I came back to the dorm and it was empty. No loud music. No smell of dinner. A silence that felt wrong.
"Kyoi? …I'm home." I kicked off my shoes and called out, moving through each room. "Kyoi?" There was no answer. I searched even my own room—nothing. Panic crawled up my throat. "Kyoi!?" I grabbed my phone and rang him.
A phone buzzed on the floor near the shoe rack. I ran to it. "Fuck—"
I snatched my motorbike keys and rushed down the stairs. I rode to the BlueSea where we rewarded ourselves with food, to the playground where he sulks and where we would reminisce alot, to the abandoned carnival where we once got lost. "Kyoi!" I screamed into the forest; my voice bounced off trees while crows cawed and fled.
...
I rode again, harder, to the mansion where he showed up unannounced most of the time. "Mrs. Clara, has Kyoi come by?" I asked, breathless.
"Young master, good evening. No, he hasn't. Did you two fight?" Mrs. Clara's worry matched mine."It's alright, thank you. Have a good evening po." I hurried back to my bike. "Alright, take care!"
I pushed the throttle on the open road toward the last place I hoped to find him: the MU—SHS building rooftop. I snuck in for the first time, feeling a rush of rule-breaking bravado. I took the stairs to scan the classrooms, then I heard a faucet running. My breath caught. I dashed to the bathroom.
...
"Kyoi?!" I slammed the door open—empty. I was trembling, relief and dread folding over one another. I turned off the faucet and met my reflection in the mirror. My golden eyes were fire—gold, not red.
I breathed it in. I gave in. I am both.
Footsteps came—soft humming, my mother's lullaby. Valentine.
After I left the restroom, I pressed my back to the wall and followed the humming downstairs. He moved down the stairs; I paused, then doubled back upstairs to the security room to search where he might have gone.
Near the JHS building—at the playground—I saw Kyoi. He lay lifeless on the ground. "Kyoi!" I ran, heart hammering. I could hear the grandfather clock ticking in my head, Kyoi's soft laugh, his voice calling, "Felix."
"Don't die on me… Kyoi, I'll kill him." The promise tasted like blood.
I reached the playground—and then they were gone. The sight vanished. Rage flooded me. I kicked the ground. I tore through the JHS building, checking every room, Devian's laughter a taunt that echoed in my skull.
On the third floor, the last room.
"Kyoi!"
A slow clap behind me. "Well done.""You found your little boyfriend." I turned to face him. "What do you want?" My fists curled, my voice was a threat.
"Oh, I simply want to bond with my son—" he said, amusement curling like smoke.
"—Bullshit! I don't care if you're my father by blood. You did not raise me. I do not see you as my father." Rage stripped my voice raw.
His gaze darkened. "You don't see the message?" He smirked. All this time I'd thought his murders were random, arbitrary—senseless cruelty. Now his smirk made something else possible. Maybe they weren't random. Maybe they were a message—and I had been blind to what he was spelling.