Mistake
*Crunch, crack, grind.* Twenty-seven bones shatter helplessly between my teeth with grotesque sounds.
"Haaah...."
The five prongs that had extended from it were torn apart, shredded, and pulverized into an utter mess, reduced to a single lump of meat without a trace of its original form. A taste incomparable to anything I'd eaten before. My screaming stomach, my esophagus burning in flames, my parched, cracked mouth—they all welcome this rain from the heavens like a long-lost blessing.
Sweet. Delicious. More. Just a little more.
*Grind, crunch.* A rich, heavy umami floods my mouth. The sweetness and savoriness intensify with every chew, and I can't stop until the meat in my mouth is completely minced. I chew and chew again. Entranced, lost in a daze, I hug myself with both arms. As if this alone could save me—as if I firmly believed it.
A single devotee who has received the truth stands here. My mind is utterly attuned to that pleasure, to that extent.
A warm energy spreads through my body. The cold monster blood seems to dilute bit by bit. With it, the unbearable pain that had consumed my body eases, and the wave of emotions that swallowed my reason recedes.
Bit by bit, my mind returns. My blurred vision clears, and the sounds around me start to filter in.
"Haa...."
A small moan slips from between my lips. Gulp. I swallow the final chunk, too pulverized to chew further, savoring the sensation as it slowly slides down my throat. At the same time, my clearing mind questions the food I just ate.
I want more. What was that I just ate?
The fog that had clouded my head lifts gradually. And with it, unease creeps over my body.
I'd clearly committed some irreparable wrong, but I couldn't recall what it was.
Stop. Don't think about it.
Reason and instinct scream at me to stop. But I can't. I can't escape this gnawing feeling.
I force myself to remember. What had I just done?
Alice... was here, right? And the child in front of me—where did she go?
The moment that question surfaces, my warming body chills rapidly, goosebumps rising across my skin. As if I'd recalled something I absolutely shouldn't have—
".......Ah?"
Like a broken doll, my head tilts down slowly. *Creak, click.* As if the joints of a long-neglected puppet, ungreased and rusted, are grinding into motion.
What? What happened?
First, silver hair stained with blood comes into view. Hair that had shimmered like it held the Milky Way, now smeared in places with dark crimson as if someone had sloppily painted it on.
The child lies collapsed on the floor, as if attacked by something.
"—Huh?"
Wait? No way...? This can't be... Why..?
The instant I see Alice sprawled out, my mind goes blank. It turns to a white sheet, rejecting the horror before my eyes. But my body, dutifully following the initial command, lowers my head further.
Little by little. The truth looms into view.
And with it, everything comes rushing back.
As my gaze drops lower, I see Alice on her knees, clutching the sleeve of her opposite arm with her right hand, curled into a ball.
The sounds I'd denied in my head, ignored despite hearing them, now reach me clearly. A feeble wail, like crawling across the floor.
And I hear it.
"Ugh... aaah.... kkh, hack... ah.."
"......Huh?"
The child clutches her empty wrist, lying in a pool of blood on the floor, moaning. Trembling violently, she wraps her sleeve around it, desperately trying to stem the blood flowing out.
Drip.
A drop of blood seeps through her clothing and falls. It hits the pool, sending ripples before merging with it.
Starting with that drop, blood spurts from the sleeve like a fountain, spraying everywhere.
Splat. A spray hits my face.
With trembling hands, I wipe the sticky, dark fluid from my cheek.
"Ah."
The moment I see it, a scream pierces through my chest, as if boring straight through the world.
What that pool is made of. Who created it. What this situation means.
Realizing it all, I pour every ounce of strength into a howl at the empty air.
Strangely, no tears come.
Only a barren desolation wraps around me, as if I've been shoved into a bottomless pit with no escape.
Yes. I despaired.
"—KIIIAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"
A mirror once shattered can reflect no one.
A petal once fallen cannot return to the branch.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I kneel before Alice's huddled form, begging forgiveness in my heart hundreds of times, knowing it will never be accepted.
I'm sorry. Truly, I'm sorry.
"Heehee... ah, uwaa.... hee, heehee.. s-sis..ter..."
".....Aah..."
I'd hurriedly stanched the wrist, but she'd already lost too much blood—Alice's condition was dire. Her face, lit by moonlight, was pallid, her lips blue.
Flutter. The empty left sleeve billows limply in the breeze.
Yet the child just smiles at my face, as if delighted by something. And that, more than anything, I cannot bear.
"—W-what are you looking at me like that for...!"
"....Hehe..."
"I said, stop! Looking at me! Like that—!!"
Even as I snap at her, the child only offers a faint smile. And I feel guiltier for raising my voice.
Up close, those beautiful turquoise eyes reflect a terrified coward.
As if we'd completely swapped places from before. The one bearing an unhealable wound wears a smile of relief and a benevolent expression embracing all. The perpetrator, who inflicted the pain, wears a face of terror, screaming as if she herself were the victim.
That fact nauseates me. My attitude, playing the victim to evoke pity, makes me want to vomit.
The truly wounded one is this little child. The child who had only this frail branch to lean on, only to learn it's a monster that deceives and devours people.
A pitiful child, forbidden even from leaning on others, right before my eyes. I can't even fathom how much it must hurt a kind, fragile-hearted child to be betrayed like this by me.
And yet, this death-deserving wretch wears a pained expression, acting hurt herself. I shove my fingers into my mouth, trying to vomit out the guilt consuming me.
Drip, drip.
But no matter how I retch, only chunks of already-digested meat come up.
The child's hand... can't be fixed. A wretched reality signaling just that.
"—I said hate me!! I'm this lunatic monster!! Right in front of you!!"
"Ah.. heehee... r-really..?"
"Not 'really'!! Why!! Why..... in a situation like this.... smile like...."
Even so, Alice doesn't stop smiling. Far from it—her grin deepens every time she sees my twisted face.
"B-but... it feels, good..."
".....What?"
Stroke. Her soft right hand gently caresses my cheek. Trembling uncontrollably, moving slowly, but I can only stare blankly.
Before I know it, my tears are wiped away along her small hand.
"Ellie... sister, forgives, me...? Heehee.."
"—!?"
"N-now... I'm... not a bad, child.. right? R-right?"
Her trembling hand drifts away from my cheek, dropping to the ground with a soft thud. The path her touch took leaves my body rigid, frozen.
Ah. Only then do I realize what I'd been thinking wrong.
Arrogant, ignorant, selfish me, fixated only on my own wounds.
A simple fact. My pain doesn't mean others feel none.
Yes. The wounded one, the monster, wasn't just me.
I'd been so focused on my own suffering that I'd belittled others' pain.
The child—no, the child above all—must have been hurt more than anyone.
Yet I'd drowned in tragedy like some protagonist, refusing to look at anyone else.
"S-sorry... I didn't, know.. Now, don't, hate me... okay?"
"...Ah.... aaah....!!"
"B-bandage... I'll rewrap... Ellie sister, I'll lis-ten, good... Like be-fore... read books... too..."
"—AAAAAHHHHH!!!"
This—all of it—is the sin I created.
Terrified of abandonment, bristling like a hedgehog, lashing out at everything in sight. Unable to accept the sole warmth that approached, doubting and distrusting it alone, deceiving with false truths.
Cunningly deceiving, seducing, conditioning the child to gaze only at me.
The child was already ready to accept everything, but I'd delayed revealing the truth out of cowardice—my nightmare.
"—So, you won't, abandon, me.. right?"
".....!!!!"
I wept. In my heartbroken sobs, the sun slowly rises.
The nightmare of a midsummer night ends like that.
But the wounds it carved will last forever.
As always.
The sun rises, and a new day begins.
That was all.