"I just couldn't resist."
"Only sacred things deserve to be messed with."
It all ended with a dead kid near the train tracks.
Six years later, the story repeats itself and two long-forgotten friends might find out that when death tries to play match...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I don't want to be here, I repeat to myself, looking at Sage's profile as she drags me behind her.
Except the other option seems like a bad idea.
Just imagining me walking covered in vase and freezing to death in my house has my skin crawling. My mother wouldn't care for one bit, she never does. My father on the other hand... every excuse is good enough for him to hit me and tell me endlessly how much of a disappointment I am.
I just don't want to deal with him tonight. In fact, I would rather freeze to death and sleep in the quarry than confront him in such a state.
But then again, I'm going to find myself alone in a house with Sage, which seems like a bad idea. I swear that even numbed by the frigid water with my balls all shrivelled up, when she mentioned that her dad wasn't there, for a second I wasn't so cold anymore.
We finally arrive at her house and her hands tremble as she digs in her pocket for her keys, dripping mud onto the white porch. She unlocks the door but then looks me up and down with a frown.
We can't go inside like this. Our clothes are too drenched and muddy; if we don't remove them first, the centenary hardwood floors are going to suffer.
"Huh... We need to leave our – our clothes outside..." she tells me, teeth chattering so much they might break.
Her lips are blue, and I bet mine are, too. The idea of removing my clothes outside in the wind seems like the worst thing in the world, but I oblige, removing my drenched hoodie that falls with a squelch on the porch. My shoes soon follow, then my socks.
I can't help but stare as Sage peels the layers of drench clothes off her body. Her raincoat goes first, then her hoodie, then her sweater...
"Huh, you have something on your neck," I tell her.
"What?" she asks, wincing as she moves her hair around to get a better view.
It's black and squishy looking.
"Sage... I think it's a leech."
"Eww! Get that thing off me!" she cries out, jumping on the spot like it would help.
I grab it and it comes off rather easily, which means it's full of blood. It palpates in my hand as I drop it on the porch and I wince, disgusted.
"Taehyung," she calls, and I look back at her, eyes enlarged in revulsion as she looks at a point on my arm.
I look down and see a whole lot of them glued onto my naked skin, black, plump, and juicy looking. We glare at each other in sudden panic as I peel off the leeches off my arms and she removes the rest of her clothes frantically.
"Oh my God! My back is full of them! Take them off!" she yells, throwing her t-shirt on the ground to reveal the naked skin of her shoulders, covered in leeches.
