The Haunted

Part 3. The Lunatic – 605 words

Yuka flinches slightly at the mention of her name and she straightens, letting Narumi get a good look at her. There is a whisper of a smile on her lips, but her eyes betray her even as a ghost. Yuka's eyes hold the same expression it did on that dreaded night. He could imagine her ghostly body set ablaze by the flames that had claimed her life.

"Narumi, what is it?" Misaki asks but he is deaf to him.

Narumi rises to his feet, knocking aside the hand Misaki offers. Yuka approaches him too.

No one else can see me.

"I know."

"Know what?" Misaki reaches for his shoulder. "Narumi—"

But Narumi is no longer with him. He feels threatened. He is gripped by fear. In his mind, he is alone with Yuka. She is standing in front of him, far longer than she ever did before when he was awake. She is approaching him, talking to him. She is trying to trap him again. As the apparition approaches, Narumi suddenly lunges forward and strangles her, desperate to save himself from a danger he has yet to fathom. He squeezes hard then starts laughing when he feels his prey thrash about wildly against him.

Then a choked, male voice utters his name and his hold momentarily slackens. The shape before him transfigures and settles. Misaki is on the floor, clutching his neck and heaving to get air back into his lungs.

Narumi recoils in absolute terror as he stares at his friend's shaking form. He looks at his hands, realizing he has disgraced himself once more. Somewhere in the room, someone is still laughing and the mad joy it incites in him makes him weep. The look in his eyes is filled with agony. Narumi wonders, not for the first time, if half his world would always exist in dreams.

Misaki eventually stands up and pushes him against the wall. He tries, desperately, to shout sense back into him but he can only stare back with empty eyes. He slides to the ground and starts crying and cackling, amused by his own madness and lost in hysteria.

"Narumi!" Misaki is yelling now. "Stop it. Narumi!"

He catches a glimpse of the shattered glass on the floor. In his mind, the glass resembles the broken ceramic vase that Yuka had so prized. The same white vase that had scarred her knees as she had begged him to stay. He begins shaking. The laughter has died in his chest. He becomes a sobbing heap.

"What have I done?"

"It's all right, Narumi," Misaki says, completely misunderstanding the cause of his misery. "I'm all right."

Narumi shakes his head. "What have I done?"

There is little more that Misaki could do. He leaves the broken man so that he himself could regain his composure. He turns his attention to the shards littering the floor. He is a shaken mess as well, seized with worry and fear. He sees the bloodstained box lying near the glass. Misaki carefully picks it up and wonders if the time to give this to Narumi is now.

"That box…"

Misaki glances over his shoulder and nearly dies of fright. Narumi is no longer alone. He is still sitting against the wall with a manic expression, but right behind him stands Yuka. She is caressing Narumi's cheek, but her gaze goes over his shoulder, as she begins to stare possessively at the box.

There are secrets we never mean to tell,

until we are forced to reveal them.

There are sins we never want to confess,

until we are doomed to repeat them.