Ghost Hunt:Volume 5 Chapter 4
Ghost Hunt Volume 5 Chapter 4: Coming from direction of the clapping sound
1
“Mai!”
Ayako’s made a sharp sound and clapped my face.
“Mai!”
It was Ayako’s voice. I opened my eyes at once. Ayako’s face jumped into my field of vision, which had been flooded by tears.
At that time, I was screaming. I was screaming from the depths of my body. Although my throat was hoarse and I couldn’t properly make a sound, I actually wanted to scream – until I had expelled all the horror within my body.
“Mai! Pull yourself together! Mai!”
My body was twitching, convulsing. I only desperately hugged Ayako tightly. Ayako’s warm hands desperately soothed my back.
“Pull youself together. It’s only a dream, it’s all right.”
Urging me, come, I lifted my head. Someone held a glass in front of me.
“Do you want a drink?”
It was Masako’s extremely concerned face. I finally calmed down and accepted the cup. My hands were still trembling immensely; almost enough to spill all the contents of the cup.
“… yeah. Thank you.”
My voice was also shaking. Tears dropped pitter patter down.
“What in the world happened?”
“I had a frightening dream.”
Really, it was terrifying…
“The dream you had was…”
Just as Ayako was asking, someone pounded heavily on the door.
“Did someone scream here just now?”
It was Bou-san and co who had rushed over from their room.
“… I’m sorry. I had a nightmare.”
“… You said you had a nightmare… you…”
Green in the face, Bou-san knelt by the bed. Yasuhara and John also heaved a sigh of relief.
Bou-san buried his head in the blankets.
“… Don’t scare us anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
Yasuhara forced a stiff smile.
“And we thought something had happened to someone… thank god.”
John also smiled vacantly.
“That’s great.”
Bou-san suddenly lifted his head.
“You said you had a nightmare; could it be those dreams?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“How was it?”
I didn’t want to remember. Even just thinking of recalling it brought a fresh scent of blood.
“You’re a woman with a sixth sense right?”
“—I was killed in the dream.”
Everyone stared at my face.
“You said you were killed, that is…”
Ayako, who was seated next to me, looked at my face.
“There were 2 men who came. They dragged me into a strange, tiled room. There, there was a surgical bed like bed; the room was flooded with blood. They slit my throat there.”
I still clearly remembered the sensation of blood spurting out.
“I think there are also many others who died there. It was an execution ground – that place.”
When I related that, tears flooded my eyes once more.
I thought I would really die there. Really, it was terrifying.
Ayako patted my back. I couldn’t stop my tears from gushed forth.
After a bout of crying like an idiot, when I lifted my head I saw Lin-san standing at the open door. Naru wasn’t there.
Why wasn’t he there?
Why wasn’t he there at that time?
Regardless of the time, Naru would always appear in my dreams; he’d tell me all sorts of things, and would give me help. Regardless, he would smile gently at me. It should clearly have been like this; why?
… Because he’s very cold. Because he really is a cold person.
Without knowing, my imagination ran wild, and once more my tears started falling down. I hurriedly hung my head, and desperately covered my face. Now isn’t the time to cry. Everyone is worried about me.
Someone – I don’t know who – knocked my head (I think it should be Bou-san who would do something like that). Anyway I nodded first. I’m all right. I’ve already calmed down.
Suddenly the scent of red tea wafted in. Hearing the sound of cutlery clattering, I lifted my head. Someone held a teacup in front of me. I was stunned.
“You’re all right?”
A voice without inflexion. Lifting my head, Naru was holding the cup out to me. He was wearing a pair of thin, grey, pajamas. I felt it was a rare sight, and I unconsciously calmed down.
I gently accepted the cup. Yeah, I’m all right. My hands, too, had apparently stopped shaking.
“I’m sorry, everyone. Thanks.”
I took the cup and hung my head. Ayako gently patted my back.
Naru just stood by the side; then gently let out a breath. And then
“What happened?”
He asked.
After I quietly finished my piece, Yasuhara spoke in a low tone.
“Suzuki-san or Atsugi-san… perhaps they are already dead.”
“Hey hey, young man. Don’t say that so lightly.”
Bou-san glared.
“Because, hasn’t Taniyama-kun seen it? Perhaps it’s something that happened somewhere.”
Ai?
“You’re also saying… Mai and someone’s spirit synchronized; that is, she’s received a telepathic communication?”
“The professional stuff I don’t know too well. The one being killed in reality was Suzuki-san or Atsugi-san; Taniyama-kun has sensed the events that happened to Atsugi-san as though experiencing it herself; there should be this sort of possibility too. Despite saying all this, I’m not sure whether such a thing exists.”
Bou-san looked at Naru, who was seated next to Ayako on the bed, appealingly. Naru said meaningfully,
“This type of communication from spirits is not unprecedented. But does Mai have this degree of power?”
… Wu. What does that count as ~, this theory~.
“Compared to this, that room is a greater concern to me.”
Naru said while his black eyes glanced at the sky.
“I think there isn’t a room that matches the execution room. I don’t recall seeing a room with both a furnace and a closet. The existence of the so called hedgerows is also unclear. If such a room really exists; under those circumstances, the execution room has probably been completely renovated already.”
Mentioning that, I was wearing a kimono at that time…
“Regardless of how we speculate, the empty space in the floor plan is very worrisome.”
“Isn’t hacking through the walls the only way?”
I couldn’t stop myself from saying that. Bou-san let out a huge sigh.
“What are you thinking of, you madam. Who do you propose do the work of hacking through the wall?”
… Of course that’d be Lin-san and Bou-san and John and Yasuhara…
Yeah, in normal circumstances it’d probably be annoying~
Without talking about whether Ohashi-san would allow it, we do not have sufficient manpower either. If we hired people to work here, it’d be intolerable if somebody disappears again.
That’s what I thought.
“That thought isn’t bad.”
Weary, Naru said that line.
“Hey, don’t joke anymore. Are you going to have all those walls demolished?”
Accompanying Bou-san’s shout, an unsettling smile appeared on Naru’s face.
“If we can’t find the hidden entrance, this might be unavoidable. Anyway we shall begin after the night is over.”
“And the search for the missing persons?”
“They aren’t within the range of what our eyes can see. If it’s like this, they are definitely in a place where our eyes are unable to see. If the hidden room is found then the problem is naturally solved – such a possibility also exists.”
He’s right too.
Bou-san glared at me with a gimlet stare.
I’m so sorry. But, it’s because we are doing good works. Try your best.
It was 2 am when I had screamed. After that I dozed a little, and rose with the dawn. After washing up I went for breakfast. Despite saying that, I couldn’t work up an appetite even this morning. Then we gathered at the base. Lin-san was checking the equipment. Speaking of which, last night, the equipment registered no disturbance at all.
Anyway we resumed the accurate measuring of the 2 floors left over from yesterday.
“If this still doesn’t work then find out about whether we can knock holes in the walls.”
With Naru’s cruel words, we started work.
2
“Hey~, Mai.”
“Yeah?”
I positioned the fluid level on the ground, while turning to look at Bou-san.
“You met 2 men in your dream; do you know who they are?”
“Ah, that. Although I desperately looked at their faces, I didn’t make the least impression of their appearances. It somehow feels like it’s something that I’ve forgotten immediately after seeing it. When I looked, I knew, but I’m not clear about how they actually looked like.”
Bou-san squatted down beside me.
“Hey, I’m only saying this here.”
“Yeah.”
Because the volume of our conversation had diminished, Yasuhara and John came nearer.
“That… do you think that those 2 men are amongst the staff here?”
“Ai?!”
Bou-san placed his finger on his lips with a ‘Shh’.
“I thought, could it possibly be that the fellows here have sone something.”
Ai ai ai…
Yasuhara, who was also squatting down, leaned forward.
“Ah, isn’t this scene like those in a movie?”
“Is it?”
“They clearly know there are hidden rooms and hidden passageways but they don’t tell us; there’s this possibility too.”
“Exactly. It’s those fellows who hid the 2 people who have disappeared. If it’s like this…”
Bou-san put his hand on his head.
Yasuhara couldn’t stop nodding.
“If it’s like this then we’re all sacrifices. They told us that it’d be troubling to let the media know, and they closed us in here, then one by one they make us vanish. In the end there’s not one of us left…”
“The one called Ohashi is actually a homicidal maniac or something.”
“Perhaps this place is a secret temple for satanic worship.”
John, who was also squatting, held his head.
“Those fellows – didn’t they say that they had not encountered anything strange? They were here preparing for a very long time, right? They say nothing had happened; is it even possible?”
“Exactly. None of the staff here have disappeared before. Thinking carefully about it, none of the people directly associated with this house have vanished. But psychics, the punk who broke into this place, and the fire brigade volunteer who came forth to investigate…”
“Isn’t that so?”
I couldn’t help looking at their 2 faces.
“Hey, are you two really speaking seriously?”
“Ai?”
“No… that…”
“I think that lazing off here and talking about these pointless things won’t solve any problems.”
Bou-san’s and Yasuhara’s faces turned aside.
“Furthermore, Naru will not accept this sort of thing either. In any case we have no choice but to place fluid levels on all the floors. In the end we will have to knock down the wall, right?”
“Mai.”
“Wh~at?”
“You are really not the least bit cute.”
“That’s redundant.”
Hn.
Just at that time,
“Wait a moment.”
John wore a severe expression and gently raised his hand.
“What’s up?”
“What Yasuhara-kun said just now: none of the people associated with this family had disappeared; this line.”
“Wait, John. That was only a joke. You can’t be serious.”
John’s blue eyes gazed at me.
“But, this is a fact, isn’t it?”
“The fact you’re talking about is…”
“Mr Kaneyuki, who lived here, was fine. Mr Hiroyuki, who frequently stopped at this place, was also fine. Even the various staff members, up till today, have lived safely here.”
“Hey hey, John.”
Bou-san responded in a shocked tone. In contrast, John looked completely serious.
“The ones who vanished are all outsiders. Is this really meaningless?”
“You… could you possibly be thinking that the people here are the criminals…?”
John shook his head.
“That’s not what I mean. I’m just thinking whether there could be a connection.”
Connection…
“Atsugi-san disappeared in a very strange fashion. If it is the same as what was recorded he couldn’t have disappeared. Is this, as expected, the actions of spirits?”
“… Perhaps.”
“If that’s the case, then don’t the spirits here have the hobby of picking out sacrifices? The spirits here will not hurt anyone with an association to the Miyama family or something.”
Bou-san sank into deep thought.
“However, the staff here are, at most, servants; they don’t have any blood relation.”
“If that’s the case, perhaps the spirits here like young people.”
… Ai?
“Aren’t all the staff here older people? In contrast, aren’t all those who have vanished young persons around 20 years old?”
“… you are right.”
Bou-san nodded.
I stood up.
“I’m going to tell Naru.”
“Wait.”
Bou-san called me.
“All the members of our team are under 30. If John’s hypothesis is right, then aren’t all of us in grave danger?”
… really?
“Naru-chan is right. It’s better if one is definitely not alone.”
3
When the four of us returned to base, Naru, Lin-san, Ayako and Masako had returned. For some reason they wore tense expressions.
“What’s up?”
I opened my mouth to ask; Ayako turned to look at me with a solemn expression.
“Great, you guys are back. – Someone has disappeared again.”
Disappeared?! Again?!
“Who is it?!”
Bou-san asked.
“She’s called Fukuda-san.”
“How old is she?”
The significance of Bou-san’s question was perhaps only understood by the people from the Mansion Interior Exploration Team.
Ayako was also slightly stunned.
“Her exact age isn’t clear. 25, perhaps; about that old.”
“She is the girl from Minami Psychic Research right? Is she that young lady?”
“Yes…”
As expected…
Naru wore a shocked expression.
“And then?”
Bou-san told everyone what John had said; Naru sank into deep thought.
“So that’s how it is…”
Naru mumbled, and then he raised his head and turned towards Yasuhara and me.
“The two of you must never be on your own.”
… Yeah.
Then he turned towards Ayako.
“Matsuzaki-san, to what extent can I trust on you?”
“What the heck is this question of yours?”
“Now isn’t the time for arguments. Whether it is Mai or Yasuhara, right now we need the two of them. However, this place is very dangerous. To what extent can I rely on you?”
Ayako replied very resentfully.
“If it’s exorcism… you can count on me for something of this level.”
“Understood.”
Naru looked around at us.
“Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san must never act separately. Can the two of you cooperate with each other?”
“I think so…”
Ayako nodded; Masako asserted:
“If it’s Matsuzaki-san, I don’t feel comfortable.”
“What is the meaning of this?!”
Naru gently raised a hand towards Ayako, then gazed at Masako with his deep eyes.
“Hara-san. Basically I don’t trust anyone besides the members here. Reliable people are few and far between. However one puts it you are also a psychic; if this is the case then you should at least be able to protect yourself.”
“… Yeah.”
“Yasuhara-kun completely does not have any ability to protect himself. To protect him we need an extremely reliable person.”
“Yes…”
Seeing Masako nod, Naru spoke.
“Bou-san and John cannot leave Yasuhara-kun’s side. You must never let him out of your sight.”
The so called extremely reliable person, refers to the two of them…?
“Please wait a moment.”
Lin-san spoke loudly.
“Are you saying I am to protect Taniyama-san?”
“Exactly.”
“Just let me put this clearly. You aren’t even able to do exorcisms, are you?”
… That’s right too. Naru is purely metapsychology researcher.
“Then your position is practically identical to that of Yasuhara-kun. You need protection.”
“Lin, I’ll find a way.”
“I’m not joking. I’ll be very worried if you say it like this. Let me take care of Naru’s protection.”
After finishing that forcefully, Lin-san looked towards us.
“Takigawa-san will protect Yasuhara-kun. Taniyama-san will then depend on Brown-san.”
“It’s too much for Bou-san alone.”
“Hey hey, Naru-chan.”
“I’m not belittling you. I’m only saying that there’s the possibility that this place is dangerous to this type of level.”
“If that’s the case, then it’ll be solved if one person goes back. I’m not capable of letting Naru be alone. If something happens to you, how should I explain to the Professor?”
Professor?
“Please consider the feelings of your parents too.”
“Lin.”
“You haven’t forgotten the fact you are only a 17 year old child, have you?”
Naru glared at Lin-san solemnly.
“If you’re dissatisfied with me, you may go back.”
“Please don’t misunderstand. Of course, I can go back.”
Lin-san’s expression turned even more solemn.
“I’ll be very worried if you’ve forgotten. I did not come to look after you. I’m here to monitor you.”
… Mon, monitor?
Suddenly, Yasuhara stoodu up.
“Let me withdraw then.”
“Hey, young man.”
“There shouldn’t be any more problem if only I withdraw. I’m only the head of ‘Shibuya’, who later left everything to the investigators. If I withdraw with this explanation there shouldn’t be too much trouble.”
This is what we’ll say.
“I will go to Suwa to be Mori-san’s assistant. I personally also have some outstanding issues.”
After thinking deeply, Naru nodded his head.
Substitute Head Yasuhara left this mansion on the car with a staff member running errands in the city. The other psychics purposely loudly made cutting remarks that he was running away.
While we were made fun of by the people we met, we conducted the search for Fukuda-san. Despite our thorough searching, as expected, we couldn’t find a trace of Fukuda-san.
She said she wanted to go out for a stroll then she left the base used by Minami-san and his team. After that she never returned. Coincidentally there was a member of the staff cleaning the hall at that time; he didn’t even see her leave the hall. She only disappeared; that’s the only explanation.
Minami-san was thus in an extremely awkward situation. The other psychics derided Minami-san with, ‘haven’t you summoned you helpers’, ‘Regardless of the others, when your own assistant has disappeared, you should let us see the abilities of the Professor right?’, ‘Your other helpers should have arrived already, right?’ and the type.
We looked at this disturbance; in the end we couldn’t stand it and returned to work. We carefully completed the remaining measurements. At dusk, after we wound up the measurements, we discovered an unexpected truth.
“The structure of this house is elevated in the middle.”
Lin-san said while generating the sectional diagram of the house.
We understood that the ground of the first floor of the house sloped gently towards the center; the area around the center was about 2 meters higher than the periphery.
Bou-san tilted his head.
“Why in the world would they build this type of house?”
Exactly.
“Repeatedly renovating, hence producing things like level X?”
Naru coolly shot back.
“… If that’s the case?”
“I feel it wasn’t intentionally done like this. This type of house is definitely constructed like this for some purpose.”
“Purpose…”
John tilted his head too.
“What was this house like right at the beginning?”
Naru nodded and retrieved a printed out diagram.
“From the finish of the windows, the rooms are all built around the small structure in the middle. Extending further outwards, the rooms become gradually larger; up to this point it is clear-cut…”
Bou-san sighed a huge sigh.
“That, as expected it’s still the huge empty center portion that is suspicious. At first, there is clearly no courtyard; it’s also too strange that the ventilation is good up to the second floor. The question is where exactly is there a path to go in…”
Naru flicked at the diagram.
“If there isn’t any path to begin with?”
Ai?
“If there’s no path… if that’s the case, hey.”
“What if that piece of empty space isn’t actually a hidden room, but a sealed room?”
Ah…!
This is it, the common scenario from horror movies: the scenario where after a wall is destroyed a sealed room lies beyond it, and there’s something there. Although the empty space was too large we only considered the possibility of a hidden room; there was always the possibility that empty space was not accessible to people…
“We’ve also tried searching for a path. This is an ancient and filthy house, of course we would think that as long as we could find the path or something, we would definitely know if the people who disappeared had used it before. Dust that had been disturbed, footprint – we would depend on this type of things. – Regardless of how we search here, I don’t believe things like paths exist here. Not to say the building is added to outwards from the center; I can only believe that it was added to in order to hide something in the center.”
“… Correct.”
Bou-san finished and gazed at the ceiling.
“But, what exactly is hidden? Could it be… the execution room?”
“What it is actually like, whether something like this exists or otherwise – after we investigate the other side of the wall we will find out.”
“Are we really doing this? Knocking through the wall?”
“Of course. I’ve already obtained Ohashi-san’s understanding.”
Bou-san looked completely defeated.
Just at that time, as usual, someone knocked on the window.
4
“Madoka… Yasuhara-kun!”
Naru looked stunned.
As he looked on coolly, with a ‘heyo’, two people jumped in through the window.
“Good evening.”
“I’m here~”
–2 people who looked completely unconcerned.
“Really… what are you guys thinking of?”
Naru looked at Yasuhara.
That’s true too. He clearly left this place because it is dangerous, if he came back then isn’t that a complete waste of effort?
However, Yasuhara looked completely unperturbed.
“No, I’m here to report the things we investigated today.”
Mori-san grinned at Yasuhara.
“Yasuhara-kun, today was really too exciting.”
“That’s ~ right. It’s only because I was there.”
Yasuhara sniggered, pleased with himself.
“That is, first, when I went back to the city, I counted the number of chimneys.”
… Ai?
“I always felt it this was a little strange, but I couldn’t see too clearly from far, so after I met up with Mori-san I had her look at it again.”
Mori-san nodded. “Yes. I took the car all the way up a near-by mountain. Then from there I used a pair of rented binoculars and carefully counted it out. In the end there are 20.”
Lin-san checked the number of furnaces there were on the computer.
“When I was investigating I felt there should be 10 or 11 of them.”
Lin-san backed up Yasuhara’s words.
“There are 11.”
… There’s one extra chimney…
“After that, if we look closely at it again, the chimney at the center of the house is very strange. The shape is round, and it’s also coarser than the other chimneys.”
That was a valuable clue. There was indeed something in that empty space. At the very least, a chimney. The places that can hide a suddenly jutting out chimney are very limited. The empty space did not extend into the third floor. If the chimney extended up from the second floor, it should be visible from the third floor windows. But there was only one side of one direction which was windowless. If there was a chimney, it could only be in that direction.
Naru immediately checked the floor plan. There was an even larger empty space to the north of the huge empty space. It extended from the second floor. At once we confirmed that was the position of the chimney.
Mori-san appeared a little proud.
“The clever I properly took photos as evidence. They are currently getting developed, and you should be able to see them tomorrow. I had specially borrowed a long distance single lens reflex camera, isn’t that incredible?”
As she said that, Mori-san looked at Naru. Naru only replied with a cool gaze.
“Whatever~”
It was Bou-san who spoke instead.
“It’s incredible, very incredible. And then?”
Mori-san smiled and spoke.
“When I was doing all these, I let Yasuhara investigate in the city. He’s really good detective material.”
He~~
Yasuhara puffed out his chest.
“Whatever type of material needed, I have; because I am the genius Yasuhara.”
Smiling, he said,
“First, I tried going to the Miyama family. Furthermore, I also interviewed the near-by families, and tried my best to look for older people. Then, a few houses away, I found an eighty-two year-old old lady. She’s an energetic, still clear headed senior citizen. Thus I started asking her.”
Hu hu.
“The old lady was born around the time Mr Miyama Kaneyuki died. Yeah, there wasn’t much chance she knew Mar Kaneyuki, but I thought she might know something. Mr Kaneyuki was a capricious personality; when he was gentle he’d give others a little something, and appeared very warm. If he was in a bad mood he would hunt down other people and have his underlings surround them and beat them up; he was apparently this sort of person.”
… Hn~~
“Previously it was mentioned that Mr Kaneyuki was a mysophobic person; the old lady concurred. She said Mr Kaneyuki was extremely terrified of germs. And the family next door to the Miyama family wouldn’t careless take anything belonging to the Miyama family, not even a persimmon. Apparently they had tried before and was thus severely punished.”
“… So that’s the way it was.”
“This is about all I could get out of that old lady. Then, I let her introduce me to the old folk’s homes and community clubs in the city. Following that I tried going to those places. In the end, I heard various sayings, but the evaluation of Mr Kaneyuki was all bad.”
“.. He is a philanthropist, right?”
“That’s right; in any case the good works were done with all sorts of bad things on the sly, it was only a camouflage. That was what a lot of people thought.”
That’s unexpected…
“And then I found someone who claimed to be Mr Hiroyuki’s friend. It was an old lady; her husband was a friend of Mr Hiroyuki in his later days. According to her, Mr Hiroyuki hated his own father a lot. Apparently he practically never listened to his father’s words and he would get extremely angry if anyone were to speak of his father.”
… Hn~
“According to some of what I heard, Mr Kaneyuki apparently had very frail health since his youth.”
“Frail health?”
“Yeah. Because of his frail health, he was frequently bedridden etc when he was young. And his frequent travels abroad, while said to be only travels, should be actually trips abroad to see doctors about the aches and pains he had at that time.”
… He~
“When he was little others said he wouldn’t live long, and in reality he died at fifty. However, according to Mr Hiroyuki, it would have been better if Mr Kaneyuki had died earlier in his youth. He had apparently said this before.”
I asked.
“If Mr Kaneyuki were to die in his youth, then wouldn’t Mr Hiroyuki have not been born?”
“Exactly, that’s a very shocking statement.”
Mr Hiroyuki must have really hated his father a lot.
“Then, there’s also such an incident. Mr Kaneyuki had 2 menservants.”
… My heart pounded very hard. What incident was it? I had a bad feeling.
“And there’s more, in that old folk’s home there was a person who claimed his grandfather was a gardener here. He said this building was very strange. He said that when he cleaned up and walked near to the main house, he would always smell a scent like that of a graveyard. Furthermore, every time he went here the maid was always a different person. That was what he said.”
“You said the maid was always a different person…?”
I felt a wave of dizziness. I felt like there was something icy cold caressing my back.
“Ooh. And then –? … Taniyama-kun?”
Yasuhara stared at my face. Chills ran down my back; it chilled me speechless. Masako stopped Bou-san, who was about to rise. She came closer to me. She gently reached out her hand, and stacked it on my shoulder.
“This person won’t do. She is unable to save you. All the people here are unable to help you – because you are already dead.”
Masako said that, and clapped my back.
“Come, come down. Don’t be afraid, and go towards the light. If you go there, you will definitely be freed.”
When Masako was saying that, the chill suddenly vanished.
“Hara-san.”
Naru asked; Masako smiled.
“It looks like the spirit here got attached to her. It’s all right. It’s already disappeared. Although I’m not sure if it has been cleansed or otherwise… you’re better already, right?”
“Yeah, thanks…”
What was that, just now…
Masako spoke.
“It definitely approached because we were chatting. Or it might be here right from the start. It looks like the spirit of the maid we were just talking about.”
When I heard those words, I immediately smelt the smell of blood. The sensation of a knife cutting through my throat. The wet warmth of blood drenching my face. The white tiles; the blood red stains.
“… It’s those two people…”
I said. Everyone was shocked.
“It’s those two people. Last night…”
They took me to the main house. I was dragged by 3 men into the main house. In a certain room in the main house they pulled me onto a surgical bed, and cut open my throat.
“It was those two people who killed me in my dream last night.”
My tears dropped down. I dreamt about the memories of the spirit. That person was murdered with that method. It was very scary. Very painful. To me it was only a dream, but to that person, that was reality. To make such terrifying memories, such painful memories, and then get killed…!
Everyone patted my back while I couldn’t help covering my face.
“… Is that the situation?”
It was Naru’s low voice.
“Are the spirits of the ones who was killed in that fashion lingering in this house?”
Save me, I don’t want to die, was what those spirits had said. Everyone all did not know that they had all died; continually wrapped in memories of terror and fear, they lingered in this house.
That’s too much; who exactly did those hideous things? … Yeah, I knew who the culprit was. Those men were the 2 menservants. If so, there should be a culprit who ordered them to do such. The culprit could only be Mr Kaneyuki.
Unforgivable. He put on the mask of a philanthropist, but could do such hideous, such cruel, and such tragic things.
Just at that time,
All the lights in the room suddenly were extinguished.
“… What?!”
With the slowly disappearing glow of the monitors, the room turned completely dark. After a sharp ‘bang’, the room was momentarily filled with noise. Somewhere beyond this room there was an intense sound. Then, in the distance, there was someone screaming.
“Do not move!”
When Naru ordered in a sharp tone, the lights all suddenly came back on. It was like they had stopped temporarily. Simultaneously, the noise also ceased.
I didn’t even have the time to say ‘what in the world was that?’. When the lights came back on, some blood red objects jumped into our lines of sight.
“Save me”
“Save me”
“I don’t want to die”
“It hurts”
“It hurts”
“I’m terrified”
Those were the countless words written in blood on the wall.
5
WIP
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