Yumi Of Death

It's funny how reality hits you. Like, you think everything's normal, and then *bam*—suddenly, you're staring at the chaos you never saw coming. One moment, I was in the middle of pretending to have it all together—taking a test, stressing over questions that might as well have been written in a different language—then *wham*, I was back.

I snapped back into reality.

"Yo, you're alive, right?" My friend's voice yanked me back to the present, though I wasn't really sure where I was in the first place. My head was still buzzing, a mix of Yumi's creepy half-death vibe and the fact that I *still* hadn't figured out what's going on with her. **Half alive, half dead?** It felt like an allergy attack mixed with a nightmare.

"Yeah, I'm here." I muttered, staring at the test paper in front of me. Everything felt out of place. "Kinda."

Let's be honest. My name's pathetic. It sounds like a name they'd give a background character who gets eaten by monsters halfway through the movie. Not the hero, not the villain, just... a filler. A boring name that didn't quite fit who I was. It's too soft. Too... feminine. Yeah, it's *that* bad. If I had a nickel for every time someone thought I was a girl over the years, I'd have enough for a decent lunch.

And no, I don't want to tell you my name. It's not like I want anyone to know it anyway.

Speaking of lunch, I found myself cheating my way through the test with my best friend, Kenji. We weren't exactly *good* students, but we were definitely good at sneaking answers. Our method? Disguising our cheat sheets in a way that even the teacher would applaud our creativity.

We were the kings of the art of the *unseen* answer. After all, it wasn't cheating if you made it an art form, right?

But as we slid the last answers into our test paper, my stomach growled—loudly. Guess it was lunch time. Kenji didn't even need to look at me to know that we were both starving.

"So, melon bread after this?" Kenji asked, as if he were reading my mind.

"Yeah, sounds good. I'm starving." I said, but something inside me kept gnawing at the back of my brain, like some weird sense that I wasn't alone, even though there was no one nearby.

Lunch was... fine. Usual. The melon bread was warm, soft, and filled with that sugary sweetness. For a moment, everything seemed normal. And yet, it wasn't. I could still feel *her*. Yumi. She was around.

But here's the kicker. Everyone was oblivious. Kenji, for all his good-natured attempts to make me laugh, never saw her. He probably wouldn't have noticed if she was standing right in front of him, staring at him like a ghost. It was like I had some special radar for Yumi. Or maybe she just liked to follow me—especially when I wasn't paying attention.

The weird thing? I could never shake the feeling that she was always just behind me. Her presence was... *there*, but not there at the same time. It was unsettling.

Later, we cleaned our classroom, just like we always did after lunch. Routine. Everything felt routine until it didn't. My head was full of conflicting thoughts. How was I supposed to explain what was happening? How could I talk about *half-death* and angels and whatever else was going on?

Kenji didn't know. No one knew. It was like living in a dream, except the dream was following me everywhere.

We finished cleaning. Kenji wanted to hang out, so we went to the park. Because why not? Maybe some fresh air would clear my head. Maybe.

But it didn't.

I walked, I breathed, I stared at the sky, but it was all too much. I felt... watched.

I could feel her. Yumi. And this time, I knew—*she was following me, and she wasn't hiding it anymore.*

It was only when we were heading back home that I felt the tug. It wasn't like a gentle pull. It was more like someone grabbed my arm, yanked me back. My feet stopped moving.

"Wha—?" I didn't even get to finish the sentence when I felt a hand clasp over my mouth, and then... everything turned blurry. Yumi's voice, soft but firm, whispered in my ear.

"*Run.*"

And then, she was pulling me. She ran, dragging me along, faster than I could process. The sound of my heart thudding in my chest was the only thing I could hear now. My mind was screaming to *stop*, to *ask questions*, but no words came out.

The world around me blurred as I was yanked away from my house, from everything.

And all I could do was follow.

What was going on? Why was she doing this? Was it because of the test? Because of my... name?

I had no answers. Only her. Grinning, like she knew something I didn't.

And the only thing I could do was hold on.