"I can do this…," Akira told himself as he walked up and down at the back of the haunted house booth.
There was a broken mirror hanging there where he saw his round face smeared with fake blood and oily hair sticking out from under his rumpled vampire cape. The costume's cheap fangs made him sound like he had a large tongue every time he tried to talk.
'God, I look pathetic.'
It was Halloween! There was a lot of dancing shadows from the orange lanterns hanging in the air in the schoolyard. There were carved pumpkins everywhere, students who were wearing costume screamed and laughed, and the DJ's horror remixes filled the speakers.
Akira reached for the collar of his cape and, and well, he adjusted it for what should have been the hundredth time.
'Gosh, why did I wear this shit again?'
It was very tight that it was already starting to tear somewhere around the armpit.
"You've got this, mahn," he whispered. "Just walk up and get the words out. What's the worst that can happen?"
He spotted her across the crowd.
Sakura Hanamura was standing near the punch bowl, looking like a dark goddess come to earth. Her black lace dress? Damn, that thing was hugging every one of her curves in a way that made his mouth go dry… clinging to her body in all the right places.
She had those fake bloodstained wings that spread from her shoulders, and her red lipstick looked like fresh blood. She was laughing to whatever her friends were saying.
Oh well, this is it. What's the worst that can happen?.
Making his way through the crowd, Akira tried to avoid students dressed in witches and zombies costumes. His heart was beating loudly in his chest: pound, pound, pound.
"Sakura?"
She turned and her cold blue eyes landed on him. For a second or two, the whole world just paused.
"Yes?" she asked in a cool and distant tone.
The students that were nearby stopped talking, and Akira felt lot of eyes suddenly on him. Say it. Just say it!
"I-I've… I wanted to tell you something," he said it before he could think about it too much. "You're beautiful, and I... I really want you to be my girlfriend."
The music kinda got quiet at that exact moment. More people looked, and someone close by gasped.
Sakura's perfect eyebrows raised up in shock and then she burst into laughter. "You want me to be your 'girlfriend'?" she repeated, as if it was a joke, putting more emphasis on the word 'girlfriend'.
Akira nodded. The crowd was already forming a circle around them, trying to see what's going on, but he didn't move. "Yes, Sakura. I've been thinking of it for a while. I just want you to know."
Her friends were already pulling out their phones to capture the moment and what happened next.
Sakura stepped closer. Her expensive perfume filled his nostrils. Standing right in front of him, she was even more beautiful, and that made what came next so much worse.
"I didn't think you'd be delusional enough to even think about it, not to talk of asking me." Her voice was loud enough for those in the courtyard to hear. "What part of our conversations made you believe you have the right to ask me that question? Have we even talked before?"
"I... we talked in class last week…"
"You want me to be your girlfriend?" she cut him off, ignoring his weak answer. "Boy, please. Your confidence is... something, and I don't mean it in the 'wow' way but in the 'oh my God, does he not own a mirror?' way."
Everyone laughed and Akira felt his stomach twist.
"What makes you think I'd lower my standards and bring myself to the level of someone like you that can't even get his act together? You want me to be your girlfriend when you can't even manage yourself?"
Every of her word landed like a direct hit.
"It's such a pity that you mistook my niceness for a green flag," Sakura said, walking around him like a cat playing with a mouse. "I'd rather set myself on fire and roast marshmallows with the flames than settle for you."
Someone in the crowd made a whistling sound. More phones appeared, and all were pointed at him.
"So let me be completely clear," Sakura continued with an awful smile on her red lips. "'No' is not just 'no.' It's 'hell no, absolutely never, not even in your dreams, and especially not in mine.' If the day ever comes that I have emotional feelings for you, or any feeling at all, that's the day I want God or any supreme being out there to just end my existence."
The gasps and the laughter broke out. The phones kept flashing, and then someone started a slow, mocking clap that spread immediately.
Akira's vision blurred at first. He removed the fake fangs from his mouth and just threw them at the ground.
"Akira, wait up," he heard someone shout, but he was already running, making his way through the crowd, and almost tripping over a fake skeleton display. The laughter, and the horrible noise followed him as he ran.
"Did you see his face?"
"Oh my God, someone already posted it!"
"#CreepKing is trending!"
Akira pushed through students near the gates. "Get out of my way!" he shouted at two students.
His phone buzzed in his pocket… once, twice, then non-stop. As he ran, he pulled it out, tears and anger blurring his vision.
The video was everywhere. Thirty shares already. Fifty. One hundred.
Creep King strikes out!
Bruh imagine thinking you had a chance with the Student Council President, Sakura Hanamura
This is why mirrors exist lmaooo
Akira's hands was shaking as he uninstalled the app. With the anger and frustration in him, he threw his phone at the wall, and it pieced. He stopped for some time, breathing and trying to catch his breath.
"Why me?" he whispered.
His frustration and humiliation turned into pure anger. She'll pay. They'll all pay.
Akira started walking without thinking, his feet taking him to the only place he knows that would be empty. The old shrine in the woods at the back of the school… the one the urban legends warned about, where no one usually go to when it's dark.
The path was somehow bushy. The sounds from the party quickly died behind him, replaced by total silence.
He got to the old, almost falling apart gate, covered in moss, that marked the entrance of the shrine. Right there was a little wood house that was leaning to one side.
Akira fell against the gate, sobbing.
"Why?" he shouted as he looked to the sky. "Why does everything have to be so fucking unfair?"
He kicked at the dirt, needing to hit something. His foot hit something hard. He dropped to his knees and started digging, his hands getting scraped and bloody.
Finally, he saw a shiny something that was sticking up from the dirt. It was a dagger! It looked very old and brown and rusty. But it was still sharp, and it had some weird symbols all over it.
Akira dragged it out just as he heard a sound from the shadows. It sounded like a weak, pained groan.
He turned around, holding tight the dagger.
Something moved near the entrance of the shrine that didn't look like it was human.
A small creature like the size of a cat walked out. It has very black feathers that are shiny, with bent horns on its head. It had deep red eyes that was glowing, and as it moved, its torn wings were dragging on the ground behind it.
"What the f**ing fvck?" Akira breathed.
The creature's head turned to look at him, staring with those red eyes. It opened its mouth, showing teeths that looked like tiny needles.
Then it charged.