The lightning. The truck. His idol. His friend. The memories of it all were all he could think of. The nightmares kept him awake at night. Inui had lost so much in such a short space of time. Death seemed to follow him wherever he went, how long would it be before death took somebody else he loved?

How long would it be before death took somebody else he loved?

Just another thought in the pile, a pile that was only a few weights away from crashing down onto Inui. He wasn't the only who felt this way, either - Hizaki and Satoshi, though understandably estranged from him for a good month after the incident, felt there was some supernatural force acting on Inui.

"Maybe you angered a spirit and now they've got it out for you." said Satoshi over their Skype call. "Maybe you just have terrible luck."

"Maybe. What do I do though? Sakura isn't coming back, nor is Ai."

"I'm not saying you have to do anything. Could try going to your nearest shrine and asking for forgiveness, if it turned out you angered a spirit."

"Dude, stop with the spirit thing. I don't think it's helping," said Hizaki, who until now had been relatively quiet. "Inui doesn't have bad luck, it's those girls. "

"Fine, fine, I'll stop. Can't get rid of the possibility though." Satoshi sighed. "It's like Saga's got a curse or somethin'. You go there, you die!"

"Could you be more insensitive?"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I just... don't really know what to say or do anymore. We loved Ai too, y'know?"

"I know you did. Otherwise we wouldn't have gone to that concert," said Inui. "And Hizaki's right. Saga doesn't have a curse, Ai and Sakura both had terrible luck, and all this superstitious shit isn't helping. Thanks for apologising though."

"'S okay, dude. I won't do it again."

"Anyway, I'm gonna go. Romero's been barkin' at me for the past 10 minutes and if I don't feed him soon he's gonna bite my leg off. I'll talk to you guys later."

"See you later, dude." the two said in unison, before Inui disconnected from the call.

Back in the silence, which bothered him once but now felt commonplace, even homely. As he said he would, Inui went downstairs and fed Romero, who seemed happier to see him than anyone else. Romero was a great friend. Always cheery, actually seemed to want to be around Inui, and didn't try to blame the grisly ends of people on spirits. Better yet, he wasn't dead. Inui was still in the depths of his despair about Ai and Sakura - he couldn't deny that they absolutely weren't coming back, but there was still a sense of emptiness in his heart. He'd been reading up on the stages of grief, and read that his feelings were likely going to last quite a while. Maybe months, maybe years. Either way, he would have to find some way to cope.

The year was 2009. Contact with Hizaki and Satoshi had come to a near halt, Romero was sick and Inui had returned to his silence. After battling with his fears he found the courage to turn on the TV again, no longer worrying that he wouldn't suddenly be slapped with the death of another person he cared about. Everyone he knew was still in good health, except of course Romero, but he had no fear about him dying any time soon in all honesty. What scarce conversation Inui had had with Hizaki and Satoshi proved to be weighing him down - all they seemed to be able to talk about was the death of Ai, so he stopped talking to them. Understandably, Inui felt selfish for doing that, not to mention his loneliness only grew and grew - they were the only friends he had. In a way, he felt like he didn't really need anyone - just himself, Romero, and his movie collection.

How long would it be before death took somebody else he loved?

"My gooooood, shut up!" Inui shouted into the silence. "Who cares anymore? We all die, it happens to all of us so what's the point in sulking anymore?"

Of course, nobody answered. Inui crashed back down, put his head in his hands, and took a deep, long breath.

"What am I doing?" he asked himself. "Why am I such a wreck?"

He rose once more, put on his shoes, and went out, taking Romero with him for company. Maybe he was just having really bad cabin fever - after all, it had been days since he left the house. A walk would do him some good.

Since Ai's death, Inui's life had never known peace. In a normal situation, he felt he would have recovered much sooner, but the added punch of her death being merely months after the death of Sakura rendered him useless. Now, being eight months after Ai's death and the anniversary of Sakura's having past just a week ago all the old feelings came rushing back. It was just a grim reminder that death was permanent, and death was selfish. It was also a reminder to stop by Sakura's grave, which Inui planned to do on the way home.

Silence. Solitude. It was strangely peaceful when Inui finally made his way to Sakura's grave. The streetlamps lit the way for him like some sort of macabre festival, the rustling leaves on the trees acting as a fanfair for his arrival. Inui found her headstone, and he sat down in front of it, breathing.

"Sakura, it's been a while, hasn't it?" Inui whispered, struggling to get his words out. "Nobody saw it comin', least of all you. Well, they say death can come to us at any time, don't they?"

Inui looked up once more, at the worn out photographs and the half wilted photographs others had left for his friend.

"It's cruel, isn't it?" Inui's voice began wavering. "It wasn't like you deserved to die. You had so much going for you, and then out of the blue came that truck... I hope whoever was driving it is at least paying for what they've done."

For a while, Inui closed his eyes, just giving himself space to breathe. This was the calmest he'd felt in months, yet there was still a sense of unease, a sense that something was wrong...

"Ah, Romero!" Inui jumped up. The dog was nowhere to be found.

"Sakura, I'm sorry I couldn't talk to you more. Romero's ran off again, but I promise I'll speak to you again soon! Now, I gotta go! Bye!"

It seemed the nightmare never ended.

Gahhhh I'm sorry for not updating in so long! I've been SUPER busy these past months and just got out of a really mean artist's block, but hopefully because of the summer break starting in two weeks for me I'll be able to update much more! Thank you soooooo much for waiting, it means a lot to me! -Ratboy