Darkness first.
Then breath — shallow, ragged. The world takes shape around him, too vivid to be real. The house. The bottle. The silence.
The floorboards gleam like someone polished them hours ago. No blood, no broken glass. The smell of whiskey is gone, replaced by something gentle — lavender soap. The curtains sway, though there is no wind.
"Toji, breakfast," his mother calls from the kitchen.
Her voice is soft, almost musical. Too warm. Too wrong.
He looks down at his hands. They're small. Childlike. The scars are gone. His legs dangle from the chair. His chest tightens.
No. Not again.
A figure moves in the corner — Naoya. But he's smiling, wearing a clean white shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows like a loving father. "Morning, son," he says, tone smooth as honey. His eyes flicker. Kindness, then contempt, then void. The air bends around him.
Toji doesn't move.
Shoko walks in, her hair tied neatly, her face radiant. She hums something faint — a tune he never heard but somehow remembers from before he was old enough to remember anything.
"Toji," she says, setting down a plate of rice. "Eat, sweetheart."
He stares. Her hands are clean. No scars. No trembling.
The room feels like a photograph. Still. Fragile.
Then, a faint red light leaks from under the table. He looks down — the floorboards are bleeding, slow, steady drops seeping upward, not downward.
Naoya laughs behind him. Not loud, but deep — as if it's coming from the walls, from his chest, from the memory itself.
"See, boy? You can't change it. You can't even wake up from it."
Toji stands, knocking the chair over. The sound echoes too long, bouncing around the perfect house. He turns to run — but the hallway stretches endlessly, lined with mirrors.
Every reflection shows a different him — the child, the killer, the man sitting in Nevermore's dorm room. All screaming silently.
Then Shoko's voice again, trembling now:
"Toji… you promised me, didn't you?"
He turns. She's there, blood pouring from her throat again, smiling through it. Her eyes kind, but pleading.
"Please," she whispers. "Kill me, my son."
The world collapses inward like a heartbeat.
---
Soft morning light filters through the curtains.
Enid blinks awake, eyes still heavy, the faint memory of warmth on her cheek — the blanket he'd placed on her. She turns her head. Toji sits slouched on the sofa, one arm hanging loosely, the other pressed against his chest. His breathing is sharp, uneven. Sweat glistens at his temple.
At first, she thinks he's cold. Then she hears it — a low, pained murmur escaping his lips.
"No… stop… please, Mom…"
Her chest tightens. She slides quietly out of bed, bare feet padding across the floor. The air feels heavy, like even the room is holding its breath.
She kneels beside him. His jaw is clenched. His hands tremble faintly. His body twitches like he's trapped somewhere he can't escape.
"Toji," she whispers. No answer.
She reaches out, hesitates — then gently places her hand on his shoulder. His skin is warm, his muscles tense. "Toji, hey, wake up…"
He jolts. His hand snaps up, catching her wrist before she can react — grip strong, eyes wide and unfocused, still caught between nightmare and waking.
Enid freezes but doesn't pull away. "It's me," she says softly. "It's just me."
For a heartbeat, silence. Then his focus returns, breath ragged. His grip loosens, trembling as it falls away. He blinks at her — confusion, shame, exhaustion all mixing behind those dark eyes.
"You were dreaming," she says, her voice barely above a whisper.
Toji exhales, long and slow, head falling back against the sofa. "Yeah," he mutters. "Guess I was."
Enid studies him, the faint glimmer of sweat, the haunted look still lingering in his gaze. "It looked like a bad one."
He gives a short, humorless laugh. "They're all bad."
She sits on the floor beside the sofa, knees tucked in, close enough that their shoulders almost touch. "You want to talk about it?"
Toji looks at her — really looks. The sincerity in her eyes, no pity, no fear. Just quiet concern. He shakes his head slightly. "No. You wouldn't want to hear it."
"Maybe," she says, "but maybe you need to say it."
He doesn't answer. His eyes drift toward the ceiling — that same ceiling he'd questioned the night before — and for the first time, his face softens, just a little.
"Maybe later," he says.
After a minute or two Toji sits up slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. The air still hangs heavy, but his gaze flickers toward Enid — bright-eyed, messy-haired, still half wrapped in the blanket she dragged off the bed.
He exhales through his nose, a ghost of a smirk forming. "You know," he says quietly, "you wake me up like that again, I might start thinking you enjoy touching me."
Enid blinks, cheeks instantly warming. "I was just— you were having a nightmare," she stammers, crossing her arms. "Someone had to wake you up."
Toji leans forward, elbows on his knees. "Mm," he hums, eyes flicking up at her. "Could've yelled from across the room. But no, you got close. Real close."
Enid glares half-heartedly, aware of the small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "You're impossible," she mutters.
"Maybe," he says, shrugging lightly. "But you didn't pull away."
That makes her pause. She opens her mouth to argue, but stops. Instead, she sighs, rolling her eyes with a faint grin. "You're insufferable, you know that?"
"Yet here you are," Toji replies, voice low, almost teasingly warm. "Sitting next to me before breakfast."
"Because you looked like you were dying in your sleep!" she snaps back, laughing despite herself.
He chuckles quietly — that rare sound, low and fleeting. "Guess I owe you for saving my life then."
"Yeah, you do," Enid says, straightening up a bit, seizing the chance to turn the tables. "Maybe start by being nice for a whole day."
Toji raises a brow. "You're setting impossible standards already."
"Then consider it a challenge."
For a moment, they just look at each other — her grin bright, his smirk returning, the weight of the nightmare slowly fading into the morning light.
---
It's about time to tell Toji story but before we can do that we have to deal with bianca and the poe cup also coming so stay tuned