Chapter 1: Into The Darkness
Author's Note: I do not own Another or Eternal Darkness. Another is property of Yukito Ayatsuji and PA Works. Eternal Darkness is property of Silicon Knights and Nintendo. This story is an alternate universe that diverges from the main plot around episode ten. Note that this is before the dining hall catches fire.
Kyouichi Sakakibara and Mei Misaki sat in Kyouichi's room at the lodge, gathered around the tape player as the cassette tape they had recovered. The tape was about to reveal how to break the curse on Class Three of Yomiyama North Middle School and prevent any more deaths.
"That's why, while my memory is still clear, I want to tell you the truth and how to stop the calamity", the voice on the recording said, "Are you listening? Send them back to death where they belong; send the dead back to death. That is how to stop the calamity once it has began."
"Is the "dead person" on this trip?", Kyouichi asked.
"The extra person…", Mei said, "Is here".
With a loud bang, the door was knocked open. Outside stood their assistant teacher, Reiko Mikami, armed with a pickaxe.
Kyouichi and Mei both turned and stared, taken by surprise. Mei took off the eye patch that covered her glass eye and said, "Its her. She's the extra".
"Excellent work", Mikami-sensei said, "but your little game ends here! There is nothing you can do to stop the forces at work here. You and the rest of the class will die like those before them, an offering of flesh and bone to sustain the great Chattur'gha!"
"What the!", Sakakibara said as Mikami raised the pickaxe and ran at him, swing the weapon on a wide vertical arc. Kyouichi sidestepped the blow, and, thinking quickly, grabbed a chair and blocked a second strike from Mikami's pickaxe, using the bottom of the chair as a shield.
Kyouichi then swung the chair in a horizontal arc at Mikami's head with all his strength. The blow connected, knocking Mikami on her back, breaking a leg off the chair, and caving in part of her skull.
"Be careful", Mei said, "Something's not right, it like… there's something inside her…"
Suddenly, a red mist of blood and gore, something burst out of Mikami's chest. A creature unlike anything Kyouichi had seen before. It was about the size of a large dog, with a body tinged blood red, Kyouichi couldn't tell if it even had skin. The creature's head had a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, and had two long, sword-like claws at the end of its arms.
The creature got up with a stance similar to that of praying mantis, before it lunged at Mei, jumping on top of her. Mei grabbed onto the creature's arms, holding back its sword-like claws.
As Kyouichi saw this, he had only one thought in his head, "Kill it!". Kyouichi grabbed the pickaxe off the floor and ran across the room, where the creature pinned down Mei, he grip on its arms weakening, she couldn't hold if off much longer.
Kyouichi made horizontal swing at the creature's head, driving the pickaxe through the side of its skull and into the brain, so hard that the pickaxe kept going out the other side, pinning the creature to the wall. The monster's body was motionless. It was dead.
"Are you all right?", Sakakibara asked Misaki as he held out his hand to help her out.
"Yes", she said, "Thank you".
"What was that thing… and how did you know it was inside her?"
"My eye", Mei said, pointing to her green glass eye, "It has the power to see things that one should not be seen. I usually keep it covered, but I'll keep it open for a while, there could be more of those them".
"Good idea", Kyouichi, "I'll call the police".
Kyouichi got out his cell phone and dialed 119, however the call was dropped. Kyouichi tried again, only for the call not to connect. After a third failed attempt, Kyouichi yelled "Damn it!"
At that moment, Kyouichi and Mei heard screams, crashing, and banging coming from the other rooms in the lodge, then hurried footsteps coming toward them.
Kyouichi readied his pickaxe as Mei picked up a chair leg that had broken off the chair Kyouichi had his Mikami with. Suddenly, Teshigawara ran into the room, armed with a metal spike that looked like some sort of fireplace poker. The spike was stained with blood.
Kyouichi prepared to attack, but Teshigawara yelled "Wait, I'm not one of them…"
Kyouichi loosened his grip on the pickaxe slightly, as he asked, "What happened!"
"Akazawa walked into the room, armed with this spike. I asked her what was going on, but she started blabbering about how my death was planned out years ago and something about sacrificing my flesh and bone to someone called Chattur'gha.", Teshigawara said, panic in his voice, "Then, she tried to stab me with this spike. I took a lamp of a table and hit her over her head with it…. I…. killed her… and then… something burst out from her chest… It was like something out of Aliens or some shit like that… I killed the monster too… I SWEAR IT WAS TRUE!"
"Calm down", Kyouichi said, "I believe you. We had the same thing happen to Mikami-sensei…"
Teshigawara took a deep breath, then another. As he opened his mouth to speak, however, he made only a gurgling sound, blood flowing out of his mouth. A long, sharp, sword like claw was sticking out of his chest. Teshigawara fell to the floor, another one of the creatures that possessed Mikami-sensei walking over his body.
Kyouichi raised his pickaxe and swung it down on the creature's head, killing the monster as Mei picked up the metal spike to use it as a weapon. The two of them entered the hall, when they saw the entire class in the halls, advancing slowly from either end of the hallway, armed with improvised weapons and making an inhuman hissing sound.
"RUN!", Misaki said, "They're all like Mikami-sensei".
Kyouichi and Misaki ran, down the hallway and onto the grand staircase, pursued by their undead classmates. The more of the "zombified" students cut them off, blocking the exit.
"Into the dining hall", Kyouichi said, "We'll make our way out a window"
Kyouichi opened the dining hall door and hurried inside, followed by Mei. The two of them immediately pushed a table in front of the door, blocking it off.
"Kyouichi, duck!", Mei said. "Kyouichi did as he was told, seeing a kitchen knife fly above him in the hands of the woman who owned the lodge. The lodge owner raised her knife again and prepared to thrust downwards. Kyouichi heard the sound of a blade entering flesh.
But Kyouichi was not dead, or even wounded. Rather, the lodge owner fell the floor, dead, a metal spike sticking out of her chest. Mei walked up the body and pulled out the spike she was using as a weapon.
"Wait!", Kyouichi said, "One of those things could still be inside her?"
"No", Mei said, "I saw where it was, and killed it while it was still inside her."
As Mei spoke, she took a lighter off the body of the lodge owner, and walked over to the door to the kitchen.
"What are you doing!", Kyouichi asked as he saw Mei turn on the gas pipe feeding fuel to the propane stove.
"We cannot allow these things to escape into town", Mei said, "I'm going to destroy the lodge"
"You're going to get us both killed!", Kyouichi said.
"I'm not", Mei said as she grabbed a couple seemingly random items, an empty glass bottle from a recycling bin and a rag, "Smash that window"
Kyouichi smashed the window, cool, wet air and drops of rain flying in, diluting the smell of gas. Mei climbed out first, followed by Kyouichi, and led him to a small maintenance shed. There, Mei grabbed a gasoline can next to a lawnmower and filled the bottle, before soaking the rag in gasoline and placing it in the neck of the bottle. Now Kyouichi knew exactly what he was planning.
"You throw, I'll light", Mei said, as she got out the lighter.
"OK", Kyouichi said, unsure if this was a good idea.
Nonetheless, Kyouichi stood as far from the broken window as he thought he could throw and held the Molotov cocktail at the ready. Mei clicked the lighter and lit the rag on fire.
"Now", Mei said.
Kyouichi aimed carefully and threw the Molotov cocktail. The improvised firebomb flew through the air and into the window. He heard the bottle shatter and saw a flickering orange light in the kitchen, he grabbed Mei and pushed her to the ground.
Then, he saw a bright flash of orange light and heard a thunderous roar. The gas pipe feeding the stove exploded violently. As soon as the initial blast had passed, Kyouichi and Mei ran away from the lodge, secondary explosions going off behind them as they walked along the road back to town.
"I had know idea your were this resourceful", Kyouichi said, "You're really full of surprises, Mei".
"I'll take that as a compliment", Mei said.
Suddenly, her voice was interrupted by a serious of loud noises- shouts, police sirens, what sounded like gunfire, and most ominously of all, what sounded the shrieking and hissing sounds made by the creatures that had hijacked the bodies of all of Class Three.
"Great", Sakakibara said, "I have a nasty feeling this night is just getting started".