Party 2

"It works" Ayumi said turning the lock.

The custodians closet was a small room with a stove, sink and cabinet to the left of them when they walked in. At the far left corner sat the TV Seiko and Satoshi had heard, it was placed in front of a two door closet.

"There's the TV." Seiko said running over to it. She inserted the tape and waited.

"Shinohara there's no power I don't think that's going to work." Ayumi walked over to her.

As if it heard her the TV's screen suddenly flickered on. Ayumi sat down and watched the tape start up, startled and confused. Seiko grinned in a you were saying manner.

The tape began playing, revealing a tall man standing in the halls of heavenly host. The camera shook and zoomed in and out on the man's face as the camera man tried to get it to focus.

...Wow, this is incredible! What is this place? Where are we?!

Ayumi and Seiko sat in silence watching intently as the two men talked back and forward about research and Naho and eventually, a way out. They perked up ready for an answer, but from there things went downhill fast. The camera man started screaming about voices of children and ran off leaving the tall man alone. The tape cut off with him yelling about needing camera blanks. The two girls sat with their eyes wide staring at the blank screen.

Ayumi looked at Seiko. "So there is a way out..."

"Yeah..." Seiko said softly, "But what is it?!"

"There has to be more." Ayumi said standing up. "There has to be an answer! Or another tape or something!"

*Bang* *Bang*

"Ahh"

Both girls turned to the door. Someone was trying to get in. Ayumi instinctively ran up and pushed her body against it. "Who's there!?" She shouted. "I said who's there?!"


Party 3

Mitsuki and Kai walked to the infirmary in silence. Mitsuki was calculating everything in her head, she knew there was no happy ending here. That was it her life was ruined, she'd either die here or get out and never be able to move on. She would start to lose her mind, her grades would drop so she'd never make it anywhere after school even if she wanted to. Her parents would notice her slow descent into madness and she would spend years in therapy. One day she might crack and tell the truth: that they were transported to a haunted school and her friends were killed by ghosts. Then she would be deemed too crazy to function and locked away in an institution for life. Although even with that in mind here she was fighting to get out. 'Maybe I shouldn't...maybe the next thing that tries to kill me should succeed.'

"Okay." Kai said approaching the infirmary door. "Let's get this over with."

Mitsuki cringed at the blood covered hallway, she tried to ignore it. "Wait Shimada."

"Hm what is it?"

"Do you care?" She asked pensively.

"Care about what?" He said grunting.

"About our friends. Do you care that they're dead? Do you miss them?"

Kai turned away from her exasperated and walked a few feet away. Then he turned and walked back over to her. "Why? Why would that be a question? Cause you think I'm some kind of fucking psycho? Yes some of them I'll miss. I'll get over it one day but I care now! Okay?! Does that answer your stupid question?"

Mitsuki stared back at him with ire in her eyes. She walked through the infirmary door without saying a word. Instinctively she wrapped her arms round herself. The room was definitely a few degrees colder than in the hall.

"You check those cabinets and I'll check over there." She ordered to Kai.

He sighed but didn't dispute. "So that double sided ponytailed chick said this was for future emergencies as well as that guys hand, but really it's that last reason we're here right?"

"So what if it is? If we find anything then it might really be useful later and that guy did save us didn't he?"

Kai thought on that. He wanted to smile at the time just because someone was giving that crazy bitch Sachiko a good telling off, it took balls he supposed. There was somewhat respect there but if the blonde guy or any of his friends for that matter thought he was going to be telling him what to do they were sorely mistaken. Although right now he was in the infirmary because they told him to go. Kai ignored that thought. "He could've acted earlier. I mean he only spoke up when his friend's sister was next on the chopping board."

"Then why didn't you do something? At least he took action at all. We all would have been on that 'chopping board' eventually." She was starting to sound irritated.

"What's the deal you got a thing for this guy?" Kai sneered.

Mitsuki backed away from the cabinet and turned to him. "Screw you I've barely said two words to him!" Though Mitsuki could admit to herself that she was grateful and definitely had someone she looked up to here now. "Don't act jealous just because you didn't do shit for anyone back there, not even our friend!"

"Neither did You Yamamoto!"

Mitsuki paused and took a deep breath, her eyes were wet. "You don't think I know that? I was scared Shimada you happy?" Back in the auditorium Mitsuki had been filled with more fear than she thought possible. She didn't blame herself, not really. It's not like she was the only one who froze.

"I found some stuff we can use." Mitsuki said turning back to the shelf and collecting it all.

"Same here. Guess we're done then." Kai said sounding bored and irritated.

There was the sound of a page turning. "What was that?" Kai asked looking around the room.

"That I think." Mitsuki said standing over the big open book on the desk. "Look's like some kind of diary."

"Leave it alone this room is starting to get freaky." Kai said. Mitsuki kept reading. "What I'm saying is let's go." She kept reading. "Whatever I'll meet you outside." Kai strode to the door and yanked at it. It didn't budge. "What the" Looking closer he noticed it was all tied up with thick long black hair. He backed away. "What the...Yamamoto something's not right here this door is-"

"Shimada I think this is important." Mitsuki cut him off still reading the diary. "It says some stuff about Sachiko."

"Forget about it Yamamoto what I'm saying is..." His eyes widened. "Behind you!" He shouted.

Mitsuki turned to see a woman standing behind her. She looked like some kind of nurse, but her skin was pale and her neck appeared to be broken. Mitsuki screamed and moved out of the way. The whole room began to shake. Moans arose from the disheveled woman. Then in an instant it was flipped. The room was literally flipped upside down. Kai and Mitsuki fell down from the floor to the ceiling painfully.

"What the hell!" Kai shouted. They looked back up at the floor. The furniture and everything else was stuck there upside down. That included the ghost woman, she was upside down and glued firmly to the floor which was now the ceiling. Her neck had snapped down (or up technically). Her distorted sideways neck held the face which looked directly at them with blank eyes. The sight alone made Mitsuki scream in fear and horror. The room started to shake again. They knew what was coming.

"The bed come to the bed!" Kai shouted as the room flipped. Mitsuki ran over momentarily floating in air as it turned. Kai landed harmlessly on the bed and Mitsuki was thrown into the wall beside it. "That looked like it hurt." Kai said. The ghost woman started to walk towards them. "Jesus get up we gotta go!" Kai jumped off the bed and ran for the door pulling at the hair violently. "Shitshitshit."

Mitsuki was still recovering from the hit, crying in pain now. The woman ignored her and kept going for Kai. He turned to her when he realised his attempts were futile. "Get away from me!" He shouted. She only got closer.

*Bang*

Mitsuki with tears down her face smacked the ghost on the back of the head with the heavy book. She was surprisingly solid. The woman dropped to the floor and screamed in anger. Mitsuki jumped past her and out the door which was somehow no longer covered in hair. She held the book firmly. Kai caught his bearings and turned to run. His foot was grabbed and he dropped in between the doorway. "Shit no! Help!"

Mitsuki was already in the middle of the hallway. She stopped and looked back, then she considered. Was he really worth it? 'God what is wrong with you?' She chastised herself. Running back and swiftly kicking the ghost in the face. She let go and Mitsuki and Kai started to run back to the classroom. Before they knew it she was in front of them in the hall. They were forced to turn and run the other way. The fast paced footsteps of the ghost could be heard taunting them from behind. They kept running.


"I said who's there?!" Ayumi shouted

"It's Yamamoto please let us in!"

Ayumi's eyes widened she backed away from the door and both Mitsuki and Kai ran in clumsily. Kai turned and slammed the door behind him. Everyone went silent. No more footsteps could be heard. Kai breathed out. "I think we're good." He said wearily.

"What do you mean good? What happened out there?" Ayumi asked intently.

"There was a woman." Mitsuki answered dropping the book and touching her extremely sore face. "In the infirmary, she looked like a nurse but her neck was all twisted. She went for us and the room it was upside down."

"Upside down?" Seiko said dubiously.

Mitsuki nodded without further explanation.

"What is this?" Ayumi said going over to the book Mitsuki had just dropped.

"I don't know but I think it's important. Have a look." Mitsuki said prodding at her nose to see if it was broken.

Ayumi picked it up and sat down on the rugged tatami mat looking mesmerized at the book. It had such a strange feeling around it. "1953" She read the date out loud. Seiko dropped beside her. She read the first entry, the diary spared no time before getting into the nitty-gritty of things.

While I was working, the principal dropped by. After he and I talked for a bit, he suddenly came up to me from behind. He grabbed me and forced me down, then began unbuttoning my blouse. He'd always been so kind, lending a sympathetic ear to my problems...but today, he didn't even seem like the same man. His eyes were cold and empty. I was in such shock, I'm not even sure exactly what happened to me after that. I slipped away somehow, but he was right behind me. I only made it as far as the landing on the stairs. Just as I turned the corner, I felt him push me... The floor came at me fast, and suddenly, I found myself unable to move. I was slumped across the ground unceremoniously...and I was dead. Ayumi read over that bit twice, it was too unexpected, too wrong.

Sachiko saw everything. I guess she'd come to find me... The principal closed in on her. What was he planning to do? I yelled with every ounce of my strength for him to stop...but I was dead. I had no strength. Sachiko tried to run, but she had the stride of a 7-year-old. He caught her easily. And then, before my very eyes... he strangled the life out of her. What a cruel man... He rebuttoned my shirt, then took Sachiko to the basement and buried her. Ayumi shook her head in disgust as she read. "I think this was written...by Sachiko's mother."

"Sachiko was murdered by the principal of this school." Seiko said with disbelief.

Ayumi turned the page. Each entry dated. As she read she could picture the woman's descent into madness. The next date was labeled a whole 20 years later. Little by little, I'm losing my mind. Bit by bit, I'm fading away. A dark will, not my own, has begun infiltrating my being. Make it stop...

Then it got worse and somehow began to make a sick sort of sense. She'd do anything for me. She'd even kill lots of people to keep me company. She sends me so many children. I love them all.

Ayumi looked ahead of the page. But she's not capable of abducting and killing children on her own... She makes that man do the kidnapping for her. Sachiko... Please, stop... "That 'man'" Ayumi said. "She means the one with the hammer..."

Sachiko's mother wrote about wanting her to stop...and then she wrote about how she wanted more.

The school's been closed down. And the principal jumped off the roof. Serves him right. Soon the writing was illegible. The four of them sat in silence.

Ayumi flipped the book around and saw it was marked by one 'Yoshie Shinozaki'.

"The principal, this is what we needed to know, he's the one she would need remorse from right?" Ayumi said looking at the others.

"I would say yes." said Seiko. "But where do we start? Where do we find him? Is he even here?"

"It says he jumped off the roof so..." Mitsuki chimed in.

They all glanced at each other. Looking for a solid next move.

"So do we look or do we head back to the classroom and tell the others?" Seiko finally asked.

...

...


Naomi opened her eyes. She sat up slowly to calm the dizzy feeling. She seemed to be underground. The space was small and dark. "Satoshi?" She said almost voicelessly.

"He's dead." A voice chimed.

Naomi gasped, she turned around to the corner of the room where Sachiko sat watching her with blank eyes. "Dead?" Naomi repeated quietly.

Sachiko smiled but only a little. She made her way closer on her hands and knees. "Dead." She stated coldly. Naomi's heart dropped. They both sat in silence, the only sound was Naomi's heavy breathing.

"Do you know what happens here...when you die?" Sachiko said, not really asking, not really expecting an answer.

Naomi stayed still and silent.

"You feel it." Sachiko said ominously. "The pain. You feel it forever and ever and ever..." The side of her mouth twitched up.

Naomi let out a sound like a cry but only a little one. "Why are you doing this?" She asked.

"Because I like it." Sachiko said blatantly.

Naomi looked down to the ground. Satoshi wasn't really dead was he? And where was she? And where was everyone else? Naomi suddenly felt the urge to scream. And to run. "You don't have to...we could help you."

"No you couldn't!" Sachiko snapped causing Naomi to flinch.

"Why am I here?" Naomi asked timidly.

Sachiko straightened up her posture having finally being asked the question she was dying to answer. "It didn't have to be you...you were just easy catch." Sachiko paused momentarily. "I want to use you. I'm going to use you to get the show I wanted even if it's not how I planned it."

There was a long break of silence.

"You're lying."

"What?" Sachiko said questioningly.

Naomi swallowed and looked at Sachiko. "About Satoshi you're lying...we...and everyone else is going to get out of here."

Sachiko sat with her lips pursed. "Even if..." She stared up at Naomi letting her hair sweep across her face. "Even if you could get out." She tilted her head and gave a sort of condescending grin, "It wouldn't be 'everyone.'" Sachiko eyed Naomi up daring her to ask why.

Naomi unconsciously swallowed again. "Why...what does that mean?" She dared ask. Her voice was wobbly but she had rooted for remaining as composed as possible.

Sachiko clicked her tongue. "Well" She started drawing her index finger round in a circle on the floor. "First off some of you are already dead." She paused, her head was down but her eyes flickered back up to Naomi expectantly.

"You...mean Ms Yui." Naomi said shakily.

"Well sure that would be one of them." Sachiko said as if they were having a casual conversation.

Naomi's stomach dropped. Did she mean Satoshi? Was he really dead?

"Not going to have a guess are you?" Sachiko taunted straightening up again. "Think about it. Who have we not seen since you arrived. Hmm I wonder." Sachiko said with fake bemusement.

Naomi felt awful again. There was one person she could think of. Mayu. She was nowhere to be seen. She just thought that maybe Sachiko had forgot about her, or that she got away or was hiding somewhere in another part of the school. Sachiko grinned knowingly with a smug expression at the look in Naomi's eyes.

"I had her splattered." Said Sachiko cruelly.

"What?" Naomi asked with almost comedic perplexity.

"M a y uuuuu." She mocked. "On the infirmary...I had her splattered." Sachiko sounded childish again.

Naomi whimpered and unconsciously pushed herself further away from Sachiko. Which only made her laugh. The feeling was horrible. She couldn't possibly be dead.

"It's not just her though." Sachiko said with laughter still in her voice. "If there was a way to leave, which there's not." She said firmly. "You would all need your little stupid bits of paper." Naomi knew instantly what she meant, the scrap from the doll. She was sure she still had it.

"And somebody seems to have lost theirs." Said Sachiko menacingly with a chuckle.

"Who?" Naomi couldn't help asking.

"Your best friend. She's lost hers." Sachiko was rubbing her hand up and down her cheek. "Which means she'd be trapped either way. Actually it's basically a death sentence not having it you know." Sachiko sounded almost cheery towards the end of the sentence. "But...I could give it back." She could see she had garnered Naomi's full attention. "I could give her it back and therefore give her a little longer to live. Granted I'd kill her anyway but life's all about who lives the longest so..." She paused. "Obviously I'm not handing these out for free I'd need something from you. And she is the one who went and lost something so important in the first place after all ...clumsy."

Naomi processed that. If they really needed that scrap and Seiko didn't have it, she'd be stuck here. Naomi wondered how Sachiko even knew who her best friend was...had she been watching all this time? Her blood was cold she felt like she was making a deal with the devil. Hesitantly Naomi said "What is it you need?"

Sachiko gave a subtle almost bored kind of smile. She was now leaning on the floor using her left hand to hold her up. She exhaled and inhaled rather dramatically even though she didn't need to breathe. Sachiko tapped her finger on her chin. "Hmm well...First off it's not what I need it's what I want." Naomi silently waited for an answer not looking amused. Sachiko eyes suddenly lit up, like a light bulb had went off in her head. "How about your paper. That seems fair doesn't it?" Sachiko finished off with a giggle.

Naomi should have known that was coming. Her heart jumped over a beat. "If I do that then I..."

"Then you'll be dead quicker than her." Sachiko said excitedly now looking genuinely happy. "Worth it?"

Naomi was torn now. Even although Sachiko persisted that there wasn't a way out, Naomi knew she was wrong. And she wanted them to get out together. Seiko would do it for her...wouldn't she? "Isn't there anything else you want? Sachiko I'll give you it." Saying her name out loud felt foreign, it reminded Naomi who exactly she was talking to.

Sachiko looked complacent and patronizing at the same time. Like she was thinking really? not even for your best friend? "I don't think you have much else to give." She said slowly.

Naomi was now at a dead end. She scrambled through her frazzled brain trying to pull out another answer desperately. Naomi mentally shook her head at herself, nothing she could say would create a completely perfect outcome, but she had to at least try to salvage their remaining chances. "A bet." She mumbled.

Sachiko gave her an intrigued glance, one you'd expect from a very serious business woman, not a seven year old child. "A bet did you say?"

Naomi gave a disappointed, slightly exasperated look to Sachiko. "Yes a bet. One that If I win you give Seiko back her paper scrap and let me and everyone else keep mine. Then you let us mind our own business and find a way out."

Sachiko was skeptical and it showed, especially at that last part. "Then what do I get?" She whined.

Naomi felt eyes on her, her own eyes, like another version of herself was staring at her telling her to stop or to be more careful. "I'll give you, my scrap." She sounded scared but firm.

Sachiko paused for a second before falling down onto her back and laughing. "You're my new favourite." She said cheerfully. Then she sat back up when she realised something. "But what is the bet?"

Another thing Naomi had to think on. What was manageable but would also sit well with Sachiko? "If we can appease you we win If we can't I lose." She said trying to choose her words carefully.

Sachiko didn't look too happy at that. It took her a moment. She didn't want to be 'appeased' whatever that actually meant. The word was being thrown around but no-one had ever sat down and explained it to her. Though there was one instance she remembered, back in school when she was very young. Everyone gathered down to read a book together with the class. What was the line from the book? She had read it so many times. 'The man gave meat to the hungry lion to appease it' No that wasn't it. 'The lion was appeased with delicious meat' No wait it wasn't a lion it was a bear...maybe. Doesn't matter. That didn't make sense. But if people were trying to appease her would that make her the lion (or the bear). 'Yes I'm a lion' Sachiko thought satisfied. Then it occurred to her, if everyone was trying to appease her then why was no-one giving her any meat. This must be a different kind of appease. Sachiko didn't want that.

Naomi had been watching nervously. Sachiko had been frowning and shifting facial expressions as if something very serious was going on in her head. Then she snapped out of it.

"No." Sachiko said blankly. "I get to make up the rules now." She waited to see if Naomi had anything to say to that. She didn't. "You can appease someone. But not me. Someone like the girl with the star pin and the girl whose head I mushed up. And you have only a certain amount of time to do it."

Naomi looked deflated "Ok..." They'd have to find a way to appease Sachiko anyway and the girl with the star pin...? She had to mean Naho. Plus the girl with half a head was already on their list.

Sachiko clapped suddenly sounding like a child again. "I like bets! This will be fun!" Sachiko put out her hand. Naomi leaned over and shook it. The other version of herself sat there shaking her head.