It was the second week of school…
What took hold of Rei's attention, was someone prominent…
There stood a girl right above the school roof railings… more likely she was in perfect balance without a sense of anxiety in her face, a face without even a tinge of discomfort and unease grimaced back at him.
"Oii, Rei! Hurry up or we'll miss the next class"
"Uhhh, yeah!"
Glancing over towards his classmate-Ash, Rei respond, but by the time he returned his sight over the rooftop once more, she instantly disappeared..
Scurrying after his schoolmates, he tried to ask them the thing that has been weighing on his mind very recently…
"Ash, can you sense or rather see something strange going on?"
"What is this guy saying? Pretty much everything is of the ordinary, you hit your head or something? You've been asking ever since we first interacted with each other"
"figures"
As always the answer that he was expecting has been always turned down, and rather made him ponder and be in an internal conflict within his own mind.
Rei ever since the day he mysteriously woke up in the in a place he was rather not and also familiar with, it was the city's local park, but Rei find it bothering on why he had fallen asleep in such a place which he was rather still be in foreign with, actually he was still fresh in this city, so it was really strange indeed.
And what's more baffling was.. he had pretty much no memory of the incident that occurred the night before.
A nauseating discomfort overwhelmed as he mulled over it, but realizing it was the day of their very orientation, Rei shrugged off the discomfort that he was feeling and pretty much leave the contemplation towards his future self.
But very much ever since he perceived something different.
People, people, that he had conceived so much everyday walking on the streets, that's been going on their very own business were somehow different.
"Ei, Rei look! Its Emilia! Looks like were going to be in the same class"
"Ahhh, yeah"
Ash elbowed Rei, as he pointed out to a girl,
A girl with a delicate features, which gives off beauty and a mature aura, a girl in which a guy like Rei has no hopes of reaching.
"Damn, Its kinda frustrating but, I want to talk to her"
"uhh, yeah" Rei responded despondently
"Oiii, what's up with that reaction? I know that she's way out of our league but can you at least act impress? I know that you've been eyeing her for quite some time now"
Noticing Rei's dejected and lifeless form of response, Ash censured him in a lax manner, and glued his eyes back to the girl before them.
They may be looking at the same picture of the frame of a girl before them, but there was a large discrepancy between the two of them.
Rei ever since the enigmatic occurrence of him getting memory loss from the night before and waking up in a place in which he was still not that familiar with, discovered something peculiar within this city and gradually to himself.
There was an urban legend going on and on in this city for this past year.
A legend which tells of a living gluttony lurking within this city's shadows devouring those who had ill and inhumanely intents and release them from pain and suffering.
They say that this pop urban legend, manifested ever since an online occult forum started circulating it in the internet, and because of it's growing popularity online, gluttony itself manifested due to the Tulpa-effect.
But while such rumors started growing online, everyone still finds it speculating, they say that it was the cause was a certain online forum, but after several researches of some inquisitive people, they spotted no trace of such website, but recent serial killing inhibits such inquisitiveness.
The grossly mutilation and beyond recognizable corpses with a few missing organs,
The traces of bite marks…
This was the actuality that the ever growing pop legend has manifested and in it itself turned into a reality.
"Or that's what I heard from the rumors what do you think?"
"Are you a retard? Of course those tales are not true" Ash responded quickly after sipping on his cup
"figures"
Rei and Ash, after classes decided to stop by a certain coffee café on their way home, and taking this chance Rei decided to ask about the ongoing rumor that's been going on in this city in which he just heard of recently, but was instantly rebutted by Ash.
"As if such grotesque entity manifest just because of a mere rumors, I find you as a gullible type, you know?"
"Ehhh, why?"
Ash lightly scratched his head, and pointed a finger to Rei.
"Listen, believing on a simple rumors just because its popular is all nonsense, it's just like a scammer telling someone that a cheap jar is a very ancient jar and can cause a million"
"Well, that analogy is kind of similar, but what do you say about the recent incidents though?"
"Ahh, its that, people who are foolish enough to believe that the living glutoon or whatever, tried to mask themselves and take its place, and move in accordingly as what the rumors say, to prove and spread believers, or its just a random psycho on a killing spree"
"I kinda get your point now"
"Is that so, but what shoul...."
Rei ignoring Ash's continuous rapid fire of utterance in proposition to Rei's perspective of this city, turned his head towards to the TV wall above the counter upon hearing something that had grabbed his attention.
'Next on the news, another mutilated corpse of what said to be a woman, was just found this morning in an alleyway in the 23rd ward, missing what seems to be few of her organs, apparently a resident near that alley was complaining about the foul odor that he has been smelling lately, and upon investigating they found a corpse that was said to be now one week old, police are still investiga…'
"That's terrible"
Rei glanced at Ash upon hearing an unexpected reaction from his friend that was suppose-to-be going on about the false rumors of the urban legend, but he was still a human after all, proving that he still have empathy.
"Well then, shall we go? I lost my appetite"
"mmm"
Grabbing his bag, Ash called out to the downcasted Rei, marking their leave, nothing came out of their mouths along their way, until they fare their 'see you tomorrow' and parted ways.
In every second, someone and somebody will die somewhere in this world, someone will grieve over that certain someone, and someone might never even know them, but its still sad, humans do have their empathetic feeling, and that's what's making us humans after all.
And Rei thought of himself as a fool having such philosophical thoughts right now, but there still the fact that those train of thoughts is happening within this city.
"what if that urban legend has something to do with my partial memory loss, then what could have happened during that time lapse, which my memory has been wipe out?"
Just then, capturing his attention on the frame of the environment of flocking people was a person of overflowing with exquisiteness, a girl in which ever since he have laid his eyes on her….
"Sorry to keep you waiting"
huh? A boy?
"Your late"
"Sorry I was being held up by my circle"
For Rei's three week of stay within his city, his heart was captured a throb, by a certain someone,
A girl who had accompanied and guided his lost self in the college campus while finding the entrance exam site, and he was certain that this was certainly fate making it as a love at first sight.
He had picked quite an interest to that girl, as to why he had picked up various things concerning that girl, well he was not a stalker though, those various things in which he had picked up along the way was of limited range, in which he had gathered every time they bump within each other's sights.
He had ascertain that she was a gentle girl, who was very hardworking, helping those who are in need, in other words in Rei's perspective she was pretty much a kind hearted person, but…
Reality really does favor in mercilessly crushing one's delusions.
"haha"
Dusk leaving, darkness came looming within the enveloping the placid environment, the colors in which he once shown attraction to was now an unsightly sight, his perception was no longer the same, and mostly displeasing to the eyes of the beholder, despite the diverse beauty of a flame-like palette dancing, twinkling, moving…
"hahaha"
Rei was drowning in a melancholic monochrome, inadvertently tittering, uncontrollable emotions came overflowing like a dam, tears was now streaming down within his cheek, there's nothing he can do but cry like a madman.
A world of black and white once again came swallowing him, but as if this was no longer enough, he felt like being bitten and grinded all over by an unnecessary emotion.