“What the hell is this… shouldn’t there be something, anything…?”
He muttered in disbelief, as if utterly deflated.
Of course, he had thought that what he was searching for might not be here after all.
Yet, even so, the sight of nothing but empty walls was far too harsh for him, who had come this far with hope.
“Damn it… something, anything should show up, just like last time…!”
With a desperate heart, he began to slam his body against the walls around.
He must have been talking about that time when the Emergency Exit first appeared.
But unlike that time, there were no door-like openings to be found nearby.
—
―Ah, ah
He suddenly froze, completely stiff due to a sound he could hear nearby.
“….”
His entire body began to get wet from cold sweat.
Huff, shiver, cramp, headache, dizziness, nausea, ringing ears.
A tightness gripped his heart as if he had been thrown into chaos.
Compelled by something, he turned around, only to be met with a sight he had never seen before, something he should never have seen.
—
“―――”
It was horrific.
Or was it horrific?
He honestly didn’t quite know.
He had never seen it this closely, nor could he discern if what was in front of him was its face, eyes, mouth, or ██.
His reasoning skills had been stripped away from him entirely.
Strangely enough, the constant headache that had been tormenting him had suddenly vanished.
He felt it drawing nearer.
Before he knew it, we were close enough that any small movement would have us touching.
Eventually, she aimed ██ at me,
██ pointing at my head―――
―Click
In that moment, unexpectedly, he felt something grasped in his hand.
“…?”
He didn’t even know how it happened.
He just turned his head without thinking.
It must have been reflexive behavior.
A motion etched in the unyielding instincts of humanity.
It was orange.
To be precise, it was the doorknob of an orange door.
There were no drawings or letters on it, yet he instinctively recognized it as an orange painted over with numerous scribbles.
—
―Ah,
Of course, there was no time to think.
Somehow, having acted without wasting a second, he immediately lunged toward that orange door.
As he watched it approach toward him no longer through the gap of the closing door,
He began to fall into an entirely new space he could not identify.
—
―Uweeeek!
What was inside began to come tumbling out with a great frenzy.
Of course, all that came out was just some stomach acid and a bit of vomit.
Since arriving here, he hadn’t eaten anything for a long time.
Phew… Heh… Hoo…
Once his condition calmed down to a certain extent, he started to look around.
Memories of that earlier encounter and what he had thought at that time began to surface in his mind, but he didn’t want to think about that again.
Right now, it was more important to figure out where this place was.
“…Home?”
After surveying the surroundings, he realized that he was inside someone’s household.
A plush-looking sofa, a television, a standing lamp.
The clean and well-arranged appearance of the furnishings suggested that people lived in that house.
—
“…!”
Upon this realization, he quickly began searching for the exit door of the house.
If there were signs of people, he must have surely returned to his original world.
Having escaped from that hellish place with its terrifying and dreadful elements, he’d succeeded in fleeing from there at last.
“People… it’s people…!”
When he stepped out into the front yard of the house, he spotted someone standing by the roadside.
The figure of someone he had longed to see.
Originally, he wasn’t the type of person to strike up a conversation with strangers, but in this moment, he was overwhelmed with an impulse to hug anyone he encountered.
“Hey, hey! Over here!”
He began to sprint toward the person.
Perhaps not realizing he was calling out, the person did not turn to look in his direction, but…
Regardless, the distance between Henry and that person wasn’t too far, so it wasn’t long before he reached the someone standing by the roadside.
“Nice to meet you! Haha, it might sound strange, but you can’t imagine what happened to me today.”
Approaching with a full smile, he found himself delighted to finally see someone.
“Oh, by the way, can you tell me where this place is――”
Finally, as he extended his hand to bridge the gap,
The person still didn’t recognize he was speaking and did not turn to face him, and just as he reached toward the person’s shoulder――
—
―Thump
The person who had touched him started to collapse forward like a puppet with its string cut.
“――――――”
His entire body stiffened.
What just happened?
No, he undoubtedly knew what had just transpired.
But he didn’t want to accept it.
After having barely made it through all sorts of horrific situations, to receive this as a reward…
If he acknowledged that realization,
He was certain he would lose his mind in this reality.
With trembling hands, he reached out to the fallen person.
In truth, he didn’t want to confirm anything.
Yet, if for some reason, just maybe,
This person had merely collapsed due to some cause and the timing was just unfortunate…
Perhaps it wasn’t entirely impossible that such a ridiculous possibility existed.
With his hands trembling like aspen leaves finally reaching the fallen figure.
To his dismay, the person’s body flipped over far too easily.
The figure he had expected to be a person―
No, the thing that had appeared to be human did not have a face.
There were only words inscribed there, plunging him into despair.
—
――Nowhere to run.
A familiar phrase etched into his memory.
That was the very phrase written on the visage of a mannequin.
—
“…Ha.”
Laughter began to bubble forth.
Even though this was no time for resignation or even a chuckle.
For some reason, he felt that if he didn’t laugh at this situation, he wouldn’t be able to bear it.
“Ha, haha.”
Now that he thought about it, there had been something strange about earlier.
Even though this was clearly a residential area, he could hear no sounds at all.
It felt exactly like the barren place he had just been.
There was never a way for him to escape from this place from the start.
—
“Haha, ha! Hahaha!”
He couldn’t stop laughing.
The fallen mannequin had vanished at some point.
This was a mad place. A place that shouldn’t exist.
Perhaps it was he who was going truly mad.
Wasn’t it impossible for a place like this to even exist?
He might just be suffering from a bad dream right now.
—
The sky flickered, night and day became mixed, corpses floated from the ground, and vanished simultaneously.
The sound of a child shrieking, the quacking of a rubber duck, sirens blaring, the scent of citrus, the smell of burnt tires, the sensation of waves crashing, a riot of chaotic colors.
All sorts of sensations that he both knew, became aware of, and would eternally remain ignorant of began to flood over him like a tidal wave.
He didn’t know if he was going crazy or was already going crazy.
And his mind, which was already on the edge,
At that moment, completely severed careened into darkness.
—
Thud, thud
He felt someone nudging his body.
But it didn’t matter to him.
Whoever owned that little palm touching him,
He had no strength left to move even a little.
—
Swish
Even after being touched numerous times, with no response from him,
Abruptly, something powerful began to lift him.
‘…Where am I going?’
His body was being dragged away completely drained.
Where was he now heading to?
Was he being pulled to some lonely, far-off place, finally meeting his end?
Or was he going to a place, even more terrifying than the death he dreaded so much?
But whatever it might be,
He decided not to care any longer about his fate.
After all,
He had been receiving something, he hadn’t felt for a long time since arriving here,
That he thought he would never again feel.
—
Warm…
It was warmth.
A sensation suggesting closeness to reality yet distanced from it infinitely.
In that desolate world where not even a single bug could be found,
He was finally feeling the warmth of someone he had longed for just before dying.
Ah, yes.
He had already died just before.
It couldn’t be otherwise if he was feeling this much comfort.
They said when a person dies, usually an angel comes to take their soul.
Although no trumpet sounds could be heard, and the entity dragging his knees along the ground did not seem to be that considerate,
This feeling of being cradled by something soft, along with the pleasant scent wafting from somewhere,
Surely that was only possible if an angel was carrying him to the skies.
—
Click
A familiar sound.
The sound of a door closing, common in everyday life when turning a doorknob regardless of which door it may be.
He hadn’t expected that even a heavenly gate would have locks,
But despite not having the strength to open his eyes, he couldn’t spare complex thoughts.
—
Thump!
The small something that had carried him finally set him down onto the ground.
The unmistakably hard and rough sensation of asphalt from his back.
If the floor of heaven was supposed to be clouds,
To his surprise, the afterlife seemed to have been modernized considerably.
—
‘…?’
No.
Something was different.
This was not a place that resembled heaven.
The sounds he could hear now at his ears were not the beautiful voices of a choir or any songs.
The sounds of vehicle engines, advertisements, singing, conversations, footsteps.
A hodgepodge of sounds, creating a cacophony that could drive someone mad.
It didn’t sound like something that would emanate from heaven,
Nor was it a terrible sound that would ring out from hell.
—
It was a city.
A bustle filled with people and life.
No matter how different from reality he had been for what felt like days,
There was no way he wouldn’t recognize sounds he had gotten used to for decades.
—
As figures approached toward him, and frantic voices began to echo from nearby,
In his fading consciousness, he gradually realized those voices were directed at him, and
With that realization, he let go of the consciousness he had been barely maintaining.
With the voice of someone calling for an ambulance,
He lost all awareness, slipping into darkness.
—
Click
The sound of locks engaging intertwined as the door firmly shut.
19th was holding the doorknob of the closed door.
The girl had just brought someone whose face she didn’t even know here.
She had left them on some roadside, unknown.
‘Hmm….’
19th scratched her head.
Then, crossing her arms, she swept her gaze over the door she had just passed through.
‘So why was that person lying in the middle of the Playroom?’
She recalled the question that had lingered on her mind and dived into deep thought, searching for an answer she would never find…
