8:41 AM | Residential Neighborhood - Reika's House
Reika's house was on a sloping street, one of those neighborhoods where the houses all looked the same at first glance… but each one told its own story in the details. Neglected plants here, torn curtains there, stray cats sleeping on the roofs.
Hers was a two-story house, with a dark roof and tall windows, with peeling paint on the corners and a rusty bicycle leaning against the gate.
Reika unlocked the door with a click and entered unceremoniously, kicking her shoes aside.
"Come in. But don't touch anything."
Takumi looked around with a raised eyebrow.
"Your hospitality is touching."
The entrance had that kind of slightly functional mess, backpacks leaning against the wall, a coat thrown over a piece of furniture, letters piled up in the corner[1]. But it wasn't dirty. There was a strange but pleasant smell in the air, something between cheap lavender incense and fabric softener. A mixture that, for some reason, suited her.
Renjiro noticed the walls: several old photos, taped up, some slightly crooked, others faded. Reika at age 10 in a Polysics[2] shirt, another with a huge dog licking her face. Hand-painted pictures, probably by her, with garish colors, impulsive strokes, and no signature. A mural of artistic chaos.
"Isn't your mother here?" Renjiro asked, taking off his shoes.
"She's at work. She won't be back until tonight."
"And your father?" Takumi asked.
Reika gave him a cold look over her shoulder.
"Don't ask."
"You and Renjiro already have something in common."
Silence.
Takumi made a hand gesture that said "Okay, understood, end of discussion."
They climbed the creaking stairs to the second floor. Reika pushed open the bedroom door with her foot, slamming it shut.
8:45 AM | Reika's Room
The room was... exactly what you wouldn't expect from someone like her.
No high-tech or black walls with LED lights.
It was a normal girl's room, just slightly neglected by time.
On the back wall, an old laptop, with band stickers plastered all over the lid. Next to it, an improvised shelf with CD albums, stacked somewhat crookedly. Band names like Asian Kung-Fu Generation[3], Ling Tosite Sigure[4], Shiina Ringo[5], and even a Nirvana[6] vinyl served as unintentional decoration.
Papers scattered on the table, some with handwritten song lyrics, others with half-scribbled class notes and insults directed at the teachers.
And in the center, an unmade bed. Sheets rolled up as if you had struggled with them during the night. One corner of the mattress was sunken, and right in the middle of the gray blanket, a dark, dry stain.
Takumi pointed at it with a barely concealed expression of disgust.
"Please tell me it's spilled tea."
Reika threw a pillow at him.
"Don't interfere, idiot."
Renjiro smiled for the first time in a long time. Not because he was relaxed, but because, in that space, there was something... honest. Nothing fake. This was Reika without the layers.
She threw her backpack on the floor, forcefully opened the window, and sat on the floor, her back to the wall.
"Close the door. Now we can talk."
Takumi sat on the rug, crossing his legs with a tired sigh. Renjiro stood for a moment, then leaned against the wardrobe, arms crossed, still processing everything.
Reika looked at the two of them.
"Okay. This isn't just a coincidence anymore. Nor a joke. And it's definitely not normal."
"What do you think it is, then?" Takumi asked. "Drugs? Entity? Divine punishment for cheating on tests?"
"I don't know." Reika shrugged, but her gaze was serious. "But it has to do with the notebook. With Yumi. And with you." He pointed at Renjiro.
He didn't answer. He was staring intently at one of the drawings pasted on the wall, a mask made with red lines, probably painted by Reika years ago. It looked… familiar. Too familiar.
Reika lowered her voice slightly.
"For now, we won't tell anyone. Not the principal, not Watanabe, not any of our classmates. Nobody would believe us. They'd just say we're crazy."
"And what if we are crazy?" Renjiro asked, in a tone that sounded more real than he wanted to admit.
She stood up and walked over to him.
She stopped in front of him, eye to eye.
"If we're crazy, we're in this together."
She said it firmly, without irony.
And for the first time that day... Renjiro felt anchored.
Even though everything around him was crumbling.
8:52 AM | Reika's Room
Takumi threw himself into the swivel chair in front of Reika's desk, spinning slowly while snapping his fingers.
"Officially stolen chair." he said, pushing himself with his foot like a bored child.
Renjiro, for his part, sat carefully on the edge of the bed, the sheets still rumpled, that mysterious stain right beside him.
"I hope that's really tea" he murmured, glancing sideways at the stain.
"All of you will get the monitor in the face if you don't shut up" Reika grumbled, sitting beside him with her laptop on her lap.
She opened the lid. The screen lit up with a bluish glow, and a somewhat slow startup as if the notebook had just woken from a deep coma.
"Don't mind the mess" she said, while typing the password.
Takumi leaned over to peek. "'Incorrect password'... ohhh... tough girl Reika has an embarrassing password like 'helloKitty123'?"
"It's my dog's name, bitch" she said, without even looking at him. "And if you speak ill of Kenji one more time, I'll throw you off the balcony."
"Mental note: don't speak ill of Kenji."
The system finally logged in, revealing a dark background with a Ziyoou-vachi[7] band logo. Icons scattered across the desktop. Folders with names like "School Shit" "Good Music," and "Don't Open (Seriously)."
She opened the browser, an Opera with a black and purple theme, and clicked on the search bar.
That's when Renjiro noticed.
There, somewhat faded in the list of previous searches, two letters appeared right at the top:
"BL"
He frowned. He turned to face her with a raised eyebrow.
"Reika… what's this 'BL' thing?"
Reika froze for a fraction of a second.
Takumi, who was already leaning over her shoulder, widened his eyes.
"BL…? Wait… like… Boys' Love?"
"Fuck it." Reika sighed and reflexively closed her browser, her face already a shade darker than usual. "First: it's not what you're thinking. Second: fuck it."
Renjiro let out a muffled laugh. It was his first since they'd left school.
"Nobody said anything."
"YOU said it! You asked!" She pointed an accusing finger at him. "And you too, Takumi! Your smile says it all!"
"Look, we don't judge." Takumi raised his hands. "I have two cousins who read yaoi more diligently than they study. It's culture."
Reika snorted, but ended up smiling, one of those embarrassed smiles with feigned anger that only appeared when you were caught off guard.
"You guys are unbearable."
Renjiro leaned back further on the bed, relaxing a little.
"So, are you going to do some research or are we going to stay here uncovering the secrets of your browsing history?"
"Shut up." Reika reopened the browser, this time ignoring the automatic shortcuts. "Now seriously."
She began to type:
"supernatural disappearance school student Japan"
Takumi moved closer, resting his chin on the back of the chair like a curious dog.
"Sounds like the title of a Netflix indie film."
Renjiro, quieter now, watched the screen. There was something comforting about the three of them being there, doing something as mundane as Googling... after the surreal experience they had just lived through.
Reika started clicking through forums, obscure blogs, old pages. Some similar accounts began to appear, stories of students who disappeared in old schools, accounts of classrooms that seemed to change on their own, notebooks found with nonsensical phrases...
"Look at this one" Reika said, clicking on a link with a black background and red font, clearly from an abandoned blog. "Someone in Osaka described a 'corridor that stretched forever' inside a school. And a shadow that spoke in overlapping voices."
Takumi seemed scared.
"It's like what we saw... only less beautiful."
Renjiro, however, was quiet. His eyes fixed on an image that appeared in the post, a drawing of a mask with deep slits in place of eyes.
"Reika."
"Yes?"
"Keep this."
She looked at him, noticing the gravity in his tone.
"Okay. I'll put it away."
Takumi stretched and rested his chin on Reika's shoulder, teasingly.
"But just put this away, okay? Enough BL for today."
"I'll smack the laptop on your head."
Renjiro chuckled softly. And for a moment, just one, the world outside seemed far away.
But inside him... he knew.
That mask he saw.
That figure.
That thing that called to him.
It was only beginning.
9:07 AM | Reika's Room
Silence returned to the room, heavy but not uncomfortable. Just... strange. The three of them absorbed what they had just seen on the screens and what they had felt in the last few hours.
Renjiro ran a hand through his hair, still sitting on the bed. His gaze was fixed on some point on the carpet, but his mind wandered much further.
"What if this is just stories?" he said, without looking at anyone. "Like... made up. Boring people with too much time and too much imagination. There's no proof. Just random texts and forums of crazy people."
Reika turned her head slightly towards him.
"That's exactly what someone who didn't see what we saw would say."
Renjiro swallowed hard. It hit him like a punch in the stomach.
"You saw it. I saw it. Takumi saw it. It was real. Or... it seemed real."
"It didn't seem real." Reika straightened up, her eyes already glistening with the same sparkle she got when she decided something important. "It was."
She slammed her laptop shut, jumped out of bed, and walked to the corner of the room.
She took off her shoes first. She carefully placed them against the wall. Then, one by one, she slowly slid off her socks, almost as if she were removing an invisible suit of armor. First her right foot, her toes flexing against the cold floor, then her left, her heels touching the ground with a small sigh.
Her toenails were painted black, but the polish was starting to chip at the tips. A small detail, but so human that it contrasted with the strangeness of the rest of the day.
She stretched her feet, wiggled her toes as if relieved to finally feel free in her own home. Next, she picked up an old black spiral notebook from the desk, with creased pages and a blue pen clipped to the side.
She sat cross-legged on the rug and opened to the first free page.
"What are you doing?" asked Takumi, still in his chair.
"Writing." she said, without looking back.
Renjiro watched her.
"Writing what?"
"Everything." Reika began scribbling quickly. "From the first time Yumi walked away, to Renjiro's name in the notebook, the classroom changing, the... everything. I won't forget. And if this keeps happening... we'll need to remember every detail."
Takumi grimaced.
"It looks like a school apocalypse survival diary."
"Good. Then that's it." She continued writing, her eyes fixed on the paper, focused. "If it all comes back… if one of us goes crazy… that will be the only proof that it wasn't all made up."
Renjiro lay on his back on the bed, his arms crossed behind his head. The ceiling seemed farther away than it should be.
And right there, in the silence of her room, where everything should be safe…
He still felt that presence. As if, somewhere in the shadows of the room, someone was watching, without eyes, without a body, but with intention.
Reika continued writing, without stopping.
And each letter she traced seemed to capture the events on paper… as if she wanted to make sure that, even if the world forgot, they wouldn't.
9:19 AM | Reika's Room
The prolonged silence began to weigh heavily again, until Reika stopped writing and, without raising her eyes, said:
"Do you want to hear what I wrote?"
Renjiro turned his head toward her. Takumi stopped fidgeting in his chair.
"Go ahead." Renjiro replied, his voice lower than he expected.
Reika cleared her throat, turned slightly, and began to read:
"Day 1. Something we shouldn't have seen. Room 2-C, Calligraphy Club. The school seemed... disconnected from reality. The air was heavy. There was no sound. No movement. Just the three of us. We found a notebook in the middle of the room. Renjiro's name was there, written as if it had been engraved with living ink. The atmosphere distorted. The floor... breathed ink. There was a figure. Faceless. Eyes... that weren't there, but we felt them."
She paused for a moment. The room seemed quieter than before.
"We don't know if it was real. But we all saw it. And we all felt the same. The school went back to normal when we left. The room was like new. But something stayed with us. Something that doesn't disappear with the light of day."
She closed her notebook slowly.
"That's it."
Takumi let out a low whistle.
"Damn it. You could send this to a horror story contest. You'd definitely win first place."
"This isn't a story, Takumi." Reika said, with no humor in her voice.
Renjiro was watching her intently. The way her posture shifted, always firm, always ahead of everything, fascinated him. But it was in the moments when she paused, when she lowered her eyes or moved her fingers unconsciously, that he saw the most real part of her.
"You… wrote this well." he murmured.
"It's just a notebook. I'm not a writer."
"Even so." he insisted. "We can notice how much you… saw."
Renjiro got off the bed and sat beside Reika.
Reika turned slightly to him. Now they were sitting side by side, their knees almost touching. For some reason, Renjiro noticed she hadn't put her socks back on. Her toes wiggled on the carpet in small, almost rhythmic movements, as if it calmed her.
"Are you looking at my feet?" she asked, without moving her head, but with a slight smile at the corner of her mouth.
Renjiro immediately looked away.
"N-no. I mean… sorry, I just… got distracted."
Takumi coughed dramatically from his chair.
"Sorry to butt in, but… this is getting too weird for me."
"Shut up, Takumi." they both murmured at the same time, which only made him laugh louder.
Reika, however, didn't back down. On the contrary, she adjusted herself to get even closer to Renjiro, her shoulder now lightly touching his.
"You know, it's strange..." she said softly. "In the midst of all this... I feel calmer here, with you guys, than anywhere else."
Renjiro turned slowly to her.
She kept her gaze forward, but her left hand, resting on the rug, moved slightly... until it brushed against his fingers.
It was a quick touch. Almost imperceptible.
But enough.
"Me too." he murmured.
Takumi stood up from his chair with a dramatic sigh.
"Fine, if you start making this a romance scene, I'll get tea or throw myself out the window. One of the two."
Reika threw a pillow at him without even turning her head.
"You're so annoying."
"I'm realistic. An idiot, but realistic."
Renjiro and Reika smiled. But their smiles were short-lived.
Because, at that exact moment, the laptop on the table made a mechanical click.
Just like that.
The screen lit up.
And in the still-open browser... a new tab appeared.
Without anyone touching it.
A black background.
And a single sentence in white in the center of the screen:
"DON'T WRITE ABOUT WHAT CAN'T BE SAID."
9:26 AM | Reika's Room
Silence fell over the three of them like a wet blanket.
The laptop, closed minutes ago, had turned on by itself.
The screen glowed with a pale light.
And that message was there, right in the center, in white letters on a browser tab that none of them had opened:
"DON'T WRITE ABOUT WHAT CAN'T BE SAID."
Reika stood motionless.
Renjiro too.
Takumi was the first to take a step back, as if the laptop were about to explode.
"It wasn't me..." he said in a hoarse whisper. "I swear on everything, I didn't touch it. I swear on my mother, my brother, even Kenji."
"Stay quiet." Reika murmured.
The laptop fell silent again. No sound. No movement. Only the screen light flickering, as if trying to stay lit.
Reika swallowed hard.
"It was closed. I closed that damn thing. I closed it."
"You saw." Renjiro said, his voice deep. "It was really closed."
"I don't want to be that guy, but… it looks like it read what we wrote." Takumi approached, but stopped halfway. "Like… like it heard."
Reika stood up slowly. Each step toward the laptop felt heavier than the last. The carpet muffled the sound, but all her muscles were tense, ready to run or fight.
She stopped in front of the desk.
The screen was still flickering.
Reika reached out and slowly lifted the laptop lid completely.
Click.
The screen adjusted to the movement, and the phrase was there, now perfectly centered:
"DON'T WRITE ABOUT WHAT CAN'T BE SAID."
But there was more.
A new line began to appear, letter by letter, as if someone were writing in real time.
"Ink has a taste. Ink hears. Ink sees."
Renjiro jumped to his feet, his fists clenched. He could feel his throat drying and his chest tightening. This was no coincidence. This was no system malfunction. This was a warning.
"Reika… shut this down. Now."
She hesitated. The cursor was still pulsing, as if it were about to type more.
Takumi was already packing his bag.
"I'm leaving. This has gone too far. Fuck it, this isn't fun, this isn't weird, this is wrong."
Reika didn't move.
Her face was pale, but her eyes, those eyes that missed nothing, were fixed on the screen.
Finally, on impulse, she pressed the power button.
The laptop shut down with a dry beep.
The light went out. Silence returned.
For a few seconds, no one said anything.
"It's not just school anymore." Renjiro finally said. "It's not just a notebook anymore. This... followed us!"
"Or it never left us..." Reika murmured.
Takumi, still standing, pointed at the laptop as if it were a dead animal.
"Forget what I said. I don't want to be that guy again. But... we have to tell someone. An adult, a priest, an exorcist, anyone."
Reika shook her head.
"If we tell now, they'll say we wrote it. Or that we've gone crazy."
"But that thing happened while the laptop was closed." Renjiro protested.
"And you think anyone will believe that without footage? Without proof? We'll just be three teenagers yelling about living ink and cursed phrases on an old computer."
Takumi threw himself back into his chair, frustrated. "This isn't just psychological anymore. It's interfering with technology. With the real world. I'll never sleep again."
Reika picked up the notebook again. She looked at the pages.
She closed it slowly.
"Maybe… maybe writing is the mistake."
Renjiro frowned.
"But you said we needed to record everything."
"Yes, I did." Reika bit her lower lip. "But now I don't know if we're documenting the facts… or feeding the thing, or things."
Takumi rubbed his face with both hands.
"So what do we do now? Throw everything away? Burn it? Run away to the mountains?"
Reika placed the notebook on the bed near Renjiro. Her hand touched his knee, in a brief, almost involuntary gesture, but there was warmth there. A contact that said "you're not alone" even without words.
Renjiro responded with a light touch of his hand on hers. A squeeze.
She didn't pull away.
"Now." Reika said, her voice calmer but heavy "Let's keep our heads cool. Sleep if you can. Tomorrow... we'll go back to school."
Takumi shouted:
"WHAT?!"
Reika turned, serious.
"This started there. And it will end there."
And, again, silence fell.
9:31 AM | Reika's Room
The silence was becoming unbearable. Renjiro's head was buzzing with thoughts, assumptions, and that constant weight on his chest, as if he were breathing inside a tight bag.
He suddenly sat up in bed.
"No... I can't." His voice came out firmer than I expected. "Sorry, but I need to get out of here. Even if it's just for a second."
Takumi looked at him with a look that oscillated between confusion and relief.
"Are you talking about running away?"
Renjiro was already crossing the room, his steps hurrying towards the door.
"It's not running away. It's... just air. It's getting out before this shit suffocates me."
Reika looked up, but said nothing. She watched him, and there was something in her eyes, a mixture of "respecting what he feels" and "he won't get out of here so easily".
Renjiro reached for the doorknob.
But the moment his fingers touched it...
BAM!
The door slammed shut violently, with brutal force, as if pushed by an invisible gust or an enraged will.
The three froze.
Takumi swallowed hard.
"Please say it was the wind."
Reika didn't answer.
The silence was now absolute.
Not even the sound of the street. Not even the creaking of the old wood of the house. Only the sound of their breaths, quick, tense.
Renjiro took two steps back. His body trembled. Not from pure fear, but from a feeling that was even worse... helplessness.
"Someone... is locking us in here?" he asked, as if wanting to confirm aloud what he already knew deep down.
Reika got up from the bed.
She put the notebook down on the floor and approached the door very slowly. She touched the doorknob. And then pulled it.
Nothing.
She turned it harder.
Nothing.
"It's locked." She said calmly. Too calmly.
Takumi jumped to his feet.
"What do you mean it's locked?! There's no key on this side!"
Renjiro ran his hands through his hair, feeling the sweat on his forehead. His heart pounded uncontrollably. This was no longer a coincidence. This was no longer hysteria. This was intention.
Someone, or something, didn't want to let them leave.
Reika rested her forehead against the wooden door for a second.
She took a deep breath.
Then she turned to the other two.
"Okay. This changed the rules."
Takumi trembled.
"Reika… what do you think is going on here?"
She looked at him. Then at Renjiro. And said in a low voice, without hesitation:
"We are trapped. Inside our own space. With something that doesn't want us to talk. That doesn't want us to run away. That... sees."
And at that instant, coming from the now-switched-off laptop...
A sound was heard.
A dry click.
Then a soft noise.
"shhhhhh."
As if someone were breathing... inside the machine.
9:34 AM | Reika's Room
"THAT'S ENOUGH!!" Renjiro exploded.
His voice echoed through the room like thunder. It was raw anger. It was seething frustration. It was fear transformed into fire.
He looked around, his eyes scanning the room as if something were there, hidden among shadows and ordinary objects.
"You want to play games with us?! With me?! Then SHOW YOURSELF! Show yourself, you son of a bitch!!"
Reika took a step towards him.
"Renjiro..."
"NO! I can't take this shit anymore! Close doors, type on the PC, whisperings?! What do you want from us?! What ARE YOU?!"
He turned to the laptop.
The screen was still off. Absolute silence.
But the tension in the air was like electricity, dense, sticky, impossible to ignore.
In a brutal gesture, Renjiro ripped open the laptop.
The screen lit up... by itself.
Without loading anything.
And for a second, just one.
The background was black.
But then... it began.
A sequence of images, appearing in quick flashes. One after the other. Without context. Without explanation.
A child's eye, dilated.
A torn notebook, covered in symbols.
Fingers stained with black ink, broken at wrong angles.
A room, 2-C, filled with bodies drawn in charcoal on the walls, like shadows of those who are no longer there.
And then... a figure.
It floated in the center of the screen. Humanoid. Faceless.
Elongated limbs, like wet paintbrushes.
Eyes, nonexistent, but pulsating.
Like two stains of living ink trying to look inside him.
And then... the worst part.
Renjiro's own face.
With his skin ripped open.
But instead of flesh... only ink oozing out.
He staggered backward.
His stomach churned.
The sound coming from the laptop was now damp, viscous. Like ink being squeezed from inside something living. And on the screen, the ink Renjiro began to smile.
A smile that shouldn't exist. Slow. Wide. Unnatural.
Renjiro screamed.
"ENOUGH!!"
He slammed the laptop shut with a violent snap and threw it against the wall.
CRASH!
The computer slammed shut, the lid flying off, the screen cracking. But... the sound continued. That repulsive sound still echoed from the device as if it were alive.
Reika ran to him, grabbed his shoulders tightly.
"Renjiro! Renjiro, look at me! Breathe, you hear?!"
He fell to his knees, hands to his face, his chest rising and falling uncontrollably.
"What did I see…? What… that was ME… was ME…!"
Takumi stood still, pale as wax.
"This… this is like a warning? Or a premonition?"
Reika pulled Renjiro closer, forcing him to rest his forehead on her shoulder.
"No. It's nothing like that. This is a trap. It's trying to break us."
Renjiro wept without tears. It was as if his despair was seeping out through his skin, through his pores, through the trembling sound of his voice.
"It's inside me… that… it's inside me…"
Reika squeezed him tighter.
"It's not. You're here. With us. With me."
Silence.
But even so...
Even in that position, embraced in the middle of the room, the cracked laptop screen flickered one last time.
And in the cracked crevices, a new phrase emerged.
As if it had been engraved from within the glass.
"The face has already been chosen."
9:38 AM | Reika's Room
BZZZT.
The ceiling light flickered one last time…
…and went out.
The room plunged into total darkness. Not that soft, comfortable darkness of night, but a dense, heavy darkness that seemed to have texture. As if it were made of thick paint that suffocated the air.
Takumi held his breath.
Renjiro was kneeling, still trembling.
Reika turned her face to the window, but…
even the daylight had disappeared.
It was as if the world outside had been switched off.
"It's not natural…" she murmured. "None of this is."
Takumi groped until he found the wall.
"Don't fuck with me. Is this like… the beginning of the end?"
Silence.
And it was in that silence that something rare happened.
Renjiro reached out his hand.
And took Reika's. She looked at him. Even in the dark, his eyes shone, not with strength, but with honest fragility.
"I… I can't do it alone..." he said, his voice trembling. "I… need you to stay."
Reika squeezed his hand back.
"We're with you, idiot."
Takumi sat beside them, saying nothing for a second. Then, with a whisper:
"The world may be crumbling. But if it's you… then fuck it. We'll face it."
The first connection.
The first spark.
The raw truth between three broken souls.
And it was there… that it began.
The Awakening.
The air crackled like breaking glass.
A wet, living sound began to echo through the room, as if something were crawling along the walls… inside them.
Renjiro arched his body.
His hands gripped the carpet.
Black veins began to form beneath the skin.
Like ink coursing through his arteries, burning the flesh from within.
"AAAAHHH!!"
The pain was unbearable. Every bone vibrating. Every nerve being pulled.
As if something was trying to burst out.
Reika fell backward, clutching her throat, her whole body contorting.
A whisper entered her ears.
It wasn't a voice.
It was dance.
It was broken music.
It was rhythm in pain.
Takumi screamed, his chest opening into scars that hadn't existed seconds before.
A strange pattern.
Ancient. Wild. Primordial.
And then...
Three stains appeared.
Not in the room.
Inside them.
Renjiro saw a veil tear within his mind.
On the other side, eyes that weren't eyes.
And a voice.
"Accept me, bearer. You were chosen not by luck…
…but by emptiness."
Reika heard laughter. A thousand voices in unison.
And the dance of death.
The music that never ends.
"You will be my mask. But I… am your reflection."
Takumi saw a tree made of bones, shrouded in shadows that spoke in forgotten dialects.
And at the top… an empty throne.
Calling to him.
"Don't run from who you are. Because you are already inside me."
The three screamed at the same time.
Not just in pain, but in transformation.
The flesh burned.
The soul tore.
The room spun in an impossible loop.
And then…
Silence.
The sound ceased.
The light returned, weak, flickering, as if the world were restarting.
And there they were.
Fallen on the floor. Sweating. Uncontrollable tremors. Clothes clinging to their bodies.
But... alive.
And in their hands, or beside them, three masks.
Organic.
Alive.
Breathing.
9:45 AM | Reika's Room
Dim light. Absolute silence.
Renjiro was the first to move.
But he didn't even seem human.
His hands trembled uncontrollably as he tried to support himself on the floor. His arms gave way. His legs felt like jelly. His whole body was covered in cold sweat, as if he had just emerged from a physical nightmare.
He coughed. A dry, raspy cough that made him lean forward, almost vomiting.
Reika was still lying on her side, her eyes open... but blurry.
She breathed as if she had run miles.
Her chest rose and fell with difficulty, and her lips were parted, trying to find words that wouldn't come.
Takumi was leaning against the wall, his legs bent against his chest, staring blankly with a completely lost expression.
The room seemed too small. The air, too heavy.
The silence lasted almost two minutes.
Two long minutes.
Endless.
And then...
"What was that...?" Renjiro murmured, his voice broken.
None of the others answered.
He looked at his hands, stained with dried ink, blood on his wrists, small cuts from which something black oozed. It wasn't normal blood. It was thick. Shiny. Almost... alive.
His eyes met the mask in front of him.
It was motionless.
But... it was breathing.
Slowly. As if it were sleeping.
Reika finally moved her fingers. She gripped the rug tightly, as if it were the only thing still connecting her to reality.
"The pain... the pain was real..." she murmured.
"I... I thought I was going to die!" Takumi said, his voice choked. He was trembling so much that his teeth were chattering. "I thought my body was going to... tear apart inside."
"Maybe it tore..." Renjiro said in a whisper.
"I don't want it anymore!" Takumi said, his voice rising, uncontrollably. "This… this shouldn't happen! This… this isn't fair!"
"Fair?" Reika choked, sitting up with effort. "None of this has anything to do with justice. It's not a punishment. It's not a gift. It's just… it's just shit. Shit that got us."
The three fell silent again.
Renjiro rubbed his eyes with his palm.
His head was still spinning. His stomach churned. And yet, he stared at the mask in front of him, cracked at the top, asymmetrical in shape, lines like pulsing veins.
He slowly stretched out his hand.
But stopped halfway.
"I don't want to touch it…" he said. "But also… I can't help but look." Takumi sniffed, wiping his nose with his sleeve.
"How… how is this happening? Like… is this magic? A spirit? A curse? A disease? I don't know what to think. I don't know if I want to know."
Reika looked at hers.
It was different from the others. Light, with elegant features, but at the same time, distorted, as if it had been molded in a bad dream.
She touched it with two fingers.
Cold.
But then… warm.
Warm as skin.
She immediately withdrew her hand, startled.
"It has a heartbeat." she whispered.
Renjiro looked at her.
"What?"
"A heartbeat." She placed her hand on her chest. "Like… an organism. A being."
Takumi recoiled, eyes wide.
"So it's not just symbolic?! This… this is alive?"
Silence.
Reika ran her tongue over her dry lips.
"I think… we're connected to them. Like a pact. An open wound that won't close."
Renjiro ran his hands over his face again, now more calmly. The tremors were subsiding.
But inside him… there was something new.
Something that wasn't there before.
Something that was watching him.
And that spoke softly.
Almost like a thought.
But it wasn't his.
"We're different now..." he said. "Not on the outside. On the inside. As if… as if we've been ripped from who we were."
Reika nodded. Slowly.
Takumi remained silent, his eyes fixed on his mask.
And for the first time since the beginning of everything…
The three understood:
This wasn't an isolated event.
It was the beginning.
[1] Even though she wasn't the prettiest girl in the whole school, or even had the best attitude, Reika was quite popular with the boys because she was closer to their tastes. I mean, their tastes were similar... In music, games, sports, whatever.
[2] Polysics are a Japanese new wave rock band from Tokyo who play hyperactive, synth‑driven “technicolor pogo punk” inspired by another band called Devo. Polysics songs are... quite curious to say the least... I mean, I'm not judging Reika or anything! If i was 10 years old and listened to that band's songs, I'd be wearing that shirt too! Make sure to check their songs out, seriously, it's a fun experience.
[3] Asian Kung-Fu Generation is a Japanese alternative rock band from Yokohama, formed in 1996, famous for anime openings like Naruto's "Haruka Kanata" and Bleach's "After Dark.". And boy oh boy... do I need to say anything else...? I highly recommend everyone to listen to their songs, straight up bangers.
[4] Ahem, Ling Tosite Sigure is a Japanese post-hardcore/math rock trio from Saitama, formed in 2002, known for C H A O T I C tempo shifts and intricate guitars, very intricate guitars. Please, give this band a chance, they're... amazing.
[5] Shiina Ringo is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician born in 1978, famed for her eclectic rock-pop style and as founder/lead of Tokyo Jihen. Her songs are... beautiful. Listen to them. I beg you.
[6] Nirvana was the American grunge rock band from Aberdeen, Washington, formed in 1987 by Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. Another banger band, no words.
[7] Ziyoou-vachi (also known as Queen Bee) is a Japanese "fashion punk" rock band from Kobe, formed in 2009. Their songs are a blast.