Kyon Likes The Red Room
I haven't written a real horror story in a while and lately I heard about a little flash animation on the internet called 'the red room'. Those unfamiliar with it can consult wikipedia when they are done with their protests or watch it yourself but unfortunately it is entirely in Japanese and so you won't get much info from there. Well it gets explained throughout so don't worry. Anyway, enjoy and please remember to review!
I used to believe in weird stuff. I used to fantasise about the extraordinary and the unexplained. Then I reluctantly grew up. Those childish dreams of unusual occurrences and monsters and superpowers and all those things you know you loved as a kid. All of them vanished.
Without a trace.
Never to be seen again.
Then something strange happened to me. I started believing in them again. I've seen evidence that has totally blown my previous scepticism out of the water. I now believe in time travellers, aliens and even espers. In fact I could quite easily start believing in Santa Clause again if a large man with a silver beard acted convincingly enough like Father Christmas. My point being, I have hit a cross roads in my life.
After living so long doubting that anything that odd really existed and now having these aforementioned oddities stuffed in my face I've become unable to refuse their existence. So now I have little choice but to believe in the unbelievable.
To a point.
There are some things that I still just can't accept. Such as the notion of sanity for one Haruhi Suzumiya. A bubbling firecracker of a girl with powers befitting a deity in some long lost religion however entirely unaware of her...Shall we say 'gift'?
Another impossible claim was the one my idiotic friend Taniguchi was hopelessly trying to sell to me like a desperate Jehovah's Witness on one cold Thursday morning.
"I'm serious Kyon! Anyone who actually find this site. They die! Nobody has ever heard from them ever again!"
I looked to my over-excited friend with a look that I sincerely hoped resembled something like smelling manure, because that was basically what was coming out of his mouth.
"So let me get this straight," I said calmly, "there is this silly website called 'The Red Room'..."
Taniguchi nodded his assent.
"...And it is just about impossible to find..."
"Yep!"
"...But on the off-chance that you do find it, you will die. Never to be seen again."
"Yeah! Exactly! Sounds pretty crazy huh?" Taniguchi's face then was painfully optimistic. Why was he buying into these stupid rumours that were probably just started by some bored ten year old in an internet forum as a joke? Why don't you grow up? Or at least try to anyway...
He frowned at that. "So you think I'm lying do you?" I swear he winked at me. Seriously man, don't send mixed messages like that. It's creepy.
"Alright, why don't you prove me wrong? Find 'The Red Room' and come back to school the next day to tell the story!"
You don't really understand. I don't care. I have better things to do than waste my time searching for a prank website hidden in the World Wide Web.
Taniguchi snorted, "No you don't!"
Damn, he's got me there. I really don't have anything to do. Oh well. I might as well humour him. But if I'm going to waste my...Precious time with this silly little game then I might as well make a profit out of it.
"Bet you five hundred yen that it's all a load of crap."
"Deal! It's been nice knowin' ya Kyon!"
We shook hands and then spent the rest of the exhausting trek to school in relative silence.
Class was uneventful that day. Same old, same old really. Each class went in one ear and out the other. I know I should be trying harder if I want to get into college someday but it's not my fault the teachers put zero effort into engaging our fresh young minds.
At lunch Taniguchi and Kunikida sat with me and conversation seemed inexplicably drawn to those stupid rumours about that website.
"You know they say the victims are sometimes found dead, their rooms painted in their own blood!" this was Kunikida who calmly tucked into his lunch while speaking of such things.
"Yeah and rumour has it that a few kids from North High have been reported missing!" Taniguchi as always just had to add fuel to this immature fire. Sure enough there were some empty seats around us, but it's probably a flu going around or something. Just a lucky coincidence to help push along the lie. As if that proved the existence of the site, he looked at me with a dumb face that made me want to hit him, but because I was the only rational thinking person at the table I refrained and kept my dignity intact.
"Kyon's gonna be the next victim! Aren't you Kyon?"
I rolled my eyes and gave the response he was hoping for, "Sure. Why not?"
"Poor guy and you never even got anywhere with Suzumiya." Of course that was Taniguchi. Kunikida has restraint. Thankfully Haruhi wasn't sitting behind me right now; otherwise some real problems would arise. Not some phony website designed to scare mindless kids.
"Hey now, Taniguchi. Why don't you go and find this ill-fated 'Red Room' with me?"
"What? No way! I don't want to die!"
"Oh come on. I'm so sure that this is all a hoax that I'm willing to not only put my life on the line but even our friendship. Oh and your life too. Don't you trust me?" I tried to sound as confident as possible but really I was struggling not to laugh at the garbage coming out of my mouth.
"No!" Taniguchi snapped, "And besides, what happens if you're wrong and we both end up killed?"
"We'll call it a suicide pact and they will have a memorial for us. Besides how am I supposed to prove I live through visiting this damn thing if no-one else tries it with me?"
Thankfully the idea of a screen capture didn't cross their minds and Taniguchi reluctantly accepted. What a moron. But at least this way he can see for himself how foolish he was to believe in such nonsense. A killer website, give me a break.
That afternoon, when classes had ended I wound up trudging over to the SOS Brigade Clubroom. What is the SOS Brigade you ask? Well it's technically a pointless little gang of oddballs who are all trying to prevent Haruhi from destroying the entire world. However we work under the guise of a school club that...Well I still haven't worked that out. After so long I still haven't realised what my alibi was.
Kind of pathetic...But not as pathetic as those idiots who bought into those rumours that have now spread through the school like the plague.
Even as I made my way to the club-room I heard passers-by chatting away excitedly about how those students had gone missing and the rest of the dumb story.
When at last I arrived at the club-room I clenched a fist and prepared to knock when I overheard a strange sound on the other side of the door. Someone was sobbing, and only one person in our pointless little Brigade has an actual human side and that is Miss Asahina, the lovely time traveller/club-room maid.
My knock was met with a reply lost somewhere between words and animal sounds. Without any real indication as to whether that was a 'yes' or a 'no' I momentarily hesitated, my hand hovering over the door knob like a character in a B-horror movie.
Should I have taken that as a hint to not go inside the door?
Hell no! The lovely Miss Asahina was on the other side, crying like the lost child at a mall. I could never abandon her. I have to protect her since nobody else in our brigade ever will. And so with grim determination I stepped inside.
"Miss Asahina?" my voice cracked midway through. Damn you puberty.
The girl in question was sitting in the chair usually reserved for Nagato, a plain folding chair by the window. She was not wearing her maid outfit today, nor was she busy brewing tea. She was hunched over, her elbows propped up on her knees and her head buried in her hands. Her petite frame shuddered every so often and her exquisite chestnut hair collapsed in long waves across her quivering shoulders.
She did not look up at all. She just kept on sobbing.
"Miss Asahina, what's wrong? Did Haruhi attack you again?"
A weak sob escaped her and the beautiful young maiden lifted her heavy head to look at me. She looked like a drooping flower and the once radiant glow that surrounded her was becoming overpowered by a sense of pity. Asahina cries a lot. It is one of her strong points if you ask me, but I've never seen her like this. Something had to be seriously wrong.
Her eyes were like imperfect diamonds, marred by the bloodshot streaks of red and the dark rings around her eyelids that resembled poorly applied eye make-up. Her lips quivered and her teeth chattered as if she were caught in a blizzard. Her breaths were shallow and erratic. It pained me to see her like this.
I hurried over and draped a comforting arm around her. Usually I would have been fantasising and dreaming at this point but this was serious. I brought my face close to hers and urged her to tell me what was wrong.
Asahina's head bobbed up and down in a slight nod and after a shaky start, she told me.
"Miss...Miss Tsuruya...She...She disappeared!"
My eyes narrowed. I felt a tight pain in my chest, but I had to be sure. "H-How do you know? Are you sure she just isn't sick or something?"
"No. I...I tried calling her for days but...But...But she won't answer! I even went to her house and...And..." She broke down once more, unable to speak again. As the precious young girl cried in my arms I couldn't think of anything else other than that single name that had cursed me to an abnormal life. No matter how fun it seemed on the outside her actions were often times utterly reprehensible.
Why Haruhi? Why would you do this?
There is no good reason for it. What did Tsuruya ever do to you to deserve such a fate? Were you concerned about her stealing your thunder? Is that it? Or were you afraid of adding a new member to the brigade, afraid bringing her in would disrupt what little semblance of peace we still had? No matter what, there is no excuse for causing an innocent human being to vanish off the face of the Earth!
This time Haruhi, you have gone too far!
"-all red..."
"Huh?" I was so deep in thought I'd almost forgotten Asahina's presence. Blasphemy. I only heard the end of whatever she had been trying to tell me and even then I didn't really listen hard enough to decipher them as words. I looked into her eyes, but she struggled to meet my gaze. She would try every so often, only to glance away a few seconds later. "What did you just say?"
I somehow got the impression she was feeling guilty...
I quickly discarded that thought and listened closely as Asahina whispered as softly as the cool flowing breeze:
"Her room...It was all red..."