The doors opened to reveal a disturbing sight. The stairwell appeared to be completely coated in a dark red rust and corrosion that was present from the floor to the ceiling.

"What the hell is this?" Said Natsuki in quiet fear.

"It's nothing harmful." Said Simon. "Come on."

But before Simon could take one step on the stairs, Yuri said something.

"Wait. Before we go anywhere, I need to ask you something."

Simon turned around.

"When you heard that monster's chainsaw, you knew to run before any of us knew what it was. Natsuki also told me that you have some experience fighting these things. But, you even know what this stuff is? Simon, I know you're trying to help us, but I can't help feeling that you're hiding something. And until we both know what that is, we're not doing any further with you. Who are you really? What's really going on?"

Simon's heart sank. He hoped that there would be a way he could get through this without having to bring this up but he knew he would have to eventually. He sat down on the stairs and faced the girls.

"This is the first time you've seen these things, these experiences."

Simon put his head down.

"I've been fighting them for years now."

"You… hunt these things? Is that what you're trying to say?"

"Years?" said Natsuki. "But these creatures only started coming last night, how could this have been going on for years?"

"I'm no hunter. You can both tell that I'm not from around here. There are times when… I know how this will sound, but- There are times when I slip, I lose sight and I end up somewhere I don't know. And there are always these creatures. I don't know whether they come from me or I attract them somehow but I always have to fight my way out until-"

"Until what?"

"Until I come to my senses. Until I'm back home."

There was a moment of silence between them.

"But… I've never met anyone else when end up in these places. No one who was real person, that is. Until I met you two."

"What?" Asked Natsuki impatiently. "So this is just some dream to you? This place isn't real? Are we-"

"No. These places are very real. These creatures are very real. And you are certainly real. It's just different. The way things *are* here are different. They… Exist differently than where I'm from. Look. I know this is confusing, frightening. What I can promise you is that this nightmare will end. But we will have to fight for it. And you've both proven that you're more than able to do that."

The girls had a sombre look on their faces. Natsuki looked at Simon.

"But why us? Why here?"

"I don't know. Sometimes I'm taken to places I recognize, other times its places I've never been or can barely comprehend." Simon stood up. "But I can promise you both that whatever it is that brought me and these things here, I'll make sure it never happens here again. No one else deserves to suffer this."

The girls looked up at Simon. Their faced filled with determination.

"Let's go." Said Yuri.

The trio made their way up the stairs, their feet making crunching sounds as they walked on the corroded steps. The doors to the second and third floor were inaccessible, as they could only be described as being "fused" together, with the locks and gaps between them being filled with strange metal substance. Yuri tried to to scrape some off with her knife, but to no avail.

"That only leaves the roof."

They went up the last flight of stairs to find that the door was already open. The cloudy morning sky was visible. The three made their way through the door. As they stood on the flat, concrete roof a chill wind blew across them, making the girls' hair flow and flutter. Simon looked out form the edge. From below he could see some modern houses that made up a surrounding suburb. The skyline was coated by small round trees and the hints of a small city with some high rise buildings could be seen in the far distance. Aside from the wind there was complete silence. No noise at all was heard from the empty town below. Suddenly his concentration was broken when Natsuki yelled.

"Sayori!"

Simon turned around and saw on the far end of rooftop a young girl sitting by herself. The trio ran towards her and as they approached Simon could see that she was another student. She had light ginger hair and a red bow on her head. She had her head buried in her arms as she sat by a wall next to the entrance of another stairwell. Natsuki immediately knelt down and put her hand on her shoulder. The girl did not move.

"Sayori! Thank God, you're safe!"

Sayori didn't move. Natsuki shook her slightly.

"Sayo? Sayo, please, look at me!"

Then Sayori slowly lifted her head and looked around her with a pale, distraught face. Her eyes, although a brilliant shade of blue, bore nothing but despair. She looked directly at Simon.

"It can't be stopped." She said in a tired, defeated voice.

Suddenly the ground beneath them started to rumble and stone hands erupted from below and grabbed their ankles.

"What the-!"

Natsuki tried to crush one of the hands with her bat but only managed to to break some of its fingers and hurt her leg. The girls fell to the ground and more hands grabbed them by the wrists and pulled them across the floor back to the other side of the roof.

"Natsuki! Yuri!"

Simon tried his best to release himself from the grasp of the stone hands but before he knew it a wall of stone arms shot out from in the middle of the roof, separating them. The hands holding Simon's feet began to crumble and heard inhuman growls and screeches coming from the other side of the limb-wall. As he ran to the it he noticed figures moving about from between the gaps. He tried to break his way through the wall with his bat but for every arm or finger that broke off, a new one took its place.

"Natsuki! Yuri!"

The sound of a bat swinging and a creature screaming came from the other side of the wall.

"Forget about us!" Shouted Natsuki. "Get to Sayori! Make sure she's safe!"

Simon ran back to the girl, who was now standing just by the edge of the roof. Horrendous memories of a similar sight flashed in his head as he ran towards her. Just as she was about to take the first step over Simon yelled "No! Not again!" as he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back down to the floor as he fell.

"Please, please! Whatever you're thinking, this is not the answer!"

Sayori made weak, frustrated attempts to escape Simon's hold on her.

"It can't be stopped! I caused this! All these horrible things, they came here because of me! Because I'm so weak, I couldn't do anything to stop them!"

"That's not true. You aren't the cause of all this. I- Look, please, just-"

A sudden wailing was heard over them, Simon noticed a shadow falling over them both.

An emaciated, skinless figure loomed over them both. Its frail, thin limbs were bound together in a harness of wires that stretched out into the horizon and suspended the creature in the air. Its small head obscured by a thin matt of hair similar in colour to Sayori's. The creature flung its head back, then quickly jutted forward as a ball of black mucus erupted from under its hair with a horrid gurgle and hurtled towards them both. Simon managed to pick up Sayori and carried her to safety before the slime hit them. As he ran back to stairwell entrance he looked back and saw the fluming puddle of black slime that slowly melted through the floor. As soon as he was at the door, Simon tried to use his keys to open it, but before he could, black wires materialized from out of the lock and suddenly wrapped themselves around the door frame, blocking it. Simon looked at Sayori, she was sitting down, staring into space with an expressionless look. It was like she was in some sort of trance. Simon jumped at the sound of a splat and hiss nearby. He peeked over the wall to see another puddle, closer to him. Suddenly a set of wires shot out from above and wrapped themselves around an air duct. Simon looked up and saw that the creature was using those wires to pull itself closer to them. Simon was panicking now, he had no way to fight off that creature from this height. He heard his friends from the other side of the roof.

"Yuri, look out!"

A painful scream sounded from behind the barrier.

"Come on, Yuri! Get up! We have to keep fighting!"

Simon hastily looked around him for anything he could use, a rock, anything. Simon felt a horrid rush as he realized that he had failed them. His first friends in such a long time and he alone brought this hell upon them. He was about to accept his fate when he suddenly felt something poking his back.

He turned around and saw what could only be described as a long black plank *melting* from out of the door. It then fell to the floor with a clank and Simon saw that it was a metal case of some kind. Simon quickly knelt down and searched the case for some kind of opening. The case was covered in scratches that looked like it was made by human fingers. He opened it to reveal an old wooden hunting rifle and several boxes of ammo. A rush of adrenaline and righteous anger overwhelmed Simon as he equipped the rifle and loaded it. He went back to Sayori and gently tilted her head to face him. Her eyes widened at the sight of the gun.

"Stay. Right. Here. I'm going to kill that abomination."

Simon then aimed the rifle around the corner of the wall and took a quick shot at the Monster. The loud firing sound made Sayori yelp and jump out of her seat. Simon looked at her to see looking around, confused and scared. The gunshot must taken her out of her trance. She met eyes with Simon.

"Stay right here. It's gonna be okay."

Simon looked back at the monster, it was bleeding one side in the hip and he saw through its hair a pair of empty, hollow eyes that were now fixed on him. A flurry of wires came flying towards him but he rolled out of the way just in time. Sayori yelled and covered her head as the wires slammed into the corner of the door frame and caused bits of concrete to fly out everywhere. Simon, now in the open, quickly ran to an air duct for cover and took aim again. He pulled the trigger and a foul wail came from the creature as the bullet tore straight through its chest. A spatter of blood pooled from the wound and ran down the abdomen and the legs, and finally dripped off the feet. The creature began to twitch and contort, making painful cries and wails as it did so. Simon stood up as he observed what he thought were the death throes of the monster, suddenly the creature flung itself forward and ball of slime bursted through the creature's throat, tearing off its jaw. Simon tried to run back to the doorframe but the projectile hit him on his left side. The slime quickly ate its way through his clothes and seared his skin, the burning nearly caused him to stop but then he felt an intense pain throughout his body. He dropped his rifle and fell to the ground as he spasmed on the floor. He could barely move his neck, but the corner of his eyes he saw the monster drawing ever closer to him. He was suddenly stretched across the floor as wires wrapped themselves around his arms and legs and began to pull. He could barely keep his eyes fixed on the monster slowly closing in on him as the tension in his joints grew. This was it, he thought. The final result of a broken, vile man trying in his arrogance to help people when in reality he was the cause of all their ills. Simon could see the face of the creature dangling just above him now. Its carved out throat created a false smile on the being's otherwise featureless face made it look as it it was enjoying Simon's suffering.

Simon heard the rifle fire from behind him and saw the monster's head break into multiple parts as bits of bone, meat, and hair flew across the air. As the creature fell down onto the roof a great crunch he felt the wires loosening around him. He painfully turned his head around to see Sayori sitting on the floor, holding the smoking rifle in her shaking arms. She then turned to Simon and quickly began to pull the wires off him. With his last ounce of strength Simon carried himself to the wall and slumped next to it. His sight and hearing became muddled. The pain was still washing over him, he could barely think. He heard concrete crumbling nearby, footsteps approaching, people talking. Everything was a haze. It only seemed to get worse. With his senses dulled, he fumbled around in his pocket for something to take the pain away. He found it, took it out and quickly jammed it into his arm and pressed down with his thumb. He heard a collective gasp as he lost consciousness.