Chapter 2: Three Weeks Left
The school bell buzzed.Akura was focused, as always — scribbling notes, eyes sharp, soaking in everything like a sponge.Aki, meanwhile, was somewhere else entirely.
Num num num.He sat in the back of class, biting into a hunk of bread like it owed him money.Sssssip... BURP.
"Quit it, you ass!"The teacher snapped, disgusted.
"Sorry, Mr. Amisei..."Aki slumped back, already half-asleep, soda still in hand.
DING DING DING DING DING—The bell rang loud enough to wake the dead.
The twins left school, backpacks slung lazily, heading home through the dense forest path they always took.Normal day.Normal walk.Until it wasn't.
They bumped into a man.
Or... something like a man. Reeking like rot, eyes hollow.Something fell from his pocket.
Akura picked it up. "Sir, you dropped—"
Poof.Gone. Just like that. No sound. No movement. Just... gone.The birds stopped chirping.The breeze died.
"...Run."Akura's voice dropped an octave.
"Wha—" Aki turned, confused—until he saw it.
A man bolted from the shadows, skin cracked, eyes glowing yellow, teeth hanging with bugs, a smile way too wide to be human.Two sickles. One in each hand.And laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! I dropped something! Didn't your bitch mother teach you manners!?"
Akura stopped. The shadows cloaked his face. He clenched his fists.
Aki froze.
Akura whispered:
"What... did you say about my mother?"
The sickle man stalked closer, leaning in, breath foul like corpses.
"I said your B—"
CRACK.A punch.Akura's fist crushed the man's cheekbone sideways like wet plaster.
He staggered. But didn't fall.Instead, his eyes bulged out, pupils spinning, teeth snapping, fingers cracking backward.
Akura stood, breathing hard. Hair blowing in the wind.Aki stayed hidden behind a tree, terrified.
The man screeched — and lunged.Akura swung again.
SWOOSH. DOOSH.
Then silence.Akura's arm hit the dirt.Severed. Just like that.
Fear. Real fear.Akura's eyes widened — not in pain, but something worse.He jumped, barely dodging the next slash, planting his foot on the sickle man's head, and bolted.
He was wheezing, bleeding, staggering — but moving.
Aki ran. They reached home at the same time.
But it was too late.
Their home was painted in blood.
Mother's head on a stick — her body missing.Father's head jammed into a tree, like some sick, fruit-like ornament.
Then came the voice.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Bye-bye, mommy and DADDY! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Aki dropped to his knees. Tears burst from his eyes.
"No..."
Akura, pale and dying, leaned on the wall. His severed arm barely clotted.
"Aki... I need you to survive..."
Aki shook his head. "No. No, no I—"
"GO!!"
He didn't want to.But he ran.
The last piece of his family — left behind.
He ran into the woods, alone, tears streaming down his face.
Then—HEADSHOT.
A gunshot echoed through the trees.The screen fades to the moon, full and glowing.And behind it, the haunting sound of that sickle man's final scream:
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"