Haruka smiled, returning Suzume's as she hugged her. She watched as Suzume went and hugged Toby, and then Sho. For some reason, her smile faded slightly at that.

She looked around, noticing some of the others waking the rest up. So... what now? She still didn't know the answer to that question. But her habits were starting to rear themselves again.

They'd come here to explore the old building, right? So, they might as well do that. She made her way up to the front doors of the building; the windows were obscured, possibly painted over, by blackness.

She gripped the handle, pulling on the door, but it didn't budge. Huh? She double checked... yeah, this was indeed a pull door. Giving another hard tug, she felt a small amount give, but dizziness swamped her and she leaned against the wall to support herself.

"Could... someone help me with this?"

“Hey. Do we not count? I mean I know I'm not an angel but...”

Sho turned at the sound of Haruka’s voice. He managed a weak smile as she walked over to him and Toby, still regaining his strength. He suddenly felt awkward to be sitting on the ground while the others were standing, so he forced his tired legs to hoist himself up.

“Hey, Haruka,” Sho said, stretching his arms over his head. “Glad to see you made it to the pink afterlife with us. For a second I was scared it would just be me and Toby, here –no offense, bro.”

Sho watched as Haruka moved to Suzume’s side to wake her up. That little voice in the back of his mind irritatingly told him he should have been the one to do that. He ignored it. Haruka was Suzume’s friend too, so why shouldn’t she help her up? Nevertheless, he walked over to stand by Haruka when Suzume woke up.

“Toby? Sho? You guys okay?”

“Yep! Good as new,” Sho replied. He felt a pang of anxiety for her though. She looked pale and had a bloody nose. Suzume managed to stand up, at which he was slightly impressed. It had taken Sho a couple minutes before the lead-feeling subsided enough for him to get off his butt. The girl began embracing everyone in turn. Now that he knew she was a hugger, Sho wasn’t as startled when she rounded on him. He returned the embrace this time.

“What did we get ourselves into?” Suzume asked.

“I-I t-think a r-really bad g-ghost story,” Toby stuttered out in reply. He looked completely horrified at the fact that he was just hugged by a girl. Sho wondered briefly if he ever had before.

“That, or we’re just the next victims of Panic Face King,” Sho mused. “Although this would be hard even for them to pull off.”

He glanced back at Haruka, who was walking up to the entrance of the old building. He had to give her props for going through with their original plan after the spontaneous mass-blackout. She seemed to be having trouble with the door, though.

“Could... someone help me with this?”

“I gotcha,” Sho called back to her. He trotted down to the entrance and checked to see if it was a push or pull door. Deciding he needed to pull, Sho planted his feet and grabbed the handle. He gave it a sharp jerk and it gave way, swinging open with a loud groan. He stumbled back slightly, momentarily losing his balance when the door opened.

“Huh,” Sho murmured, running his finger over the side of the door. “The sides were rusted to the frame a little bit. No wonder it was stuck like that.” He peered inside the entry way and gave a soft whistle. “Pitch black. Did anyone bring a flashlight?”

"Stalker-senpai is awake." Masato grumbled from his position on the floor, he rolled over and looked up. The sky was pink. That was different. Sky's weren't supposed to be pink. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked at the girl before pointing up. "Was it you that broke the sky? Cause that thing costs a lot." He lifted himself up onto this roller blades in a fluid, well-practiced motion. From the look of it they were still by the old school building but things were different, there were a lot of other students around though so it wasn't like it was just the three of them. Akira was moving over to two people he recognized as people from his year group. He turned to the younger girl. "Looks like the adults are talking...but I suppose you can join in."

He slowly rolled over to Akira, Kozue and Yori. "So I'm guessing none of you have any idea what just happened? Short of us jacking into the Matrix?"

"Well, no, not a flashlight, but I do have my phone," Haruka said, taking it out. It was a simple matter of setting the brightness to max.

She swept the light across the entrance, but the beam didn't get far before landing on something interesting, painted on the wall in a red substance.

If you are reading this message, then my attempt to repair the barrier has failed, and now the world is in danger.

This building contains a terrible collection, a gallery so vile and incomprehensible that should it escape it will no doubt cause widespread chaos and panic. The barrier was supposed to protect us... it was supposed to keep the spreading worlds locked up in this building to fight amongst each other. Our world is absolutely no match for their influences but they cannot triumph over one another. If the barrier is gone these worlds will leak past each other and swallow ours.

But the barrier wasn't supposed to stop working. Not now. Not for over a hundred years. There were contingency plans but they are in no way ready yet.

It is with a heavy heart that I must burden whoever find this message with the task of stopping the leakage. Now that the barrier is on its way to failure there is only one way to stop the spread. You must reach into the void... disconnect each world from its access point to our reality.

Only then will we be safe.

God bless you.

Haruka stared at the message. Disbelief. Shock. Confusion.

"This is... I-I didn't...".

"Hmph."

Yori lay still for several moments after he woke up. Masato's voice, and Kozue's, were both trying to reach him, but for the moment he was stubbornly refusing to answer. It was less irritating to lay there and collect his thoughts.

Eventually, he opened his eyes and sat up. He shook his head back and forth, both to answer Masato and to clear the lingering fog. "We were drugged. Beyond that, I have no idea."

Kozue's hand fit neatly into his. Their fingers laced together as he looked back into his companion's shaking eyes. "We can't go home. Not yet. Look at the sky." A free finger pointed up above his head as he spoke. "I don't know if you see what I see, but that's...not normal. We're...I don't know, strung out. High on something. Can't just wander off while we're like this."

One of the underclassmen was having a fit. Maybe the drug was affecting her worse than them. He called out to her as she stared forward towards some markings on the wall.

"Hey. You. Are you alright?"

“Well, no, not a flashlight, but I do have my phone.”

“Whatever works,” Sho replied with a shrug. He reached into his bag to retrieve his own cell phone, setting it on a flashlight app. He finally had a good use for the stupid thing. He gestured for the other two to join them at the entrance.

Near the door, Haruka had stopped and was staring at something on the wall. She looked shell-shocked. Sho hurried to her side and followed her gaze to the dark red lettering. He read the bloody looking message, and it only increased his sense of urgency. There was something so deadly here that the entire world was in danger? It was hard to believe, but then again a lot of unbelievable things had happened in just the last fifteen minutes. He couldn’t afford to play ignorant.

“Cryptic,” Sho breathed. “We should… we should call the police. We’re in over our heads.” He turned off his phone’s flashlight app and tried to dial up 110. “What the…? No signal? It was working fine just ten minutes ago!” He heard the rising panic in his voice and took a deep breath. He had to keep a level head. Freaking out wouldn’t help anyone.

“Okay,” Sho said. “So we’re on our own. Supposing this message is for real, that means we’re trapped here with some dangerous… thing. I propose we stick together until we find our way outta this place. No one should wander off by him or herself. That’s all I’ve got for a plan. I’m not big on horror movies, so I don’t really know how these sort of situations play out.” He looked at the others in turn. “Any more ideas?”

Mitsuki stuck her tongue out at Masato.

"I don't need your permission, you know!"

After a moment she headed over to the group of people that Akira had poked awake as well. It was not as if she was following the rollerblades guy. That group just seemed interesting. And interesting was what she was here for.

What was interesting changed fast. Mitsuki bobbed over next to Haruka and her crew almost immediately when one of the bikers asked them what was going on.

"Are those words? What's it say?" She went up on tiptoes, trying to catch a glimpse over the upperclassmen's shoulders. Then she finally got a view of it. Read it.

She frowned.

"... What's it mean?"

reading the words he couldn't help but feel they were taking place in a bad manga novel, forcing his nervousness to the back of his mind he said "here Haruka save your battery in case we can get a signal going with one of the phones." With that he pulled out his fancy new lighter and flicked it open and after a brief and hopeful stroking of the design he flicked it to life. There was less light traveling forward but instead of just seeing strait ahead they could now see a wider view inside.

He hoped that later they could find something more suitable for light as he had no idea how long the fuel in the thing would last, but zippos were known for their wind resistance and for that he was happy. "My boss got me this little star for working so hard. I really have to thank him when I get back." A terrible pit in his stomach started to grow, if I get back he thought to himself. No sense in getting everyone down from such a stupid thought, but he had to wonder why whoever wrote that message wanted to keep this place hidden, and why it seemed much harder to get out than in.

Oh. A party of people (the proper plural form for a bunch of dudes) had formed around Akira. That was no good at all. Akira operated best when he was able to focus on one target- uh, person. Too many people made for too much to pay attention to, and hence too much work. He was a joy to deal with in debates. Kozue and Yori were having a tender moment that would have been fun to kill, but oh well. Everyone had to make sacrifices. "It's a secret to everyone." Akira cryptically told the others before making his way elsewhere.

Mitsuki and a couple other underclassmen were crowded around the now-open entrance to the spoooky old building, so there was probably something sort of interesting there. Akira didn't intend to do anything more than catch a glance from a safe distance. He loomed over the other students, (especially Mitsuki), to see what all the fuss was about. The subject of the fuss was very fuss-worthy, Akira had to admit. This dream or whatever the hell it was seemed pretty determined on making them the main characters. Fuck.

"It means, my dear Mitsuki," Akira said from directly behind her, "Is that the universe in all its wisdom has selected you as the warrior of justice. Fear not, I will cheer you on from the sidelines."

She looked over at Haruka asking for help with the door of the old building. She followed behind, quietly. When that door opened, it was dead. No spiders, no movement, absolutely nothing. Her heart started pounding like a drum and her hands started shaking. Suzume bite her tongue, but here fear showed deeply in her eyes. Everyone else felt scared, she saw it and she felt it. Being lost in her senses, it was all interupted by Haruka panicking. Her eyes became large, and her heart-rate and shaking increased. She slowly walked over to her,

"Haruka. Haruka please. Please calm dow--" she looked at the note. And she read every single read word. God Bless You. Suzume's voice started cracking, "God Help Us."

Her eyes came to a water, she closed her eyes tightly to suppress her tears of anxiety and fear. "Haruka, everything we'll be okay." her voice was weak.
She zoned out of a little while, she was letting this new reality sink in. But she came to just in time to hear Sho asking about ideas. "We need to stay together." she whispered. "All of us. I mean everyone here. Once they understand what's going on then..." she stopped and looked away. All she wanted was to make her friends are safe, but that might be something she can't assure now. She looked up at Sho, "Please. Just make sure you don't leave. Don't leave us, alright? Safety in numbers." she smiled. "...and don't leave me." she smiled at Sho. Then she turned to Haruka and Toby with another (trying to be) cheerful smile.

I cant do much, but if smiling and staying happy gets us to move, then okay.

"This sucks..." Kozue gripped Yori's hand like a lifeline, knuckles going white. He knew he was holding too tightly, but it wasn't Yori's drawing hand, so he could probably get away with it.

Okay. Deep breaths. You're an upperclassman, act like it. Be responsible. Kozue slowly got to his feet, pulling Yori up with him. "Is... is anyone hurt?" He swallowed hard. His mouth was dry. "I don't have anything with me, but I bike a lot. I know a little first aid if anybody needs some help."

The underclassmen seemed to outnumber them, but with Yori's no-nonsense presence, they could probably wrangle Akira into helping out. Good old Masato with the roller blades seemed to be here too, and he was a responsible enough guy from what Kozue knew. Maybe they should assign everybody a group, like on field trips.

“Please. Just make sure you don't leave. Don't leave us, alright? Safety in numbers... and don't leave me.”

Sho stared at Suzume. Okay, he was sure of it now: she liked him. He marveled at how he hadn’t noticed earlier. Then again, for all his popularity at school, Sho had never actually dated anyone before. Most of the girls he knew were either air-headed or manipulative. They weren’t the kind of people he would even try to form a lasting relationship with. However, he got a different feeling from Suzume. He suddenly realized she was still waiting for a reply, and he was still staring at her.

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere,” Sho said in a soothing tone. Suzume was trying to encourage everyone by smiling, but he could tell that her happiness was just an act. She was probably scared out of her wits, just like the rest of them. He hesitated, and then moved over to stand beside her, putting one arm around her shoulder.

“We’re gonna make it back from wherever this is,” Sho assured her, returning a smile of his own. “And apparently we’re gonna save the world while we’re at it. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be fun; I’ve always wanted to be a superhero.”

12:07

After trying to call her friend only to get no signal Rika gave up trying, deciding to instead follow the group of students into the creepy old building... at least there they could have some sort of shelter, logically speaking the place would still hold strong even after years of disrepair... it was a school afterall, and considering how long it had been there the place could had even been built during war times making it sturdier than normal to withstand enemy bombings...

"w-wait for me~"
she cried out following the group into the place.
She hid her phone for now, seen how some of them already had the initiative to light the place she knew she didn't had to spend her battery, not knowing when she would need it she decided the best step would be getting to know the rest of the students.

Noticing how Suzume and some of the other students were on the verge of freaking out she read the message on the wall, with a sigh she slammed her hand over a wooden pillar and said,

"Come on everyone this is obviously some sort of messed up prank, , spreading worlds locked up in this building? don't make me laugh, this used to be a school! it was never used for anything weird or supernatural like that... ugh... anyways, I suggest we all get to know one another... this might be a long night..."

With a sigh of disappointment, not liking to drop her cutesy-child act she acted abit more mature, if only, to keep the rest of the group from collapsing into hysteria and disarray.

"My name is Haruyomi Rika, from class 3-2, the same class as Akira-kun, and Shiori-kun... I might be rush and childish at times... but even I can see this can't possibly be real..."

She presented herself in an audible voice standing at the entrance, still scared but pretending to be calmed and collected.
saying his name name her a little worried about Shiori... had she him after running to him? was he alright after what happened?... she would have to check on him later, for all she knew he was alright and standing within the relatively large group of students.

No. No, she had to think about this logically. There... there had to be a reason for all of this. Maybe it was an elaborate prank. Yeah... it had to be.

But wait a minute... who would pull a prank like this? How could they get all of this stuff set up without prior notice? How did they get everyone to pass out? And... why? What would be gained from this? This was going too far for just a simple scare setup.

Haruka looked to the others for answers.

She saw Suzume and Sho, and how Suzume was acting in front of Sho.

Really, she'd figured it out at the same time Sho had. And of course Sho had to put his arm around Suzume's shoulder, just to confirm it.

"Th-that's it, huh? Ah... ahaha... yeah. Of course. Y-you two..."

She wiped something from her eye. Huh? When... when did she start crying? Why?

"You... guys... to-together..."

What was going on? Why was she crying? Why was she mumbling?

This made no sense...

Why was she acting like... like...

Haruka dropped her phone. She took a step backwards, before turning and doing a full sprint down the corridor. She didn't care where she was going. She didn't even know why.

---

Saturday, April 11th, 12:08AM - Old Classroom 1-6

Haruka sat on the floor of the classroom, staring at the message painted onto the opposite wall.

Flesh is a vessel for the soul...

What soul is this that requires such a large vessel?

She was very much beginning to doubt that this was just a prank.

Now that she'd calmed down, she realized what she had just done. She'd run away from the others, all because of... seeing Sho and Suzume making contact? That...

No... she was being the stupid one. She should go back.

Haruka stood, making her way to the door of the classroom. But through a small habit that Haruka had picked up, it wasn't the same door she entered from. It's not like it mattered, right? After all, it really didn't, for most of her life. Both of the classroom doors should lead out to the same hallway, right? Even if she was really in some weird dimension, that's just how schools worked right? That's what made sense, so that's how it was, right?

Of course it wasn't.


Of course it wasn't.

Rita sighted pouting in discontent as soon as she saw one of her under classmates having a little lover's fit and running away from the group without regards for her own safety as well as ignoring her request for everyone to present themselves with each other.

"What's wrong with that onee-san, she looked sad..."
she said just to keep appearance although she was also a little worried for her and anybody that wanted to explore the school on their own, her minds breaking apart all that she had seen until now trying to make sense of each scenario, even the unrealistic ones.

Thinking to herself she looked down,

' what is this place really... is this really that same old school we always saw from the hill... sure, it had to be, we woke up outside... and while we couldn't leave the zone due to some stupid thing in the way... no wait...
if this is really a prank... then what the hell is that outside... I've never seen anything like this before not ever... but if this isn't a prank... then is it real? are we all really in danger?... then the message... is it safe to assume it could be telling the truth? or is this just a trap... setting up a task to get us involved in something else... something that we shouldn't be touching...'

Rika lowered her head and sat down, her back pressed against the message near the entrance, trying to make sense of it all... at the very least her initial theory on it being just a prank was probably just wishful thinking... a way to calm down the rest of the students.

'what are we really suppose to do here... Sango...'

Hugging her knees she closed her eyes, really missing her friend, feeling unfit to make decisions and too scared to properly emulate Mika under these circumstances.

"Yeah, super heros." Suzume raised her eyebrows in approval. As Sho put his arm around her, she jumped slightly, but allowed it. It was nice having someone who cares abou--

Something caught her eye. Haruka. She looked, so upset. Something triggered her, then she heard her "You...two.. t-together." Suzume eyes became large and out of instinct, she jumped back from Sho. She watched Haruka drop in phone with tears, and take off down the hallway.

"HARUKA! No please! Don't go, we have to--!" but she was already down the hallway. Suzume went after her but stopped in her tracks. She didn't understand why she ran away, why she looked so sad. Why she looked at her that way. And she honeslty didn't completely understand why Sho stared at her so much. Is this was happens when people 'like' you? It causes people to tears? Suzume picked up Haruka's phone and put in her backpack. "Sho I'm so sorry for pushing you away. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." she mumbled.

She saw some of the other students coming into the building. She saw Rita on the floor with her knees pulled to her chest. Suzume walked over to her and smiled. "Come on, it's not going to be all that bad." Suzume looked up and raised her voice, she was scared but Haruka left she needed to make this clear.

"EVERYONE, listen up! We have to stay together. Get into groups, join a group, something. Please don't go running off..." and this she broke a little. "I have to go find Haruka." she said thinking out loud. She turned to Sho. "Sho.... did..did you know about this?" she looked up at him. She also turned to Toby, "Did..did you know?" She was confused, and she worried about Haruka, but Suzume going alone would make everything worse. "Toby... what are we going to do?" then again to Sho. "Please we have to find her. I don't understand whats going on, but she can't go alone.." her hands started shaking again. "Was.. was this my fault? Did I make her run away?" She looked at Sho in desperation. She turned to Toby, "This is my fault isn't it?" Again turning back to Sho, "She's the only girl I have as a friend. Everyone else was nothing but mask and empty faces. She's the only girl who ever at least actually cared for me, even though I don't get why she was crying but I have to fix it!" she continued at Sho.

"And you, you're the only boy who ever showed true interest in me and didn't seem like a total creeper about it. You aren't a pervert or too touchy... you rather protect then be the one I need protecting from." she paused a little because her face got hot.

Ten she turned to Toby, "You. You so shy, but I really think you're great for that. You show true friendship, even if you didn't know us. You still came here with us and got into this mess." her face was either red with embarrassment or anger, mostly both.

"Please, we have to go after her." and then paused again, "And we need to make sure everyone understand to stay together or we are going to get ourselves killed."
Suzume turned and started walking down the hallway. She made no room for it to be a debate; they were going into this building and they were going to get Haruka.

"Nope." Her hand shot out and grabbed the collar of Akira's hoodie. The frown was gone. A smile was back on Mitsuki's face. "Don't think you can hop out of this one!"

That was when she began to drag him. Began to try to drag him. There was a weight difference there. Also a height difference. They did not get very far. Not even past the one biker guy at the entrance who had been asking Haruka about something or other.

If she was thinking about this - and thinking was boring most of the time - she was a little irritated. Exploring was supposed to be fun. The old building was forbidden and spooky and she had been doing this all for kicks. But now it looked like they actually had a reason to do this and stuff to do. The message had not even explained how to disconnect these worlds. Just wanted them to do it. Like they were some sort of heroes.

If anyone was trying to be heroes, it was probably Haruka's group. Which made Mitsuki blink when Haruka ran off in tears into the darkness.

She let go of Akira's collar.

"Guess we're splitting up... Anyway, you're a upperclassman and you're supposed to watch over the underclassmen, so you're kinda responsible for following me and making sure I don't do stupid stuff." She bobbed on the balls of her feet. "So! Guess you're stuck with me, bunny-senpai."

She did not like hierarchies. But she knew when they could be used to her benefit.

... Also, had that Rika girl called him Akira-kun?

Rika looked up at Haruka to see her little speech, at least from that she had gathered the identities of a few people... soo her name was Haruka, and that boy that was holding her hand, with the short blond hair was called Sho, and their friend with the long black hair on a sort of ponytail was Toby.

Seen the girl walking towards the room her friend had ran into she stood up, looking at the two boys and telling them,

"Sho, Toby, follow after her.. as an upper class mate, I should go as well, the rest of you can wait here if you want... or I guess form groups as well, just... don't wonder off on your own..."

She looked at Sho and Toby, ready to follow them to see to that Haruka girl, hoping she was alright.

Then she stopped, noticing Akira and that other short girl, the smaller girl seemed to have her eyes set on that same room and was planning to go that way, she was even pretty much asking Akira to follow her, in that case things changed,

"If Akira-kun is going... then I should stay with the rest, we have to make sure at least one upperclass mate gets into each group...
besides... Akira-kun, I didn't knew you had such a cute little sister.
Don't scare her now~"

saying that she stopped again with a small chuckle near the remaining few, still worried about the rest but she was sure Akira would be more than capable of handling it.

Oh. He was being dragged. Alright. Akira didn't even try to resist. He just let physics do the resisting for him. Even though Mitsuki quickly gave up, it looked like Akira no longer had a choice in the matter. He'd crossed that strange line where actually doing things was less overall effort than not doing the things. Oh well. It could be reasonably entertaining to do something for once.

Haruka and her friends seemed to be having a little "moment". Akira didn't really pay attention. Relationship drama was such a pain in the ass. Not that he had any first-hand experience, really. But it seemed like way too much of a pain to deal with. To prove his point, Haruka tearfully dashed into the depths of the building, forcing her friends to go after her. That was a disaster waiting to happen. Oh well. Akira had faith in the others' ability to handle it. That totally was not just a handy reason to be apathetic about it.

Whatever. He turned to face Mitsuki. "I suppose I am, ninja-chan. As you know, I am the perfect model of a responsible senpai. There is truly nothing to fear." That would have been inspirational if it hadn't been said in an entirely monotone voice.

Oh. Someone was talking to him. Akira simply blinked at Rika, confused at her... everything. He vaguely recognized her as a classmate. A legit classmate, not a plastic-medal classmate like Kozue or Yori. She seemed to think that Mitsuki was his sister? Weird. He didn't care enough to correct her, though. Akira quizzically examined Mitsuki. "Do we really look that much alike?" After a moment, he shook his head. "Nah. I'm far too handsome. Anyway," he said, pointing at the biker bros, "Wanna take them with us? I think they need a chaperone."

What just happened?

Sho gaped at Haruka as the girl run off down the corridor, tears streaming from her eyes. She was fine just a minute ago, so what caused the sudden change in her attitude? He reflected on what she said last.

“Th-that's it, huh? Ah... ahaha... yeah. Of course. Y-you two...”

She had been referring to the way he had approached Suzume, right?

“You... guys... to-together...”

Sho’s eyes widened in disbelief. It finally clicked: he was stuck in the middle of a love triangle. How did that happen? There were plenty of other guys much more attractive than he was, both in looks and personality. He had never had something like this happen before, nor had he ever even considered it possible.

Sho was roused from his thoughts when Suzume abruptly pushed him away. She called desperately after Haruka, but the other girl didn’t stop running. She was too far gone. He knew he should have gone after her, but he was still stunned from the revelation and his feet were glued to the ground. Suzume bent down to retrieve Haruka’s discarded cell phone and walked back to him, apologizing repeatedly for shoving him earlier.

“It’s okay,” Sho said quietly, shaking his head. “I just can’t believe she ran off like that…”

Suzume’s next words took him by surprise.

“Sho.... did..did you know about this?”

“No!” Sho said, taken aback. “I swear, I had no idea.”

“Was.. was this my fault? Did I make her run away? This is my fault isn't it?”

“It’s not your fault,” Sho interjected. “I didn’t realize how she…” he hesitated, shifting his weight uncomfortably. “I should have seen it sooner.” He hated seeing Suzume look so dejected. He wanted to gather her into his arms and tell her it would be okay, but look how well that worked out last time.

“Please, we have to go after her… And we need to make sure everyone understands to stay together or we are going to get ourselves killed.”

Sho stared down the black pit that was the open doorway. He found new resolve to go inside and look for Haruka. After all, it was his fault that she ran off alone. He couldn’t live with himself if anything happened to her in there. Sho hurried after Suzume, turning on his phone again to use the light to guide them through the darkness.

“Hold up,” Sho said when he caught up with Suzume a couple meters down the hallway. “I’ll walk in front –and I won’t take no for an answer.” He gently brushed past the girl and lit up the passage with his phone light.

The inside smelled of dirt and rotting wood. It wasn’t a very inviting odor, but it did help with the whole “haunted” aspect. Sho shined the light across the walls and the floor in front of him. The wallpaper was peeling badly, revealing worn out wood beneath. The most disturbing thing, however, was that there was no sign of life anywhere. The building was silent apart from the creaking of the floorboards they stepped on. Sho didn’t catch sight nor sound of rats, bats, or bugs. Usually abandoned places like these were riddled with them.

Then, he spotted a flash of movement up ahead. Could it be?

“Haruka!” Sho called out. His voice sounded much too loud, ripping through the silence of the empty building. Without thinking, he reached for Suzume’s hand and took off down the hallway, guiding her along beside him. Hopefully Toby would keep up if he was following (Sho hadn’t really looked back to check).

He stopped where the old corridor took a sharp turn to the right. The figure he had seen earlier was gone. He felt a wave of frustration. How could he lose her so easily? Then he noticed the door. It stood alone on the right side of the hall, the paint on it was faded and peeling just like everything else in the wretched building. The sign above it read “1-6”. Maybe Haruka was inside.

Sho reached for the handle and gave it a turn…