Chapter 176 - Inside One's Mind

I was returning home as usual after school. Nothing much happened in school except for my friends getting to know about my relationship with Naoto Senpai since she came to my class and I wasn't there at the time, so she was talking with Tsūmen.

Tsūmen later told this to Gaisen and others and they were pretty shocked too. It was clear disbelief on their face that I was actually dating Naoto Senpai. Though It wasn't a problem for me because they would've got to know one way or another.

I was walking up the stairs and was about to reach my door, but something felt really wrong. My gut feelings were going off in all directions. I could tell that something wasn't right at all, but still ignoring that, I rang the doorbell.

I waited for a few minutes, but no response came as I rang it a few more times. Last time something like this happened, it turned out that she was actually showering. After waiting for a few more minutes, there was no response.

I tried turning the doorknob, and it opened. Walking in, I looked around, but there were no traces of anyone in the house. It all felt oddly calm, as usually Lilith would talk so much that it would annoy me.

I took my shoes and walked around every room to search for her, but she was nowhere to be found. The place she could've been was my room, so I walked towards it as well.

I opened the door and froze up for a slight moment. A lifeless figure of Lilith was lying on the floor in front of me, as her silver hairs were spreading around on the floor. I walked closer to check on her properly.

Keeping my bag beside me, I rolled my sleeves calmly and moved her body a bit to get a better look at her face. Her pale looked really calm, and her eyes were closed shut.

She was still, almost like a corpse, and her body felt freezing. Her chest wasn't moving at all, as she wasn't breathing. I was a bit confused about everything happening at that moment.

Slowly, the fear crept upon me, as I realised that Lilith not being conscious would be a great trouble for me because she won't be able to help with contracts at all. It was like she was my agent for the contract, but she doesn't remain anymore. I would end up in a ditch that I won't ever be able to come out of.

I poked her cheeks slightly, but there was no response. I slowly picked her up by her shoulders, but a sudden wave of pain surged through my left hand at that moment. It was so excruciating that I dropped her numb body.

The pain was unbearable. I couldn't think straight in that situation as I was tightly gripping my left arm with my other hand while sweating vigorously. I couldn't even muster the strength to shout and express my pain.

My eyes were slowly closing, as my vision was getting blurry. I recalled something like this happening back when I was getting the insignia on my left arm. The pain I felt that day was like this, if not greater than this.

I shifted my eyes towards my left arm, and I raised it to have a proper look. My arms were shaking as well as my unclear vision fluctuating every now and then.

The eyes marked on my hand were glowing in bright red. It almost reminded me of Lilith's eyes. The colour was oddly similar, but the only terrifying thing was the pain I was feeling. It didn't seem to stop at any cost.

Cutting down my arm would've been a better idea at that moment. I sweat it would've hurt less that the hell was going through at that moment.

I felt like someone had ripped off my skin and was now setting my exposed skin on fire. The pain was literally pulsating like a pin being continuously poke at my arm.

I tried to stand up, but my senses were blocked because of this excruciating pain. I lost my balance and fell on top of Lilith's body and my left hand touched her silver hairs and suddenly a bright speck of light started blinding my vision.

It was a rather strange scenario because I could see my eyes slowly shutting off, still the light wouldn't stop coming. As my I was closing my eyes, the brightness if the light kept increasing even more 

Soon everything went dark, and I found my consciousness leaving me behind. Every little noise also stopped entering my ear as I was left in a void of nothingness. 

I opened my eyes and found myself sitting on a swing in a park, as I could hear the sound of kids playing around and giggling. I was relieved that I got my senses back and could see and hear again.

My eyes glanced all around the place, but the park seemed rather unknown to me. The children were also busy playing in groups and I could see a few adults strolling around too. The cold chains of the swing that I was holding made a question strike in mind.

Where was I? 

Everything around me wasn't really colourful, but it all felt rather monochromatic. Everyone seemed to be radiating some kind of vibe, but overall, the world seemed really bland.

"Li… Lily… will you play with us?" I heard a sweet voice beside me. My head turned towards the source of the voice on its own, as I found a little girl, around the age of 7 or so, standing in front me with a teddy bear in her hand.

"What do you want?" I heard a soft pitched voice answer to that girl in a rather cold way. 

I was really confused. It wasn't me who was talking. Neither was it me who was controlling the body.

Who was I? 

Who is this girl? 

Where was I?

Did I somehow die?

The girl in front of me had cherry coloured hair, which was a rather rare colour. It was my first time seeing someone with that coloured hair. 

She was quite scared, as she wasn't looking at me, rather her eyes locked on the ground and her grip on her teddy bear was tightening, as she said in a hesitant tone, "I… I just want to play with Lilith."

Lili? Lilith? I was inside Lilith's mind? What the hell? That means I was in hell. But how did I even get inside her body?

What the heck!!?