Chapter 3: Stay Alive no matter what

"Mommy! Daddy! RuRu!" Aya ran down the empty hallways, panting heavily as she searched for her family. She had never been so scared. She had seen blood coating the walls, decomposing corpses littering the hallways and classrooms. She thought she might vomit.

After awhile, with no avail to her missing family members, Aya sat down in a corner of one hallway and started to cry. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she cried. She just wanted to be with her family.

Crunch

A noise, echoing off the walls, caught her attention. Her eyes widened at the sound. She couldn't identify with the sounds as it continued.

Snap

Another noise hit the air, this time, a bit louder. To her, it sounded like a stick being snapped in half. Slowly, she rose to her feet, walking down the hallway to the source. Peering wearily behind the wall, the sight before her made her blood run cold.

A large, black, serpent-like creature was devouring something. A human it seemed. She could feel the cold air turn hot, his body like molten lava. Tar slipped off his body, staining the floorboards beneath.

This creature seemed like something that would be in a fairy tale, a dragon.

When he head rose, a long, slender piece of flesh was ripped from whatever he was eating. It didn't look like any of the other dead bodies she had encountered. It… glowed a blue color… and it had a faint transparency to it.

Like a ghost.

She let out a gasp that wasn't supposed to be so loud. Ghosts don't die! Their… already dead… right?

The creature heard her, raising his head and looked at her. Fear rose in her body as he looked at her, turned around as his long talons scrapped the floorboards. His face was stained in a blue-ish hue of red. Gulping down the last of the flesh he had taken, he walked towards her.

"My my my… what do we have here… a curious young soul it seems," He spoke, his voice deep. She backed away, tears swelling in her eyes. She tripped over a piece of wood, and fell on her bottom.

The creature towered over her, his long neck allowing him to lean down and come face-to-face with her. She could feel his hot breath on her face, it felt like fire.

"Curiosity kills the cat… or in this case… a kitten," He spoke, his eyes narrowing as red pupils appeared in a sea of green. Her tears spilled over. Those fairy tales, there was always a prince charming, always coming to help the princess from the evil dragon.

Her price charming wasn't coming.

"You should never interrupt me when I'm in the middle of eating… it isn't polite," He spoke again, before lunging forward, pushing her back onto her back, and pressing one hand on her stomach.

Her fear was overwhelming her, to the point that she would actually vomit. On one last instinct, she let out a bloodcurdling scream; hoping that someone, maybe even her family, would hear her.

"I wonder how you'll taste… eating these ghosts are getting old… real flesh and warm blood sounds great now," He pondered, her tiny form squirming under his grasp.

Right as he was about to lunge forward, something, like a liquid of the sorts, was sprayed on him without warning.

It was Holy water.

The liquid immediately burned him. Even for being so hot in temperature, his spirit form could not handle the pure water. He let out a screech, backing away as the burning intensified. Before he disappeared, he could see someone else, blurry, but it was another human.

One of the five.

He was in no condition to fight though. Before they could attack again, he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

Aya had closed her eyes at this point. She didn't want to see the creature anymore. She heard him screech out, the noise alone causing her eyes to close tighter. She just wanted to be with her family, at home.

"Hey… little one, are you okay?" A voice, much softer, called out to her. She opened up her eyes to see her savior. It was an older woman, with indigo hair and blue eyes.

"Y-Yeah," She murmured out as she sat up. The woman was kneeling down next to her. She seemed trustworthy.

Ayumi, having trusted her instincts, eventually ran to the source of the scream. What she saw was a large creature trapping a little girl, the child too freaked out to fight back. Taking her best bets, she took out a small jar of holy water; she always kept a bottle in her pocket. Uncapping the glass bottle, she sprayed it out. To her surprise, it had actually worked. The creature must've been spiritual, the water burning him. He eventually disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

She came to aid the young girl, the child seemingly familiar to her.

"What's your name?" She decided to ask, tilting her head at the dark-auburn.

"Aya… A-Aya Mochida," She stuttered out, holding her hands close to her face.

Mochida?!

Ayumi couldn't believe it. This was her old classmate's daughter. Did that mean… that they were also here?

"Your parents… wouldn't happen to be Satoshi and Naomi, would they?" Ayumi decided to press her luck. When Aya nodded slowly, she instantly knew that there was something much deeper going on here.

"Well Aya, I used to go to school with your parents. I'm Ayumi," The older woman rose to her feet, holding out her hand for the young girl to grab. Therefore, this woman knew her parents. She could definitely trust this woman then. She placed her hand in Ayumi's and rose to her feet as well.

As they walked down the hallway, many questions were on Ayumi's mind. Sure, the four of them kept in touch after high school, but both families lived on opposite sides of Japan. Reunions never occurred. She knew the Mochida's had a family, but she had never seen the children for herself.

Another question kept nagging at her. Why were they all gathered here? Why were their children also brought into the mix?

The creature that had attacked Aya had scared Ayumi the most. She could sense that it was the powerful energy keeping this school together now. Before he had disappeared, she noticed blood on his snout; it was a glowing a blue-ish hue.

She was stopped abruptly when Aya stopped, quickly to hide behind her. Ayumi could sense extreme pain and suffering, and her eyes widened. The wall before them was covered in old, dried blood. A torn school uniform had stuck to the wall, the blood acting like glue. On the floor before the wall, more dried blood had pooled… Ayumi noticed two small pink spheres, one was cracked.

"Come on, Aya, let's get out of here," Ayumi quickly grabbed the young girl's hand and led her past the bloody wall. Down the hallway, Ayumi felt her chest tighten. She knew who that was; it was one of her friend's, one of the four that had fallen here. She couldn't let herself break down, not with a child present. She had to be strong, for both of their sakes.

They continued onward, in hopes that they would run into one of their families…

In the first wing…

Koji started to wail again, when Yuka entered the first wing. No matter what she did to settle him down, he would only get louder. She guessed he was probably getting hungry, but with his mother absent, his wish couldn't be granted. Her only hope was that she would run into her brother's family, hoping her sister-in-law would be with them.

She continued to investigate the hallways, trying to stay alert; the upset infant in her arms wasn't helping their situation, it could easily draw attention.

Unbeknownst to her, she was being watched by an unseen force; a child spirit. Long, black hair covered over her face and went down to her mid-back. She wore a dress; it bleached red, like the color of blood. Her skin was a pale grey, and there were clear thumb marks bruising her throat.

She stood behind Yuka; the older girl couldn't sense her presence. The child held a large pair of bloody sowing scissors, the shining metal stained with blood from top to bottom. Grinning widely, she opened and closed the scissors.

Snip, Snip

Yuka gasped and turned around, holding Koji closer to her. She had heard that noise excessively many times. The noise haunted her for years.

The sound of scissors being opened and closed.

However, there wasn't anybody behind her. Yuka found herself growing incredibly antsy, the noise alone sent chills up her spine. She needed to keep her guard up; or she would ultimately meet her demise, as well as put Koji in danger. Turning around, she kept walking, really wishing her brother or her sister-in-law would show up soon. Koji needed his mother, not his aunt.

The child spirit reappeared, in the same spot as before. She still wore a wide grin, her eyes narrowed. She watched as Yuka disappeared down the hallway, a flash of lightning breaking out and lighting the walls.

"Soon…" The child spoke, before giggling. Her form faded away, a gust of wind blowing through the hallway at her disappearance.

In the infirmary…

"There, that should do the trick till we get out," Naomi spoke, creating a makeshift spring to her hurt ankle. She and Satoshi had come across the infirmary as they searched for the rest of the family. Naomi knew there had to be something in the cabinets to help her with her ankle.

"Can you walk on it?" Satoshi asked, standing before, Shigeru by his side as the child looked around the room. Naomi got up from the beds and put more weight on her leg, feeling less pain than before.

"Yep. Feels a lot better now," She smiled. She knew she would have to be careful still. Any wrong move, and she could easily break the piece of wood keeping her leg straight; and, make her sprang flare up again.

"Good, let's keep moving. Aya and Koji can't be that far," Satoshi spoke, grabbing Shigeru's hand.

"Yeah…" Naomi trailed off. At least Aya could defend herself a little bit. Koji was just an infant, a young one at that. He must have been getting hungry by now, his feeding time long overdue.

"We'll find them," Satoshi reassured her, placing a hand under her chin and lifting her head up to look at him. His arm dropped back down and grabbed hers. He led them out of the infirmary, going the opposite direction of the stairway just down the hall.

Satoshi knew they were nearing the lavatories; the place in which his wife suffered many horrible nights. Her best friend was killed in one of the stalls, with her own hands. He didn't want to cause her anymore stress and pain, so he quickly turned away from the staircase leading up.

As they walked off, a spirit appeared at the base of the stairs. She was dressed in a school uniform, a hand clenched to her chest. She had longed for years to see her best friend again. However, she didn't want to see the grown woman in this place again. She knew Naomi had grown into a strong adult, but even the strongest of hearts can be broken.

She couldn't talk. The way she had died, the rope that had wrapped around her neck, had choked her. Her airway was always closed, even when the pain was gone. She would try to speak out, but it would come out in small squeaks.

Slowly, she started walking after the small group, wanting to watch over them. She knew they couldn't see her, nor could she talk to them, she just wanted to calm her broken heart. That she could at least try to protect them…

In a classroom on the third floor…

"What are we going to do Yuki?" The three child spirits sat on the floor, trying to figure out how to go against that creature. Yuki could sense Sachiko had returned, the school shuttering as a powerful wave of energy fluttered through it. Not only had the original core returned, but also she was much more powerful than before; that creature had probably given her powers beyond those that were trapped here.

"I dunno Tokiko… I really want to stop that… thing. But, he's just too powerful," Yuki murmured, her eyes downcast.

"What about the group that entered the school? Aren't they… from before?" The boy spirit asked, and Yuki nodded. Suddenly, something clicked.

"Maybe… we can get them to fight off that creature. They had appeased Sachiko before, they could certainly do it again," Yuki raised her head, her hands fisting.

"But… they lost some of their group before…" Tokiko's shoulders dropped. Yuki hadn't thought about that. There were young children among the five now, exactly making up the number they had lost before. Yuki didn't like the idea of the children losing the fight to stay alive, especially the infant.

Whatever that creature had planned, he definitely wouldn't show any mercy to the four children.

She just hoped that the three of them could reach the five before it was too late…

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