Work Text:
Sakura sighs and closes his eyes in frustration, his urge to curse growing with each passing second, as well as the questions in his head, but instead he decides to take a deep breath and move forward down a path he doesn't know where it will lead him.
The fog grows with every step he takes and seems to rise as if it had a life of its own, hiding what he should not see, concealing the empty faces of the same beings who seem to have disappeared from their respective homes; dancing around him as if mocking the one who should not have walked too far.
There is no one there.
He is alone.
Sakura observes how the houses seem to have been painted by the decay of time, as if years had passed since anyone lived in them, as if they had never really known human warmth; artificially manufactured and deteriorated.
The boy with two-toned hair tries to explore every corner of the place he can see, every corner that might be strange but he finds nothing, only the eerie sound of the wind and the leaves moving.
His footsteps are the only thing he knows, and as he continues to advance between puddles and old sidewalks, he decides to ignore everything that nature gives him, such as the moving branches, the old wood creaking, releasing its tension, the cans or leaves flying with a breeze that only lifts the fog, the telephone booths screaming that there is no line, the wind chimes dancing in some stores, the doors creaking open.
The silence is frightening.
But the feeling of being watched is stronger.
Sakura turns his face, looking behind him, but finds nothing, unaware that an old house seems to be watching him from a distance, following him, observing him.
He feels a chill run through him and snorts as he enters one of the abandoned houses to escape that strange feeling. And as he walks, in the reflection of one of the cars, an old window seems attentive to his actions.
Sakura turns on his phone once he makes sure he is alone at the entrance of the house, and lets out an incredulous laugh when he sees that the photos in his gallery are intact, as if they had never been corrupted.
“I should have listened to Nirei.”
This time he does curse under his breath as he looks out the window toward the only area he hasn't walked through, and he shakes his head nervously as he decides what to do.
It all started a few weeks ago.
Sakura had arrived to class later than he should have that day; he had overslept, and the rain hadn't made his journey easy, but at least he was there.
There was nothing really strange about it, it's not like he could point to any weird dialogue or any strange objects they had found specifically that day, no, his friends had been talking casually as usual, discussing what costumes they would wear that month for Halloween and what movies they would watch. Sakura was excited, even if his face didn't show it, but he really was. After all, he had had a lot of fun with them the previous year, and he was eager to find out what this Halloween would bring.
“It'll be fun, we can catch up on that series we left halfway through.” Tsugeura smiles from across the classroom.
“That series isn't really scary, we can leave it for another time, let's make a list of movies instead.” Kiryu replies as he fixes his pink hair.
“We really should do that, otherwise we'll waste too much time looking for something to watch. Let's not repeat what happened last year.” Sakura nods from his seat.
“I can take care of it.” His freckled friend smiles excitedly, and the boy with two-toned hair looks at him silently, joy running through his veins despite his dry expression, an expression his friend seems to understand, and smiles even more.
“Perfect, we can always count on Nirei.”
“If that's settled, then we need to get the rest ready and let the others know. I'm sure they'll want to join us.”
“Yes! The more the merrier!”
“No need to shout, Tsugeura.” Suo makes a tired face as he tries to keep his tone friendly with the energetic boy, accompanied by the grimaces of Sakura and Kiryu in the background.
“Sorry.”
“It's okay, no problem. Let's go back to the costume guys first. I was thinking...”
But if the boy with two-toned hair had to point something out, it would be perhaps the next day, after school, when he heard from some classmates that this year would fall on Friday the 13th , and no, Sakura is not a superstitious person, much less does he believe in things like bad luck when breaking a glass or walking under a ladder, especially if it is linked to that date, but it is a little surprising and strange that it was around that time that he began to see it.
By chance, that week it was their turn to patrol the city, a fairly normal task in a city like the one they live in if you ask anyone at school, and for the group of the young man with two-toned hair, practically just another activity. So, dividing themselves into teams, each one began their task.
Sakura walked calmly, having decided to focus on watching over the small area where he lived rather than on stupid stories about a date with a meaningless number.
His footsteps took him through areas he had visited before, and finding nothing suspicious, he and his companions took the opportunity to help the people around them.
It was in an alley, where a bakery was hidden and some old buildings were barely standing, that he saw it; it was nostalgic, as if that area was stuck in time. But that wasn't the strange part. No, the strange part came when, near a candy store, a new path appeared before him, the fog calling to him.
A chill ran through him from head to toe.
Sakura had decided to separate from his companions only a few minutes earlier when they saw that they were about to finish their routine, the boy with two-toned hair staying behind to make sure everything was under control, as usual. But now he wondered if it had been a good idea, especially when the neighbors around them didn't seem surprised by this strange new path.
The boy with two-toned hair decided to ignore it, pretending it was a hallucination caused by fatigue, even if it was too clear to be one.
That night he slept with a strange feeling in his body.
The following days were somewhat similar. Sakura went to class, helped with the preparations for the party at the end of the month or with the classroom decorations, and then left to the same alley. And just like the first time, the path was still there, without fail.
It took another week before he finally decided to venture inside, tired of the mystery and curiosity that was growing inside him.
It wasn't a very large area, or so he thought from what he could see through the misty fog. There were old houses and shops just like in the alley, the temperature rising the further he went in, and the occasional tree appearing here and there. Near a small park, a field came into sight, where an old house, older than the ones around it, stood out in the center.
The people he encountered were new to the young man with monochromatic hair. Faces he had never seen before greeted him as if they already knew him, and the young man returned their greetings with a confused smile.
A bad feeling grew in him when he turned to look at some of the people and found what seemed to be strange looks. Sakura stopped, confused, but when he did, the people went back to talking as if nothing had happened.
He looked ahead and sighed, carefully took out his phone, and decided to take pictures of the place in case they helped him later when he got home, mainly to find out if it was his imagination or perhaps it was an area he hadn't noticed until now. After all, the people there seemed to know him.
But Sakura seemed to feel something inside him screaming danger when the old house appeared in front of his camera even though he was pointing it elsewhere, as if it had moved from where it was. He lowered his phone in confusion and stared at the old building for a few seconds, mesmerized. However, it was a sharp pain in his head that brought him back to reality, and with a tired snort, he left.
That's how his nightmare began.
It wasn't as if he suddenly began to see strange things or things that frightened him, or as if he had dreams about the area. Rather, it was quite the opposite: everything was normal, too normal. Especially when it came to the alley, it was as if it had always been there, despite not appearing on any of the maps Sakura had been researching, nor were there any reports or photos proving the existence of that area.
But little by little, that false normality began to break down.
It started with the names of people who didn't exist, faces that seemed to lose details as the days went by, such as moles that moved around or wrinkles that disappeared, conversations that repeated the same thing over and over again, and the strange feeling of being watched. And especially, how the houses seemed to become more destroyed and old, as well as the streets that seemed completely abandoned, with fewer and fewer people.
But all that was nothing compared to the photos that seemed corrupted once he left there, blurry photos whose colors seemed to blend with more vibrant ones, causing the image to be lost in the noise. Or the videos that seemed unwilling to play or only emitted strange sounds.
Sakura didn't understand what was happening, so when he returned to class, he decided to ask the only person who could help him understand.
“An alley in that area?” He nods seriously, and his friend looks at him for a few seconds, confused.
“No, there's nothing there, I've never seen one.”
“Are you sure?” He nods, and Sakura runs his hands through his hair, messing it up. “Shit.”
“Do you think there is one?”
“It's not that I think there is, I've seen it, I've walked there.” Nirei looks at him confused and puts a hand on Sakura's shoulder, trying to comfort him.
“Well, we have to keep in mind that Sakura has been very busy lately, so it's not unusual for fatigue to be consuming him.” Suo smiles kindly at his two friends.
“Maybe we should tell Anzai and the others to take it easier.” Sakura looks at Nirei in surprise and then at Suo in frustration, sighing.
“No, it's not that.”
“Sakura, what you're saying has never existed over there, and if it did, the people around would have noticed.”
Sakura curses under his breath as he closes his eyes, exhausted.
Of course, he has asked the people around him, even his neighbors, but no one else seems to look at that alley, pointing out that there is only an old wall there, except for the occasional elderly person who seems to enter the area and then does not reappear for days.
Oh, and of course there is the other big problem, the disappearances.
Since that strange alley appeared, the number of people who have begun to disappear without explanation has started to increase, usually elderly people, but children have also been victims on occasion. And if Sakura tells his friends that some of them were the ones who also saw that alley when he asked, he would probably be in even more trouble for himself.
“Nirei is right. If the others haven't said anything it's probably because there's nothing to be found. Maybe you should get some rest.”
Sakura looks at them and shakes his head. “No, I know what I saw. There was an alleyway there. I tried to take pictures inside the area, but for some reason they don't seem to come out right.”
“Sakura...” Concern is evident in his friends' eyes. Sakura clenches his hands into fists, frustration giving way to anger.
“No, don't look at me like I'm talking about weird stuff.”
“But Sakura, what you're saying doesn't make sense. For starters, if people lived there, the neighbors would have talked about it before, or they would have reported it so that area could be monitored too.”
“That area is too old to go there.”
“All the more reason for them to ask for help! It's a dangerous area!”
“Sakura, it's not that we don't believe you, but it's difficult.” Suo tries to smile at him in a friendly way, but between that attempt and Nirei's pitiful look, Sakura ends up losing some of his patience.
“I know it sounds weird! An alley out of nowhere in a place that didn't exist, but it's real, I've been going there for weeks! And I'm not asking for help or for you to understand, I just need to know or if maybe something happened!”
“I know it sounds strange! An alley that appears out of nowhere in a place that didn't exist, but it's real, I've been going there for weeks! And I'm not asking for your help or for you to understand, I just need to know if something existed there before or if maybe something happened.”
“Sakura, there was never anything there.” He looks at the way Nirei is looking at him with concern and nods.
“I think you should rest. We'll go with you.”
But before Suo can come over to help him gather his belongings, Sakura stops him. “No need, I'll go alone.” He bites his lower lip and tries to smile at Nirei. “Sorry for worrying you guys.”
“Don't do anything dangerous.”
“Don't worry, I won't do anything.”
Thus, he ends up at home alone before classes end, looking confused at the table where his alley research lies.
He looks at the photos again, but they are still corrupted, or so he thinks until he notices some strange marks in the noise that seem to point to something, changing as he looks at the rest, sometimes up, sometimes down. He tries to remember where he took the photos, what was around him, as well as the people who entered and walked around that area for a while, staring at a dead spot in the middle of nowhere, and something clicks in his head.
He stands up with urgency from his seat, grabs his jacket in a hurry and looks at the clock on his phone for a moment. Usually at that time he would be leaving the area, but if what he thought was correct, he had to move quickly.
He runs without looking back, leaving his room in shambles, the urgency to get there quickly much more important than tidying up his room. And he moves on.
So Sakura finds himself in that area completely alone a couple of minutes later, walking through empty streets as the fog grows thicker, hiding inside one of the abandoned houses.
Time is stuck at the same hour he entered.
Sakura decides he's had enough after a few long minutes deliberating whether it's a good idea or not what he is about to do and grabs an old metal bar he finds nearby, more for safety than anything else and leaves.
He walks toward what must be the exit, his feet used to take the same route for weeks so he doesn't think much about where he should go. But instead of finding the famous way back, he finds a brick wall in front of him.
Sakura lets out a little breath at the sight, surprised and a little scared.
He brings his trembling hands to the wall and begins to shake his head, panic covering his entire being, and he begins to touch the wall looking for something that will let him out. But he finds nothing.
The two-haired boy looks around and lets out a trembling sigh. He follows the brick wall, hoping to find the exit at some point at the end of the road, sticking to it, looking for an answer. But he finds nothing.
Sakura drops to the floor exhausted after what seems like hours of doing the same thing over and over again, and takes a breath while nervously biting one of the nails on his hand, grateful that for the first time he doesn't feel the weight of being watched.
After a few minutes like this, surrounded by pure nothingness, he decides to pick up his phone, dials a number he has memorized and waits for the line to ring off like the ones in phone booths, but when the third beep sounds and someone answers, hope returns to his body.
“Nirei? Can you hear me?” There is silence, and then his friend's muffled voice.
“Sa… ku… wha… hap… ned… whe… you…”
“Damn it, Nirei?” the voice broken again. “I need help, remember the alley?”
“Ku... ra... can... t.. he… you....” Sakura curses, and then static envelops him. He puts his phone away for a moment and waits a few seconds until his friend's voice responds clearly. “Sakura?”
Thump... thump... thump…
A chill runs down his spine, his body automatically freezes, and he feels as if a drop of cold sweat is falling down his face.
Thump... thump... thump…
His phone falls to the ground, shattering into pieces, thus losing his only remaining contact with the other side, trapping him helplessly in that alley.
Bzzz... bzzz... bzzz…
The fog rises, like a blanket bringing bad news, and his mouth seems unable to swallow any saliva, nervous to make even the slightest noise. He tightens his grip on the metal bar.
He is being watched, someone is watching him.
Bzzz... bzzz... bzzz…
Someone just made a noise.
And it's not the static coming from the radios in the houses, no, it's the sound of old wood being stepped on.
Sakura turns slowly and begins to walk as quietly as he can towards the only place left to be watched, in the direction of the one he has been avoiding, the very one he knows he must get away from, that which seems to move as if it had a life of its own. Sakura walks toward the old house, and the fog seems to start screaming in his ears as he approaches the doorknob, as if it had a life of its own and was warning him of something.
It's a bad idea, he knows, but from the moment he went in and didn't listen to his friend, he hasn't exactly made the best decisions, so he goes in.
The wood creaks under his careful footsteps, and the cold seems to intensify even more when he closes the door behind him. Dust rises, and he tries to stifle the urge to cough. The house is practically dark, except for the small amount of light that filters through the wood, the props on the floor are rusted, as is the paint that seems to have lost its color, and there are stains on the wall and carpets. He walks towards the living room, where the dust accumulates even more, and the paint on the destroyed paintings seems to be a cry of the old age that this house possesses, an old radio with static sound is its only melody.
Sakura sighs, picks up one of the candles lying on the floor around the room, and tries to light it, but fails. He tries again to light it again, but then the sound of footsteps on the roof begins to echo.
One, two, three…
Sakura stands frozen in place.
The noise came from that house. Whatever was watching him was there, with him. He hadn't been hallucinating.
The footsteps were slow and heavy, echoing throughout the house and causing some objects to fall in the process, yes, that house that should have been empty. Sakura swallows hard. He looks around, but all he finds is scattered fabric, clothes, papers, empty briefcases, candles, but nothing that can help him escape or at least buy him some time.
The footsteps continued, growing heavier and louder, warning of their proximity, and the boy with two-toned hair cursed.
He looked around again and snorted as he made his way to one of the empty closets in the corner of the room, near the stairs.
One, two, three...
He starts counting, trying to relax, but the footsteps are getting closer, louder.
His hands are shaking.
If everything goes well, he can buy some time by hitting it with the metal bar, whatever it is will fall and he could run to one of the old houses nearby until... until someone helps him? But there's no way out.
Sakura freezes in place.
The footsteps sound above him, whatever is with him has just come down to his side. And his breathing is almost non-existent.
And then the doors open.
And Sakura can only stare in fear before the fog devours his silence.
“Sakura?” Nirei speaks worriedly. Suo looks up, confused, and approaches the golden-haired boy hoping to hear his dual-haired friend on the other side. “What's going on? Where are you?”
Nirei feels his concern grow with each passing second.
His friend hasn't been seen for a few weeks, ever since they talked that day about the alley in the classroom and his friend went home alone. His friend's existence seems to have vanished into thin air, as if he never arrived where he was supposed to.
They hoped that maybe he had a cold or was absent because he really couldn't go, but they didn't expect that there would be no trace of him since the day they last saw him, that no one had seen him or seemed to know where he was, as if the night had swallowed him up. So when Nirei's phone vibrated during the break with that familiar number, the young man rushed to answer it with his patch-eyed friend behind him, wanting to know where their other friend was.
“Da… mn... it... Ni... ei...?” A loud noise suddenly began to sound in the background amid the interference, like heavy breathing. Nirei looked fearfully at Suo, who seemed completely serious as he stared at his phone screen. “Ne... ed... hel... re... mem... all... lley...?”
“Sakura, I can't hear you. What's going on?” Suddenly, the phone began to emit a very loud static noise. Nirei moved it away as best he could, and when it seemed to calm down he moved closer again. “Can you hear me?”
But then the line dies, and the beep of the call ending engulfs them in silence, sending a chill through both boys that leaves them with a bad feeling in their bodies.
Nirei tries to redial, but all he gets is a voice telling him that the number doesn't exist. Meanwhile, Suo seems to stare at a dead spot with a completely serious expression on his face.
“I don't understand, it's supposed to be the same number.” Nirei runs his hands through his hair in frustration, but before he can mess up his hair, Suo stops him by squeezing his shoulder, annoyed, but not with his friend.
“You heard the same thing I did, Nirei, there was someone else there with him.” His voice is empty, emotionless. “We could hear him clearly, but not Sakura. There must be a reason.”
“What are you trying to say?” Suo looks at him and starts dragging him toward the roof without explanation. “Wait, Suo!” But he doesn't stop, and his angry expression grows by the second.
Suo opens the door abruptly, surprising the young man who was tending to his plants and his assistant. He looks at them and with a gesture asks them to follow him to the table where they all gather, the tension preventing anyone from speaking until the boy with the eye patch sighs wearily.
Umemiya looks at them silently, his dark circles shining like his small smile, which fades as the days go by and no one seems to be able to find the whereabouts of the young man with two-toned hair. The concern is evident in his eyes, which also reflect his exhaustion.
A great cloud seems to have grown over everyone who knew Sakura, especially those close to him, because the worst scenarios are possible as the time to find him continues to grow.
“We need help. Nirei just got a call. It was Sakura.”
Sugishita opens his eyes wide in surprise, and Umemiya stares at them blankly. “Are you sure it was him?”
Nirei nods. "It's the same number he used to send us messages. His voice sounded choppy, but I'm sure it was him. It's just that..."
“We can't call him back. It's as if his number doesn't exist.” Suo tries to remain calm, preventing his anger from showing in his voice. “Between that and his breathing before the call was cut off, there must have been someone with him at the time.” Umemiya puts his hands to his face, deep in thought.
“But that doesn't make sense. Sakura wouldn't call for no reason, and he didn't seem to react to the breathing.”
“Maybe he didn't notice? Or maybe he didn't hear it?” Umemiya sighs and looks silently at Sugishita, who responds to that gesture with an annoyed snort.
“Before he left, did he say anything to you?” Nirei looks at the long-haired young man with a grimace and shakes his head.
“No, nothing.”
“No... wait, Nirei... he did say something.” The blond boy looks at Suo in confusion, and Umemiya seems to look at him seriously at the new information.
“Really? What did he say?”
“He told us about the alley.”
Umemiya looks at him confused. “ An alleyway?
Suo nods. “He was talking about an alley that appeared a few weeks ago. He said it existed, but there shouldn't be anything there. We told him it must have been something he imagined because he was tired, and he went home.
“We haven't seen him since.”
“Do you know where this supposed alley is?” They both shake their heads.
“Maybe you'll find something at his house.” Everyone looks at Sugishita seriously, and he looks back at them, frustrated. “Are you serious? Haven't you thought of going to see if there's anything at his house that might help us?”
“It's not like we didn't want to, but we were not sure if he was busy, sick, or didn't want to see us. The last time we saw him, he looked really tired.”
Sugishita shakes his head and looks at Nirei. “You guys are incredible.”
“There's no need to argue now.” Umemiya stands up with difficulty and looks at them seriously. “Let's go to Sakura's house. Maybe we'll find something.”
The group quickly got up and practically ran to where the young man with two-toned hair lived, telling some of their companions that they had to go do something important on the way while concern and anxiety grew within them.
When they arrived all they found was a cold, messy room.
There were papers on the floor, information about people who didn't exist and names they hadn't read until then, photographs scattered around meaninglessly, where the noise and color made it impossible to see exactly what he wanted to keep with them, and a map in the center of the room with marks around it.
Nirei frowns as he begins to study the map carefully while the others try to figure out what the young man has been researching. It isn't until he finds an old note in one of the corners of the map, containing a strange list of numbers, that he finally understands.
“It's the time he used to go.”
“What?” Two pairs of eyes turn to him, and Suo for his part notices a sheet of paper that catches his attention, as does the photo he is holding.
"Sakura wrote down the time he used to leave. It only varies by a few minutes and an hour or so, but I'm sure. Either that, or when the alley appeared.
"But no one saw him leave his house.”
“Unless he left during the night.” They turn to look at Suo, who picks up one of the photographs.
“He must have discovered something and went to investigate it, of course, without knowing if he would return.”
“What is that?”
“It's the only image that seems clear.” He points to the top, where a strange mark can be seen amid the noise. “It seems to point to something. If Sakura went there, he would know what it was.”
“What time is it?”
“That doesn't matter now. We have time. Sakura must be in danger in whatever that place is.”
“But we don't know where it is, Suo.”
“Yes, we know, Nirei.” Umemiya held up the paper Suo had given him along with the photo. “It's a list of names from a specific area. I think I know where it is.”
“But will we be able to get in? Sakura implied that he could see it, but maybe we can't.”
“We have to try.” This time it was Sugishita who spoke, annoyed. “Let's go before Sakura does something stupid again.”
Nirei nods and they run off again.
It takes a couple of minutes and almost an hour for them to locate the exact location of the alley, but they manage it. They arrive in an old neighborhood, and the people around them seem tired as they greet them, some even walking like zombies.
None of the four mention how strange the scene is, but they walk through the area until they find what should be the alley.
The old bakery is worn down, and the people nearby show no sign of being there. They knock on the doors of some of the businesses, but there is no answer, and then they see it.
A path where the mist rises, where dead, dry grass pushes its way through the dirt, leaves, and bottles. Suo and Nirei look at each other silently and nod, one more frightened than the other, but determined to find their friend.
Umemiya and Sugishita follow behind them silently, leaving a message before joining to their respective groups in case something happens.
It is cold, colder than it should be, the fog blinding them as they advance, as if trying to prevent them from continuing in that area. The wind howls pitifully, sadly, like a bad omen that they do not want to hear as they continue to search the area.
It is abandoned, that area seems to have been left behind to exist at some point in time without human warmth to comfort it, blending into the times while the decor and old buildings seem to show a different era.
The houses look like they could collapse at any moment, the roads are full of puddles and bumpy patches that they carefully avoid. The phone booths mark a line that connects them with the same static they heard when Sakura called them, and the tree branches swaying slightly send shivers down the spines of some of the group.
But they don't find anything unusual, not until they find their friend's broken phone smashed to pieces on the side of the road. Nirei looks around fearfully, while Umemiya seems to be alert, observing as far as the fog allows. Sugishita, however, walks toward a specific area with determination.
“This is very strange.”
“You're right, Nirei. This place is very strange.”
Suo takes one of the photos he had taken during Sakura's investigation out of his jacket and begins to unfold it, realizing how much clearer it looks than before, and lets out a puzzled smile.
“What the heck?”
“Is something wrong, Suo?”
He nods and shows them the photo. “Has anyone seen this house?”
But they both shake their heads, and Suo smiles dangerously, his eyes shining with annoyance. "Exactly. According to this and the photos at Sakura's house, it should be somewhere around here, but no one has seen it.”
And before they can answer, Sugishita's shout catches his attention. "Guys, come see this!”
The three of them turn towards the long-haired young man standing next to one of the old houses, facing a person who is staring at them; and the fog seems to lower for a moment, revealing a few more people around them. But the strange thing is not seeing more people there, no, it's seeing that they have no faces.
They look like mannequins, wearing clothes similar to those of people they know, and then they start talking, as if following a prepared dialogue that they seem to be reading mechanically.
A chill runs through them.
Suo looks closely into what's supposed to be the eyes of these people, realizing that they seem to be looking at a specific place, and follows where their gazes seem to be lost, but then one of these people takes his arm, squeezing it tightly, and all the fake faces turn to look at him dangerously. The boy with the eye patch looks at them in confusion, and the face of what must be the baker appears and smiles at him.
“Where are you looking, young man?” Umemiya approaches and tries to separate them, but the mannequin seems unwilling to let go.
“What are you supposed to be?” The attempted person smiles and shakes his head. Nirei trembles but tries to help, while Sugishita frowns in annoyance.
“You shouldn't be here, run.” Their smile is even more gruesome and larger than before, and blood slowly appears on their face as it begins to deform. “The door is still open, but not for long. It's trying to get you out.”
“Who?”
She begins to laugh maniacally as she chokes on blood, the rest of the mannequins beginning to creak as their bodies begin to distort as the fog rises again. “There's not much time left, he's next, run.”
“What are you talking about?” Suo moves his arm and finally manages to free himself from her grip. The woman looks at them and laughs again, but this time she doesn't spit blood. No, this time she releases a strange liquid. “Where's Sakura?”
“There's no time, he's losing control.” And then her voice fades and she falls to the ground in a pool of blood, his lifeless, decomposing body giving way to the rest, listening as the corpses fall around them.
“What just happened?”
“I don't know, but I think I know where the house in the photo is.”
Umemiya nods. “Sugishita and I will stay here. Maybe we'll find out something else by investigating these things. You guys go ahead. If anything happens, shout. We're the only ones here, so we'll know where to find you.”
Nirei nods and Suo sighs. “See you later.”
To say they aren't afraid would be a lie. The further they go, the thicker the fog seems to grow around them, and the cold seems to get harsher as if signaling them to stop.
Even if the place doesn't want them to, they manage to find the old house that seems to be hiding in the white mist. It is old, dark, and decaying, much older than anything else in this strange area. Its windows are boarded up with old wood, and once they enter, dust greets them, screaming the old age of the place with its creaking walls and floorboard.
They find nothing interesting on the first floor; after all, there is only an old rusty kitchen with broken utensils scattered on the floor and a living room destroyed by the passage of time, as are its paintings, and cabinets left open around it. However, Nirei frowns when he finds a closed cupboard under the stairs, where, upon opening it, he finds a rusty metal bar and a candle bathed in blood.
Suo says nothing, just clenches his fists, and Nirei feels his concern grow as he fears the worst.
They both walk up to the second floor in silence, but find that the rooms are empty and in much worse condition than the rest of the house. The yellowed fabric and scattered journal pages tell them nothing new, only recounting the lonely life of an artist who lived there waiting for death, so they continue on, the drawings of faces and landscapes they had not seen before growing on the floor and walls, losing their color or erasing part of their scenes.
And then they find some stairs on the ceiling that lead them to the attic. Nirei takes a deep breath and decides to be the one to open it. They climb up, covering their noses when the smell of rot begins to grow once they are in the room, darkness enveloping them until Suo decides to remove part of the wood from one of the windows and illuminate what was there.
Nirei swallows hard, and Suo looks alarmed toward the center of the room.
There is a mirror, old and deteriorated by the passage of time, but that's not what's scary. No, it's the frame that surrounds it.
They are bodies, the things that merge and contort around it to form arches are bodies; and there are neckless heads decorating its corners, hands and legs that resemble plant decorations, torsos decorating it lengthwise, and blood dripping and surrounding it.
That's why it smells rotten, that's why the bodies were crunching and deforming in the streets.
Tick, tock, tick, tock…
A clock begins to sound, working in the midst of silence, and then they hear a scream from outside. Nirei runs to look outside and Suo follows him, worried. And their eyes open wide when they see what is out there in the distance.
The fog has lifted, it is less than before, but thanks to it they can make out whatever was in front of their friends. It is a grotesque being, human in the way it roars with its vocal cords and walks, but invisible because they cannot really see it if it weren't for the white curtain of nature.
Umemiya and Sugishita look at the creature that towers over them and curse, and then it vanishes into thin air and appears behind them; they manage to dodge the blow it throws at them, causing the ground to rumble in the process and leaving a large hole in the street.
“We have to go help them, Suo.”
The boy with the eye patch nods, but then Umemiya shouts, “Hurry! We'll try to survive, but keep looking! Find Sakura!”
“What should we do?”
“Let's find Sakura first so we can go help...”
But he can't finish speaking, not when a heavy hand begins to squeeze his shoulder, and it's not Nirei's, no, because the hand that clings to him as if it wants to break his shoulder is pale, white, and covered in blood.
There is erratic breathing behind him, and the blond-haired boy looks at his side, trembling with fear, his body almost falling to the ground in surprise and fright.
While they were distracted watching their other two friends through the window, a hand began to rise behind the mirror that took up almost the entire space of the attic, feeling for a place to rest, rising from its slumber. And it began to crawl silently toward them with its heavy body, with a grim, broken smile.
It growls close to his ear, and in a familiar dry voice, it murmurs. “There's... no... time...”
Suo swallows hard, closes his eye and moves away from the strange being with a quick movement of his legs. He grabs Nirei when the thing staggers, and they run away, ignoring the way his hair glows with two different colors, black and white.
But it's easier said than done, because as they descend to the second floor, the house begins to distort rapidly, turning into a maze with more rooms than before.
Meanwhile, outside the house, Umemiya and Sugishita try to dodge and run from the invisible beast as best they can, but it's not like they can run forever, the cold making them tire faster than they should, and they begin to sweat.
The fog grows thicker, and the clock continues to tick, but then the sound of something heavy moving catches their attention. It's the exit, and it's about to close. If they don't hurry, they'll end up trapped.
“Suo! Nirei! Get out, the exit is closing!”
Suo curses when he finds himself back in the same room for the second time, while Nirei tries to get as close to a window as he can. “We can't, we're trapped!”
“What the hell?” Sugishita snorts angrily.
“Go ahead, we'll try to get through! But we need someone to get out!”
“No, we're leaving together, get out now!”
“We can't!” And then the house starts moving again inside, and Nirei and Suo find themselves on the first floor, but it's even more abandoned than before, even more gloomy and lonely.
Nirei sighs in fatigue and looks at the way the rust on the walls simulates blood-like stains, the walls even older and more decayed than before, if that was possible, and Suo can only snort when he sees the maze in front of them again, this time much more neglected.
When Nirei looks back at the windows, he discovers that they are higher than before, but before he can speak again the sound of erratic breathing is heard once more.
Umemiya curses, and Sugishita can only shake his head in annoyance as he looks toward where the old house should be. However, there is no time to react when the strange beast strikes again, and it is at that moment that they decide to run away, especially since they barely manage to dodge it and the fear of possibly dying is not something they want to experience there.
Their footsteps are quick, their breathing erratic and tired, and thanks to another blow they manage to dodge, they reach the exit. And then the alley disappears in front of him, as if it had never existed.
On the other side, Suo and Nirei remain unconscious on the attic floor, while a young man with two-toned hair looks at them confusedly with a ghoulish smile.
And when the beast roars once more, he begins to applaud excitedly and drags them with him to the mirror.
The reflection of a smiling young man looks at him amusedly on the other side, his bloodshot and pupil-less eyes mocking him, and then the blood bathes the frame again as he sings solemnly.
“Too late, too late...”
Halloween has arrived in the city, and the people there try to celebrate in costume as best they can, their hearts heavy with the strange disappearances and those who have not returned and have been lost. The festival is merely a distraction to hide the pain. Among them, Umemiya and Sugishita join their neighbors; the pair has not seen the alley open since then and it has been weeks with no sign of it opening again.
Explaining what happened is more difficult than they think, so they prefer to say that they simply disappeared while investigating. It's not as if they need more people looking into the danger of that alley, so they carry on as best they can.
The school celebrates with food and decorations, trying to smile for those who are not there, laughing at anecdotes while hiding their tears, unaware that a door has opened again.
The mist seeps in and begins to surround the city in a cold and unearthly way, accompanied by a macabre laughter, creating a melody in the streets that only animals and a few others who seem to perceive the strange can enjoy.
And so, amid the darkness of the night and the lamentations of lost souls who are beginning to walk fearfully through the now lonely streets, the city disappears, falling under the same curse as the alley itself.
The next day Togame wakes up tired, more than usual, but he has prepared a holiday gift for his old friends on the other side of town, so he decides to go even if his body doesn't want to. But the gift falls to the ground once he reaches the border of their territories, confusion washing over him when he finds an old brick wall where the entrance to the other part of town should be.
He walks with a frown toward another area, hoping to find that perhaps the entrance has been accidentally covered up or someone has played a bad joke, but instead he finds a large lake where the city should be.
A ghoulish laugh reaches his ears on the breeze coming from the lake.
A chill runs through him, and he runs off to find Choji and the rest of his group.
Crack... crack... crack…
In an old attic of an abandoned house, a mirror made of bodies lies intact. And there is a young man in front of it, looking at it confused, even as he smiles despite his unwillingness to do so.
His hands are stained with blood, his hair is messy and stained with dust and dirt, and his pale face, marked by wounds and scars left by others, is practically intact, unlike those who wander the streets.
Then he raises his hand and sees it begin to disappear, as if it did not exist.
He smiles and begins to laugh as he re-enters the mirror, waiting for the day when someone will open the door of that old house again.