1.28 — Death Pill?

“I-I-I…” I didn’t know what to say. What can I say? I still remembered that moment I saw them ganging up on the kid in the park.

And despite how it actually turned out, I remembered that feeling of powerlessness. That feeling of wanting to do something. Be something other than my usual self.

Be a hero.

And here was a woman telling me I could be that hero.

But at what cost? What will I have to lose?

More importantly, could I even do it?

As short and great as that heroic moment was, it was exactly that.

A very short moment.

A failed moment, I might add.

I am not hero material. I am not a saviour and I could never be one.

I was never cut out to be someone who saved someone. I was always meant to run away, far from danger. That’s it. No more than that.

So what if I have the power to save people?

What good is power, what use is it of, if the vessel of that power itself is weak? And that was exactly what I was.

A weak coward.

“I…I don’t know what I will do. I only fought because I knew Ritu and she was about to get eaten. I didn’t know what I was thinking. It was pure instinct. If such a situation arrives again, I’ll…I’ll probably run away. I’m not that nice of a person…” Yes, I’m not. Let’s be real here. I need to look after myself. “Besides, they’re already dead. So what’s the harm?”

“I see…” she said.

I don’t know what face the Grimmer made.

Was she angry? Annoyed? Sad? Disappointed?

I didn’t match her gaze. Didn’t dare to look into her eyes and show who I really was.

I heard her let out a sigh followed by a strange sound. Like a bell ring or something.

The Grimmer took out her strange mobile phone and tapped its screen. “Hmm, perfect timing.”

Placing her strange device aside, she fished out a strange contained out of her pocket. A small palm-sized cylindrical container that had a peacock design painted over it. Before I could ask what that was, she picked something from inside it and tossed it in my direction,

I barely managed to catch it by instinct. Opening my palms, I saw that something was a square-shaped pill of yellow colour.

“Don’t eat that yet. You’ll need it in a few minutes,” She said, her mischievous smile back on her lips. It was extremely unnerving for me.

For some reason, at that exact moment, my memory of her name cleared up.

Reizumi.

Better remember the name of the woman who would possibly get me killed.

Maybe I’ll even find someone who could see ghosts too, like me, and haunt them until they go to the police to report their death—

Oh my god, I’m thinking like ghosts! Wait, is that why they keep bothering me? Complaining stuff to me?

This was not the type of revelation I wanted today.

God, I’m starting to hate this day!

“So, what’s this for?” I said, holding up the pill to study it. Was it some sort of drug? A poison pill? It smelled like mango, the artificial kind, the kind that I hated.

I love mango but the artificial flavour of mango just never seemed right to me. Too sweet.

In a short span of time, my overthinking mind came up with various answers as to what the pill could be. The most likely possibility was definitely poison but she did say not to eat it yet and well, that just seemed like a weird thing to say for some poison pill.

Which made me think that this was some sort of drug, perhaps something to make me unconscious but again, why put a pause in that process?

“Yeah, I’ll tell just…just wait for a minute,” She said, her attention completely diverted to the device in her hand. Seems like she was typing something. Maybe she was texting her group?

Anyways, the third possibility was that this pill somehow unlocked something in me. She did say I had the potential to be a Grimmer. So maybe this pill would somehow change me? Make a Grimmer? But wouldn’t that mean that I would have to die—oh god, this really is a death pill, isn’t it?

Still…a certain curiosity ignited within me. Maybe it was just a breath pill or something. Maybe…you know what? I’ll just eat it. She be dammed.

But, before the pill could get near my mouth, my hand was pulled back by a golden rope of light once again. “What part of ‘don’t eat that yet’ did you not understand?” Reizumi said. Feels weird to suddenly refer to her by a name. Makes it feel like she’s…alive and more real now. Not just a figment of imagination conjured up by my crazed mind.

Now, normally, I once again try to eat it. Just out of spite too, to be honest.

Yeah yeah, I’m immature like that. Bite me!

But even my curiosity now was starting to realise that this right here was not a normal circumstance.

We’re dealing with some supernatural spiritual nonsense here. Who knows what would happen if I ate the pill? Maybe even something worse than death. To be honest, now I’m not sure if I would eat it even if she told me to eat it.

For all I know, I’d end up as a…I don’t know, half wolf and half human…

Although, on second thought, being a werewolf doesn’t seem that bad.

Except for the whole full moon thing where I’d become some hungry beast and go on a killing rampage, ofcourse. But if the pill somehow removed that side effect, that would be pretty awesome.

I mean, I don’t know what I’d do as a werewolf—there’s not much to hunt here except stray dogs, cats and rodents. Not to mention my clothes being all torn up whenever I would transform. And the killing of humans too. Yes, that’s a…that’s a bad thing too.

And I don’t know about you all, but neither of those options sounds appetizing to me.

Well, that’s assuming the pill makes me a werewolf.

The possibilities were endless—werelion, weretiger, werespider, weresnake…actually, no snake. They’re…very creepy to me. Idris loves them for some reason but he’s also a weirdo so that checks out.

Wait, did werewolves—or werecreatures—even exist? I mean, they have to, right? If demons and grim reapers are real, maybe so are werecreatures. Afterall, Quadro was a monster from folklore and it was real.

“Hey, Reisumi—”

“It’s Reizumi, not Reisumi.” She cut me off, her eyes staring at the bright screen of her phone.

“That’s what I said, Reizumi.”

“No, you did not.”

Gee, she has hearing problems too. You guys know I said ‘Reizumi’ right? “Fine, Reizumi,” I said, rolling my eyes, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Hmm…” I’ll take that as a yes.

“Do vampires and werewolves exist?”

She stopped and turned to look at me as if I just asked the stupidest question ever. “Why?”

“Nah, just…wondering if this pill makes me into a werewolf. Or a werelion. Werelion would be cool too.”

“…” If looks could get one to dig a deep hole in the concrete ground and bury themselves in it, I’d definitely be ten feet underground right now. “No…the pill does not do that.”

“Does it kill me?”

“No! God, why would you even think that!?”

“I don’t know, it’s the first thought that came to me…” I said, fiddling around with the pill, “So do they exist?”

“Who?”

“Werecreatures? Like werewolves?”

“Can’t you have little patience? I’m doing something important here,” she grunted but then took a pause, “But yeah, no they don’t exist. Well, not really.”

“What—” I started to ask for further clarification but she put her finger in front of me and placed her device on her ear.

“Yeah, hey Ash, we’re here,” she said to her partner and continued her call. I could only hear one side of the conversation so that’s what you all will get too, “Yeah yeah, I explained it to him…Um, I guess well enough…no, he’s not completely on-board…he’s not exactly the brightest bulb, you know…oh really? well, then you should have been here instead of me!...fine! Are you sure about this though?...well, a lot could go—…sure, whatever, 10 minutes is all I’m willing to give, after that whatever happens, it all falls on you.” She ended the call and jerked away a little to find me standing so close to her.

What? It was hard to hear her! Plus, they were clearly talking about me. I have a right to listen to whatever they were talking about.

Giving back her space, I looked at her with the expression of, “Well, if you’re done dilly-dallying, mind continuing the conversation?”…I may have actually said that out loud.

She sighed and began her lecture once again.