CHAPTER 1: A CRIMSON RED DISSOLVING AWAY
CHAPTER 1: A CRIMSON RED DISSOLVING AWAY
Monday, April 15, 2019.
They say he came in through the back gate, when the place was almost empty. He walked slowly, as if nothing were wrong, with one hand tucked into the pocket of his hoodie. The other hung at his side, dripping.
He left a crimson-red trail of pain in his wake. He stopped at the sinks beside the stairs, next to the field.
They say he turned on the tap and held his hand beneath the stream. That the water turned red, the color dissolving into paler transparency. Meanwhile, he watched it slip down the drain without so much as a grimace. Like someone washing paint from his hands.
In the distance, on the court, someone was still kicking a ball.
He let the air dry his hand without moving it, perfectly still. Then he slipped it into his pocket as well and left the way he had come.
Four people saw him, and not one of them asked whether he was in pain.
◆ ◇ ◆
“You shouldn’t talk to him, Riri.”
Behind the bicycle parking area, an old cherry tree let its last petals fall onto the corrugated-metal roof one by one, each landing with a dry sound. Shin did not look at her. He opened and closed his hands, and his fingers trembled.
“Who?”
“To Livai.” Shin swallowed. “He’s definitely dangerous.”
Riri waited for the smile. The usual one he wore after scaring her with some silly thing.
But that smile never came.
“I went to the school he came from.”
Shin told her everything.
Four witnesses who told the story separately without changing so much as a comma. A custodian who had to change the water in the bucket twice. Police cruisers in the alley the next day. And a girl who, at the mere sound of his name, covered her mouth with both hands and ran away without looking back.
“I’ve seen plenty of people afraid,” Shin said, very slowly. “But that wasn’t fear. That girl wasn’t afraid of me… She was afraid of a name.”
Riri did not answer. Without realizing it, she had clenched her hand tightly, as though she were keeping something in her palm.
She thought of a wall behind the gym, of frightened third-years. Of gray eyes that held no rage, no fear, nothing at all—like looking into the bottom of a dry well…
I should be afraid, she thought.
And yet, for the first time, she wanted to truly know someone everyone else feared.
◆ ◇ ◆
Five months remained until the full-moon night when he would tell her the first of his stories.
After that night, Riri would understand that the rumors had been wrong about everything.
Except for one thing…
***
AUTHOR'S NOTE (A/N):
If you want to read the full book right now and discover the complete story of Livai and Riri, it is available on Amazon in eBook and Paperback:
🩸 Amazon USA (eBook): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HQ2B43RR
🩸 Amazon Mexico (eBook): https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B0HQ2B43RR
🩸 Amazon Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HQ5NGH9J
