The House in Which Nightmares Dwell 10.3

[touchturnfly]

3

 

She was completely enveloped in darkness. To Mai it felt like she was in a pitch dark room.

"... ... I'm sorry ... ..."

A dim voice could be heard from in the darkness.

She heard this voice before -- No, she heard this voice extremely often. A sarcastic voice, an insulting voice. Even though it was a voice she heard so often yesterday and today to the point she got fed up with it, this actually wasn't Naru's voice. Mai knew that.

-- It was his voice.

Mai blinked her eyes. She didn't know whether she was happy or sad.

"... ... Where are you?"

Her surroundings were pitch dark and she couldn't see anything. Of course she couldn't see anyone either, and she didn't even know where the darkness came from or how far this darkness stretched out.

Mai turned her head around. No reply came from anywhere.

"... ... Why? Why are you still in a place like this?"

He helped her so many times in her dreams. She thought that she would never be able to meet him again. In fact, ever since his body was pulled out of that lake by the dam in the summer, Mai hadn't seen him even once in her dreams.

"Why?"

Only a voice answered.

"I can't leave."

"Eh," Mai looked in the darkness, in the direction of where the voice seemed to come from.

"-- I can see the exit, but I can't get near no matter what I do."

"Why... ..."

"Even I don't know. I don't know why, but it was like that from the beginning."

"... ... From the beginning?"

Mai widened her eyes. However, only darkness was reflected in her eyes.

"Didn't you want your body to be found? Didn't you want to return home?"

There was a short pause before he replied.

"I knew from the very beginning that I could no longer go home... ..."

"No way," Mai was about to say, but held her mouth.

-- It was sad, but that was the truth.

He came to Japan, but died in this country. At least, that was how Naru saw it. An approaching car. The car that went towards him after he had been hit and couldn't move. The scene that she'd heard from Naru once, had become a part of Mai herself at some point. She was even able to imagine the sound of the engine and the dull light that was reflected on the car body.

Then his body was pulled out from the place Naru had indicated. Almost two years had passed.

"I'm sorry, ... ... I did something unnecessary. You must have been scared?"

His voice was the same pitch as Naru's, it was the same tone, but a little nicer.

"Yeah... ..."

"Naru wouldn't say anything even if he saw it. I thought so, but I shouldn't have done that"

Mai hung her head and shook it.

"It's terrible, but, right now I'm really happy."

Mai covered her face.

"This is terrible, right. But I'm just so happy to meet you again... ..."

She sensed a person's presence coming near her. When she looked up, she could see his graceful white face looking somewhat awkward.

"... ... I'm sorry."

He made the same face as Naru when he said that. No matter how much they looked alike, the person she saw before her eyes wasn't Naru.

-- I wonder if twins that look so much alike are actually that rare.

Madoka was the one who said that. She took care of the office while Naru returned to his country for the funeral.

-- They really lookalike. It was almost as if they were the same person.

That's why she thought that the one appearing in her dreams was Naru the whole time. She never once doubted it. Even though he really annoyed her numerous times, she thought she must have really liked him if he appeared in her dreams.

-- What a funny story.

"Smile... ...?"

Because she really, really liked seeing his smiling face.

"If you want to apologize, smile?"

He made a small, awkward smile.

"... ... Gene... ..."

That was the first time she called him by his name.

A soft smile appeared on his white face. It looked like Naru smiled. She couldn't help but think that the brothers looked so much alike.

 

I guess this what 'to lose your way' means, she thought. -- Indeed, he said.

"I found it strange as well, but I can't think of any other reason why I can't get out."

"I see."

"Currently I don't know it either. I'm sleeping the whole time and once in a while I suddenly wake up. It sort of feels like that. But I understand that I chase after Mai and the others while I'm consciously dreaming."

"So you were beside us the whole time."

"Probably. -- But, I'm not sure. Because I'm mostly sleeping. I get absent-minded and it's troublesome to even think about things or look at something. I just feel drowsy the whole time. ... ... Do you understand?"

"Somehow."

"Then I suddenly woke up. Until just now it felt like all the things that dissolved inside of me suddenly returned. Then I was certain that this was an investigation."

"... ... Hmm. How strange... ..."

The two of them were sitting alone in the darkness. Mai looked his profile as he sat next to her.

"Didn't you call out to Naru?"

"I called him. But my voice can't reach him at all. I wonder if our antenna is out of sync. Even if I try calling out to him as usual, it's all in vain. ... ... Your wavelength is closer."

"Is that so... ..."

"I was able to make relatively quick contact though. But only if Naru tries hard to concentrate his consciousness."

"I see," Mai nodded.

"I got impatient because my voice couldn't reach him, that's why I pretended to be him in order to use you. -- I'm sorry."

"Not at all, I'm also sorry. If I realized it earlier and told Naru about these dreams, you would have been able to contact him."

He let out a chuckle.

"Would Naru listen to what I'd have to say? That's another problem."

"Really?"

"He'd probably end up yelling at me to move on quickly, I guess."

Mai giggled.

"... ... Five people died here."

Mai stopped giggling at those sudden words.

"-- There's five?"

Then the ones who died were not only the parents and the child?

"Everyone was killed. One elderly person, a middle-aged man and woman, a boy and a girl. Currently all the spirits are hiding except for the mother. I think they're definitely afraid of outsiders."

"I see... ..."

"It will get worse after this."

Mai blinked.

"Worse?"

"Yes. Because they're impatient. They think they have to do something soon. They have to stop it from happening soon. -- Must not come back home, they say."

"Who are they talking about?"

"The girl, I suppose. They're warning the girl. Don't enter this house, they say.

"Is that girl... also here?"

"She's here," he said with a low voice.

"Well, then... ... That child died as well. ... ... Their warnings didn't come in time."

"I think so too. Four people have not realized that they're dead. They're trapped in the night of the tragedy and are unable to get out. But they worry about the girl who is supposed to return the next day. They tell her not to come home."

"... ... And the girl?"

He knit his eyebrows a little.

"... ... Why isn't anyone here?"

"That's -- the girl?"

"Perhaps. That girl is trapped inside her anxiety. Because she couldn't feel the presence of her family in the home she returned to and because she somehow felt a very unpleasant premonition."

"Then that girl also doesn't know that she died... ...?"

He merely nodded.

"How pitiful... ..."

-- Kosori came. He killed the boy's family. Even now they were trapped inside a nightmare in which Kosori wandered about.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I'm truly sorry... ... I don't know what kind of visions Naru is seeing until the line is connected."

"No, it's fine."

Mai smiled, looking at him.

"Do you have something to say to Naru?" Mai asked and his expression hardened.

"Tell him to be careful."

"-- Eh?"

"I can feel hatred. The souls of people who were murdered here are wandering around. -- But that's not all."

"... ... That's not all?"

"I don't quite know what it is yet. Are they scared, are they hiding or have they yet to appear? It's not clear either whether they are bad spirits or whether they have ill intentions. -- But what's certain is that there are depressing thoughts drifting in this house."

Mai's body became tense.

"Is the wandering family at its wits end and baring its fangs, or is there something else? I don't know. However, this isn't the end. Something dark will rapidly approach. It will be dangerous if you lose focus. -- Tell him that."

"... ... Understood."

After he nodded once, he soundlessly stood up. Mai also stood up as if drawn to him. All of a sudden he went away. Or perhaps it was Mai who had become more distant.

"... ... We'll meet again, right?"

She called him in the direction of the darkness that swallowed him up, but there was no answer from anywhere.

---

Back to Chapter 10.2 | Forward to Chapter 10.4