Ashes and Agony

Vision

The eerie darkness of that night kept everyone in their bedrooms. Yagyuu, who was left alone after his roommate when missing, spent the night in Marui and Fuji's room. Neither of the boys could sleep as what happened during the day left them too worried and afraid to relax.

The vast expanse of jet black surrounded the whole area, and not even one star could be seen, like it was a sign to them that they were marooned and trapped in this dark realm. Tezuka and Atobe lay awake in their beds, reminiscing Taki's disappearance and Echizen's accident. The marks on Echizen's ankle were of someone's hand, but it couldn't be as he was alone in the bathhouse at that time.

Everything just couldn't be explained with science.

After speculating for what felt like minutes, Tezuka finally started to feel the drowsiness kicking in to his senses. He was exceptionally tuckered out after a long and stressful day, as he started drifting off to sleep, he heard someone calling his name.

"Tezuka." The voice echoed, dragging his consciousness from the brink of shutting down. He forced his eyelids open and recognized it was Atobe's voice, calling out to him in the dark, from the door of their room.

What is Atobe doing outside? Tezuka thought while pushing himself out of bed and striding towards the door to check what was Atobe up to.

Suddenly, he felt someone grabbing his wrist tightly, the force pulling him back. He turned and was shocked to see Atobe sitting on his bed, grabbing Tezuka's wrist, the alarm evident in his deep blue eyes in the midst of this pitch black surrounding.

"No, don't go." Atobe said, his voice quivering: "I heard that too."

The thing was actually mimicking Atobe's voice to lure Tezuka out. And if he really did fall into its trap, no one could predict what could happen. Fear drained colour away from Tezuka's face as the both of them stared at each other, trying to calm down. It was utterly quiet outside, and whoever or whatever was calling for Tezuka just now was gone.

"Get some sleep." Atobe said after making sure there were no more threats.

Tezuka crawled back under the covers and closed his eyes, finally falling asleep.

Suddenly, he was back at home. He looked around in bewilderment, not able to figure out what was going on. The last minute he was in his room with Atobe and now he was back in his own room. He was sitting on his bed, and he could recognize the bed sheets were of a very different but familiar style. The current bed sheet he was using was plain blue without any pattern, and the one he was looking at had all sorts of shapes on it. It was so very familiar, like it was from a long time ago...

In a flash, the memory rushed back into his mind and he cringed. This bedsheet was the exact same from when he was thirteen years old, the one he used to cover himself with the very night the little boy in that portrait came to live. He started hyperventilating while he could feel his heart pounding rapidly against his chest. All the fear he went through that night seemed to come back to him all of a sudden, and he clenched his jaw, alert to any impending disaster.

He heard his mother calling for him outside the door, her voice weak and distraught, like she was exerting all her energy to force the faintest sound out. He bolted out of the room and saw his mother on the floor, laying in a pool of blood. The absolute horror he felt when he saw his mother dying paralyzed him, and as he stood there helplessly he saw his father and grandfather too, their limbs bent in horrifically unnatural angles, their heads tilted, their faces grotesquely purple.

His legs became flaccid as he knelt down, cold sweat running all over his body. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to cry for help, but when he opened his mouth nothing came out. The strong, disgusting odour of blood nauseated him and he fought back the urge to throw up. Someone walked up to him and he didn't even have the strength to look up.