Night. Very dark.
Asura woke up from a sharp pain in her throat.
First came the awareness of the cold icy concrete under her cheek, the dampness seeping through her clothes. Then the pain. Dull. As if someone was hammering nails into her temples from the inside. She tried to move, but her arm was twisted behind her back so hard that her shoulder ached from the dislocation. The finger that was no longer there throbbed with phantom pain, as if it was still being cut off. Asura remembered walking along the path to her house, she was crying, and someone from behind hit her on the head with a frying pan, causing her to fall and lose consciousness.
She lay on her side, her face pressed against the dirty floor. In her nostrils hung the smell of rust, mold, and something sweetish, possibly blood. Slowly, through the veil of tears and darkening in her eyes, Asura made out the surroundings: a low ceiling with cracks, rusty pipes along the walls, a faint light from a single bare light bulb dangling on a wire. A basement. Or a warehouse. A very strange place.
Then she felt breathing on the back of her head.
- Well, finally.
The voice was calm. Almost tender. As if she was being woken up for breakfast, not for death.
Kaoru squatted down next to her, lifting her head by the hair with one hand, forcing her to look at herself. Their eyes met, and Asura saw nothing in them. No anger, no satisfaction, not even indifference. Just emptiness.
- Why did you tell? Kaoru repeated, tilting her head slightly, like a child examining an insect.
Asura choked on the air, trying to inhale through her constricted throat. Tears flowed from her eyes again, mixing with blood from her split lip.
- I… didn't say the names… I don't know… who you are… her voice broke into a wheeze. I just… wanted… for someone… to help…
Kaoru smiled. Not widely, not evil, just a light, almost sad smile, as if Asura had said something naive.
- No one will help, silly girl. She ran her finger along Asura's cheek, smearing tears and dirt. You should have stayed silent. Like everyone else.
Asura began to shake. Her body already understood what would happen next, even if her mind was still clinging to hope.
- Please… she tried to crawl away, but Kaoru held her tightly by the hair.
- Begging for mercy looks pathetic, Asura. Kaoru sighed, as if disappointed. You were so strong. When you were raped. When they cut off your finger. And now… she shook her head. Now you're just another weak whore who couldn't come to terms with the burden.
Asura tried to break free, but Kaoru sharply yanked her by the hair, forcing her to sit on her knees. Then she wrapped both hands around her throat.
Her fingers squeezed the trachea with surgical precision, not hard enough to kill immediately, but enough for Asura to feel the air stop coming in. She instinctively grabbed Kaoru's hands, but the other woman didn't even flinch. Her thumbs pressed into the Adam's apple, the rest of her fingers wrapped around the neck, slowly squeezing like a vise.
- You think this hurts… Kaoru whispered, watching Asura's face begin to turn red. No. It hurt back then, in the basement. And this… she slightly loosened her grip, allowing a half-breath, before squeezing again. This is just sleep. You're falling asleep, Asura. Forever.
Asura thrashed, trying to breathe, but her lungs burned as if she were swallowing fire. Her nails dug into Kaoru's hands, scratching until they bled, but Kaoru didn't react. She simply watched as Asura's eyes filled with blood, as her lips turned blue, as tears mixed with foam at her mouth.
- You… freak… Asura wheezed with the last effort of will.
Kaoru only smiled wider.
- No, darling. Ugliness is weakness. And I… she leaned so close that their foreheads almost touched… I am perfect.
Her fingers squeezed the throat with new force. The cartilage crunched, quietly but distinctly, like a breaking branch. Asura jerked one last time, her body convulsing, but Kaoru held her, not letting her fall. She wanted to see the eyes. She wanted Asura to understand: this was not murder.
It was a lesson.
- Absolutism, Kaoru whispered, watching life leave Asura's pupils. In this world there is only one law. Mine.
One more second, and the body went limp. The eyes rolled back, the mouth opened slightly, and saliva mixed with blood flowed from it. Kaoru held her a little longer, as if checking, then let go.
Asura's corpse fell to the floor with a dull thud.
Kim stood by the wall, finishing his cigarette. He watched the whole process with mild boredom, as if it were a repeat of a movie he had already seen.
- Took a while, he remarked, tossing the butt to the floor and crushing it with the toe of his boot.
- I wanted her to understand, Kaoru said, standing up and brushing the dust off her knees. It's important.
Kim snorted but didn't argue. He knew it was useless to argue with Kaoru about such things.
- What next?
- We'll make it beautiful.
They dragged Asura's body out of the basement and loaded it into the trunk of the car. Kim drove, Kaoru sat next to him, flipping through photos on her phone, probably those taken during the earlier "entertainments" with Asura.
An hour later they stopped at the edge of the forest, not far from the city. A rope was already prepared there, thick, strong, with a noose at the end.
Kim threw it over the branch of an old oak, testing its strength. Meanwhile, Kaoru took a sheet of paper and a pen out of her bag.
- What should I write? Kim asked, tightening the knot.
- Something… convincing.
Kaoru thought for a second, then began writing in neat handwriting:
I'm sorry. I couldn't live with this. Forgive me.
She signed it: Asura, then added a small postscript at the bottom:
They know who did it. But no one will punish them.
Kim smirked as he read it.
- Poetic.
They lifted the body. Asura was light, like a doll from which the stuffing had been removed. Kim slipped the rope around her neck, Kaoru helped tighten the noose, making sure the knot was secure. Then they raised her up until her feet left the ground.
The corpse twitched a couple of times, the last muscle reflexes, and then froze, swaying in the wind.
Kaoru stepped back, examining her work.
- Perfect.
- Now the police will think it was suicide, Kim said, wiping his hands with a handkerchief. Or revenge. But not murder.
- Let them think whatever they want. Kaoru took out a small plastic bag from her pocket containing Asura's severed little finger. We'll leave this in her room. Let her mother find it.
Kim nodded.
- And if someone starts digging?
Kaoru smiled, coldly, without doubt.
- Then we'll bury them too.
They got into the car and drove away, leaving Asura's body swaying in the wind like a warning.
Silence once again settled over the forest.