Part 31 (1/2)

Not a moment later, Anzai was gone. Tos.h.i.+aki immediately heard a loud thud behind him.

He had no time to react when something fell onto his head. He cried out and bent over.

There was another thud. Trembling with fear, he turned around.

Anzai was hunched over on the floor, blood flowing down his temples. White powder was falling onto his body. Tos.h.i.+aki saw a hairline crack running up along the wall, almost to the ceiling. It took a few seconds for him to realize that the split had been caused by the impact of Anzai's body against it.

Anzai groaned faintly, unable to get up.

Something moved in the corner of Tos.h.i.+aki's eye. He looked up to see Yos.h.i.+zumi, who was making a dash for the alarm switch on the wall.

But Eve read his movements. Just as Yos.h.i.+zumi was reaching for the alarm, she opened her mouth wide and bellowed.

Yos.h.i.+zumi screamed. His arms twisted back, his body turned around once, and he fell head first to the floor with a hard crack.

Eve smiled, clearly taking pleasure in his pain. His body lifted.

She had complete control over him. Yos.h.i.+zumi began spinning in mid-air. He cried out.

Eve's eyes sparkled as she flung him from wall to wall. After a while, his clothing was stained with blood. When she saw that he was limp, Eve suspended him from his feet, then let him drop suddenly like a marionette cut from its strings. Just before Yos.h.i.+zumi's head hit the floor, Eve stopped his fall and lifted him up again, toying with him like this over and over.

”Stop!” Tos.h.i.+aki yelled in spite of himself.

Eve swayed around and looked at him.

He swallowed and froze. There was a heavy thump as Yos.h.i.+zumi fell at last, but Tos.h.i.+aki could not even turn in his direction.

Eve grinned.

Tos.h.i.+aki heard voices coming from everywhere in the room.

Panting voices. And not just one or two, but many, growing larger like a chorus.

He was terrified.

It was Kiyomi's moaning. Something only he should have known. A sweet song that soared without end, it had slumbered deep in Tos.h.i.+aki's ears. His wife's moaning, responding sensitively to his lovemaking...his wife's moaning, echoing now in a frenzy of vocal activity.

He looked across the room. Someone spoke in Kiyomi's voice. Her figure flowed into his mind like a deluge. Every one of her expressions, every gesture, bearing down upon him in raging waves. Kiyomi smiling, Kiyomi frowning, Kiyomi crying, Kiyomi calm, and Kiyomi held in his arms... Tens, hundreds, thousands of Kiyomis spilled into his brain.

His eyes were captured by these visions.

The dissected corpse on the floor opened his mouth, crying with pleasure in Kiyomi's voice.

The dead men in the green operating gowns were all moaning with their eyes wide open.

Tos.h.i.+aki began to lose his mind. The moaning was giving him the illusion that he was embracing Kiyomi. When she moaned ah ah he sucked on her nipples when she purred with her mouth closed he ran his tongue over her ribs and back when she seemed to wail he stimulated her down there when she alternated between aaa and haa he entered her hugged her tight kissed her many times thrust hard saw her limbs in disarray saw her expression and it overlapped with the white corpse spilling its intestines when had it stood up the ones in surgical robes too walking towards him he was embracing Kiyomi the moaning came from corpses then Kiyomi was a corpse dead but moaning made love to why what am I making love to what this cold sensation what is this intestines wrapped around my arms is it Kiyomi's am I doing a corpse inserting into brain-dead Kiyomi's body Kiyomi's moaning is getting louder she likes it Kiyomi is Kiyomi is Kiyomi is Kiyomi is ”STOP-STOP-STOP-STOP-STOP-STOP-STOPPPPPPP!!”.

The voices ceased.

The corpses fell to the floor, glistened, and dissolved instantly with only a faint, damp sound. Not a single flame to be seen. Eve 1's evocation of fire paled in comparison.

Anzai was clinging to Mariko on the autopsy table and shouting madly. Her eyes were open, but she was completely unresponsive to her father's cries.

Eve was giving Anzai a cold stare.

Don't.

Tos.h.i.+aki raised his voice.

Too late. Still looking at Anzai, Eve tilted her head. One of Anzai's legs shot up unnaturally towards the ceiling. She was going to hurl him against the wall again.

Even when his entire lower body was in the air, Anzai refused to let go of his daughter.

Eve frowned.

He was immediately jerked away. His body grazed Tos.h.i.+aki's cheek as it flew past into the wall with a crash. He did not fall to the floor. Instead, he was stuck spread-eagled with his face pressed against the wall. His eyes were shut tightly and he winced from the pressure.

Without warning, this unseen power gripped Tos.h.i.+aki as well, pressing him against the wall before he even had the time to struggle. It was so strong, he could not even lift a finger.

His cheeks squeezed together, nearly touching each other. He couldn't even blink his eyes.

Stop.

Stop it now. He could not voice these thoughts. He was unable to move his tongue.

Eve's figure was reflected in his eyes. It walked slowly towards the two of them, glancing down at the blubbering ma.s.s that was Eve 1, who smiled murkily in response. Eve beamed at her dying mother, then turned back towards Anzai and Tos.h.i.+aki.

It's coming! Tos.h.i.+aki screamed a silent scream. The pressure became stronger and stronger. His bowels twisted painfully. His skull creaked. His throat was crushed shut and he couldn't breathe. He felt like sparks were flying from his body. Simply killing them was probably too easy for her. The surgeons' corpses had disappeared from sight in but a moment's time. Eve was just toying with them now, like a predator making sport of its prey, like a child pulling the legs off an insect. He couldn't forgive his powerlessness before her.

He couldn't forgive himself that all he could really do now was beg for his life.

His consciousness grew dim. Vision clouded with red as blood vessels ruptured behind his eyes. Something popped in his body with a dull sound and a hot substance flowed out from it. But Tos.h.i.+aki continued to yell at Eve in his heart, to yell at her to stop.

”Daddy...”

Tos.h.i.+aki was startled to hear a voice. It entered his ears as an unintelligible grunt, but transformed into j.a.panese in his head. Eve had called him ”daddy.” He felt faint. He saw her with the corner of his eye.

It had a horrendous grin on her face.

His whole body cried out. He couldn't believe what he had seen. Blood vessels burst everywhere in his body and his bones cracked. Eve's smile burned into him. He could not close his eyelids, no matter how much he tried; he could not yell, to dispel that horrid impression. It was a grin that could only be called horrendous. He couldn't bear it anymore.

He did not want to live, with such a grin imprinted on his mind. Just hurry up and kill me, Tos.h.i.+aki prayed. Crush me!

At that moment, Eve grimaced.

24.