The House in Which Nightmares Dwell 15.4

[touchturnfly]

4

His lungs screamed. His knees shook and he couldn't move for a while.

"Can the young’un stand?"

Takigawa asked in a happy-go-lucky voice, and Hirota shook his head.

"Just, leave me alone, for a bit."

"Is that so? -- That being the case, what do we do this guy?"

"If there is a cord or a rope I think it would be better if we tied him up."

"I have no idea where to find those. -- Well, where should we put him?"

Takigawa-san said and held Takeshi's feet. He dragged him down the corridor without mercy, opened the door of the dressing room and pushed him inside.

"Heave-ho. Young’un, if you are sitting down anyway, go sit here and become a stone weight."

He was pulled and placed in front of the door of the dressing room by Takigawa. He frowned, thinking he was a man who recklessly used brute force, and if he wasn't going to move any more than this anyway and finished, it felt like it didn't matter at all.

"Why did you return?"

"Because of this and that."

The moment Takigawa said that, Naru's voice shouted from the direction of the living room.

"Bou-san! It's coming!"

'What is coming?' Hirota looked over to Naru who ran into the corridor, but Takigawa turned around the other way in that moment. He was facing into the direction of the backdoor which Naru pointed out, and put himself on guard.

"What's wrong?"

"You, stay there."

Down the corridor, the door feigning to be a full-length mirror opened up towards the outside. A somewhat bright square hole cut open in the dark corridor.

The floorboards below the hand of Hirota who was sitting down, squeaked. The chilled air contained the smell of thick blood, and flowed in from the open backdoor.

"... ... What?"

Hirota said, and was able to hear footsteps stepping on the ground. That was the moment it showed up in the open backdoor. The figure of a man holding a hatchet. The upper half of his body was naked, and he wore a knife on his belt, as if he were mimicking Takeshi. What made him different from Takeshi is the fact that the man's body was covered in blood as if he was without any sense of right or wrong.

The man made teeth grinding sounds and ascended up from the lower-lying back yard towards the corridor. The house appeared warped in Hirota's eyes. The floorboards made sounds as if they were shrieking for help, making him wonder just how much mass he had.

"On kirikiri bazara bagiri hora mandamanda un hatta."

The man made a sound of recognition and stopped, but he soon stepped towards the corridor. The floorboards whined greatly. Cold air streamed in and Takigawa's breaths turned white before he knew it.

"On amari to nau soba un hatta."

The man slowly raised the hatchet overhead. Takigawa also released his fingers and raised one hand.

"Rin Pyou Tou Shaa Kai Jin Retsu Zai Zen -- Naumaku sanmanda bazaradan kan!"

'What is it,' Hirota thought. It was like a red light. And it went through the corridor without stopping, towards the front and the back, and ran through him. Just like that, it truly might have been an illusion.

The man staggered and went one step forward. The hatchet dropped from his hand. It should have fallen between the various things that were placed in the corridor, but there was no sound. Furthermore, he had taken a step forward, but his knee broke. And like that, he stepped forward again, about to advance forward with his knees standing, but he fell down on that place without accomplishing anything.

As Hirota watched attentively without saying anything, his figure gradually faded and disappeared.

Takigawa gave a broad smile.

"Alright, it's over. -- Let's go home."

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