Chapter 4: Predator and Prey
I blindly walked right and left through that path only guided by my nose. With each step forward, the scent got more stronger and stronger. It was now that the odour had became a cage around me, did I heard the faint sound of lips smacking.
'Someone might be eating here' I thought.
Just one step after I witness a gruesome scence. A bloody body laid as a rock, it interior was opened up. It interns scattered around the body as flowers in a coffin. Lifeless marble eyes faced toward me. And next to it a person was chewing a chunk of her liver. His lips and cheeks were covered with blood stains. And his eyes were red as a bloody moon.
'Is he a cannibal?' I thought. Rather than being frightened by that sight, I was unconsciously being drawn more towards it. That pile of dead flesh rather than emanating disgust in me, blossom a sinister curiosity. I could feel a slight itching at the corner of my eye; the colour were blending together infront of me. Everything seems as under daylight.
That person raised his head and looked at me. He was a middle aged man, whose face was wrinkled and the hairs at the front were turning white.
"Who are you?" he inquired. He stood up and walked over the corpse. "Never seen you before. Which ward have you come before. Hey are you dump or what? What! do you want to steal my kill. If you dare to I will kill you bastard." After saying all of this, he stood victoriously infront me. He was going to speak something more, but nothing came out of his mouth, except four red fingers. They wringled inside his mouth. The man was unable to shout. The fingers were pulled out at once and the body fell on the ground with a thump. It convulse for a moment, trying to get up or run, but failed to do either and lied motionlessly.
When the man fell, another figure made it appearance. That person was thin and wearing a blue sleeveless sweatshirt and shorts. It's head was covered by hoodie. When it lifted it's head, did I saw the demon. The perpetrator wore an Oni (demon) mask. It skin was fair as snow, and the blood on the palm look like rose petals on a paper sheet.
"You are not from here, are you?" an assertive voice from behind that mask asked. It was a girl voice.
I stiffed up and said no. "I'm from Ebigashima." I replied.
"Never heard of it, a country bumpkin you are?" she said in a mocking tone. And sat to dismember her kill. Limb from limb she removed it. That man still had some life left. As his bone bended his eyes widen. He would have screamed if his trachea had not been pierced through. Rather than screams only blood gushed out of his mouth.
There was an eerie silence that shouldn't be there at all. I walked a few steps towards the corpse, slightly extending my hands to reach the it. And all of these happen on it's own.
"What the hell do you think you are doing? You wanna die or what! Touch it and I will reap you into shreds" she roared. Her eyes turned manencingly red. It was a true demon look, or more of a predator who is trying to claim supreme authority over it's prey.
I was taken abacked. That demonic face was enough to detour me. I stood lying over the wall, maintaining a safe distance from her.
"Listen you mf, if you want to survive than hunt on your own. Use that damn kagune on your back, you dumbass" she blurted out.
'Kagune! I don't know a damn thing about what she is speaking' I pondered.
My lack of any reply seemed to further irritate her. And she roared again. "Pissed off, before I kill you."
As silently I came, as silently did I go away. It was thanks to that silence could I hear her faint grumbled words.
"Fucking bumpkins."