[POV: Vanitas]
The Academy.
White masks moving in harmony, identical footsteps, calculated distances. And behind them, there was a black mask walking in the shadows, watching coldly.
"Look... she's following us."
"Because of whom do you think she is following us? Right?"
The black mask turned back. Behind the ranks, there was a thin white body stumbling, and a confused face trying to catch up. It wasn't a white mask like the others; it was an ugly mask, disfigured by the features of fear and the despair of rejection.
The black mask stopped. He waited until the ugly girl approached, and leaned toward her to whisper in a flat voice, devoid of any vibration of empathy:
"Look at your face before you try to approach me."
The movement stopped. The white masks erupted in laughter. Laughter echoing from the walls, from the floor, from the very fabric of the dream itself. And under the weight of this laughter, the ugly mask began to melt... decomposing into a sticky black substance that devoured the features of its ugliness.
The melted monster lunged at the black mask, its sticky fingers reaching for his neck: "It's because of you! It's your fault! Your faulllt!"
I opened my eyes... no, rather, Vanitas opened his eyes in the dark.
I didn't scream. He didn't move. Only my chest rose and fell sharply, drawing the cold air into my lungs in absolute silence. I swallowed my dry saliva, and forced my breaths into a slow rhythm. Inhale... exhale... inhale.
I remained lying on the hard wooden floor of the cabin. This stagnation must stop. The silence here does not kill time; rather, it dismantles the mind of this genius piece by piece. I must find a loophole in the wall of this entity, instigate any situation that makes him abandon "the purpose" so he ends this mission.
I turned my head slowly. Mugen was awake, sitting in his usual corner, contemplating the void.
I sat up straight. His voice came out calm, faint, but saturated with suppressed internal pressure:
"Why are you looking like that?"
Mugen didn't blink: "Because you are breathing like a dying animal."
I ignored the insult, and fixed my dead gaze upon him: "I can no longer bear this stillness. We are doing nothing but consuming. We eat, we drink, we sleep. Ten days have passed since I came here."
Mugen replied without changing his posture, in a flat tone: "If you want to return as a humiliated dog to your master, I won't stop you. I will even applaud you."
My facial muscles did not twitch. I kept my words on the same glacial level: "I will return to him as a dog. If you gave me that... only then, this would end."
No response. Mugen merely looked at me as if watching dust floating in the air.
I exhaled a long breath from my nose, slowly smoothed my hair, and looked at Mugen's wooden sword.
"Alright. Let's do something. Let's go hunting... or I don't know, just let's do something."
Mugen tilted his head slightly, then sighed with a voice that could barely be heard: "You want to do something. Alright, let's do something. Follow me."
Mugen stood up and walked out to the open clearing in front of the cabin, and Vanitas followed him with calculated steps.
The air outside was sharp. Mugin stood still, while my eyes fell upon the wooden sword hanging at Mugen's waist.
"What are we going to do?" I asked, keeping a safe distance while my eyes still monitored that polished wooden sword.
Mugen smiled a very faint smile, barely visible, touching the corner of his mouth. And I immediately shifted my focus to check for any movement that might come from the direction of the wooden sword.
Mugen said in a calm tone: "I will hunt... and you will be the prey."
My fingers stopped moving: "What?"
"I will give you five minutes."
I stared into his black eyes. There was no sign of a joke.
"One... two..."
Mugen began to count, in a monotonous voice like a clock's pendulum.
I didn't argue. Vanitas realized the absurdity of attempting a discussion. I turned, and began running into the depths of the freezing forest.
I was running with wide, silent strides as much as possible. My mind working as coldly as a machine... damn it, I am a fool. If this fool had just stayed in his place and kept quiet, this wouldn't have happened.
My eyes scanning the environment. The snow, the bare trees, the rocks.
I spotted a deep hollow beneath the roots of a massive pine tree. I slid into it smoothly, and hid in the darkness.
I drew my golden dagger from the ring. My hand was trembling invisibly. I pressed the blade against my left palm, and drew it slowly. It made no sound as the flesh split and the warm blood began to flow.
I summoned my cards, "Eclipse" and "Orbis Ferro".
I took out a bandage, wrapped it tightly around my wound to muffle the scent and stop the bleeding. Then I activated the "Eclipse" card.
The light fractured around me, and nothingness swallowed me. I no longer had a color, a scent, or a sound.
The fool gripped the (Orbis Ferro) card in his sound hand, and waited.
The sound of the wind scraping against the tree bark. The rustle of branches.
Every atom in my body was drawn tight like a bowstring. If he found me, would he kill me? I really do not want to experience death again.
(What do I do? How do I make him give me that thing? The problem is that it is always by his side. Stealing is not an option, and he won't give it to me through logic. It is an impossible mission).
A first breeze of wind.
A second breeze... third... fourth.
Nothing. The forest is completely still.
Where is he? It's impossible for him not to find me.
Then, the logical conclusion surfaced in my cold mind.
I broke the card's effect. I climbed out of the hole slowly, and brushed the snow off my knees. Vanitas walked back toward the cabin, his steps calm, but inside him, a deep sense of humiliation was silently taking shape.
I reached the cabin. I pushed the wooden door with my sound hand.
Mugin was sitting on the floor, cleaning the scabbard of his sword with a piece of cloth.
I stood at the door for seconds. I watched the calm movements of Mugin's hands.
Then, with a lightning-fast motion, the enraged advanced with two quick steps toward the wooden sword.
"Give me a sword," I said in a low voice, suppressed like poison.
Before my fingers touched the wood, Mugen's foot rose with impossible flexibility. A light kick, but carrying a crushing weight, struck my chest.
I fell hard onto my back. The taste of salty blood filled my mouth from the sheer impact.
Mugin said, without stopping the movement of the cloth on the scabbard: "I do not want to destroy the cabin, so stop."
I panted, wiping the blood from my lip. I stood up quickly, trying to lunge again.
But Mugin had stood up. He dodged my lunge with a simple tilt of his torso, and in one motion, he grabbed me by my collar and pinned me in place like a light doll.
"Let go of me," I whispered through clenched teeth.
He looked directly into my eyes.
Then, in a fraction of a second, the cabin was erased.
There was nothing but a sensation of absolute speed and winds my eyes could not see.
Mugen let go of my collar.
I took a step back, and blinked, trying to comprehend the change.
The biting cold vanished, replaced by warm, humid air, saturated with the faint scent of lotus flowers. We were standing in a small valley hidden between black volcanic rocks, and in the middle... a hot spring.
But the water radiated with an iridescent pink color, glowing from within like a liquid jewel, thick steam rising from it to dance above the surface, embracing the rocks covered in a layer of dewy green moss. The contrast between the harsh snowy mountains above, and this warm pink sanctuary below, was breathtaking, unsettlingly beautiful.
With utter indifference, Mugen began taking off his dark clothes. He placed his sword on a nearby rock, and stepped calmly into the pink water, resting his back and neck against the smooth rocky edge.
"Aren't you getting in?" Mugen asked, his voice echoing softly in the enclosed space.
I remained standing. I looked at the sword lying on the rock, a few steps away from me. Then I looked at Mugen.
"Don't you think I'll try to steal your sword?" I asked coldly.
Mugin closed his eyes, and relaxed in the water: "This time I will truly kill you."
Vanitas fell silent. I realized that this entity reads me like an open book. The coward slowly took off his clothes, and stepped into the spring.
The heat of the pink water stung my cold skin at first, then penetrated my cramped muscles, melting the tension of the past days in a delicious numbness. The water embraced me with a light viscosity.
I rested my head against a rock, and raised my gaze toward the sky visible between the crevices.
Through the rising steam, Mugen opened one eye:
"What were you dreaming about?" he asked in a calm voice, blending with the murmur of the water.
I froze for a moment. I looked at the surface of the pink water covering my body.
The texture of the water receded, replaced by the chill of crumpled bedsheets. My hand reached out to grasp the adjacent pillow... my fingers fell upon nothing but emptiness.
An absolute stillness sucking the air from the place. I raised my eyes slowly; two bare feet swaying in the air inches from the floor, a rope stretching taut to the ceiling beam, and a motionless body dangling in the center of the room, slicing the silence without breath.
I raised my gaze to Mugen. The killer summoned his strongest mask, the mask that hides the deep craters in his soul with perfect ice.
My voice came out smooth, steady, and entirely devoid of any emotional twist:
"Just the nightmares of killers."