Gene awoke to a bizarre sight. An immense light filled the place.
He saw a version identical to himself. He couldn't understand what was happening. His mind failed to rationalize it.
The spirit resembling Gene spoke to him: ·"I am the deep desire within your heart. That is your path!!!"
Gene was bewildered: "What path of desire? What is happening?"
Suddenly, rapid memories flooded his mind.
He was running away from his school, terrified.
He screamed: "What's happening to you, Clark!!!"
But what had happened to Clark?
Clark, in truth, had reached Gene's heart and shattered the shackles. He saw the scene; everything was ready like a great light... Ornstein truly helps his heirs.
He had determined Gene's path from the beginning. But profound memories had seeped into Clark's own heart.
It was his first time seeing such a thing. He wondered aloud: "What is happening? What is this design?"
He was stunned. He was perceiving the world around him in a spiritual form.
But he began to understand. He saw behind a strange device. A name flowed into his mind: Television!!
But he turned to the spiritual form of his own body.
Trying to return to it or communicate with it, but there was no response. Of course, he was merely watching memories, nothing more.
Clark was holding a tablet device. His spiritual self came beside him to listen.
Then, a voice message played.
From a girl named Scarlet!!
Clark's face was deathly pale.
· "Hello, Clark. I know you're sad and perhaps you've learned everything by now. But I want you to know this."
"Clark, I truly loved you. The reason I stopped you from doing anything for me wasn't out of dislike, but so I wouldn't hurt you. So I wouldn't burden you with my despair, my hidden depression."
"I never had a father, truly, Clark. But my mother was there, and she was evil. She lived in an endless death loop and managed to escape it by using a strange technique."
"This caused me to be cursed, to experience endless deaths myself. And she managed to die, achieving her deepest desire."
"Truly selfish. I died countless times, Clark, in the most horrific ways. An inescapable, inevitable loop. It's impossible for me to die, even of old age or anything else. In the end, they are timelines that are destroyed and reset into a new timeline. Death doesn't repeat in the same way. If I die by poison, next time I'll die by stabbing. And so on, an eternal, merciless torment."
"Clark, I found the way to free myself and free the world from the timelines that are destroyed because of my death, from which new things emerge. But with the Music Box, I can escape to a new universe. We all live freely, but we will forget everything!!"
"I found it in the midst of my absence and loss of hope. I learned the method my mother used on me to escape her torment of death. And to be honest, I wanted to use it on you. I thought you were a fool; no one would care about your suffering. But upon getting to know you, I learned you are a good man, and I loved you sincerely. So I didn't want to torture you."
"I wanted to learn my mother's secret: Where did she come from? How was she cursed? But it seems that will remain one of the world's secrets."
"After this message, I will most likely be dead. Go to my house and you will find the Music Box. Also, if you wish to say goodbye, you will find me in the dark alley where I confessed our love. It seems eternal darkness is where our love will end. Goodbye, Clark."
Clark kept staring, crying. He threw his phone, sobbing uncontrollably. He left his house. His spiritual self followed, watching coldly.
Clark ran like a madman until he reached Scarlet's corpse, brutally and mercilessly stabbed!!!
His tears dried. Nothing remained but an emotionless face. He carried her in his arms.
Grief covered his face with immense sorrow. Clark's spiritual self looked on with intense cruelty: Weakness! He said:"Truly, love! It is a candle the weak shelter under. The wind is harsh, tossing them between love and despair!!"
Clark, who had carried Scarlet's body the entire way, arrived at her house.
He placed her on her sofa. Before him was the Music Box she had told him about.
For a full hour, he leaned on her dead shoulders, grieving. The final tear fell from his left eye, announcing his sorrow.
He carried her to the bathroom.
He removed her clothes.
The scattered wounds on her body were revealed. Clark vomited.
He placed her in the bathtub. He began to pour water over her body. Clark's clothes got wet.
Half his hair had turned white from grief.
He laughed, talked to her lifeless corpse, and cried like a madman!!
He said: "It seems I've lingered too long with you. Scarlet?! It's time to end everything and fulfill your wish."
He looked out from the balcony. Sunlight and the dawn of spring.
Gene entered the bathroom, horrified.
He said: "Clark, where were you? I looked for you everywhere. I got tired of school, so I came here."
Then he was shocked by what he saw. It wasn't the Clark he knew. His hair was white, depressed, his face pale from crying.
Gene said with a face covered in terror, guilt, and grief: ·"You found out she died?"
Clark embraced Scarlet's corpse with his left hand.
He raised the wooden device.
He said: ·"My dear Scarlet, you came in spring, and you will leave in spring. What a romantic story."
Gene screamed: "Clark! What are you going to do?!"
Clark didn't answer. He turned the handle, and a young girl appeared, singing a sorrowful song that adorned the scene, holding a small red egg, screaming blood from her eyes.
An intense light burst forth. Gene and Clark's spiritual self watched in terror.
The sun and moon began to move, alternating with supernatural speed.
Clark spoke: ·"So, this is how it's used."
"Goodbye to this world. Goodbye to my beloved, who was like spring flowers!!!"
A deafening light erupted, swallowing Gene, Clark, and Scarlet's corpse.
Clark woke up, a single tear streaming from his left eye!!!
To be continued!!!