35. Scream

Wake up, Rei!

At the call, my eyes snapped open. And in front of me, crouched down to eye level, was none other than Rokudo Mukuro.

I flinched, but a pain shot up my side and I cringed, regretting the movement. I stayed still, waiting for the pain to slowly numb away.

"Ho?" he was amused, "You sensed me?" he asked, genuinely interested. This had never really happened before.

"Are you..." it was hard to speak, "Peeking into my mind?" I asked. There was no hostility in my tone. There was just plain curiosity.

"How did you guess?" he joked.

I tutted.

He chuckled his signature laugh. "Let's have a chat, Ninomiya Rei."

"Hah?" it came out of my mouth before I could think of drawing it back, "Why?" I groaned, not holding back the annoyance in my tone.

Mukuro simply laughed again. "I can tell," he explained, "I could tell from the first time I saw you--"

I shivered.

"You're like me." Mukuro smiles. A creepy, eerie grin that did not belong on his handsome features. It melted back down into a softer smile a second later, and he eyed me.

He stared at me like I was fascinating, and I could only weakly glare back in response.

Why is it that I did not feel fear as this man spoke to me? In fact, I felt just a bit calmed. I felt at ease. I felt...

"You and I are not the same," I chuckle back. "If you are the one that came back from the depths of hell--" My lips curled into a smirk. "I'm the one that returned from the depths of the Void."

That confused Mukuro.

"The Void?" he questions, his head tilting aside inquiringly. "And that is supposed to be...?"

I giggled. "Unlike you, I've never seen Dante's Inferno." I narrowed my eyes again, my laughter ceased. "So don't group me in with you, pineapple."

The man twitched in irritation. I smiled in delight. I could make a hobby of this. Pissing off Mukuro sounds dangerously fun.

But it seemed Mukuro did not like that idea. Not in the least. Mukuro extended a hand-- and put it on my head.

I eyed him curiously for a moment. Huh?

"Then," the adorably sweet smile was on his face again, and I felt a shiver down my spine.

And then I saw it. The kanji for One in his left eye.

Fuck-

"Would you like to see hell?"

-------

(POV: Third Person)

"They line up exactly with the list!" Tsuna shrieked.

Reborn had just handed him Fuuta's ranking list of the best fighters in Namimori Junior High, and the realization that the attacks followed this ranking was absolutely worrying.

Because Fuuta's ranking list meant Mafia and-- Tsuna'a breath stopped as he caught a certain name. The paper slipped out of his hands.

Reborn caught the paper, but turned to Tsuna, finding that action terribly weird.

"What is it, Tsuna?" he asked.

"Num-" Tsuna stuttered again, the mortified look on his face was hard to miss, "Number Sixteen--" he was trembling badly now, horrified.

Reborn turned to the list. It was far down the list, so he had neglected to check that part-- but sure enough, number sixteen on the list was-

Ninomiya Rei.

"What?" Reborn was slightly surprised too. He knew that Rei was skilled in combat-- mainly because of his reflexes and his ability to accommodate in one-sided spars against Hibari Kyouya, but that sickly kid was this high up in the ranks? Namimori Junior High wasn't exactly filled with shrimps and beansprouts, either.

"Tsuna," Reborn spoke up, "That aside, you should look at who's next." He handed the list back to his student, keeping his face down in contemplation.

"That aside, you say..." Tsuna felt a little offended. Was Rei so unimportant to the Hitman?

But Tsuna quickly realized what Reborn was implying. The next name in line-- Number Three-- was none other than Gokudera Hayato.

-------

(POV: Rei)

People were screaming in my ears.

Fire was burning around me. Magma gushed out of the ground, infernos swirled up high-- and I could almost smell burnt flesh.

Someone's getting killed. No, everyone's getting killed.

A knife gouged its way into her throat, and promptly comes out on the other end-- another man gets shot in the stomach twice. He crumples to the ground, contorting for a full minute in pure, mangled, deformity, before he just stops.

I clung to the earth-- my eyes wide in fear as gore occurred over and over again before me-- inexplicably close to me, in the details and bloodshed I did not want to see.

I felt bile build I at the back of my throat, and tears prickle at the back of my eyes. Another scream, and this one was a young girl.

I jumped. A girl was getting dragged into an alley. She kicked and she screamed and she cried and she begged--

My fists clenched as my eyes stuck itself on that scene.

I didn't even know if I was breathing.

The girl was pleading, but the Mafia men around her showed no mercy. A gun at her forehead, she was instantly gone from the face of the earth.

A young boy was screaming this time.

My throat hurt.

My throat hurt, because I was the one screaming this time.

-------

I curled up, sobbing. Sobbing. And Sobbing.

Get out of my head, get out of my head! I don't want to see this anymore! No more-- please. No more of this bloodshed, no more of this murder!

It's an illusion, I told myself, it's an illusion!

It being an illusion does not change the fact that it was scary.

My eyes were forced into an inescapable view of agony, pain, gore, murder, hatred, malice, bloodshed-- it was a portrait of hell.

There was Death.

Death.

Death?

"Wrong answer, girlie."

"NOOO!!" I screamed. No! No! Don't think, Rei, Don't think! Don't think of Drew! Don't think of dying! Don't think, Don't think don'tthinkdon'tthinkdon'tthink!!!

I cried, squeezing my ears shut with my hands as another scream erupted from the morbid background scenery. My eyes were clenched shut, but the screams and the splatters of blood felt closer and louder and more evident than ever.

Just let me go. Please, just let me go. Please. Please. Please. I'll do anything you want!

Just- release me from this illusion! Please... just...

Why do I have to go through this torture? Why me? Why always me? Why did you pick me, Void? I was fine with death! I'm fine with Death!

I never wanted to know why Drew died. I never wanted to know who Mera and Biru were! I never wanted to solve my own murder! I was fine being oblivious!

I never wanted a new life of pain and sufferings. I just wanted to be with Eve and Zen. I just wanted to be with--

"Be with Eve and Zen?" a voice in my head spoke to me.

"Be with Mera and Biru?"

Be with the ones that caused your fucking death because they were the ones your killers were fucking targeting?

You future self realized this, Rei. And he's the solid proof of your naivety. Hijau? Green? what, are you still trying to be part of that Clown Troupe?

They are the reason you fucking died, Drew.

Your life was a mess from the start. Your life was never a good one from the start. You're fated to this agonizing wave of suffering after suffering.

Oh god, why can't you just kill me already?

Or are you actually enjoying this? The sight of this weak, weak being breaking down and shattering to pieces? Is that so amusing to you?

Is this a trial? A test? Are you examining my worth? Are you cultivating me like a sprout, hoping I'd grow stronger with a little tug?

How many times are you gonna run me through this treadmill called Death and Life?

I'm honestly a little tired of all this dying business now.

-------

-------

A warm, warm hand touched my cheek.

Huh?

It lifted my chin and brought my eyes towards the owner of the hand.

Instantaneously, the burning massacre melted into the background. The noise was dulled, and my fear dissolved as my eyes met another pair of eyes.

My tears were brushed away by those gentle, gentle hands.

"It'll be alright." the voice was a girl's.

In the midst of this mayhem, she was a floating, misty, shape-- much like a ghost. Her eyes, though, shone a perfect harlequin green-- and her smile was small and sweet. Her bangs hung over her eyes, having lost the hairpins that used to hold them up.

She planted a kiss on the bridge of my nose, in between my eyes.

"Everything will be alright." she spoke to me again.

I know this voice.

She wrapped her arms around me, and a sense of warm enveloped me-- I felt safe. I felt secured. I felt at ease. I felt...

"Just leave the rest to me, Rei."

I felt protected.