This man was not even aware of what his presence had triggered. When the clothes sewn onto souls were stripped away and fell to the ground with a single glance from him, they looked at one another with dull eyes, shivering at the chill of nakedness. The balance had shifted, leaving behind a crumpled time that resembled trash cans. They were on their knees, hands joined under their chins, as if caught in a sweet moment they believed had come from their futures. The man standing before them was Sis (Mist).
Their hands slowly slid toward their chins, and then, as if in a pre-planned collective ritual, they bowed, pressing their hands to the ground. As they took a crawling position and drove their stained fingers into the concrete floor like arrows of ice, I felt as if the blonde woman was looking in the same direction as I was. Some eyes find you wherever you are, and even if you turn your back, they follow you; it was exactly like that.
"What is happening?" I asked with a mixture of fear; a heavy burden had settled on my shoulders. Sis stood there, his eyes fixed on them as if waiting for them to understand the final instructions from a warship passing over a vast sea.
"This is the hunt taking place here..." the blonde woman said, and before I could even digest her words, she added: "He killed the group leader, thus he became the hunter. The hunter first kills the hunter so that the prey is already within his reach..." A thin droplet of water sprouted from under her eyes down to her cheeks. What she was telling also gave her pain, I could feel it, but what kind of pain was this?
"The new hunter..." I said without looking away. "Is it Sis?"
The woman did not answer but signaled me to be silent. Soon, eyes focused on us began to appear from the edges of the concrete walls. Fallen into misery, they wanted to give up on the fates they were buried in with despair.
"What will they want from us?" I asked with curiosity.
"Our obedience."
"But..." I could only say, continuing to look at those kneeling on the ground.
How could that faint fire burning in their eyes set my heart so ablaze?
"No buts. Now we will repeat their movement," she spoke. The tremor in her voice was no different from water that could not flow through my throat.
"You mean, our hands on the ground—"
"Yes, put your hands on the ground and bow your head," she said.
While she was saying all this, there was only one thing I wondered: Why was this woman treating me like this now? She was ruthless and a bully when she was with the group leader. Now, she wanted to make me believe that if the world had a single beautiful face, it was this. At least, that was how I perceived it with the nerves throbbing in my temples.
"I can't do this..." I said with difficulty; how could I anyway?
"Obey," she said; "We all have to do this now."
"Why? But if I don't—"
"You have to." There was a tone in her voice that brooked no objection.
When I turned my gaze back to the crowd, I felt the need to lick my lips. My throat was dry. Each of them had a secret hidden in their pupils, built from the waste left behind from a bright life.
I looked at my hands and moved them forward a little, pressing them to the ground. My heart was beating violently as my head fell slightly to my chest. My hair fell over my face, framing my cheek like a shadow. My eyes were burning. Perhaps from lack of sleep, perhaps from crying. But there was only one truth: everything was changing here.
Sis's steps went back and forth between where the blonde woman and I were, and where he gathered the other group. Even if I didn't hear the sound of his shoes on the floor, I felt his curse descending upon me like a nightmare. For a moment, when that shadow touched my hair like a thin finger, I trembled where I was, clenching my teeth. A hand was applying pressure on top of my head. "Lift your chin," he commanded; the pressure was increasing. He was trying to prod me.
"I won't do this..." I said, though I didn't know what was left of my crushed pride.
"I can't hear you," he said and knelt slightly toward the ground.
"The only thing that makes you special..." I said, unable to stop my trembling. "Is only a single bullet."
What happened at that moment, my eyes stabbed into his face like a sword as my head rose.
"This is a war you've lost," he said; "Or one you will lose eventually."
"This is not a war," I said, trying to stay calm; "Because here, the only thing that gives you your rank is a weapon."
"But I found the bullet." With the mysterious coldness in his voice, even my feet froze.
A terrible game was being played here, but I had only just learned how to be hunted.
"I refuse... Will you set the group on me?" I turned my eyes to the crowd on the left. "What can you possibly make them do?"
No matter how hard I tried, I turned my face toward the ground.
"Do you realize what you're saying?" the blonde woman whispered. "You must do what he says." There was mourning in her voice.
Clenching my jaw, imagining I trusted myself, I said with all my might, "No." The ambition in my voice spread to all my nerve cells. "Show me what they will do," I said and pulled my hands from the dry ground. "You are a killer!" That heavy truth was the last thing hanging in the air. He stopped; I didn't think he was thinking, but at least he stopped for just two seconds. He looked toward the group with a sinister expression. Under his furrowed brows, I saw the horror in his eyes, which had lost the last remnants of humanity. Then a slight, mocking smile appeared on his face. The people in the group stood up, and suddenly I saw a mob of people coming toward me.
I froze where I was because these people wanted to attack me.