Chapter Text
Help…
Please…!
I can’t…
This can’t go on any longer…
Time..
is running out…
“Aah shit!” Yata Misaki cursed as the rain suddenly hammered down without prior notice, immediately soaking him to the core.
To say he was having a bad day would’ve been a major understatement. Not since he woke up that morning only to find his cupboards stripped of even a measly cup of instant ramen.
He’d wandered off out into the streets of Shizume CIty in order to search for his breakfast, realizing only a moment later that he didn’t have any cash. Kusanagi-san had been kind enough to give him free food (which were, apparently, yesterday’s leftovers) but was in a bad-enough mood to kick him out soon after he was finished.
Then he got into an ugly brawl with some brainless thugs, got fired from the second part-time job he managed to get that week, and to top it all off he just had to run into the freaking Monkey!
Add to that the sudden rain (he was sure the weather lady hadn’t said anything about that! … and no, it was NOT because he wasn’t looking at the TV at the time!!), the fact that he found himself lost in some random forest (he probably ventured off course at some point…), and was soaked to the bone at 6 pm in the evening and you’ve got yourself a fucking field day.
Yep. Unlucky is a major understatement.
With a resigned sigh, he stepped off his skateboard just as the ground became too muddy to roll on and –with his diminished visibility due to the rain, environment, and the darkening sky— managed to find himself following a trail up a mountain…
He stopped short, a chill crawling up his spine separate from the cold and rain.
A solitary mansion loomed over him.
It wasn’t as big or majestic as Scepter 4’s Headquarters, looking more like a medieval manor house: three concrete cottages tastefully stuck together, 5-or-so stories high.
Wrought iron gates surrounded the entire area, half-obstructing the concrete steps leading up to the front door. The old, unpainted stone walls were littered with cracks and overgrown ivy, crumbling in places but relatively intact; only three windows were visible, shut, dark, and dusty, but even with all this, the front door stood ajar with a peek of light from inside, as if beckoning unsuspecting people to enter.
The more the Vanguard looked at it, the more he felt the desire to just turn tail and run, weather be damned.
The whole place practically screamed ‘Haunted’, and he really doesn’t like the thought of that… but as lighting clashed and thunder roared over his head, the forest looking so damn dark and creepy now that the sun was completely gone, and the rain seeming to intensify a hundred-fold… he was left with very little choice but to take shelter in there for the night…
Taking large gulps of air, half-obstructed by fat droplets of rain, all the while trembling in his boots (he was NOT SCARED Dammit!) he gently pried the wooden double doors open and took a very weary step inside.
Absolutely nothing could’ve prepared him for everything that came afterwards.
Riiing! Riiing! Riiing!
click
“H-Hello? Kus_n_-san…? I am really sorry to bothe—“
“—ve got a reeeeally bad fe___ng right now. A-anyways, I got strand—“
“—elter from the rain in w-__ looks _ike a H-Ha-Haunted House… O-Of course I’m not s-sc-scare--!!”
“—ut y..yeah… uh—…”
beep… beep… beep…
Creeeak
THUD
“Oh no… T-That was the door…”
Creeeak…
beep… beep… beep…
I’m sorry, the number you dialled is not in service. Voice message will be discarded.
rattle… rattle rattle…
“The door’s not opening… why’s it not opening?? Oh hell no please no no no nonononononononono this is not happening no….”
BANG!
BANG BANG BANG!
beep… beep…
Thump…
Thump…
creeeeeak
THUD
“Ooh cr-ap”
~_~_~Prologue: Never Enter the Mansion~_~_~