Are we rolling yet? This thing's eating my battery like crazy."
"Relax, Ren. Just wait till we're inside. Suspense, remember? Gotta give 'em foreplay before the scare."
The van's interior smelled like old fries and burnt cables. An old-school GoPro clung awkwardly to the dash with cracked adhesive tape, while a cheap power bank dangled from its side like a surgical IV. Four teens crammed in shoulder to shoulder: messy hair, scuffed sneakers, and eyes either wide with excitement or heavy with doubt.
Ren sat in the passenger seat, fiddling with the stream overlay on his busted second-hand laptop. His signature red windbreaker made him pop even in the dim interior, a calculated choice. He grinned at the camera.
"Alright, misfits and nightcrawlers," he said into the lens, "we're going dark in ten. If we disappear, remember us as legends."
From the back, Hina shoved his shoulder. "Don't joke like that, idiot."
"I'm serious," Ren replied with a wink. "Gotta go viral or go home."
Minato leaned against the van door, staring at nothing. The youngest of the four, he barely spoke, but everyone just accepted that. He always showed up when it counted. He was the one who found the thread — the forum post from three years ago that mentioned Echo Line 7, the subway line buried under the city, long sealed, long forgotten. And possibly cursed.
Yuto was finishing his second energy drink and humming something tuneless. "You sure we aren't just breaking into some homeless hangout? Because if we get stabbed over ghost clout, I'm blaming you, Ren."
"Relax. The original video got deleted, but people still talk about it. If we find anything, even just graffiti, we win." Ren's hands moved fast, checking the feed. "I boosted the tags. Urban explorers, ghosts, 'unseen Tokyo'—we're already getting clicks."
"Not Tokyo," Hina said. "It's not even on any official map anymore."
Ren smirked. "Exactly."
A ping echoed from the laptop. First viewer. Then two more. The chat began to breathe.
> ratboy211: this better not be another clickbait
junkiecookie: show the tunnel already
z3r0fade: lmao they all gonna die 😂
Yuto held up his phone. "Chat's got jokes."
Outside, the city had mostly gone to sleep. The van was parked in a disused alley behind a textile warehouse. One wall held a sealed metal door with a keypad — corroded from rain, half-buried in ivy. A single streetlamp flickered like it couldn't decide whether to live or die. Ren looked back at the others.
"Flashlights? Batteries?"
"Check."
"Rope?"
"Why do we need rope?" Hina asked.
"Dunno. Feels right."
Minato, quiet until now, spoke without turning. "Because you'll want a way back up. The ladder's broken."
Ren blinked. "How do you know?"
Minato shrugged. "It just is."
---
They cracked the door after some effort — Ren hotwired the padlock with wires stripped from an old speaker, more luck than skill. A rusty screech tore through the silence as the door swung open to a short flight of metal stairs descending into pitch-black.
A sigh of damp air rose to meet them, thick and oddly warm.
Ren flicked on his headlamp. "Showtime."
> g0shgirl: let's gooooo
gravediggersmile: someone screen-record this
---
The stairwell swallowed sound. Each step echoed like a drumbeat against tile walls stained with rust and moss. The old tiles beneath their feet bore traces of long-faded logos—whatever this place used to be, it hadn't seen daylight in decades.
Their footsteps felt muffled, like the place had grown tired of being walked on.
Yuto laughed nervously, shining his flashlight at a wall. "Hey, is that blood or paint?"
"It's always paint until it's not," Ren quipped.
Hina was less amused. She kept glancing behind her. "It's way too quiet. We're not even that far from the street. Where's the traffic noise?"
Minato didn't respond. He had walked ahead of them slightly, flashlight beam steady and low. Every so often he stopped, tilted his head, then moved again like he was listening for something.
Ren adjusted the camera on his shoulder and whispered, "Okay, just passed 300 viewers."
> dieinnightvision: wait is this real-time??
lost_archive: anyone else feel sick watching this lol
xnoisymessiahx: turn around TURN AROUND WTF
They paused at a thick metal door at the bottom. A faded sign read:
> "E7 MAINTENANCE. STAFF ONLY. DO NOT ENTER. DO NOT REMAIN."
Yuto chuckled, running a hand over the words. "Great. A door that tells you to get the hell out. Real welcoming."
Ren nodded to Minato. "You found the spot. Wanna do the honors?"
Minato turned, face unreadable in the low light, and reached for the handle. His fingers hovered for a second. Then he looked up at the ceiling.
"Hear that?"
They all stopped.
Somewhere above — no, below — there was a sound. Not quite footsteps. More like something scraping gently across tile. Almost cautious.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Then Minato opened the door.