Episode 33
“It’s a promise.”
“…I know.”
In the end, I had no choice but to take a step back to get him off me. After agreeing to a choker instead of a collar, I was finally able to break free from his torment. I was so exhausted.
Hah… Alright. I’d rather just wear a necklace than a dog leash or getting my neck bitten.
“By the way… Are you alone?”
“Huh? Oh, that’s…”
Come to think of it, this wasn’t the time to be doing this, was it? I was so preoccupied with the main zombie and him that I had momentarily forgotten about her.
“Follow me for now. The situation isn’t good.”
“What happened?”
“What happened? Some things, of course..”
More importantly, how do we catch that thing? Doing it by the book would take too much time. With it possibly transitioning to Phase 2 at any moment, we didn’t have the luxury of taking our time. So, how do we…
As I was racking my brain, his shadow caught my eye. Was that the only way…?
“Can you handle your abilities properly now?”
“I’ve got a good idea of how to use them.”
“Then… can you copy that thing?”
“That thing?”
I hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“Remember the last monster we met at school last time? The one who gave you this ability.”
“Ah… Yes.”
“That guy trapped us in the shadows, right? Can you do that?”
No, it wasn’t a matter of whether he could do it or not; he had to do it.
I firmly grabbed his arm and looked into his eyes, speaking with force.
“If you can’t do that, we’ll all die. You have to do it.”
My unusually strong insistence seemed to fluster him, and he faltered a little before nodding his head, saying he understood.
“I’ll give it a try.”
“Think of wrapping the creature in shadows and trapping it there with determination…”
“But who am I supposed to do that to?”
“…That thing.”
I pointed at the creature, watching his reaction.
To be honest, I wasn’t confident even as I spoke. The ability was originally effective because its target was a human. It showed them terrible memories and made them fall into ruin on their own. However, now the target was a zombie. A horrifying memory for a zombie? It was questionable whether it would be effective, and it was putting a heavy burden on him, but there was no choice. If we didn’t do something like that, there would be no way to stop that thing.
“I’m sorry. I know it will be a strain on your body, but there’s no other way right now…”
Even I thought it was too much to ask, so I couldn’t look at his face. I was afraid of how he’d react, and continued as if I were making excuses.
“If we leave it like that, it will soon transition to the next… If that happens, no one can stop it. I never thought it would progress this quickly…”
I mumbled, trailing off, and sighed inwardly. If only I had the ability, it would have been better. Asking someone else to do something so demanding was always hard. I’d rather I be the one struggling instead. As I rambled on with excuses in case he refused, his voice came from above me.
“I understand.”
“Will you be okay?”
“If it needs to be done, then it must be done.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing, noona? There’s no reason to feel sorry.”
If I had somehow eliminated that creature before the situation got this bad, we wouldn’t have to do this. If I had been more alert and acted wisely, she wouldn’t have left alone, and maybe the three of us wouldn’t have been separated from the beginning. I felt guilty because it seemed like this situation was all my fault.
“If you leave it like that, it’ll be…I’m going to move on. If that happens, no one can stop it. I didn’t think it would go this fast either….”
“…”
“So, I just need to trap it in the shadows?”
“Yes. Then it will slowly die inside.”
To be precise, his ability wasn’t about controlling shadows but manipulating darkness. He just used shadows instead of darkness to avoid straining his body. Darkness was composed of negative elements, and being trapped inside for a long time would lead to death due to their influence.
I couldn’t use it fully until the later stages, but by then, his mind would be so broken that he would become numb to the side effects and he would have no hesitation using darkness directly instead of shadows. However, I wouldn’t let it reach that point this time. I planned to ensure he used only shadows as much as possible and support him from the side so he wouldn’t collapse.
After all, shadows contained darkness within them. Therefore, trapping something in shadows could have a similar effect to trapping it in darkness, albeit to a lesser extent.
“I’ll try.”
Slowly, I raised my head and looked at him. However, his eyes were on the creature. After staring at him for a moment, I also turned my head towards it. There were more broken fragments under its feet than before. Between the fragments, I could see flesh wriggling, and I involuntarily furrowed my brows. It would have been better if they were all one color… Some were tinged with red, others with peach, and occasionally they turned purple or a sickly green. Every time I saw such things, goosebumps rose and shivers ran down my spine.
Meanwhile, as I was having these thoughts, the shadows began to gather in one place. It wasn’t long before they climbed up the main zombie’s leg. The sight was as unsettling as the flesh-chunk zombies and made me squint in disgust. From the side, I heard a painful groan being suppressed. I quickly turned my body to see him bending over, clutching his head.
“Are you okay?! Does it hurt a lot?”
“Ugh… Cough…!”
He gasped and panted without reacting as if he couldn’t hear my words. I carefully reached my hand, groping at the air at a loss for what to do, to him. At that moment, he roughly grabbed my hand and jerked his head up, staring at me with a cold gaze. Suffocated by the chilling, fierce gaze, I was unable to look away.
“Oh. It’s you, noona.”
“…Are you coming to your senses?”
Before I knew it, he was looking at me with a relaxed gaze, as if nothing had happened. I was taken aback by the sudden change in his demeanor and could only stammer, but I soon calmed my startled heart and spoke to him with a trembling voice. However, what came back was an unexpected action.
“What…? What are you doing…!”
“Noona. Are you going to leave me behind again?”
With a smile, he approached me and wrapped his hand around my neck, returning to an expressionless face.
“I really don’t know where you’re going to pop up or leave next. You suddenly appear and then leave as you please. It’s always like that.”
“Hey, let… Let go of this…!”
“Can’t you just stay by my side?”
I kept calling him crazy, but it seemed he had really lost it. He was even strangling me for some reason. I never imagined that using his powers all at once would have such severe side effects. The more I struggled to free myself from his grasp, the more he seemed to be genuinely trying to kill me.
“Why do you keep dying? Huh? Why do you die? Do you hate me that much?”
“Ugh…!”
“If you want to die so badly, why not die by my hand instead? Isn’t it better to die by my hand than by those zombies?”
No, no! I don’t want to die yet!
I shook my head to express my disapproval, but he seemed unwilling to listen. As I felt my breath being cut off and my vision blurring, I struggled with all my remaining strength.
“Huh? Why are you crying? Are you scared? It’s okay. I’ll follow you after you die. I won’t leave you alone, noona. So there’s no need to be scared. Let’s start over from the beginning again.”
“…!”
He gently wiped away the tears that had formed at the corners of my eyes. Nevertheless, my vision remained blurry from the tears. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t breathe, and my consciousness began to sink. Tears continued to pour out. Finally, as I reached my limit, my hand, which had been holding on to his wrist, fell limply. Then, the pain gradually faded, and I felt suddenly better as my lungs filled with cool air.
“Haa! haa…. haa….”
As I desperately gasped for the cool air, inhaling and exhaling, and pulled my consciousness back from the brink of unconsciousness, I looked at the situation. At some point, he had released the hand that was choking me, and I was sitting on the ground, gasping like crazy. Even though his hand was gone, I could still feel the pressure of his hands wrapped around my neck, so I carefully touched my neck to confirm that I was okay once again.
“…I guess nothing would change even if I ended it like this.”
“….”
His rambling words didn’t register in my mind. I was just relieved that I hadn’t died and trembled with a sense of betrayal, wondering how he could do such a thing to me.
“So, let’s do it this way.”
He leaned down to meet my gaze and then took my hand.
“If we do it like this, you’ll never forget me, right?”
“…!”
As he said that, he brought my hand to his neck and made me strangle him. Startled, I tried to pull my hand away, but it was no use. He placed his hand over mine and slowly applied pressure, and I could feel his pulse racing against my palm. The more force he applied, the more vividly I felt it, and the sensation was terribly chilling.
“It’s unfair for me to be the only one to suffer, right? So let’s be fair.”
“S, stop…. Cough, stop!”
I tried to squeeze out my voice, but it was hard to continue speaking because I coughed at every word.
“If I die by your hand, you’ll never forget me, right?”
There’s a reason this novel is called ‘mental health caretaker’ because this mf is craaaazy
