Submitted for the March 2025 prompt: Begin at the Big Ending

Deja vu cannot begin to describe what I feel right now. An air of thick uncertainty hangs around me even as the roses and wine promise a favourable outcome. I am standing outside Airi’s door and her favourite song, "One way or another, I'm gonna find ya…”, is playing in my head.

 

On repeat.

 

The lyrics take me back to the cafe where I had last heard them. The coffee tasted worse than the aftertaste of bile reflux from the previous night's dinner. It could very well have been the travel. Who knows. I can feel, even now, the cafe blasting around me like a chainsaw, the incessant chatter hammering on every synapse of my brain.

 

The silhouette at the cafe entrance was vivid, and the timing perfect. I jammed a tenner under the coffee cup and stood up just as he neared. He mumbled something unpleasant as our shoulders collided but kept on walking.

 

The caffeine, headache, and nausea made for such a heady mix that I wasn't going to allow some punk to push me around. I followed him right into the sweat and blood of the cafe kitchen. To be fair, the sweat was evident but blood was yet to be spilled.

 

My quarry reached a dead-end at the far wall and spun about. My eyes darted around the kitchen even as my head all but exploded. That’s when I saw the sushi knife! In another life, when Airi was still alive and beautiful, I got one-on-one, intimate, sushi classes for at least two years.

 

The loud crashing mayhem of pots brought me back to the kitchen of the cafe. The staff went screaming all the way out to the front. As the smoke and steam filled the kitchen, I felt my target’s fear through the haze. His eyes followed the blade twirling menacingly in my outstretched arm and I sneered at him, just like in the movies: "It’s tiiiime!"

 

All he could do was whisper, but the fear was loud in his voice. I savoured his confusion but couldn't hold back: "I'm here to save her, you bastard! You took your revenge when she tried to escape your abusing ways. YOU LEFT HER TO DIE!"

 

I'd never seen anyone stammer in fear before, "You're fuckin' crazy! I don't even know you, man!!" he pleaded.

 

"This one's for Airi!"

My voice boomed in the small kitchen. He sprang at me but I was too quick for him. The knife sliced his neck with precision to make any Itamae proud. In minutes, my breathing was the loudest thing in that kitchen. But they weren't going to find the weapon or the killer. The device in my pocket did the trick long before the cops could burst through the door.

 

So, here I am, at her front door, and the song seems befitting. The bottle of red, and the matching roses, reflect my hope. Yet my apprehension rises.

 

Is this the present or a parallel timeline I have no control over?

 

I ring the bell thrice, just as she likes, cross my fingers, and hold my breath. Exactly what I did on that fatal night.