There was darkness on every side.
Ryuzi was frozen in a very long, endless corridor. His legs could not move, but all of him cried to flee. The voice of a girl at the extreme end was in a cry of desperation--broken.
"Help me!"
He attempted to reply, but the throat narrowed, and no sound came out. His hands were closed in useless fists.
The shadows surrounding her changed and transformed into indistinct shapes. Their features were not distinct; their laughter was like a knife. The silhouette of the girl shrank, her cries ringing out. And the whispers started upon it.
"It was him."
"He didn't stop it."
"He's the reason she cried."
Ryuzi's chest heaved. "No!" The word cut out, coarse and tardy. His body was tugging in the direction of his feet that had been nailed to the floor. The more he struggled, the more chains of silence had on him.
The mob without faces turned and eyes blazing white, --voices fused in an outcry:
"Monster."
"Delinquent."
"Guilty."
Sobbing of the girl lost itself in the chanting till Ryuzi could not know where her suffering ceased and his damnation commenced.
And then--she looked up.
Her features were twisted in the dreamlight, half obscured in shadow, but her eyes filled with tears stared at him.
"Why didn't you save me?"
The question was more cut-throat than a charge. Ryuzi's lungs collapsed. He extended his hand, and his fingers were trembling--
But the passage faded away to blackness before he could reach her.
He shuddered to his feet, gasping, the sheets cloddy to his body. His heartbeat was like a runaway horse.
There was no sound in the room, the moonlight streaming over the floor. No whispers. No sobs. Nothing but the repercussion of his own failure.
Ryuzi laid his hand on his face, and his jaw set so much that it ached. I could not save her... and now they will never believe me.
He sat quietly, the phantom voices still ringing in his ears, till the weariness brought him again to restless sleep.