When Suzume had her episode of mania, Sho knew they weren’t going to be able to go any further. He tried to keep hold of her hand when she pulled away again, but it slipped loose since he wasn’t expecting the sudden outburst. He cast a fleeting glance back at the unmoving figure to find –well, what do you know?– it had moved.

“Suzume,” Sho moved towards her, trying to ignore the shiver running down his spine as the soft floor gave way beneath his feet. “It’s okay. We’ll just try another room.” He reached to put an arm around Suzume’s shoulders, and helped Haruka guide her back to the doorway. When they reached the classroom, Sho let Haruka take over in attempting to calm Suzume down.

“You guys stay here,” Sho said, his protective nature coming through in his mannerism. “I’ll scout out the room next door and see if it’s any better.” Without waiting for a reply, he pivoted on his heel and headed out the door leading into the hallway. A little farther down on his left was the door to classroom 1-5, and at the end of the corridor on his right was classroom 1-7. Sho marched up to 1-7, not bothering sneak around anymore.

To be quite frank, Sho was getting tired of the spooky school building. He just wanted to come here with a couple friends to have some fun exploring the abandoned rooms and maybe get a laugh if someone freaked out when a rat scurried by. He didn’t want to spend the night trapped in some inter-dimensional bubblegum world where classes were apparently held in the belly of an oversized monster. He also didn’t want to see Suzume –or any of his friends, for that matter– have such a severe panic attack.

Another thought crossed his mind: where did the others go? There had been a good dozen students outside the old building, but he hadn’t seen any of them since then. Maybe they had the common sense to stay away. Somehow he doubted that.

Sho twisted the handle and it gave way with a soft [i]click[/i]. He slid the door open and poked his head around the corner to see what was on the other side. At a glance, it looked normal enough. He took a tentative step inside.