Hollow

Sachiko couldn't believe her eyes. Her mind struggled to process what she was witnessing—it couldn't be real, she reasoned. This had to be some kind of nightmare from which she would soon awaken, she told herself.

Because how else could a grown man, in the prime of his life, be so effortlessly tossed aside like a limp ragdoll? How was such a thing even possible? And the monster that had emerged from a pool of blood and guts...it was beyond words. The very sight of it was nauseating.

Another member of the group, in an attempt to defend themselves, opened fire at the monster.

The gunshots rang out in the darkness, echoing through the night. The bullets connected, but the impact was minimal, not even penetrating the demon's skin. Leaving it seemingly unharmed.

The shooting abruptly ceased. And one of her teammates disappeared. Amidst the chaos, something came hurtling towards Sachiko, whatever it was, it was heavy. She instinctively looked down to her lap, only to find a nightmarish sight. The scream that fled her lips was primal, filled with pure horror — the severed head of one of her team-mates and friend, the empty eyes staring back at her. She frantically threw it away.

Sachiko looked down at her trembling hands, once clean, were now stained a deep crimson by her fallen comrade's blood. She desperately tried to wipe the blood off, her trembling fingers scrubbing furiously against her clothes. But the blood smeared.

Blood.

Blood,

And more blood.

It was everywhere, splattered all over her clothes, running down her skin like ink. Her entire body shook as she tried to wipe it off, the copper smell, the taste, and the sight of it all made her want to throw up.

She clenched her eyes shut, refusing to look at any of it anymore. But she could smell the stench, feel the stickiness across her skin.

Her hands wouldn't stop trembling, no matter how she tried to calm herself down. The sight of her teammate's head on her lap had burned itself deep into her mind, it was a image she knew she would ever be able to forget. The image of a friend's face twisted into an expression of shock and pain, the eyes empty, devoid of any life, was seared into her memories.

This had to be a dream — it was her mind simply playing tricks on her, yes, it was just a bad dream. She'd wake up soon. Her friends would be by her bedside, smiling and telling her that everything will be all right.

A part of her, the rational part, told her this was no dream.

And she knew this deep down. But the idea that this was just a bad dream, that nothing she was seeing right now was real, was so much more reassuring — to accept that reality would break her mind.

All she had to do was wake up, that was all. Wake up, and everything would be fine. All of the blood, all of the carnage, it could all be dismissed. This monster, it wasn't real — it couldn't be real.

She closed her eyes and tried to will herself to wake up. She repeated those words over and over and over to herself, as if they were a prayer. Wake up, wake up, wake up…but, it didn't work.

No matter how many times she told herself to open her eyes and wake up, it was to no avail. This was the cruellest dream she had ever experienced. It felt so real. It almost felt more real than her real life, everything was in such vivid detail.

But she was woken up by a loud voice shouting:

"RUN! EVERYONE RUN! SCATTER AND RUN!'

It was her lover's, kazu's voice.

At the sound of his voice, Sachiko's eyes snapped open. She quickly lifted her head up and looked towards the sound of the voice.

It was him, Kazu! He was alright. He was alive. A sense of relief rushed through her body, filling up her chest and replacing the terror she had felt before. He looked unharmed, which reassured her.

After hearing kazu's shout, without a moment's hesitation, In the face of overwhelming terror, their instinct to survive kicked in. They scattered like frightened rabbits, some abandoning their weapons in their haste to flee. A few managed to get off a few desperate shots at the monster before sprinting away into the darkness.

These were supposed to be their teammates and they had abandoned her, although at their leaders order's so it wasn't something she could interfere in.

The group split up in different directions, desperately fleeing the area in a bid to save themselves. It was every man for himself now. No one was looking back.

Kazu looked around to see if anyone was still there, he spotted Sachiko still frozen in terror. Kazu rushed over to Sachiko, grabbing her hand without hesitation and bolted forward, pulling her along with him.

"We're running, we're running. We have to get away from that thing," he said urgently.

Kazu's feet pounded against the ground as he pulled Sachiko along. His hand held hers tightly, as if scared that if he even slightly loosen his grip, she would disappear.

He had no concrete plan or direction, but all he cared about was getting as far away from the monster as possible. As they ran, Sachiko yelled, her voice tinged with panic, "Where are we going?!"

Kazu, running for his life, shouted back, "I don't know, we just have to keep running!"

They ran as fast as their legs could carry them.

Kazu stole a glance over his shoulder, breathless, his lungs burning as he continued to run. The creature did not follow them, which offered some small measure of relief.

However, the momentary relief was quickly shattered by the distant cries piercing the silence, echoing through the chilled air.

It made his heart ache.

His teammates, his friends, were in grave danger, probably being attacked by the monster,

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Kazu's face contorted in anger. He couldn't see much in the darkness, fog, and snow, making it nearly impossible to know what was happening to his comrades.

All he could do was hope that his remaining teammates would survive this nightmare.

He had failed them.

At that moment, he cursed himself. He wasn't a leader. What kind of leader would allow their teammates to fall into danger like this? He was weak, he was selfish, he fled instead of fighting but it was necessary, if he goes down, they all go down.

"Kazu!"

Sachiko, struggling to keep up, tugged on Kazu's hand, pulling his attention back to her. The panic in her voice forced him to snap back to reality, his focus shifting away from his guilt.

"Stop, stop!" she gasped out, completely winded from running so fast.

"We... we need to stop. We can't keep going like this."

On the horizon, a collection of crumbling, derelict buildings came into view. Kazu and Sachiko, with the last of their strength, pushed themselves to run the remaining distance.

"Just a bit further," he thought, "and we'll find somewhere to hide."

As they dashed through the dark, the pair found themselves before an old grocery store, tattered and crumbling.

The door creaked open as Kazu and Sachiko rushed inside, slamming it shut behind them. The grocery store was dark and dusty, shelves still filled with rotting merchandise covered in a thin layer of cobwebs.

The paint on the walls was peeling off, and the windows were covered in layers of grime and dust, making it impossible to see inside or outside. The air was musty with the smell of decay, dust and cobwebs covering every corner. The wooden floor creaked with every step, each sound echoing through the building.

Kazu, his body aching from the gruelling run, shoved a wooden display shelf towards the door, barricading it. The contents on top of the shelf crashed to the ground. Exhausted, he collapsed to the floor, panting heavily.

Sachiko sat on the floor next to him, her chest heaving with exhaustion. She was trembling, her face pale and filled with fright. She leaned against Kazu, seeking comfort in his presence. Kazu wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close.

For a few moments, they sat in silence, catching their breath.

"They're all... dead... aren't they?" Sachiko asked Kazu, her eyes glistening with the tears that threatened to fall.

Kazu said nothing. His body tensed as she voiced the words out loud, the grim confirmation of what he feared most. Every one of his companions...his teammates...his friends... they were most likely dead. He swallowed hard, the realization like a rock settling in his gut. He couldn't bring himself to say it out loud.

Finally, he said in a low voice, "Probably."

Kazu's hand clenched into a fist, his knuckles turning white. A mix of anger and despair filled him. Anger at the monster who had brought about this carnage, and despair at the loss of his companions. He closed his eyes momentarily as he fought the sudden urge to let out a shout of frustration. But he couldn't. Sachiko was next to him, and the last thing she needed right now was to see him lose control.

"I'm sorry, Sachiko," he said, his voice filled with regret and sorrow. "This is all my fault." His grip around her tightened a little, as if trying to reassure himself that she was still safe. His mind was filled with guilt and self-blame. He should have been stronger, he should have stood his ground and fought that monster, but instead, he had given in to the primal instinct of self-preservation and left his teammates behind. He could have done something, anything, to save them, but instead he had run away.

A coward.

That's what he was.

He exhaled heavily as he pulled Sachiko closer to him, the guilt almost choking him. "I was a coward." He didn't try to hide the self-reproach in his voice. "I should have stayed and fought. I should have done something, anything."

He pressed his forehead against hers, trying to find solace in her presence, her warmth. "But instead, I chose to run. I chose to leave them behind..."

"No..no don't think that..it wasn't your fault.."

"You won't understand, these people, I saved them when they had nothing, I have this life to them and because of me it was also taken away from them."

"Don't say that," she protested, her voice breaking. "It's not your fault. You didn't do this. That monster did."

She pulled her face away, searching his eyes with her own frantic ones. "You couldn't have just stayed and fought. You would have died too."

Kazu, his gaze downcast, said nothing for a few moments. He was unable to meet her gaze. He knew she was trying to comfort him, but it didn't change how he felt but then she suddenly changed the topic, probably an attempt to make him feel a less bad.

"W..what do you think that thing was?"

He looked up at her question, the sudden change in topic snapping him out of his thoughts. He forced himself to focus on her question, pushing aside the overwhelming guilt for now.

Kazu's expression darkened as he thought about what they had just witnessed. "I'm not sure," he said, his voice low. "But whatever it was, it was like nothing I've ever seen before. And its strength…maybe it's a bio-weapon."

Maybe but it probably wasn't.

That demon looking guy had told him before how he was going to kill a bio-weapon up ahead and he hadn't seen that guy so far so this couldn't be that bio-weapon.

It was something else.

Like a...for the lack of a better word.

"A doppelganger.."

Kazu muttered out.

"A doppelganger?" Sachiko repeated, her brows furrowing in confusion, "What do you mean?"

Kazu paused, his own thoughts swirling around in his mind. "The creature we saw," he began slowly. "It was like us, a perfect physical copy of a human being. And its strength, it was unnatural. But it didn't act human."

He paused again.

"It's a doppelganger, he said it when I asked him who it was..ahh that doesn't matter...i just want to survive this.."

It wasn't a perfect explanation, but Kazu didn't have time to explain it more.

Kazu, interrupted Sachiko before she could speak. He quickly placed his handgun and a small pocket knife on the floor. In this moment, they had little else to rely on for self-defense. Sachiko followed suit, placing her own knife on the floor. Kazu only had one magazine which was currently in his hand-gun containing 16 bullets.

"God... we're so screwed..."

Sachiko observed the meager assortment of weapons on the floor. "This?" she questioned. "This is what we have to work with? A handgun with one magazine and two knives?"

Kazu let out a weary sigh, agreeing with her sentiment. The odds were not in their favor, but they had no choice but to make do with what they had.

Sachiko spoke once again, her eyes fixed on the pitiful stash of weapons. "Do you think bullets even work on that thing? That monster didn't react when Kaito and Takeshi shot at it," she pointed out.

Kazu couldn't help but frown in frustration. The bullets had indeed been ineffective, and he could only imagine what would happen if they ran out of firepower. "I don't know," he admitted. "We don't exactly have a lot of options here."

He picked up the handgun, inspecting it as if trying to find some hidden potential. "We have to assume that these bullets won't work and also we really don't have any other option. It's either that or we try to fight it bare-handed which in of itself is a death sentence...I just hope that we don't have to find out," he muttered under his breath, his eyes darting around the room, as if expecting the creature to burst through the door and attack at any moment.

Kazu glanced at Sachiko and said:

"If I don't make it...everything I own is yours..The megacorp won't be kind to you, and you'll likely be facing repercussions for the loss of the employee. But, you'll have access to my bank account, my property and everything else I own — just...sell it all. Get out of Japan, start a new life somewhere safe."

Sachiko's eyes widened at Kazu's words, her expression a mix of alarm and disbelief. He had just brought up the prospect of his death, and it sent a jolt through her.

"Don't talk like that," she protested, her voice trembling slightly. "Don't talk like you have already given up."

She swallowed, her anxiety mounting. "We're going to make it out of here. Both of us."

Kazu looked at her, his eyes filled with a quiet resignation.

"I want to believe that, Sachiko. I really do," he said quietly. The way he spoke, the tone of his voice, it almost sounded like he had already resigned himself to some sort of grim fate. He placed a gentle hand over hers, squeezing it lightly.

"But you have to underst—"

Before he could finish his words, Sachiko suddenly cut him off, shaking her head vigorously. Her eyes were fiery, a determined expression etched on her face. "No," she said emphatically. "No 'buts', no 'ifs'. We are going to get through this, together."

She gripped him even tighter, her fingers digging into his arm almost painfully.

"Fine! Fine! We'll both survive. You good now?"

"yes. I am good now, so what's next?"

"We make a run for it. That's what's next."

Kazu declared.