Chapter Text
10/01/2024, Odaiba Prefecture
Finally, it was that time of the year; Rin’s favorite time of the year. Cool post-autumn breeze all around whilst scary decor lay everywhere in the city, alas, Halloween!
The time of spooks and souls (and horror game discounts) has arrived. Rin had a haunted house ticket clutched tightly in his right (dominant) hand as he waited in what seemed to be a river of people; of course, he made sure he was closest to the entrance. He made sure to secure it with every fiber of his being right now ‘cause that piece of paper wasn’t just some ticket.
Every year, a popular haunted house in Odaiba, Tokyo, would open and close exactly at noon Oct 1 until midnight Nov 2 which made purchasing invitations from them not exactly an easy job. Sometimes some people even camp outside the place waiting for it to open just to get a ticket for it has a limit of only 80-96 people going in per day (it is open from noon to midnight of every day, with it having an hour break each use/session), with the limit of people each session being 16 people inside, with additional 4 being allowed in every after room is done (each session has 4 rooms that may take averagely 20 minutes-1 hour to solve, the rooms that newly added people missed will repeat for them and they will exit once they’ve finished through all 4 rooms or have been eliminated, eliminated people will not be replaced so for example you have hit your limit of 16 for one session and you lost 10 along the way, no additional people will be allowed in).
There is a fee for entering all rooms overall, and a fee for entering each room. (Each room 30,000 entry fee, entry to all 15,000). Luckily Rin had gotten one of the limited free ‘whole-session’ tickets for this place which only 10 people could attain (it was from a giveaway the haunted house hosted on their socials, Rin bothered to make an insta acc to enter it). It also took an almost 1 hour and 30 minutes train ride from Kanagawa, where Rin resides, to arrive here and that is without the taxi ride to this specific building.
But why go through such struggles just for some haunted house?
Rumored to be extremely difficult with its constant and unexpected jumpscares from time to time, not only do you need the guts to withstand all those, but you also need the brains to solve puzzles, analyze patterns and poetry, figure out riddles, and have a keen observation to pass through the 4 levels or floors the haunted house has. Every session has a time limit of 2-3 hours ‘cause of how hefty the mysteries could get.
Sometimes even the monsters or people who jump scare you in that haunted house may or may not make you do something (perhaps a minigame) to pass through them. Sometimes they may even chase you just for the kick of it.
Every year it also changes themes like for example last year the cast was all about Shikigamis and Japanese urban legends, this year it could be different.
Those are the main reasons why it has gone trending among both locals and tourists, especially because it had only opened recently last year, and was returning this autumn.
Seeing clips and advertisements of it online, Rin, a very nonchalant person, so nonchalant he could go through countless crazy rollercoaster rides without blinking, was enticed by the thrill, and obviously up for the challenge.
Waiting for his wrist watch to clock, it was 11:59 and he was getting ready to squish through his way from the crowd. And people could not line up either for they refused to, so everyone was just kind of like a horizontal line going crazy in front of this one seemingly run-down abandoned building with a long metal railing.
12:00 p.m
LEAP!
Rin used the advantage of his athleticism to jump over the railings right when it was being opened by the employees of the haunted house.
Getting in as the 1st person to join, Rin indifferently walked into the building while tens of other people fought for the 2nd place and so on and so forth. Their screams of panic and excitement sounded like music to Rin’s ears.
Once he was inside and the doors closed behind him followed by the sound of a heavy metal roller shutter, it was pitch black.
“What the…”
“We got in!”
“Shh… so noisy.”
Rin recognized these voices.
Then after 10 seconds, sharp white lights was pointed right at Rin and the other 3 people who got to enter with him.
“Karasu, Hiori!”
“Karasu, Isagi!”
Hiori and Isagi said in unison.
“Quiet, both of ya!”
Hiori, Isagi, Karasu yelled in unison to which the three quickly shut their mouths in fear of something suddenly popping out to scare them after being so loud in the dark.
Hiori: “Ey, but Nanase…”
Karasu, scoffing: “Looks like pipsqueak didn’t make the cut. Serves him right after steppin’ on my foot back there.”
Isagi, scratching his head with a smile: “It was probably by accident. He did get squished by 2 other big guys once the gate opened.”
All 3 of them turned to the 4th wheeler, or rather 1st person who got inside; it was none other than Rin who seemed, if not to say the least, pissed off. Hearing those voices, Rin now knew, what he thought was going to be his best holiday ever, has transformed into a headache.
Isagi: “Rin? What are you doing here?”
Rin: “I should be the one asking all of you that.”
Karasu: “...Nevermind. I wish pipsqueak was here instead.”
All of a sudden, an eerie yet uplifting girl’s voice sounded throughout the room.
“Greetings, humans! Congratulations for being the first 4 EVER to participate in this year’s Borei Hell (Departed Souls Hell) Haunted House’s opening!”
A machine arose from the ground; it seemed to be a ticket-consuming machine.
Rin simply put his free-earned ticket in it and soon kept his distance from the 3.
“Don’t slow me down, damned NPCs.” Rin tsked before walking away.
“Wasn’’t plannin’ to but now you might’ve just tempted me.” Karasu spat back.
“Now, now…” Hiori just led Karasu and Isagi to focus on the ticket machine instead.
Hiori, Isagi, and Karasu, however, had to buy 2 tickets each from the ticket-consuming machine first before feeding it; each entry cost 15,000 yen per head, and an additional 30,000 yen was needed for the room (so the 3 paid a total of 45,000 yen) including a consent fee verifying you are older than 16, don’t have any prevalence to eye seizures or serious sensitive health issues, and are willing to parry against gore and blood, visual violence, sexual topics, and loud noises.
After so, the mysterious voice spoke once again.
“Us Ghoulsouls are very appreciative of your patronage. Then, it seems we are all set, what else are we waiting for? Open the damn doors you slow ass zombie slaves!”
2 pathetic looking bandaged zombies came out from the corner of the dark and opened a wall seemingly from nowhere; after fully flexing it open, only pure white light could be seen from the other side, and the 2 zomslaves bowed signifying for the 4 to enter.
Without hesitation, Rin walks ahead first, but Karasu soon catches up to him, walking by his side.
“Where ya rushin’ to, Mr. Abnormal?”
“Away from you NPCs.”
“NPCs that, NPCs there, is that all you can pull outta yer ass? Get a grip, ya lame protag wanna-be.”
Hiori: “Hey, hey! Don’t be so chatty, now… we need to be serious. I’ll seriously kick yer ass if we die in the first room ‘cause of you, Karasu.”
“He’s right… we didn’t pay 45,000 yen for nothing…” Isagi, who was staying silent all this time ‘cause all this horror’s not really his thing, perked up with a quiet voice.
Stepping into the room, the bright lights finally decreased their intensity and what revealed before the 4 was a sight to behold.
A wide cabin bedroom with a king-sized bed in the middle was present. It had few windows, the biggest one facing the bed; the view outside was a snowy forest with a frozen lake in the middle of it.
The bedroom was very western; wooden walls and a lit-up fire place, green and red checkered carpets, and warm yellow lights smoothening the place.
The only things that stood out the most to the 4 though was the fact the whole place was dishelved; things were scattered and shattered everywhere as if somebody had crashed into them, as if a struggle has happened.
And finally, on the bed and in the middle of the room laid two corpses. One belonging to a woman, who was resting on the mattress; she was handcuffed to the headboard’s rail and it was evident she died due to a part of her throat was missing, and her wrist was red and bruised with minimal bite marks.
The other corpse, which was of the man, layed flat on his stomach in the middle of the room shirtless; his left hand which was facing the direction of the bed was missing a few fingers and also had bite marks.
Isagi: “Yikes…”
Hiori: “So, a murder mystery for the first floor, huh?”
Karasu, intentionally trying to piss off Rin ‘cause to him it’s entertaining: “Hiori, let’s search the room for clues. Isagi, will you be fine investigating both the corpses? Ah, right, Rin is here. Maybe he could help you.”
Isagi, nodding: “Sure.”
Rin: “I’ll be fine by myself.”
Rin went first and investigated the corpse closest to him, which was of the man; Isagi soon followed. Karasu stayed by the entrance and Hiori at the other end of the room.
Rin reached his hand out to touch the lifeless body below him, but just as he was about to do it, its eyes opened up and started spasming on the floor making choking noises forcing Rin to abruptly pull his hand back. After a few seconds, it calms down and goes back to its dead form.
“Ah!” Isagi jumped back even though he was farther by a few steps
“Pussy.” Rin comments, trying to hide the tone of a smirk from his voice as his back faced Isagi while he knelt to observe the corpse.
“You- are you even human? How could you not flinch! That wasn’t even my fault anyway…”
All of a sudden, that familiar girl's voice spoke up again.
“Ahahaha! Did my first spook get you guys? That bean sprout haired looking dude’s reaction was priceless, pure comedy!”
“See? Even the host agrees with me.” Rin is smug as hell.
“Anyways, welcome to the 1st floor! And of course, the title of it is still a secret. When time is up you’ll have to answer a set of questions specifically about this crime scene or room. You guys have a time limit of 40 minutes for this section, and if you don’t pass, out you go! Or if you’re dare-deviling with your brains today you don’t gotta wait for the time to pass; just say pink lollipop 3x and I’ll begin the test for y’all. Remember: no take-backs! So be wise with everything. Each move you make here will change the scene in one way or another.”
“By the way I won’t entertain any questions, no, I don’t get paid enough! You lot are on your own. Good luck little subjects!”
Rin then, unbothered as ever, continued to investigate the man’s corpse.
Seeing Rin’s lack of compliance, Isagi just decided to swallow his fear and go over to the cuffed woman’s corpse.
Meanwhile, Hiori observed a small framed picture next to the bedroom’s cabinet. He saw a huge adult shepherd dog in between the man and the woman; here, their figures were full with no bite marks and they were totally fine. It seemed to be like a family picture of them in the autumn.
Hiori took the frame, but as he did, a small hole the same size as the frame appeared on the wall and was pitch black and deep.
‘A wall pocket… ! As I suspected.’
Hiori took a deep look in before verifying he couldn’t see anything in there at all and he stuck his arm in.
A few seconds of trying to feel the environment inside, nothing was there.
Until an ice cold hand gripped Hiori’s hand with much strength and pulled him as roughly as possible.
“SHIT!”
SHATTER!
The glass frame picture got broken as he dropped it from shock, and Hiori’s arm was released. When Hiori retrieved his arm, a bloody handprint was evident on his right palm.
“Hiori!” Karasu strolled towards him.
“Fuck… that hurt like a cunt.” Hiori cursed, rubbing his shoulder before picking up the picture.
“Oh?” When Hiori looked at it again, the the picture had changed; from the normal shepherd on the picture, it turned into a creepy devil with red eyes. The couple were no longer human as well, and they had turned into dogs.
“What the actual…” Hiori gasped, and Karasu stared at the picture with much more confusion.
“What’s this suppose to mean?”
“I, I could’ve sworn this picture was a normal family pic of a shepherd dog in between that couple but my dumbass stuck my arm in that hell hole and I dropped the frame, I shattered it and this is… what…”
Karasu: “Holy fuck. That just gave me the chills. Looks like this haunted house is the shit for real.”
“Are you okay though? Will you still be fine searchin’?”
Hiori: “Yep… I’ve seen worse, online anyway.”
“But I think this could connect us to somewhere…” Karasu led them back to the entrance by the door.
“Look down. Some animal’s foot prints.” Karasu who was looking at the faint wet and muddy paw footprints by the entrance, pointed downwards.
“That dog you said was in the pic should be where the footprints came from, seems right enough.”
Hiori: “Are we sure? They kinda look huge.”
“I’m huger.”
“…”
“Don’t fuss, let’s just put this on hold for now. But I’m thinkin’ them steppers are most likely from that shepherd in the picture. Let’s ask what Isagi and Rin think.”
-
‘Bite marks both on the neck and smaller, less torn ones by the woman’s cuffed wrists… just what happened here?’
“Isagi.”
“Ah!” Isagi stumbled a few steps back and accidentally bumped the back of his head on Rin’s chest.
“Get your shit together, NPC. What did you find?”
‘He’s talking to me? I thought he’d just shove me out of the way.’
“Uhm, well, judging from how this woman’s wearing lingerie and is cuffed, and the man is shirtless with pretty thin shorts on, they could have been getting into the mood for something.”
“Also, the mascara that’s run down on the girl’s face indicated she cried, but I don’t know why. It could be a sign of struggle from the bite marks, but we’ll have to know what bit her first before continuing.”
“Lukewarm. So much staring yet such painstakingly obvious information you could get from looking once.” Rin rolled his eyes.
“Whatever, prick. What did you find anyway?”
“The man died of natural causes, more specifically a stroke. He couldn’t have landed flat on his stomach unless he fell down from something else, besides, by the table near the window you can see a prescription bottle of Amplodine assigned to control the man’s blood pressure, but right beside it was a box of cigarettes indicating he may not be taking care of himself properly unless the woman smokes, but I doubt it. If you look around the room you’ll find skin care products and magazines about fitness tips for middle-adged women, she’s a health guru. The man also, though he has bite marks on his hand, doesn’t have marks anywhere else and his body is clean of blood; the only place where there is blood is specifically only around the chunk of flesh his left hand is missing, meaning he didn’t struggle. His hand was gnawed off or injured after he fell to that position.”
After Rin’s little proud voice narrating his own analyzation, he suddenly heard clapping from behind him.
“What a detailed explanation, Mr. Abnormal. I’ve gotta give it to you, but be all ears this time ‘cause good kid over here’s got somethin’ to say.” Karasu pointed to Hiori.
“This picture ain’t what it used to be. Before I dropped it, it seemed to be like an autumn family pic of a shepherd dog in between that woman and the man we presume to be a couple. After I dropped it ‘cause something pulled my hand from a deep void of a hole, the dog turned into a demon with red glowin’ eyes and the woman and the man had turned into dogs. I have no clue how this happened, and I swear I am not makin’ rubbish up.” Hiori held the frame to them for Isagi and Rin to see.
“HELP ME! Please, SOMEBODY, HELP ME!”
A blood curdling female scream sounded throughout the room. The lady’s corpse screamed like crazy while frantically kicking and panicking as if trying to break free before going lifeless again just alike the little act the male corpse did before with Rin.
Isagi, who was closest to the woman’s corpse, stepped back by a bit out of reflex but didn’t freak out like before. He’s finally adapting to this place’s scary atmosphere and method of jumpscaring people; when you least expect it, it will be there.
Isagi though, bumped into Rin’s chest again, and since they were of close proximity, Isagi who was walking backwards tripped ‘cause of a dropped alarm clock on the floor.
Rin, with his quick reflexes, didn’t think twice and grabbed Isagi by the waist before he could fall and forced him back up with a push of his one hand.
“Don’t break more stuff. Learn from Hiori.” Rin acted as if nothing happened.
“…Thanks.” Isagi balanced himself still trying to process things.
“You guys just can’t stop bein’ love birds at the worst moments, ey?” Hiori chirped.
“Ugh. I knew Mr. Abnormal shouldn’t’ve been here, now I’m suddenly missing Nanase’s presence. How long’s it been? He should be here by the next room I swear.”
“Anyways, what I’m sayin’ is, this dog or now devil in the picture could be the reason for the damp footprints trailing across the whole room. From the entrance, leadin’ towards the man’s corpse then right towards the woman, and now all over the room. It probably ran around for some reason and knocked over all these stuff on the ground.”
“Wait, can you guys turn the frame around? There might be something there.” Isagi hoped.
Hiori followed and saw a small piece of paper the same color as the cardboard behind the frame taped behind the picture. He takes it out and unfolds it.
“Oh! Yer right!”
Hiori: “097819. Sounds like the password for sumn’.”
“Wait, let me write it down… 097,819.” Isagi took out a paper pad and wrote it down.
Karasu: “Damn, you came equipped huh? Ready to Sherlock your Moriarty in this hole.”
Rin came back from nowhere with a phone in hand.
“It might be a code to this device. Let’s try it.”
“Where’d you find that?” Karasu asked Rin.
“That must be it!” Hiori smiled.
“By the bedside table next to the woman, it was on the floor.”
Rin opens the phone and notices the same picture from the frame but it seemed normal.
“Hm, is this the picture you were talking about?” Rin showed the phone’s lock screen to the 3.
“Yes, yes! That’s it.”
“Nice find, we can trace back to this after losing the og frame’s look, but try out the pass first before we move on.”
“I am about to. Don’t fuss me.” Rin tsked and entered the code.
‘Denied’
“…Wrong password. But this phone’s pass is 6 digit. Says we can try again in 5 minutes.”
“The 6-digit code then must most likely be for something else. Isagi, Hiori, let’s search the room further for clues.” Karasu didn’t command Rin knowing nothing would change; he knows he’d be on whatever Karasu wanted him to do anyway.
“I’ll go search the closets and cabinets, Hiori, do you think you could maybe check out around the fireplace?” Isagi added.
“Alright.”
And they went on their ways, but of course Rin went ahead and went close to the huge closet taller than him beside the bed by a few feet away, where Isagi was also headed.
“What are you looking at?” Isagi stared at Rin, knowing the question was more so for himself ‘cause he knows Rin wouldn’t bother to answer.
Rin was scrolling through a calendar, and after a few seconds of flipping, he saw a circled date on it 10/31 with the notes being ‘Anniversary’ and ‘Lucky’s Birthday’.
Isagi moved ahead too and once Rin was not towering the door of the closet as much anymore, Isagi carefully pulled the double doors.
Once it was fully open, a satanic symbol could be seen seemingly written with a red ink on the middle of the huge wooden wall inside. A few phrases in an unknown language were also written all over inside the closet door in the same red ink, by the small table compartment inside the cabinet there were black and white candles with all kinds of herbs and seasonings and unknown miscellaneous stuff scattered in a star-like symbol.
“The Sigil of Baphomet… Latin scriptures… I knew it.” Rin muttered to himself.
‘How does this guy know what all that is? Creep.’
“What do those mean?” Isagi, ignoring his own inner thoughts, asked politely instead. He was too scared to be sarcastic right now.
“It’s a satanic ritual, obviously. The couple are satanists, and they forcibly converted their dog to be one as well; judging the way the dog ran around the room and bit chunks into the couples’ corpses, it was probably both stressed and hungry.” Rin paused.
“Sometimes when dog owners desperately want to train their dog to do specific yet complex stuff they resort to physical abuse and manipulation, even going so far as to cut their diet as punishment. It seems the couple succeeded in their conversion of the dog, as per the normal frame of the shepherd Hiori found turning into a devil; however, since a dog doesn’t have the same intelligence as a human, it couldn’t handle the madness of Hell and went insane, inevitably becoming a demon.” Rin was quick to analyze, one might say he was even a pro at this.
“Woah, slow down there… it’s too much to process, one by one, and provide evidence.”
“On the calendar is a date circled 10/31 with the notes ‘Anniversary’ and ‘Lucky’s birthday’. This concludes the man and the woman are indeed a couple. On the date October 31, 1978 the movie Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell was released and the plot of it consisted a devil dog named Lucky terrorizing an American family after being adopted by them. How did it become a devil? It was born one, and its true form was sealed until the family that adopted it mistreated it, leading it to awaken. The dog in the movie and the name written on the calendar are the same, leading me to believe the German Shepherd in the picture is also named Lucky; the dog in the film was also a shepherd, so it can’t just be a coincidence.”
“Damn… you’re good. How many escape rooms have you been through?”
‘I wonder what goes on in Rin’s mind as he’s solving these, he’s a damn pro at it…’
“Countless. My own room is an escape room.” Rin’s smug self is slowly seeping out again.
‘Cringe lord.’ Isagi just smiles awkwardly at Rin while muttering “Yea… Or are you secretly in some kind of cult with the way you’re just so familiarized with all this?”
“Maybe.” Rin shrugged, playing along with Isagi’s tease.
“...”
“By the way, have you entered the password?”
“I am about to. Stop fussing me! It still has a timer.” Rin slightly raised his voice.
-
“Stop pushing me, ya douche!”
“I’m trying!”
Isagi walked towards the fireplace where Hiori was supposed to be, and was surprised to find Karasu was there as well.
“...What are you guys even attempting to do.”
Karasu had his head stuck up the chimney of the fireplace, and Hiori, who was presumably inside being supported up by Karasu, was yelling.
“A key! I swear, I could’ve sworn I saw a glimpse of somethin’ shiney here!”
“What did I tell you about going through tight spaces, ya lewd mongrel? Did getting your hand yanked earlier not teach you anything? If all this turns out to be for none I’m gonna throw you upside down!”
“AH!”
Karasu, hearing Hiori’s panicked scream, pulled his foot down immediately in fear of him being snatchedd again. They fell from the chimney and rolled away, coughing with ash and dust emiting from their bodies.
As the light dust went away and Hiori got to open his eyes first, he was stunned to see their resulting position; Hiori had his hand propped against the ground in between Karasu’ head as he saddled him, his hip up in the air as if he was a pony. Karasu laid with a knee up in between Hiori’s legs.
“D,dumbass! Why would you pull me!” Hiori rolled to the side and no longer was on top of Karasu.
Karasu stopped coughing and sneezing and finally opened his eyes, not knowing of their position earlier.
“And why would you yell!? I thought somethin’ happened to ya, shit, now there’s all this dirt up my nose and eyes.”
“There was a dang spider, stupid!”
“...” Isagi silently stared.
‘I want to go back to Rin all of a sudden.’
“Am I interrupting something or what? Anyways, what is this key for and about?”
“I got it. It’s for the vault we found under the bed, and we also figured the password 097819 earlier is for it, we just needed the key.”
“Oh, sweet! Let’s open it now. I think Rin has also found the phone’s password plus some new major clues, he’s just waiting for the cooldown of the device to reset.”
“Then what are waiting for? Let’s meet back at the bed.”
Karasu, Hiori, and Isagi found themselves near the bed, but of course from the other side away from the lady so they wouldn’t have to be jumpscared. Rin was near enough to them ‘cause the cabinet was in the same place.
“Wait, let’s hear what Rin has to say first.” Karasu paused.
Hiori: “I’ll just unlock the vault under the bed while listening to him.”
“Alright.”
And Rin repeated what he said to Isagi earlier.
“Damn, how’d ya even figure that out? Looks like there really is somethin’ going on inside that hard-headed green shell of yours.”
Karasu: “By the way, Hiori, have you found anything yet?”
Silence. Even after a few seconds, there was no response.
“Hiori? Stop playin’ games.” Karasu knelt down to check under the bed.
Nothing.
“Eh? What? Hiori?” Karasu looked around and saw not a single thing under that bed but the vault in the middle of it.
Just as Karasu was going to rise from his position after being freaked out, he felt his hair being pulled from above.
He then saw the throatless woman speaking gibberish while throwing up blood, gripping his hair. Karasu pushed her away quickly causing him to stumble back.
The lady, once again, returned to her dead self and even cuffed herself in place.
“Rin, and Isagi, tell me the both of you saw that and didn’t bother to help me.” Karasu panted before turning around.
Nothing.
“...Guys? Stop playin’ with me.” Karasu looked around the room in confusion. The only human figures in here were the two other corpses, and him.
“What in the…”
.
.
.
(Cliffhanger awh hell yeah, what yall think happened?
A. Rin, Isagi, Hiori died
B. Rin and Isagi are making out in the closet while Hiori got dragged away by some monster under the bed
C. Karasu got transported to a different timeline wherein the haunted house is actually a real crime scene and he's alone on solving it to come back to his original world
D. None of the above [comment your thoughts])