(Note: This is not a good chapter, in my opinion.)

Chapter 13: Dying Night (Solis)

Once Kosei left my house, I looked at my shadow, which had started to spread like a stain, forcing everything to blend into nothing.

'The color black doesn't technically exist. It's actually a very, very dark red. But, it still means death.'

I looked around the nothingness and felt like I like floating. The last of the floor had been eaten away, leaving me in an inky abyss. I was all alone. Everything felt weightless, but I could vaguely feel some sort of weight or pressure on me, but I couldn't tell what it was.

"So, here we are again." The voice spoke, but there was no way to pinpoint its source. Especially since it would've been considered my id.

"It's a shame that you let that bug go. I was looking forward to chopping his head off and leaving him here in this world. So, why did you let him leave?"

I was silent for a moment before responding, "Because Kosei was right about my brother and friend. I had known that they had cared for me, but I had ignored them. That's why Kosei saw them as ghosts. He was seeing them as if he was me. And there's no doubt that he experienced my jealousy."

Everything went silent before the voice returned.

"You saw the damage you inflicted on his mind. You enjoyed torturing him. Don't even try to deny it."

"...Admittedly, you're not wrong. But even I know when to stop such disturbing thoughts. I've taken a sibling love that I didn't know exist and twisted it into something that shouldn't even exist."

"And you took your jealousy out on your animals. I was hoping for Kosei to take a peek in one of the homes."

"He knew better than to damage his psyche further than I had already done."

For a moment, everything was completely quiet, before I heard something. A faint rhythmic beeping. Muffled voices. I had to strain my ears in order to properly hear them.

"She's in a very fragile state of mind. She barely has any strength left to resist its cursed temptation."

"Indeed. And who do we blame for not reporting it?"

Was that Dr. Shrunk and Luna? It sounded like the axolotl was rather upset.

"A Dream Severity of 5… I don't even know if resetting her is possible at this stage. Losing control in general is horrible. Although that might explain the recently flawed copies."

Copies? What were they talking about?

"Kosei, however, has a severity of 2, which is odd. However, this mean that his treatment wouldn't be as risky. But Solis…"

Suddenly, everything became harder to do. I already had the inability to move, but now I losing my capability to even breathe properly. I could hear a ringing in my ears. No, not ringing. It was a single, constant tone. One I've heard before only once in some movie Umbra made me watch. It happened when one's heart stopped. What was the word? Flatline?

As I was on the verge of giving to the ever increasing weight, I could barely hear the sound of footsteps and the sensation of someone grabbing my hand.

"Please… Please don't leave me, sis. As an older sibling, I was supposed to protect and yet I couldn't even do that."

"I have failed you as well, Solis. As your best friend, I didn't realize that you had grown so attached to Umbra to the point it became twisted. I should've talked to you about this, but we were both afraid of your reaction."

Torii and Umbra were worried about my reaction?

"Remember what the three of us promised? What we agreed about the concept of love?" Umbra asked.

The concept..

I felt an oddly familiar warmth and rhythmic beating of a heart. Slowly, the weight was lightening and I spoke weakly, my voice hoarse from either screaming or lack of use.

"Love can be both innocent and guilty, regardless of its type. We promised to never let ourselves be blinded by it. And yet, we broke that promise in our own ways."

I slowly opened my eyes to see my brother and best friend, both smiling weakly yet showing relief that I didn't leave them permanently.

Even so, I felt guilt wash over me when I saw Mel and Kenshin across the room, looking over their mayor, who was currently asleep. He was here because of me and the problem that had spread out beyond our control. And I tortured -willingly or not- a nice person, someone who wanted to help. And he was paying for it.

I wanted to cry, but I couldn't because I didn't have the ability.

My dark nightmare was starting to disappear, but did I cast one on the three visitors?