The House of Crimson was as silent as ever today. It was so silent, my ears were starting to hurt.
I never played any music here. The only background noise was the sounds of the street from Harmonica Alley.
As I drifted between the faint noise and the silence, I worked on a new familiar doll. A needle soaked for a week in the blood of a snake. I used it to stitch together the pieces of fabric to make the familiar’s body. I hadn’t even finished the face yet, but the design was already inside my head.
It felt like I hadn’t seen any customers for days. I say “felt” because my memories were getting a little hazy.
How long had it been since I’d had a customer, if you didn’t count that unpleasant detective from the other day? How long...
Maybe it didn’t matter. With my body gone, I didn’t need to earn my daily bread or rest to recover from exhaustion. But even so, just like I’d done in life, I left for the store in the morning and spent my day alone in the emptiness.
Even without my body, my mind remained here in the mortal world. That seemed like it meant I was supposed to suffer like I always did.
My eyes were starting to feel numb, perhaps because I’d been working in the gloomy room. I sighed a bit and put down the needle, then rubbed my temples with my thumbs. Then I opened up my tablet to check the time. For a while now, I’d been very curious about the time. But the more I thought about it, the slower time seemed to go.
My nerves were so tired. So much had happened lately that I was mentally exhausted. Today it was exhaustion from nervousness.
That’s enough work for today... I moved the partially completed familiar to the shelf behind me and looked forward. What I saw was...
The dusty interior of the room and the entrance to the shop. And next to the door...
“Welcome,” I said, and there was an answer.
〈Yeah.〉
It was the voice of the devil. But what was different today was that...
“I had always imagined you in a more terrible form.” I was looking at...
A man in black, floating in the air with his legs crossed. He was far older than me, it seemed. He was probably in his twenties. He wore a black coat and black boots. And I saw sharp-looking eyes poking out from the gaps in his long black hair.
I looked directly back into the eyes. Just staring. To tell him that I saw him, too.
He seemed to notice. 〈I figured you could see me.〉
“You’re... the devil, aren’t you?” My voice felt like it was going to start shaking. Tension, fear, and uncertainty. And... a certain sense of excitement that the devil had revealed himself.
I was face-to-face with the devil right now. When I’d seen the devil in the form of a man walking right through the door like it wasn’t even there, I’d almost screamed. I’d known the man wasn’t human, and the one being I knew that wasn’t human was the devil.
We’d known each other for over two years, but this was my first time actually seeing him. Why was he just staring at me? Why wasn’t he saying anything? I didn’t know why he was doing this, and that was so eerie that I was frozen in fear and couldn’t even stand up. His gaze was so terrifying that I hadn’t been able to concentrate on my work.
“Were you always watching me there like that?”
〈I don’t have that kind of time. I ain’t yer guardian angel.〉 He told me I was wrong in a sharp tone.
I let out a sigh of relief that I’d gotten the answer I expected.
What was a little surprising was... the devil in front of me was very tall, with a handsome face—and he looked like a completely normal human.
Even if he didn’t look like a monster, I’d still expected at least black wings on his back, since he was a devil. But there wasn’t anything like that. Of course, he did have a murderous aura about him, like touching him would rip your hand apart like a knife. That was certainly demonic.
“Why have you shown yourself to me today?”
The devil didn’t answer at first. He just stared at me coldly, not even uncrossing his legs. I couldn’t bear his gaze, so I tried to say something else. But then he cut me off.
〈It ain’t me. You’re the one who changed.〉
“Me?” I hadn’t even considered that. But once the devil pointed it out, it made the most sense. “I see. I already have more than one foot in the grave. That’s what you mean, right?”
〈Who knows?〉
“Then I haven’t come any closer to you?”
〈You and I are different. And if you think anybody can be a devil, you’re wrong.〉
The devil always refused to give me clear answers. He would always push me away. But that was fine. That was what made him my devil.
“Earlier I said I could hear your voice clearly now, remember? At that point, it seems I was already dead.”
〈You wanted to die, right?〉
“Huh?”
〈Well? How does it feel to be dead?〉
That question was slightly unexpected. “I-I’m not sure how to answer that... It doesn’t feel real.” I tilted my head with uncertainty. “But since I’m dead, I’d like to see my brother.”
The devil uncrossed his legs. And then he went to slip through the door again.
“U-Um... Wait...” I called for him to stop. I’d never done this before. The old me would never try to get the devil to stay.
〈Don’t start trying to boss me around.〉
As I expected, the devil pushed me away. I swallowed my words, uncertain of why I’d done that.
Why did I tell him to stop? Was it because I could see him now? Or perhaps...
〈You don’t really believe in devils, do you?〉
The curse that detective had put on me had been echoing in my mind. It ate away at my will and tried to control me.
〈Don’t get any ideas about following me,〉 the devil said. 〈We’re not friends. We’re business partners. You know that, right, girl?〉
“Yes...” My head drooped. By looking down, I hoped to break my obsession with him.
A whim of the devil’s. It was up to him if he came or not. That had always been the rule. So we should always keep that rule.
I looked up after a while and the devil was already gone. I stared at the closed door that he’d probably left by.
The words left my mouth unconsciously. “Who... are you?”
And they echoed throughout the tiny shop, before being erased by the silence.