NOVEL NEXT Chapter 32: Yandere Vibes
"Move!" Silfy shouted, breaking the silence. Her voice echoed through the treetops, and immediately Kai jerked awake from his sleep.
Half-awake, he slowly stretched his arms above his head, letting out a long, soft yawn. His fingers rubbed at his tired eyes. "Can I… sleep a little more?"
Silfy immediately flushed with anger. "Come on, get up, idiot! If I can stay up all night, so can you!"
Then she glanced to the side at Mei, who was still lying on the ground. Silfy bit her lip for a moment, then coldly hissed:
"Of course… she sleeps like a log."
She leaned toward Mei without a hint of softness in her voice and yelled straight into her ear:
"WAKE UP, SLOTH!"
Mei jumped and immediately sat up. "I-I'm awake, I'm awake!" she mumbled, confused, but when she saw who had woken her, her expression relaxed. "Ah… it's you."
Silfy immediately crossed her arms and shook her head, looking away. "Of course it's me. Who else would it be?" she muttered sarcastically, then shot Kai a sharp glance.
"Let's go!" she said, stepping forward, ignoring Mei, but her foot paused slightly — just enough for Kai to catch up.
The brother and sister followed her, but this time Mei kept her distance. Her steps were quiet and measured, her gaze lowered. It was as if she deliberately didn't want to get close to Kai or say a single word to him.
They walked in silence, only the cracking of dry twigs under their feet breaking the quiet.
Silfy led the way with determined, light steps. From time to time she would push a branch out of the way with her hand, not caring much if it swung and hit someone behind her.
"Almost there…" she thought, a brief, eerie smile flickering across her face.
Then she glanced back. Her eyes first landed on Kai, and she paused for a moment as if she wanted to say something… but then she saw Mei beside him and turned her head forward again.
"This way…" she said in a cold tone, then added, perhaps louder than necessary, "And watch your step! Some of you clearly don't know where you're going."
They walked in silence, their footsteps echoing through the forest. Suddenly, Mei's foot stepped on something soft. The ground beneath her gave way, and she didn't even have time to react.
In the next moment, the earth collapsed under her weight, and she fell down with a short scream. The hole was deep, at least three and a half meters, perfectly shaped as if someone had carefully dug it — too precise to be natural.
"Mei!" Kai shouted, instinctively lunging forward. He reached for his sister, but before their fingers could touch, he felt a violent blow to his chest.
Silfy had kicked him with all her strength, knocking him off balance and sending him flying backward.
THUD!
His body hit a nearby tree trunk with force. The air whooshed out of his lungs, and pain spread down his back.
"Kai!" Mei called from the hole, her voice full of both surprise and concern.
"LEAVE HIM! HE'S MINE!" Silfy screamed, her voice echoing through the forest. She didn't even bother to look at the hole where Mei had fallen.
She approached Kai, a wide, twisted smile spreading across her face.
"S-Silfy…" Kai muttered, still trying to recover from the hit against the tree.
Silfy crouched in front of him, then lightly sat in his lap. Her eyes pinned him in place. Her cold hand lifted his chin, forcing him to look directly at her face.
"Don't you like me?" she asked, her voice sounding innocent. But in her gaze burned a spark of madness.
Kai took a moment to think. This is just perfect! he thought, swallowing the lump in his throat.
"Let me go…" he said, deliberately trying to sound scared.
"Never~" Silfy murmured, pressing herself against his lips. The kiss wasn't just long — it was hungry, as if she wanted to steal his very breath. Her fingers slid down his neck, cupping his cheeks, gentle yet possessive, pushing him deeper into that scorching touch.
"Mmm… your lips are so soft~" she rasped, not giving him a chance to reply — her lips found his again, faster this time, more passionate.
Mei could only shiver below, her thoughts consumed by the sounds from above. "K-Kai…" she whispered softly, almost like a prayer.
Kai smiled through the kiss and lifted his hands to Silfy's ears. She shuddered at his touch — her whole body trembling the moment she felt him.
"N-not there…!" she cried, tilting her head aside, but she didn't pull away. On the contrary — she let his fingers trace the sensitive tips of her ears, while she sank her teeth into his lip, biting lightly.
Mei clenched her fists in the darkness, imagining the worst possible scene up there — Kai and Silfy together, doing things that made her stomach twist just thinking about it. "N-no… HE'S MINE!" she yelled from the depths of the hole, her voice full of despair and rage. But the echo was the only answer — up there, no one listened.
"This is perfect—" Kai started, breathless, but Silfy immediately cut him off, her voice trembling with excitement.
"I know!"
His smile twisted, his eyes gleaming with that dangerous shine. "We're not thinking about the same thing…" he murmured, as his hand slowly slid over Silfy's face, pressing against it.
Silfy trembled, her eyes widening as she felt the warmth of his hand and his breath close to her ear. "F-flame…" she whispered barely audibly, just quiet enough so Mei wouldn't hear.
Silfy tried to make a sound, but Kai's other hand firmly covered her mouth. Only her muffled, heated noises reached him — and that ignited something even darker within him.
From Kai's grasp, flames curled and engulfed Silfy's face. Just moments before, that same face had kissed him, and now it burned in hellish radiance. Blurred voices, half-hidden in the fire, tore through the air as her skin cracked and turned into black ash. Her eyes melted into a thick, bloody pulp that ran down her cheeks, blending with the streams of red bursting from her ears.
But Silfy didn't scream. She felt no pain — long ago she learned that pain was only a shadow that always followed her life. And then it happened: her whole life flashed before her eyes. She saw her worst memories.
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
"WORK FASTER!" roared the harsh command of her master. Her tiny hands trembled as she dragged boxes too heavy for the child she once was. Her legs gave out; her knees hit the hard ground.
An elf approached and kicked her stomach without mercy. All the air left her lungs in a single scream.
"WORK!" he shouted again, his shadow looming over her. "FASTER!"
"P-please…" she whispered, tears clouding her vision.
"I didn't pay ONE HUNDRED gold coins for you to rest!" he kicked again, each strike echoing through her small, fragile body. "GET UP! …At least I get use of you in bed…"
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
Kai slowly pulled his hand away from her face, and Silfy slid quietly to the floor. Breathless. Motionless. Dead.
The wind whispered through the trees, and leaves rustled softly around him. Birds were silent.
In his mind spun a question he couldn't suppress: "Sometimes I wonder… what would this world have lost or gained if we hadn't been here? If we hadn't stepped into this forgotten corner of the universe, maybe Silfy would have finally found peace. Maybe her suffering would have received some acknowledgment, some relief… and now? Now she lies here, her life extinguished, her existence burned to ash, with no one left to remember her.
"What would have happened if we hadn't been summoned to this world?"
Before he could grasp it, the world around him froze, all colors melting away, and time stopped. He stood in his old room, which now looked eerie and terrifying.
Around him lay corpses, tens of them, maybe even hundreds, their eyes open, following his every move. The scent of death, cold and heavy, filled the space.
"Why… why were we given another chance? Why me…?" the whisper trembled on his lips as he looked around at the dead figures that were once alive. Each one was a shadow of the past, a mockery of fate that burdened him with guilt and fear.
From the very heart of the floor, from the darkness threatening to swallow him, rose a throne. Cold, bloody, carved from black, dark stone that reflected only the darkest parts of his soul. The throne was a call, a challenge, and a curse all at once — a seat of power offering nothing but cold, untamed authority.
Kai slowly approached and seated himself on the throne with ease, as if he had always belonged there, though every muscle in his body was tense with horror. "We are not heroes…" he said, his voice echoing in the silence, "We are just ordinary serial killers."