The Hollow Eyes

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"What is freedom?

What is the real meaning behind it?

Cause the freedom that I see is death"

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Rei?" "Rei?" "Hey, Rei!" called a high-pitched voice which I recognize well. I can see Sam's energetic face in the mirror, but I'm not sure how to respond. So I just peered at her through the mirror. Not knowing what to say.

I'm not a fan of sending people off.

"What!?"...you're just gonna stare at me?", she smiled as she enters my room, her golden hair braided tucked carefully in a bun. She wears the exact same clothes I have, the only difference is that she looks good in it, Sam has the ideal height not too short, not too tall, her uniform almost looks like something you'd like to wear. She slumps on my bed, with an apple in her hand and continued.

"You're rude-as always! You really need to fix that problem, or else no one's gonna be friends with you" she explains while biting the apple. I turn to her and sighed, this is... I guess her parting words to me.

"I don't want friends...", is all I can say to her, Sam has always been a bright person. She's a ray of sunshine to anyone, and she doesn't look at me like I'm always on the verge of breaking down.

She eyed me while still eating the apple, I crossed my arm and stared back at her, she rolled her eyes and demanded, "Come here! sit" she tapped the empty space in my bed with her free hand.

I simply complied shaking my head. It is her last day in this madhouse after all. She's off to join the Task Force, an elite association where guardians of the world are trained to fight off the Infestation, only those with special abilities are recognized and invited to join. Sam came here in this madhouse five years ago when she was eighteen years old, now she's twenty-three and will be able to finally get out.

"You're all packed?" I asked her as I sat beside her.

She grinned and looks at me with those yellow discerning eyes of hers "what? you're gonna be sad?"

I looked at her..surprised by her question. Am I sad? I quickly asked myself.. then, she suddenly burst into laughing which I don't know why.

"You're awfully simple Rei, haha I can see it in your face, you idiot!" and she tugged my neck using her right arm as she continued "don't worry you're gonna see me soon enough! I'm already enlisted in the Task Force... I'm going out after tonight, already finished the requirements and the Superiors seems to like my skills" still tugging my neck she took one last bite of the apple.

I rolled my eyes at her statement, "What's there to unlike? You're practically sunlight!" Sam has the trait of yellow eyes, a kiirio which harnesses the power of sunlight, a very important skill for the Task Force. What a kiirio does is locating the stigma where the infestation starts and completely eradicating it using their power. Which is something that I was told back in my region. I've never seen Sam use her powers or abilities, and I never really took an interest.

"Is that a joke Rei?" she laughed out loud "you're practically sunlight" imitating me mockingly "you're so terrible at it", she said as she kept laughing.

As soon as she released me from her extremely long arm lock, she puts both her hands on my shoulder and suddenly looked at me..... seriously.

"Rei, you can get out, remember! the only way out is in", "death is going to follow you, be careful always!"

"Don't fear you're eyes,... you are you!" Her voice sounded urgent and her eyes filled with concern.

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I bade my farewell to Sam, wishing her good luck for the days to come. I watched her back as she waved goodbye to me. I can't get out of my room and she's the only one who's allowed inside because of her abilities.

Sam is like an older sister, her good judgment never failed her, she was only here at this madhouse because she was charged of murdering her parents. Which she did not... and was later found out that the event was in fact,... an infestation. Both her parents are also kiirios.

She narrated it step by step, how her parents died, her mother, while cooking dinner suddenly stops chopping the vegetables... and walked directly to where his father is sitting..., knife in her hand, her mother started ..stabbing and carving out his father's eyes one... by ...one, horrified of what happened she fled immediately to her mothers side trying to prevent her from stabbing his father's eyes again.. and to her horror his father takes out his eyes with his hands and mindlessly ate it.., after that.. Her mother directed the knife into her own eyes carved it out and ate it too.

She screamed, cried out unable to do anything until no voice could no longer come out from her throat, she was shattered, she never felt more helpless until that day, and the silence behind those hollow eyes of her mother and father are deafening almost like an echo of what's to come.

After eating their own eyes the insides of Sam's Mother and Father are melted into nothingness.

She could only watch, petrified from sight of her beloved parent's bodies.

Sam says she was later discovered in their region five days after.

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The ringing inside my head seems to grow louder and louder, shouting at me in my sleep. I opened my eyes and it's clouded in red as I smell death.

There's a sudden chill on the back of my neck, I shuddered as shivers run down from my spine, I got up and felt the icy cold water in my feet, I looked at my feet and saw water all around leveled in my ankle, why is there water in here?

I looked to my door in front of me...my door's ..open..I got into my feet, and felt that uncomfortable damp feeling on my foot, I tried to ignore it and walked to the door to close it, and as my fingers touched the knob, I saw a figure walked past me, a white uniform just like mine with hair braided to the side, she's walking rather unsteady behind a tall dark figure.

She suddenly turned to look at me and was horrified to see her face, her eyes no longer there as if it's been carved out!..and the sockets of her eyes bleeding...as if she's crying in blood. She moved slowly towards me.. as she reached out her hand ..while smiling.

I know that face.

Sam.