Chapter Text
“No way,” Yu said, shaking his head so hard he could feel his brain sloshing around. “Absolutely not.”
“You shook on it!” Tomoya said. His wide grin took up his whole face as he nudged Yu with his elbow. “My project beat yours, fair and square.”
Yu wasn’t so sure he’d call their senior year Robotics competition “fair,” since Tomoya had attached a homemade taser to his bot that had fried all his opponents’ projects, but he had to admit he respected the ingenuity.
He glared at Tomoya for a long moment before nodding. “Fine. You won. But you have to pick a new dare. Something less cruel and unusual.”
Since their freshman year, Yu and Tomoya had used their end of year Robotics tournament as a way to fuel their friendly rivalry. As they leap-frogged over each other for the number 1 and number 2 ranks in class, the final showdown at the end of each spring was a way to see who truly was the better engineering student.
The winner got bragging rights for the whole summer, and the loser had to complete a dare of the winner’s choosing. Freshman year, Tomoya had to perform as much of the High School Musical script as he could at an open mic night until the MC cut him off. Sophomore year, Yu had to go streaking down sorority row. And last year, Tomoya had to dance on the quad for 24 hours straight.
For their senior year, Yu knew the punishment was going to be absolutely diabolical. But even he had his limits.
“It’s really not that bad,” Haru said. “All you have to do is take a picture in the general manager’s office. That’s super easy.”
“So I can do it in the daytime?” Yu asked.
“Is that a real question?” Haru laughed. “Nope, definitely has to be at night.”
Haru was perfectly happy staying number 3 in their class, because he got to experience all the fun of watching the loser’s dare without any risk that he might have to do it, too. He was also the one that helped Yu and Tomoya remember they were friends first and rivals second, when the bantering turned to bickering.
“Yep, just walk in the front door of the warehouse,” Tomoya said, “find your way to the office, take a selfie, and don’t get murdered by any ghosts on your way out!”
“C’mon, dude. Even freshmen aren’t afraid of the Division 1 warehouse,” Haru said, poking his ribs. “It’s just an urban legend.”
“It’s not an urban legend,” Yu said, grumbling. “People actually died there! I’m not saying there definitely are ghosts, but I’m saying if ghosts are real, that’s a pretty good place to haunt!”
But Yu knew he wasn’t going to convince them to give him a new dare. Tomoya knew well his fear of ghosts — and of demons, and the dark, and rats, and… everything else — which is why he had such a look of glee on his face when Yu's robot had short-circuited. Yu wondered how long he’d been cooking up this specific punishment.
“Fine. But if I die in there, I’m gonna haunt you guys so hard.” Yu finished the rest of his beer and immediately waved the bartender down for another. Hell, if he really was going to walk through the front doors of the infamous abandoned warehouse, he might need a few shots.
“You aren’t going to die,” Tomoya said. “But you’re definitely going to pee your pants.”
The bar was full of all their fellow engineering students, a raucous celebration for their end-of-year exams finally being done. In just three days, they would officially be university graduates. Everyone had plenty of stress to party away, and Yu would have loved to join them. But he knew his fears would just keep growing the more he pushed off his punishment, so he might as well go tonight.
“You sure you don’t want us to walk you there?” Haru teased. “Hold your hand right up until we get to the doors?”
“Fuck off,” Yu said, laughing through his scowl. “How am I even going to find the manager’s office once I get in there?”
“Here, I drew you a map.” Tomoya handed him a wadded-up napkin covered in scribbles. Yu had to rotate it around several times before he figured out which way was which.
“Is this real or a joke? I can never tell with you.”
“Totally real. My older sister had to go to this very office for her sorority initiation, and she told me exactly how to find it.” Tomoya clapped him hard on the shoulder. “And I brought you a flashlight so your phone won’t die before you get the picture.”
“How considerate…” Yu chugged his drink, then took Haru’s half-finished one as well. “Alright, boys, wish me luck.”
“Fighting!” Haru and Tomoya called after him as he left the bar. He could still hear their laughter as he stepped out onto the street.
It was unseasonably chilly and just starting to rain, which didn’t do anything to help the slight tremors in his legs. In his four years of undergraduate school, Yu had gotten exceedingly good at working under pressure. The intense labs of the Engineering college had prepared him for plenty of high-stakes situations, and he’d learned that adrenaline was a hell of a performance enhancer.
But when it came to the paranormal, he could never overcome his fear. Haru and Tomoya were always trying to drag him to horror movies or Halloween parties, but he’d successfully fended them off. He didn’t know what it was about ghosts that just made his blood run cold, but he supposed as far as weaknesses went, it wasn’t the worst one he could have.
Still, the chattering of his teeth rang loud and clear through the quiet night as he made his way to the Division 1 building.
Dark and brooding, the remains of the warehouse stood tall against the skyline of their city. No one knew the full truth of what had happened that day nearly sixty years ago, but people were quick to fill in the gaps with all kinds of gossip. A disgruntled employee, a government cover-up, a lab experiment gone wrong — whatever it was, it had resulted in an explosion that blew the roof clean off and killed everyone on the third floor and up.
It was a tragedy. And now idiot frat boys used that tragedy to haze other idiots.
The warehouse was massive. Yu stood at the entrance and looked straight up, past the tattered wooden beams and sharp metal rods that poked into the sky. Clouds were rolling in quick. He would need to find that office fast if he didn’t want to get caught in the storm.
Yu took a deep breath and reached for the door handle. It didn’t budge. He pulled harder, hearing the entryway groan as the deadbolt shifted back and forth in place, but still it didn’t open.
“Of course,” he muttered. He looked at Tomoya’s napkin, but it didn’t have any other entry points on it. He would need to find his own way in.
He set off walking around the side of the building until he came to a window that had been shattered through. The beam of the flashlight showed him the shards of glass that still threatened the edges of the window. He carefully peered inside, noting a steel beam hanging just over the window frame that he could use to pull himself inside.
He looked around for just a moment before reaching in. This building was condemned, meaning anyone found trespassing would face big trouble with the police and with the school. Yu knew it was risky, being here just before graduation. But plenty of students tested their fate here every year, and Yu had never heard of anyone actually getting in trouble. Another urban legend.
The coast was clear. The night was still early enough that party-goers hadn’t started to head home just yet. If he was going to enter tonight, now would be the time.
The metal beam let out a whine as he hauled himself off the ground, but it held firm. All those core workouts he’d been doing helped him crunch his hips in tight so that he didn’t poke himself on the glass. He landed with a light thud and brushed his hands together, wiping the rust off.
Everything was dark. His small field of vision within the flashlight’s ray flickered just once. It would be such a Tomoya move to put dying batteries in the flashlight.
Yu had been expecting a big open warehouse, but he found himself instead in a sort of hallway with an endless number of doors to choose from. He thought his best bet would be to make his way back to the front lobby of the building and pick up from where he left off on Tomoya’s map. But as he made his way down the hall, the room at the very front of the building did not empty out into the lobby.
At first he thought it was a kitchen. It had a sink and a refrigerator, but there were large glass canisters, nearly as tall as he was, lining the walls. He thought back to some of the more outlandish stories he’d heard about this place, and for a moment the word incubators flashed into his mind. He let out a small chuckle.
“Just breathe, Tomiyasu,” he chided himself. “Don’t let your imagination run off.”
He poked his head back out into the hall and headed to the next door. Just as he was about to step through the threshold, a shadow flickered in his peripheral.
He wheeled around, pointing his flashlight down the hallway. There was nothing. A low rumble of thunder echoed in the distance, followed by a small squeak.
“Fucking rats. I hate rats.”
He stepped into the room, using his light to avoid tripping on any of the chairs that were in here. He wondered what kinds of meetings this place used to hold. The whiteboard on the wall still had writing on it, the ink long dried into stains. He walked across the room, careful to not disturb anything, and opened the door on the other side.
The hinges let out a loud creak. He froze, listening for any other noises. It would be just his luck for a police officer to be patrolling tonight.
When he heard nothing, he stepped through.
The next room was massive, with various bits of machinery lining the walls. Clearly he was getting to the manufacturing areas of the building, but as he studied the different kinds of equipment in here, he struggled to imagine what exactly they were manufacturing. He saw drills and cutters and what looked like a hydraulic press, but then he also saw a tube that, at first glance, looked almost like an MRI-machine.
Yu knew his way around equipment like this pretty well, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what else that could be.
“Whatever,” he said, rubbing his neck. “Just find the office.”
Across the room he saw a door with a sign that read Stairs and took off towards it. If Tomoya’s map was right, the manager’s office would be on the third floor overlooking the main factory. It would also be close to where the explosion had happened.
He tried not to think about that too hard as he made his way across the room. There was plenty of graffiti, with various Greek letters, nonsense initials, and penis drawings of the walls. This certainly was a popular place for students.
A piece of paper on the floor caught his eye. He slowed his step as he got closer, freezing when the words became visible.
RUN
He knew his hands were trembling because the flashlight’s ray was, too. He took a deep breath.
“It’s just a prank,” he whispered. “Just a stupid kid —"
A crash sounded from somewhere in the building. He dropped to a crouch, head whipping around as he tried to pinpoint the source. In a warehouse full of stone and metal, echoes reverberated from everywhere.
“Noooo,” he said in a low groan. If Tomoya and Haru were here, they were be doubled-over in laughter at his whimpers. But he couldn’t help it — someone, or something, was in here with him.
Yu fought hard to slow his heart rate. He looked back toward the door he had come through. He knew he could turn back. He could tell Tomoya that he just couldn’t do it, to come up with a new dare.
But his feet wouldn’t move towards the exit. He let out a ragged breath. His pride would always be bigger than his fear.
“Fuck this,” he mumbled. “And fuck Tomoya. And you know what? Fuck Haru, too."
He took quiet steps as he made his way over to the stairwell. The door let out a small whine when it was opened, and he made sure to close it gently behind him.
The stairwell reeked. Someone, or many someones, had definitely relieved themselves in here. He shuddered to think what else had been done in this building.
At first he didn’t notice the low moan that bounced off the walls of the stairwell, but as he ascended the first flight at a snail’s pace, his ears began to prickle at the noise. Eventually he realized it was coming from his own throat.
“Tomiyasu,” he grunted. “Get your head in the game."
But the groans kept coming. Every exhale came with a little whimper, as though the fear was leaking out of him between his teeth.
When he reached the second floor landing, he peered through the window of the door. All he could see was a wide open space, with support beams holding up the ceiling, and plenty of boxes and debris shoved against the walls. He assumed this was where the employees had stored things.
Another sound echoed through the building, and this time he could definitely hear that it came from above him. It sounded like the flapping of bird wings. He tried to imagine a poor bird, stuck inside this building after finding its way in through a window, but his imagination threatened him with visions of something bigger, some dark spirit with tremendous wings lurking in the shadows ahead.
Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth.
He picked up his pace on the second set of stairs. The door to the third floor was already open. He stepped through as delicately as he could, keeping his unblinking eyes trained on the beam of light from the flashlight. It flickered once.
He heard a steady drip coming from up above. The explosion had blasted holes straight through the fourth and fifth stories, leaving this part of the building exposed to the elements, and rain was getting through. He couldn’t see the damage just yet, but he knew he was getting close.
He seemed to have reached the “offices” section of the warehouse. He pulled out Tomoya’s map, looking for any hints, but he probably could have guessed that the general manager’s office would be in the middle of the floor. He passed by endless doorways, some open and some closed, and did his best not to look inside. His little groans were coming out louder now, like wordless pleas to any spirits that may be listening to please find someone else to haunt.
If not for the flashlight, he might have walked straight off the ledge ahead of him. There were remnants of a safety railing, but entire chunks were missing, leaving the precipice unguarded. He didn’t dare get close to the edge, but he shone his light down over the side, looking straight down into the main factory on the first floor. Massive conveyer belts and assembly machines stood immobile down there, forgotten like everything else.
“Why wouldn’t they take that stuff?” Yu wondered aloud. “Surely the explosion didn’t damage anything down there."
There was a clatter in the room on his left, followed by a soft shuffling noise.
Yu felt very exposed here, vulnerable on the cliff edge of the overlook.
“Tomoya?” he whispered. “Haru?"
Another rustle.
It would be just like those two morons to pull something like this. He tried to collect himself, pushing against the concrete that was filling his shoes, but his legs were jelly. It took a great deal of effort to walk towards that door.
Whispers echoed around him.
“Hello?” he tried to call, but his voice had no strength. He stepped into the huge room.
This had to be the general manager’s office. The desk, a great, mahogany thing, was littered with tchotchkes and folders. There were filing cabinets in the corners, two plush-looking chairs facing the desk, and one ergonomic one behind it.
His light shone on the chair behind the desk for only a moment before sweeping to the rest of the room, but his hand jerked to put the light back on it.
It was moving.
The tiniest swivel, as if someone had just stood up from it.
Yu felt ice seize him. He stepped back, pressing his shoulder blades into the wall to protect himself from a sneak attack, and stared hard at the chair. The movement had stopped.
Had he just imagined it?
He took one step forward.
The door slammed shut.
There was a high-pitched shriek, and it didn’t come from him.
Yu dropped to the floor, his flashlight clattering out of his hand — but as it rolled away, the light showed him the underside of the desk, where two pairs of wide eyes stared back at him.