Inside of the house, the child watched as the figure weeped before him.
After crying for forgiveness, for its humanity to be returned to it, the creature got to its feet and walked into the bathroom. It looked into the mirror, tears streaming down its face.
"I want… to see her. Please, please, please…" It softly spoke, reaching inside the mirror and climbing inside. Sparing the child's life, The Black Wraith entered the Mirror World and travelled to Sienna's house.
Making its way through the dark void with staggered steps, it swayed as though wounded.
"Sienna, Sienna, Sienna… Sienna… Sienna… Sie… save, me."
Offered up as though it were a prayer, The Black Wraith continued through the dark, eventually making its way to the familiar scent of the woman it adored more than anything in the world.
That woman. If it were to make contact with her, then it would be saved. So long as she still loved it, then it wouldn't mind. So long as it could still be loved, as long as the woman—who made it feel happier than anything else in this world—could still love it,
"Should I…" It spoke aloud, as its head was overrun with thoughts and pain. The only way to express itself clearly was to speak. "Should I… hide my face? If she sees the truth, then… she'll…"
"Stop loving me," it wanted to say, but refrained from speaking those words. Above all, those words were the most terrifying to it.
To be abandoned and left behind, all alone once more. That was, absolutely, resolutely, the worst possible outcome. Death would be far preferable.
If Sienna were to see his face, she would cry. She would be overwhelmed by his mutilation, wouldn't she?
She would throw up. She'd fall out of love with me, and throw me away, and regard me as nothing. She… She would abandon me.
"Please, don't abandon me," it earnestly begged, covering its face in utter black shadows, hiding the flaws. The Black Wraith crawled through the mirror in her bathroom, and creeped through to her bedroom.
It stalked over to her bed, watching her as she slept. Moo, a black and white cat which looked quite like a cow, slept on her stomach.
Wet tears dropped to the woman's blanket, as The Black Wraith extended its hand to her with the intention of tracing its finger along her smooth skin to wake her up.
"Please… don't… leave me."
A shaky voice, and an immensely cold touch. The woman jerked her body slightly, tensing her brows, yet her eyes remained closed.
"Sienna… it's me. Sienna, Sienna, Sienna. Please, wake up, Sienna, please…"
Her eyes gently opened. Its figure not obscured by Stealth, the creature left a discernible silhouette in the dark room. She gasped from fear, getting up, as the cat got off of her tummy.
"Sienna, it's—" The creature tried to reason, its voice raising to speak—
"A-AHH!"
The woman shrieked loudly, taking several steps back as she fell against the wall, still remaining standing. Her eyes widened in absolute fright, as primal terror seared through every fiber of her being.
"Sienna, it's me!!" The monster shouted with a sob, as the woman grabbed her phone, turning on the flashlight and getting a look at the monster. With an all-black face with no discernable features, a pale-white neck with cracks alongside it, and immensely thin limbs, it was no longer human.
The monster could not speak any further, as Sianna opened up her window and climbed through, running away as fast as she could through the neighborhood. Her cat followed her in fear as well, leaving the creature utterly alone in her bedroom.
The figure fell to its knees, holding its arms on her bed as it wept. The next moment, its phone rang.
It hurriedly answered, hearing the distortion. The sweetest, most kind voice in all the world, had been infected with terror.
"Aubrey, ghk, something—something terrible just, happened! Something horrible, it snuck into my room and called out my name, please, help me…!" She wailed, her voice ran with shock as faint whimpers escaped her throat.
Something horrible had happened to her.
Just by seeing it, she had undergone a terrifying experience.
The creature did not say a word, hanging up. It completely crushed its phone in its hand, shattering it to pieces. It remained silent, not even weeping emerging from its obscured face and throat.
Even the kindest woman in the world, who had loved something even as horrible as Aubrey Palmer, failed to love The Black Wraith. The Black Wraith, just as it feared, was an existence unlovable, something eternally disconnected from relationships and connection.
The creature looked to its side, seeing a bookshelf in her room. To its detriment, it saw a stand-out book, one given a section entirely unto itself.
"No Longer Human." The book which started their very first small conversation, the initial spark which set up their flame of love.
It grabbed the book, flipping through the pages gently.
"Disqualified as a human being.
I had now ceased utterly to be a human being."
It dropped the book to the ground, stomping on it with all its might until its foot broke through the wooden flooring. It kicked the book across the room, pages flapping until the book's spine hit the wall.
The creature walked to the bathroom once more, looking into the mirror, rejecting its face and obscuring it in its entirety. And yet, due to the wetness of its eyes from tears, it wanted to see.
For even just a moment, it wanted to reclaim even the slightest bit of humanity. Relinquishing its shadow, the creature's left eye became unobscured by darkness, visible to itself in the mirror.
Gross.
The creature climbed through the mirror, heading back to its home.
It did not speak even a single word. Every single word it wished to say, had already been said. It had professed its desire to see Sienna, to feel comfort in her presence.
It had no more words to say.
…
Entering its home, the creature went to its closet and grabbed the hatchet it kept stored away. It snuck around the house, entering its parents bedroom and watching over them.
The darkness looming over their sleeping states, the parents of the monster remained helplessly unaware of their situation.
Hatchet in hand, the murderer—no. Could a creature really be called a murderer? Isn't the title of "murderer" befitting a human being, one who has escaped the food chain and does not need to murder, yet chooses to do so anyways?
—Regardless.
Hatchet in hand, the murderer's singularly visible eye continued to be wet with tears.
The creature once believed it had said everything it wanted to say. That was not the case.
Gently whispering, it spoke thus.
"Goodnight, mom and dad."
Its voice was quiet and soft, not faking in its gentleness. In its life, the creature had said many, many lies. Exaggerated and hid away many, many emotions.
But these words, surrounded by a sea of lies, were not such.
Telling the truth, the creature earnestly wished its parents a good sleep, before leaving the room without violence.
In this world, there were only two people it actively sought to murder.
Exiting the house and getting on top of a motorcycle parked in the garage, it opened the door and activated Stealth, snuffing the noise from the motorcycle drastically and driving off to Kia University.
…
Upon its arrival, the creature snuck around campus undetected. Entering the dorms, it traveled up the staircase with weighty steps, its pale fingers laced around the hatchet.
Dark intentions surging in its chest, it felt truly deserving of its punishment. It had already begged for mercy and the execution of its punishment, yet that begging had been with an insincere heart.
The monster made its way to one room. It broke down the door with the axe silently, needing only one swing at the door to break the lock. It peered open the door, its black silhouette emerging into the dorm-room by the lit-up hallway.
It approached the still-awake vampire, who sat in the darkness of its room, scrolling on his phone. In the shadows, The Black Wraith was nearly impossible to detect with the brain, only the heart's instinctual fear alerting them.
Using that to its advantage, the creature gently opened the door, seeing the vampire with its back facing the door, unable to spot him.
But, as vampires had boosted senses, it was able to smell that disturbing presence.
"Hk."
The man turned around, seeing The Black Wraith rapidly approaching.
"W-Aubrey, wait—!"
"—I will not wait."
A hatchet raised to the air, blood soon splashed against the walls. A hatchet was ripped from the skull of one who knew the truth about him.
—No matter what, the existence of "that man" and "The Black Wraith," had to be separate.
If the world knew that the two were one and the same, it would be endlessly shameful. Both identities ought to be preserved as they were.
"That man" as an ordinary person who vanished from the world alongside all his friends.
The Black Wraith as a creature with evidence of its existence, yet remaining unexplainable with science.
The creature grabbed the vampire by the collar and dragged the lifeless corpse into the communal bathrooms, leaving a trail of blood. The body was thrown into the Mirror World, never to be seen again, before the Black Wraith vanished alongside it.
…
"Get up."
His phone going off, Sam answered to hear those words. It was the dead of night, and in his half-conscious state, he found it difficult to make out anything.
But, all he needed to hear in the end, was—,
"Aubrey Palmer. He's become a monster who hurts humans. You work for the Human Protection Company. Stop him."
Though, after Sam inquired as to the details of the situation, he had a very clear idea of what was to come.
"I won't need to chase him. He's most likely on his way here right now."
Hanging up the phone and getting properly dressed, he was proven right just minutes later.
Climbing through the bathroom in his apartment, the creature silently lurked around the corner, hoping to see the man asleep. But instead, he saw a man dressed in an expensive black suit and long overcoat, staring directly at its hand with narrowed eyes.
"...With that hatchet in your hand, I really can't imagine you're here to talk."
The eyes of the man moved upwards, looking at The Black Wraith's face.
"So why don't you drop that shadowed face, and let me see the real you, Aubs."
The creature did not have the heart to let him see anything. Not even one eye.