Cabin in the Woods
The bus shook gently as it made its way across the long road, large trees towered over it with wildlife and nature being the dominant presence, and the sound of heavy rain and wind hitting the windows, despite this, the bus continued with no care in the world, even less care coming from the passengers. While not many passengers, two of them stood out in particular, two thirteen-year-old kids from Tokyo. Takato Matsuki and Rika Nonaka.
Both of them have entered a Digimon Card Tournament, with the grand prize being a trophy and ten-thousand yen. But they weren't the only ones, other class friends of theirs, Henry Wong, Kazu Shioda, Kenta Kitagawa, and Jeri Katou, have also entered the tournament. However, the tournament wasn't local, it was taking place in Owakudani, sixty-two miles from Tokyo, and the tournament would last three days, so getting there was a huge problem for a bunch of school kids.
But with a stroke of luck, Henry's father has agreed to make it extra special for them, he has agreed to not only pay for a place to stay for them, but also for their travel expenses, best part was the lack of parents for the trip. No school or parents for three days, and a Digimon Card Tournament to boot, it feels like stars had to have aligned for them to have received such luck, Takato thought to himself.
He peered over to Rika, taking notice of her studying the cards in her deck, all while listening to her portable radio. A girl she's known for three years now, first meeting her at the local tournament, after requesting her training to be even better, the two became somewhat close, at least that's what he thought, Rika had somewhat of a cold behaviour towards others, barely socialising, often being quite rude, and sometimes violent, but he did feel she was quite open with him, and feels she at least makes an effort to be sociable with him.
Having recently moved to his school due to hers closing down, it did get relatively awkward when he tried to have Rika part of his circle of friends but refused to, making it difficult to be a part of two circles, eventually though, Jeri asking for her training in Cards, with Kazu and Kenta soon following, it did help eventually getting the two circles together, even if Rika needs her space from the others. She claimed that she can only be around idiots for so long before she loses a nerve, and while Takato easily accepted that at face value, a part of him thought Rika just might be more introverted and struggles to socialise properly and uses her rudeness as a mechanism to cope. At least that's what he thought.
Regardless however, she was definitely someone he's glad to have met and befriended, despite looking to be cold, anti-social and violent, she was also very smart, level-headed and feels she has a kindness waiting to be let out. She felt like such a complex girl, it fascinated him to no end.
His thinking stopped however when Rika suddenly turned to face him surprising him a bit, though it was the cold stare she gave to him as she took her headphones off that got to him more, with a cold stare like that he felt could turn him to stone if he wasn't careful.
"What?" she said bluntly.
Wanting to change the subject fast, he looked over to the card she was holding, realised it was one he could use in his deck, he had to think fast.
"That card actually, mind if we trade?"
"What for?"
Takato digs into his bag he left by his feet and took out his deck and handed it to her. "Not sure, wanna check?"
Without responding, she took the deck and had a scroll through it, she ended up picking out one card and showing it to him. "How about this one?"
"Sure. Works for me."
With that, Rika handed Takato his deck back and the new card, then placed her headphones back on, in truth, he didn't know what Rika took, he just wanted to avoid an awkward conversation, thanking her, he places his deck back in his bag and decides to look out the window, seeing the rain hit the window and the forests going by.
Rika herself however, turned her attention away from her deck and looked over to Takato looking outside the window, seeing this kind idiotic boy she befriended in what felt like pity, but she couldn't deny that she was glad to have met him, his ridiculous nature and weird love for those silly goggles on his head, in addition to the posse of clowns she's been roped into hanging out with, it has made her school life more interesting if not headache inducing.
She let out a quiet sigh before putting her deck away and putting her head back against the seat to rest her eyes, but this was soon interrupted by her portable radio's music ending and the news coming on, she let out a quiet groan, regretting not taking any cassettes with her. Can't be bothered to take them off or talk with Takato, she decided to just bare the boring news and wait for the music to come back on.
"We're happy to announce that legendary computer programmer and internet expert, Mr Samael Masashi will be releasing his new product worldwide, the newest server that'll make internet access to all computers and devices have flawless connections twenty-four-seven, as well as being completely free. No more internet costs or buffering or slowdown, this will guarantee that Japan and the whole world over will change forever."
As the news rattled on and on, Rika decided to let her mind wander as she thought about this Samael Masashi, a figure head in Japan and the world over, a multibillionaire who's been making his face known for years, she hardly cared for the man, but he was brought up practically every day with his products, charisma and constant advertisements, just hearing the name annoyed her with how much it was practically being rubbed in her face. It especially didn't help that they had a history class about him the day before they left.
The part that stuck out to her the most was that Samael had a partner by the name of Koga Kumashiro, a business partner who died twenty-years ago and left everything to Samael in his will, hence why he's gotten so big long ago and just seems to be getting bigger. Soon however, her thoughts were interrupted by Takato gently nudging her with his left hand, she took her headphones off to listen.
"Hey, this is our stop."
"Finally." She muttered, as the two began to put their coats on and their bags together.
As the bus came to a stop, the two stepped out into a very quiet part of the town, with a very long road heading towards the forest. Up that road was the place they and the others were staying. A log cabin deep in the woods, this annoyed Rika because she'd rather have had an apartment or hotel that was much closer, from the log cabin to the tournament would be an hour long walk, but at least she can make it to the tournament at all and didn't have to skip it. Without saying anything, Takato took out the umbrella and opened it up, and the two huddled up as they walked along this road.
Thankfully the trip isn't long, only a ten-minute walk, but as they got further out of civilisation and deeper into the woods on foot, Takato couldn't deny that it was starting to get unsettling, it got darker with the trees getting more and more twisted. Takato looked over to Rika, the usual level-headed and cold demeanour she had was replaced with a look of unnerve but tried everything to not show it., this both made him unsettled yet relieved. Unsettled because he's never seen her look scared or unnerved in any sense, yet relieved knowing he wasn't alone in this, even if he knew she wouldn't admit it.
A shriek along with sudden flapping and the sound of rustling leaves and snapped twigs sent a shiver down his spine as he suddenly found himself clutching the umbrella tighter, with his free arm unintentionally around Rika's shoulder for comfort, only to realise she herself moved in closer to him, though he couldn't tell if it was him pulling her closer, or she willingly moved in closer.
Upon realising what he did, he quickly pulled his arm off of her as she stared daggers at him. "S-Sorry, I-"
"You know I hate it when you touch me like-"
They were both interrupted by the shock of seeing a large figure shooting past them, kicking up mud and water as several leaves rustled and twigs snapped. This sudden visual and audio barrage forced the two letting out quick yells as they immediately clung onto each other with their eyes tightly shut, hoping whatever it was would leave them alone. After a second of nothing, the two slowly looked over to see the thing that startled both of them was nothing more than a Sika Deer rushing past.
Feeling like his heart almost jumped out of his throat, Takato calmed himself down with deep breaths as he and Rika slowly let go of each other.
"J-Just a deer…" he mumbled.
Rika let out an aggravated sigh, feeling humiliated to have been frightened by something as simple as a deer. "Stupid deer. Let's just get to this log cabin already."
"Yeah, agreed." The two huddled together under the umbrella again and quickened their pace, leaving the silence of that part of the woods behind, however, because they had left in a hurry, neither of them heard the faint sounds of the deer screaming.
After a bit more walking, the log cabin was in sight, it was two storeys, had a massive open garden with a fountain and bird feeder, even a barbeque and a hammock, but all of those were off limits due to the rain. Even Rika couldn't deny just how inviting it looked despite the creepy forest surrounding it, but the two didn't take time to admire the view from the outside, as the rain started to get worse, so they immediately made their way to the front door, with Rika opening it.
Upon entering, the room temperature was drastic. Cold, and bitter outside, toasty and comforting inside. The main room was very spacious, with three large couches, a large wooden table in between all three, a fireplace that was crackling peacefully, lovely paintings that hung on the walls, and right in the middle of it were the rest of their classmates. Henry, Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta. But to their surprise, there was one more with them, a younger wide-eyed girl who sat next to Henry as all of them were watching the TV or playing with their cards, that is until they heard them open the door.
"Hey! You two finally made it!" Kazu said excitedly as he and the others made their way to them as they began to take their coats off.
"Yeah, sorry we're late, we had to get the next bus." Takato responded.
"Hey, at least you got here." Kenta replied as he walked up next to Kazu.
Takato nodded as he took notice of Rika already hanging her coat on the nearby rack, dumping her shoes by the wall where the others were and threw her bag onto one of the couches. All without saying a word to the others which was natural. Because of Rika's behaviour towards the others, he quickly did a mental recall on how to handle any situation.
Kazu, being energetic and the one to crack the most jokes and be a bit of an oddball, and Kenta being gentler and kinder, yet just as much of an oddball as Kazu with the two being a comedic pair, Rika has the least amount of tolerance for them, especially when Kazu decides to mouth off at her over the smallest things, given his short temper, so if he sees the two interacting, keep a sharp eye and try to defuse any situation that might happen.
Jeri is the sweet and kind optimistic girl of the group, the polar opposite of Rika in every way, despite this however, Rika seems to have the highest tolerance for her, he wasn't sure if her optimism rubs off on Rika, or she doesn't have it in her to give Jeri the usual rude mannerisms she usually provides. It was Jeri's idea to use Digimon Cards as the means of bringing Rika closer to their circle, and while she's still new at it, Rika does seem to have the most patience with her.
Henry however is a bit difficult to determine, not only did he join the circle two years after Rika, the two don't interact that much, with Henry being somewhat introverted and pacifistic, he tends to keep his distance from Rika. Given Henry seems mature for his age, it's very likely that the two would get along well, or at least cause the least amount of friction, but this is also the first time they're going to be stuck in a cabin for three days with very little going out besides the tournament, as per the rules of his father.
But this little girl next to Henry, he had no idea who she was. He couldn't imagine Rika being rude to someone half her height and presumably her age too, but he also had no idea if Rika would tolerate her either. Either way, the ice was going to have to be broken sooner or later, so why not now, he thought.
Takato leaned down slightly. "And who are you, little lady." He said politely.
The girl immediately held her hand out for a handshake. "I'm Suzie, I'm Henwy's little sister! Nice to meetcha!"
"Well, you're just as polite as him, that's for sure." Takato responded as she shook her tiny hand. He then noticed Rika standing next to him looking down at Suzie. "Oh, this is Rika, she's the best card player in our group."
"Hey." Rika said quietly.
"Nice to meetcha too." Suzie responded. "Henry was telling me how super cool you were." Her comment left Henry taken aback a bit, wasn't expecting her to just blurt it out.
Rika gave a very brief glance to Henry, before turning to Suzie with the faintest of smiles before rubbing her head. "Well, it goes to show how smart and observant your brother is."
Takato was surprised by this, but hardly felt the need to make any callouts, instead he turned to Jeri who was already giving Rika a sweet smile. "Hey Jeri, do you mind showing us where our rooms are?"
"Sure thing." Jeri responded with a nod. "It's just upstairs." She began to lead Rika to the stairs,
Takato soon followed but quickly stopped to face Henry as Suzie went back to watching the TV. "So how come your sister joined us?"
"It's one of the conditions my dad gave me in exchange for letting us do this, same with the log cabin and everything. It's a bit complicated."
"I see, still, glad to know Rika doesn't seem to mind her."
"Same."
"Hey Goggle-Head, you coming?" Rika spoke up as she and Jeri were already halfway up the stairs.
"On it." He replied as he started making his way up stairs too.
Once the two were out of sight, Kazu walked up to Henry with a grin. "Heh, if you ask me, I think they're the perfect example of opposites attract."
Henry turned to Kazu feeling a bit surprised by that, he was implying that Takato and Rika might be a couple, it seemed extremely farfetched to him, but it would also explain why they're together just as often if not more. Henry merely shrugged at this. "I think you might be overthinking that a little."
"Hey, why else would an ice queen like Rika hang out with a cheerful dunce like Takato? Still, she's pretty damn good at cards so I can't say I hate it. Plus, she's hella cute too, I'd say Takato got a nice catch."
"I think you should keep that to yourself, last thing you wanna do is give Rika an excuse to hurt you, especially since we're going to be stuck together for three days."
Kazu folds his arms losing his smirk. "Uhm, good point. Just got over my back pain she gave me."
A few hours had passed and thankfully there wasn't even a trace of friction between Rika and the other kids. Takato had expected Kazu to at least trigger something, but thankfully not this time. Most of her activity has been just listening to her portable radio and reading a manga she packed with her, or reorganising her deck, while it was the reason no friction was made, it did make her look more cold than usual to the others who socialised quite well. While Takato would've preferred Rika to make the effort to join in, he knew forcing her to do so would make things worse, so he just left her, besides, Jeri had been giving him a lot of her attention so he had forgotten about Rika from time to time, he wasn't sure why Jeri was being like this, this felt more optimistic and cheery than usual, but it was a safe assumption she was excited for the tournament, and the small no parents vacation they were having.
Soon however, it was time for them to make their way to the tournament, it was an hour long walk, but thankfully the rain had stopped altogether, though the ground was a tad muddy, it was better than walking through the heavy rain again, they all took their coats, umbrellas just in case, and headed out.
Rika took the lead, knowing exactly where it is from here, but she still had her headphones on, which was the clear sign that she wasn't in the mood to talk, just lead. Takato was right behind her, with the others bunched together, Henry being at the back of the group holding Suzie's hand.
As they made their way through the forest, it hardly took them long to start striking up a conversation.
"So, this is my first tournament." Jeri spoke up. Getting everyone's attention beside Rika. "I have to admit, I'm a little nervous."
"It can get daunting at first." Kazu replied. "Especially since you just so happen to have picked one of the bigger tournaments to start with."
"I… yeah." Jeri felt a bit more nervous now.
"But don't worry about that." Takato butted in. "We're really just doing this for fun, don't play to win, just play for fun. Treat it like you're playing with us."
Jeri soon nods, smiling a bit. "Y-Yeah, you're right." Looking a bit more relaxed now.
Kenta looks back at her again. "Yeah, what he said. Honestly, I think the only ones taking this seriously are Kazu, Takato and Rika."
Takato continued. "Yeah, being honest, I don't think Rika could play games for fun even if she tried, she does kinda have a thing for winning." He looked back over to Rika, she didn't turn her head, so either she ignored it or didn't hear it thanks to her headphones, either way he felt relieved.
"Scared she might have beaten you up on that one?" asked Kazu with a big grin on his face.
Takato deliberately changed the subject a bit. "Hey, you're not that different, you play to win too, in fact, you can be a huge sore winner."
"Better than being a sore loser."
"It's not something to get worked up on." Henry interrupted. "Everyone likes to win at games at some point. It's nothing strange."
"Yeah." Kazu then walked with his hands behind the back of his head. "But hey, I reckon besides me, Rika might be our best shot at winning this. Especially since we agreed to split the prize money."
"Pretty sure I'm better than you." Takato said smugly. "But you are right though, Rika's our best shot, she's the best player I know."
At that point, the music in Rika's headphones ended for a moment, and briefly heard what Takato said, but refused to turn and be a part of this conversation. Until Suzie spoke up.
"Yeah, Takato made a nice catch."
The moment she said that; everyone collectively stopped and turned to Suzie with a genuinely surprised look, even Rika dropped her cold almost emotionless expression and replaced it with a look of bewilderment as she pulled her left headphone off slightly.
Kazu felt the most panicked, realising he said that exact thing and Suzie must've heard him. Praying she doesn't blab. And given it suddenly felt like long minutes when it was only a few seconds, he was starting to lose it fast.
"Nice catch!?" asked Rika as she took her headphones off properly.
"Well yeah, isn't Takato your boyfwiend?"
"W-What!? N-No!" Takato responded, trying his best not to panic, but his reddened cheeks were an obvious clue. "W-We're just friends, that's all!"
Henry looking nervous at what Suzie said, he also couldn't help but notice that Rika was also blushing.
"Yeah." Rika responded. "We're just friends, nothing more special than that." She then put her headphones back on and began to walk again, with or without them.
Seeing the conversation end and everyone on the move again, Kazu let out a sigh of relief and steadily slowed down to be at the back of the group, to keep his distance from Rika. Kenta notices this and lets out a smirk, knowing what he's thinking, but as he passed Jeri, Kenta noticed she had a distant look to her, in fact, he noticed she was looking at Takato, who was the closest to Rika. He had no idea what was going on, but after that, he'd rather not pry any further.
Once Kazu was at the back, Henry gently whispered to Suzie. "I know it's not your fault, but please try not to copy anything Kazu says about Rika, ok?"
"S-Sowwy!" Suzie responded looking a bit guilty.
Henry reassures her with a pat on the head. "Don't worry about it." He looked back over to Kazu who was looking behind him the entire time, so he decided to look back as well, there behind them as they were exiting the forest finally, was a dense fog that circulated the woods behind them.
"Hm, fog. They do occur before or after rain."
"Is that… following us?" Kazu whispered to Henry.
"I'm sure it's just your imagination, Kazu." Henry then proceeded to look forward again, with Kazu doing the same.
None of them aware of that the moment they left the forest, the fog stopped at the edge, before slowly crawling back deeper within the woods.
The conversations soon started up again, being more casual about school life, Digimon cards and among many other things. Predictably however, Rika stayed out of it, keeping to herself and her headphones, either way it made the time go by faster as they eventually made it to the Digimon Card Tournament.
To their surprise however, it was taking place in a baseball stadium. Or at least that what it originally was, Kenta brought up that it was shut down due to bankruptcy, but it was eventually reopened and redecorated into what it is now. Once they entered the reception to sign up, they made their way to the stadium itself and looked around, the open roof was sealed shut to keep the weather out, and the usual fake grass was replaced with concrete floors, the several seats remained and while it wasn't nearly as packed, there was still several people sitting at them, whether they were competition or just an audience. And finally, there were several of small tables with two chairs each for the competitors, and each table had a number from one to sixty-four.
Besides Suzie who's just here to watch, everyone was given a card with their table number on it, to tell them what they're starting at. Henry soon took out the tournament brackets sheet he was given by the reception. All of them looked back to each other to study each other's number cards and their positions in the brackets, none of them would be facing each other in the first round, which was somewhat of a relief to most of them, as they didn't want to take on Rika so soon.
Kazu turned to the tables ahead and spoke up. "Man, three days of this."
"Day one's the first two rounds, day two's the second two, and day three's the semi-finals and finals." Kenta responded. "And it's a best two out of three."
"And from the looks of it, all of us will only be facing each other in the third round to semi-finals if we don't lose any matches." Said Henry.
"Ok, so the plan is to try our best to win, if any one of us gets to the finals, then it's easy going." Takato then turned to Rika. "We're still on board for splitting the money, right?"
"Yeah, the only problem is that ten thousand yen divided by the six of us isn't even. So, I'd say the winner gets the remainder."
"Works for me." Said Kazu. "Good luck to all of us."
Rika spoke up again. "But remember, there's ten thousand yen on the line, this is the fiercest tournament we've been in, so don't let up and show no mercy. Or you won't win."
"Yeah." Henry then turned to Suzie. "As for you Suzie, I'd like you to stay with me, ok? And please don't read aloud my cards again."
"Ok."
As everyone made their way to their tables, Jeri felt a bit nervous before moving forward, until she felt a hand touch her shoulder, she turned to see Rika staring at her.
"Look, I know you're just here for fun, so don't worry about anything we said, just treat it like a normal game. If you lose, then it doesn't matter, just as long as you have fun."
Jeri was surprised by Rika's words of encouragement. "Uh, s-sure."
"But if anyone gives you trouble, just let me know and I'll make them regret it." Rika then proceeded to leave Jeri behind as she made her way to her table.
Jeri let out a sigh as she took out her deck. "Just for fun. Just for fun." She mumbled to herself. But the moment she took two steps, she had a strange feeling she was being watched.
She turned around to find a very strange figure. What looked to have been a six-foot eleven inches tall man wearing a thick dark blue coat, a black cloth cap, he wore a scarf that covered his face, and a pair of sunglasses to cover his eyes, literally no facial features could be seen, and this unusually tall lanky man looked to have been staring daggers at Jeri, needless to say, she felt very intimidated by this.
But no sooner had she looked at him, the man turned and walked away, making his way to the seats at the very far back away from everyone else.
A few hours passed and it was the end of the first day of the tournament was over. Everyone returned to the brackets to check the results.
Unsurprisingly, Rika had made it past both rounds. But Henry also made it past both rounds, as they looked, they were surprised to see Jeri made it too. Kenta won the first but lost in the second, and Kazu and Takato lost in the first round.
So only Rika, Jeri and Henry made it past both rounds, and with the way things were going, Rika would face Henry in the semi-finals, and Jeri in the finals, assuming any of them kept this going.
Takato noticed Jeri's position in the brackets and spoke up. "Man, good job there-" But was immediately interrupted by Rika grabbing his ear and pulling him back. Getting everyone's attention.
"I train you for three years and this is the best you can do!?"
"Ack! Sorry! I had a bad hand!" In reality, the card Rika took from the trade earlier was one that helped get his deck together, but he didn't want to admit that, otherwise it would've caused another scene altogether.
Rika huffs as she lets go of Takato and looks over to Jeri. "Did anyone give you trouble?"
Jeri thought about mentioning the strange man who stared at her, but she felt it would be too weird and she'd rather not bring that up. So, she just shook her head. "No, everything was fine."
"Good, though I will admit, it looks like my teachings got you better than Goggle-Head over here. Congratulations."
"Um, thank you."
"Yeah! Good job Jewi!" said Suzie excitedly.
They all looked over to Kazu and Kenta who looked miserable staring at the brackets. Takato merely chuckles and tries to snap them out of it. "C'mon guys, half of us may be out but we still got Rika, I'm sure she'll win this for us."
The two merely groan as they shuffled their feet towards the exit. Takato, Jeri and Suzie couldn't help but chuckle, while Henry and Rika had no reaction. As they all made their way towards the exit, Jeri was the last one of the group, she looked over to the seats where the tall creepy man sat, and he wasn't there, nor was there any trace of him anywhere. Jeri couldn't tell if this was a good thing or bad thing, she just quietly gulps before catching up with the others, making sure to stay extra close.
Getting back to the log cabin was straightforward enough, but it was starting to get dark, and the rain picked up again, with Takato pulling out his umbrella and sharing it with Rika. Henry did the same with Suzie, Kazu and Kenta brought their owns. Jeri looked around and went in with Kazu since he was closer, which he immediately moved the umbrella to cover both of them.
Thankfully Jeri's sigh was muffled by the sound of heavy rain on the umbrellas, looking over to Takato and Rika sharing the same umbrella. The look of those two being together, for someone who only claim to be friends, it got harder to accept that, not that she could to begin with, given a recent discovery.
Jeri mumbled to herself quietly. "Good friends... right."
"Hm, did you say something?" asked Kazu.
"N-Nothing."
Eventually, the log cabin was in view, and while it had gotten darker, there were the outside lights that illuminated the cabin when anything got close to its radius. They all entered one after another and put away their shoes and coats. As they did, Kazu walked to the middle of the room and spoke up.
"Alright! Well, that was something! Let's get pizza!"
The gang had all taken couches and was watching TV; there were three pizza boxes on the table. Takato, Jeri and Kenta took one couch with the plates on their laps and cups of soda on the tables. Henry, Suzie and Kazu took the other one with their meals, though Henry kept an eye on Suzie eating her pizza a bit messily. Rika unsurprisingly had an entire couch to herself to keep her feet up, and had her headphones on yet again, this time with a portable console in hand and her plate of pizza slices sitting on a small coffee table next to her.
"Pretty awesome your dad let us do this!" said Kenta, directing himself to Henry. "I've never been anywhere for a few days without my parents before. Not counting school trips."
"Well, it took a bit of convincing." Henry then took notice of Suzie's messy fingers as she finished the last of her pizzas.
"Thank you, it was yummy!"
"Yeah, now go and wash your hands, please."
"Aww, ok!" Suzie reluctantly gets off the couch and makes her way to the downstairs bathroom.
Henry continued. "But yeah, it was pretty cool of dad. I'm surprised he even had something like this."
"Wait? So, he didn't rent this, he owns it?" asked Takato.
"Yeah, I never asked him about it though, it's also the first time he's brought it up. I thought he would've used it for family getaways, but he never did."
"Probably because there's nothing fun around here besides that tournament." Kazu replied.
"Um, you don't know that. We just got here." Said Jeri. "It would actually be fun if we had a wonder around to see what there is."
"I wouldn't mind, but dad said for us to stay here, and go to the tournament only." Said Henry. "I can only assume that he doesn't want us getting lost."
"Meh, he worries too much." Kazu said causally as he took another bite from his pizza. He then turned to the others. "Still though, we should probably discuss battle tactics going forward."
"Battle tactics?" asked Jeri.
"Yeah, three of us got eliminated. What if we try to make the other decks stronger by adding our own into the mix?"
Takato turned to Rika and gave her a wave to get her attention, she notices and takes her headphones off. "What?"
"We're gonna discuss battle tactics and try to improve each other's decks, you want it?"
Rika looked at the table where the pizza boxes, soda and cards are, then back to Takato. "Yeah, why not?" she sat up properly to face the table as she took her deck out. "But keep your hands clean, don't want your pizza ridden fingers on my cards.
"S-Sure." Takato responded, not noticing Jeri's discouraged look before looking back at the table.
About fifteen minutes had passed and everyone had their decks out on display, while showing off their best cards. Rika's specialised in destroying the opponent as fast as possible, Henry's was trap and counter based, relying on the opponent's recklessness, Takato's was all dragon themed with a higher emphasis on swarming the field with Rookies before summoning the Ultimate's and Megas. Kazu specialised in getting his cards to Digivolve as fast as possible while setting up shields, Kenta specialised in complex combos and defensive manoeuvres, more about confusing the foe, and finally, Jeri's was the most standard, but had a heavy focus on swapping between the three types, Vaccine, Data and Virus on both players turns to take advantage of the rock, paper, scissors formula, the old bait and switch.
Rika looked over and spoke up. "Ok, so Kazu's methods of Digivolving fast can work well with mine or Jeri's, but the biggest issue is trying to strike a balance, so it doesn't fall apart."
Takato responds. "Kenta's defensive tactics might help boost yours, but it might be better with Henry's given his trap and counter strategy."
Kazu took out one of his cards. "There is this. This one lets you summon an Ultimate or Mega from the deck if you trade in two or three lower-level ones."
"Not bad." Said Rika. "But that might be better in Jeri's deck, it can potentially help with her swap tactics, not only to let her swap to the right type but make it stronger for greater damage."
"I think the truth is, we can debate all we want, but it would probably be for the best we give these a test run instead." Said Henry.
Kenta nods. "Yeah, we can debate all we want, but we'll know better by testing." He takes out a note pad and pencil from his backpack. "I say we write down all the combinations we had in mind, and Henry, Rika and Jeri test run with all of them."
"It is getting late though, should we try this in the morning?" asked Jeri.
"Speaking of late. Where's Suzie?" asked Henry as he looked back to where the downstairs bathroom is. "She couldn't be washing her hands that long."
"She probably went to bed and didn't tell us?" asked Kazu.
"No, getting her to bed early is harder than beating Rika at cards." He stood up and walked towards the bathroom. "I'll be right back."
As he was leaving, Kenta placed the note pad on his lap and started writing. "If we're gonna save this for tomorrow, we should write down our strategies and combinations first before we forget." It was soon followed by everyone bringing up their ideas one at a time.
Henry made it to the door of the bathroom and casually knocked at it. "Suzie, you ok you've been in there for a while now?"
There was no response, two seconds later he knocked again. "Suzie! Come on now, no playing around!"
Still no response, Henry then pulled down at the handle, but to his utter shock, it was locked from the inside. He started to feel a chill down his spine as he suddenly slammed on the door multiple times. "SUZIE! OPEN THIS DOOR NOW! I'M SERIOUS! SUZIIEE!"
This got everyone's attention, and without hesitating, they all jumped off the couch and ran towards where Henry's screaming, seeing him constantly banging the door while trying to open it.
"Henry! What's wrong!" shouted Jeri.
"It's Suzie! She's not responding and the door's locked!" He immediately turned back to the door. "SUZIE! SUZIIEE!"
"Clear the way!" Rika shouted as she ran in with one of the bottles of soda, two and a half litres in size and unopened. Without any hesitancy and as hard as she could, she struck the door handle with the bottle, causing it to smash from the door and fall to the ground, with the door opening slightly.
Henry immediately swung the door open, and they all looked inside, only to find a truly disturbing scene.
The bathroom was completely empty, the sink's tap was still running water, but there was no trace of Henry's younger sister, but what disturbed them the most was the lone window next to the sink, which was pushed wide open, and with pizza-stained handprints on the window's lock and on the parts where it would be pushed open. This could only imply that for some reason, Suzie unlocked the window, and willingly left the house in the dead of night during heavy rain.
Without even a moment to rationalise anything, Henry immediately pushed past everyone and ran back into the main room, rushing to get his shoes and coat on, grabbing a torch from the table and running out the front door.
"Hurry! We gotta help!" Takato shouted as he began to do the same, everyone else quickly followed.
"Keep your phones on you at all times!" Kenta shouted. "We'll split up and search everywhere!"
Rika couldn't believe what was happening. Although she didn't know Suzie for long, she suspected this was very much out of character for her, especially since she would go out in the heavy rain and cold without any form of protection, not even footwear as evidence of her shoes still being in the cabin. As she searched around with her torch going all over the place haphazardly, she suddenly gets her coat snagged by some branches, she looks back and smacks them off. Then she took a deep breath realising how much she's panicking.
"Focus Rika, if you panic, you won't get anything done."
She then went a bit more calmly and methodically, as she shone her torch about, but she began to feel a chill, it wasn't the cold, it was something else.
But that soon became overshadowed by the sight of Takato pulling some branches off his trouser legs before looking around some more.
Rika immediately ran towards Takato, he notices her and shines the torch in her face for a second, making her flinch but didn't stop, before pulling it down. "Anything?" Takato asked.
"Nothing. We're in a giant forest in the pitch black and heavy rain, and we're looking for a tiny girl. I can't imagine this'll be easy."
"You said it, but we can't give up."
"Never said I would. But what the hell would make her wanna do this? This better not be a prank or anything!"
"I don't know, but let's keep looking."
The two split up again and began to search some more. But Rika takes notice of what looked to be fog coming in from several yards away, she let out an aggravated huff. "First night sky, then rain, and now fog!? Is the world trying to make us not find Suzie!?" She then ran in the opposite direction of the fog, trying to avoid it at all costs.
Jeri, meanwhile, continued to look around in the opposite direction to where Rika and Takato were, she too noticed the fog in the distance and kept avoiding it, but she was deeply distressed from all of this. She just wanted to have a nice time with Takato, only to end up with this madness, even then, the forest itself was incredibly scary, the trees looking like twisted black silhouettes, the heavy rain and cold making her feel more vulnerable.
Soon she felt her heart stop as a hand quickly grasped her shoulder. She let out a high shriek and spun around to throw a punch. But it was Kenta, who surprisingly managed to duck out of the way.
"WOAH! SAME TEAM! SAME TEAM!"
Jeri slowly caught her breath, trying to make her heart decelerate, she let out a long-winded sigh before facing Kenta again. "S-Sorry, you scared me."
"I-I'm sorry too. I should've called out first. Have you seen anything?"
"Besides this forest getting scarier, nothing."
"Well, we gotta-"
"INCOMING!"
Kazu shouted as he suddenly fell from a tree not far from them hitting the mud, thankfully it broke his fall making minimal damage, but he was very filthy. Same went for Kenta and Jeri getting splashed by the mud and water.
"Kazu! What were you doing in a tree!?" Kenta asked as he rubbed off the mud on his face and glasses.
"Aargh. Damnit." Kazu grunted as he pulled himself up. "I tried to get a vantage point, see if I could stop her from above. No dice, with that fog coming in, it's getting harder to see anything."
As Jeri rubbed the mud off her too, she looked around again, the fog was getting thicker every second. This felt so unnatural to her, like she was suddenly thrown into a horror setting. "W-We gotta find her! N-Now! This is getting too much!"
Kazu and Kenta nodded, then they split up in different directions to go looking, Jeri panicked, not wanting to be alone, so she quickly followed Kenta, for no real reason other than she wasn't thinking.
Henry continued to search around in a panic, but it didn't take him long to compose himself, he's very scared to lose his little sister, but his mind went back to when his dad taught him so many mental exercises to keep in control.
After a second to focus, he judged that behind him was the log cabin, and then he took out a compass he kept attached to his coat, there the compass told him he was in the northeast direction, with the log cabin a few yards right behind him, he knew it was southwest from where he was. Feeling a tad relieved he can pinpoint his own location for now, he continued to shine the light off his torch looking around for any hints.
Eventually, luck would be on his side, but it wasn't good luck. He shone the torch on the ground and discovered two things out of place.
The first was a wristwatch, Suzie's wristwatch, the one his mother gave her the day before the trip, it lied on the ground with the glass shattered and the minute hand was missing, the fact that his mother told her to never take it off, in addition to seeing it in this condition, especially since there was nothing near where it lied there to imply it simply cracked when it dropped, gave the implication that foul play was indeed at hand.
But the other thing was damning evidence. A set of large boot prints, not far from the wristwatch, a size far bigger than anyone he knew, and they walked in a straight line deeper into the woods in a single direction, and with no sign of any smaller prints, he came to the conclusion that someone came to the window, coaxed Suzie to open it, only to have that person grab and carry her off, with Suzie dropping her wristwatch in a possible attempt to break free, only to have it come loose and break of a tree or something.
"Shit!" Henry muttered under his breath, he scolded himself for being so reckless, he should've known it was a kidnapping and not Suzie going out on her own, and if had not been such an idiot to not look out the window to see the boot prints, he could've gotten to the solution far quicker and would possibly have caught up to them.
He would punish himself later, right now there's a child to save. He quickly took out his phone and sent a message in the group chat.
- Guys, I found boot prints heading deeper northeast into the woods. And Suzie's wristwatch. Get back to the cabin, use the compass in the cabin if you haven't got one and go northeast! Please hurry! -
Ten agonising long minutes had passed but everyone was able to follow Henry's directions and meet up with him, no words were uttered, instead, Henry simple shone his light on the boot prints, he had Suzie's wristwatch in his other hand. Again, without words, he led the charge as the others followed the tracks, everyone kept a sharp eye out for any other hints or potential traps, especially since they were likely following a crazed kidnapper.
Rika was at the back of the group, and she had a bad feeling and looked behind her. There she saw the fog was getting thicker, and it looked to have been getting closer, the log cabin couldn't be seen at all. Rika grits her teeth in frustration while feeling very unnerved, she couldn't understand how or why, but it felt as if the fog was deliberately following them, like it was hunting them. She said nothing as she continued however, not wanting her paranoia to slow them down.
Another twenty agonising minutes pass and what the gang saw was unlike anything they were expecting.
It was a train. And not just a model train, but a real one, a steam train at that. It was difficult to process, but standing right in front of them, just a few yards away, was a real life steam engine, it was clean, nicely polished, but clearly abandoned, and had two carriages attached to the back, but they weren't sure what baffled them more, the fact that this train is just sitting in the field in the middle of nowhere, clean and well taken care of despite no one or nothing being around for miles, or the fact that it's right in the middle of the field, as in, there are no tracks for it to sit on, in addition, there are trees blocking the front and back of it, there was no way this train could've gotten here, and yet here it is.
"This… ok! This is getting really freaky now!" Kazu shouted, with everyone else shushing him.
"We don't know if whoever kidnapped Suzie is still around, we don't want to alert him to our presence." Rika whispered.
Kazu sighed. "Sorry."
"Everything about tonight has been extremely unsettling." Takato looks back to the train. "But this takes the cake and eats it too."
Henry sighed looking at the boot prints, no doubt, they go directly into the train's first carriage. And no sign of them leaving either. "C'mon but be on the highest alert you can."
"Way ahead of you." Kenta responded.
As they make their way to the train, Rika regretfully looked behind her again, only to see the fog catching up, even closer than last time, despite all that moving. Rika suspected it's just unlucky weather and the paranoia of it all is just trying to make her panic, but she couldn't deny that it was doing a very good job.
One by one they entered the train's first carriage through the only open door. Rika was the last to enter, when she took another good look at the fog, she closed the carriage door and pressed the lock button. For some reason, it just made her feel safer, no one else seemed to notice her doing this, however.
The carriage itself was spacious, with several chairs and chairs with large tables, racks on the top for putting luggage in, the works. It all looked exactly like the old style of trains from the industrial era, looking hundreds of years old, yet firmly polished and well kept, the strangest part was that even some of the wood had that smell that implies they're brand new.
Despite this, there's no sign of anyone in here, not even muddy prints. Everyone looked carefully around, but nothing out of the ordinary in this already out of the ordinary scenario, and the fog has been getting so thick, it's to the point there anything past three hundred yards was just a white mist that concealed everything.
"Nothing… now what?" Jeri asked.
As they looked around some more, Kazu took notice of several luggage piled up in a corner, blocking off one of the carriage doors on the other side. Without thinking, Kazu grabbed one at the bottom and pulled it out, with the intent of seeing if Suzie was hiding in one of them or behind them.
However, the moment he pulled one, there was a rumble as they fell off balance, one at the top fell from it and struck Rika directly in the face sending her to the floor, with barely a second later as the rest came crashing down on both her and Kazu.
Everyone jumped and looked over to the pile, the loud noise made everyone else nervous, if the kidnapper was still here, he would've heard it. They looked around for a moment until Kazu pulled his head out of the pile.
"Argh… sunova! That hurt."
Kazu however felt a chill run down his spine when he saw Rika pulling herself out of the pile, with a bruised face and a bit of blood coming from her nose, but it was the death stare she gave Kazu that worried him the most, but before he could even attempt to apologise, Rika flew into a rage and threw a punch directly into his face sending him down.
"YOU STUPID BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU!" She shouted, but just as she stood up readying to give him another beating, Takato suddenly ran in, hooked his arms around hers from behind and began to drag her off.
"Rika! Please don't! This isn't the time!"
Rika hardly put up the struggle as she was being dragged off, but she eventually got Takato off him and attempted to calm down. "Look, if that kidnapper's still here then he would've heard us. There's another carriage and there's the front of the train, let's just split up and find her, and get the hell outta here."
"Agreed." Said Henry. "But teams of two, there's safety in numbers."
Takato gently took Rika's arm and guided her towards the front of the train, with Jeri following. Though Rika soon pulled her arm out of Takato's grip and walked on her own. Meanwhile, Kenta and Henry made their way to the other carriage once they helped Kazu up
In the front of the train, it was relatively spacious, there was a table on one end with a small wooden chair, the various cranks, and levers one would expect, and finally, there was a dried up, unlit furnace in the dead centre. Takato wasn't familiar with his train knowledge, but he knew enough to know that's where they shovelled coal to make the train move.
There was a single door to the left that had a lone window, and the front had two windows where the driver would see out of, all of them had thick glass on them, which while it meant it was quite stuffy, it also meant it kept the cold air and rain out, if it wasn't for the suspenseful and unnerving events that led here, one might consider this place to be cosy.
Takato, Rika and Jeri all looked around, but there was no sign of Suzie anywhere, nor the kidnapper, Rika herself kept getting distracted by the fog, growing thicker and thicker. Jeri carefully examined everything for the sake of looking for any trace that someone's been here, but the lack of dust, and feeling very uncomfortable here made it difficult to determine anything.
Takato however felt distracted, he looked through the front windows and what felt extremely weird to him, was that despite this fog blocking off everything, it was mostly clear around the front, and while it was difficult to make it out due to the trees blocking his view, he could swear he could see a tunnel several yards away, but he knew it couldn't be, this train wasn't on any tracks, so there was no way a tunnel would be there unless it was one for cars and not trains, but he knew there were no roads near here.
The longer they stayed in this train, the less sense it made. Takato thought to himself. But soon his attention was directed to something else, right next to the furnace on the opposite side of him, was a large silver coloured lever with a yellow handle, the kind of lever that was stuck to the ground that you would pull or push forward and back. This stood straight up and could only be pulled towards him, not that he had any intention of doing so, but he couldn't help but notice the details.
While everything else looked ancient in modern technology standards, the lever itself felt more futuristic, the metal didn't look like it belonged here. As much as he felt like he would regret it, he slowly walked up to it and placed his hand against the handle of the lever, it was smooth and cold to the touch.
But before he could do anything, he felt his hand slapped by Rika's and was forced to let go.
"Have you gone deaf or something!?" Rika scolded.
"Huh!? What!?"
"We tried calling you… several times." Jeri responded.
"O-Oh! S-Sorry! Don't know what got into me!"
Rika, looking very stressed, gives Takato a quick slap on the forehead. "Y-You're really freaking me out here, Goggle-Head! This place is already driving me nuts! What with Suzie disappearing, this damn fog and now this train that's appeared out of nowhere! And now you're acting like a zombie! I swear I'll-"
Takato immediately placed his hands on her shoulders. "Alright, alright! Please calm down! If we panic, it won't help anyone."
Jeri looked over feeling distressed, the two were now staring into each other's eyes, Rika having a fierce yet stressed look, while Takato had compassion and composure on his face. For several seconds, Rika eventually takes a deep breath and calms down.
"Let's just find Suzie and get out of here." Rika soon walked past Jeri and made her way to the first carriage, with Takato following.
Jeri let out a quiet sigh, Rika was always cold, uncaring and had a violent and fierce nature, but the way Takato talks to her, it somehow makes her calmer and more level-headed. It was as if Takato could somehow soothe the savage beast that was Rika, like if she was a cobra and he was a snake charmer. Jeri let out another quiet sigh, this one being of frustration more.
Henry, Kazu and Kenta were in the second carriage, it looked exactly the same as the first one, save for the luggage in the previous, here there weren't any. But there was still no sign of any soul here, no Suzie or kidnapper, but they continued to search around.
Kenta wasn't paying attention to his surroundings as he looked around, and suddenly he tripped on something and fell to the ground fast and without any sort of grace, landing face first on the metal floor.
Kazu and Henry noticed this and Kazu tried to hold back his laughter. "You ok?" Henry asked.
"Yeah, argh." Kenta grunted, he turned around and sat up, and shone the light at what he tripped over, this caught him off guard completely. It was a tiny foot with a pink sock. The others took notice, got down to their knees and shone their lights under the chair where it was poking out.
Henry felt his heart stop for a second as he became overwhelmed with relief, there under the chair was Suzie herself, sleeping peacefully, huddled up, snoring very slowly and quietly, and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with her, no marks, or bruises, it was as if she just wandered off and went to take a nap.
"Suzie!" Henry called in relief. But to his dismay, Suzie continued to sleep despite Henry calling to her.
Kazu got onto his hands and knees and reached for her, gently scooping her up and pulling her out, but once Suzie was all the way out, they saw something very disturbing.
One of Suzie's wrists had a shackle around it, and it was attached to a chain that connected to the wall, this chain itself looked very sturdy.
"What? W-Who would do something like this!?" Henry exclaimed.
"Kidnap a little girl, put her on an abandoned train and just handcuff her here!?" Kazu asked, looking back up to Henry. "This is seriously effed up!"
"I'll go get the others." Kenta got up and ran back through to the other carriage.
Henry soon sits down properly and takes Suzie from Kazu and begins to gently shake her. "Suzie! Suzie! Wake up!" but she didn't wake up. Henry didn't want to shake any harder, so he tried again but spoke louder. "SUZIE! WAKE UP!" but still no response.
"What the hell is going on?" asked Kazu, seeing nothing but Henry's expression that tells him he's extremely uncomfortable about all of this.
It didn't take long however for Kenta to return with Takato, Rika and Jeri, who all looked shocked to see Suzie fast asleep and with a shackle around her wrist.
"Who… what the hell?" Rika muttered.
"I don't know." Henry replied, looking like he was struggling to keep it together as he held Suzie closer. "She won't wake up either."
"We know she's not dead, she's still breathing." Said Kenta.
Kazu stood up and crossed his arms. "This has to be the most messed up thing I've seen. First some clown tricks a little girl into opening a window, just to kidnap her, then she carries her off to some train in the middle of nowhere, shackles her down and then leaves! It's as if…" Kazu soon stopped himself as his eyes widened, as if he's figured something out. "Oh… oh shit."
"What? What's wrong?" asked Jeri.
Kazu suddenly began to sweat as he begins to look around. "Uh… we might be in huge trouble."
"What are you talking about?" asked Takato, starting to feel distressed again.
"T-Think about it! This may sound crazy but think about it! What if the kidnapper… was some kind of super kidnapper?"
Rika crossed her arms feeling annoyed by his stupid talk, and was about to yell at him, but then she realised something. "Wait… are you implying that he didn't intend to just kidnap Suzie!?"
Everyone looked around, realising what's been happening this entire time. Kazu then nodded. "Uh-huh… I think Suzie was… bait."
"And… we're the fish!?" Kenta asked.
It soon occurred to Takato, sweat trickling down his forehead as he looked around. The train in the middle of nowhere, kids without parents to supervise them, this had been a trap the entire time, but what made his blood go cold, was the fact that the fog was so thick, the windows were completely whited out, literally nothing could be seen.
CRAAAAAASH!
The entire carriage suddenly tilted to the left in a very violent manner, as if something crashed into the side of it, causing everyone to lose their footing. Rika managed to pull herself back up and look to where they supposedly got rammed.
Everyone felt a horrific chill down their spine, witnessing Rika. Whom the moment she looked through the windows on the right side, she let out a long-winded, high-pitched scream, with an expression that looks as if she's seen death itself as the colour faded from her face, looking as if she was about to faint. They all looked, and everything that Rika had did was justified.
Hands. Hundreds of purple scaley hands scratched and banged against the windows, the owners of the hands couldn't be seen, but they were all of different shapes and sizes, but all with the same scaley patterns and black oily liquids dripping from the fingertips and palms like some kind of inky sweat, leaving traces on the windows.
"RUUUN!" Kazu screamed as he was about to run, but there was a second crash that send the carriage tilting the other way, causing Kazu to fall and hit his head against one of the metal tables, he immediately collapsed to the ground.
More hands were now scratching and banging against the other window. Feeling the panic taking over, everyone scrambled to try and run, with Takato picking up the unconscious Kazu, but Henry stopped when he realised Suzie was still chained down. "SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" Henry screamed. The others stopped realising this, and without thinking, they all ran back to help.
Takato dropped Kazu and grabbed onto the chain in an attempt to pull it off the wall, Rika quickly grabbed the chain from the wall and tried to pull it off too, Kenta and Henry tried to pry the shackle off by digging their fingers into the one slip of the line, and Jeri tried to push the shackle in an attempt to slip Suzie's hand out, but none of these were effective.
Fear and panic took over as the sound of smashing glass ruptured their ears. The hands on the left side of the carriage have broken through, and instead of trying to escape or break Suzie free, all of them in blind fear, quickly dove under the tables and chairs and huddled up, dragging Kazu in as well, screaming as they tried to remain as far back as they can, witnessing the hands stretching around and scratching the floor, desperately looking for them.
All of them besides Rika were on the right side, where she took the left, everyone was screaming and panicking, begging for it to stop, but Takato witnessing Rika doing the exact same thing, brought a chill to his spine so cold, it felt like he was near the point of death and had to accept it.
As this screaming occurred, it all suddenly died down as a strange familiar sound began to distract them, all of their phones were ringing at the exact same time, but they all ignored it, the fear of being grabbed by the hands overwhelmed them. All except Takato, whom at this point, practically accepted his fate, grabbed his phone out and looked at the number, it was unknown. Hoping it would've been his mother or father, so he could've said goodbye, but he pondered if the caller was perhaps someone from the heavens, nevertheless, he accepted the call and placed the phone against his ear.
"LiStEn To Me! YoU dOn'T hAvE tImE! iF yOu WaNt To EsCaPe ThIs FaTe! ThEn RuN tO tHe FrOnT oF tHe TrAiN aNd PuLl ThE lEvEr! HuRrY!"
The phone immediately cut off. He couldn't recognise the voice at all, but whoever it was, must know what's happening to them. 'Escape this fate' he thought in his head over and over again.
He looked around, seeing Kazu and Suzie unconscious and unaware of this, they would be considered lucky. But Henry, Kenta, and Jeri, all screaming and huddled up, the look of genuine fear and distress in their faces was nothing short of horrific. But he looked over to Rika on the other side, all alone on her end, huddled into a ball lying on her side, tears streaking down her face screaming and crying. But what got him the most, was that in her screaming, she said something, but it was drowned out by the screaming and scratching of the hands. But he read her lips.
"Takato! Help me!"
He didn't know what the phone meant but seeing Rika like this and what she said. It was now or never.
In an act of bravery or stupidity, he began to crawl between the chairs and table legs making his way to the next carriage. Henry, managed to open his eyes for a moment, noticed what Takato was doing.
"TAKATO WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" He screamed at the top of his lungs, everyone else noticed and turned to him.
All Takato did, was turn back to them with a forced smile and thumbs up. He looked over to the next carriage where the door was wide open, and the glass was still intact, and no hands either.
"Now or never!"
To their shock, Takato suddenly dove out from under the chairs and ran through to the next carriage, but no sooner than he did, had more hands began to ram at the windows already making cracks, but he didn't hesitate to keep going as he charged through into the train carriage, but to his shock, hands were already crawling out of the windows in the front of the train where the lever was.
The hands in the carriage got more aggressive, as now chairs were being ripped off the floors and thrown about. Jeri felt her blood run cold as she saw the table, she was hiding under get ripped away from her, although she was exposed, it was likely they couldn't see, only feel. But it didn't matter when one of the hands prodded against the rim of her coat and grabbed it.
Jeri let loose a blood curdling scream as she was suddenly being dragged from her spot and being lured into the other hands, soon more of them began to grab her legs and lift her into the air. But as quick as a flash, Henry and Kenta quickly leaned out and grabbed Jeri's hands and began to pull her back.
Takato was staring down the hands which all crept out of the two front windows guarding the lever, he tried to analyse the situation to the best of his ability. Those windows didn't seem big enough for them to drag him out of, but he couldn't tell if they intended to drag him out or rip him apart, or something else. Either way, he noticed the windows in the first carriage smashing to pieces, so Takato quickly closed the train door, but the window to the other door leading outside smashed open as hands began to stretch out, he jumped to the corner, thankfully their reach seemed limited, but he looked back at the hands blocking the lever, wondered if he was too late.
Rika opened her eyes to see Jeri being lifted and dragged away, with Henry and Kenta doing everything to prevent it. She wasn't sure if it was stupidity, courage, or some kind of adrenaline rush, without thinking, she quickly got out from under her table, grabbed one of the chairs that was thrown about and smacked it across the largest hand holding Jeri causing it to lose its grip, Henry and Kenta did one last pull and the others lost their grip dropping Jeri who immediately scrambled back under the tables. Rika unfortunately wasn't so lucky, just as she was about to hide again, a hand flew towards her and grabbed her face, her muffled screams were barely heard as she began to scratch and pull at the hand holding her, her legs kicking violently as she was slowly lifted into the air. But it didn't drag her away, it instead kept her suspended, perhaps out of spite for striking it, or something else nevertheless, it kept her suspended as she continued to scream and struggle, all while the others couldn't even get close to help her due to the other hands scrambling around finding them, essentially blocking their path.
Takato stared at the lever for what felt like hours but was only seconds, he knew he didn't have time, but he didn't know what to do. But soon, thoughts of Rika screaming for help, all of them screaming, he realised now wasn't the time to think.
Takato suddenly made a mad dash to the lever, doing a baseball slide to hopefully avoid the hands and as quickly as he made it, he swung his hands violently to the lever and pulled it back as far as he could, not caring what happened.
The moment he did, the entire train lit up in a bright blinding light, the furnace suddenly erupted in flames and the train was beginning to rock back and forth, the whistle blowing loudly, it was then that Takato discovered, the train was moving.
The others were too distracted by Rika's horrible predicament, but noticed the shattered glass was starting to fly back to where the windows were, cutting and pushing the hands out. The one that held Rika was getting sliced apart from the glass, with black oily blood pouring out of several holes until it released her, dropping her to the ground. All of the hands were being pushed out and the windows were fully formed, and the fog was starting to dissipate, or at least that's what they thought, but in fact, they discovered the train was moving out of the fog, despite there being no tracks, it moved regardless.
Everyone crawled out seeing the moving forest, but immediately turned their attention to Rika, who was hyperventilating, her pupils shrunken to dots, skin turned pale as snow, and worse, blood seeped out of her mouth, with severe bruises where the fingers grasped at her, it was as if the hand was trying to crush her head. Rika looked upwards trying to catch her breath, but she suddenly fainted from the shock and pain.
"RIKA!" Henry shouted.
Kenta turned her onto her back to see she was still breathing, but completely unconscious. But his attention turned to the scenery. "W-Wait! We're moving!?"
Everyone stood up and looked around, Takato soon made it back to the carriage, but fell into shock seeing Rika collapsed on the ground. "RIKA! IS SHE OK!?" he shouted as he fell to his knees to hold her up.
"We don't know." Kenta responded. "She's alive at least."
They all soon noticed Henry staring into the back window, like he was in some sort of trance. Jeri and Kenta stood up to look. And there the saw that Henry had a horrified look to him, and a good reason why.
The purple hands in the fog were still there, dragging across the ground having the fog chase them like some sort of deranged spider, it was as if the fog was hiding what was really attacking them. It looked to have closed in and reached for them, but the train suddenly picked up speed and it was slowly getting smaller and smaller.
But there wasn't much time to relax, they thought. As darkness suddenly enveloped the train, everyone looked around to see a collection of dark stone bricks surrounding them. Takato then realised, the tunnel he thought he saw earlier, but as the darkness settled and rocking sensation kicked in further, Takato felt a bit more relaxed than he should be, given he was on some strange magical ghost train and were almost slaughtered by hundreds of monstrous hands, he couldn't tell if the train relaxed him, or if he was feeling exhausted after everything that happened.
Either way, the need for sleep was starting to overwhelm him, body getting weaker and vision beginning to blur, Takato gently placed Rika down, lied down next to her, placed an arm around her and slowly closed his eyes. Falling immediately into a deep sleep.
The others soon noticed Takato, but before anyone could ask. Jeri gave off a yawn before finding herself to be super exhausted, she moved herself to one of the long chairs, lied down on both of them and fell asleep.
Kenta did the same, but he sat with his back against the wall, and tipped his head up. And Henry gently went onto his hands and knees, crawled towards Suzie, and cuddled her tightly before falling asleep himself.
With no idea what was happening, where they were or what any of this meant, their destination was unknown, but with all of them falling asleep, they can only hope they'll wake up in a safe place.