an eternity, too afraid to move her. Foolishly disbelieving her death and hoping against all hope that she would begin to move again. The doctors found them an hour later bathed in his silent tears as he cursed the cruel world that would take this angel and not him, an awarded killer.
He wrapped the dead bird in a towel and rested it inside a plastic container out in the balcony. He would dispose of it tomorrow. Back inside he sat frozen gazing at her picture as grief washed over him in continuation of his daily torture. Their son told him that he should get out in the world and meet new people that having friends would make the loss more bearable.
He didn't understand this world anymore and all of his friends were dead, crushed under the slow rolling weight of military ambition to guard a world that wouldn't give them the time of day. He was a slowly aging iron relic in a world obsessed with technology and the all encompassing power of currency. This apartment was his only sanctuary, a still island oasis from the constant living waves of a world alien to him.
Looking towards his apartment's rarely used telecom system his despair moved to his son and their torn relationship. It beckoned him to press a few buttons and end a cavernous gap between parent and child that had begun with something so trivial but he knew both of their titanic prides would never allow that bridge to be crossed. Yet he missed his grandchildren and selfishly he missed their innocent power to draw him away from his memories. He hated himself even further for such a destructive weakness.
Reaching inside the single drawer underneath her photo he drew forth the tool of his trade. Cared for to the highest degree its grip was fitted to his hand as a perfect joining of man and machine, life and death. Without thinking he turned the loaded handgun on himself and pressed the muzzle into his temple, feeling the cool barrel rest against his short cropped hair he turned to gaze at her.
His eyes misted with tears as grief and regret unrelentingly pummelled his will. He still retained the composure to realise that if he pulled the trigger he would cover her with his blood. Swallowing hard he moved the barrel to his mouth and pressed it in, the sickly taste of metal mixing with bile as he fought with his mounting depression. The grip was warm now and slick with sweat as he fought for release, he was sick of waiting for the end, he wanted to be free of this living purgatory.
With trembling hands he gazed at her smile and those loving eyes, knowing she wouldn't want this fate for him. Part of him at that moment hated her for being in his life, for loving him. Feeling his stomach lurch he ripped the barrel out his mouth as he vomited over the clean floor with tears and sweat covering his face in a lotion of inner pain.
A bittersweet numbness rose in him as he moved to clean the evidence of his attempted suicide. The ordeal only lasted a brief minute but it exhausted him to his very core as he disposed of the vomit-soaked towel and knelt down to wipe the floor clean with disinfectant. Once finished he looked up to her with one hand on her ashes. "I'll wait." He whispered before getting up and staggering towards the bedroom.
Like the rest of his home it was devoid of decoration only containing a single bed and a set of drawers containing uninformedly folded sets of the same clothes. Too drained to even undress himself he collapsed onto the bed, grateful for the feeling of cool fabric against his stressed and overheated body. He lay facing the shuttered window listening to the never sleeping hive of humanity outside, watching as the thin lights of aerial traffic flew past until thankfully sleep took him.
For years he had grown accustomed to the constant droning sound of the city, no matter how high you got an apartment you couldn't escape it. So with this it wasn't a loud noise that awoke Takumi it was the fact that for a brief moment all noise was cut out in an eerie city-wide silence. Alarmed he opened his eyes and slowly raised himself to approach the window. Gradually the black night sky was illuminated from a descending sun as the masses outside screamed in fleeing panic as an army fled uselessly from danger. Shielding his eyes from the intense light Takumi barely made it halfway out his bedroom door before the heavens fell to Earth.
Takumi was flung backwards as the hammer of the gods thunderclapped against his ears with strike after strike as he struggled to raise himself up only to be thrown back again. He was completely deaf and as such his balance failed him on multiple occasions. His vision swam as hellfire seared across open windows and he finally stood up and walked towards the balcony on trembling legs.
His progress was halted by the sight of her vessel scattered across the floor, mixed with burnt plastic flower petals and the broken glass of her now ruined picture. Behind her scattered ashes was a city broken and burning as towers in the distance crumbled down into a storm of dust and debris enshrouding a helpless chorus of screams.
A panicked shock filled his muscles with a wavering strength as he wiped her ashes into a pile, caring not for the shards of glass piercing his hands as the fuel of his life mixed with her death. Her former vase shattered he threw the dead crow from the plastic container and hastily brushed his wife's remains into it, too hysteric and fearful to care for his methods. He clutched her close to him as he stepped towards his phone station only to find the communication mainframe completely malfunctioning.
Suffering from shock and a severe concussion he collapsed against the wall, his vision fading as the rubble settled within the interior of the city. He was unconscious as the black devils crawled forth from hell to snatch away those helpless souls unlucky enough to escape a quick death. For the next few hours the noise of civilization was replaced with the gunfire and screams of a city under siege from within. Takumi saw none of this as he slept a dreamless, death-like slumber.
His eyes opened slowly, the lids and eyelashes glued together by eye-watered dust as he gazed on a view of chaos from prime real estate. She was still clutched in his arms wincing as the bruises o his body protested against movement.
A hideous scream came from somewhere above his apartment as a burst of gunfire echoed from somewhere further into the city. His instincts pressed him into action and he checked over his prosthetic leg for damage, it was still functional. Swiftly but with caution he raised himself up and peered outside his apartment. The door was open, the locking mechanism malfunctioning as his eyes met damaged, flickering lights. They illuminated a grisly sight as he stared at blood smeared across the walls of the hallway and leading downwards to the stairs.
Something not human screeched from floors above, heavy thunderous pounding could be heard descending downwards at an impossible speed. Takumi silently stalked back inside to his bedroom as the heavy footsteps were on his level and approaching. Gently he lowered himself under his bedframe until he was satisfied that he was hidden.
From his position and in the flickering light he saw black skeletal feet enter his apartment, followed closely by a long, bony tail with a sickle bladed tip. With his heart hammering from a primal fear of this unknown beast he harnessed all his control to regulate his breathing as it entered the bedroom. The claws of its slender feet clicked against the hard floor as thick, jelly like saliva dripped on the floor. Heavy breaths came from the lungs of the monster as Takumi felt himself pressed into the floor by the sheer presence of this creature as it stopped just beside the bed.
He could hear his heartbeat pounding into his ears as he saw clawed hands lowered to the floor. This was his end and he clutched her in a death grip, afraid but ready for the end. Its crouch continued to lower until the lower half of an open mouth could be seen. Lined with glistening sharp teeth the creature's breathing turned into a resonating hiss until a loud clang could be heard from the apartment next door.
Before Takumi could even begin to swallow his colossal fear the beast had turned and raced out the apartment like lightning on charging steps to invade his neighbour. He heard the door being smashed in followed closely by lung shredding screams as they were cut short. He didn't know the couple next door, they seemed like nice people on first glance but like most people he was viewed as invisible.
He didn't have time to consider the horror that was taking place next door, he new this was his only chance, the monster would come back. He shifted out from underneath his bed and left the apartment keeping his hurried steps as quiet as possible. He made it halfway down the first flight of stairs before he heard something following.
It was the woman from next door, screaming as she ran down the hall towards the stairs. Takumi turned to see her make her way around the corner, staring at him before it claimed her. She barely made it down one step before a black, glistening hand wrapped around the entirety of her skull. She was pulled back out Takumi's sight like a weightless ragdoll and he turned to run for his life.
He raced down three steps at a time convinced he was being chased even though nothing could be heard behind. With each floor descended more sights of death and macabre graced his eyes, the lingering crowds of residents were discarded bodies, the graffiti lining the walls were painted over with blood. His burning lungs absorbed the stench of the dead without repulsion, to stop was to join them.
Finally he reached the ground floor and the open door to the outside was in his sight. He had never seen the street outside empty, the dried up human riverbed perplexed him even with all that was going on. His brief pause was punished as something hammered into his side, sending him flying into a wall. His grip on the container failed and it smacked the wall with him, splitting open as she was spilled again onto the bloodstained floor.
He looked up to see the devil's elongated head and fanged tongue before he was pierced by a needle and his sight faded into black once more.
Something worse than death filled his nostrils, a putrid scent unlike anything else he had ever experienced. Decomposition, mixed with the excreted bowels of the terrified and the dead with hints of burnt tar as the odour clung to his very skin. He felt weightless as he awoke yet again from another forced slumber to the sounds of the tortured and the damned sharing a bed with hell's screaming angels.
The air was thick with a humid mist as his vision cleared to reveal the ninth circle. He was plastered to the walls of what appeared to be a sewer tunnel by strong black resin, aligned along a wall of harvested humans. Some awake and wailing in helpless horror, some had their eyes open but the life had fled their bodies along with hope. Some hung truly dead with massive wounds bored into their chests, their lifeless husks hung with their blood dripping onto the black, ridged floor.
The living catacombs held its own voice entirely, a heavy breathing that crawled along each surface to somewhere impossibly deeper in the belly of this nightmare. A whispering hiss that echoed in unison with the miserable wails of the taken. Hope was situated in the centre of the sewer junction in the form of an open manhole cover and the ladders needed to ascend it into the growing sunrise.
The floor was flooded to ankle height by sewage water joined by blood, littered with waist height leathery orbs. Some were open and others were closed but each reminded him of her shattered vessel back home, but lost love was not what was contained inside these orbs. Their gift was the skin coloured arachnids that lay curled up and dead underneath every human in sight. Some were still alive and clung to their victim's face with ribbed tails wrapped tightly around their necks, near strangling them. Takumi now knew where his unusual pains originated from as he saw a dead parasite situated below him, its purpose still unknown.
The moist heat was oppressive as Takumi struggled to intake air down his throat, he felt like he had swallowed a roll of sandpaper. Each time his lungs filled with the stench he could feel them press against something, something foreign that felt like a dead weight in his chest. Sweat poured from every pore in his body as it rolled down his head to fall from his chin. Beads of liquid fell like rain from the roof above enticing him to look up.
More people were glued to the roof as tears and blood joined the ever amassing pool beneath him but there was something else clinging to the surfaces beside the cattle. Things that were very much at home, camouflaged amongst their own construction. He couldn't make out their full form but once he recognised one he began to see them everywhere. One was positioned only a few feet above him on the roof, curled into a foetal position, only a set of glistening teeth were fully visible. His eyes graced the jaws for a few more seconds before they parted slowly and a tongue crept outward tipped with its own set of teeth. Thick, oily saliva collected at the end of the tongue before dropping down into Takumi's eyes. Blinded he threw his head from side to side and gasped as he tried to blink away the substance that glued his eyelashes shut.
The atmosphere of comatose suffering continued for some time until the man fastened next to Takumi started to cough, almost like something was tickling the back of his throat. Soon it turned violent as it was clear the man was struggling for breath, fighting against his regurgitated restraint the struggle then turned into an uncontrollable seizure.
People were shaken out from their own suffering and wailed in protest as they recognised what was happening to him. Takumi was still confused but he knew deep within himself that this was disturbingly wrong. A loud crack sounded from inside the man's chest and almost on queue a melody of hisses emanated from the walls. The black skinned beast above him began to shift and slowly descended in front of him.
It lowered itself with a mesmerising elegance until it stood with its face level to Takumi's even though he was positioned a few feet above the ground. What light there was in the chamber glistened against the creature's smooth, wet and elongated carapace. It glanced at Takumi briefly without eyes as it stalked towards the man beside him.
Takumi could tell from experience that one of the poor soul's lung was pierced by the broken rib. He was proved right as the man struggled to breath through the stream of blood that was coming up from his penetrated lung. The beast caressed his face with its skeletal, six digited hand, such an act would be considered comforting from a human but this thing had turned the gesture perverse. It gripped his head tighter holding his tremors still as he breathed his last breath in a metallic choking agony. Finally he drowned in his own blood and he fell as still as a statue, a grotesque recycling of living tissue turned into an adornment on the wall.
Takumi thought the worst of it was over until the body started to shake again and the beast turned its caring hand towards the chest. It move in closer to the body blocking Takumi's sight of what was happening but the sounds were unmistakable. Something horrifying was emerging.
Further bones were broken and flesh was torn apart until a screeching cry of inhuman life rung through his ears. The beast turned to reveal its sibling, a pale, blood covered serpent that rested quietly now in its grasp.
Pain rose inside Takumi's chest as he could swear he just felt something move inside him. The creature then walked slowly out the chamber with the infant still in its hands, disappearing into the dark towards a mother that none in this room would ever see. Takumi realised now what this room's purpose was. It was a birthing chamber, a sick and twisted maternity ward. He knew what fate awaited him. He was to die helplessly in agony, wrapped in an unescapable embrace, just like she had died. With a heart full of determined rage he swore to himself that he wouldn't die here. It would be on his own terms, he would die in his home, holding her.
Years of discipline instilled from his military career had driven him even in his older age to continue a daily routine of exercise and in this moment he was ever thankful for it. His arms were encased in the still hardening resin against his chest and with all of his might and pain he pushed against the organic restraint. Moment by moment he pushed on but it felt unmoveable. Despair entered his thoughts but left just as quickly once he felt the resin crack and finally give way as his arms were finally freed. The small victory gave his tired muscles fresh vigour and he pulled away at the hive material around his waist. He grunted in effort silently, not wanting to alert the creatures around him. What he didn't know was that he was already being watched but as far as they were concerned the deadly seed was planted and they were simply waiting for it to flower.
Pulling free the last piece away from his legs he fell heavily against the floor, his arm taking the brunt of the impact against the steel surface. Pain flared in his arm and he knew something was broken, his gritted teeth nearly biting his tongue off in an effort to stop him screaming. He could feel his arm getting number by the second as blood flooded back into his legs.
His escape attempt didn't go unnoticed by the humans who's purpose to these monsters remained undelivered. The screamed and pleaded for him to free them. As an officer he had to look at situations involving life and death objectively and now was no different. He had the clarity and the lack of self preservation to realise that both himself and these people were in the same situation. They were already dead but still they clung to the hope of survival with a desperate grasp. He simply wanted to die in his own way and these people would slow him down.
He rose up to feel his clothes sodden with warm, liquid decay even after he escaped this scent would never leave him. He looked around and gazed coldly into the other's eyes wide with terror and without a reply he headed towards the ladders and the hopeful light that enforced the other's doom. He climbed swiftly upward, escaping hell as the waiting dead railed weak, pleading cries that followed him to the surface.
He reached street level to greet a rising sun that created shafts of golden rays between the ruined buildings. Once he was on his feet he took the time to drag the manhole cover back onto the sewer entrance, he didn't know if it would hold against any pursuers but he needed a few seconds to collect himself.
Despite the pollution that still hung through the air of the inner city it was heavenly compared to the decrepit stench from below. The lonely emptiness of the streets was such a shock to the Captain that despite his situation he couldn't help but simply walk and take in this sight. He had always dreamt of running through empty streets devoid of the masses. Now his dream was a reality and the masses littered the streets torn and ripped apart, the unlucky ones were awaiting a worse fate submerged under their own collective filth.
The silence had an ambience all its own as his footsteps echoed through the streets, nothing apart from him moved through the dead city. He was careful to avoid the bodies that littered the roads until he saw one of the beasts dead within a ritualistic circle of bullet cases. Seeing it in the daylight did nothing to lessen the fear he felt as he approached it cautiously. The sun highlighted its features which looked more machine than flesh, its grievous wound and the blood that flowed had melted through the concrete directly into the sewer levels. He kicked it to ensure it was dead and once satisfied he peered into the darkness.
The increasing daylight reflected off something massive, the view of the floor was blocked by a massive crowned head of blackened bone. The creatures he had seen were dwarfed by this horror and through some unknown sense it knew it was being watched and raised its maw to the light. A jaw of massive crystalline fangs opened and a subtle raspy breath was uttered.
Takumi's heart sank to icy depths as she breathed fear into his heart. He rose swiftly and assessed his location in the city. His composure was shattered as her near silent call was answered from shrieks and roars that poured from the buildings around him and below. They were everywhere and they were coming for him.
His apartment was to the east of the city so he pointed himself towards the rising sun and broke into a desperate run. Years of needless exercise had led him to this moment as he pounded the pavement for the final time, he had never been so free within his own mind. Clarity and focus guiding him towards the end as he raced home, leaping over rubble and bodies with ease. His rhythmic breathing though compressed the unwanted child inside him and it he began to feel it move more erratically.
He increased his speed even further, he didn't need to care about waking up with an injury the next morning as he pushed himself to the limit. His eyes were finally greeted by street signs and his heart lifted even more, he was only a few blocks away. Glass broke behind him and he turned his head to see one of the beasts running on all fours at an impossible pace towards him.
His lungs and muscles were aflame but he growled through gritted teeth and pushed himself through the pain boundary as he broke into the fastest sprint of his life. He could hear the creature move its immense weight closer and closer towards him. Panic flared into his mind, he wouldn't make it home before it pounced onto him, dragging him to die back in that pit. He could hear more of them join the pursuit but even with superior speed none came close to him, they kept a steady distance and merely followed.
Takumi still refused to cease his pace and finally the entrance to his apartment building was in sight, he just hoped that none were there waiting to ambush him. He rushed inside and skidded to a halt, her ashes were scattered all over the floor, mixed in with drying blood. He turned swiftly to see at least a dozen of the beasts advancing towards him, they had slowed down to a cautious stalk.
Pain exploded in his chest for the brief flash of a moment as the infant inside him signalled its readiness to join its siblings outside. He reached down and hastily scooped a handful of her ashes into his hand and raced up the stairwell, the pain he forced himself to run through was close to indescribable. His pursuers could then be heard entering behind him with pounding stomps and piercing cries.
He reached his floor when the infant threw its first kick, the pain near felled Takumi as he staggered to a halt against the wall, clutching his chest as he gazed down the stairs. His eyes met rows of hissing wet teeth that ascended the stairs slowly, their clawed hands extended almost calling him to give in.
He threw himself off the wall and stumbled towards his apartment, his vision was a blur from the nauseating pain but still through an indomitable will he pressed on. He was too focused on his objective to contemplate his finality, too busy keeping his head above the sea of pain that racked his aged shell. Reaching his front door he leaned against as another punch came, stealing the air from his lungs as he vomited blood onto his floor.
Tears fell without care from the pain and still his hand held her ashes with an iron fist as he gazed on her destroyed shrine and the salvation that it held. Struggling for breathe his body failed the strength of his heart and his knees gave way, crashing him onto the hard floor with a weak grunt. Still he held her as he dragged himself towards the overturned table, leaving a bloody trail and granules of ash as his time drew near.
Agony was redefined in that slow desperate crawl as his mind fled body and sense to somewhere deep inside himself. He didn't see the shattered kingdom outside his window and he didn't think of the avatars of death that invaded his home to claim what was theirs. They towered over him silently as he finally reached his goal, knowing that the birth was mere seconds away.
He ripped the drawer out with whatever strength that remained in his free arm and the pistol clattered on the floor before him. He wrapped his hand around the cold death just as he did so long ago, openly weeping through pain and sorrow as he gazed once more at the torn pieces of her smile.
"I'm done waiting." He spoke through lungs tattered and torn as the demons turned him over without effort. He closed his eyes to them before lifting the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger to welcome that calm, peaceful abyss.
His body lay limp as the infant broke free from his ribcage to be collected by its guardians, they left his home with a deathly silence as her ashes drifted through his open palm. Amongst all the chaos no one would ever know of the incredible pain he overcame nor would they know of the sense of completion he felt as he pressed that muzzle into his head and ended his daily torment.