Chapter Text
"I'm heading out, Ryouhei!"
"Okay! Bye Mom! Love you!"
Arisu took a bite of the sandwich he had made for himself. He was alone in the house. His father had to go to his business job, but he didn't exactly know where his mom or brother were going. Though, he could safely assume, and so Arisu pushed the thought aside so that he could enjoy the peaceful stillness of the house.
He had wanted to hang out with Karube that day, but Karube had a date with his girlfriend already scheduled out. It worsened Arisu's mood, especially since he had nothing to really do that could kill the time. The TV had no good shows running, he had no inspiration to draw, all of the games he had didn't appeal him.
As soon as Arisu finished his sandwich, he went to his room and laid on the bed, hoping that he would be able to come up with something to do. His parents didn't get him any board games, nor did they spend their money on figurines for him to mess around with. Best thing he could do was study and hope that it would boost his grades up. Studying never really advanced Arisu's knowledge before, besides for math. Maybe that was because math was the only subject Arisu found practicality in.
He thought for a while longer, until those thoughts morphed into dreams.
His room was pitch black. There was a sound, almost like faint crunching, coming from somewhere outside of the room. There was a thud, slightly louder than the previous nosies, that made Arisu sit up. Had his mom fallen? Did someone break in?
Each blink brought him to a different spot of the building. The bedroom door. The hallway. The staircase...
Arisu's grogginess filtered away. The cool night sky darkened the room and displayed itself like an artwork on the windows.
By the doorway was his mother gripping the shoulder of his dad, who had a sharp metal tip breaking out of his back. His head fell to his shoulders, knees hardly able to keep himself up without his mother's support.
A woman laid behind him. She looked familiar. The woman who Arisu spotted his dad with that night. She didn't look the same. Her blood drained from her face to gush out of the multiple wounds that clawed out the insides of her nude stomach. Her neck was halfway opened, but luckily Arisu couldn't see the rest of the wound from where he kept himself.
"Mom? What are you-"
His mother pulled the blade out of his father's stomach, letting the body collapse on top of the woman.
Arisu's tongue tasted metallic. All of his nerves rumbled against his skin as his hands twitched and eyes shook to find one thing to look at. There was red spilled all over the floor that Arisu wanted to imagine came from the shattered wine glass nearby, but it didn't. The color, the taste, the smell.
"Mom?-"
"Ryouhei, get out."
His breath shook— Was Arisu even breathing at all?
He could see a piece of the woman's intestines, pink burning against all the red. His father's eyes. The dizziness that came from it all.
Arisu clutched his stomach as he spilled the sandwich he'd eaten on the floor.
"Do not tell anyone about this, Ryouhei."
She staggered closer to him. The bloody knife stuck to her hand, and it looked natural. It made sense. It didn't matter how terrifying it was to him.
"Mom, you're-...you're-"
"What am I, Ryouhei?" She spat, "Tell me."
Arisu's mouth slammed shut. His jaw couldn't move. All he could do was back away. Like always.
"I-... I..." His voice looped like a scratched record until the cartridge found its place. "I won't tell anyone."
She looked content by that, resting her shoulders. "Thank you."
Arisu shivered. His mom blocked him from the door. He could run up the stairs, but Arisu wouldn't be able to fall asleep that night. She trapped him. She knew that.
The bodies began to reek of a smell that had never grazed him before. A mixture of decay, blood, vomit, and alcohol.
"You aren't my son, Ryouhei."
She stumbled onto the table before Arisu could speak. The knife clattered against the floor, its silver smirking at him as it fell.
"Mom-!"
"You're such a disappointment."
Arisu stilled. His words fell from his brain and out from his ears.
"You're gullible. Nobody likes you," She listed, eyes drifting carelessly to the ceiling, "If someone told you to kill yourself, you'd try it. Wouldn't you?"
He waited. Arisu waited for something that could squeeze the words out of his brain that soaked each letter like a sponge.
"Get out of this house, Ryouhei. You don't belong here."
Arisu glanced at the nightmarish scene once more, before tracking up the stairs behind him.
The next day, Arisu packed his art supplies, comics, clothes, and blankets, and followed his mom's request, never looking back at the inhibited structure.