Again.
I hit him again.
My knuckles meet his face.
Crack.
His face cracks open.
Blood sprays uncontrollably.
Hot.
All across my fingers.
Again.
I hit him again.
Crack.
His nose flattens under my fist.
Again.
Crack.
Again.
Again
"Why won't he stop smiling?"
I keep asking myself.
Blood full in his teeth.
His glasses gone.
Shattered somewhere in the dark.
His face is now a mess.
Pulp.
Red.
Just wrong.
But he's still laughing.
Not normal laughter.
Not human.
Maniacal.
Wet.
Choking.
Gurgling through the blood flooding his mouth.
"Ahaha...hahaha...HAHAHA..."
"Shut up. "
"Shut UP!"
"GET OFF HIM!"
"Whose voice is that? "
"GET OFF HIM!"
Someone's hands grab my shoulders, yanking me backwards.
But I swing back and my elbow connects with his ribs.
"REN, STOP!"
"Shiin?"
"YOU'RE GONNA KILL HIM!"
Finally I blink and for half a second.
I see Shiin's face.
Panicking.
Desperate.
Pulling at me to let go.
"You're really gonna kill him..."
And then he speaks.
The broken, bleeding thing beneath me.
The one that won't stop grinning.
"You know..."
His wet, bubbling voice.
"...she kept calling out your name."
What?
"While she was choking on her own blood..."
"No..."
"...hahaha, you should've seen it, Ren...."
"No...no no..."
"...it was glorious..."
I snap.
"Move."
Shiin flies backward.
Did I push him?
Or did he let go?
It doesn't matter.
I'm on him again.
My both hands around his throat.
Squeezing like my life depended on it.
His throat flexes under my palms.
Soft.
Fragile.
I can feel his pulse hammering against my thumbs.
But I squeeze harder.
His eyes begin to bulge. Bloodshot. Wide.
But he's still smiling.
Even as his face turns purple.
"Still. Fucking. SMILING."
"Hhhk...ahaha...hhhk..."
He's still laughing through it.
Choking and laughing at the same time.
How?
How are you—
My grip tightens again.
Nails dig into his skin.
I feel something shift.
Something pop.
His windpipe's bending.
Stop smiling.
Stop laughing.
STOP—
"STOP BREATHING!"
"POLICE! HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!"
"What?"
I hear the sirens.
"When did..."
The flashlights.
The blinding white light.
The sound of boots pounding pavement.
"I SAID HANDS UP! NOW!"
"No."
"No, I wasn't..."
"This wasn't..."
Hands grab me.
Multiple.
Rip me off him.
My fingers leave red marks on his throat.
I'm airborne for a second.
Then—
"SLAM."
My back hits the asphalt, hard.
My vision whites out as my head bounces off the ground.
It's cold.
Raining wet.
What's this metallic taste?
Blood?
Mine? Or His?
I can't tell anymore.
I feel the weight on my spine.
Someone's knee digging into my ribs.
My arms wrenched behind me.
"You have the right to remain silent—"
"No. No. No. "
I was set up.
The thought cuts through the chaos in my head like a sharp blade.
"He wanted this."
"He WANTED me to snap."
"He wanted them to catch me..."
I turn my head, my cheeks scraping the pavement.
Across the alley.
Another officer. Another body pinned down.
"Shiin."
Face-first in the ground. Arms twisted back. Eyes wide.
Looking at me.
Like he doesn't know me anymore.
"I'm sorry, Shiin."
"I'm so sorry."
Did I say that out loud?
I can't tell anymore.
My voice sounds underwater.
Distant.
"Anything you say can and will be used against you..."
The metal clicks around my wrists.
Handcuffs.
Tight.
Too tight.
Its cutting into my skin.
And through it all—
He's still laughing.
The broken thing in the pool of his own blood.
Still.
Fucking.
LAUGHING.
Even with his throat crushed.
Even with his face destroyed.
Even with cops everywhere.
"Ahahaha...haha...three months, Ryūhara."
"...that's all it took..."
Three months?
"Three months to break you..."
Their hands lift me.
But my legs don't work anymore and I collapse back.
An officer catches me.
And he drags me along.
Everything's spinning.
"Who did you kill?"
"Who was calling my name?"
"Who did I fail?"
I close my eyes.
And all I see is blood.
And his smile.
That fucking smile.