Chapter 1

Holding the knife behind his back, Calvin could only feel anger at his brother. The boy older than him by only two years was broad shouldered, fitted with a square jaw and arms bigger around than drain pipes. Nathan stood a head taller than Calvin, with jet black hair and sun-tanned skin. His dark eyes showed resilience and maturity in ways that most twenty-two year olds would have to wait a decade or more for. He almost looked like John Wayne, emanating the same proud and assured swagger the main actor in a cowboy movie would carry.

This contrast between the two made Calvin feel all the more justified in his willingness to kill Nathan. In comparison to Nathan, Calvin was thinner with slender arms and legs as well as fair skin. His bright blond hair did not darken with age like most by his age of eighteen and blue eyes showed an uncertainty and weakness that never would be found in Calvin’s face. 

This combination of fair hair, fair skin and sparkling blue gave him a feminine appearance in contrast to Calvin's which always made Nathan the favorite of women everywhere. His lean, weak frame made him the more feminine of the two brothers. It was once joked that, at a distance, Nathan could pass as a girl in his class. He could not play ball or lift weights as Calvin was able to, the two brothers’ physical frame just too different. Not only that but Nathan was seen as the smarter of the two as he made far better grades than Calvin, as the latter cared little for academic success in comparison to his competitively minded elder brother.

“You said you wanted to see me, Calvin?” Nathan asked. “Caught me in the middle of my uni homework.”

They stood in the living room of their parents’ house, the silence between them tight. Nathan’s normally upbeat smile was downcast and grave after the tragedy that plagued them. Calvin, normally moody and sad-looking, had little in the way of change to his expression. 

The news of the murder shocked them both with Nathan the most visibly disturbed as his normally stout and unflinching body language became jittery. In contrast to his confident demeanor it seemed hard for him to stand up. However, Calvin was more affected by the death than Nathan had been.

Calvin didn’t care what happened to the murderer once he had been caught. His hatred of the man who stabbed Yui in a robbery gone wrong was fully eclipsed with his loss of the girl herself. Nathan wanted to personally kill and tear to shreds the recently released convict that had killed Yui but that didn’t matter to Calvin. Nathan was only focused on revenge, his main emotion anger.

Calvin’s only feeling was loss and emptiness. He saw the murderer himself as no more than an obstacle who’s effect on their lives was too late to prevent. What happened to the convict who should have served more jail time than he really did mattered nothing to Calvin. While Nathan swore everyday that it was the fault of the justice system to not hold the thug for longer than he did was irrelevant to the younger of the two brothers.

She’s dead. He thought. No amount of vengeance or changing the court systems will bring her back. 

It was a common thing to say to the victims of such tragedy but it only sunk in as Calvin lay in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He could kill the would-be robber, change the courts so they held prisoners longer, made sure criminals’ had better psychological evaluation and nothing would bring back Yui. You could do everything possible to prevent the deaths of more people like Yui, but you could never bring back Yui.

To Calvin, Yui’s murderer was no more to him than a boulder that had rolled down the hill and struck her in the face. No more than a load of supplies on an airplane that had accidentally unloaded and squashed her flat. Calvin didn’t care a single thought for how she died, only that she was dead. 

It was like your food on a hungry night being gone. You didn’t care if it had been eaten by someone else, stolen or rotted from lack of refrigeration. Your problem wasn’t that you needed to punish the person who took it from you or provided refrigeration. It was that you needed to eat and there was no food. 

That was how Calvin felt. He didn’t care what happened to the murderer. The thug who did this was a non-factor at this point since he could no longer be stopped from doing something he already did. Unlike Nathan who wanted to personally rip into shreds the man who killed his Yui, Calvin didn’t really care if the thug served life in prison, was set on fire or got off scot free with no punishment. 

He killed Yui and nothing the robber could do could undo that. If he reformed his ways and became an upstanding model citizen no amount of charity or community service could bring Yui back to life. And no murders the thug committed could make Yui even more dead than she was or possibly undo his original murder. 

There was no reason to consider him, or the oddity of his motivations. Apparently, shortly after being released on parole the thug had the urge to get real violent so he attacked the two nearest girls to him. Yui and her friend were on their way from school when he threatened them with a knife to hand over their belongings. 

The schoolgirl who had no real cash was subsequently slashed to death by the mugger. Yui did what she could to protect her friend from the thug stepping between her friend and the robber. When he was caught, he said he attacked less out of desperation for money and more because he felt the urge to have a good squabble.

Calvin wished more than anything that he could undo what the thug did. He wished for the power to undo what the thug did, to alter the past in such a way Yui never died. All night he could do nothing but dream up possibilities of fantasy where one could undo this tragedy. But it was not the only thing he wished for regarding Yui.

Nathan, the more handsome and charismatic of the two brothers in comparison to Calvin’s dour and shy disposition, had wooed Yui to his side. They had been going steady ever since her senior year of high school. It had been the most bitter disappointment in his life.

Childhood friends from early childhood with Calvin and Yui being the same age, they had grown up and played together throughout middle school. It was inconceivable to Calvin to live his life without Yui. It was the only person he could ever see himself wanting to grow with. 

He was too much of an introvert to have that many friends and he cared little for his parents but Yui was the gem of his life, the central reason he lived. A drought, earthquake and plague would be easy for Calvin to endure so long as Yui was alive. The end of the world and death itself was just background noise to him with the girl at his side. 

However, as they grew older it became increasingly apparent that Nathan would be the more successful between the two of them considering their stature. Nathan had a way with women even older womanizers would feel jealous of. He’d slept with a number of women that were his senior to make a harem. 

Calvin didn’t mind or care what Nathan did with other women but Yui…she was something different. He could have any woman he wanted but chose the very one he couldn’t live without. The unfairness that his small portion that Calvin secured for himself, the only part of life that he cared about, being stolen by Nathan was more than sorrowful to him. 

It was the equivalent of a millionaire stealing a beggar’s bread. There were no words to describe the hatred in his heart for Nathan. And it only grew worse after Yui’s murder.

Calvin found no reason to live. His greatest joy in life was the happiness he found in those closest to him. But with Yui being the only one he found any worth in being close to, his desire to go on was skewered. Calvin had this aspect of life. 

He had been very young when he realized that people were temporary additions to one’s life and would not stay around forever. He figured he’d grow old with Yui enough that by the time she left him or died, he wouldn’t have much longer to live. Calvin’s most plausible wish now was to die soon with her, to join Yui. 

But the reason he could not end it himself was that Calvin was convinced that if there was any justice in this world that someone as dour as him would never inherit the same place as Yui after death. Yui deserved a better fate than that. But whether it was selfish or not to want him for himself, Calvin would do anything to have her in this life.

He had wished with all his might that she might break it off with Nathan after a few more months since, from the gossip floating around, Yui wouldn’t sleep with Nathan. The girl’s sexual frigidity clashing with his older brother’s legendary libido gave Calvin hope that they’d break it off. Now that possibility was gone and his world had been cast in a darkness so thick it was impossible to pierce with any ray of hope.

Until now that is. Calvin thought as he squeezed the knife extra hard against his chest. I can choose anybody…but I can’t have you seducing Yui again. Then this would be pointless.

“So what was it you wanted to say?” Nathan asked.

The younger brother took the knife with the empty pommel from his back, the silver blade flashing in the light of the afternoon sun before Calvin plunged it into Nathan’s neck. The right side of his brother’s throat was run through up to the golden hilt. Once the end of the knife exited the left of his brawny neck, Nathan fell to the floor. 

As he laid on the ground, dead from a single blow, no blood leaked out from the wound. Instead the blood ran down the silver blade, across the golden hilt and into the empty open circle of a pommel. The blood then crystallized to form a red gem to fill the inside. Satisfied, Calvin took the knife out from Nathan’s throat before watching the corpse disappear into thin air.

 

Calvin contemplated the mystery of how he attained the knife as he trekked toward the graveyard as it turned dark. Yui had been dead for a few months now, so there were no reasons to expect visitors. Without expecting anyone to see him in the normally empty graveyard of Maple Loaf, Calvin contemplated how strange the phenomena of the knife really was as he walked through the dead of night. It could only be described as supernatural.

Every night he would pray for Yui to come back. Not on his knees begging but lying awake and screaming internally. Calvin’s plea was beyond words, the sweat and tears he had after every night Yui died enough to soak through his sheets. He had lost weight as he had not eaten much ever since she was dead. His body was more gaunt and lifeless than Nathan’s was now ever since she had died. 

Calvin inwardly pleaded for the nightmare of being in a world without Yui to end. He wasn’t even praying to anyone in specific. If there was anyone out there who was beyond human who could do anything to stop him from living in this loveless world anymore, Calvin desperately wanted to try. He bargained inwardly to anyone out there who could or would help. He felt it a futile attempt but finally was given an answer to his plea.

The knife appeared at the foot of a sapling he saw on his way to school. The wooded area near the park Calvin walked by every day had a large tree that had fallen and rotted a while ago. However, rather than it being sad the fact that something that overshadowed other plants was now decomposing meant good soil was provided to new growth. And that was when Calvin saw the blade.

The sight itself was just so peculiar, the knife holding a magnetic luster that he just couldn’t escape from. The way it shimmered in the morning sunlight, the golden handle having an odd engraving of a snake wrapped around a fruit bearing branch and especially the empty pommel. Beside it lay a sheath that could be attached to a belt. When Calvin looked into the open circle at the start of the knife’s hilt he felt the sudden urge to fill it with something.

After walking over to it he held it up to his face and watched as the serpent engraved in the hilt seemed to move, wrapping more tightly around the branch as it glinted in the sun. He tested the edge of the knife, finding the keenness of the weapon peculiar. Something about feeling it made Calvin uneasy, like somehow that knife could cut through something deeper than flesh. Whatever he was feeling, it seemed it wasn’t made by human hands.

The weapon sharp enough to cut through the boundary between life and death. A thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

He wondered where that thought came from as it was so foreign to him. As he wondered why he was so attracted to it and what purpose it had lying in a location as random as a city park, a voice seemed to rush from the ground up into his legs. Yet it wasn’t an audible sound but a message tailor made for Calvin alone. He stood shocked at the sensation, his body wringing with an odd vibration as though a shockwave had concentrated through his inner flesh.

Calvin no longer merely saw the death of the original tree and its subsequent decomposing as an isolated accident of nature. It was a principle of how the universe acted. The death of one brought the life of more. The saplings growing in its wake would never have been able to grow had the original oak never died.

As Yui will never return to life without sacrifice. He understood.

And so Calvin decided without a moment’s hesitation to bring back Yui. He cared nothing for the life of another person. There was no one worthy of living when Yui was dead. And Calvin’s greatest paradise was to live with her unto death…and beyond if he could. The only question was who. 

And that was when he decided to choose Nathan. There was no one he felt would make a better sacrifice. And the reason for that had nothing to do with symbolism or deeper meaning. Calvin just didn’t want a rival for the girl’s romantic affections. She stopped hanging around him for the most part as she was too busy being courted by his brother, an act that drove Calvin mad with jealousy.

There’s no use bringing her back if Nathan will just take her back into his arms. He thought. The only way to be sure she is mine is to take away her former suitor.

And thus Calvin’s actions now took him to standing upon the grave of Yui’s. He sighed as he looked down at the mound of earth before him. He felt relief flow over him that fate had allowed him this opportunity. Not only for a woman like Yui to be given a second chance at life but for her to be given to him of all people. Calvin took the knife in his hand, knelt down and drove it into the mound of soil up to the hilt. He stood up as he followed the procedure spoken to him beyond words by the knife.

A quizzical reaction took place as soon as he did. Calvin watched, mystified, as the gem of solidified red melted back into liquid blood and ran down the shaft of the weapon. The liquid tainted the silver blade a sickening hue, as though feeling it had been violated.

As soon as the remainder of the blood had run down the weapon enough to reach the tip of the blade, soaking into the soil. Calvin found the liquid didn’t drip down as normal, like an open wound on someone’s leg. It ran down like a river’s current, hurriedly attempting to reach the mouth of the ocean. Once a patch of the earth was dyed red, the soil began to move.

Calvin jumped back in surprise as something crawled out from beneath the mound of soil, moving away the earth as it attempted to escape. While in his heart the young man knew this would happen, he was still appalled at watching the sight. Calvin understood something at that moment: he had done something he wasn’t supposed to. 

He felt like he had broken his grandmother’s fine China, the remains of the imported material similar to what the young man was seeing in front of him. Instant regret stabbed through Calvin as he felt afraid he would be caught. The fear of his actions being revealed was real enough to give him a panic attack.

Something… He thought. Something about this…it feels…like I’ve broken some law.

However, that didn’t seem to matter as the pale fingers reached through the soil that had been soaked with Nathan’s blood. Calvin saw the beautiful white arm reach through the earth, like a drowning man’s last attempt to keep himself from sinking by breaching the surface. There was a certain amount of flailing the arm did as the second one appeared before an upper body was revealed, the young girl’s face and chest plunging up from the hole she had dug for herself. 

There was no mistake about it. It was Yui. He’d recognize her anywhere.

The girl was gasping for air as her entire body was caked in dry earth as she was gulping for air so badly it could be mistaken for screaming. Her loud and siren-like heaving itself seemed to tire her out. Her long, brown hair itself was littered with soil as it draped behind the front of her body like a dark curtain.

Even covered in dirt, Calvin was captivated by the sight of her, unable to keep his eyes off her as she seemed stuck midway between below and above ground. It was almost as though she couldn’t move past the layer of soil around her waist, trapped in that spot. Yui attempted to wiggle her way out of the ground by bucking against the restraint of the earth itself.

The young man walked toward her, attempting to help her as Yui planted her palms on the soil at her side and pushed with all her might. It was unsuccessful, as it looked like there was no way she could pull herself out. Calvin gestured toward her before realizing an uncomfortable fact that prevented him from touching her.

She’s completely nude. He thought. I didn’t notice it as Yui was covered with so much dirt but…but she’s without clothes.

Just as Calvin moved his arms away from her, wondering about how he would pull Yui out without it seeming to the girl that he was taking advantage of her, the girl finally wretched free of the earth’s grasp on her. Just as she shot into the air from the momentum of her push against the ground, she fell over. It was apparent that Yui was attempting to stand upright but as soon as she attempted to take a leg out of the hole, she fell to the side weakly. It was apparent she had little to no strength left in her.

Calvin, being right beside her as she did, caught her in his arms as she limply collapsed. The young woman was panting for life, gasping as she had half a mouthful of dirt she weakly spit out. Calvin felt bad holding Yui in the naked state she was in, careful not to touch her anymore than a gentle hold. She looked up weakly at him, her dark brown eyes glazed over as the dirt near them obscured her sight.

“Wh-Where am…?” she asked. “Am I…?”

Calvin didn’t know how to respond, so shaken by the sight he quivered as his arms felt through the coat of dirt keeping Yui’s unclothed form partially visible. As Calvin tried to form words to explain what happened, Yui lifted her arms to grasp at his clothes, like a newly blinded person feeling the world with their hands. Her voice was so quiet, more so than usual. 

Her normally upbeat and gentle tone, a voice that you couldn’t imagine without thinking the source was smiling, was raspy and harsh. It sounded as though Yui was sick and perishing. She looked up at Calvin, her gaze blank and hollow as life slowly seemed to return to them. 

“Y-Yui…” Calvin said, unable to keep himself from crying. His vision blurred with tears as the beginning of his sobbing prevented the young man from saying anything more. His tears flowed down from his cheeks to wash some of the dirt from her forehead. “Y-Your back…”

He wiped her forehead, the wetness washing some of the soil away. She looked up at him, a sudden recognition spreading across her face. Yui lifted her hands to grab the collar of his shirt, her grasp growing stronger as she tightened her fingers around his clothes. Her gasping almost formed words as she began to remember to articulate speech.

“Calvin…?” she asked.

He couldn’t help but have a smile spread across his face as she remembered his face. Calvin clawed away the dirt from her long hair reflexively, wishing to declutter her appearance. Even masked by filth, her radiant, vibrant beauty was more than apparent. Her voice caught in her throat as she slowly recognized him, her eyes widening at the sight of his face. Yui’s grip tightened with each passing moment of remembrance. 

“I-I…” she said. “I remember…you were…”

Tears blurred her gaze, her grip so stiff Calvin was forced to lean forward as she hung on for dear life.

“Were…” she said. “M-My…friend…?”

The recognition turned into a question, something Calvin didn’t know how to react to. Just as his mouth quivered as he failed to answer, Yui began to sob. Her panting gasps replace the wailing that split Calvin’s ears. At first he thought someone might hear them before Yui placed her fingers on his cheek.

“Wh-What happened?!” she asked. “Wh-Where did…I go?!”

She slammed her head into his shirt, a gesture that took him by surprise. The sobbing she continued began to wet the chest of his shirt, the screaming muffled against the article of clothing. And in the midst of this wailing, Calvin felt glad. The aching of his heart was gone, filled now with the young woman’s return.

As she wailed, Calvin absentmindedly looked down at the hole in the earth Yui had climbed out of. He peered down and found not only a tunnel leading into the ground but a broken piece of dark wood below. The young man silently gasped at the sight, noticing it seemed as though the top of the coffin had been slashed open by repeated slices.

Did…? He thought. Did the knife…? Do that? Yui wouldn’t be strong enough to pry herself out and not move that much earth…and it looks like a sword cut its way through from the top. Was stabbing the knife enough to not only dig a tunnel but…slice the coffin open? I…I guess this knife is sharp enough to cut through any boundary.

But what happened next was stranger yet. While Calvin had a clear view of the inside of the coffin buried several feet below…something began to materialize inside. Bones seem to appear out of thin inside the wooden container before he could make out an entire ribcage appear. Calvin was bewildered at the sight?

Who-? He thought. Whose bones are they? He wondered? Y-Yui’s? But…but Yui climbed out so…so they can’t be…

He then looked down at the girl crying at his side. Calvin smiled before gesturing for her to rise up. She looked up at him, her expression wide-eyed and nervous.

“Let’s…” he said. “Get you somewhere warm.”