Chapter 149.

Who was it that I saw? It was indistinct and blurry as several figures overlapped at once. Adele? Val? Anna? No, was it Maria? It also felt like I could see my fifth ex standing there. I couldn’t comprehend what I’d seen at all. Their figures all overlapped perfectly in one place.

I shook my head to try to snap out of it, but it was futile, they never disappeared. Though that was not to say there was no change at all. This time, the scene was different, they all held up a gun pointed in the direction of the balcony. A conflict suddenly broke out between me on the balcony and the depiction of the overlapped ghastly apparitions. This time, the apparition of myself was shot by them.

The more scenes I saw, the greater my confusion grew. Eventually, I was left with a terrible migraine that only grew progressively worse as time went on. The echoes of countless gunshots perpetually overlapped which only worsened my condition.

With each shot fired, the amplitude of those overlapping sounds violently crescendoed, unceasingly to the point I felt my head would explode.

“GAHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“GAHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“GAHHHHHHHHHHH!”

My scream only added to the endless echoes.

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS! I’LL SERIOUSLY DIE IF THIS GOES ON!

I was overwhelmed by the pain and couldn’t bear it any longer. The pain was that of a brain being split down the middle torn in two opposing directions.

I let out another loud hysterical cry when I reached my limit, similar to before, it made things worse as it mixed in amidst all the noise. I couldn’t hold onto the gun properly and as a result of the splitting headache, I resentfully tossed it at the apparition on the balcony in rage. The gun, similar to what happened to me earlier, phased directly through his body.

Death was a very tempting seductress amidst the chaotic world spinning in my head, her allure was irresistibly enticing if it meant this otherworldly pain in my head would end. Anything was a better option than the wretched pain reeling in waves across my body that inched me ever closer to the brink of insanity.

My sight turned back toward the gun I’d just tossed away. I immediately regretted that I’d thrown it instead of immediately shooting myself. I stumbled my way over to the balcony and collapsed to the ground disoriented. I clawed at the ground desperately with my hands and dragged my body forward.

When I reached the gun, I picked it up and pressed it firmly against the side of my head. I grabbed onto the balcony railing with my free hand and pulled myself up to my feet. What came into view next was the scenery beyond the edge of the balcony. My breathing increased proportionally to my nervousness. My heart pounded violently against my chest. The world was lopsided, distorted, and twisted.

I took in a long breath without exhaling and held it in. I prepared to pull the trigger that would end this outrageous pain. It was right when I thought to pull the trigger that the sound of gunshots came to an abrupt end. With the sudden disappearance of the noise, the pain subsided as I stood there frozen in place when I realized what I’d nearly done.

“Hah… Hah… Hah…” I gasped for air as I desperately calmed myself down.

I’m crazy.

I really... almost pulled the trigger just now. When I finally cooled my head, just when I prepared to lower the gun and thought the whole ordeal was over, I heard the whisper of the devil behind me.

“Darling, I’m back... Did you... miss me?”

One arm wrapped around my waist from behind, the other held onto my hand with the gun. She prevented me from moving the gun away from my head. As for who it was, by the voice and form of address alone, I knew it was Adele. Her tone was enough to assure me it wasn’t the innocent version of her either.

“Y-y-you… it’s impossible. You should-”

“Be in the hospital?”

With traumatized eyes, I nodded my head in dead silence when I noticed an incongruity with respect to the situation I’d found myself in. The feeling from behind... it didn’t feel like Adele’s body, instead, it felt like my fifth ex’s. It wasn’t the only thing I found out of place. The scent, I knew the smell well, it was my third ex’s scent. It wasn’t only the scent that threw me off. The taste in my mouth, it was bitter like a poisonous drug that reminded me of Maria.

I didn’t turn around to look. I was too shocked to do so. I was lost in all the conflicting sensory signals being fed to my brain.

“Who... are you?”

“What do you mean, Darling? Can’t you recognize me, Honey? My precious Dio?”

“Get away from me!”

“I can’t do that. Darling, you’ll find freedom if you die you know. Even if you die, you’ll still live. By dying once, you’ll come to accept the truth. You’ll finally face reality. Just die once for me. Pretty please?”

“You’re insane! Death is death. Once I die it’s really over. Everything is all in my head. All in my head. All in my head! World lines? That’s just the nonsensical ramblings of a madman! I’m just a normal human, not some immortal freak of nature who won’t die if shot! I’m not an experimental lab rat! I AM HUMAN! A NORMAL HUMAN! A human… a human...”

“Darling, come. Let us die together. Let’s be together forever.”

“Let go of me! What are you doing?”

“Just helping you.”

She bent my finger and placed it on the trigger.

“Stop! What are you doing?”

I’d lost all control over my body. It was like I was possessed. I was just willingly following along with her actions.

“Get out of my head! You’re just a phantom! You aren’t real!”

“I’m not real, am I?”

“You’re not!”

She moved her head over my shoulder. What I saw was a head of black hair. When her face came into view, it was a completely pitch black ball with no eyes or nose. Only a mouth with a large grin. I only saw endless darkness inside her mouth... no, its mouth. Whatever it was. It was like a bottomless abyss.

“Who are you?”

“It’s really me, Darling. It makes me sad when you can’t recognize the woman you’ve dated all these years. We’ve been together for so long already, yet you just aren’t aware of it. Or at least, you just won’t accept it. When you are complete though, I’m sure you’ll accept me like I accept everything about you. Together we will become an existence that surpasses all. Just pull the-”

Bang!

My eyes rolled back from the pin point pain that spread through my body like thunder through the air. My eyes opened wider than they ever had before. Blood gushed out from my forehead. My body slumped forward over the balcony. My thoughts were left in a completely blank slate.

My vision grew darker. The resulting impact from the gun shot pushed me over the edge as I fell downward. In the instant, before I fell, I got one last good look at the insides of my room. I thought I saw a figure from the bottom of my rolled-back eyes, but my mind was already unable to process anything by this point.

In my final moments, with the last choppy semblance of consciousness still intact, I thought, ‘I knew it... I’m not immortal... I’m human... I can die... To think otherwise… insanity... death... The end... true... end... Free… domin... sense... re… leased... from... torment... of... cru-”

The sky grew more distant as I fell. It didn’t take long until even the sky disappeared into a pitch-black world of nothingness. The only thing that vaguely remained was the whizzing of the wind. My body had lost all sense of pain by this point.

A few moments later... silence w-

Volume 2 End.