"I can do this…" Akira told himself as he paced behind the haunted house booth, coming to halt in front of a broken mirror. He saw his reflection: a round face smeared with fake blood and oily hair sticking out from under a crooked vampire cape. The costume's cheap fangs made him sound like he had a massive tongue every time he tried to talk.
"I can do this…" Akira told himself as he paced behind the haunted house booth.
He saw his reflection in a broken mirror: a round face smeared with fake blood and oily hair sticking out from under a crooked vampire cape. The costume's cheap fangs made him sound like he had a massive tongue every time he tried to talk.
'God, I look pathetic.'
The Halloween celebration was in full force. The school courtyard was covered in dancing shadows as orange lanterns swayed in the evening breeze.
Carved pumpkins smiled from every corner, students in costume screamed and laughed, and the DJ's eerie remixes echoed through massive speakers.
Akira grabbed the collar of his cape and... and well, adjusted it for what must have been the hundredth time.
'Damn, why did I wear this shit again?'
It was so tight it was already starting to rip under the armpit.
"You've got this, mahn," he whispered. "Just walk up and get the words out. What's the worst that can happen?"
He spotted her across the crowd.
Sakura Hanamura stood near the punch bowl, looking like a dark goddess descended to earth. Her black lace dress, damn, that thing was hugging every one of her curves in a way that made his mouth go dry, clinging to her body in all the right places.
She had those fake bloodstained wings that spread from her shoulders, and her red lipstick looked like fresh blood. She was laughing, leaning into whatever her friends were saying.
It's now or never.
Akira pushed through the crowd, dodging witches and zombies, nearly tripping over a werewolf's tail. His heart beat loudly, pound, pound, pound.
"Sakura!" he called.
She turned, and her icy blue gaze landed on him. For a split second, the whole world just paused.
"Yes?" she asked in a cool and detached tone.
The students nearby paused their conversations, and Akira felt dozens of eyes suddenly on him. Say it. Just say it!
"I-I've been wanting to tell you something," he blurted out. "You're pretty, and I... I really want you to be my girlfriend."
The music seemed to dip at that exact moment. More heads turned, and someone nearby gasped.
Sakura raised one of her perfectly shaped eyebrow and laughed. "You want me to be your 'girlfriend'?" she repeated with mock surprise, putting more emphasis on the last word.
Akira nodded, feeling the heat rise straight into his cheeks. The crowd was already forming a circle now, but he didn't move. "Yes, Sakura. I've thought about it for a while. I just wanted you to know."
Her friends were already pulling out their phones, the screens glowing like greedy little blue rectangles.
Sakura stepped closer. Her expensive and intoxicating perfume hit him. Up close, she was even more beautiful, and that made what came next so much worse.
"I honestly didn't think you'd be delusional enough to even think about it, not to mention asking me." Her voice carried across the courtyard. "What part of our conversations made you believe you had the right to ask me that question? Have we even had any conversations?"
"I... we talked in class last week…"
"You want me to be your girlfriend?" she cut him off, ignoring his weak answer. "Boy, please. Your confidence is... something, and not in the 'wow' way but in the 'oh my God, does he not own a mirror?' way."
Everyone laughed and Akira felt his stomach twist.
"What makes you think I'd lower my standards and stoop to the level of someone like you who can't even get his act together? You want me to be your girlfriend when you can't even manage yourself?"
Every single word landed like a direct hit.
"It's such a pity that you mistook my niceness for a green flag," Sakura said, circling him now like a cat toying with a mouse. "I'd rather set myself on fire and roast marshmallows off the flames than settle for you."
Someone in the crowd whistled. More phones appeared, all pointed at him.
"So let me be completely clear," Sakura continued, her red lips curling into a perfect, awful smile. "'No' is not just 'no.' It's 'hell no, absolutely never, not even in your dreams, and especially not in mine.' If the day ever comes that I develop emotional feelings for you, or any feeling at all, that's the day I want God or whatever supreme being is out there to just end my existence."
The gasps and the laughter exploded. The phones flashed, and then someone started a slow, mocking clap that spread instantly.
Akira's vision blurred at first. He tore the fake fangs out and just threw them at the ground.
"Akira, wait up," he heard someone shout, but he was already running, shoving his way through the crowd, tripping over some fake skeleton display. The laughter, the awful, horrible noise, chased him like a tide.
"Did you see his face?"
"Oh my God, someone already posted it!"
"#CreepKing is trending!"
Akira shoved through students near the gates. "Get out of my way!" he screamed at two students.
His phone buzzed in his pocket… once, twice, then non-stop. As he ran, he pulled it out, tears and anger blurring his vision.
The video was everywhere. Thirty shares already. Fifty. One hundred.
Creep King strikes out! 🤣
Bruh imagine thinking you had a chance with the Student Council President, Sakura Hanamura
This is why mirrors exist lmaooo
Akira deleted the app with trembling hands. In a burst of frustration, he threw his phone against the wall, and it shattered, pieces flying everywhere. He paused, breathing heavily as he looked down at his scraped knuckles.
"Why me?" he whispered. "What did I do to deserve this?"
His frustration and humiliation turned into pure rage. She'll pay. They'll all pay.
Akira started walking, his feet carrying him toward the only place he knew would be empty. The old shrine in the woods behind the school… the one the urban legends warned about, where no one went after dark.
The path was overgrown; branches snagged his ripped cape. The party sounds quickly died behind him, replaced by total silence.
He got to the weathered torri gate, covered in moss, that marked the entrance to the shrine; just beyond it was a small wooden building leaning to one side, worn down by years of neglect.
Akira collapsed against the gate, sobbing.
"Why?" he shouted at the sky. "Why does everything have to be so fucking unfair?"
He kicked at the dirt, needing to hit something. His foot hit something hard. He dropped to his knees and started digging, his hands getting scraped and bloody.
Finally, in the moonlight, he spotted something shiny: metal sticking out of the ground. It was a dagger. It looked old and rusty, but the blade was still sharp, with strange symbols carved into it.
Akira pulled it free just as a sound echoed from the shadows, like a weak, pained groan.
He turned around, clutching the dagger.
Something moved near the shrine's entrance, something that definitely wasn't human.
A small, cat-sized creature stumbled out. Its black feathers were disturbingly dark and glossy, with twisted horns sticking out of its head. Its eyes glowed a hungry, deep red, and its torn wings dragged on the ground behind it.
"What the fuck?" Akira breathed.
The creature's head snapped toward him, those red eyes locking onto his. It opened its mouth, revealing rows of needle-like teeth.
Then it charged.