The Shepherd to Lead the Cattle to Death
In the bustling and cheery atmosphere of class 2-9, a group of seven was gathered in the darkest corner of the room where a candle would do suffice in illuminating the darkness to bring out a gloomy mood. It was mid-afternoon, and the sky was a greyish-blue where even darker storm clouds were gathered together to make rain soon enough.
Sat in the centre of her fellow classmates who were huddled to listen in to the story, was a girl of cerulean hair with twin-tails. She had propped her legs in between her wax candle so that her face got the full shine of the flame, creating an eerie look.
And with the creepy smirk that was plastered up her face, it made the atmosphere even more terrifying.
"Have you ever heard of an orphanage in Hiroshima where scientists performed their experiments on the children there?" she started off, giving everyone in the circle a look of mock questioning. "They had believed that they could make humans immortal by defusing the 'kill switch' in our brains. Needless to say, many innocent children in the orphanage were 'volunteered' for their experiments and that resulted into many deaths and major injuries to the poor children. One of them even became lobotomized because of that. The scientists dumped those who had 'expired', believing this was all necessary."
"After countless of deaths and a rebel child who eventually got beheaded by a scientist, they had found something freakish for those who had survived. A journal entry of one of the scientists had stated that the children act normally, wandering around aimlessly without a care. But if approached from behind…" the seventeen year old gave a sudden crack of the neck for an effect, earning a flinch from almost everyone in the group. "… They turn their faces to you at an almost breakneck speed, forming the vilest and scariest grin upon their faces… until you realize they're smiling dreamily again. And the orphans tend to follow the scientists around… only when they're on their own."
"The children's favourite game is called 'Kagome, Kagome.' Ever heard of that? It's where a group of people sit in a circle just like this and a person sits in the centre, eyes shut. The players surrounding the person in the centre chants 'Kagome, Kagome' and if the person in the middle flinches, it's game over."
"But you know… there's this rumor that if there's still an orphanage in Hiroshima, standing tall and old. If you enter the room down the hallway, you would be greeted with the sight of the caretaker and children with bandages in all sorts of places. And then, the caretaker says…" the twin-tailed girl hesitated before putting on a false cheery yet creepy voice.
"Won't you play 'Kagome, Kagome' with us?"
The teenage girl paused, letting the disturbing aura sink in with a smirk.
"If you say yes, you'll join them. Follow the rules; don't flinch, don't flinch, the children would chirp as they would bring you to the centre of the circle they were huddled in. No one knows what happens to those who said yes. Everyone says that whoever goes that far into the orphanage… are dead." She stated monotonously.
"Say no and the door will slam shut. You'll be dead before you know it, and only your beheaded corpse would be found. Say anything but yes or no…"
Ayumi stood straight up from the chair and slammed her palms on the wooden desk, earning shrieks from the girls and a yelp from Satoshi.
"They turn almost demonic, their now inhuman voices screaming, 'DECIDE! DECIDE!'"
Her head snapped to Satoshi and she pushed herself at an ungodly speed in front of Satoshi's face.
"DECIDEEEEE!" she shrieked in a hysterical and crazed scream, pupils dilated and teeth bared.
"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Said person screamed as he somehow flipped his chair to smash into the floor, head hitting the floor.
The lit wax candle was extinguished in a huff, leaving a trail of smoke behind from the fire that used to burn bright. A giggle escaped the class rep's lips that evolved into full blown laughter that eventually infected the rest of those in the circle and some of the classmates that were listening in on the conversation, with the exception of the boy who was still dazed from the fall. Ayumi closed her eyes briefly with a wide grin on her face to swipe away any tears that had worked its way through from all the laughing.
"Ahaha! That was one of the best reactions yet from Mochida-kun! I especially love how your each and every reaction gives out such a unique flair. Hmm~! It's so satisfying~" Ayumi sang out, moving to seat down as she twirled her twin-tails mischievously.
"Hnngh… why do I even bother listening to your stories when I know that something bad is going to happen to me?" Satoshi groaned as he got up from the floor, rubbing his head.
"Well, you make good entertainment, Satoshi." Yoshiki replied from his spot, his chair shaking due to only two of its legs on the ground.
"That's just mean…"
"Hey, hey, Naomi! Why not you cheer up dear Mochida-kun with your tender love and care, hmm?" Seiko chirped up from next to said girl, nudging her at her side, making her flinch.
"H-Huh?" the tomboy stuttered out, a faint pink blush coating her cheeks. "I... have no idea…" she leaned in to pinch both of her best friend's cheeks hard. "What you're trying to say here!"
"Nah-oh-meh!" Shinohara managed to speak out as Naomi pinched her face even harder.
"Shinozaki-san! It's time for our lesson; I really hope you didn't scare Mochida-kun too much with another one of your occult stories." Ms. Shishido joked playfully as she entered the class in her normal pink dress and white jacket, the panda necklace swinging from her neck as she walks to the teacher's podium to place her stationery and books down.
"Eheh…" Ayumi said as she picked up the slightly warm candle before quickly beckoning the others to get back to their seats.
This was another normal day in the life of Kisaragi High in the class 2-9. In a week, there would at least be a horror story told by the class representative, Ayumi Shinozaki. She was very well-known for bringing candles with her everywhere, sometimes tucking it behind her ear and stuffing a maximum of four candles in both of her skirt pockets. The twin-tailed girl would somehow find the time to research for more occult stories during the weekend despite the amount of notes she had to revise for different tests each week. And so on a good occasion when the rain fell or the clouds in the sky turned dark and gloomy, Ayumi would whip out a candle out from her pocket and light it, a sly grin on her face, thinking how much of a good atmosphere this would make for her stories.
But the stories she told and all the occult things she did… this was a mask.
Sure, the stories were scary and of the supernatural, but Ayumi didn't believe it, to a certain extent. She had heard a lot of scary Japanese beliefs from her sister, who was a psychic for the supernatural. But as much as she believed them and assumed that she knew what to do in every situation given, if Ayumi was actually in one of those events, she would probably hyperventilate to no ends, cowering away and praying it was all a dream.
It has happened on some rainy nights when she laid in her bed only to wake up from the most horrible nightmare. It was only when she finally realised it was a dream, that her heart rate slowly went back to normal and her sudden gasps of air turned back to the steady pace it was.
Then it happened, on the night of school festival.
Just before that very day, Ayumi had gone to the convenience store to print off a charm she found on the Internet of her idol, a novelist who wrote about the paranormal. The paper doll was named Sachiko, hence the name of the charm, 'Sachiko Ever After'. According to Naho Saenoki, the charm was to bring the eternal bond of friendship and happiness for friends, and was to be done with the number of people being between two and ten. More could join in, but it would be more risky, as failing to chant the correct amount of times would cause the charm to fail.
Ayumi didn't understand. She read the instructions three to five times that it was ingrained in her mind. She didn't think that failing the charm would cause so much pain.
So much hurt.
One moment they were smiling happily with their new paper scraps between their fingers or tucked in their Student IDs, the next they were falling through the oblivion, the tiles having somehow cracked underneath them and everything was crumbling before-
Darkness.
The next thing she knew, Ayumi had woken up to the sound of Naomi's screams of sorrow and pain. That was when she realised; she really was plunged into an actual horror scene, because clearly Kisaragi did not have rotting wooden boards, dimmed and flickering lighting as well as desks fit for elementary school students. The hyperventilating came almost naturally, causing her to collapse next to the teacher's podium, back leaning against the hard wood as she panicked.
The mask for being the 'horror rep of 2-9' cracked and fell off, leaving a scared girl with insecurities.
Her tolerance for a situation like this would be at a level of zero. Perhaps even a negative.
Ayumi had gone even further as pleading Ms. Yui not to go when the teacher decided to confirm that the scream they heard was nothing but the wind or the creaking of the building. It took about three full minutes to convince her, and even then the class rep was almost screaming at the English teacher to stay as she left the room. The promise that Ms. Yui made, to come back as quick as possible, was making her feel very uncomfortable.
And she didn't return.
It took another three minutes for her to persuade Kishinuma to get out and look for their teacher.
With the frustration, anger and fear she built up with each step after Ms. Yui did not come back, she found herself blanking out in some places, only to find herself in a different location. She blinked once before turning to look at Yoshiki with a question of 'What's up?'
She didn't understand why Yoshiki had a mortified expression on his face every time she found herself blanking out.
The haunted school seemed to really hate her. Not only could she not find Ms. Yui, but they had heard gurgles and laughter in the infirmary after an earthquake had happened not too long ago. And upon entering it, Ayumi's navy blue eyes caught sight of a family ponytail sticking up from the top of someone's head, tied together with a pink hair tie with beads.
Almost throwing herself unceremoniously in the room to catch sight of two ghastly pale blue revenants, she screamed at Mayu with urgency that she needed to get the hell out of there. But Suzumoto shook her head before handing an article about the ghost children. Apparently, they were killed years ago and Mayu, being the classmate with the biggest heart of them all, wanted to stay with them.
For once in Mayu's life, that led to her downfall.
After Yoshiki had yelled at them with a fury so great, the girls immediately hissed at them, hoisting the now unconscious Mayu and flinging them out of the room with a supernatural force. With a sinking feeling in their stomachs on what they were to do with their dear friend being in danger, they were met by no other than Naho Saenoki herself.
The deceased girl, as evident by her 'dead fish eyes', explained about how she died here in search for someone. With that brief explanation, the novelist told them of how to save their classmate; find something to appease them. Ayumi, now lit with a determination so strong, went immediately on her way to find that item. Yoshiki lingered behind for a few moments staring at Naho with a suspicious look before sighing and striding to keep up with Shinozaki.
As they scoured the area for anything that seemed to be a way to appease the spirits, they had managed to obtain an antique doll that spoke in a robotic and eerie manner. It told them about how the murderer himself was very sorry for what he had did, and how he was very scared in doing that.
Yoshiki barely stopped Ayumi from chucking the doll back into the hole, an irrational part of her mind telling her to do anything to get rid of it.
Returning into the infirmary with quick steps, they found that the vengeful young spirits had moved forward. In a fit of anger, Kishinuma had yelled at it in spite of taking their friend and hurting her. Yuki, the one with her left eye bloody and soupy, had nearly shut them out had Ayumi not swiftly pulled out the plush doll and presented it to them.
They went silent and stared at it, or what looked like they were staring at it. One of them had her head cut off at her jawline, showing nothing but a part of the cut tongue. Yuki had her only eye transfixed upon the doll.
Silence.
"Hwah… Okaah-saah!"
The girls began to weep and moan of their families, and how they missed them so. Ayumi's eyes softened before edging forward to Mayu who was still drifting with the revenants' power.
"I know it hurts… a lot at the matter. But you're free now. You're appeased." The twin-tailed girl spoke slowly, smile still retained on her pale face. "Go on, go back to your mothers now."
The spirits continue to hic and sob, before silence eventually reigned in the infirmary. Yoshiki kept quiet for the entire way through, admiring silently at Shinozaki's skills at soothing the spirits.
"You can do it… put Suzumoto-san down and return to your mothers. They're waiting for you." She continued to take small inching steps forward, as to not aggravate the spirits once again.
Silence.
Something was wrong.
Instead of disappearing in a flash of bright light and never to be seen in this accursed school again, their figures stiffen before releasing a snarl and a hiss respectively. Ayumi gasped silently before she took another quick step forward.
"Wait! Put her down!" her voice raised along with her hand that reached out and try to grab Mayu.
A second too late.
In almost an instant, the deceased ghost children broke through the wooden infirmary door with a crash before flying at a breakneck speed out of sight.
Mayu had woken up when the debris of wooden splinters scattered all over her clothes.
"W-Wha-? No… no, stop it! NOOOOOOOOO!"
SCHNK.
In that moment, Ayumi thought she felt time freeze in its tracks as soon as she heard Mayu's terrified scream and that thud on whatever contact that was. Yoshiki was standing deathly still, unable to believe what just unfolded before his eyes. In a fit of anger, the class rep threw the antique doll to the wooden floor, almost bouncing down a hole made from the rotten wooden planks.
Without another word, Ayumi exited the room with stomping footsteps.
The bleached blonde teenager stood there, blinking once, twice.
"No way… that can't be…" he uttered out before racing after the occult obsessed girl.
He didn't want to see how the wooden sliding door had broken from the tremendous inhuman strength as he exited the door. He didn't want to see the smear of fresh blood on the floor boards as he dashed across to where Ayumi was. And what he really didn't want to see; was that horrible sight in front of the now crying class representative.
From what he mortifyingly imagined, the revenants had apparently flung poor Suzumoto onto the dirtied wall. If he didn't know that the sixteen year old girl was killed, he probably would have thought it was just a pile of intestines and chunks of muscles that were splattered on the wall, staining it a dark red colour. There was absolutely no evidence that this was Suzumoto, unless you would be willing enough to dip your hand into the pool of blood to hunt for the student ID. The smell of the pulverised corpse was overwhelming, giving off a smell that would only be found at a butcher's shop, where all the meat would be cut. With the smell of iron from the blood, it made Yoshiki want to puke the contents of his lunch all over the floor.
And from what he saw in a small puddle of blood splattered on the floor, was the cracked pink bead from the hair tie Suzumoto wore.
"No, this isn't… Suzu-" he started with an almost trembling voice, terrified by the entire scene.
"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" the twin-tailed girl screamed before taking off in the other direction.
The tolerance that she had from the start of Heavenly Host till this very moment was now obliterated. Ayumi believed this was a dream at the start, but Mayu; dear God, Mayu…
No. She didn't want to deal with this anymore. She just wanted to die in a hole and be done with it. She deserved every bit of pain and everything was her fault. She couldn't stand or take any more of the pain or any of her friends dying.
And so she ran, in a desperate attempt to run away from the problem.
She heard Yoshiki calling out to her, quite a number of times too. Another call of her name, and it was cut abruptly. But Ayumi kept running. She ran and ran until her legs gave out under her, and then she would crawl all the way, so frantic in getting away from Suzumoto's corpse and this crazed school.
Because one thing that she knew, is that she was to blame for bringing them to their deaths.