Realms: "Kakurenbo? Sukima Onna- ASH

Chapter 26: Voices

Her classmates looked upon her with bitter expressions or glanced at her with fear in their eyes. Akane and her friends simply looked down at her with a malevolent grin on their faces. Taro was still nowhere to be seen. The moment the ear-piercing siren rang, Karin turned her back to look once more at the empty seat then left. The walking pace was the same as the world seemed to have darkened, as if the world's colour had been washed out.

Taro would've described the setting as 'A dull world as the rain splatters swept colour away.' His words that could describe the first break literal and figurative; it was dull due to the clouds blocking sunlight from reaching student's eyes, the clouds may be hoarding heavy rain. '-rain splatters swept colour away' is a metaphor to match how different it was without the bright colours in the world.

It was usually a school full of talking and noise just like the city of Tokyo, now it was as silent as an abandoned village in the forest area. Even to the fact that Taro and Rei where absent, Rei, well- she does get suspended every once in a while thanks to Akane, but Taro's absence in particular somewhat told her that something was off. He would never miss school unless he was extremely sick, even with small symptoms like coughing and a runny nose Taro was persistent, he'll wear a mask. Or unless at some sort of family meeting whatsoever.

His name was also not said during the roll call. Taro was actually at his music competition up in Tokyo to compete against other schools. He did tell Karin that he got selected for the Elementary Seniors Music Specialist Classes every Tuesday for the entire day each week, must have forgotten the important fact that it already commenced at the beginning of the new school year.

She spent her morning break sitting with the grade sixes who played basketball with her talking about the big race before heading off to play ball. Voices around the people she sat with blurred out as she ate, the same thing happened during basketball, it was as if something held her back...from speaking nor hearing.

She was back there, the other realm. Alone. It seemed darker than before, with an aroma of revolting, rotting corpses, but the presence of another filled the empty floors. Someone was watching her very closely at every move she took across the corridor with the lifeless hands. Rei carried the same things as before, in her pocket, red tape, a silent phone, lighter and a Sai Hairpin wrapped up in her hair.

The corridor seemed longer than before, the walls weren't clean, they were stained with blood and scratch marks indicating torture. Rei was barefoot, the floors were mopped with blood too with miniscule fragments of bones scattered all over the area pierced into her feet painfully, yet she kept walking on.

The walk was painstaking, Rei swore that something misty was going on, as if something following her from behind with a revolting smell coveting the galleries. As voices like the ones she heard whence she looked upon the door hauled her to the end. Each step Rei took was unsettling, behind her a single voice screamed in agony and pain as the floors lit up the colour of fire to fill the darkness which put a night's killing spree. But whenever she turned around, nothing there, just that awful pong room.

The shrieks of behind grew louder as if Rei was somewhat there, trying to walk away faster to ring the sound off her ears, even to the point the tiny bone fragments penetrated her feet grotesquely when she ran. Couldn't take any longer, no, it was unbearable to where it went numb, could no longer take the agony in her heel anymore. She squinted her eyes shut tight and sung her body around then finally turning around to face what ever happened behind.