I ran through the hallways of this cursed school for as long as my legs would carry me, screaming out in fear. I didn't care about the noise I was making anymore. Everything was falling apart. First Katayama lost his leg, then those ghosts appeared, and then Kizami turned on us… and now some monster was chasing me.

When my legs finally gave out and I collapsed to the ground panting, I reflexively started praying for the safety of the others. If only I hadn't suggested that stupid charm, we wouldn't have had to live through this hell…

I nearly lost consciousness as I regained my breath. I must have been hyperventilating. Eventually I mustered the strength to push myself into a sitting position, leaning against a wall for support.

Wasn't that monster right behind me? Where did it go?…

Looking around confirmed that the giant thing that had found me was gone. For now, anyway. I doubted I really managed to escape. I tried to steady my breathing and stretch my legs so I'd be ready to run again.

I noticed that a few scraps of paper were lying within arm's reach, and it looked like something had been written on them. I grabbed them and pulled them closer, arranging them so that the characters became readable.

"Victim's Memoirs 1/3…"

I paused when I saw the numbering. Did whoever wrote this plan out three separate notes, or was the number added on later? I frowned in thought, but decided to keep reading.

"There is no hope for salvation for those who enter these halls. There's no food or drink aside from what you brought with you, and there is no escape. Every one of us is doomed to die to the traps and spirits of this accursed place… or starve to death."

I was almost back to breathing regularly when I read the last few words of the note, but I gasped once I'd read it. So there was really no hope?…

"Urabe!"

I scrambled to my feet, ready to run. But it wasn't Kizami that had found me. I looked up to see Mitsuki and Fukuroi, approaching with worried expressions.

"Emi!" Mitsuki ran towards me and threw her arms around me. I was still in shock over all the things that had happened today and didn't really try to return the hug.

"Urabe, are you alright? Where are the others?" Fukuroi asked, right to the point as usual.

"We… we were all together on the third floor for a while…" I started, forcing my memory back to the horrors I'd witnessed earlier. "Katayama stepped on a booby trap of some kind and lost his leg. He… eventually bled out."

"No…" Mitsuki shook her head, still holding me close. "Are the others safe, at least?"

"Tohko, Shimada and Kizami tried to find a way out…" I shuddered. "We later found Shimada dead, stabbed with his own knife and surrounded by child spirits."

Mitsuki frowned. Shimada didn't rub people the right way, but Mitsuki wasn't totally unaffected by his death.

"Then… Kizami tried to get Ohkawa to leave Katayama's body… but he just… flung the body down a stairwell while Ohkawa was still clinging to him. After that… Ohkawa ran away…"

Fukuroi stepped closer. "What happened to Kizami and Kirisaki?"

"I tried to convince Tohko to come with me, to leave Kizami behind… he was acting strange. But she wouldn't listen to me, so I left them there." I started shivering and felt tears welling up in my eyes. "I heard a fight as I ran away, but I didn't turn back."

Mitsuki was choking back tears of her own, but she rubbed my back to try to comfort me. "We'll find them, Emi."

I nodded slowly, not really believing her. But if a small lie helped me get back together, it was worth it. I noticed that Fukuroi was clutching something in his hand.

"What do you have there?…"

"Hm, this?" Fukuroi held up a note. "I think it's a secret message of some kind. It says 'Victim's Memoirs 2/3,' but nothing else."

"Can I… see that?" I gently pushed Mitsuki's arms away and reached for the note, which Fukuroi handed over to me.

I read the writing I saw aloud. "This place truly has no escape, even through death. I've seen my friends die, but they came back as ghosts before long. Most of them were in too much pain to talk… these closed spaces don't just trap people, but emotions and pain. Those who die here will feel the fear and pain of their demise forever."

Fukuroi and Mitsuki's eyes widened as I read the note. I was a bit shaken too. Saenoki must have had no idea that the friendship charm she posted on her blog would have done such horrible things to people, or else she'd have never shared it.

"You can read that?!" Mitsuki cried out suddenly.

"Y-yes…" I looked at them and realized they were afraid of me, not the note.

"We've been trying to figure out how to read that for almost an hour." Fukuroi adjusted his glasses. "Nothing we found let us see anything but the header. I was starting to doubt it was a note at all."

I frowned and lowered my head. "I can read it just fine…"

We stood there silently for a moment, then Mitsuki broke the silence. "I wonder where the first and third notes are…"

I turned to where I was sitting to point out where I had read the first note, but only a single scrap remained, as if a draft had blown the rest into the gaps in the floor. "I… found the first one there. But it looks like it blew away?…"

Fukuroi sighed. "I supposed you'll have to be our interpreter if we find the third note. Regardless, we should focus on more important things like finding the others and a way out."

I decided not to remind Fukuroi that the notes said there was no escape. Again, a little lie to make us feel better.

We walked down several hallways, looking for our friends. I started to feel hungry and wished I'd brought something with me to eat. We met up with this boy in glasses with a black gakuran jacket, but he insisted that he look for his own classmates alone and we parted ways.

I was starting to wonder how we could have spent so much time searching this place and still not find anyone when we passed the infirmary and the layout became familiar to me.

"We're getting close to where I left Kizami and Tohko…"

Mitsuki, who had been taking the lead, slowed down so she could pat me on the back. "Maybe they're still here somewhere."

We searched the infirmary for any signs that Ohkawa, Kizami, or Tohko had been there, but it looked like it had been undisturbed for years. While digging through a cabinet filled with bloody scissors, I found a note tucked in the back. Standing on my toes and reaching in as far as my arm would go, I pulled out the note.

"Find something?" Mitsuki asked, stepping closer to get a look at what I found.

"It's a note of some kind." Two-sided, by the look of it. I started with the side with more writing on it. Fukuroi stopped trying to light the space heater in the middle of the room to listen once I started reading.

"Victim's Memoir 3/3.

I finally discovered the only way to avoid the wrath of this school. The only way I'll ever be safe. 'She' promised to provide me food and water if I helped her. 'She' will keep the other spirits from attacking me. When I do die, it will be painless and quick. And then I'll be able to help her forever.

If you're reading this, you have a chance too. Beg Sa***** *****zaki for forgiveness, and she'll accept you with open arms."

Mitsuki crossed her arms. "Well, that was a waste of time. I thought we'd actually find something useful."

Fukuroi shook his head. "I suspect the writer of these notes was too far gone to be of help to us. I too am disappointed, but I'm not surprised."

I frowned as I tried to make out the missing characters of the name given. They looked like they had been smudged, or maybe burned out…

Mitsuki tilted her head. "Is there something on the back?…"

Remembering the note was two-sided, I flipped over the paper and read the backside.

"Watch out behind you."

Mitsuki opened her mouth to say something, but it was drowned out by a brutish roar from just outside the infirmary. The note fell from my hands. I recognized that voice.

I screeched and shoved Fukuroi out of my way as I ran out of the infirmary. I only realized how dumb that was when I came face-to-face with the monster that had been chasing me before. I knelt down and let the tears flow from my eyes. I must have been losing my mind, because suddenly I started reciting the Sachiko charm like a chant…

"Sachiko, I beg of you… Sachiko, I beg of you…"

The monster had raised a giant hammer over me, but hesitated when I began my chanting. It then lowered the hammer and walked around me into the infirmary.

Surprised to be alive, I got up and ran down toward the stairs to the third floor. I heard the sound of the hammer crushing bone and Mitsuki screaming behind me. I was leaving behind yet another friend in their time of need.

I barely stopped myself in time as I nearly fell into a gap in the floor. Somehow, the way to the stairs had fallen out. I looked around for a place to hide and found the door to the science lab open. I ran inside and hid behind a table, trying to slow my breathing so I wouldn't give myself away.

"I heard you begging for mercy…"

I froze as the voice of a young girl came to my ears. I turned around slowly to see a girl in an old-fashioned red dress and pale skin staring at me from behind long black hair.

"Sachiko is merciful… she wouldn't want anyone thinking otherwise…"

I knelt down in front of the girl and bowed my head. "Anything you want! Please, just save me!"

The girl frowned. "Anything?…"

I sniffled a bit. I felt like a heavy weight was crushing me. I imagined that monster coming at me with the hammer again, and my decision was made.

"Anything."

Suddenly, the weight was gone and I felt light. I breathed in deeply. I didn't feel hungry anymore. I didn't feel afraid anymore. Sachiko was watching over me now. I just had to do whatever she asked of me, and I was safe…

The girl pointed to a vial of clear liquid. I read the label and I guessed it was some kind of acid. "Your friend will come here for shelter soon. Find a way to use this on her in an amusing way, and I'll keep you safe."

I nodded slowly. I don't even think I hesitated before selling out Mitsuki for my own safety.

I picked up the vial and felt a grin forming on my lips. I knew what I was going to do.

The sound of the door to the science lab slamming shut caused me to turn around, pocketing the vial so Mitsuki wouldn't see it. She pushed a few chairs in front of the door as if that would save her. How pitiful.

"Mitsuki? Where's Fukuroi? You didn't… leave him behind, did you?" I grinned cruelly as I added insults to the impending injury.

Mitsuki stopped moving chairs and knelt down, unable to hold her tears back any longer. "He… he pushed me out of the way… He… died to save me…"

"What a shame." I stepped towards her. Maybe I should have pretended to be as afraid as I had been before I earned Sachiko's mercy and protection, because Mitsuki seemed to realize I was too calm.

"Emi? Is something wrong?"

I knelt down next to her and patted her back. "Nothing's wrong. At least not worse than what's happened already."

Mitsuki cried into my chest. "I should have done something to save him… Fukuroi…"

She wasn't looking. The time had come. I took the vial of acid from my pocket and popped off the stopper.

"Don't blame yourself, Mitsuki. It's alright…"

A little lie to make her feel better… so I could crush her more completely!

"Emi… he's—"

She never got to finish that line of thought. I wrapped my right arm around her neck in a choke hold and held her so that I could reach her face.

"It's alright, Mitsuki. You'll be joining your dear Fukuroi soon enough!" I held up the vial of acid so she could see it.

"Em— what— you doing—?!"

She could barely talk with my hold on her, but that was fine. She didn't need to talk to make the music that Sachiko wanted to hear.

"Close your eyes and open wide, Mitsuki…" I held the vial to her cheek and took a deep breath, savoring the moment. Mitsuki's expression was priceless, the perfect mixture of betrayal and fear.

"Em— no— NOOOO!—"

Opening her mouth to scream was Mitsuki's last mistake. I emptied the vial down her throat as she shouted for me to stop. Her screams took on a different sound after that.

"You hear that, Sachiko?" I smiled at Mitsuki. "Can you hear her screams? Aren't they just perfect?…"

I stroked Mitsuki's hair as she went into convulsions in her last moments, her screaming dying down. "Was that amusing enough, Sachiko?…"

Mitsuki finally stopped moving. I adored the way she glared at me like I was a monster. No, Mitsuki. I'm not a monster. But I'm alive, and you're not. You lose.

"If that wasn't amusing enough, Sachiko…" I stood up and smiled widely. "I'll show you more!"