Talk?
What kind of talk!?
From beginning to now, Takumi hadn't spoken a single word out loud!
These damn things—could they directly see his thoughts? Could they actually talk back to what he was thinking? Just what the hell was blocking the door outside right now?!
Turning his head to the side, he saw Shijō Maki still standing in place, while Kaguya had already, unconsciously, taken a step forward. Their expressions shifted between seriousness and puzzlement, as if they were conversing with someone—even though neither had opened their mouths.
[Open the door, open the door, open the door.]
[Thud—thud—thud—]
The knocking sound, together with those three voices, grew heavier and heavier.
[Smack!]
Takumi reached out and forcefully slapped his palms onto the shoulders of Maki and Kaguya. The two froze, then quickly regained their senses, in that instant realizing the abnormal actions they had fallen into without noticing.
[Open the door.]
[Thud!]
A deafening blow struck the door, the floor trembling faintly with it.
Takumi stepped back. By now he had already retreated to the corner of the hallway, nearly at the point where he could no longer see the door at all.
[Open it.]
[Thud!!]
The second blow came, violent enough to feel like a small earthquake.
Caught off guard, Takumi was shaken and fell to the ground.
Maki hurriedly reached out to support herself against the wall, barely avoiding a fall to the ground, while Kaguya stood firmly in place, immediately steadying Maki as well as retreating backward, with the wall clock she had just taken down from the corridor still in her arms.
[Open the door]
[Thud——!!!]
At the third heavy crash, all three of them were inevitably thrown to the ground again.
[Open the door]
[Open the door]
[Open the door]
The voices outside the door began to repeat.
The tightly shut door at that moment shook violently, faint cracks gradually appearing on the frame.
The three voices had already lost all distinction, merging into one overlapping, emotionless sound, repeating mechanically.
[Open the door!]
The three people outside shouted together, pounding the door with all their strength.
[Open the door!!]
The frame was gradually starting to deform, and this supposedly solid iron security door seemed to show faint bulges.
Takumi climbed up from the floor, one hand braced against the wall, the other supporting the slightly trembling Maki at his side, as together they looked forward, wanting to retreat further back.
Kaguya, a bit ahead, remained half-crouched to resist the tremors within the room, also intending to step back.
[Thud——]
The heavy pounding on the door rang out once more.
But this time, the sound caused all three in the corridor to halt their steps at the same time.
[Open the door]
Those three voices echoed in unison.
In unison, they sounded from behind the three in the corridor, from beyond the closed door leading to the living room.
[Crack——crack——]
The already flimsy wooden door gave off splintering sounds.
[Open the door]
And three perfectly overlapping shouts came from behind that door, from within the living room itself, accompanying the pounding sounds.
What's going on? What's going on, what's going on?!
The current situation had already completely exceeded all expectations.
Each louder and louder pounding, accompanied by the emotionless, endlessly repeating "open the door" shouts, together with the entire corridor shaking as though in an earthquake, and the dizziness involuntarily spreading through the brain—all of it interlaced into a chaotic symphony.
Takumi knew very well that falling into panic in an emergency was utterly meaningless.
Frantic flailing would not make the enemy show sympathy and slow down, would not cause urgent danger to be delayed; reality had no pause button. The faster one calmed down, the greater the chance to think of a solution and escape the present predicament.
But what should he do?
The best experience from his past life amounted to standing up for bullied classmates at school, fighting five delinquents with a mop smeared in shit, and earning the nickname "Shit-Stick Master" from then on. No one had ever taught him how to deal with a horror story that defied all common sense—especially when the rule sheet in his hand had expired two years ago, making it impossible to verify whether its contents were valid or not, when he had no see-through invincibility cheat, no hacks of any kind, and even with two beautiful girl teammates, he could not conjure intelligence out of thin air.
Honestly speaking, the rule sheet said not to respond, but who the hell knew this ghostly thing could even communicate through inner thoughts, forming a dialogue?! Was it that the bastard who wrote this crappy rule sheet had holes in his brain and deliberately hid the key parts, or were the rules of this haunted place really changing day by day, evolving nonstop?!
"Why… are they knocking on the living room door?"
At this moment, Maki was already in complete panic, staring in disbelief behind her, at that living room door battered with cracks, looking as if it might collapse at any moment.
She could not understand.
Clearly, just a second ago those things had still been pounding on the front door outside the corridor, so how had they in the next second entered the living room, now hammering on the door between the living room and the corridor?
All her knowledge and experience could not explain what was happening, could not help her find any reference for action.
Only now did this girl begin to truly understand what a [Horror Story] really was.
[Crack!]
A hole split open in the wooden living room door.
Blood seeped out from the hole.
The stench of gore spread out.
As if the living room they had just searched through moments ago had now turned into a slaughterhouse, piled high with bloody, mangled limbs.
[Open the door!]
The shouts of those three seemed to roar directly into their ears.
As if three unseen people were standing right beside them, bellowing at them.
In the twisted voices, their vision seemed to blur.
It was as if they could see three broken figures crowded behind the door, wailing ceaselessly, letting out shrill cries of agony.
[Boom!]
That wooden door had already been completely deformed, on the verge of being smashed apart.
At this moment the corridor itself also warped into an eerie state, like the projection of a funhouse mirror, twisted beyond shape.
And the three of them, sitting collapsed on the floor, seemed to twist along with it, every cell, every bit of skin, flesh, and bone slowly contorting into grotesque forms.
"This… what on earth…"
Struggling several times to support herself, Shinomiya Kaguya still could not stand.
From the moment the things outside the door began mutating, the three in the corridor had already started losing control of their bodies.
The world warped ever more like an illusion, their hands and feet growing weaker and weaker.
The clamorous noise in their minds magnified ceaselessly, roaring, as if countless figures filled every side around them.
As if this corridor had been crammed full with endless people, so crowded they could not move.
One after another…
Unseen, unheard, unfelt…
Always… always wandering here… souls that could never rest…
"Uhh…"
Among the three, Shinomiya Kaguya, whose hearing was the sharpest, let out a painful whimper and collapsed to the ground.
After all, this girl was only 17, and had never faced such terrifying and bizarre scenes. On top of that, before Takumi and Maki came out, she had already been alone in the corridor listening to the knocking for some time, so the impact on her was greatest, leaving her nearly unable to keep her body upright.
Yet even so, she still instinctively clutched the wall clock in her hands, the one she had taken from the end of the corridor—the only clock inside Room 208—never once letting it go.
"Shi… Kaguya…"
A blurred, indistinct voice sounded by her ear.
Amid those countless anguished howls, it was as if someone's voice whispered right next to her.
The next instant, a hand suddenly shot out from the side, instantly seizing the clock in her hands.
Kaguya whipped her head around, and what she saw was Takumi's face gradually splitting down the middle.
Such a sight was something that should never have existed in the real world.
Kaguya could clearly see Takumi's face cracking open along the center, his cheeks spreading to either side like the pages of a book being opened.
Beneath the skin, blood was still flowing through the veins, the white brain matter seemed to squirm faintly, the bisected tongue still curled and twisted, even the severed muscles trembled so vividly that saliva could be seen seeping out from them.
Was this… an illusion?
Lowering her head, on the fingers clutching the wall clock, the skin seemed to be peeling away bit by bit, exposing the crimson flesh beneath.
It seemed as if there was no pain.
But then… the pain seemed to grow clearer, little by little.
After she felt it, after she discovered it, after she became aware of it, the pain began to spread gradually, spreading throughout her entire body.
"…"
No sound came out.
In the silent corridor, without a single sound.
The girl could not produce any voice.
It was as if she could see her body turning transparent.
Seeing every part of herself begin to tear, begin to break, seeing herself gradually shatter into countless fragments.
The pain grew ever clearer.
Yet her thoughts dulled constantly.
No voice could come from her mouth, she could only watch numbly as all of this happened.
Watching herself, just like that, gradually walk toward death.
Was this what was happening… in the corridor outside…
[Clack——]
Yet it seemed she could still hear something.
A sound coming from her side, coming from extremely close by.
With difficulty, she shifted her gaze downward.
What she saw was a severed hand.
A hand almost completely torn apart, only a shred of skin remaining, connecting it to a nearly disintegrated, broken skeleton of a body.
She saw two fingers.
Lightly, two fingers pressed against the clock's hour hand.
[Clack——]
The clear sound rang by her ear.
The hour hand of that wall clock was thus pushed, moved back a small fraction.
"Uwah!"
In the next moment, Kaguya's eyes snapped open wide as she suddenly sat up from the filthy, broken bed.
She turned her head, seeing beside her Takumi, lying there gasping for breath, his forehead covered in sweat.
No eerie knocking and voices.
No shattered bodies and numbed senses.
Everything was as if it had been an unreal nightmare, yet upon waking, it seemed they were still at the very starting point.