Final Page

A good author makes the mind imagine. A great author makes the mind believe.

So, tell me, did you believe what you’ve read here? Did you imagine us all in that sweet embrace? Did you try to envision those bittersweet kisses of ours? Did you imagine yourself in the place of one of the many people whose lives are recorded and seen here?

There is so much you don’t understand. There is so much that you failed to realize no matter how I tried to reveal it all. You didn’t understand the subtle messages, the subliminal lines of thought I wove into the seamless whole of this sordid exercise, this maligned tapestry of lies, deception, truth and fiction. None of you understand everything, none of you have learned the message I have included here.

Do you love Yuki? Do you cling to her touch? Do you hang on every dark syllable of her words? Do you find yourself hanging on her mere thoughts, her words? Do you long to feel her lips, softly kissing yours with a gentle caress? Do you long to have her wrap her arms around you, feeling the press of her breasts to your back? Do you long to be hers, even if she treats you as a puppet? Again I ask you, do you love Yuki?

Then, I don’t know whether to applaud you or to hold you and kiss you.

Do you love Kanako? Do you resent what Yuki has done to her? Do you want to drive the knife through Yuki’s rotting corpse, just to make sure she no longer haunts her? Do you want to hold Kanako until she cries in your arms, regretting her blind devotion to a woman who does not care about her? Do you want to take her, hold her and softly feel the press of her warm, sweet kiss? Again I ask you, do you love Kanako?

Then I honestly don’t know what to do with you anymore.

Do you love Kotone? Do you wish you are the one that will finally bring her to her final decision? Do you want to show her the merits, the fantasies, the adoration, the sweetness of beauty? Can you feel your heart, calling out for you? Can you feel her asking you to make herself your lover? Do you want to be the first person to hold her, to love her? Do you want to be her first love? Again I ask you, do you love Kotone?

Then, I pity you and your poor, lost soul.

You don’t know anything. You haven’t realized anything, have you? I am the angel of death, I am the murderer and I am the mistress of the knives of ice. Not a single soul knows the truth. I could not possibly have hidden it that well, or maybe you just failed to realize the truth. Well, for all of your enlightenment, for all of your minds to at last be put to rest, I’ll tell all. It is time to kiss and tell.

Just beware.

I wrote Yuki’s confident entries. I wrote Kanako’s weeping entries. I wrote Hinata’s short, brutal message. I wrote the lost entries, under the name of Suzume. I wrote Kotone’s sordid entries.

I can be the girl you smile at when you buy coffee at the shop around the corner before you go to work. I can be the little angel of a best friend who lives next door. I can be that young, untried, fresh virgin you can’t help but lust for. I can be that teacher you had a mad crush on. I can be the girl you stalked in high school, peeking through the crack of the door as she adjusted her bra. I can be the girl that was your first kiss, your first time. I can be easily any girl you’ve met, know or will know. I am any girl and every girl you hold dear. And I’ll drive my knife in your back at the first chance I get.

I can be anyone and everyone I want to be. So just be careful, I might be that girl looking at you now. You don’t know who I can be or who I might be. I am any woman and every woman, so just be careful now.

But I’ll tell you this…my real name is Tohya, Kanako Tohya.

***

Cecilia: Ah, don't complain. For about...7 weeks now, I've seen myself in a dilemma. I've realized too late that I've jumped the shark, so to speak, by adding the Kotone arc. Yet, removing the story entirely would prove too drastic. So you have this. An ending that this story definitely does not deserve but it's all you're going to get.