Chapter (32): quick truth part 3
In a forest of faces...
Emma and Smiley were running through the narrow tunnel, and Smiley saw Emma ahead of him, stunned, staring at her phone.
"What? Emma, why do you look so distracted right now? Who's calling you? Is it your favorite idol?"
"Dad..."
"What?"
"Dad is calling me right now!"
Upon hearing the word "dad," Smiley's expression changed, his smile wavered slightly, and his eyes narrowed—because that word reminded him of something specific, something he despised.
"Your dad is calling you? I see... Well, don't leave him waiting. Answer him."
"You want me to talk to him while we're being chased by monsters? I can't do that!"
"Oh! Is there some family drama between you two?"
"Smiley, this isn't the time for jokes! I have to talk to him without sounding suspicious! And if he finds out about any of this, he might lose his mind!"
"Ahaha, or maybe his brain will explode like a piñata! (≧▽≦)"
"And then there'll be no more food or adventures..."
"(ᗒᗩᗕ) Nooooooo! Anything but that! I'm having the best time of my life with you—I won't let anything ruin this!"
"Don't worry, Emma, I'll protect you! ᕙ( :˘∧˘: )ᕗ Just keep running and talk to him normally!"
"Alright, Smiley, cover me if any monsters get close!"
"Roger!"
Emma glanced at Smiley, who gave her a mock salute while keeping an eye behind them.
Emma took a deep breath before answering.
"Hooof... haaah!"
*Click!*
"Hi,I mean hey Dad!"
[Hi... Wait, Emma... Why does your voice sound distorted? And... you're panting heavily?]
"I'm just jogging in the park, you know, getting some exercise?"
[What? But I didn't see anyone in the park when I was heading home.]
"That's... because... I was in the other park, the Sethifel Park!"
[Oh... Really...]
"So... how about you call me back later? I'm kinda busy right now... I'm going somewhere."
[Are you going to the Faces forest?]
Emma froze for a moment when she heard that and quickly replied:
"What? Faces Forest? Oh, you mean Mom told you about that?"
[Yes.]
"Well, yeah, I'm going there to meet my friend."
[Is your friend Frank?]
"Frank? You mean Frank Wilson? ಠಿ_ಠ"
[Yes, that's the one.]
"What? No, I'm not going to meet him... It's someone else. Who said I was going to see him?"
[So he's not your friend?]
"It's... complicated. It's hard to explain. I mean, we've barely had one conversation, and the last time I saw him was the day before the crime."
[Then I just have one last question.]
"Tell me, what is it? Preferably not about—"*
[About the cafeteria incident.]
Emma felt as if time had stopped when she heard that sentence, but she steadied herself and feigned ignorance.
"Cafeteria incident? What are you talking about? Do you mean a food fight, Dad? That's not—"
[Don't lie to me, Emma. Andrew told me everything.]
Suddenly, Emma's running slowed as Smiley charged forward, striking the monsters one after another, kicking them away from her. But without Smiley noticing, a lycan deer sneaked up on Emma—she didn't notice it either.
"Oh... So it's time... I honestly didn't expect this day to come... I—"
Her thoughts were abruptly cut off as the lycan deer—small, about her size—lunged at her. Emma struggled to keep it from biting her, its jagged teeth gnashing as it tried to tear into her face.
"Fu*k!"
Emma was completely caught off guard. She kicked it away and pulled a knife from her pocket, but it jumped on her again, pinning her to the ground. She pressed the knife against its neck as the creature mindlessly thrashed, trying to take a bite out of her. Meanwhile, her father seemed oblivious to any of this for some reason.
[Tell me, why did you hide this from me? Why didn't you tell me about this?]
"I... I hid it... because..."
Emma glanced at the monster one last time before closing her eyes, gritting her teeth, and blurting out everything—everything she had bottled up inside.
"Because I didn't want his damn life to be ruined! Because I didn't want him to be an outcast like me! If I said anything, our family would fall apart, and I don't want that! I want us to stay a family, at least!"
As Emma spoke, the lycan deer's neck twitched, and she threw it off. When she did, Smiley noticed and immediately rushed to her after delivering a crushing blow that shattered the ribcage of the nearest monster, sending the rest flying like dominoes.
As more monsters surged forward, they got stuck, crowding the tunnel, fighting and trampling each other until the tunnel shook and collapsed on them, leaving them unable to pursue any further...
By the time it was over, Smiley came to her, helping her up... He glanced at the lycan deer's corpse, then back at Emma with an amused expression.
[Is that the truth?]
"Yes, that's the truth, Dad. It's just... I don't want to be the reason our family falls apart. I want it to stay the way it is."
[I...]
"Now, is your interrogation over? I have things to do."
[... Tell your friend I want to talk next time.]
"Yeah..."
.
.
.
.
.
At Emma's house...
Marcus had put the call on speaker so everyone in the room could hear his conversation with Emma. The room fell into silence after he hung up.
"...Goodbye."
"At least she cares about you... sacrificing herself for you and our family. And look at what you're doing in return... That's the difference between you and her. She's not... (Sigh)"
"Dad..."
"Don't call me 'Dad,' Andrew... You're no longer my son."
"Dad... I..."
"You have five minutes to leave her room, or you won't like what happens next."
After Marcus finished speaking, he turned and left the room, leaving Andrew and his friends alone. They all looked down with somber expressions.
The atmosphere was heavy with silence and seriousness.
"Even though things have gone bad, there's still a chance to—"
"Chloe, just shut up... She's not the criminal. We are. We're the real criminals."
Nathan then left, leaving only Andrew and Chloe in the room.
"Chloe, leave."
"But I—"
"Just... leave. I want to be alone..."
Chloe obeyed, seeing the look in his eyes, and left the room.
Andrew stared down with an unreadable expression before finally leaving as well.
.
.
.
"Oh, looks like..."
"Honey, did you say something to make them leave?"
"Why would you think that?"
"Because I saw you go upstairs earlier, right before they left. They seemed upset about something."
"No, dear. They were just worried about the case, and I simply reassured them."
"I hope... they really catch the killer."
"Yeah, I hope so too."
Trrrring!
"Oh, is it work-related?"
"No, it's... Wait, why is Niles calling me? That's weird."
Click.
"Niles, didn't I tell you before that I—"
"...What?..."
"Honey, what's wrong...?"
"What do you mean you've already caught the killer?!"
.
.
.
.
"In a forest of faces... in a tunnel underground...
Returning to Emma and Smiley, Smiley was helping Emma get up as she stared at the corpse.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Let's just get out of here."
"Ah, right..."
After standing up, Emma glanced at the corpse one last time before walking away with Smiley in the opposite direction. Smiley looked at Emma with an ambiguous expression behind his smile and spoke:
"Sorry, I was trying to push them away, and one slipped past when I wasn't paying attention."
"Well, I don't blame you. You were fighting a whole crowd of them, and I could barely handle one—a small one at that."
"You're right about that."*
"More importantly, you managed to kill one! That's a big achievement!"
"How do you feel about it? The feeling of killing a monster for the first time?"
"Yeah... I feel..."
"Yesss? (・∀・)"
**"Nothing."**
"Huh? ಠ_ಠ"
"...For some reason, I should've felt something, but I didn't feel anything when I killed it. Maybe because it wasn't my first time killing someone. But I should've felt something... yet no matter how much I searched inside, I only found that I killed it because it was trying to kill me. That's all."
"That's really interesting. Was it because it was a monster? Or was it because of that little conversation you had on your phone?"
"Something like that."
"And about what you said earlier..."
"I was being threatened by that bast*rd back there, so I had no choice but to say the truth quickly."
"And I said what was really inside me... Damn, this is so embarrassing."
"So that was... what you were suppressing?"
"Yeah, don't laugh to me."
"Pfft...Nothing... I'm just thinking of something funny."
"I told you not to laugh me."
"Not that, it's something else..."
"What is it?"
"A joke you wouldn't understand."
"That's weird... But I'm not one to judge. Let's just get out of this damned cave."
"As you wish."
As they walked into the unknown, Emma turned on her flashlight and moved forward. She noticed the tunnel gradually widening as they advanced. There were multiple branching paths, forcing them to choose one at random and press on.
"That scorpion really did a good job digging all these tunnels. It'd make a skilled worker—I bet it could get a job in town."
"Yeah, sure. Hey, speaking of it, can you tell me what your last interaction with it was like?"
"I told you earlier, I just—"
"No... You said you met it, but you didn't tell me how you fought it. How did the battle go?"
"Well, you could say we... had fun together."
"It didn't seem happy to see you when you met again."
"Maybe it's shy."
"Smiley, it literally went all that way just to kill you."
"Aaaaw... So this is friendship!"
"More like a hatred, genius."
"Come on, don't be so mean! Hahaha!"
"Whatever... Ah! There's the light, finally!"
"Wait a second... Let me draw my gun... Just in case it's another trick from that damned deer."
"You mean Malphas? By the way, why did you even talk to him?"
"I was trying to gather information. He's the first talking monster we've encountered. I thought he might have something useful."
"Also, why did you name him that?"
"You mean Malphas?"
"Yep."
"It's the name of a monster from a horror fairytale I heard once."
"What kind of tale?"
"A story about a monster that disguises itself as a raven or a deer to lure hunters and then kills them."
"Ahahaha! Isn't that exactly what happened to us?"
"Yes, pretty much."
"So how did it end?"
"In the end, the hunter discovers the truth—that the prey he was chasing was actually a monster—and gathers the other hunters to kill it, throwing it off the top of a mountain."
"Oh, what a boring ending! What was the moral of the story anyway?"
"There wasn't one."
"Okay, that's weird."
"So what do we do after we get out?"
"First, let's go to your place, spend some time, and properly discuss everything that happened in the cave."
"Got it. Emma, look! It's my house! That guy managed to dig a den so close to my place! How did I not notice?"
"He must've been careful. And it seems like he was watching you and..."
"Hmm?"
While Smiley curiously wondered how the den was built, Emma noticed a piece of cloth strangely stuck in the grass. It was small, about the size of a leaf, but Emma spotted it and bent down to pick it up.
"What's up, Emma?"
"Smiley... Was there someone else when you were fighting the scorpion man?"
"Hmm, no. No one else came to my house. The only one who showed up was the scorpion. Other than that, no one knocked on my door."
"Really? That's... really strange."
"What? Does it have to do with that piece of cloth you're holding?"
"...(●__●)... Yeah... Smiley."
"Whatever... Forget it. Let's just go to my place. Come on, there's a lot I want to talk to you about!"
After finishing his sentence, Smiley leaped high, landing on top of his house—the wrecked plane—and waved from afar, urging Emma to follow. She looked at him suspiciously.
"How did Smiley know it was a piece of clothing in the first place?"
"He's... hiding something... But I'm not here to investigate him. That's not why I came."
"And I'm not like them... Not anymore. I won't become like him after this. He's my friend now."