A Lack Of Senses
A silhouette stared at Mei. It was not her own and laid elongated on the asphalt of the alleyway in which the doll shop’s windows faced. She had been closing the curtains when the shadow had been cast, and her eyes were caught on the sight of it. It was unusual, if not rare, to see people loitering about the alleyway at this particular time of night. Her hands plucked at the seams of the lace curtain as the shadow underwent a transformation from long to so short that Mei concluded a body would replace it in a few moments. Her accusation was inaccurate, however, as a group of men walked past her window. A large group. They must have kept to the back while the main man, with the pristine shadow, led. As the group shuffled past, she took the curtains in both of her hands and closed them shut. The shop dimmed to the color of midnight without the moon’s glow peeking through the window.
She exited the doll shop after locking it from the inside. The door shut with a noise that pierced through the crisp air. Everything sounded louder at night and she refused to believe that it was because it was quiet. It was something else entirely, something that she tried not to think too much about for it seemed to have no explainable answer. Sounds were magnified when the moon was aloft, that was it, there was no discussion. Mei walked down the alleyway with practiced steps, she thought about nothing specific as the darkness welcomed her presence. She felt nothing, either. No fear, no illusions of middle-aged men or monsters jumping out at her had never resided in her mind. She did not believe this wholeheartedly, nor did she recognize it as truth, but Mei felt that she belonged to the dark. She was safe, and just as she had been at Yomiyama, invisible. No one was going to attack her because she wasn’t even there to begin with.
This didn’t help her in situations, all it did was erase the threat of existing. But Mei did exist. She, despite severely suppressing them, had emotions. She had senses. Very clearly could she remember the smell of flesh burning away and the feeling of smoke clogging her throat as she tried to breathe. She remembered screaming, from a distance, she heard it in her memory. This all reminded Mei that she was alive. The screaming. It sounded so real as she walked down the alleyway. Screaming. A large gang of men in an alleyway. Mei’s heartbeat sped and shortly after, her feet followed the rhythm. She turned a sharp right and the city greeted her with light. It snapped her out of the panic spell that had pressured her to run. She sighed out her exhaustion and swallowed down the pit of fear that had been growing in her throat. What did she fear? There was no threat imposed on her, nothing at all.
A wind, not quite strong enough to make Mei shiver, swept past her as she began to walk on the sidewalk. She placed her uncovered hands in the pockets of her winter coat as a numbing sensation ate at her fingers. With her right, she jingled the keys to the shop, and in the left, she expected to find the keys to her apartment. For a brief moment, she paused on the sidewalk, then turned back without a second thought. Mei headed back into the alleyway. Screams reverberated, and the sound of heavy footsteps grew closer. Something was coming towards her, and from the looks of it, it was something that could easily overpower her. She determined whether or not she should try to make it to the doll shop. A quick decision was made and she paused, leaning her back against the brick wall. Her eyes were kept open as the thing, she assumed was a man, sped past her. He no longer screamed as if something was attacking him, although the sound of his breathing was loud enough to hear from a few meters away. His speed caused a subtle breeze to ruffle her hair. She began to walk again, on the right side of the alleyway. She passed the doll shop without a side glance, deciding to feed the curiosity that ate at her. A peek was all she wanted a brief gander and she would be on her way. That was not what she got.
Something collided with Mei, head on and forcefully, causing her to not only fall straight on her back, but knock the wind out of her. She sat up after a few moments of attempting to catch her breath. And when she stood, she wobbled against the brick wall and finally got a peep of what was happening on the field behind the alleyway. The group she had seen were there, but they remained on the ground. Some budged idly, others not at all. She felt no need to see if they were truly dead or not, because she watching something else. The man with the shadow, the assumed ringleader, was fighting someone else. Or something else. Without understanding, she walked out of the alleyway that shadowed her and into the grass. A film of snow cloaked the ground, blood dappled the white. Mei stood, watching, as the fight came to an end.
