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Mikoto woke up to the sight of trees surrounding him, the chirps of crickets blaring. He thought that being a prisoner wasn't real at all. He had questioned it so much, and was overjoyed at how he was right and pumped his fist in the air, which proved him wrong. He looks down to his prisoner outfit. Now what the heck is the warden planning now?
Fireflies dance as Mikoto looks up to the dark twilight-like sky. To a normal person, it would be pitch-black nighttime, however, Mikoto's eyes are different. Having studied art helped him distinguish the close-to-black colors in the sky along with the fireflies' light.
He gets up to his feet and walks down the straight road which leads into an abandoned city. Mikoto scratches his head as he contemplates the vast difference between where he is and the city he used to be. It's like a mix of rural and urban, maybe from the 1900s? The buildings are worn out and overgrown plants choke it; there's not a single living thing in sight, but all the lights are on. The street lamps being the brightest.
"That building over there" Mikoto talked to himself, as he points to a tall, square structure that is obviously breaking down slowly. "The chunks of concrete are floating. Surely I'm dreaming."
He pinched himself to be sure, and it's true. He's dreaming. It doesn't seem like a nightmare, which he's grateful for.
He entered a shop and took a popsicle. There's no one guarding it anyway. Once he steps into the road where all the houses are, a soft piano song played; it sounded like a piano beginner whose fingers stumbled across the keys, even so, it sounded nice. The thought made him smile as he wandered while eating his food.
There were a variety of buildings and houses. Some broken, some just have overgrown plants, some are both. There was this cute one with colorful lights, but when he looked through the window, there was no one there. Only a cute music box song fills the area whose tune Mikoto whistled repeatedly on his journey.
What caught his eye was this huge house at the dead end of the street. It was unnervingly enormous, and emits an eerie red glow. It seemed to be staring at him, with windows for eyes, a balcony for a nose and a door for a mouth.
The house seemed to be saying: "Go away, do not go beyond the door" but Mikoto, being stubborn, decided to come close the window to take a look inside; among the light was random things a house could have.
And that's when he experienced his first jump scare.
A creepy face suddenly blocked his view, which sent him jumping back with a shrill. Suddenly, a mob of horrific creatures start chasing him. It lasted for a while before everything blacks out and he wakes up.
"Guard-kun?" Es turned around, a little irritated, but they've always been like this at him ever since his trial started.
"Erm... can you come with me?"
"What do you want, prisoner number 9, Mikoto?" The utensils clinked as Es rinsed them.
"I just wanna know something. I'll talk about it on the way"
Footsteps of three people are heard, Mikoto turns his head a little to see Kotoko following them from a distance.
"So where do you get these things?" Mikoto pointed at the things in the warehouse.
"I don't know. All I know is they're safe"
"Why are there kid's toys?"
"Huh?"
Mikoto held up a ball, and tossed it at Es, they tossed it back at him
"Aww you wanna play?" Mikoto laughed and tossed it back. Es didn't catch it this time.
"Ugh. I don't have time for these games" They say as they scratch their head; and Mikoto was out of their sight
"AACHOO! Wow, these are really dusty."
Es followed his voice and came to a deep and dark part of the warehouse.
Mikoto flipped a few pages of a book he's holding. "Hey Guard-kun, isn't this your handwriting?"
"Huh?" Es skimmed the writing, and their eyes widened.
They were just logs of flowers. There was a black and white photo of it next to the real thing. Then the date it was picked, the scientific name, and information about the flower. There were extras but he couldn't read them
"June 30th 1934? What the heck? Guard-kun, how old are you?"
"I'm 15"
"That doesn't make sense! Then who wrote this? It's literally your handwriting!"
Es looked pale
"Guard-kun!" Mikoto closed the book "Are you alright?"
"My head hurts" they breathed, the lights flickered
"This is..."
"Maybe go rest, Guard-kun? We should talk about it next time"
"Alright" they managed to reply, when they exited, the lights went back to normal
"That was certainly interesting, isn't it Kayano?"
Mikoto yelped
"KOTO-CHAN!"
A short silence
"Don't scare me like that!"
Kotoko only smirked at him, then scanned the place
"That was really something" She broke the silence and gestured at Mikoto to give her the dusty book. "Why not snoop around for a bit? I'm curious"