Short notice: I said that this chapter is about Souji's awakening right? I lied. The next one IS the awakening. This one is just about the exploring and the midnight channel, of course. :P Ooook, let's move on. Saw the Midnight channel, nearly got eaten by the TV, really got eaten by the TV, discovered the weird talking mascot, etc. You get the picture! Now, shall we?

Disclaimer: Persona series was own by Atlus and will always be.

Story reading guide: Here is how you read my story. In case of someone get confused.

"I don't know about this." Italic + quotation = Someone is mumbling. Sometimes can be heard by other person.

I don't know about this. *Name* Italic only = Someone's thought. The name is right after the thought (well, sometimes, though…)

"I don't know about this." Normal = talking, speaking, etc. (easy, right?)

I'll put the in-game date in bold.

*This is the edited version of this chapter. *

Chapter 4: The world within…

Near midnight

04/13/2011

Souji went back to his room after he had done with his meal. It was raining outside. He decided to finish his homework before going to bed… It was eleven fifty-five and he was still up, trying to watch that movie. That was weird, but it was good till it last though. He turned off the TV, approached the windows and looked at the rain, hitting the window. Is there anything I have to… oh yeah, Chie told me to watch 'that'. He switched his attention back to his old-model television then to the clock.

"Doesn't hurt if I try." He mumbled.

There was a silence inside his room as he waiting for midnight to come, and it only was broken by the sound of the rain hitting the roof… Souji stood in front of the TV, waiting for the thing that even he himself doesn't even believe in.

The clock ticked to twelve and… nothing happened. Sighing, Souji turned away but he was immediately attracted by a noise, a static noise that came from the TV itself. Surprised, he turned and faced the TV. It was on, despite the fact that he just turned it off a moment ago.

There was a girl, wearing a school uniform appeared in it, running away from something. She maybe was screaming in fear, but at the time, there was no sound on the TV to determine it for sure. She ran faster and faster by the moment as the static noise became louder and louder until the creepy show comes to an end…

…

…

…

*LIGHTNING STRUCK*

I am thou…

…thou art I.

Thou art the one…

…opens the door.

A mysterious voice rang in his head, caused Souji to become extremely dizzy. The world was like spinning before his eyes as the voice continued on its saying. He dropped to his knees on the floor, trying to regain his vision and balance. The lightning struck one more time, hitting one of the light poles outside on the street and caused it to explode… Souji gasped, taking any breath that he could.

What…what is happening?

He eyed the old TV and carefully stood up, inched his way to the TV. There was actually a person there. He thought. Somehow, Souji reached out his hand to touch the TV, making sure that he wasn't dreaming.

The moment he touched it, and what he felt, wasn't the solid of glass, but the liquid feeling as if he dip his hand into the water. His hand sank inside and got stuck in it. What…? Shit! It almost felt like the TV was trying to suck Souji in, and it really did. He ended up stuck his head in it also. He quickly forced his hand and head out of the screen with huge force and hit his head hard against the wooden table. Holding his pained-head, he softly cursed.

"Are you okay?" Nanako called out. "I heard a loud noise."

"I- I'm okay! Don't worry!"

" 'Kay." She mumbled.

Souji looked at the TV one more time and stood up. Ow… at least now I know I wasn't dreaming… He laid his back on the futon, thinking stuffs. What was just happened? What was the thing that he just experiences? And the TV, what's in it? Thousands of questions were going through his head as he felt his eyes became heavier and heavier. He let the sleepiness take over…

04/14/2011

Morning. It was a little chilling. The wind blew around, across and through every single leave in the trees that silently sat on the side of the street. The morning class lecture gave Souji a hard time to deal with. It almost put him into sleep. Then again, he didn't want to sleep, or couldn't. For what happened last night, Souji sat quietly in class, face in his palm, thinking. He thought about the TV 'incident'. Did Chie and Yosuke go through the same thing as him? Or did they not? Did they see the image on the TV? Or was it just him? In his mind, only questions. Questions that don't have answers. Class quickly passed by…

"Hey, Souji. Did you try it last night?" Chie talked to him right after the class ended. She was curious.

Recalled the 'incident' happened last night. Souji swallowed. "Yes…"

"So did you see anything?"

"Yeah, a girl…"

"See! I told you so! It did work!" Her whisper formed into a yell.

"Like always, huh? You always yell even the thing not that big." Yosuke tiredly approached, scratching his head while he did so. "Any lucks last night?" He asked.

"What do you mean any lucks? You didn't try it, did you?" She narrowed her eyes.

"I'm kidding, I did!" He held out his hands. "But that was freaky. I mean in the TV?"

"Yeah! I was startled! And I nearly smacked my TV last night if it wasn't stopped." She smirked. "Anyone notice who was the person you saw?"

"I saw a girl, wearing a school uniform. I guess it looks like our school uniform." Souji shrugged.

"Hey, I saw a girl, too!" Chie exclaimed. "I couldn't see clearly but she was definitely a girl. Her hair was brown, she also wore a uniform." She stopped. Something stopped her words right in her throat. She was thinking something.

"That sounds like the same person I saw." Yosuke tilted his head. "Doesn't this mean we saw the same person? And if it likes what you said yesterday, she is our soulmate?" He raised an eyebrow.

"So then that makes she's my soul- Wait… My soulmate's a girl? What the heck is that suppose to mean?" Chie frowned.

Souji snickered.

"Hey! Wipe that grin off your face! I know what you're thinking and I'm not like that, ok?"

"What? I didn't say anything…yet." Souji gave her a big smile.

"Why you…?" She kicked him in the shin, making him jump, holding his pained leg. "And I thought you're a nice guy."

"Ow, ow, ow." He skipped on one leg. Guess I do deserve this.

"Chie… You shouldn't do stuff like this to other people, especially Souji is new around here." Yosuke rubbed his forehead.

Souji chuckled, grabbing the edge of the desk to steady himself. "Oh yeah, I suppose to tell you guys this." He cleared his throat. "Last night, after watching the Channel something, did anyone try to touch the TV screen?"

"No." They simultaneously responded. "Why?"

"It because I did try to touch it, and…well, you guys may not believe this but… how should I say this…? I got sucked." He scratched the back of his neck.

"You got what…?" Chie's brows furrowed.

"What are you saying, dude?" Yosuke did the same as Chie. "What do you mean by…suck?"

"Yeah, I literally got sucked by the TV. First my arm, then my head. Luckily, my TV was too small so I got stuck between." He shrugged.

"Oook… Dude! Are you sure that you didn't hit your head somewhere when you felt down?" He said in a loud voice. "You sounded crazy!"

"Yeah, right. Like I'm gonna believe that." Chie smirked. "But I like the part when you got stuck because your TV is too small. Pretty realistic if you ask me." She rubbed her chin with the tip of her finger. "If it was bigger… Oh, speaking or bigger. My family's been thinking about buying a bigger TV."

"Is that so? Well, flat screen TVs are the thing for these days." Yosuke switched his attention to Chie. "You wanna go check them out in Junes? We're beefing up our electronic department this month."

"Definitely! My parents know nothing about these stuffs, and I really want to watch my kung-fu movies on big screen!" Exciting like she sounded, Chie jumped up, shifted into the fighting stance. "Waataa!"

"Yeah…" Yosuke turned and faced Souji. "We have some really big one in store. I bet there's might be one for you to fit into." He snickered.

Souji sighed.

The trio arrived at the Junes Electronic Department. They were displaying a lot of TVs. Most of them were LCD or Plasma, and each was like 40 to 60 inches. Even they were on sale, the price was still too much for a normal person in Inaba to afford. Yosuke led them to the biggest TV they have in store, and tried to stick his hand inside the TV with Chie, which didn't work.

"Huh, figures." Yosuke shrugged.

"No fall in. Well, this clears that you were dreaming after all." Chie laughed.

"So, Chie. What kind of TV are you guys looking for?" asked Yosuke.

"Dunno. Cheap, I guess. Any advice?"

"Ahem… Well, Miss Satonaka, how about I suggest you this one? This here's our latest and cheapest model." He pointed at a Plasma.

"Cheapest? Just look at those zeroes! There's no way I'm gonna buy that!" She exclaimed.

"Sigh… then how about this? This one's older but it's cheaper."

Being left alone, Souji looked at the big TV in front of him. It's big… Maybe I should try. He inched near the TV and then placed his hand on it. It sank inside. Cool, it worked. There was a mixture of excitement and curiosity in his thought as he tried to stick another hand in.

"These TV are all frickin' expensive!" Chie frowned and turned to Yosuke, whispering to him. "Hey, think you can hook me up, since you are… you know."

He sighed and shook his head. His eyes went around the room, trying to find a cheaper TV for Chie. Then he stopped at Souji, who was doing the weirdest thing that Yosuke had never seen in his entire life. He saw Souji was putting his hands on the TV, no, in the TV. "WHAT THE- HOLY!" He yelled.

"What? What is it?" Caught off guard by his yelling, Chie faced him suddenly. "What?"

"H-he- his- in- TV." Unable to made a full understandable sentence, Yosuke pointed his finger at Souji's direction.

"What with Sou—? Oh my god!" Chie, too, surprised by Souji. "His hands… Are they inside in the TV?"

They ran toward him, closely inspected if what they saw was wrong. But his hands were actually inside the TV. "Shit! Man! Is this true? Your hands are in the TV?" Yosuke asked him, while covering his mouth with his hand. "But… how can you do this?"

"May- maybe it's a new model! Yeah! Maybe it's one of its new functions!" Chie spoke through a smirked, trying to lie to herself about the fact that Souji's hands are actually inside.

"Are you crazy? Hell no!" Yosuke exclaimed.

By his curiosity, Souji grabbed the TV to give him some balance as he put his head inside it to 'investigate' some more. Before his eyes, a large empty space, thickened with fog and covered by the yellow color. As he looked down, he could see the ground, maybe about 15 feet below.

"H-hey! What the hell are you doing? Don't do that!" Yosuke shocked when he saw what Souji just did. "Get your head outta there!"

"Oh my god!" Chie gasped.

"Uh, guys. There's an empty space in here." Souji finally spoke.

"What do you mean, in there?" Yosuke asked.

"Well, it's really big in here. How do I say this? Umm, spacious?"

"The heck did you mean by that?" Chie said.

"Oh crap, I think this is too much for my bladder to take!" Yosuke exclaimed.

"What! This doesn't have anything to do with your bladder!" She yelled at him. "Don't you dare pee your pants here!"

He ran away but quickly turned back when he saw some people were coming in their direction. "Ahh, fuck." He ran back at Chie. "Customers! They're coming!"

"Shit! What are we gonna do? We have a guy half-stuck in the TV!" She was panicking.

"J-Just get him out first."

They both grabbed Souji by legs and shirt, trying to pull him out. But the moment they touched him, Souji was started and was caught off guard by them and let go of his hand which used to be steady himself. He felt in and dragged both Chie and Yosuke along with him. "Whoa- aah!"

The world inside was extremely blurry, thanks to the thick fog. The trio felt and landed on the floor beneath them, and the landing wasn't that enjoyable, it was quite painful for all of them. Souji hit the floor first since he was the one that in the TV first, and next was Yosuke, he landed on his butt. And like Yosuke, Chie was the same, she landed and rolled one time, sitting on something as she stopped rolling.

"Tch, I landed on my wallet." groaned Yosuke while he was massaging his butt.

"Ow… my butt." Chie did the same thing. "Hey, where's Souji?" She looked around.

"Err… Chie." He pointed at the place where Chie is sitting. "You should stand up."

"What? Huh? Whoa!" She blushed and instantly stood up when she looked at the direction where Yosuke's finger pointed. She was sitting flat on Souji's face.

Nice ass. Souji thought and stood up, wiping his face. "At least you were wearing a gym short instead of panties." He chuckled.

She frowned and blushed at the same time. Then, she looked around. "Where the heck are we?"

"Dunno. You tell me." said Yosuke.

"Haah, heh… Are we still alive?" She said panicky.

"Maybe, but the feeling on my face seems pretty real to me." Souji joked but there was no grin or smile on his face.

"Whoa!" Yosuke spoke in amazement as he looked around.

"WHAT! Don't say that you wet your pants!" Chie cried out.

"No! Stupid! Take a look around you!"

"Wow, it looks like we are in some kind of… studio." said Souji.

"You're right." She waved her hand back and forth in front of her face. "What's with this fog? Or are they smoke?"

"I can't tell either. But… there's no place like this in Inaba… It's so huge…" Yosuke winced.

"Put that aside. Where the heck are we?"

"In the TV, I guess." Souji said.

"I'm scared. What are we gonna do?" She wrapped her arms around herself.

"Look, we need to find a way out." Souji spoke gently, in attempt of calming Chie down. "We all should just calm down first."

"Y-yeah, you're right." She took a long, deep breath and looked up. "Hey, where are we coming from?"

"Up there. We felt, remember?" Yosuke twitched his eyes.

"I know, but… I can't see the entrance… or exit."

"What do you mean…? Oh, no. We're really stuck." He said worriedly. "Shit, shit, shit."

"Everyone, calm down." Souuji repeated. "I said that we should go look around for a way out."

"Oh, sorry." He exhaled. "Ok, maybe we should head over there first." He pointed at a path, which seemed to be really narrow.

"Are you sure?" Chie spoke.

"Well, there's no exit right now and if we're staying here, doing nothing, it'd be no good. So, our best bet is to look around, rather than getting trapped in this place." Souji said and looked at Chie then to Yosuke, who nodded.

They walked on Yosuke's path for a long while and finally encountered a building. "Is it me or is it harder to breathe by the second?" Chie coughed.

"You're right. Now that you mentioned it, I felt it hard to breathe the moment we in here." Yosuke winced and took a long breath.

"Yeah… Let's keep moving. We should find an exit ASAP." Souji led the way into the building. Can't see shit through this fog… tch. He thought and mentally cursed. "Let's go."

They went through the weird, red-looking door and entered a room. It was somewhat small and creepy, and it looked like a hotel room. There was a one-person bed placed at the corned with a bookshelf hung on the wall right beside it. There was also a small pot of plant, placing next to the bed, which right by side the big window, covered by a curtain. Noticed the room a bit more, Yosuke and Souji could spot some… blood was covering the wall.

"Dude… This is freaking me out." Said Yosuke as he dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. Flipping it open, he sighed. "No service… Just perfect."

"Tch, dead end." Souji gritted his teeth.

"Hey, can you guys slow down a bit? It's hard enough to see where you guys are going through this fog." Chie walked right behind the boys. "Whoa." She choked when she saw something. "Guys, look at that."

Looking at the place where Chie had her eyes on. Yosuke and Souji saw the thing that could freak anyone by the moment they saw it. A chair, and a rope was tied tightly in a noose. There was also some kind of scarf was tied with it.

"A noose and a chair… This kind of arrangement has never been good…" Yosuke said slowly.

"My god…! Was someone trying to hand themselves?" Chie exclaimed.

"This isn't looking good. Shit… we need to find the exit—" Souji sentence was cut out when he saw Yosuke, holding his pants, rushing as fast as he could toward the corner of the room.

"Fuck, I'm gonna piss my pants if I don't go now!"

"Whoa, whoa. Wait! You're going here!" Chie screamed.

"H-hey! Chill out, man! We really don't want to smell that stuff!" Souji, too, screamed.

"No hell I can hold it in anytime longer. My bladder's gonna blow-up!" He yelled back and zipped down his pants. "Can you guys look away? I can't go if everyone is watching!"

Souji turned his back around with Chie. "Why didn't he go right after school?" He asked her.

"How should I know?" She responded.

"AAARRGGG!... I can't do this…" Yosuke zipped up. "If something happens to my bladder… It's you guys' fault."

"Like we care." They both replied.

He groaned. "Hey… These posters… Their faces are all cut out." Switching his attention, Yosuke now pointing his finger on the wall. "Just look at those..."

"Yeah… this is so creepy… maybe there's someone hate this person so much that they did this thing." Chie said, fear expressed on her leg as they shaking. "G-guys, I think we should go back to where we came from and look elsewhere for an exit. This place seems like a dead end to me."

"She's right. We should go back." Souji rubbed his forehead with two fingers. The fog is really driving me crazy.

"Anyone notice it? But I found it really hard to breathe now." Yosuke spoke.

"Me, too. We must go now…" Chie winced.

They all decided to go back. "Those posters… I think I saw them from somewhere before…" Yosuke stopped at the door and placed a finger on his chin, thinking deeply something.

"Who the heck CARES?" Chie yelled. "I want to get out of this place RIGHT NOW!"

"Ok, ok. We're going now." Souji broke in. "Geez, do you have to be such a short-tempered?"

Her brows burrowed and she got out of the room first with Souji and Yosuke silently followed right on her back.

They finally reached to the place where they are all came from. It took them quite a time in order to get back there. "Whew, thought we're not gonna make it back here." She eyed another way, right across the stage. "Next, we start there." She led the boys to there but was stopped by something was coming toward them. "Wait! What's that?"

Emerging from the thick fog, a creature made its way to the teenagers and stopped in front of them. It looked somewhat like a bear, or more like a mascot that looks like a bear. It had the color of red and blue.

"What the— What is it?" Chie asked.

"Beats me! What the hell is that?" Yosuke said.

"I dunno! The hell?" Souji said and looked at the mascot thingy.

"Th-That's what I wanna know! Who are you guys?" The creature yelled at them hesitantly.

"Ahh… What are you? Y-You wanna fight or something?" Chie asked and put up her fists.

"Don't yell at me like that!" The creature was cowering in fear.

"Hey, where are we?" Souji asked him, calmly. "What is going on here?"

"You are… in this place. It's what it is." He responded. "I've lived here for a long time."

"You… live here?" asked Yosuke.

"Yeah… and strange thing's been happening lately. People just keep falling in here."

"Wait… people felt in here?" Souji asked.

"I dunno. Maybe someone else threw them in." He frowned and stomped its feet on the ground and yelled. "I don't know what their problem is but I just want them to think before they throw people in!"

"Hey! What gives YOU the right to yell at us? We are the one that need to talk here!" Chie screamed and inched her feet near the creature, but was stopped by a hand that placed on her shoulder. "What the heck are you?" Ignored the feeling on her shoulder, she kept yelling.

"Calm down, Chie." Souji said.

"Ahh…" The creature moaned and ran to hide behind Souji's back. "I-I'm a bear. C-Can't you tell?" He said. "A-Anyway, you guys should get outta here. It's dangerous in here."

"So you want us to get out? Yes, that's what we wanted to do the whole time, god dammit! We just don't know where the frickin' exit is!" Yosuke yelled.

"Urrrggg. That's why I'm gonna let you guys out!" The creature yelled back.

"Wait. You know the exit?" Souji tilted his head back to look at him and asked.

He tapped his foot two times on the floor and smoke suddenly popped put from the center of the stage. The smoke cleared and appeared through it, three small televisions that was stacked up on each other.

"What the hell?" Yosuke spoke first.

"Where are these all coming from?" Chie asked in confused.

"The heck are these? Why the TVs?" Souji said

"Now, chop chop. GO! Get outta here. I have no time to fooling around here! I'm busy!" The creature stalked behind the group when no one was noticing and quickly pushed them through the small screens of the TVs.

"Whoa. Hey! Stop pushing me!" Chie was annoyed.

"Ahhh!"

*Poof*

They trio landed back in the Junes Electronic Department. They felt flat on the floor. Chie massaged her butt and slowly lifted herself up from the floor. "Ow… Did we make it back?"

"Yeah… we made it back." Souji replied.

"Thanks god. Whew…" Yosuke sighed in relief. "Finally…"

"Is everyone okay?" said Souji.

"No, not at all. I'm feeling sick here." Chie responded while rubbing her eyeballs.

"Me neither. Maybe it's because of the effect of the world in there…" Yosuke pointed at the TV. "Hey, guys! Look!" His eyes went to a different direction and he pointed. "That the poster we saw!"

Yosuke's poster showed a woman and she was wearing a red kimono. Under it, there was a name: Misuzu Hiiragi.

"Oh yeah. I couldn't tell from the ripped face back there but that was actually the poster of Misuzu Hiiragi…" Chie said.

"But why her face was ripped? I mean, there must have been someone to do it, right?" Souji was thinking.

"Yaarrgghh. You guys! Stop! No more of these stuff!" Yosuke suddenly provoked. "I don't want to remember any of this! Just wipe everything that happened today out of our heads. And I'm too stressed out to think anymore."

"He's right. I'm beat, too." Souji spoke. "We should all just go back home and have a good night sleep."

"As for me, I should find a restroom now…" Yosuke ran away.

"Welcome home." Nanako voice came out from the living room when she saw Souji was taking off his shoes.

"Oh, hi, Nanako." He replied. And right across the table where Nanako sat, Dojima was already there with two boxes of instant ramen on the table. "Hi, uncle."

"You're back." He eyed for the two boxes on the table. "We didn't make one for you so… you should go make one now for dinner."

Dojima was a police officer, who had always been in his work place more than his house. Nanako was only a kid so the food that they normally ate were either be instant ramen or can food or ready-to-eat food that bought straight from Junes. Souji thought a bit and lazily made his way to the kitchen to make some hot water before go join them at the table. They were watching the news about the lady Yamano's death from the other day. A silence occurred…

"Umm… Do you know a student name Saki Konishi? I doubt you'd know anything but…" Dojima broke the silence.

"She was the girl that discovered the body, right?" Souji responded.

"You know it already, huh? Guess it's because of the media." He paused and sighed. "You know, that Konishi girl… her family reported that she was disappeared."

"She was disappeared…?" Souji repeated Dojima's words.

"Yeah. We've got people looking for her but she hadn't been found yet."

Another heavy silence felt upon the room as the news continued…

"Um… Is the ramen ready yet?" Nanako spoke.

"Nah, give it five more minutes." Dojima replied.

"Ah-choo!" Souji sneezed. He went his finger to the place between his upper lip and his nose. He could also felt a slight chill, running down on his spine.

"Did you catch a cold? Maybe you haven't got used to the weather around here." Dojima turned to Nanako. "Nanako. Could you go get the cold medicine? It's on the shelf, in my room."

Nanako stood up and ran away. Souji sat on the floor, thinking. Was it because of the TV world? He shook his head as he heard the discomfort sound of the hot-boiled water. He stood up and poured the water into his instant ramen box. "You should eat and take the medicine and quickly go to sleep. It's the best for you." Dojima advised him.

After finished his meal and took the medicine that Nanako gave him, Souji tiredly went back to his room. He checked his homework but the dizziness inside his head refused him to do so. So he decided to go to sleep. Put his head on the soft pillow, he could feel the eyelids of his own became heavier. He thought about the adventure that he had today. What was that room? What was that bear? The coolness of the midnight rain went through the crevice of the windows and to Souji.

…

He slept.

Author's note: Hehe, sorry for it took so long to finish this. I was having the laziest week I had ever been in my life since I came to the United States. Whew… Sooooo boring these days, and it makes me don't want to write anything. Anyway, it's over and I'm back at writing. How do you like the new chapter? Review if you like but also review to tell me if I'm wrong at something. Thanks a lot!