Strings and Buttons

Chapter 7: The Hallway

They dropped off his dad at the railroad station, where he would take the train to a meeting over the new clothesline. Katsuki waved goodbye, but he didn't wave back. Mitsuki had followed the directions to the department store where the school stated where he could buy the uniform. 

Katsuki spotted a pair of orange and black boots that he really liked, but Mitsuki preferred to stick to the school's grey sweaters, black ties, belts and dark grey pants. 

"Do you really need to buy six fucking pairs of the same shit?" 

Mitsuki rolled her eyes and continued to pile the bleak looking clothes into the metal cart. 

"Doesn't fucking matter how many pairs i buy. Your ass is going to need clean ones, and i don't want you wasting time looking for some when you could be studying." 

Katsuki looks at one of the grey sweaters, baggy and way too big for him. When he had told this to his mother, she had just said (With a roll of her eyes) 

"Then just tuck it into your pants." 

Katsuki was about to say something else, but she had already turned away from him, now talking to the department store clerk, who nodded along with everything the blonde women said with such enthusiasm Katsuki would have thought his mom was talking about the most interesting thing in the world, except she was talking about which pants to get him. 

The rest of the trip was as boring as anything else, Katsuki wondering aimlessly next to his mother who would occasionally hold up a garment of clothing to his chest to check the size. They got home around the afternoon. 

The sun was shining brightly, no longer covered by the clouds for the first time since Katsuki had moved in. It was still cold as all hell though, the air slashing at his cheeks as they are walking out of the car and back into the house. 

His mom looks into the fridge and makes a frustrated sound. She shuts the fridge door and goes back to the door, wrapping her red scarf around her neck. 

"I'm going to the store really quick. Wanna come?" 

Katsuki is already halfway out of the kitchen. He doesn't bother to turn around to look at her. 

"No." 

Mitsuki didn't say anything, and she left, purse and wallet in hand. He doesn't know what he's going to do here, he figured he'd just go outside and see if the nerd is out since he doesn't know where he actually fucking lives. 

He goes up to his room to put on a better coat, but as he's about to go up the stairs, he looks into the drawing room. For some reason, he feels a pull to the room, making his feet move towards it. He doesn't bother looking around, going to the wooden door right away. 

he feels like he shouldn't be in here, just by himself. He doesn't know why, but that doesn't stop him. It doesn't stop him from reaching towards the doorknob, holding the key with the other, and inserting it into the keyhole. He takes a deep breath, the air feeling tense all of a sudden. 

The key turns smoothly, and with a satisfied click, Katsuki feels like something has changed. He unlocks the door and opens it, and what he sees makes him stare in shock. He doesn't see the brick wall that he thought he would, instead, he is looking into a dark hallway. 

There is a cold, musty smell coming from it, like something old and dusty. Taking a deep breath, the smell going into his nose and out again, his heart hammering in his chest. he takes a step inside. He goes further inside the hallway and turns around. 

Despite not hearing it, the door had shut behind him. He grips the key in his pocket and continues to walk. There are pictures on the hallway walls, of bright colored backgrounds and nice-looking cake. For some reason, it all feels oddly familiar. 

Like he's been here before. 

The carpet at his feet is the same one they have at the house, but that was a given. All the units had the same floor. And the same wallpaper. The same pictures hanging on the walls. Thats probably why he's getting so much Deja vu. 

He turns back to the door he had come from, but it's gone now. How long has he been walking? He stares at all of the features of the hallway, inspecting them closer. No, everything was slightly different. 

The wallpaper was cleaner, brighter. Not the chipping, dirty one they had back home. The pictures had a cheery feeling, but the pictures at home did nothing but give a sense of dread. Everything here is slightly... better looking. But still, he couldn't shake the feeling something was going on. 

He stops in the hallway, and his soul almost leaves out of his ass when he hears someone call his name. 

"Katsuki?" 

It's coming from the other end of the hallway, and it sounded a lot like... 

"Mom?" 

Katsuki walks out of the dark hallway towards the light, now inside of the kitchen. It's a lot better than the one at home, as he's beginning to realize about a lot of things in this house. A woman stands in the kitchen, her back to him. 

Her back looks a lot like his moms, but that couldn't be true. For one thing, why the hell would his mom be all the way over here when she said she was at the store? Why would she be in this hallway at the door? And why the hell is her skin paper white? 

Shes taller than he thought she had been.... How could she have grown taller in the span of twenty minutes? She was thinner too, and that's good and all but her fucking fingers are thin and long like some kind of skeleton. 

He sees them as she hums to herself, cutting up vegetables on a cutting board.