Waking Up in Wonderland

Kyohei

Halo Two: Kyohei:

For five days, a huge blood stain coated the high concrete wall. Kyohei had cleaned it every time to help renovate this one apartment so that Evie, the realtor, can sell to a few buyers interested. Each time he came in for work in the morning, that blood stain would be on the high wall in the hallway coming to the front door. He just couldn't understand it.

"What the hell?" he wondered. "Didn't I just clean this yesterday?" One day, was okay. But five days? Even Evie began to take notice.

"Kadota-san," she spoke up as she looked at the stain on the wall on day six.

"Yeah," Kyohei replied.

"What is that?" she asked as she pointed to the stain on the wall.

"Blood," Kyohei replied.

"Uh-huh," she said. "Now, why is it there?"

"I have no idea."

"Isn't this your job to clean up things like this?"

"Yes."

"So... why is this still here?"

"I have no idea."

"Didn't they hire you to clean up messes like this?"

"I don't know what to tell you. I keep cleaning it up and it comes back every day."

The blonde American frowned at him. She narrowed her eyes at him. "And you're saying that it just appears here every night?"

He was about to speak when they heard someone say, "Guys." The pair looked up to see a security guard who happened to be getting off shift for the morning who just took one sweep around the building. Evie looked at him oddly.

"What?" she asked without even trying to be polite about it.

"I know about the blood stain," the guard said. Kyohei and Evie looked at him with new interest.

"What about it?" the former asked. The security guard pressed his lips together. He almost wished that he hadn't said anything at this point, but they just had to know the truth.

"Come with me," he said in a low voice. He led the duo to the main office on the ground floor. The three of them crowded around the TV and VCR at the front desk. The guard held an old tape in his hand.

"This is from six years ago," he said. The guard popped in the tape and pressed play.

December 12th, 2005.

The whole footage was grainy, but it gave off a picture clear enough for the trio to see. A woman in a walked down the hall as she held her white coat to her chest. She looked about thirty years old with her eyes to her black boots. Her light pink purse hung loosely by her left arm. She trembled with every step that she took.

Kyohei raised an eyebrow at the screen. "Who is that?" he asked. The guard waved his hand to quiet him down.

"This is where it gets really creepy," he said.

The woman in the video stopped in place and looked nervously behind her. Suddenly, a deep gray haze swallowed and shoved the woman against the hallway wall. The cloud grew in thirty seconds and the woman's blood splattered all over the wall and carpet. When the thick haze slowly drew back, no other trace of the woman remained. She just disappeared.

The footage went black and cut off into dead air.