Bulletnite

 “Glad you came to meet me here,” Homasa said. He sat on the other end of the seesaw. I walked up to the other end of the empty seat and climbed on. “I was thinking that you weren’t going to show up.” I thought it would be best to go and see him, even though he never calls me. Homasa stared at me with a serious look on his face, as if he had something to tell me in private.

“Gero,” I looked at Homasa. “Do you want to play a game?” Homasa asked. When was the last time we played together? We haven’t graduated yet. Above all else we are sitting at a children’s playground, and Homasa doesn’t seem bothered by it or the people walking past us. Without saying a word to me, Homasa started to move the seesaw. I don’t get it? Why won’t he say anything?

As the two of us go up and down, Homasa kept on staring at me like he hates me. I said, “We can play a game, do you want to—” Homasa interrupts me, “No, we are going to stay here.” I would say something while having a snappy remark, but I don’t. “Let’s just talk and catch up like old times.” I nod “What you do want to talk about?” I asked Homasa.

“Let’s talk about death.” To my surprise, his comment scared me. “You don’t sound like yourself, Homasa. Is something wrong?” Homasa scoffed at me, I could hear discord in his voice, and something didn’t sit right with me. “Everything is fine, Gero.” Homasa waves a dismissive hand and laughs. “You worry too much.” There he goes again, he only thinks about himself and not about how other people feel. Then again, he always act like this all the time.

As much as I want to believe him, he isn’t himself or it isn’t really him. I get tired from the seesaw, Homasa can’t tell from my boredom expression, even though there’s silence between us. Homasa looks straight at me. “I don’t have long...Gero,” Homasa muttered. “What? What are you saying?” I said.

Homasa looked into my eyes. “Gero, I don’t have long. That’s why I wanted to talk about death. It’s scary.” He sounded serious. I gave him my full attention. “You see...if I tell you what’s been going on the past few weeks, it wouldn’t make any sense.”

“Go on,” I said. “What happened?”

“I-I think that Risamu is taking over my body.” He said.

“Who’s that?”

“A girl that I met after school, she heard about my condition, and wanted to ‘help’ me.”

“In what way?”

“She called herself an Attacher. She latches on to a person and drains their life away...and then leaves the person’s body as an empty shell.”

I couldn’t wrap my head around what Homasa was telling me. I stayed silent, I heard coughing coming him, and then he stopped the seesaw. He jumps off running past the jungle gym his face in his hands.

I follow him to the playground equipment and watched him climb up. “Stop, don’t come any closer!” Homasa warns me, it sounded like two people talking in unison. I followed his instructions when I finally realized that something was wrong. At the top of the playground, he stands there trembling. As I looked a little closer, a ghostly figure appeared in his face that resembled a Calavera skull and a young girl.

Homasa holds onto the poles tightly, “Homasa! I’m coming!” I ran closer to the playground. “If you come any closer, I’ll kill him.” The two voices said. The stakes are high now if I move an inch, who knows what might happen. I stayed put clenching my fist tight, the only thing on my mind is the aftermath, and the results were not good.

“Gero? Do you want to play?” Homasa said. I shook my head.

“Come on, life is short. Let’s play together.” Homasa starts to laugh like a maniac, “Let’s play!” He screamed.

He lets go of the poles, the face of young girl leaves his body, and Homasa falls forward. I tried to catch him, but it was too late. Homasa falls on the ground with a thud. I rushed over to his aid. I called out to him shaking his limp body on ground. All I can do is as cry as blood seeps out from him.

Out of nowhere the sound of vibrations catch my attention, I take out my phone from my pant pocket. I wiped my tears and opened my phone. A text message appeared from an unknown number when I saw who sent it.

Homasa: Do you want to play?

How is any of this is possible?

Suddenly the nightmare wakes me up in the middle of the night, my heart started racing. There was a knock on the door, I turned the lamp on in my room. My older brother, Rakoto came in, “Are you okay? I just a sound sound coming from your room?”

“I’m fine.” I rest my hand on my forehead trying to process everything. I grab my notebook and pen from the nightstand and started to write on a new page. “Still having the same dream again?” Rakoto questioned. “Sort of…” Rakoto walk into my room sitting on the edge of the bed. When I look up at him, he stares a picture on my dresser.

“Rakoto? Have you heard about an Attacher?” I asked him. He turns to me, “A what?” “They are like a ghost or a parasite that attaches onto the person and drains their life away.” I told him. “In my line of work in hunting down criminal and thieves—I haven’t heard anything like that. Where did you hear it from?”

“Homasa…” I said.

“Homasa? You mean Homasa Kobatani?”

“Yeah, I had a dream about him not to long ago.” I placed the book back on my nightstand, I sat up, and judging from Rakoto’s expression he doesn’t believe me, and I sound stupid.

“Rakoto...Homasa told me that he was dying. What’s his condition?” Rakoto rubbed the back of neck, I could tell that he wasn’t ready to tell me yet, but I want to know in order to help. “You might have to ask him yourself—” “Can I? I don’t have his cell phone number?”

“I can contact Iorumi—she might still be asleep.” Rakoto got up from the bed to head over his room. When he came into my room, he already contacted her. “Yeah, thanks. I’ll put him on.” Rakoto hands me the phone. Homasa’s voice sounded groggy on the other end.

“Hello…” Homasa said.

“Homasa...it’s me, Gero.”

“Gero…” He goes quiet for a moment. “Right, I remember. Why are you calling at this time?”

“I wanted to ask you about your condition? I—just remember you telling me about one time and I don’t remember what it was.”

“What are you going on about? I don’t have a condition.” I was shocked by his response. In the dream I remember him telling me that he was dying. What’s going on here?

The next morning, I met up with Homasa after school. Homasa thought it would be better to meet up in the Library. There wasn’t anybody around expect for me. I played with my hands waiting for Homasa to arrive. It’s already getting late, and Rakoto expects me to be home. Footsteps approached me at the table when I glanced up, seeing a young girl stood in front of me. She looked familiar. The only thing that stood out was her pink and blue highlights in her hair, and her outfit look like those Gothic Lolita dresses adorned with skulls.

“Can I help you?” I asked her.

“Yes, I’m looking for someone.” She spoke with such elegance maybe she comes from royalty. “Who is it?” I said.

“You,” My eyes widen in alarm, her smile became unsettling, as if she’s inviting me into her dark world. “Gero, you have interfered, now I have to kill you.” She said in a hushed voice. Kill me? Wait, everything from that dream is now becoming a reality!?

I jumped from my chair as she pulls out a javelin pole out of thin air. I screamed when she attacks me, I ducked out the way, her javelin stabs a stack of books on the table. She looked at me crazy, her smile now malicious. What did I do to deserve this? I darted my eyes to the outside, the door at the end of Library was the exit I needed. I made a run for the door. I could hear a whooshing, sound come from behind me, and I don’t want to look back. I reached for the door, and opened it.

THUNK!

The girl’s javelin penetrated the door while the books stayed intact. I finally made it outside, and shut the door behind me. I kept on running as fast as my legs could carry me until I thought I was safe. A puff of smoke appeared in front me, and the crazy girl from my nightmare was there. Just like in that dream, the calavera skull appeared on her face too. I staggered back, I looked around, but I was still on school grounds. Though that hasn’t stopped me before, I’m not a fighter. I don’t know the first thing about fighting.

“You’re Risamu? Right? You’re the one that ‘supposedly’ killed Homasa? Why?” I yelled. She rolled her eyes at me. “I do what I want, you have interfered. You move, I kill. Simple as that.” She sneered. “That’s not a good reason, what you want with him? He doesn’t have a condition, so...why made him commit suicide?”

“Because it’s fun,” To overwhelmed to move, I don’t believe Risamu’s reasoning. “If you haven’t got the point, Gero. I do what I want! Watching people go down, excites me!” Risamu cackles.

“Hold on, what are you exactly?” I asked. She stops laughing, pressing her lips in anger, she said, “Me? Well, my name is Risamu Kahoshi, I am the Tenth Attacher. Also known as a Soul Reaper.” She continues, “My job is to kill anyone who is under a Death Condition. A Death Condition is like a sickness, the person in the real world doesn’t realize that they are sick until they come into contact with one of us by chance. Like a parasite we take control of them, and like a leech—we drain them.”

“You’re basically sucking the life out of them?” I questioned. Risamu crossed her arms at me, nodding in agreement. “In the dream you came in contact by Homasa after school. When I called him...he said he didn’t have a condition?”

When Risamu narrowed her eyes, she pulled out her weapon out of thin air, I guess that javelin pole is her weapon that ‘sucks the life’ out of people. Although, she looks like she wants to tell me something, but she can’t.

“One last question, Risamu?”

“What is it?” She asked. “What’s your connection with Hosama? And what’s with the dream and reality situation?” She sighs rubbing her temples. “You—okay...It’s called The False Dimension, think of it as your subconscious. When I came into contact with Homasa. I knew that something was wrong—he was sick in the dream world, but in reality he’s not. Just like the False Dimension, he’s not aware of any of this in his dream state. He just thinks that he has a ‘sickness’.” She stayed quiet for a moment, and her eyes soften. She takes a deep breath trying to calm herself. She grips her pole tightly.

“Homasa and I used to be childhood friends, then he moved away for some reason—I don’t know. What’s important is that I’m confused as well.” My hear palpitates, am I hearing her right? Risamu is more baffled than me. “What are you saying? You didn’t ‘kill him’?” Risamu shook her head.

“Then who was it?”

“Must’ve been someone else.” She smiled. “The person...I don’t know. It could be another Soul Reaper that got into the Dimension and implanted a Death Condition on him while he was asleep—”

“And in the dream, I saw someone that looked like you. You had a calavera skull,”

What’s up with that?”

“Calavera skull? Never seen a skull like that one before.”

Just as I got a full explanation of everything, I still feel lost somehow, and I don’t know what to do. All I can think about is Homasa’s condition. In reality he seems fine, in the dream state someone is torturing him. I looked down at my hands questioning my existence in the dream world. I don’t know if I, too, got pulled into that dimension as well. I looked at Risamu. “Hey, is there a way to save him?” Risamu said, “As the Tenth Attacher in the rankings and a low Soul Reaper. I’m not sure—unless you want to be apart of the organization.”

“Anything! Anything that could save him!”

“You have to play the game.” She’s toying with me, I recalled that text message in the dream.

“What game is it?”

“It depends on you, “ She leans in closer squishing my face with her hand. “Do you fear death, Gero?”

Deep down I do fear death it’s apart of the life cycle. Risamu is playing with me. I have to do this for Homasa, I nod, she let’s go of face. Risamu palced her hand on her hip with the upmost cheeky grin. “I welcome you to Bulletnite, the game and organization. It’s simple really, all you is shake my hand—try not die, okay?” I reach for her hand and shook on it.

“Then, it’s settled. Also, I apologize for getting upset with you, I’m taking anger management classes.” She said. I forgave her. This only just the start and it won’t be the end to save him.