Even more horrifying, the couple’s mouth opened and began to answer.
“P-Please, help us. Please, help… hicc.”
“Answer the question first.”
Suddenly.
Tears stread from their eyes.
“……!”
“The child, the child is in the bathroom.”
“That poor child. Please, please help…”
“You’re already trapped, too. It’s too late… please help…”
“……”
The security team mber called ‘sergeant’ just stared at them.
“What’s upstairs?”
“There’s sothing evil. Don’t go up. No, you need to run away from here.”
“Maybe you can still escape. Sohow, to the outside…”
“Hmm……”
Pondering, the security team mber raised a hand toward them.
And in the next mont.
“…Enough.”
…Snap.
With a sound as clear as it was final, the couple’s necks were broken.
The skinny security officer, with one hand on each neck, crushed and twisted the bones with such bizarre strength, spinning them backward.
With total nonchalance.
……
Did he just.
……
Kill them?
“Ah, we’ve confird everything we needed, then.”
“Yeah.”
“Understood. …Mr. Caller, you should be all right now. Please hand over what you’re holding.”
His hands trembled.
Sothing was terribly wrong.
No human could do sothing like that…
“Mr. Caller?”
The sales rep forced himself to look down at his own hand.
He was holding the sketchbook paper.
And on it, new words appeared.
iM scAred
Truly.
mOnsTer
Suddenly.
The sales rep turned his head.
To the spot right beside the pantry.
The answer the paper had been hinting at all along.
…The place even the dead couple had ntioned.
bAthROom tub
The bathroom.
The sales rep ran—
“No can do.”
“…!!”
His head was seized.
Gasping for air, the sales rep looked up and saw, covering his face, a grotesque and enormous shape.
A beast’s forepaw with countless claws.
“Stay… right here……”
The sales rep blinked. The fear of death left him paralyzed…
He’s going to die.
“Teacher, let go of what’s in your hand! Listen to the rules your colleague tells you. That’s how you can be the perfect teacher!”
His hand loosened. The sketchbook paper slipped away.
No.
“Should I read it…?”
“No. You’ll get contaminated if you read it, so later…”
The sales rep moved his eyes, the only thing he could control. Run. Where should he run. Front door, living room, upstairs, window…
‘Ah.’
Right.
He could escape through the window!
Why didn’t he think of that? Yes, if he died going out the front, he could go out the window. He had to escape, escape right now… now!
He struggled, trying to crawl to the window, kicking, pushing at the beast’s paw with his nails, but nothing worked. He couldn’t give u—
“If you go there… you’ll die.”
……
Huh?
“Just stay still…”
“D, Die? Why…”
“Mm. Because… you get closer to the source…?”
The source?
He turned his head.
“You should rember. You said it yourself, Mr. Caller.”
What?
“When you reported, you said it… this house felt strange now and then.”
“……”
The employee stopped in his tracks.
He rembered what he’d yelled into the pager, the desperate plea for help.
What his superior had said.
“The rain…”
– That house feels a little off, especially when it rains.
The sales rep looked at the window.
Outside, the rain fell in a steady drizzle…
……
“On rainy days… That’s right……”
The slow, apathetic voice crept chillingly into his ear.
“They say if you open a black umbrella inside the house while it’s still wet, sothing will co in… If you leave wet shoes upside down, a ghost will wear them…”
“Sergeant, is that true?”
“No……”
The sergeant glanced at Badger with eyes devoid of reflection, then continued in a slow voice.
“Most of it’s just… nonsense……”
“Oh.”
“But… sotis…… they say things like that can actually cause it to happen……”
Darkness.
The employee, who had once been a supervisor on the Field Exploration Team, filled in the word the sergeant didn’t bother to add.
The sergeant’s explanation wasn’t finished.
“And… you know there’s that other story……”
“……”
“When you’re walking with an umbrella in the rain, and you hear a strange whisper, a voice talking to you from sowhere beyond… Don’t answer…”
……
“Because it’s not human…”
The sales rep t the sergeant’s eyes.
“Hey, did anyone keep trying to talk to you……?”
At that mont.
“Supervisor Lee?”
The sales rep froze.
“Supervisor Lee, are you there?”
A familiar voice ca from the front door.
Knock, knock, knock.
Soone was knocking on the door.
“Supervisor Lee, open the door, will you? What’s going on in there?”
It was…
“Why aren’t you coming out?”
The voice of his dead superior.
Knock, knock, knock, knock.
The body of the assistant manager, whose neck had been twisted and left in the entryway, had vanished.
Now, only the sound of soone knocking on the door from the other side echoed beyond the rain…
Accompanied by the assistant manager’s voice.
“Open this up. You need to co out, too.”
All strength left the sales rep’s body.
The sergeant released his grip on the employee’s head. With a thud, the sales rep collapsed to the floor, looking dazed.
‘Wow…’
Badger watched this, quietly impressed.
He realized the sergeant’s expertise in exploring Darknesses, concealed behind that lifeless manner of speaking.
It was the kind of skill the clever youngest mber of the D-squad might have gained after a few more years on the Field Exploration Team…
…No, well. Since they were both now assigned to the Security Team, it was a aningless thought. Badger caught himself, thinking he’d almost been rude.
anwhile, the voices multiplied.
“People! There’s people here. Are you alright?”
“Aigoo. This old woman here fell down… Could you help ?”
“…Wait a minute, the grandmother of this house died years ago… Don’t listen. Sothing’s wrong here!”
Upstairs, the master bedroom, past the kitchen door…
Voices ca from every direction, as if everyone who had ever been in the house had suddenly regained consciousness after the blackout.
They drew closer and closer…
Along with the sound of rain.
“Where are you?”
“…! Don’t answer the voice from upstairs. There’s no one up there right now…!”
“Be careful. I think there’s sothing wrong here…”
Footsteps.
And then.
“Ah, the door opened.”
……
“I’m coming. Where are you?”
Even the dead assistant manager.
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