She didn’t sleep that night.
Not because she didn’t want to, but because she couldn’t.
Every time her eyes drifted shut, the darkness behind them opened like a mouth ready to swallow her whole. There was no comfort in the quiet, no safety in her blankets. The pendant lay in pieces across the wooden floor, yet its presence hadn’t faded. If anything, it had grown heavier—like the broken fragments were breathing.
At 3:13 a.m., her phone lit up on its own.
A message.
No name.
No number.
Just three words:
“Don’t let go.”
She stared at the screen, her hands trembling. Her heart beat too loud for the silence around her. Slowly, she sat up in bed and crossed the room to the shattered pendant. One half was twisted metal. The other was the small, glassy black gem that had once glowed faintly when she was little.
She didn’t know how she remembered that.
She didn’t even remember owning this necklace.
But her fingers moved without permission, reaching for the gem.
And when she touched it—
—the room vanished.
Gone was the bed, the desk, the window. Gone was the carpet beneath her feet.
She stood barefoot on a cold stone floor, surrounded by thick mist. The world here was dead quiet, save for one thing—
A whisper.
Like wind inside her skull.
She turned.
Akira was there.
Or… something shaped like him.
His back was to her. His shoulders hunched. His head low. And black threads spiraled around him, floating unnaturally like underwater strands.
He turned slowly, painfully, as though the act hurt.
His face was pale. Hollow. His eyes… not ash anymore.
They were pitch black.
No whites. No light. Just void.
She stumbled back.
“Akira—?”
But it wasn’t him.
Not this version.
When he opened his mouth, the whisper exploded into a roar.
"You shouldn't be here yet."
The voice was layered, like a chorus of broken mirrors. Her knees gave out, hands scraping against the cold stone as she fell.
“I don’t understand—” she choked.
“You broke it too soon. You’ve opened the path.”
“What path?!”
His body twitched. His head jerked sideways at an unnatural angle. The black strands wrapped tighter around him like living wires.
“She remembers,” he hissed. “She remembers and she bleeds.”
A sharp pain exploded across her shoulder.
She looked down.
A long, thin slice had opened through her shirt—blood seeping slowly, staining the fabric.
She screamed.
And then—
Hands grabbed her.
But not his.
Warm hands. Human hands.
A voice—soft, urgent—called her name.
“Rin! Wake up!”
She gasped awake, lungs flooding with air.
She was back in her room.
On the floor.
Akira was kneeling beside her, one hand on her shoulder, the other gripping her wrist. His face was inches from hers, and for once, he looked almost… afraid.
“You touched the pendant,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
She couldn’t speak.
Tears welled in her eyes, uninvited. Her shoulder throbbed.
He reached forward and gently pulled the torn fabric aside.
The wound was real.
Clean. Deep. Thin like it was carved with a whisper instead of a blade.
“That place,” she said hoarsely. “That wasn’t a dream, was it?”
“No,” he said quietly. “It’s where the curse sleeps.”
She looked up at him, and for the first time, she didn’t see a stranger.
She saw someone drowning just like her.
“You knew this would happen,” she said.
“I hoped it wouldn’t.”
“You lied.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
He stood and turned toward the window. The rain had started again, soft and steady. He pressed a hand to the glass.
“It wasn’t supposed to start yet. You weren’t supposed to remember until the third mark appeared.”
“What mark?”
Akira didn’t turn back, but his reflection in the glass darkened—just slightly.
“Your scar was the first,” he said. “The second is the cut you just got. The third…”
He paused.
“…kills you.”
Rin stared at the pendant shards on the floor.
Her whole life had been a slow fall into this moment.
She just hadn’t noticed until she hit the ground.
***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***
Updated 11 Episodes
Download
Like this story? Download the app to keep your reading history.
Comments