Tatsumi Mio's POV
"Why are you here, Tetsuo Naru? What do you want from me? Why do you keep coming back here?" I asked crossing my arms with my left eyebrow raised up. I raised it up because I figured I looked cool as I interrogate him, plus, I read it in the book I was reading, it sounded cool.
"W-well, you see." Tetsuo stuttered, scratching the back of his head as he let our a nervous smile.
"Go on, spit it out! I don't have all day!" I shouted as I began swaying from side to side, slowly losing my balance. Darn this heart condition! It's making it hard for me to stand! "Like, seriously, I don't have all day, I need to sleep with this heart condition of mine so, if you kindly say it now, I would appreciate it a lot."
"Oh, uhh, right!" Tetsuo let out a sigh as he got ready, taking a deep breath. "You see, the reason why I keep coming back here is because I need to keep an eye on you, I need to stop you from ending your life."
I stayed quiet, listening to his explanation, curiosity climbing up my spine. "Really? Okay, go on."
"How can I explain this, uhmm, you see, I tried commiting suicide, to which I failed and I met Death. Now Death told me that it is still early for me to end my life, something about my clock is still not done ticking, so he sent me back here on a condition, that is to watch over you."
"Watch over me? Why does Death want you to watch over me?"
"Well, maybe to prevent you from ending your life, maybe your clock is not done ticking as well. Anyway, the reason why Death told me to watch over you is because Death gave me an offer."
"Offer?"
"Yes, and that is if I am successful in keeping you alive then I will be given the chance to end my life and Death won't interfere, but if I fail and you die, then I will not die until my clock stops ticking."
I don't know what came over me, but after hearing Tetsuo's sentence, something in my heart began hurting, the voices started appearing once again.
"Oh? What do we have here? It turns out that your so called friend only wanted something from you. He doesn't visit you because he's worried about you, he doesn't come here because of you, he comes here because of himself. You're so dumb, believing that someone finally wanted to be your friend. No, he's only using you to get what he wants, they're only using you to get what they want. When will you learn that no one will ever love you?"
I felt weak all of a sudden, my legs began shaking, I felt tears coming up my eyes. "S-so, you only come here because you need to stop me from ending my life so you can end yours...?"
"Well, in a nutshell, yeah."
"You hear that? He'll leave you behind, you're not special to anyone. No one ever stays besides you, no one will stay."
"I-I see..." I muttered, a frown started forming on my face as my legs came caving in, making me sit on the side of my bed.
"H-hey? Tatsumi? Is everything okay?"
"Y-yeah. Everything's fine, I'm just... Tired. You should go home, it's getting pretty late." I muttered, climbing onto my bed as I stare outside, hiding the tears falling down my cheeks from Tetsuo.
"R-right, well, I'll come back tomorrow, okay? Goodnight." Tetsuo said his goodbye and he started walking out the door, closing it behind him.
Silence started filling up my room as I kept looking outside the window, the voices kept ringing in my head. This is the first time I heard the voices when I'm with Tetsuo, what's happening?
"Wake up Tatsumi, you're alone, and you'll always be alone! You'll never find people who will love you!"
"Who will love a girl like you anyway? With those nasty, hideous looking scars! No one will ever want to be friends with you!"
"You're a freak Tatsumi! A freak!"
"No wonder the kids at school pushed you down the stairs, you're a monster! You are a freak!"
"No! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! I'm not a freak! I'm not!!!" I formed knuckles with my hands and started banging my head with them, hoping to end the voices. "And you're wrong! Tetsuo is a good friend! He just... He's just going through things! He's not really... He's not really going to end his life!"
"But Tetsuo said so himself, he's only here because he needs to stop you from ending your life so he can end his."
"Doesn't that make you a killer? Tatsumi? Knowing that you're the reason why someone killed themselves?"
"How does that make you feel? Knowing that you get to live while another person took away their life because you didn't die?"
"Stop! Stop!!! Get away from me!!!"
"Silly Tatsumi. You know you can't make us stop by just simply hitting yourself."
"If you want us to stop, you know what it is that you must do."
I kept hitting my head with my knuckles, stopping when I heard something fall. I slowly turned my head towards the sound and there I saw a knife lying on the floor, it was the knife Tetsuo brought. I asked him to bring one because I was having trouble peeling oranges.
"You know what to do, Tatsumi. If you want to end us, end your life."
"I-I can't..."
"Why? Because of your feelings for Tetsuo? Because you don't want to live him behind?"
"Tatsumi, you heard what he said. He'll eventually leave you, all alone, stuck with us going around in your mind."
"I-If that's what Tetsuo wants then... I should help him!"
"Would you really like to be the reason why someone ended their life?"
"I..." I fell silent, not knowing what to say. I don't know why, but I started getting out of my bed and started walking towards the knife, picking it up. "No... Please... I don't want to do it..."
"Why not? Didn't you want to end your life before? All you ever wanted to do was to end your life! This is your chance, Tatsumi. Do it."
Tears kept on flowing down my cheeks, darkness started to surround me. I don't want to do it, I don't want to end my life anymore. I don't know why but ever since Tetsuo came into my life, the thought of suicide left me, my need for ending my life were gone and they were replaced with fear, the fear of leaving someone behind.
"Tatsumi! You know that he'll leave you eventually! So why are you hesitating?"
"What will he feel if I left!? What will he feel if I ended my life!?"
"What!? You think he'll care about you!? The guy only comes here making sure you don't end your life so he can end his! He doesn't care about you! All he cares about is himself! All he cares about is wanting to end his life!"
"No... Please... I don't want to do it..."
"Shh, it's okay. It'll all be okay. You'll get your peace and quiet when you end your life, you'll be able to get rid of us."
Tears started flowing even faster as I slowly lined up the knife with my throat, my hands shaking as darkness kept on surrounding me, dark clouds even thicker than before.
"I'm sorry... Tetsuo..."
End of Chapter