The night was darker than usual, with the quiet hum of the city below mingling with the distant echoes of sirens and the soft rustle of wind against the buildings. High above, atop the roof of an old, crumbling school building, one student stood alone. His name was Kaito.
a usual middle schooler, his brown hair wave through the cold air, his black eyes remained unwavering though despite that his body was shaking as it say so otherwise.
"Im sorry...i didn't save you" he mutters as he seem to be reminiscing.
The kid seems to be in a lot of pain...that i would usually say but...good or bad for me but im Kaito.
I am shaking here...but there's no going back now so i just have to do this...
So i stood at the edge, the cold night air stinging my skin, my heart pounding with a mix of anxiety and something far deeper, darker.
"Kaito! What the hell are you doing?!" a teacher of mine, Mr. Mizuno, appeared at the entrance of the rooftop, huffing and panting from having run up the stairs to catch me.
The teacher, the one who always went on about responsibility and making the right choices, always pushing us to think of the future... his words—his concern—made everything harder. Made the emptiness that had slowly taken over my life feel even more unbearable.
Suprisingly hearing his words, his voice is softer than usual...sounding very pleading it really makes it hard for me...
I mean what to expect one of his student is about to jump off a four story roof.
"I'm fine," I muttered, barely glancing over his shoulder. I didn't want to look at him, I didn't want to hear his desperate pleading.
Mr. Mizuno mind felt as though it was going to snap in half, caught between what he should do and the overwhelming weight of nothingness.
"You're not fine," Mr. Mizuno said, his voice cracking. "You think this will solve anything? It won't, Kaito. You don't want to do this, even so your struggling with everything right now just because of something that isn't completely your fault...it doesn't mean it will be forever like that. You can still find solace in someone else, your not gonna be miserable forever...so please don't jump..."
I let out a humorless chuckle. "You're right," I whispered. "It won't solve anything. But maybe... maybe it'll end everything. All of it...maybe then i might earn salvation, for backstabbing Aina" I clenched my fist as i trembled, as i looked down the cars looking as small as bugs. I felt wave of dizziness just from looking far down.
Even so...hearing his words my resolve is slowly crumbling...
Maybe he was right my life isn't completely over yet...i can still move, i don't want to die...but
The teacher moved forward cautiously. "You don't have to do this. I know things feel heavy, but you're not alone, alright? There's always—"
In that moment, a gust of wind rushed past, and I lost my balance. As so my foot slipped on the edge, and in an instant, gravity took hold.
I guess this really is my ending...
I didn't even have time to scream. The world blurred into streaks of light, the night sky spinning, my body twisted mid-air, and then—
Black.
The sound of rushing water. The feeling of weightlessness. The cold. The suffocating cold.
"Eloy"
A young girl's voice calls out a name but not his name...
Familiar, yet not.
As so I woke with a sharp gasp, the cold water rushing up my nose and filling my lungs. My hands flailed instinctively, sending splashes that did nothing to push me upward. Panicked, I kicked my legs harder, trying to break free from the suffocating grip of the lake. But no matter how I struggled, the water seemed to drag me deeper, pulling me into its cold embrace. I could feel the weight of exhaustion creeping in, my body screaming for air that wasn't there.
Suddenly, a force—whether fate, sheer luck, or something else entirely—pulled me free from the lake's grasp. I was coughing, sputtering, the taste of stagnant water filling my mouth as I clambered onto solid ground. My hands scraped against the rocky shore, the dirt and grime of the earth sticking to my skin as I pulled myself up.
Lying there, chest heaving, I took in the unfamiliar surroundings. The air smelled of damp earth and something... ancient. The sky above me was a pale, overcast gray, the trees in the distance reaching up like skeletal fingers. My head was spinning, my thoughts a blur.
Where am I?
I managed to sit up, brushing off the water as best I could. The sensation of the dirt on my hands was strange, foreign even, as if I hadn't touched the ground in years. The weight of my body was another shock—I felt so… weak. Frail. Like I hadn't eaten in days. My clothes were decent enough, but stained, torn in places, and soaked through with water. They didn't fit right. The fabric hung loosely on my bones, as if it had been sized for someone far stronger, someone I no longer resembled.
But that wasn't the most unsettling part.
I stood up shakily, my legs unsteady beneath me as I tried to regain my balance. My eyes, still blurry from the water, caught something in the reflection of the lake's surface. I leaned closer, squinting, almost afraid of what I might see. The face staring back at me looked like mine... yet not.
My once slim yet healthy frame was gone, replaced with a thin, emaciated version of myself. My face was sharper, gaunter, the skin stretched tighter over my bones. But what struck me most were my eyes. They were still the same color—dark, almost black—but something was wrong with them.
The pupils.
They weren't just the ordinary black slits I remembered. No. They looked like eyes themselves.
Small, perfectly formed pupils that shimmered in the reflection, seemingly alive. Each one almost seemed to stare back at me, deep and searching. I couldn't tear my gaze away. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, but nothing changed. The pupils stayed. Watching.
My heart raced. What the hell is going on?
As I reached up instinctively to touch my face, I felt the rough texture of my skin, the dryness of the air around me. The world felt unfamiliar, distant. Yet, there was something… almost familiar about my situation. The odd feeling gnawed at me, like a memory trying to claw its way to the surface, but I couldn't reach it.
I glanced around at the still lake, the dark expanse of water stretching endlessly before me. There was no sign of how I had gotten here—no footprints, no signs of anyone nearby. Just me, a foreign body, and a world that felt like it didn't belong to me.
What happened to me?
And why does my eyes... feel like they're not just mine anymore?
I took a deep breath, my frailty becoming all too apparent as I stumbled back, nearly falling into the water again. The ground felt unstable beneath my feet. The strange weight of my eyes made it hard to think, but I knew one thing for sure.
This wasn't the world I knew. And whatever was happening to me... wasn't just physical. It felt like something deep within me had changed. Something I hadn't yet begun to understand.
But I had to. Because something told me, this was just the beginning.
Sheesh...what a pain