The world was full of disgusting, ugly, painful things.

"I should just do it." Spoke the creature as it curled around my neck. The length of a snake, some eel like creature with a mouth full of sharp teeth and an eye that peered at me. I did not return its gaze. My eyes instead darted to the window on the opposite side of the room, only briefly.

"Jump, jump, jump!" It chanted in a sing-song voice. I did not flinch or acknowledge its presence. Nothing good would come of it… this I knew.

"Ms. Vaca, it is your turn to present." My teacher, sensei, called. The class erupted into predictable giggles. A few bold students chanting 'Baka' under their breath as I walked to the front of my class. I turned to them, the projector flaring to life as my slide appeared on the wall behind me.

'Japan and Suicide: A society that is dying to leave by Reyna Vaca.' There was a sharp gasp as my history project was revealed. "If I did it in front of the class, they'll never forget me!" The creature squealed. My own thoughts echoed back at me. The negative emotions flowed through the creature in waves, as it seemed to absorb these emotions to hold shape. The feeling of outrage poured off my fellow students as my sensei turned a shade of purple I had yet to get from him. A smile nearly broke out on my face as he began shouting the word 'Office' over and over.


"Mija, you cannot get kicked out of another school! Tuition, uniforms, applications. Do you think we're made out of money?" My mom was pacing our apartment. She had that wrinkle in the middle of her forehead that told me I really fucked up. Still, I was too numb for guilt. Her hands settled on her hips, slim midriff exposed by her cropped hoodie. The fact she dressed like some teenager, and still expected me to treat her seriously.

There was nowhere to look but the gold hoops that caught the light as she walked, almost hidden in the mane of voluminous curls around her head. Eye contact was definitely a no-go. Not when she was this pissed.

"I did the project on an aspect of Japanese culture…" I half-heartedly tried to defend myself. It wasn't a good look. The slide had been up for maybe thirty seconds before I got tossed from the classroom. From what I heard outside the office, three week suspension. Because of past offenses. The sight of manicured nails, long golden acrylics, snapping in my face brought me back to the present.

"Reyna, you know what you did. You did it on purpose, didn't you? So you could stay locked in your room even longer!" Her voice was loud now. Definitely beyond the point of no return. My hand rolled the hem of my navy blue skirt. There was no way I could meet her eyes. God, I wish I was fucking dead.

"Maybe if you let me stay, this wouldn't have happened. Now it seems like I have no choice." The words were becoming more clipped as I spoke. My mom's brown eyes narrowed as she glared at me. She had even stopped pacing between the used chairs we got from the nail salon she worked at.

"Why do you keep doing this? Do you want to live like this forever? These Japanese kids are smart, you are too. You're going to get left behind." She raised her voice at me in return, The words, 'left behind' filled me with a rage I couldn't subdue. The numbness was burned away by heat that pooled in my chest. My knuckles cracked as they curled into tight fists.

"Okay, you wanna talk about being left behind? It was you and Papi's idea to move out here, then he gave up and abandoned us! Actually, he left YOUR ass, I'm just an afterthought. AS USUAL!" I shouted back, standing abruptly from the couch to run into my room. I locked the door behind me, reaching for my disc man to drown out the sound of my mom pounding at the door. Another sickly looking creature seemed to materialize, this one looking like some grotesque hybrid between an old man and a mosquito.

Life was the worst thing that ever happened to me.


The bright lights of the arcade shined around me. The ugly print on the carpet faded on the ground from the once crowded business. From what I had heard, it used to be a place where all the teens in the area hung out. Rumor had it a girl killed herself in a bathroom in the 90s, and at best, it was a place dumb kids dared each other to sneak into at night. In the day it was just an ugly, sticky building devoid of any actual entertainment.

So what was I doing here… My mom had tried to ground me, but she had to work her shift at the nail salon, so what did it matter? I just wanted to be out of our miserable little apartment. Stupid me for thinking the world outside was less aggravating.

My foot gave the game machine a swift kick as it ate my coins, the game refusing to start. "Come on, you piece of shit!" I grunted, my hands grasping the box to try and give it a shake.

"Uhm, miss, you shouldn't-" A meek man's voice called behind me. I turned to scowl at this middle-aged man who was perspiring through his shirt, a shining bald spot atop his head.

"I wouldn't have to if your shitty machine didn't scam me out of my money! What kind of place are you operating around here, gramps?" I growled out, glaring down at the man as he deflated. Before I could get another word out, I saw it. A gross looking monkey thing, clinging to his back.

"My life sucks." It muttered mournfully as it clung to him.

"I'm sorry for that! Let me-" He began bowing, but I stopped him.

"Tch, forget it. I got better stuff to do." I sneered, a chill running up my spine as I tried to get away from that thing on his back. My limbs felt stiff as I made my way out of the arcade. A knot sat in the pit of my stomach, the sight of that monster. Normally, I could just walk off and pretend I didn't see anything, but this was different. The way it seemed to be absorbing more despair, more frustration. Like it was growing stronger somehow…

That was ridiculous, those things couldn't grow stronger. I had never seen one bigger than a dog. Perhaps this was some paranoia, growing to join the madness that plagued me.

What could I even say? Hey, everybody out of the building, I got a weird vibe? My curly hair whipped as I shook the thought, it wasn't my problem. Still, I couldn't let it go.

My feet froze on the pavement, I shot one last look at the arcade, and I could feel the pull. Like a plug removed from a drain and all the water rushed into the vacuum it created. Something was happening.

There was a scream, terrified, but definitely a man's. I didn't think, couldn't think. My feet moved, heart pounding in my chest as I raced back into the arcade. There on the ground, the top half of the employee I spoke to. My eyes darted around the dark room, the sounds from all the games battling for dominance in my senses. "Is that man dead? Oh shit, I've never seen a dead person before." Cooed a voice right above me, speaking my terrified thoughts out loud.

A wet droplet plopped onto my face and I looked up. It was that little monster, except bigger now and somehow more grotesque. "Run." It whispered, as I gaped in horror.

There was no scream, just silent agony as I stared up. Why couldn't I look away? Why did I freeze up? "Y-you-" The word barely made it out, my stomach rolled in my body and I felt bile rise to my throat. The man was dead, what the fuck could I do about that? Should I have said something? Is he dead because of me? My fingertips felt numb, like electricity was running through my arms.

The monster dropped from the ceiling and I leapt, crashing onto the ground as a searing pain bloomed in my shoulder. It was quickly forgotten as a few machines exploded when the creature crashed through them in a mindless hunt for me. I was running again, but I didn't remember getting to my feet. A screech erupted from behind me as I felt its large hand wrap itself around my forearm. There was no looking back to see fear itself. My feet kept moving, a sickening pop by my ear barely registered as I wrenched my arm out of its grip, the same arm I landed on. Pain turned to rage, the urge to run ebbed as my arm hung numbly at my side, not completely useless but in pain.

All the self-loathing, the fear, the anger. I wasn't going to let myself die like this. I wasn't going to let this thing kill me. It lunged for me again, and I ran between the gaps of the machines. The creature just smashed everything in its path, sparks flying as the screens were crushed and power cords were torn from the ceiling outlets.

"Get the fuck away from me!" My voice was shrill, terrified. No, I couldn't let myself be cowed by these things anymore. Running away wasn't an option anymore, neither was pretending those things weren't real. "I said, get the FUCK away!" I screeched, my fist flying into the squirming monster flesh. A bright spark flashed before my eyes and my arm suddenly felt as though all my muscles were torn in my arm.

The thing looked disintegrated, its voice warbling before it seemed to turn to ash. My arm hung limply at my side, useless and numb now. My whole body hurt, vision blurring as my chest heaved. I barely registered the sounds of screams, or the sirens. My senses darkened as my mind reeled, thoughts clustered and frantic. Heart still electric with the remnants of adrenaline. Those creatures were not just dangerous, something my instincts insisted on, they were deadly. I had never seen one kill before. What the fuck just happened?

No answer came as I fell unconscious.

No answer came when I woke up either.

The beeping of the machines had begun to get on my nerves. So did the cast they had on my arm. Muscles torn, bones broken into neat little sections, nerve damage, and as a nice little cherry on top, I somehow managed to get my shoulder dislocated. Refusing painkillers was a stupid move, but I didn't want to be doped up. Someone needed to speak to the doctors, after all. I couldn't understand much, all that medical jargon would have gone over my head in Spanish or English, but in Japanese? Forget about it. It was all too dense for me to understand. My mom was worse off, she could barely speak Japanese at all. Papi was always the polyglot, the one who translated for the family and seemed to just naturally good with people. Everyone always seemed to like him instantly…

If Papi was here, I wouldn't be so confused. My good fist clenched tightly at the thought of him. That no good runaway bastard. Probably charmed himself into the good life. Guilt clawed its way behind the anger. How the fuck was Amá supposed to pay for all this? We barely had enough to eat with her job at the salon.

The creak of the door startled me, I sat frozen in place without looking at the intruder. The doctors could already tell I was barely keeping up, and I wasn't ready to see my mom yet. In fact, I didn't want any visitors at all. Out of the corner of my eye, loomed a lanky and unfamiliar figure.

"Well, well, well, I thought you'd look a little tougher if I'm being honest." Came the jovial voice of a stranger, I slowly turned my head to see who had walked into my room. A tall, slender man stood at the door, a stalk of cotton white hair shooting straight up, a dark blindfold on his face and a purple uniform adorning his figure. He was clearly lost. What the fuck was even up with the blindfold?

"Scram, you geezer. You're in the wrong room." I snapped, heat lapping at my veins as I glared at the bum who blindly wandered into my room. He didn't look like a geezer beyond the white hair, still he was definitely older than me.

The blindfolded man smiled, or rather smirked, looking as though he were laughing at some joke where only he knew the punchline. "What a greeting, is that any way to show appreciation for a well-wisher? I heard you suffered quite an injury lately." His voice was light, with just enough condescension to keep me irritated. My top lip curled in disdain at the sound of him.

"You got the wrong person, Ray Charles, now go stumble your way out of here before I get security to tackle your blind ass." My comment earned a hearty laugh, making the heat in my body more intense. Pain began to radiate from my arm as my body tensed.

"At least let me introduce myself, brat." The man chuckled as he approached my bed. As pissed off as I was… I had to admit I was curious about this blind man who seemed to know where he was. "I'm Gojo Satoru, and you are Reyna Vaca. I came all the way here to talk to you about what happened in that arcade. Some destructive work, don't you think?"

My eyes fixed themselves on his blindfold, and he held my gaze as though he could see right through the dark fabric. So he knew my name, that didn't mean shit. No way he'd understand what I went through in that fucking shithole. No one would believe me anyway.

"You know what happened, it was an explosion, faulty wiring met a gas pipe. Shredded the sad sack that worked there, too." My voice was strained, the lie tasting like bile.

"They'll all think I'm crazy, and lock me away." Croaked a minute voice, the little monster that had been clinging to my pillow for the last few hours. Giving my voice to my troubled thoughts.

"He died because of me. There was so much blood." Its bulging eyes were trained on me, fly wings fluttering on its lumpy back. My gaze darted to the little thing, fetal looking and deformed, before looking back at Gojo. He loomed closer than before, and I twitched, the motion to swing my working fist at him was hastily aborted.

"Nasty little things, aren't they? I can see them too. They're called curses." He explained, expression serious when I opened my eyes again. His hand was held in the position that showed he had just flicked where the monster…curse, had just been. "Born from all sorts of negative emotions and thoughts."

"I don't know what you're talking about, you're seeing things. Is that why you cover your eyes? You hallucinate?" I felt clammy, my neck was warm as I tried to calm my heart. He made the thing disappear, he destroyed it!

"I'm not hallucinating, and neither are you, Reyna. Not only can you see them, but you can resonate with them, can't you?" His voice was different now, a small edge to it, like when a kid discovers they can burn ants with a microscope. Looking into his mask, his smile, I felt impossibly small.

"You're making shit up. Seeing those things, it isn't normal." The sound of my voice was soft, lost. For a brief second, I really did feel like a child, hoping that a grown up would finally give me the ability to understand something scary. Gojo's smile softened minutely.

"No one is normal, but you… I'd say you're plenty weird, kid." He loomed over me, not like a crazy stranger, but almost like a proud uncle. For a brief second, my mind tried to convince me I was safe. The emotional whiplash had me dizzy.

"And what are you then? You look plenty fucking weird to me, too." Malice, that was what I needed. Everyone left me alone if I was cruel enough.

"I'm the strongest." He smiled as he said it. The sheer confidence oozing from him. It was so strong, I thought it would overwhelm me. My own turmoil was mixing with the atmosphere like oil and water. He needed to leave, but something in me needed to know more. Maybe his insane ramblings would give me some answers, maybe I could finally be rid of this madness.

"Look, I-" I hesitated, this was all too much. This random guy, with his weird outfit and his weird blindfold, was talking to me about curses. My brain felt like it was going to break. "J-just, come back tomorrow, okay? I h-have questions." My good had scratched around the edge of my cast. Not being able to itch myself was going to drive me crazy.

The man, Gojo, seemed to agree with my request. He gave me a parting smile and left the room. My head turned to see the treats he'd left on the table next to my bed. My lip curled at the sight of it. I hate sweets.

Still reeling from that weird conversation, I hardly noticed the passage of time. When the door opened once more, there was hardly any time to see who it was before a body threw itself across me, knocking the wind from my lungs. "Amá, Amá, lla." *I wheezed as my mother sobbed and babbled in Spanish. Guilt wormed its way through me. The last thing I said to her this morning…it wasn't pleasant.

I was almost surprised to see how torn up she was about this.

"Míja, I'm so glad you're okay! If I lost you-" She dissolved into tearful wails, her makeup smeared and snot dripping down her nose. My good hand patted her hair awkwardly. This was worse than when Papi left.

"I'm okay, really, the doctors patched me all up. Please stop crying…" All I could do was beg lamely as she continued to sob. It would seem that I just had to wait her out. The way she wailed, shaking shoulder as she laid across my lap. It just made me too much about him…about him being gone. The writhing of my stomach, a sensation like eels twisting within me. Our emotions became one, as they sometimes did.

Her sorrow, fear, and anger. A pressure built in my throat, the burn of stomach acid. "Amá, c-can you talk now?" There it fucking was again, a voice too soft and small to be mine, yet it left my lips anyway. My mom lifted her head and dainty wiped her face. She smelled like the nail salon, chemicals and acrylics. It almost soothed the nausea.

"Lo siento, mí corazon." She mumbled, the old pet name striking me dead in the chest. She hadn't called me that…in a long time. "It's just you and I were fighting, and then you ran off-" My mother proceeded to narrate the sequence of events from her perspective, which somehow sounded more harrowing than a giant monster, no wait, curse. Before she could talk herself hoarse, I lifted my good hand.

"I- I got it. Sorry, má, I shoulda been home." My admission felt like a lie… If I was home…would it have been the same? Hot tears stung my eyes and I just blinked them away. Mom needed me to be strong, even if everything inside of me screamed about how wrong it was mom couldn't be strong for me.

Ah, there was the rage again. Hello old friend.

"Forget about that for now, Reyna. I'm just glad you're still here. I heard another man died in the explosion. You didn't-" Her eyes were terrified, that almost eternally youthful face, horrified by her own thoughts. She had no idea how close she was to the truth.

"No, no, I didn't see anything… I was knocking the change machine around for quarters when everything went boom." It was second nature to lie. I had been lying to her about this curse stuff my whole life.
"Gracias adios, you're too young. I never want you to lose your innocence, you're only fifteen, corazón. Stay young, mija, for me?" She was asking for more than even her words described. My mother had already lost me, I had to numb myself before I lost myself to her emotions completely.

"Sure, Amá. Just for you." My mom didn't even react to my sarcasm, her shoulders sagged in relief. Whatever it was that she wanted from me, it seemed like she got it.
A few hours passed as she slowly chatted about other things, trying to get her mind off the cast on my arm and the cost of all the medical intervention it took to save my arm from permanent damage. Eventually I convinced her to go home, that I'd be fine.

Lying in the sterile room of the hospital, did not feel fine. Every blink of my eyelids felt abrasive to my eyes. My limbs were trembling as I stared at the ceiling, as the thoughts crashed into me. Every second of the incident playing in my mind. The image of the arcade employee's torso appeared in the darkness of the room and mind. Slowly, I attempted to curl myself as tightly as possible. I had to numb myself to get any sleep. My eyes pressed closed once more and I thought of nothingness. Nothing mattered, not my life or the life of the man who spent his last moments getting yelled at by me. Life was chaos, and death came at any time.

Yesterday was not my day, it was his. My day would come. It was not today.