AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I step into the apartment and hurry towards the window. I open it and scan the street in front of the building. No one, just some kids playing with a ball. I take the note out of my pocket and try to make sense of it.
The knocking at the door earlier. Is someone spying on me? Did they hear what I said when I was alone?!
I sigh and stare longingly at the urn on the table, lightly touching it with the tip of my finger. A cold shiver creeps up my wrist, and a number pops into my mind.
22022022. It wasn’t just any random number. It held significance – I look at the calendar, my eyes fixed on the digits – the date when everything unfolded. February 22. 2022 – The day the Crasnic came after me, tearing my mother away from my life. The Lovers, the Devil, the Hermit, and... Death, whom I didn’t intentionally choose, but couldn’t evade.
Death had always been stalking me.
It wanted souls, even from my childhood, when I nearly drowned. It never let go, lingering by my side like a shadow, silently waiting until it ripped my heart out and reduced it to ashes.
I sit at the table, the note before me, and begin to question my sanity as I attach importance to something so impossible.
There are no premonitions, no heaven or hell, no saints or demons. There are only humans... and nothing more.
I grab my hoodie from the chair’s backrest and make my way towards the mall parking lot where it all started.
She must know more.
Because of the traffic, I arrive there late, way after 9 p.m. I search through the entire parking lot, but I can’t find her. I go around to look for her, but still nothing. No trace of the woman in black clothes.
After more than an hour, I give up and head to the gym.
I leave everything in the locker room, and as I’m about to leave, Sensei stops me at the entrance.
“What did I tell you when you first came here”?” he asks.
“Hello”,” I honestly reply and gulp down the remaining water in my bottle.
“And after that”?”
“What are you doing here”?” I raise an eyebrow, feeling quite confused.
“No, kid. I told you that the golden rule of this gym is not to use anything you learn here on the streets”.”
“What are you talking about, Sensei?! I was attacked. It was self-defense”,” I shake the water bottle and instinctively position myself defensively, without realizing it.
“That’s not how it looks to me, Becca. It seemed like you enjoyed cracking their skulls, breaking their legs, and gouging those people’s eyes out”.”
“People? Those animals attacked me out of nowhere. “
“That wasn’t defense,” Sensei shakes his head, disappointed.
“How do you know that?” I lick my lips because I feel them instantly drying out.
“I saw a video on TikTok...”
“Those damn kids…” I put my hands on my head and feel like I’m losing my mind. “I had no choice!” I shout nervously, and I adjust my cap.
“You always have a choice!” he yells back, but that’s unusual for Sensei.
He’s usually a calm man, but now... I’ve pushed him to the brink of despair.
“They killed my mother!” I whisper with clenched fists, almost in his face, looking at him hostilely, as if he’s the guilty one.
“And now you’re here because you want to find a way to kill them, don’t you?”
“You have no idea how I feel,” I raise my fist, but Sensei blocks it, then grabs my wrists and shakes me.
