Chapter 33: Vast Majority
Darkness didn't fall.
It rose, from beneath the floor, from behind his spine, from inside the walls. Amuy blinked, but his eyes were already closed.
Was he breathing?
The air tasted like aluminum.
He stood barefoot in a vast supermarket, fluorescent lights flickering above, buzzing like flies. Every aisle had only one item: a white porcelain mask with no features. Each mask had a price tag that simply read:
"You."
A customer shuffled past with an overflowing cart of knees, none of them matching. They dripped something black and thick. The customer smiled.
But they had no mouth.
Amuy kept walking. Or thought he did. The floor was moving under him now, an escalator made of flesh, slowly dragging him backwards. He tried to step off, but every direction led back.
He stopped resisting. The moment he did, the escalator froze.
A faint piano began to play somewhere distant. Not notes, questions.
"Who am I?"
"Who am I?"
"Who am I?"
Each repetition slower, deeper.
Amuy stepped off into a hallway of doorways. None had handles. Each was marked with a symbol, an upside-down spine, a howling mouth, a spiral made of hands, a single floating tooth.
He chose the door with no symbol at all.
Inside: a flooded classroom, desks half-submerged in red ink. Children floated face-down. A man with an enormous keyhole for a face stood at the chalkboard, writing in circles.
"You were born too many times," the keyface man whispered. "Now look what's happened."
The ink began to rise.
Amuy didn't drown.
He woke in a desert made of paper. When he stepped, the ground crumpled.
Then something began chasing him, not a figure, just a sound:
"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up."
The words fell like hail, pelting his back.
He stumbled into a church.
But it had no ceiling.
Just an endless sky of eyes, blinking in unison. The altar held a mirror, cracked down the center.
He saw himself.
But the reflection was not Amuy. It was someone else. Taller, shadowed, but with the same eyes. The same wound.
Amuy reached toward it.
The reflection reached too.
Their fingers touched the glass.
And the reflection's expression shifted. To rage.
"Why did you forget me?" it whispered.
And then-
CRACK.
The reflection punched through the glass. Shards flew like birds, embedding in Amuy's skin. He didn't scream.
Only bled burning cigarettes.
The world fell sideways.
Now he stood beneath a gigantic spine, stretching into the clouds. Tied to it were hundreds of people, faceless and silent.
He recognized none.
But he felt all of them.
"None of this is real," he said.
"None of this ever happened."
A voice behind him whispered,
"Then why are you crying?"
He turned.
No one was there.
The night wasn't the calmest that has yet to come, but it was one beautiful view outside, the snow was poring onto the city like never before.
Raiden was in the house that he and Amuy were always sleeping together. He came back later that usual that day, he stayed at the organization more to talk with Yuma about a topic.
The door was open. He went in. No sound. 'Amuy is probably sleeping'. He went to the bathroom, opened the light and saw it. Three syringes. Used, empty. He rushed to Amuy's room. Locked. He started screaming Amuy's name over and over. No one answers. He breaks the door down. Room empty.
Panic.
Rushes out the house, in the middle of the street, the sky covering him with snow slowly, he looks left, right. No one was outside besides him.
There was one person that was always up to help out his comrades, and that was Fischer.
He started running on snowy street towards Fischer's house.
Running. Running. Running. Running. Running. Running. Running. Running. Running
Crying, running as a part of him was dying that night.
'Why are you doing this. Why don't you think about me.' spinning in his mind.
After a long way, he reaches Fischer's house. Breathing heavy, he knocks at the door.
Once calm.
"…"
Twice worried.
"…"
Trice angry. This time punching.
Fischer opens the door, confused and annoyed. Sees Raiden looking down at his feet, shaking.
"What happened?" Fischer asked worried.
"I...I don't know where Amuy left." holding his tears.
'He seems very concerned about this' Fischer thought.
"Come in, lets talk about it more."
"We don't have time. I want to find him now. He injected himself in the bathroom...The door at our house was opened and he was nowhere to be found."
'How could that happen? He seemed normal last time I saw him.'
"Alright, I will help you find him. I will contact some people to search."
"Thank you...thank you so much Fischer… You don't understand how much I appreciate this."
"For now, come inside, its freezing outside, you might catch a cold."
They sat on a couch. Raiden started telling Fischer that Amuy started acting weird for a while.
"He would leave the house at random hours, come back looking like a zombie. But he was always telling me when he leaves. This time, he didn't leave me a note or anything. I was and still am worried about him, but he would not talk much about it with me. I knew he had a problem but could never do anything about it."
'This guy really seems like a mess in his free time. Not to mention he is really good at covering his personal issues while having people around him.'
"While my people are searching for him, do you have any clue where he would be?"
"I really have no idea, he never told me his spots where he goes when he leaves the house...but I can't wait here any longer, I have to do something myself to find him. I can't lose him."
"Then lets go and search for him too. I can't let any of my mates to ruin themselves like that."
While on the search for Amuy, Fischer asks Raiden. "Do you know what drug he used?"
"In the bathroom I also found a belt and a spoon… which gives me the impression that he might have used heroin…"
'Three syringes with heroin…this isn't something that the body should withstand.'
'Three syringes with heroin…this isn't something that the body might withstand.'
"Have you tried checking his location?"
"It said that is out of reach…"
"That's strange… His phone was either destroyed or he might be somewhere that blocks any connections from outside. Hmm…"
The two of them went to ask around some people that Fischer thought might saw something, but no path that was found from them.
Though. They saw something. A phone with no marks of anything being nearby it in the snow. Just like it would have fallen from the sky.
Strangely enough, Fischer takes it.
"That's Amuy's phone!" Raiden said, relieved.
The phone got a notification:
"Battery: -37%. Please charge your device."
Fischer and Raiden started losing interest in finding Amuy.
"I think this city is too big for us to find him, I don't think we can, let's go back to my place and wait until we hear something from my comrades." Fischer suddenly switching his feelings about the situation.
"You might be right… it might take too much, and I'm kinda mentally tired now…" Raiden, just a bit tired.
One tear falls off under his mask.
"I can't believe that Amuy just ran away from me like this…None of this is real. None of this ever happened."
"Then why are you crying?"
Chapter 33: Do NOT Listen to IT.
You!
Why would you keep reading?
It's not like it will get you anywhere.
Is it gonna make you feel better?
I don't think so.
You could stop right now and nothing will happen to you, and the story will not continue.
Go sleep, lay in bed, stop anything you do right now, and do nothing.
I repeat.
DO. NOTHING.
Why are you still scrolling? I told you the story ends right here, you can rest now.
Raiden got home later that night.
He stayed longer than usual at the organization. "Intense training", Yuma had called it. It mostly involved cards and food, neither of which Raiden remembered enjoying.
He reached the door.
Locked.
"That's...weird."
Inside, the house was quiet. He went to the bathroom without thinking.
Three syringes. Used. A belt. A spoon.
Raiden didn't react at first. He just stood there, staring, in hope the image will turn into something else.
"...No."
He checked Amuy's room. Empty. The window was open. Cold air was flowing in.
Amuy left at night sometimes. That wasn't new.
What was new was the silence.
Raiden grabbed his jacket and didn't bother locking the door behind him.
He didn't remember the walk to Fischer's place, only the cold hitting his jacket.
He knocked once.
Then again.
Harder.
The door opened. Fischer stood there in a T-shirt, eyes half-open, irritated already…till he saw Raiden's face.
"What happened?"
Raiden tried to speak, but the words felt heavy.
"…Amuy…is gone."
That was enough.
Fischer stepped aside. "Come in."
"I don't want to sit." Raiden said immediately. "I don't want to wait. He used again. I found syringes."
Fischer's expression shifted. Calculated.
"How many?"
"Three."
Fischer exhaled. "Alright."
That calm almost broke Raiden.
"You're not scared?" he asked, too sharp.
"I am." Fischer said. "But panicking won't help him."
He grabbed his phone and started typing fast.
"I'll get some people looking. Quietly. Places he's been before."
Raiden nodded, but his hands were shaking.
"I tried calling him. Nothing. Location's dead."
"That means one of two things. Battery's gone, or he doesn't want to be found." Fischer said.
Raiden flinched at the second option.
"...There is a place...I think I saw him there...by accident..." said Raiden after a moment.
Fischer looked up. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier."
"I… just hope he is not there...its kinda disgusting in my opinion...full of sweaty people and annoying music...not my type."
Fischer looked at him for a second. Not suspicious at all.
"Is that where you think he is now?"
Raiden hesitated.
"I don't know, but if he is...he won't survive the night."
That settled it.
"Get ready, Raiden. We are raving tonight."