Arc 1 Chapter 7- Pain From The Past

Content Warning: This is a pretty messed up chapter so if you want to read it I recommend reading the first 6 chapters before coming to this one.

“~Do you like living inside of that fantasy world?~”

“~Do you enjoy the pain you felt?~”

“~Do you want to return home to safety?~”

-What do you mean safety? What do you mean the pain?

The sound of shattering glass and screaming filled the ears of Kyosuke. The pain he had felt before was gone, now he had to deal with this last life.

Kyosuke’s eyes open to the sight of a bedroom, a very messy room, holes in the wall, food was thrown about, and the stench of alcohol filled his nostrils. He can hear footsteps outside of his door, two to be exact. They sounded like they’re rustling around, fighting for the will to live.

The alarm clock read midnight, yet the world in his home felt so awake.

This wasn’t Kyosuke’s original home. He grew up in a normal loving household, yet this place seemed vile, disgusting, and unsafe. Kyosuke threw up a little once he finally smelled something in his room.

Looking around he notices that in his room was a dead rat, it looked like it was stabbed by something unknown. Kyosuke started to feel nervous, the sense of dread ran down onto him and his body started to piece things together.

-This… This must be-

“KYOSUKE PLEASE HELP ME!”

The voice of his mother rang into his ears, he didn’t even hesitate to get up and sprint out into the hallway. The walls were covered in mold, holes, and everything in-between. He vomited, even more, the smell was unbearable. His eyes squinted as if the smell was molding itself into his eyes, he could see the stench, he could taste it too.

With one hand on the wall keeping himself up, he stumbled out into the living room. Nothing seemed wrong other than the horrible sights of dead rodents and rotting food. The house almost looked abandoned, it wasn’t suitable for long-living since the mold would most definitely get a person sick or even kill them.

Kyosuke made his way into the kitchen where he stood over the dying corpse of his mother, she was staring up at Kyosuke, yet, she didn’t even know he was there, her eyes were cut from her sockets, her tongue was on the floor, still moving.

Kyosuke bit his bottom lip causing it to bleed, the sight of his dying mom was too hard to handle, he thought back on the time his mom started to make fun of the kids in his class because they were making fun of Kyosuke. She spoke about how sad they must be and how horrible their parents are to make fun of someone for no reason. It was a true hero story, one that would be cringy to tell any friends, but one that he could keep to himself.

-What a despicable life, I should have known this is what he had to deal with.

Footsteps came from behind him, catching him off guard and making him shiver a little.

“Kyosuke, my boy, what are you doing up so early? I went to your room to wake you up to see if you wanted to go for a… A walk, but you were already out of bed.”

Kyosuke was staring his father in the eyes, he knew what he had just done, he knew that his dad had just brutally murdered his mom. Kyosuke’s eyes make a quick swipe towards his mother, signaling his dad to answer.

“Oh, that, well. Haha. You know, you see... Haha. Your mom, she... Haha. She simply fell that’s it, so don’t tell anyone what happened okay.”

His speech was horrendous, the amount of pausing to look for the right answer was disturbing, he doesn’t know what drove his “father” to these extremes but he does know what he needs to do.

“Dad, I don’t know what brought you to do this, but I’m not that same me as before. I’ll tell everyone about this, and I’ll make sure to get my revenge on you, you son of a bitch.”

“Wrong choice, son.”

With that being said Kyosuke’s dad pulled a knife from his pants and preceded to charge Kyosuke, but with the practice from the fantasy world of dealing with someone much faster and much more powerful, his father seemed to move in slow motion. Kyosuke grabbed from his father’s hand, taking the knife from him. Right as his father turned around to hit Kyosuke, he got his neck slashed open.

Blood squirted the face of Kyosuke, just like it had that faithful day in the school. This time, he didn’t let the face of someone he knew to bring him down, he dug the knife into his neck without any thought.

The life drained out of his body, he soon stopped struggling, and his body went limp.

“Ugh, damn, that was harder than I thought,” Kyosuke said to himself.

-I’m in a timeline where I’m the guy who went to the school and did those horrible things, I’m the man who killed me.

“~You know what you need to do, right?~”

A disembodied voice seemed to keep creeping into Kyosuke’s head. It had no gender, no sound to it, but he could hear it plain as day.

Fear enclosed around Kyosuke and he began to laugh. Of course, he knew what he needed to do. He had to go to the school, and end the other Kyosuke’s. He had to be the bad guy, he had to kill everyone he wanted to save, he had to end it all.

Kyosuke made his way through the disgusting house, pouring anything flammable on the floor. He found the gun case his father used, holding the gun made Kyosuke start to cry and laugh, he didn’t know if he had the guts to do something so vile to so many people he knew.

-GODDAMMIT, WHY ME! Why me God, why do I have to do this?

Kyosuke looked through his drawers to change out of his pajamas, he found it odd that he had pajamas in a house like this. He found his pink track jacket, something he thought he’d never see again.

The clock hit seven o’clock and he sparked a match, he made his way outside of his house as the flames grew stronger. The stench grew stronger and made its way outside. Kyosuke just looked at the house and started to make his way to school.

He kept the weapon in his bag and made sure to only use it on his doubles. He watched as people walked past him, people he knew from what felt like years ago, though it has only been a few days.

-I won’t have to kill anyone if I’m not willing to go back to the fantasy world. Yet, I want to go back. I don’t have any family left and I won’t be sent back to my original timeline. As much as I hate this, I have to do it. I have people who rely on me now, and I can’t let them down.

Kyosuke walked into the school and immediately went looking for his body doubles to formulate a plan, that’s when the reality set in. one, two, three, four, more and more Kyosuke’s showed up. There wasn’t just one or two, there were over ten. The easiness of finding the two Kyosuke was fallen short, the only lead he had was where he killed the two Kyosuke.

-Shit, I’ll just have to show up to the classroom and take him out first, if I do it the same way then I’ll be able to win like the one before me, I just can’t let anyone see me.

Kyosuke knew he had to wait until the third period, what he didn’t know is what to do for the first three periods, would he skip classes or would he go to those classes to see if he could find anything out about the person he is. He decided to just skip class, he didn’t want to feel any pity for the person he is, Kyosuke just wanted the nightmare to end.

Camping out in the bathroom he decided to wait in the stall. He listened in on conversations he would have never heard before, some of them were about the original Kyosuke.

“Did you see Kyosuke today? He was eating so much food, I bet he’ll be in the bathroom by third period.”

“You think? Kyosuke isn’t as bad as people think honestly, he’s just really clueless and defensive, it’s why he doesn’t make many friends.”

-I was taken away to another world right as people started to think I was normal, that’s just great.

The bell rang to third period, he could hear the footsteps of kids walking past the bathroom to their next class, Kyosuke made his way outside of the stall, on his way out of the bathroom he walked past himself, the original him, the one that started it all.

He went into his locker and grabbed the gun. Class started and Kyosuke made his way to the history class he last died in. On his way to the history class, he had last died in, another student had noticed the gun he was holding. Kyosuke stupidly tried to calm the student down and explain to him.

“Don’t worry it’s not for you, It’s for myself!”

-Dammit am I stupid!?

The student tried to run away screaming and without thinking straight Kyosuke raised the gun and fired. The student fell right in front of the bathroom screaming in agony, blood squirted from his chest and sprayed against the lockers. The boy started crying for his mom.

“I’ll be good from now on! I promise, please God, I want to see my mom again, please, please!”

The world grew silent again as the kid’s life left his body, Kyosuke could swear he saw his spirit leave.

-Shit! I need to get to the history class fast!

Kyosuke raised the gun and shot a few more times in the air. He was trying to warn anyone to stay away from his location, that way no one else had to get hurt. Kyosuke ran up to the history door, randomly firing into the door. He could see himself in the classroom.

“Let me in you little shits, I’m not gonna hurt ya!”

He meant it when said that, he didn’t want to hurt anyone. Kyosuke knew that if he wanted the real him to come out, he’ll need to shed blood.

Kyosuke kicked the door open, desks went flying everywhere, smashing into the ground. He looked around and saw no signs of himself, but he knew he was in here. He pointed the gun up and started to shoot, left and right, bodies fell to the ground, kids screamed in terror, begging to be left alive.

-Blood wasn’t what it looked like in movies, it started light, and got darker the more that came out.

From behind he heard a scream of anger and then the sharp sensation of scissors going into his neck. They didn’t go all the way through but they punctured his artery causing a mass explosion of blood, squirting onto the other Kyosuke’s face.

The other Kyosuke started to laugh, not out of pleasure but out of fear, he wasn’t crazy.

The look on his face changed when he started to look at Kyosuke’s face, it was almost like he knew him. The Kyosuke double started to let loose the scissors from Kyosuke’s neck, giving him enough time to point the gun at the double and shoot him in the chest.

“Your weakness was the death of you.”

He needed to give him motivation, the motivation to learn from his mistakes. It sounded gruesome, but it needed to be done.

The Kyosuke double slumped onto his stomach writhing in pain. The gun had one more bullet in it, so he decided that he was going to shoot it into the air and put in another clip.

Kyosuke kicked the door with enough force to knock it off its hinges, he looked both ways before exiting the classroom, that’s when he saw himself sitting on the ground with blood on his hands.

“Kyosuke Matsuda, I’ve been looking for you!”

The Kyosuke that he was talking to refused to look at him, but he refused to let this go. He needed to show him that his hesitation resulted in his death. He was the only reason he died. If he would have just left when he had the chance, he would still be alive.

“KYOSUKE MATSUDA YOU EVIL LOOKING SON OF A BITCH LOOK AT ME!”

The last Kyosuke looked at him with pure terror before a faint ‘run’ escaped the dying Kyosuke’s lips. While he didn’t want to shoot a moving target, he knew he had to let him live in order for him to tell himself to run. Even the current Kyosuke was confused about all that’s happening.

Kyosuke raised the gun and shot, blood splattered onto the lockers and the original Kyosuke fell to the ground. He searched around on the ground looking for where the shooter might be, but he had already walked away. Slowly the life of the original Kyosuke left his body and he succumbed to his blood loss.

The dying Kyosuke copy was on the floor, bleeding out. Kyosuke walked over to him and gave him a word of advice.

“You poor bastard, you still haven’t figured it out yet. You’ve got one more chance before you can’t go back and save the ones you truly care about.”

Kyosuke didn’t know how much of that went through to him but he was hoping it was enough to set him on the right path.

“~I see you chose the path that suits you the best. Good luck Kyosuke, I’m rooting for you.~”

Kyosuke listened to the last of the voice before he figured out what he needed to do. The gun was in his hands, he was shaking. He could hear cops making their way through the halls, clearing rooms, and saving students. Kyosuke picked the gun up for the last time, the last time he’ll ever see a gun in his life, he aimed it towards his head and… Darkness.