Chapter six: Looming Darkness

Wanaka Saki wandered the halls of the decrepit old elementary school, trying to see if she could fine Nanako and Akane, but so far having no luck. And what was worse she hated being in dark creepy places like this, like a haunted house, ugh it bothered her so much!

"Man…" she said to herself as she began to fidget with her long black hair. Whenever there was something that bothered her or scared her she would always do this, her mother had told her countless times to stop acting like this, she even did this in front of the man that would one day be her new father, she didn't like him, not at all, he constantly kept staring at her large breasts, and he didn't seem to like it when she locked her bedroom door.

"I hate him mom!" she told her before today. "That guy! He kept trying to get into my room! Aren't you even concerned?! You're marrying some guy you barely even know!"

"Be quiet!" her mother said. "I'm allowed to marry whomever I chose, he's going to be you're new father, now get used to it!"

"I'd rather be dead first!" she grabbed her bag and stormed out of the house. "Marry the perverted bastard for all I care! If you're too blinded by his money then you deserve to rot in hell with him!" she slammed the door not carrying what her mother said.

"Mom why the hell did you have to pick that guy…?" she asked herself as she walked through the halls. "I thought you loved Dad…"

She continued to wander the halls, looking into classrooms but refusing to go in since no one was with her and it looked extremely dark.

I don't want to be here… she thought as she started to braid her long black hair. "Why did we have to do that stupid charm anyway…? I want to go… … …no not home… but I don't want to be here at least. I should try to find some sort of way out." she continued to walk, soon seeing a set of stairs that led downwards and taking them slowly, not trusting the old looking wood, when she hit the bottom she began to hear something, it sounded like laughter. There was an area of the stairs that looked to add to a smaller compartment, there lay what looked to be a student from another school.

But there in front of the body was a small child… a child that was missing a head.

"Yaah!" Wanaka cried as she moved away, her knee's growing weak from the sudden strange and gory sight.

The child was repeatedly stabbing at the face and neck of the female student with a large pair of sewing scissors that seemed to be covered in blood and rust. The girl didn't even seem to notice Wanaka as she continued her work with determined diligence.

What was that kid even doing? How could she be alive while missing a head? Just what in the world was going on in this strange place?!

All of these questions and more came piling out of Wanaka's mind before she made a mad dash away from the child and the corpse. She ran into the nearest classroom and shut the door before falling to her knees panting for breath.

I can't do this! I can't do this! She thought to herself repeatedly. I can't do this by myself I need someone with me! To keep my sane in this creepy old place! I'd settle for anyone! Anyone at all!

"Wanaka-san…? Are you alright…? You don't look so good."

She jumped, letting out a scream of fright, before turning to the direction of the owner's voice. There at the other end of the room was a figure, even in the dark she could make it out to be a girl, a slight glow from a nearby candle revealed what the lower half of the uniform looked like.

That skirt… that's part of our uniform! Someone from my school is here with me! "Hey! You over there! What's your name? You're from my school right?" she could have been wrong, some school uniforms did get the habit of looking similar to one another, Wanaka thought it would at least be a good idea to see if they at least knew each other.

But the student merely backed away from the light and ran out the nearest door. "Hey wait a minute!" she ran after the student but stopped to pick up a key, it must have fallen from the student's pocket. She listened to the sound of the student's footsteps and quickly follows. In the distance she heard the sound of a door being closed in the distance, Wanaka stopped when she came across a closed door. Above it said infirmary.

Using the key she was able to unlock the door, opening it she saw nothing but darkness as a cold air drifted from the room. It was so incredibly dark she couldn't really see inside that well. Was someone really in this room?

"I wouldn't… go… in… there… if I were you…" a boy's voice whispered in her ear, followed by something cold being around her lower back and waist. Looking down she saw a child peaking up at her from behind, his arms wrapped around her waist, his blue eyes were wide, holding a dead lifeless look to them, and his light blonde hair seemed to be standing on end from a strange kind of unearthly glow. Wanaka wanted to scream, this child was another one of those dead children, but the boy didn't seem to do anything, he just stood there.

"No!" she screamed, pushing the child away and heading into the infirmary.

The boy soon disappeared after whispering. "I warned you… what happens now is your own doing…"

Wanaka looked back, only she didn't see the child there anymore. "What the hell…?" she said allowed as she panted for breath. "What was that all about…?"

A light was suddenly lit at the other end of the dark room; she went to it and saw another candle. She stood near the flame letting the heat warm her sudden chilled body. This room felt so cold, why was this room so cold?

"What did that kid even mean by that…?"

In the far corner of the room where the darkness was the most, a shadow came out of it slowly, heading quietly towards Wanaka.

Arm's instantly wrapped around the student's chest and the girl froze when a hand clutched in the center of her chest causing her to gasp in shock as the other arm was wrapped around her shoulders.

"What's the matter Wanaka-san…? You look so scared you're shaking did you see something scary?"

She turned around when the unknown girl backed away from her, and who she saw shocked her. "Ayame Noriko!"

Ayame Noriko stood a few feet away with one hand on her as she looked at Wanaka.

"Hi…" Ayame said softly. "I didn't scare you did I?"

Tear's brimmed in Wananka's eyes when she saw her fellow classmate; she couldn't stop herself from doing this next thing. Wanaka rushed Ayame, and hugged her tightly before crying in hysterics. Ayame said nothing as the tall girl cried as if she were five years old.

"Ayame…!" she sobbed holding her tighter. "Ayame! I'm so glad it's someone from our school! I was so scared of being by myself here! You have no idea how messed up this place is!"

"I think I have a pretty good idea actually." She said before taking out a tissue from her skirt pocket and whipped Wanaka's eyes. "Are you feeling any better now?"

Wanaka didn't know what to say to her, out of all the people, it was the girl that she, Akane, and Nanako kept bullying constantly because Nanako was jealous of Ayame being close to Kazumi. Why that was Wanaka didn't know, but from what she could tell from a distance Ayame never seemed to be interested in Kazumi in a romantic kind of way.

But Kazumi, seemed to be interested yet never brought it up openly.

"Yeah…" she said finally running the back of her hand over one of her eyes. "Thanks, Ayame-san…"

"No problem, but you look tired. Do you want to rest on one of the beds over there? Even though this place is falling apart the beds seem rather in great condition."

Wanaka thought about it for a long, long moment not saying anything in response. Ayame then said. "Don't worry, I won't leave this room as long as you're here, when you want to leave then I'll go too, okay?"

That seemed to reassure her. "Alright… I think I will."

She went to the bed and sat down on the edge, surprised at how clean the sheets felt to her against her hands, Ayame was right these beds were really comfortable.

Lying down on the first one Wanaka asked her. "Aren't you going to lie down too?" as Ayame sat down in a chair by the nurse's desk before glancing to a book that said Diary on the top of the old leather cover.

"Mmm… No, I'm okay, besides, someone should keep watch, never know when something might come knocking by."

"I guess you're right…" she looked to her, as Ayame leaned back against the chair she noticed something different about her. "Hey… you're jacket…"

Ayame glanced to her saying nothing.

"Was it always that red color…?"

She tapped her index finger on the table, her blue eyes going back to the leather bound book. "Get some sleep…" she said. "We'll try to find your friends when you wake up."

Suddenly hit with a wave of drowsiness Wanaka closed her eyes. "Okay…" and soon after she drifted to sleep.

Wanaka slept soundly with no dreams or nightmares, just a deep black sleep, she rather prefer that the dreams, dreams would make her think of things, things that would make her panic or worry, things that would frighten her and make her scream.

Groaning she slowly opened drowsy eyes. When in focused Wanaka saw that Ayame hadn't moved from her seat and she looked to be reading something.

Is… is she reading…? "Ayame…? What are you doing?"

The book that was on the table was now open, and it looked to be as if she had been reading it for a while now.

"Reading." She said before closing the book before standing. "How are you feeling? Any better at all?"

Sitting up Wanaka sat on the edge of the bed. "Um, yeah, I'm alright now. But are you okay? You… you look a little pale, if you want we can switch and I can keep watch."

Ayame turned away. "No, that's alright, I'm fine. If you feel better we should continue onwards, we might be able to find some of the others…"

Getting up off the bed Wanaka walked over to the desk and began to reach for the diary, only to be stopped instantly by Ayame who grabbed her wrist.

"Don't touch that." Ayame said softly, leading Wanaka's hand away from the diary. "You don't want to look inside, what's written there… it'd make you cry. Just leave it be."

Wanaka stared at her with slight surprise. "Okay…"

"Let's see if we can find a way out of here." And then lead her out of the infirmary.

As they walked down the hall Wanaka instantly remembered of the ghost child that had no head.

"Wait!" she said grabbing on to her arm. "There's a ghost over by the stairs!"

"A ghost…?" Ayame pulled away from her and headed further towards the stairs, Wanaka tensed as if waiting for something bad to happen, but nothing did, opening her eye's she saw Ayame standing there with that blank expression.

"Is it gone…?" she asked before slowly tip toeing over and looking to the bottom of the stairs, and nearly had the urge to throw up. The student that she saw being mutilated by the headless girl was now gone but…

"Her head is gone…" Ayame stated. "If what you said was true… about a young girl with no head then… she might have taken it, thinking it may help her own dilemma."

This time Wanaka did throw up she turned to the nearest corner and vomited all of the contents of her stomach in a nearby bucket. Ayame knelt down and looked at the student's name tag. "Akiko Hoshi Satsukiyama Academy Class 2-4…"

"What?"

"The name, it's the name of the student… well what's left of her that is…" she went over to Wanaka and held out a hand for her. "Come on, let's go, these stairs… it's probably best not to take them, there are some stairs near the infirmary so why don't we take those instead?"

Wanaka took her hand, with reluctance. "Okay…"

They headed back in the opposite direction, again Ayame kept quite as they went towards another set of stairs, but when they rounded the near corner Wanaka let out a horrified scream. "What?! What is that!?"

Ayame joined her side and frowned. "It… it looks like meat… grounded up meat. No not meat." She realized looking down to what were the remains of a female student. "It's flesh." She then looked down the hall then back to the remains. "It's as if she had been thrown all the way down from the hall at superhuman speed. I wonder… who could have done this?"

Wanaka fell to the floor and began to sob. "Oh god! Oh my god! I… I don't think I can take this anymore! This is… this is just way too much for me to handle… god… I want to go home!" she stared to cry even harder.

Ayame's expression changed from wonder to blankness once more as she went closer. "…How sad…" She said softly as she looked at what little remains there were of the student that had been plastered to the wall. "To be killed in such… a terrible way… it's hard to imagine what went through that girl's mind before death…" she looked at Wanaka. "Come on, we should keep going, there might be another way out of school, and who knows we may run into other people along the way."

"Ah… y-yeah okay…" How can she remain so calm in a situation like this? She doesn't even seem fazed by dead bodies…

"Rumor has it, that Ayame witnessed her brother's murder, that it was her fault that he had been killed by some people that kidnapped them when she was young…" Akane's words echoed inside her head. Was that really true?

They continued down the hallways and went up the next set of stairs, only to find that their way out was blocked, when they tried to go down to the first floor it was the same result. "I guess we can't use these stairs ether…" Ayame said softly before looking at where they came and another hallway they had yet to walk through. "Let's try this way; there might be more stairs… or something like a door."

They continued their way but when they reached another set of stairs there was a large gap, and from what could be seen, the bottom was nowhere in sight.

"Looks like we're not going any further than this," Ayame said as she continued to crouch down and look down the deep caesium hole of the floor. "But maybe I can jump this…"

"What?!" Wanaka looked at her like she lost it. "Are you crazy?! Look how large that hole is, there's no way you can make that!"

Without a word Ayame got up moved a few feet back and ran down the hallway and jumped when the she reached the edge and made a fair distance from the gap when she landed. When Ayame stood up again and looked back at her with a half-smile. "See? I told you I'd make it, now wait here I'll find something for you to walk across okay?"

"O-okay…"

Ayame wasn't gone long she came back dragging a large piece of wood back with her before placing it over the gap then extended her hand to the girl. "Come on now Wanaka, it's safe to cross now."

"Are… are you sure? What if I fall?"

"You won't fall, not as long as I'm here, I'll make sure of that."

This seemed to calm Wanaka down before she slowly walked across and grasped Ayame's hand when she made it across. "Phew… thank god, I never liked heights."

"You don't?"

She shook her head. "No, I've always been afraid of falling and impaling myself on something really, really, sharp."

"That's… some imagination you have, but I suppose I can't blame you for it though." She looked down the hall. "Come on, let's see where this goes."

"You… you think it might be a way out?"

"Who knows? We won't know until we find out." after saying that she headed down the hallway with Wanaka following close behind.