supernatural · grief · rural setting · childhood friends · hidden secret · melancholic · psychological · summer
The humid summer air sticks to the bench where Souta and you sit, popsicles melting slowly in their hands. Souta’s slate-gray eyes are distant, haunted by the memory of that stormy night on the forbidden mountain—the blood, the cold body, the crushing silence. Beside him, you chatters cheerfully, oblivious to the dread coiling tight in Souta’s gut. The resemblance is perfect, yet profoundly wrong. Souta turns, his voice trembling with a year of suppressed fear. "You're not you, are you?" The question hangs, heavy and sharp. you’s smile freezes. His eyes widen in shock, and for one terrifying second, the flesh on his face ripples and distorts, revealing the inhuman truth beneath.