Shadow of Death (SOD)

Chapter 51

"Huh?"

"....?!"

Asher blinked a few times.

His mind refused to process what was happening.

The sound of Jesse’s snoring filled the room.

He was confused.

One moment, he had been holding his coffee.

The next moment, Jesse had snatched it from his hand and gulped it down while dropping her own cup.

Why had she done that?

He didn’t know.

But most importantly, why had she fallen asleep immediately after drinking it?

The moment the question crossed his mind, his eyes widened.

Recalling the conversation about the offer the Shadow God had made, his gaze slowly drifted towards the shattered pieces of the cup scattered across the floor.

A few drops of black coffee remained inside.

Glancing at Jesse for a second, Asher turned his gaze back towards the broken cup.

Specifically, his own cup of coffee.

Bending down, he picked up the piece containing the most liquid.

He brought it closer to his nose and sniffed it a few times.

Then, he swirled the broken piece for a second.

Something caught his attention.

His eyes widened.

An almost dissolved white pill was floating inside the coffee.

The realization hit him immediately.

Jesse’s last words echoed inside his mind once more.

—Please find it in your heart to forgive me.

The entire plot suddenly clicked into place.

The broken piece slipped from his fingers and crashed against the ground.

Jesse had drugged his coffee with sleeping pills.

She had deliberately made sure Asher would fall asleep and enter the Nightmare while she remained awake and safe.

She had almost betrayed him.

And that was why she had brought up the Shadow God’s offer in the first place.

Turning to look at the girl, Asher’s heart began pounding violently as the consequences of what had just happened finally sank in.

For Jesse to have fallen asleep that easily meant she had likely used a large amount of pills to make sure the coffee would work.

"Ba...thump...."

His hands trembled as he stared at his sister sleeping peacefully on his bed.

She didn’t move.

She didn’t react.

She was completely unresponsive.

"Je-Je-Jesse...."

Asher’s throat ran dry as he slowly made his way towards the girl.

"No. No. No. No. This can’t be happening."

He suddenly bolted forward.

He landed beside her and quickly lifted her head, placing it gently on his lap.

"Hey, Jesse. Jesse. Come on now. Don’t do this to me. Pl-Please. You shouldn’t have done this. Come on now, I can’t lose you too!"

Asher desperately shook the girl.

But all his efforts were for nothing.

Jesse remained completely unresponsive, no matter how hard he called her name or shook her.

Tears began gathering in his eyes, making his vision blur.

"Jes-Jesse. Please, I beg of you. Wake up and tell me that this is all a prank."

His voice trembled.

"Come on. Why do you all want to leave me alone?"

He cried and fell against the girl’s body, sobbing as his tears dampened her clothes.

".... Yo-You should have just let me drink it instead of allowing me witness this day."

His voice cracked.

"Yo-You shouldn’t have done this. You all just left me alone."

As he cried and murmured in pain, unbeknownst to him, two drops of tears slid from the corners of Jesse’s eyes.

They rolled down her face while Asher continued shaking and calling out to her.

She was already far gone.

The Nightmare had claimed her moments ago.

Leaving Asher as the sole survivor of the Reid family.

How long would Jesse survive in the Nightmare?

Asher didn’t know.

Whether the offer the Shadow God had made would even be valid, he didn’t know.

Not that he cared about that anymore.

"Please, Jesse. Come back to me."

He gripped the girl’s brown shirt as tightly as he could.

His teeth ground together, caught between fury and unbearable sadness.

"...."

A few more seconds passed with Asher silently sobbing over the girl’s body.

He slowly lifted his head and glanced at the ceiling.

"COME ON! WHERE ARE YOU NOW?! HERE! I’M HERE TO BARGAIN. COME FUCKING TAKE ME AND BRING BACK JESSE. PLEASE! COME TAKE ME INSTEAD!"

Asher screamed at the top of his lungs as he looked around the entire room.

He expected a pair of crimson eyes to appear in front of him.

But they didn’t.

Seconds turned into minutes, and Asher grew more and more frustrated.

"DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME?! YOU SO-CALLED SHADOW GOD! WHERE ARE YOU?! COME TAKE ME AND BRING BACK MY SISTER. IT’S ME YOU WANTED, HUH?! COME TAKE ME, PLEASE... JUST BRING BACK JESSE."

As the last words left his lips, he broke down into more tears.

His head pounded with an immense headache, as if his brain were threatening to burst out of his skull with each passing second.

But yet, there was no response to his plea whatsoever.

The whole room was almost silent, if not for his continuous sobs.

His face was drenched in tears, and even snot was beginning to drip down his chin.

The silence was frustrating and was slowly getting to the boy.

"AAAAAAAAAAH! JESSEEEEEEE!"

Asher hollered into the air before proceeding to fall atop the girl’s body.

He was now overwhelmed with grief far beyond his age.

Within a week and a few days, he had lost every member of his family.

Every single one of them was gone.

As he cried, soaking Jesse’s shirt with his tears, another minute passed.

Then—

The hair on his neck began standing up.

His head felt as though it was swelling from the inside.

Sweat formed across his temples.

He could sense something.

’Sh-Shadow....’

His eyes flew open almost instantly.

He shot backward, away from Jesse’s body.

Right there and then, before his very eyes, Jesse’s limbs began vanishing from sight one by one.

Almost invisible to his eyes, she was turning into a Shadow.

His heart pounded loudly as he stared at the phenomenon, recalling how his father had also transformed into a Shadow and almost taken his life.

Her hands and even one of her legs had already turned into a Shadow.

’She-She failed her Nightmare too? What sort of hurdles do these Nightmares even present?’

But most importantly—

"Ba....thump...."

’I need to run!’

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