Nocturne of Nightmares (Fanfic)

Chapter 4

Leila looked around the room and noticed a window where the blood moon shone down on them through. 

"Are you ready, Leila?" Thoma asked.

"Yes! Let's do this!" Leila replied enthusiastically which made Thoma smile.

Leila grabbed her baseball bat as they all headed towards the door.

"Okay, splitting up will help us search for clues faster." Ray said. "Let's meet back here in half an hour." 

"But we don't have any way to tell the time." Thoma reminded.

Ray took a few things out from the pockets on the inside of his jacket.

"Are those stopwatches?" Leila asked.

"Right." Ray confirmed. "I figured if watches couldn't tell us the exact time here, maybe we could at least tell how much time has past."

'It's as if he expected us to be taken back to the Nightmare World tonight and came prepared.' Leila thought.

She now realised that, while she had spent her time denying the reality of it all, Ray was busy thinking of a solution.

"That's not a bad idea." Mina said as she gave him a half-smile.

"I replaced the batteries, so I know they'll last for a while." Ray said, ignoring the feeling he got when she smiled at him.

"Do they even work here though?" Leila asked.

"Let's find out." Thoma said as he pressed a button on the stopwatch.

The numbers danced across the screen rapidly, showing how the time was moving forward on the watch.

'It works!'

With that out of the way, there were enough stopwatches for each of them and they all took one for themselves. While the others were still deciding on what to do, Subaru flicked his torch on and was already out the door.

"Subaru, wait!" Leila called after him.

He stopped to look back at them and pointed eastward.

"I'll check over here." He said.

"I-it's probably safer to travel in pairs though." Nalalie suggested.

"You're right." Ray said. "In that case, you go with him."

Nalalie turned to him in a slight fluster.

"H-huh? M-me?" She lightly stuttered out as Mina placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Nalalie looked over at her as she gave her a warm smile that seemed to calm her nerves.

"O-okay." Nalalie said as she walked over to Subaru who was patiently waiting for her to join him.

"Alright, be back in thirty minutes, you two." Ray said.

"If she ends up hurt or worse, the monster will be the least of your worries." Mina warned.

Subaru nodded in understanding and he gently took Nalalie's hand as the two disappeared down the dark hallway.

"He's an odd one, isn't he?" Thoma commented.

"You can tell by his uniform that he's still in high school. So's Nalalie, now that I think about it. He's younger than me, so I'm a little impressed." Leila said. 

'I hope those two come back in one piece.'

****

"It's pitch black." Thoma said as he narrowed his eyes at the hallway.