Chapter VIII
It takes several moments for the whole situation to properly sink in, but after several moments, Chinami, Risako and Maasa all scream together as though it had been rehearsed. They each look at each other in turn and Maasa approaches Chinami and Risako and gives them a hand to their feet.
“What the hell happened here?” Maasa asks Chinami.
“I have no idea. I heard strange noises coming from the hallway, and so I followed them down here, and it was like this when I got here, I think.”
“In the hallway?” Maasa goes out to take a look, holding the lamp which provides the only source of light they have in her hand. She then returns looking even paler than she was before. “The trail of... this,” she says, motioning to the blood that now decorates the room, “It goes right up the stairs and stops on the door of the room you and Miyabi are sleeping in, Chinami.”
“What?”
Chinami runs out of the room and up the stairs, followed by Risako and Maasa. And sure enough, the blood trail does indeed make it's way up the staircase, around the hallway and there are three eerie hand print-shaped smears down the door.
“Risako, wake the others!”
Risako obliges and runs into the other rooms, waking each member as fast and as inconsiderately as she can.
“We can't stay here.”
Soon enough, after much persuasion, the other girls are risen from their sleep, and each one in turn simply stares awestruck at the mess.
"What--?”
“Let's not talk about it here.” Maasa tells a very confused Momoko. “Let's go find the staff. Are they staying outside?”
“I'm not sure,” Captain responds, “Let's see if they are in the camera van.”
They quickly get dressed, and head outside as a group. They can see the bus they arrived in some 30 yards away or so, the equipment van should be just behind it too. The lights are on inside the bus, however, it seems that the staff have taken shelter from the rain inside. When they see the girls approaching, they open the bus doors and ask, “Why are you girls out here? You should all be asleep. We've got to film tomorrow!”
“We can't go back there, something strange is going on in that house!”
The staff look at one another and laugh, but when they notice the looks on the faces of the girls, they realise that something must be going on.
“Okay then, I'll go check it out, and then you girls can go back to bed!” says one Cameraman, and he puts on a jacket and heads out into the rain towards the house.
The sound-man then turns to Chinami and asks, “Huh... Wasn't there a child with you?”
“What?”
“When you were walking out here. I could swear that I saw a young girl holding your hand. Must have just been the rain playing tricks on my eyes.”
Everyone turns to look at Chinami, who looks absolutely horrified at the thought. There is, however, no-one in sight. “A child?” they all ask.
The camera man returns from the house, however, looking rather pale himself. He doesn't say anything to the girls, just whispers to the other members of staff.
“What? Are you serious?” They turn to face the girls, and invite them onto the bus, “Okay then. I think it would be a good idea if you stayed here where we can keep an eye on you.”
The sound-man stays with them on the bus to keep an eye on them, but all of the other staff members go out to check on the house for themselves.
“So Chinami, what was that about a child?” Miyabi asks.
“Huh? Well... Earlier when everyone was asleep I heard weird noises from outside our room. And then footsteps. When I followed them, I could swear that I could see a young child leading me through the house.” She then pauses for a moment, “Actually... It's not the first time I thought I saw that child. I dreamt about her too.”
“So you followed this kid through the corridors? Then what happened?”
“Well, I found myself in the front room. You know, with that vase thing on top of the shelf? Well, I thought I saw her touch it and vanish. And when I went to look closer, it knocked. And then that's when Maasa and Risako found me.”
“Noises? What kind of noises?” Maasa asks her.
“First it was a weird scratching sound. Then footsteps. Finally I could swear I heard someone knocking on our door.”
“Strange, I didn't hear anything like that.” Miyabi ponders.
“That's because you can sleep through an elephant stampede.” Chinami jokes.
The rest of the staff return, and immediately get into the bus and start up the engines. “We can't stay here after all. Let's get out of here.”
They pass the girls their bags, which they managed to retrieve from the house. And then they begin to drive east again.
The road is a lot muddier with the rain, and the wind is beginning to pick up again.
The girls hold on tight to the seats in front as they hurtle round a corner at what, to them, feels like several dozen miles per hour faster than the bus' speedometer is saying. So much so, in fact, that when the driver quickly applies the brakes, it sends the girls all flying forward and Momoko nearly flips over into the seat in front of her.
“Damn!” yells the driver.
And he has every reason to be annoyed. Winds have picked up to extreme speeds, and a large tree has collapsed over the road, which just happens to be the only road out of the village.
Topic: Rural Nights [ChXIV] (Read 9409 times)