When I came to it was already morning, I looked at the clock and realised it was way too late.
I headed downstairs saying "I'm so late, bye mom, bye dad."
Closing the door behind me and running to school.
When I saw the school gate, there were a lot of police cars at the school.
When I saw Sato, I asked why the police were there.
He said that someone had apparently attempted to touch someone from another school without permission.
He also mentioned that it was someone from this school because there was a piece from the school uniform on the crime scene.
"I never expected someone from our school would ever do that." I muttered.
Nothing really happened at school today and I just went home like always.
But when I woke up the next day, everything had changed, my parents said how could you do that and started yelling that they never expected this from me.
I started saying that I didn't know what they were talking about.
Then they shoved a newspaper into my face as I read the title.
My heart sank.
A schoolboy from Hoshuko academy inappropriately touched a girl.
Yuki Aoba, 16 years old, inappropriately touched a girl from Higaisha academy.
School girl Rinko Kogeki 15 was inappropriately touched by Yuki Aoba at the train station, for now we don't have information about the case but when we know mo—
I couldn't read anymore, I mean, I didn't, I didn't do anything.
I don't even know that girl.
I said I don't know anything against them but they yelled back.
I exited the house doubting myself.
On the way to school I thought, they must be wrong, I haven't done anything.
I don't know anything.
When suddenly I heard a police signal behind me, the next thing I knew, police officers had my face to the ground.
I got placed in the back of the police vehicle.
I didn't know what I could do, I was taken to the station but since they already had camera evidence that I was guilty, I couldn't do anything.
Two officers still chose to interrogate me, one was fat and one was skinny and muscular, polar opposites in physique, they both wore a white shirt with a blue vest.
They started asking questions,
"Where were you on Monday evening of the twenty fifth of November?" they shouted fiercely.
"I don't remember, after I came home from school I laid in my bed and I don't remember anything after that, my parents should be able to tell you." I muttered quietly.
"We already spoke to your parents and they said that after you went upstairs, you left to meet a friend." They immediately answered.
"That's impossible, I didn't meet a friend Monday."
"There is camera footage of you leaving your house and going to the train station, the description also perfectly matches you. 'Just admit it.'" They angrily shouted.
"We will put you in a holding cell after which you will face a trial."
When I got in the holding cell, I didn't know what to do, I knew I didn't do anything.
When night came, I woke up, I looked around and felt like the walls were closing in on me, they kept coming closer and closer and I felt myself suffocating from it, it felt like my lungs were being crushed, then everything suddenly went back to normal.
But I still felt like a heavy weight was on my lungs.
I focussed on every sound, the people banging on metal bars, the radio in the police station.
I grabbed my head thinking I would go insane, after exhausting myself with thinking I finally fell asleep and woke up in the morning.
I had two more days in this cell before my trial, I tried to think about what to say,
"Maybe I'll say that I fainted and don't know anything, no they'll never believe me. Maybe i'll—"
"Someone wants to talk to you" The skinny officer from last night yelled.
When I arrived at the bureau again, it was my girlfriend and friends from school.
My girlfriend still looked as beautiful as always, but this time wearing a bleak dress and a bleak expression, Sato also looked disappointed, he still had his school uniform on and his hair slicked back like always.
Karin also had a flowery dress on but her expression was the same as Sato.
I tried speaking, "I really didn't—"
Sato interrupted me,
"You know Yuki, I never expected this from you.
You have a beautiful and nice girlfriend.
But still you choose to touch another girl."
"I really didn't, this is a mistake—"
"Save the excuses Yuki, I knew there was something off about you, I always knew" Karin shouted.
"But I didn't do anything." I muttered.
But then I heard my girlfriend with sadness say,
"I trusted you Yuki, I loved you because you were kind, I really loved you, I wanted to always be with you but, you apparently didn't want me. You even chose to become a criminal."
"I really hate you now Yuki!"
I felt my legs fail, I fell to the ground, tears streaming down my face while I kept saying it,
"I'm innocent, I haven't done anything."
Everyone left in disgust and I was taken back to the cell.
I started questioning myself,
"Did I leave the house? Did I actually do it? Why don't I remember anything?"
I tried to sleep on the hard mattress in the cell but it didn't work, I felt everything, I felt the humidity of the room, the springs in the bed.
I felt like I was losing my mind.
I suddenly heard a song.
It was sung in a soft, childlike voice.
"Little one, little one,
Why do you cry?
Threads of red follow you,
No matter how you try…"
I turned my head, searching for the source.
"Footsteps in the hallway,
Shadows on the wall…
When the truth is whispered,
Will you even hear the call?"
My pulse spiked.
I looked again, harder this time—
but the voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.
"Close your eyes, darling,
Sleep in the dark—
When the clock stops ticking,
I'll take your heart."
And then I saw it.
A childlike version of Yui sat in the corner of my cell, legs tucked in, humming as she stared at me.
"La-la, la-la…"
Let the world fade…
La-la, la-la…
You were the one betrayed."
Her voice shifted,
from innocent to something deeper, twisted, wrong.
A tone no human throat could ever produce.
When the song ended, her expression went blank.
As if someone had ripped the soul out of her body.
Her small form began to crack, pieces breaking off like dried clay.
Before I could even breathe, she crumbled silently into dust.
I froze.
I couldn't process what I had just seen.
"Was it a hallucination?"