NOOO!!! Slam Dunk is not mine!!! HOW COULD THIS BE!?
Chapter 9: Anger
Kiyota's voice tumbled out from his throat in dry, cracking sobs. His eyes were swollen and red as a result from spilling too much tears. Jin's broken body lay before all of them, lifeless and cold, one with the dust on the ground. Jin, Kiyota's heart whispered silently. Jin, please, no. How could this be? Yoshiko gripped Mitsui's hand very tightly, as if she was using some force to will Jin to come back to life. But he was dead. Maki's tanned face was now several shades paler, almost ghostly in his grief.
The driver of the car who had hit Jin rushed out of his vehicle, his eyes lined with anxiety and horror at what he had unintentionally done. "Hey, you guys!" he called to them. "Is your friend all right?"
Then he stopped short when he saw Jin's body drowning in the pool of blood, bones sticking out at odd angles, eyes tightly shuttered behind pale lids with not the slightest breath of life lingering in his sprawled form. "I – I didn't mean it!" gasped the man. Nine pairs of accusing eyes rose to meet his, clearly noting the fear flickering in his eyes. "He - he shouldn't have run out in the road like that!"
Kiyota rose, his swollen eyes seemed to flash with unmistakable anger. "Are you blaming Jin-san for this?" he snarled suddenly, the corners of his lips curling with hatred. "How dare you blame him when it was your own stupidity that caused his death!"
Sendoh and Mitsui laid wary but firm hands on Kiyota's shoulders. "Let's go, Kiyota-san," said Sendoh. "It wasn't really that man's fault. It was that creature's. Let's go."
* * *
The wind gently slipped in through the open windows, causing the curtains to billow daintily. A figure sat by the windowsill, staring blankly out at the night, unaware of the wind cooling his feverish skin, unaware of the tears that constantly burned his eyes every few minutes, unaware of the dangers that lurked in the night. All his thoughts that ran through his head were cracked with grief.
A string of memories flooded in his tortured mind. He could almost see and hear the rhythmic thudding of a basketball being dribbled across a court. Then there was the satisfying swish of the ball swirling through the netting, and basketball trainers thumping on the floor. And the most heartbreaking part was a figure of another boy together with him, smiling; his eyes clearly screamed out a challenge, sweat glistening on his rippling muscles, his lean body quivering with exhaustion. Jin. Those were the times when he, Kiyota, and Jin played one-on-one.
More recent memories assaulted his memory. The basketball court faded in a blurry mist and the scene soared back to the accident. Jin was no longer running energetically down the court, but he lay sprawled on the pavement, silent and still. The blood encircling in a horrifying scarlet pool. So much blood. The scene wavered before Kiyota's eyes as tears stung his already smarting lids.
The sound of a door being opened jerked him back to the harsh reality he lived in. He whirled around and saw Yoshiko. "Kiyota-kun," she said quietly.
Kiyota stared at her, his eyes clouding over with hatred. "Witch," he said spitefully, putting as much emphasis as he could on the single word he uttered. "It's your fault we're in all this shit."
"Nani!" cried Yoshiko enraged. "How dare you accuse me for something I didn't do?"
"Your foolish mother caused all this, and it's partly your fault, too! Why did I ever follow you in?" He knew he was being unreasonable, but grief and rage and terror had woven themselves into his life, completely altering the person he once used to be. "The hell with fortune-telling!"
Just then Mitsui entered. He had overheard their argument. "Don't accuse Yoshiko of everything!" he yelled angrily at Kiyota. "It was our own fault that this thing is here. We brought all this upon ourselves when we wanted to try this whole fortune-telling thing! She tried to stop us but we wouldn't listen to her!"
"She's the cause of all this!" spat Kiyota. But he got to say no more, as at that point, Mitsui had lunged at him. A fight ensued between them. Mitsui did not know why he had just thrown himself at Kiyota like that. It wasn't because he was defending Yoshiko, but he later realized that he was so angry and frustrated at how things were turning out that it had affected his actions. Both boys pummeled each other furiously, each venting their frustrations, bitterness and grief on each other.
"Stop it!" cried Yoshiko shrilly. "Mitsui! Kiyota!"
The others had appeared at the doorway. Kogure, Maki, Sendoh and Fujima valiantly tried to separate the boys from each other. From the doorway, Rukawa watched with glassy eyes, and Ayako's gaze was also unfocused. At long last, they managed to split both of them up, before they ripped each other's throats out. Somewhere in the shadows, a creature, one with the dark watched, its fiery eyes mirrored cruel satisfaction and evil delight flickered at all the turmoil it was causing.
The forlorn group sat huddled together, gazing at each other for comfort, but found none. Each was too shaken-up and terrified to comfort the other. Fear had eaten its way into their frail circle, and it was eating its way slowly and with cruel relish into their lives, their thoughts and their sanity. Mitsui could feel the heavy, hopeless burden of despair bearing down upon his shoulders. There was not the faintest spark of hope in this dark tunnel of terror they were all crawling so helplessly in. As he closed his eyes and shuddered, he realized that he had given up hope long ago.
Tbc.