[b]DAY 26: GUNSHOT – THE AWAKENING[/b]

Eventually Jennifer felt like that she wasn't falling through a void anymore. There was no pain and everything seemed serene. Such a relaxed feeling was welcome after being mauled by wolves. And for a little while, she just dwelled in it. It just felt so warm and pleasant, like wrapping oneself in a blanket after escaping a cold winter day to indoors. Few moments passed and the peaceful feeling started to fade away slowly. She opened her eyes but her vision was blurred. She blinked a couple of times and started to get her sight back. Jennifer began to register her surroundings and soon she realized where she was: she was laying in the middle of a graveyard. It was nighttime, so the place was dark, naturally, and an ominous mist was hanging on top of the area. She raised herself from the ground looked around. The cool night air was making her shiver a bit. Jennifer saw a church in a distance – and there was some dim light visible in some of the windows. Perhaps she could find someone who would be able to tell her what was going on. And maybe she could get some shelter from there as well. So, she got on her feet and headed to the church.

She walked through the graveyard and it didn't really take her long to reach her destination. She was a bit cautious because who knows what she might encounter in that building. Arriving at the doors, she pushed them open, they creaked, giving her permission to enter inside. She could hear the sound of pipe organs coming from the interior. Bravely, she marched deeper into the church, opening the next set of doors leading to the place where worships were held.

A stunning room welcomed her. Lots of benches were prepared for people who would come in for a worship. Two statues of religious figures were standing at the end of the room. And in between them, stained glass windows depicting some holy scenes were oddly illuminating the platform below them – even though it was nighttime. It was a mystery where that light was coming from.

Jennifer wandered around, looking at her surroundings. There were candles placed all over the place and they gave just enough light that you could see everything in that room.

The pipe organs went silent.

“Who might you be?” It was a sound of a young male.

Jennifer turned around and saw that there was an upper level just above the entrance. That's where the pipe organs happened to be. She could see a figure – a white rat – coming down the stairs.

“My name is Jennifer”, she said confidently. “And who are you?”

“Name is Edward”, the rat answered. “Now, Jennifer, what brings you here?”

“Well the thing is, I don't even know”, the shark spoke. “Just… what the hell is this place? Why do I get thrown around just to be mauled and possessed and shit?”

“I can offer you answers”, Edward uttered. “I've been here quite a long time, you see.”

“So… what is this place?” Jennifer asked.

“This is a plane that co-exists with our own world”, Edward told. “Comatose patients are usually the ones who end up here, maybe it has something to do with spirit fleeing their bodies but not knowing how to get back and get sucked into this realm, I'm not sure. You might also be currently laying in hospital bed in a coma. This place has been assembled from subconsciousness of many individuals. I assume you have traveled through some levels as well?”

“Yeah”, Jennifer replied. “So, how do I get out of here?”

“It's pretty simple, I think”, Edward responded. “You just have to suffer enough pain and hope that your real body is still alive.”

“What do you mean?”

Edward took out a revolver from within his coat.

“I have tried so much to cause myself agony”, he replied. “But in vain. I think I'm dead in real world and that's why I can't return. But I can act as a guide here, so my existence is not meaningless. However, you might still have a chance. You just need to suffer a little – consider it as an entrance fee of some sort.”

Without a warning he fired his gun and shot Jennifer to her leg. 

“Oh, fuck!” she cussed.

“I'm sorry”, Edward apologized. “But this needs to be done.”

Before Jennifer could say anything, she got shot again, this time to her shoulder. Edward fired his gun few more times, bullets sinking to her flesh in different parts of her stomach and chest. The wounds were bleeding heavily and she tried her best to endure the pain.

It was time for the last bullet.

“I hope you make it”, Edward said.

He aimed at Jennifer's head.

And fired.

She blacked out immediately.

And woke up again.

Jennifer looked around a little. She was in a hospital room – perhaps in a military hospital. And she felt that this time she had woken up in a real world, not in that weird realm that made no sense. She couldn't help but smile a little.

“Thank you, Edward”, she whispered.



[b]DAY 27: HANAHAKI DISEASE – BEAST AND DIVINITY[/b]

It didn't surprise Kagi that he had once again moved to some other place while being unconscious – and his wounds had healed as well. That just was how this world worked apparently. This time he found himself from a cavern. Currently he was at one of the many chambers it had. Some candles were put on the walls, shedding eerie blue light to the grotto. Kagi stood up and began to wander around the place. It didn't take long for him to realize that this cavern was a maze. The cold stone formed many chambers and tunnels between them, all of them being empty if the candles weren't included. What purpose this place hold, that was a mystery. 

He wandered aimlessly in the labyrinth of stone and darkness. Hollow after hollow, it was just same place over again and again. Though, from one chamber he found a hole that led to outside – the problem was, however, it was way too high to reach. He could see the starry night sky above. He didn't waste too much time gazing at the sky, though, and continued on his little cave journey.

At some point he started to hear some muffled moaning echoing through the maze. Even though he was constantly investigating the place, he didn't seem to find the source of those sounds. They never grew stronger or become quieter, so he wasn't able to follow them based on the volume.

Kagi didn't know how long had he been wandering in the cave, but it felt like forever. He decided to sit down for a minute. The strange moaning had started to get to him and somehow making him feel more self-aware. 

So there he was sitting, contemplating his life. What was he, a divinity or a beast? Sometimes a disgusting, decaying mass of meat, sometimes healing and cured entity. He was flawed and contemptible, but at the same time talented and lovable. He loved himself so much, but at the same time he realized that he didn't deserve any love. 

Kagi started to feel pain in his chest and throat. 

These contradictions were tearing him apart. But he continued cycling them in his head, being even a bit enthralled by it. He had fallen in love with himself but at the same time, he loathed his very being.

He felt something in his throat and started coughing. Blood-stained flower petals came out of his mouth.

The feelings of love and hate followed each other in a circle. He was perfect and flawed.

He had the need to cough again so he did – and this time, whole flowers decorated with his blood came out of his mouth. He was in pain, but wasn't fazed at all. And after a moment, he coughed even more bloody flowers.

Eventually he started to feel that his lungs and respiratory system got filled with something. Perhaps with more flowers and something else… maybe some sort of roots was taking over his respiratory system. He coughed again, getting even more flowers out of his mouth. Breathing started to become a heavy job and became even more difficult as the minutes passed.

He was choking in his own blood and petals and finally, he blacked out.



[b]DAY 28: DECAY – THE END OF JOURNEY[/b]

So much time had passed. At least it felt like that. It was hard to tell in this world. At this point, it felt like Kagi had been roaming these lands of the damned for months now. No matter where he would go, it was just the endless desolate landscape all over again. No trace of living creatures. The emphasis on the word living. He had encountered a corpse every now and then, being able to get a meal from them. Whatever had killed those poor bastards, he never met it. But it had left enough evidence that surely, some blood-thirsty monster was lurking somewhere – it just had left him alone for some reason. Maybe it just wanted to steer clear of undead creatures, like Kagi. And honestly, Kagi also wasn't keen on encountering that thing. As far as things stayed that way, everything was good.

Even though he had been wandering around these lands quite a lot, he was still perplexed by them – he hadn't uncovered much at all. What was the purpose of this place and how to get out of there remained as a secret. It didn't help that he would always pop up in new place after losing consciousness somewhere else. It made it impossible to keep track where he had been.

Eventually Kagi's journey had started to take toll on his body. For whatever reason, he hadn't been able to regenerate the constant decaying in his body. Maybe that was another quirk of this world. So, he had ended up in a pretty bad shape. He was a disgusting rotting mess. His skin had become wrinkly in some parts of his body and was hanging from shreds. Some places had lost the skin and were now exposing his rotten flesh and even bones. His ribcage was showing, displaying his undead lungs and heart. A part of his stomach had also opening in it and short piece of his guts were dangling outside. One of his eyes had dropped from the socket and was hanging. He was such a gross being to look at. And if only this place had maggots in it, they would probably be nesting inside his body at this point.

His current gruesome appearance wasn't nice to look at, but perhaps, it was the key to finally get out of these lands.

Kagi had been walking through some rainy grasslands when he noticed something in the distance. It was something white and round.

Out of curiosity, he began to walk towards it. As he slowly approached that mysterious thing, its size grew and grew the closer he got. It was swirling, constantly rotating. What was it?

Kagi stared at it for a while, spacing out a bit. Eventually, however, he got a weird feeling that this thing may be the gate out of there.

Should he touch it?

He thought about it for a moment. But then he decided to go through it. And so, he dragged his rotting body to the white portal-looking thing and stepped inside of it, concluding his odd journey on these lands.



[b]DAY 29: SERIAL KILLER – HAPPY LAST BIRTHDAY[/b]

She was running away. Alone. Fear and panic as her companions, she was escaping, only one thing in her mind: survive. If she won't… she will end up dead, like the others.

The evening party had started as awesome. It was her sixteenth birthday and she had had a lot of fun hanging out with her friend group. Her parents were away on a little trip so she had the whole house to herself. And because it was located in a pretty remote area, the partying teens wouldn't probably bother anyone with their loud birthday celebration. The music was on high volume, they were dancing in a rather silly way and just generally had a very good time. One of the boys had managed to get his hands on beer and had brought them to the party. They were underaged, but with no adult supervising them, they would consume that alcohol. She really felt like that this was the best birthday party ever.

But it had turned into a nightmare.

The horror started when one of her friends had gone to bathroom. Then, after a little while, the rest heard her scream. The group immediately had gone to check up on her and when they get to her… they were horrified. Nobody moved for a minute for they all were so shocked to see her dead body – something had impaled her chest. A small pool of blood had formed beneath her.

Who could have done this? All of them had been partying in the living room.

It didn't take long for them to realize that there was someone in the house with them. So, they immediately decided to call the police. After that, few of them grabbed anything that could serve as a weapon: a kitchen knife, frying pan, baseball bat… Stuff like that. Nobody wanted to be left alone so they all stayed together in living room where they had many escape routes.

Then came a blackout. The whole room went pitch-black. Everyone panicked. Especially after they heard another scream, this time from one of the boys. And suddenly, the lights came back on. They didn't see any strangers among them, but they noticed another dead body – he had been killed the same way as the previous victim. Their terror only intensified, because, who could have been able to kill so swiftly without being seen in a room full of people?

They decided that they would only be sitting ducks in that space so they went and began their escape to outside.

While on their way out, one of the boys stumbled and got left behind. But when he asked for help and the others turned around, they could see that something pulled him to the darkness. And as he screamed, they knew there was nothing they could do.

It was insane how easily this… monster was able to kill them one by one.

There was only four of them left. How could they outlast until the police would arrive? They were arguing about should they stay and wait for police to come or should they run away. They were too focused on their fight that the killer managed to sneak behind them, cutting the head off of one boy. This was the first time they saw this murderer: he was very tall and wearing a dark coat with a hood that hid his face and as a weapon he had a machete. 

The three was scared off and they began to run away.

Eventually they abandoned each other by splitting up, having such an intense urge to survive that they each hoped the killer would come after their friends instead of themselves. Heartless, but that just was how fear works.

So there she was, running as fast as she could. From somewhere behind her, a good distance away, she could hear a cry once again. It appeared that the killer had hunted down one of them successfully. That made her ran even faster.

She was fueled by adrenaline as she ran for her life. But in the end, it wasn't enough. 

Suddenly, a dark figure emerged from the shadows and tripped her. She fell to the ground, hard, air escaping from her lungs. In no time, the killer had put his foot on top of her stomach. He seemed to look at her for a while, but then brought his machete down, cutting off her arm. She shrieked in agony and tried to squirm, but in vain. Even though he could have tortured her more, he decided that this was the end of the line. So, he raised his weapon again and then chopped off her head. 

After this deed, he once more became one with the shadows.



[b]DAY 30: LACERATIONS – BLISS[/b]

Who could have known that this day would end up like that? The chance for this to happen was so small.

Jazryl was an employee at a store. On that day, he had had an evening shift. Up until that point, the day had been quite ordinary. And when his shift was over, it had started to get dark outside – it was currently late autumn and winter was on its way. He had been walking home when something unexpected happened: he got ambushed. Instinctively, he had tried to fight back but went soon limp when a rag with a sweet scent was put on his face. Then he lost his consciousness.

At some point, Jazryl was rudely woken up by someone who threw cold water at him. He had a bit hazy feeling, but was reacting to the cold by shivering.

“Wake up, sleepyhead”, someone spoke tauntingly. It was a male's voice.

Bit by bit Jazryl started to become more aware of his situation. He was in a rather dim room that was pretty empty. It probably was basement of some sort. He was hanging from handcuffs – and he was naked. That alone was enough to make him blush from shyness, but it felt worse when he registered that in front of him was standing fairly handsome manly man.

Who happened to be holding a knife.

Oh god.

“Now, aren't you quite a catch”, the man said, caressing the steel of his weapon. “Let's see if you sound as good as you look.”

And with that, he struck his knife at Jazryl's shoulder. He yelped a little.

“Oh, so you won't cry because of a scratch”, the stranger noted. “Well, I'll make sure that soon you will scream like a bitch!”

He said this while guiding the blade of his weapon across Jazryl's cheek, making a small cut to it. Then he backed off, scanning Jazryl's body with his gaze and next, he hit the knife to Jazryl's thigh. The young man shrieked, pain jolting through his body. What the abductor didn't know, he was actually giving pleasure to Jazryl. No matter how much he cut the young man's skin, he indeed was screaming in agony but also because of delight. The more pain he felt, the more he was filled with ecstasy. 

And it would show.

“Oh, you're actually liking this, you sick little bastard”, the man muttered. “But so am I!”

He was swinging his knife violently, carving many lacerations to Jazryl's body. The young man was bleeding abundantly and the red decorating his pale skin looked beautiful. He was panting heavily due the ecstasy, but was also crying in pain a little because his skin was so torn in many places of his body at this point. But the abductor wasn't done yet. He gave Jazryl even more lacerations, even engraving to his chest the word 'whore'. He was laughing while doing so. 

“Beg for your life, you slut!” he demanded.

But Jazryl wouldn't do that. In fact, death was something he would desire.

After a little while, the man just stated: “I'm bored with you. I guess this is the end.”

Then he proceeded to slit Jazryl's throat open. The young man was gurgling a little as he got choked on his own blood. And oh, how good that felt! He was in seventh heaven when his consciousness faded away.

And everything went black.



[b]DAY 31: RIP YOUR HEART OUT – I DON'T WANT TO FEEL ANYMORE[/b]

A town full of people. All of them having a meaningful life. Maybe they had a dream job. Or was happily in a relationship with someone. Or maybe they had a wonderful family and lots of friends sharing their joys. Nonetheless, they all were happy and content with their lives. 

And then there was Tamayuki.

He had been wandering around the town, pretty much aimlessly. He had been proceeding slowly, walking almost in a trance-like state. Every now and then he would stop and look around him for a while. Lots of people passed by. All that laughter, all that happiness… He was so envious of all of them. It made him feel so depressed. Yes, he had friends too, but still, he couldn't help but feel lonely. Especially on that day.

He had progressed to different parts of the town, but no matter where did he go, he would see all the other people being happy: children playing, young couples holding hands, old couples sitting on the benches in the park… Eventually, it really started to get to him and he became bitter. The day was beautiful, but Tamayuki's mind was clouded by sadness. 

When the evening arrived, he was still wandering on the streets. He had spent the whole day just walking around the town, but perhaps it had only done more bad than good to him. Finally, the town got conquered by darkness and many lights lit up to illuminate the way of those who still walked outside. At this point Tamayuki had decided to head to home. Because it was nighttime, there was considerably less people to encounter. He was fine with that.

Under the streetlights, even Tamayuki's shadow was darker than those of other people.

In the end, he found his way home. He didn't bother to turn on the lights. Tamayuki dragged himself to the first corner he came across and sat down in there and hid his face to his hands. And there he stayed, in the darkness, even he didn't know for how long.

He was sad so deeply he couldn't even cry anymore. This was a situation where he wished he could have been able to shed a tear. But no. Why was he cursed by overwhelming sadness? It made him suffer. It made him to want to disappear. It's not like anyone would care anyway.

Depression was crushing him. If only he could stop feeling…

And then, Tamayuki got an idea. Clumsily, he stood up and headed to kitchen. He turned the lights on and walked to the drawers and searched for a knife. It didn't take him long to find it. He grabbed it, staring at the blade for a while.

Then he hit the knife to his chest. He grimaced because of the pain as he turned the knife in his wound. He carved a hole to his chest. He was bleeding and in agony, and he dropped the kitchen tool. Then, he reached for the opening he had made with his hand, inserting it to the cavity, making a disgusting squelching sound – and violently ripped his heart out. The organ still beating on his hand, he stared at it, panting heavily because of the pain. And then, he aggressively threw it to the floor.

Now he didn't have to feel anymore.