𝑸𝑶𝑻𝑪:

𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔.

***

𝘈 𝘗-𝘗𝘖𝘞𝘈𝘕...

At that moment, her mind went blank. Even in the chilly night breeze, she was sweating excessively when she saw those white eyes gazing deep into her. Her mind ran through her lessons regarding POWANs, anxiety kicking in as she tried to remain calm while analysing facts that might serve as a key out of this situation.

POwerful White-eyed ANti-humans or POWANs, were creatures that coexisted with humans, mostly in Japan; paranoid beasts who turned violent against anyone from whom they felt a threat or anyone they seemed fit to quench their blood-lust. Any human who encountered a POWAN, either got killed or turned into one himself. Their only distinguishable features were their white eyes and the sharp fangs, which they used to transfer their POWAN powers into a human. Other than that, one couldn't distinguish between a POWAN and a human.

These were the only facts Asami knew, but in the situation she was in, they were not helpful.
The beast glared at her and brought his face closer to her neck. She tried to move, but moving even a single finger caused her a deadly pain in her shoulders. She gasped, still thinking of ways to avoid being bitten. Even a second more and her life as a human would be over. As the creature moved his face even closer, she had no choice. Forcing her back up she took a mouthful of his face and her teeth dug deep inside the flesh of his cheeks; blood trickled down her teeth, as the POWAN jumped back with pain, pulling her face together with him.

With knees folded on the dusty lane, she spat out the blood that swept into her mouth. Her white eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the filthy creature with disgust.
Thrusting her body against the ground, she tried to stand up; even though her arms rendered useless, her legs remained intact. She could still run and save her life and her humanity.
But her knees gave in, for the situation she faced was horrendous, legs trembling before she finally lost her balance. In that moment, she realised how ineffective her education had been, if she couldn't even defend herself from the beast.

Trying again, one leg at a time, she took small, heavy breaths, but it was too late. The POWAN's wounds vanished.

𝘐𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥-

Her eyes went wide with astonishment. Although, she knew a bit about this, this was the first time she saw it with her own eyes.
The POWAN bounced on her again, and grabbed her by her arms.

Heavy and continuous breaths entered and escaped her nostrils. The creature moved his face closer to her neck and stretched his jaws wide enough to highlight his long, sharp fangs, just like a vampire.

Shutting her eyes tight and accepting reality was the only choice when she knew she didn't have any strength left to fight back. 

His nasty breath fell on her neck making her cringe, however, she suddenly found herself pressed to the ground under his weight. His face slipped right beside her and she heard a loud thud noise. Turning her head around, she found a large carton full of trash.

"Who is there? Holy Lord, couples now days...," she heard an old lady say, when she realised her situation. She pushed back the unconscious POWAN who had his head hit by a heavy pile of junk and limped her way out, one hand holding her broken shoulder, the other hanging like a thin log of wood tied to a string.

She finally made it home; her house was a three-story, white mansion enveloped by a garden. An enormous gate led the way to a stone path that reached her door. As she pushed it open, the door made a creaking sound.

"Ah, Asami, what took you so-" the old man stood lifeless, with eyes widened, seeing her daughter all covered up in dirt.

"What is all this?" he said in a voice a little gentler than a shriek, as he ran his way to his daughter.

Stretching his hands, he lunged forward to hold his daughter,however, she dodged them and took a few steps back. Pausing for a moment, Hiroichi then withdrew his hands back and shifted his gaze away.

"I just tripped," Asami lowered her gaze, taking a noticeable defensive posture against her father. She now stood straight with her hands tied together before her.

Hiroichi glanced at his daughter, searching every nook for wounds. It was as clear as a stream that he was holding himself back. If only circumstances would have been a little different, he would have held her in his arms and cried, and later treated her wounds himself. But life did not have such fatherly pleasures in store for him, which he knew was his fault after all. His sweet little daughter who couldn't bear being separate from her father and mother for even a minute was lost in the shadows of his past mistakes.

Turning his back to Asami, when he couldn't watch her any longer, he calmed himself down.
"I see. Be careful. You are a grownup now. And what about your haircut? I think I told you to have them trimmed off a bit. I know you loved your mother but please-"

"Shut up!" Asami shouted, breathing as fast as she could, her visible eye bulging out in anger.
A sudden wave of heat pushed itself inside her body. Eventually, her head burned up from the insides, she precipitated heavily and her body experienced a pain it never did before. Her mind seemed to be clouded, senses numb as if a foreign entity had gained control over her. The real Asami would never have talked back to her father, no matter how much she hated him. The emergence brought with itself an unbearable burning sensation, scorching her insides as she felt like her nerves decayed.

"Stop talking like you own her." A coarse voice made its way out of her throat, nothing like it was earlier. The gentle touch in her voice faded away. Dashing off towards her father, she held his collar, subsequently making him lose his balance. 

"One more word about anything related to mama, and you'll see your grave."

Hiroichi leaned back on the couch in the drawing room, Asami still clenching on his collar. She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest when she came back to her senses. The entity recoiled back and she was Asami again, the real one.

"Wh... what...?" Clutching her face with her hands, she took a few backward steps and wiped off her sweat with her hands.

"I... I am so sorry, father. I didn't mean to- " She ran to her room and shut the door, standing with her back against it.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵... 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥!

Slowly, she dragged herself down against the door, finally sitting with her knees below her chin, when she noticed her hands worked perfectly which, just a few moments ago, were hanging lifeless.

Waves of consecutive hot and cold currents flowed throughout her body. A large dysesthesia hit her chest as she fell down, pressing it with her hands. Her feet were numb, and her vision blurred with her body stinging like she lied on a floor with broken glass scattered over it.
The silver-head tried to breathe faster when she felt her lungs choking.

𝘎𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘢' 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘪𝘳.

But to no avail, she suffocated and started coughing. When she could finally breathe a little, an urge to hurl occupied her. As she tried to stand up, her hands holding her against the floor, her body never complied and she lost her balance causing her to drag herself to the bathroom attached to her room on the left.

Pulling herself up and holding the toilet seat in her restroom, she sat on her knees when she hurled out and coughed; her throat itched like crazy.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨?

She looked down at what she threw out in the bowl. Thick, coppery red blood stained her privy.

She jumped back terrified, as her breathing grew unsteady. An unusual turmoil filled her mind. She felt terrorized, tired, nervous and confused.

Dragging her body on her knees to the washbasin, she slowly pulled herself up. Jaw dropped and her face went colourless as she looked with dead eyes in the mirror.

Her left eye- it was a stainless white.

She stood in horror for a second before falling on the ground, pointing at the cursed mirror with a finger that trembled like a dried leaf; her mouth wide open; no voice left inside her. Yet another time, she felt what being scared felt like.

Pushing her legs against the floor, she shifted herself.

𝘐𝘵... 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯... 𝘺𝘦𝘴... 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴... 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘺.

Asami's brain stuttered and her skin felt cold from the terror and turmoil she faced. Pushing herself to stand, she only coughed out some blood. But she stood up this time, with her hand resting on the wall. With one hand, she pulled her bangs up to see that demeaning white eye once again.

𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦!

She forced open her eyes, hesitating a bit, and the last trace of hope left her heart.

Slowly and smoothly, sweat balls glided down her forehead and her mind went blank. Her blue orbs surveyed every part of her body, as she pressed her head between her palms.

Her mind was clouded by hazy and distressed thoughts of getting rid of that cursed eye as soon as possible.

She ran to her room and shuffled her drawers.

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺? 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 ? 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦? 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦... ? 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 𝘐... 𝘐 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦.

Finally finding what she wanted, she raced to the mirror and shoved the pair of scissors in her white eye.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... haaaahhhh." Screaming her heart out in pain, she then went silent for a moment. Her eye burnt like scorching heat. It itched, it tingled, it burnt. A crazy pain swept into her body through her eye. But she acted like it was nothing.
"Heh.... heh heh..." Letting out small chuckles, she looked at the blood-stained scissors in her hands, from which countless drops of blood dropped on her white-tiled floor.
Her right eye was wet with tears. The other was a small mesh of white meat with warm blood sprouting out.

𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳.

She laughed again, looking at the mess she had become. With her mind completely in shackles, she stood on the line separating sane from insane, leaning towards the latter. It was when suddenly the white little pieces of her eye started intertwining. The blood from her eyes stopped flowing, her white eye returning completely to the state it was before.

"No. No. This... can't be. It... regenerated. But I... I was never bitten by..."
She pulled her hair away from her neck to find a minor scratch, just one little scratch on it.

"THIS... THIS... IS NOT POSSIBLE."

Like crazy, she shouted as she shoved the pair of scissor again and again inside her eye, each time screaming with pain until her white eye turned into a complete hollow sphere except for little white pieces of flesh hanging out, not giving a damn about the voices that will reach out to his father and the caretakers. With blood staining her pale face and beautiful white hair, the intense stinging pain in her eye could make her pass out any second.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦-

The little masses of white flesh started merging into each other, growing longer and a little more firm. Once again, her white eye was back to normal.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,"she shouted and punched the mirror with her bare hands, as it shattered into countless pieces.
With the hands whose flesh got torn off a while ago, she covered her ears. She stepped backward in haste and fell on her back, slowly glancing at her blood-stained hands. Before today, it would have been the blood of a human, but not any longer. Now, it was the blood of a POWAN.

"I HATE THEM. I HATE THEM. I HATE THEM. I HATE THEM. I HATE THEM. I HATE THEM."

She kept muttering to herself with both eyes bulging out of her colorless face.
Gently, she lied down on her back, near the door to her bathroom and pushed the scissors past the skin on her stomach as warm and thick blood like ketchup oozed out of the wound and flowed in different directions on her stomach.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦.

She went numb and closed her eyes.
"I want to die."