I've always wondered why life has always been hard.
When it is brought up, they cling to the angels and pray for fortune. But no angel could save anyone from the dark pit of the abyss, and that abyss—is the world.
But even if the world is as black as night, I still left them eight years ago. I hope they're okay—even though I know they aren't. Especially in the middle of a war.
They probably already forgot about me, and I hope they did. Life here wasn't as great as I thought it'd be, but it's far away from the war, and it is much more peaceful here than any other place.
Yeah. I will just live just the way I've always lived.
...
"There will be a windy evening this afternoon and you might encounter—"
The blurred sound of the television rang in my ear and caught my eye, "They're still at it with the winds..."
I touched the glass window of the shop, cold like a block of ice; even the television screen was beginning to freeze up.
"The winds again, huh?" My attention focused the other way as the voice from the television faded out.
They were women just beside the next building up ahead, "Yeah, I heard from my neighbor his relative's head was cut off when he was hiking—"
They talked with worry, they should be.
Winter was starting again, my favorite season. But not really; it's the season where people mostly get killed in this city, and because even on a holiday, I still have to work.
I walked through the quiet city—busy, but quiet. You could only hear the sound of crows up above the dark sky.
Anywhere you walk, you would just encounter tall buildings, one of those buildings was finally in front of me. I went in through the backdoor, yawning and squinting my eyes.
"Good aftie... 'vryone." No one answered. I had many coworkers—yet no one answered.
I scratched my head, "I forgot. Y'all were killed yesterday, huh...?" I walked up to one of the corpses in the room and brushed their faces to confirm, "I'll have to work on my own again... huh..."
With a cough, I didn't waste any time and organized each container and box, inspected and checked each one of them, listed notes, and so on. All the while, I ignored the disgusting odor of blood and rot with my handkerchief.
Within the darkness of the room, my phone was the only light and sound; it rang and vibrated.
"Hello...?" I answered the call with a sigh. It was a call from the master. "I'm guessing you're already there. Clear the bodies for me. And after, make sure to clean the labs on the third floor as well." His voice was fast but clear, then he hung up immediately.
"Man... What a hassle, not even offering a raise, huh?" I wiped my eyes and stretched my arms. Then the cleaning began.
Each one of them was covered in cloth and tied with tape; their bodies were nothing more than sticky goo with faces like melted candles. Then I carried them outside to the back, laid them down gently behind the truck, then said my goodbyes.
Thinking back... I could've been one of them. The important thing was I wasn't.
Anyways, back to work.
The clock inside the storage room was clicking; each tick made me sweat, and each tock made it harder to focus.
"And... there." My work was done after covering the last container filled with heads.
Still, I forced a smile and breathed heavily, "Then there's that thing."
Other than the back, I never really had a chance to sightsee inside except once.
The marble floor looked like it hadn't been cleaned for years, the chandeliers were flickering, and most of all—no people were present other than the receptionist.
I forced a smile and headed straight to the elevator. It was suffocating, reeked of metal, and was itchy. My eyes saw such a sight on the rusty walls, "Damn... I sleep eight hours a day but the dark circles still hasn't gone, huh?"
The elevator opened before I could think of anything. But when I stepped out, I really could not think of anything. The air was heavier to breathe in, there was no light at all, and it smelled rotten again.
"Didn't even provide me a flashlight..." The tie to my handkerchief became tighter as I wandered deeper until I eventually came across a closet filled with materials.
There were no lights, so I mopped blindly and hummed—which was the only sound in the halls, but that sound soon broke after a sloshing sound on the floor which made me fall. The wet sensations were everywhere.
"What the...!" I screamed quietly as liquid painted my arms.
Though that wasn't the only thing, my foot was held in the grip of something. That something was skin tightening, somewhat like a hand.
"Guh—!" I screamed, loudly this time. The grip that held my foot was a hand. There was that weird feeling once again, the feeling of disgust whenever I carried bodies, and the smell of blood.
I couldn't see what it was, though I knew what it was... "Yup, definitely a hand... huh...!" I whispered, slowly taking my foot away, but the more I moved, the more it tightened.
I waited to think of something, but it surprisingly did nothing, nothing more and nothing less.
Click!
The stick of the mop broke and was used to strike the hand or whatever it was in the dark, but the crunchy sound—like wood breaking—made me overthink whether that was really a hand or not.
Well, I wouldn't really need to worry 'bout it 'nymore since I'm never going back to that freaky place again...
I gasped for air after running back into the elevator cowardly, eyes closed the whole time, wondering in the poorly built elevator, and when I opened them to look at myself in the mirror—instead of hands caressing to fix my messy hair, the reflection showed something else entirely.
"Eh...?"
My arms, clothes, face, everything was filled with fresh and raw blood.
"Is this...?" My eyes widened before readying to go berserk and scream. I breathed heavily as my mouth opened but I couldn't say a thing; it wasn't a scream that came out, but vomit from my stomach.
"Blurgh!" The floor was a complete mess from what I threw up, and the walls were covered in blood.
Ding!
Everything was getting blurry but I laughed it off—hard. Soon my stomach started hurting, but that only made me laugh harder.
"Shh..." A mysterious voice called out as soon as the elevator opened, of which I was completely clueless.
My mind went blank at the moment and I asked myself what I was thinking—no, what I was doing.
The young gentleman right in front of me, who was known for wearing a cap so that one couldn't see his eyes, pointed calmly at my face, "So you made it out alive."
'So you made it out alive.' That phrase shook and froze me in place. Although I already knew this was coming...
"Ah... I see... You're here to finish me off, huh?" I grinned, or was more like holding back the unusual feeling of continuous laughter.