Chapter 8: The Fruit of Human Flesh
There was no sound, no smell, no sense of temperature, no feeling in my limbs, and no sense of direction. Just a pure white space. Although I perceived it as white, it made me wonder if I even had vision, yet I couldn’t blink or move my eyes.
I couldn’t tell if I was alive or dead, but since I couldn’t even feel my own pulse, I likely was dead. So, does that mean I am now in the afterlife…?
I vaguely pondered that I had died, but various thoughts bubbled up inside me. What happened to A-chan? If I am indeed dead, how devastated would my mother be, left alone?
Thinking about such things made my chest, which I thought was absent, constricted painfully.
‘I want to live.’
Thinking about my mother, I felt a strong desire to live fiercely and passionately. If this wasn’t the afterlife but just a near-death experience, I strongly wished, ‘I want to live, I want to come back to life.’
Why did I have to face such misfortune? How could my mother and I end up like this, and then me dying and leaving her behind… Could it be because of ‘that thing’ that’s been haunting me…?
I won’t tolerate ‘that thing’ causing unhappiness not just for me, but also for A-chan and my mother!
As I felt anger towards being responsible for dragging others into unhappiness, the chest discomfort I initially felt intensified. Gradually, it turned into a choking sensation in my throat.
Struggling with limbs that shouldn’t even exist, the choking sensation in my throat soon turned into a feeling of breathlessness. I began to regain the sensation of my body’s limbs and the feeling of swaying. And the pure white vision I had moments ago turned into pitch blackness, with a sense of eyelids now present.
Taking a bold step, I dared to open my eyelids. Simultaneously, I realized that all senses—sound, smell, temperature, and touch—that were absent before, had returned. However, despite my eyelids being open, my vision remained blurry, and the surroundings were dimly lit. Moreover, I felt a tightness in my throat, and the breathlessness was even stronger than before.
At last, I noticed that something was tightening around my neck. Moreover, I couldn’t feel the ground under my feet. When I reached for my neck, I realized that it was being strangled and suspended by a cloth. I clenched the cloth with both hands, trying to lift my body to relieve the pressure on my neck. But my arms were not strong enough to lift my body; they could only alleviate the discomfort slightly.
‘I’ll die if this continues! I’ve finally come back to life!’
In my vision filled with such thoughts, I saw flickering balls of light. They flew around me anxiously, and finally, one flew into my body.
‘Don’t die! Live! Live! I’ll help you!’
A voice I didn’t recognize echoed in my head. Along with it, strength surged within me, and my body, which couldn’t move moments ago, gradually began to rise. Finally, the cloth around my neck loosened. I quickly removed it, but then exhaustion overcame me, and I let go.
My body fell with a thud, but since the height wasn’t significant and I felt grass beneath me, the pain from the fall wasn’t severe. However, I was too exhausted to move my body.
In my dim view, I could only see trees and branches swaying gently under the faint darkness, and the cloth that had been around my neck moments ago.
Wondering why I was in such a situation, I lost consciousness once again.
