Next up, Myusel’s room. That was downstairs. The creaking of the staircase didn’t usually bother me, but now it seemed portentous and eerie, and once I was downstairs I hurried to Myusel’s room as quickly as I could. Maybe she had brought Hikaru-san there to give him first aid. And then maybe she had started to feel ill herself and collapsed.
When I got to Myusel’s door, it was the same thing: cracked open, a little space between the door and the wall.
“Myusel!” Gripped by a wave of foreboding, I bounded into Myusel’s room without a second thought. But...
“Huh?”
There was nobody there. Again.
On the desk, there were two laptops, power still on.
Huh? Two laptops? Why two of them?
Then it hit me: the other one was for Petralka to use. A glance at the screens confirmed my suspicions. The computer on the left showed a window centered on the avatar GalGaiGar, while the computer on the right was centered on Miyuu.
Petralka didn’t have a room of her own in our mansion. She must have settled in her friend Myusel’s room to play the game. But... that meant Petralka was gone, too. In fact, I didn’t even see any trace of the royal guards, who were supposed to stay close to her at all times. They weren’t usually in the same room, but they would always be somewhere they could show up in an instant—like the hallway outside, say.
“What’s going on...?”
Seriously, what was this?
I could feel my mind starting to go to some dark places. “Stay calm, Kanou Shinichi!” I urged myself before the gloom could get a grip on me, and headed for the next room. That would be Elvia’s. I went down the hallway, up the stairs, and arrived at her room, running all the way. There was no time for a nice, calm walk anymore.
“Elvia! Are you there?!” I shouted, even as I pushed on the door. But this room was still locked, and the door didn’t budge. I pounded on it, but there was no answer from inside. I pressed my ear to the door, straining to hear even the smallest sound, but there was nothing. I didn’t even get the sense that there was anyone in there. “Elvia...”
The last message she had sent flashed through my mind.
Elvia: “Itchy. Tasty.”
No. It couldn’t be.
The mysterious words. The meaningless adjectives.
It was almost like she had lost her mind. Like her rational faculties had abandoned her. It was eerily similar—in fact identical—to a diary entry from a certain horror game, an entry penned by someone writing his last words as a terrifying virus turned him into a slavering monster.
An illness of unknown origin. Here in another world. Meaning...
“Grr...!”
With the door locked, I had no way to see what was inside. I wouldn’t learn anything new just standing here. I turned to strike out for the last room—Minori-san’s. Immediately after which...
“Eeyikes?!”
Everything around me went dark, and I stumbled to the ground in a heap. Luckily, I was able to curl up so I didn’t hit anything too vulnerable too hard, but with no light to see by, I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t injured. There were still lamps burning in the hallway, but they didn’t give nearly enough light to chase away the darkness that had settled over the mansion.
Electricity for the house was provided by the solar- and wind-power generators over by the school, along with a large battery. Did that mean the power line from there to here had been cut? But why so suddenly? And would it really be so easy to cut a power line that only went directly from point A to point B?
“Hrk...” I stood up, feeling a dull pain in a few places around my body. In Japan, street lamps and twenty-four-hour convenience stores gave most places a healthy glow even in the middle of the night, but here in Eldant, the night darkness was of a different magnitude. The light of the lamps was just a flicker against it, not even enough to tell exactly what was going on around you. Although it would at least enable you to walk once your eyes adjusted.
I reached into my pocket, thinking I could use the flashlight on my phone. But I guess in my rush, I had left my phone in my room. No choice. I would just have to walk very carefully.
I was still completely befuddled about what could be happening. I decided to start by trying to get to the storage shed where we kept the emergency lights and flashlights. Even if I went to Minori-san’s room right now, I wouldn’t be able to see anything.
The human body is a mysterious thing: when you no longer have your vision to rely on, your hearing becomes startlingly acute. I could hear my own breathing, my footsteps, my clothing rustling as I walked. Every sound seemed inordinately loud to me. Maybe it was the fear that made my mouth feel so dry with every breath. I found myself panting, like an animal. My heart seemed to be going way faster than necessary, and I wished it would slow down.
“Wait...”
I detected a noise, but I wasn’t the one who had made it. I stopped and listened. It sounded like... footsteps. But it wasn’t. It was just a scraping, like the sound of a hard-soled shoe against wooden floorboards. It was accompanied by a creaking noise, and even what sounded like something soft being dragged along.
What was this?
What was this what was this what was this?!
My bad feeling got a lot worse. The sound rounded the corner of the hallway and started coming toward me. Something was approaching in the dark. A shape so huge it nearly filled the hallway, shambling slowly toward me.
“Heeek...?!”
I have to run.
I had the thought, but
