Monoko's POV
"Huh" I said, "seems like she isn't here right now. I wouldn't dare to go to her homeworld either, because she told me that all of the others living there are lunatic as heck."
"In that case, we indeed shouldn't" Monoe said. "But, something else around here has caught my eye. I'd like to show you."
Back when this event happened, my sister, Monoe, and I were only just aged seven, and I was on very good terms with three of the so-called Toriningen. Lila, the one whom I wanted to play with today, as well as the one who resided in the Numbers World, didn't seem to be around today.
"What is it, sis?"
"Oh, I only just discovered it last time, when someone told me about it, and then let me enter. It's some sort of a hallway that's usually not accessible by any means."
"Cool! I wonder if it's accessible today…"
We both went back to the central space of the Numbers World, and in the utmost southeast, there was a diverged pattern on the wall section, if one would compare it to all of the other wall patterns.
"But how do we access it?" I asked, as I cocked my head, seeing that the hallway that Monoe mentioned didn't seem to be accessible by any means.
"Rumour has it that if you poke it with anything sharp, you can go in" Monoe replied, as she grabbed a pencil from her backpack, and poked it into the wall. Not much later, the pattern looked like an opened and, oddly, blood-stained zipper. "See? We should both enter."
I nodded, and we entered the mysterious hallway. It seemed… quite dark? Except for one bare lightbulb that hung onto the ceiling and shone its fairly weak light in order to guide any visitors.
I listened to my surroundings, and heard the sound of something rubbery that rubbed something. It sounded squeaky.
"What's that?" I asked.
"I dunno" Monoe replied, "but we should take a look."
We went further, and the squeaky noise came from the stairs, where a long, red (and patterned with several other colours), ghost-like thing sat next to the only pair of banisters, which it rubbed.
"Um… hi?"
"Well, hello there" the thing said, "what brings you here?"
"A little discovery I made. I never expected you to be here, dunno why, but still."
"We made that discovery, Monoe. At least… once we first entered it just now."
Monoe simply shook her head. She hated it whenever I corrected her.
"So your name is Monoe?" the thing said, pointing at my sister. "They call me Kyuukyuu-kun. Nice to meet you."
"My name is Monoko. It's nice to meet you, too, Kyuukyuu-kun." I awkwardly rubbed the back of my head. "What makes you rub those banisters the whole time?"
"You see, I'm quite obsessed by cleaning, and by any chance, I'm an organism whose texture is just similar to a damp cloth, with which people often clean stuff. Care to touch me?"
Monoe and I touched Kyuukyuu-kun's hand, and it indeed felt like a damp microfibre cloth. Quite pleasant, as it was a bit warm, rather than cold and clammy, like most damp cloths.
Next up, I inspected the banisters which kept on being rubbed.
"Those are quite clean indeed" I commented, "not a stain."
"Is there anything else to clean for you aside of these banisters?" Monoe asked. "Such as one of those doorknobs?"
"Yes" Kyuukyuu-kun replied, "but the one from that door over there…?" He pointed at a door at the end of the stairs. "If I get the chance, I clean it carefully, but intensely at the same time. Behind that door is some dangerous stuff you wouldn't wanna experience, young ones…"
I shrugged, and walked up the stairs, reaching for that door, as my curiosity seemed to have won from me.
"Monoko, what the heck do you think you're doing?! Haven't you even listened to what he said?!"
Neither did I bother to listen to Monoe. I opened the door anyway, but all out of sudden, I saw a humongous, scary-looking face behind it, and suddenly felt completely numb as everything turned black.