"Bzzz~ The train is departing, passengers please properly store your luggage and do not move. The final destination of this journey is — Death!"
The station announcement sounded with static and interference, the voice eerie, as if some inhuman being were imitating human speech.
Hearing that sound, the fear in Katsura Kotonoha's heart ignited instantly.
"No! I don't want to!"
The girl struggled, trying to get up from her seat, but it was as if she were trapped to it. No matter how hard she tried, even if she gave it her all, no matter the pain and injuries, she could not stand up at all.
"Hehe, once more, the last time…"
Katsura Kotonoha was filled with despair. That somewhat familiar voice entered her ears, tugging at her, but when she looked around, she saw nothing.
Around her were only people with ashen faces, more like corpses than living beings.
Looking at those people, Katsura Kotonoha began to tremble all over.
Realizing her struggle was futile, the girl could only give up. She covered her head with both hands, large tears falling over her body, soaking her pajamas over her chest.
Thinking that she was currently in a dream, Katsura Kotonoha stretched out her hand and pinched her thigh with all her strength. Her fair skin quickly reddened, and sharp pain spread throughout her entire body at the same time.
"Wake up! This is a dream, wake up! Katsura Kotonoha, wake up!"
But no matter how hard she tried, no matter how real and clear the pain was, she could not wake up.
Closing her eyes tightly, Katsura Kotonoha clung to her last hope, wishing that when she opened them again, she would see her room and her mother.
But the hope was ultimately only an illusion. After opening and closing her eyes several times, what she always saw was the same eerie station and the terrifying Monkey Train she was on.
Seeing that she could not wake up no matter what, Katsura Kotonoha fell into complete despair.
The girl gradually gave up hope of living. That helplessness in the face of death completely broke Katsura Kotonoha.
At that moment, the Monkey Train suddenly moved. Black smoke billowed again from its front, and the wheels once again began rolling on the tracks, taking the train out of the station.
"The train is moving, passengers please do not move. Next station — Live Cut Platter."
The announcement sounded in the train. Hearing the words "Live Cut Platter," Katsura Kotonoha abruptly lifted her gaze behind her.
She was sitting in the third row from the back. Behind her were only two more people, a man and a woman, both with slightly bowed heads, gray faces without any expression, with the emptiness of corpses.
However, Katsura Kotonoha knew that soon those two people would emit horrible screams and wails.
This was… what she had experienced the previous two nights. Everything was repeating!
Only this time, she could not escape, she could no longer escape!
Overcome with fear, Katsura Kotonoha looked forward. Her gaze passed over the rows of seats in front of her, and she saw a tunnel that had appeared out of nowhere.
"It's here!"
At the moment she saw the tunnel, the girl knew that everything would begin again!
The train was not fast, but the tunnel was not far, and soon it entered it.
Inside the tunnel were lights, but they were not ordinary yellow or white, but strange and eerie purple!
The purple light illuminated the Monkey Train, and the smiling monkey head at the front of the train looked especially terrifying at that moment!
Then the announcement sounded again, but now the voice was extremely eerie, hoarse and distorted, each syllable falling in a strange place, yet the meaning of the words could still be understood:
"Live Cut Platter, arrival."
As the announcement sound faded, Katsura Kotonoha cautiously turned her head back, and her gaze fell on the man in the last row.
Behind the window of that last row, four small monkeys, dressed in tattered clothes, stiff-faced with wide grins, squeezed inside one by one.
The four monkeys held strange knives in their hands: sharp knives, ordinary kitchen knives, and a serrated knife resembling a shark tooth.
The blades gleamed with an eerie purple light, sending shivers down her spine!
After entering, the monkeys first looked at Katsura Kotonoha. The leader, a monkey with a hat and black, hollow eye sockets, bared its teeth at the girl and pointed at her. Its expression clearly said: "You're next!"
Seeing that, Katsura Kotonoha squinted her eyes and quickly looked away, covering her ears and not daring to look back again.
Seeing that the girl had turned away, the monkey bent its three fingers, as if counting something. When all three fingers were bent, the monkey jumped excitedly:
"Uu-uu!! Uu-va-va!!"
With the cries, the monkey grabbed the sharp knife and leapt at the man.
In the next moment, blood spurted from the man's body, and the sharp knife had already pierced his stomach.
"Aaaaa!!!!"
At that moment, the man seemed to regain consciousness and let out a horrific scream. He struggled, trying to shake the monkey off himself, but it was completely useless.
The blood fueled the monkey's savagery. The other monkeys also swung their knives and rushed at the man, cutting flesh! Sawing bones!
"Slap! Crack, crack…"
The sound of tearing flesh and blood, as well as the horrific sound of bones grinding against serrated blades, echoed inside the train like a sick accompaniment to the ride.
Covering her ears, Katsura Kotonoha tried to restrain herself from invoking the scenes unfolding behind her, but the harder she tried not to think, the more vividly the bloody scenes appeared in her mind.
Gradually, the heavy, cloying smell of blood spread through the air.
After an unknown amount of time, the train was still moving, but the man's screams, as well as the sounds of cutting flesh and sawing bones, gradually fell silent.
Shivering, Katsura Kotonoha lowered her hands from her ears. Just as she wanted to turn around, she suddenly met the monkey's hollow eye sockets.
Before she could react, the announcement entered her ears. This time, the sound was very close!
"The train is moving, next station — Dig it out!"
As the sound faded, the girl's pale face whitened, but the blind monkey in front of her smiled even more maniacally:
"Uu-i! Uu-va-va-va~"
With the cries, the monkey shoved the seat and leapt at the woman behind Katsura Kotonoha.
At that moment, the woman was still expressionless, as if the monkey had no effect on her at all.
"Dig it out, arrival!"
The announcement sounded, and the monkey received the order. From its tattered clothes it pulled out a rusty, red metal spoon.
On the seat behind the woman, another monkey, also blind in both eyes, peeked holding a small butter knife. It grabbed the woman by the hair, swung forcefully, and landed on her head.
In the next moment, before Katsura Kotonoha's terrified and shocked eyes, the blind monkey drove the knife into one of the woman's eyes. Blood splattered, covering her face.
"Iiiii!!!!"
The woman screamed hysterically, just like the person who had just been dismembered, but the monkey didn't care at all.
Holding the knife, it began to pull it down with leverage, and the woman's eyeball popped out like a ping-pong ball, rolling twice on the floor.
Seeing that scene, Katsura Kotonoha felt her stomach churn. She wanted to vomit, but since she hadn't eaten for some time, there was only acid and bile in her stomach.
The monkeys ignored her. The other monkey, holding the metal spoon, stabbed it into the woman's other eye, removing the eyeball just as easily as scooping pudding with a spoon.
Looking at the bloody eyeball, the monkey laughed, tossing it from hand to hand like a toy.
The woman whose eyes had been gouged suddenly turned into sticky, dark red liquid, which sank into the train and disappeared.
Katsura Kotonoha, who had witnessed all this, kept dry-heaving, her throat burning from bile, but by then she no longer had time to deal with her own pain.
The woman was dead, and now… it was her turn!
The announcement on the train sounded again!
"The train is moving, next station — Meat Grinder!"