There Are the Dead — 2
I looked at Yoo Ari.
She was, without a doubt, the anomaly who had been active all the way onto Ghost Story Gallery. That meant she wasn't helping us out of anything like pure intentions. I had to stay on my guard and keep suspecting her.
Why is she helping?
Was she only saying she'd let us live for now? No—but in that post earlier, she'd said there would be a death. If things went the way she intended, didn't that mean someone was going to die? And if so, was it really all right to follow her like this? I genuinely couldn't tell.
"Is it all right if we just stand here?"
Yoo Ari had been watching me steadily from the side. She tipped her head a little, as if the question puzzled her. She looked so unhurried that the sight of her alone made me uneasy, as if some plan were tucked away where I couldn't see it.
I hurriedly opened the gallery.
The moment I saw the post, my brow creased on its own.
In a word, it meant she had helped exactly once. What—so there really wasn't any threat at all? Ordinary goodwill? Or had she spared us so she could toy with us a little longer?
Looks like we're all right.
She wouldn't write a lie on the gallery. If that held, then I ought to hurry and help dig the graves too.
I answered the question Yoo Ari had asked a moment ago, forcing my face into something blank.
"I was only standing still to get my thoughts in order. We should move quickly too."
"Okay. That sounds good."
We ran over together. The others were already digging, shovels in hand. I grabbed the heavy shovel that had been waiting behind a tree and started digging in a rush.
Fortunately, it seemed the ground didn't need to go deep. A reaction came almost at once.
Pang!
A small burst went off in the grave, and the earth trembled faintly. The mound of soil caved into a hollow big enough for one person, maybe two, and in the same instant the shovel in my hands crumbled to dust.
So hiding inside the grave really is the answer.
I was relieved, if only a little. The others had already climbed into the graves and curled up to hide. Fear, maybe—they seemed to have obeyed my orders without a shred of doubt. Seeing that, I thought I needed to get in fast myself.
That was when it happened.
"Um, I don't have a shovel right now?"
Yoo Ari, who had been watching from beside me, said it just like that. I was badly thrown.
"You don't have a shovel?"
"When I went to check earlier, they were gone. I think everyone must have taken them. What am I supposed to do now?"
Doubt snagged on her question. There was no way the shovels were gone. I was certain several had still been left when I took mine. More than that—she was a being who had no need to hide in the first place, so why would she—
The moment the thought finished forming, goosebumps rose over my whole body. Don't tell me she meant for the two of us to go into a grave together?
Shit.
I could feel my whole body shaking. This wasn't a joke. I was terrified. If just the two of us went in, something might happen. I couldn't shake the feeling.
Even so, I can't refuse.
Refuse here, and there was no telling what would follow. The instant I let it show that I suspected her, she might kill me on the spot—because I'd learned her secret, or because the odds were good that I would. I had no desire to go through anything like that. I needed to think about what answer I was supposed to give.
"Um?"
Yoo Ari smiled at me, soft.
"Would it be all right if I went in with you?"
Once that question landed, the answer I had to give was already decided.
I glanced around. Far off, empty eye sockets waited. A white face with no pupils. I had the illusion that our eyes met, and it seemed to be sneering at me. I stared at those skulls, and I was able to decide.
"......Then please go in, Miss Yoo Ari. I'll search the area a little more."
"What?"
"If two people go in, there's no telling what kind of problem might come of it. The shovels vanishing suggests it may be one per person. If that's the case, someone has to stay outside and find another way. I'll stay."
It had to be safer than sharing a grave with Yoo Ari. Even a little danger was worth the attempt. I had the gallery, after all. I could get information.
She stared at me, flustered. It must have been an answer she hadn't seen coming—she couldn't even get her mouth to close.
"Anyway, please go inside. I'll investigate the surroundings quickly."
The moment I finished speaking, I moved off again and put distance between us.
It shouldn't be impossible.
The paper I'd seen earlier had only been number 2. That meant a number 1 existed somewhere else. Find that 1, and I could survive. Something important would be written on it. Clinging to that belief alone, I kept moving and scanning as I went.
Is there really nothing?
I went a fair distance. Even so, I couldn't find anything unusual like before. Irritatingly, there was nothing but grass and twigs. Telling myself I had to do something, I opened the gallery and started reading posts.
Fall for her? Fall for what?
Irritation surged the instant I read it. I'd only opened the gallery for a second, hoping there might be a hint, and there was nothing useful after all. In a foul temper, I left a single comment.
Maybe a comment that could actually help would show up. I waited on that small hope.
Hope was crushed without mercy.
There's really nothing?
No. That couldn't be right. I still couldn't give up. As if sheer insistence might force something to appear, I went back to where the anomalous creature's corpse had been.
There might have been another slip of paper here.
Honestly, it was nothing short of horrific. But I had no choice. If I wanted to live, I had to do whatever it took. I dropped quickly into the pit, seized the corpse, and started rummaging through it.
The moment I grabbed it, grim dark-red flesh and blood smeared onto my hands—a sensation somewhere between solid and liquid. It clung. It was uncomfortable, and past that, revolting. Horrific. Disgusting. I was searching even the gaps between the remains when I finally found a small slip of paper.
"Knew it."
I knew there would be something. I snatched the paper up and read it.
The moment I read it, a deep despair settled over me.
"What the hell is this?"
Don't tell me it meant someone had to die before this could end? That a sacrifice was required, just like that?
Bullshit.
I couldn't die here. I still had to look further. Fortunately, there was still hope.
The number is 3. Then number 1 is still out there somewhere.
I scrambled out of the pit. I was about to break into a run and scour every inch of the surroundings when—
"......"
Those countless skulls were drawing closer, little by little. I tried to slip out through an empty gap, but the space around me was already packed tight with them, like that army of ants I'd seen as a child. I was late. I couldn't run.
"Ah."
Slow, but they were coming. Pure-white skulls, gathering. With everyone else hidden in the graves, they had come looking for me alone. What happened if they dragged me off? Did I die on the spot? Die horribly? Or suffer something that would make death the kinder option—torture, being eaten alive, having my limbs cut off and being buried while I was still breathing?
Maybe I would become one of those skulls myself. Nightmare after nightmare rose up.
From every direction came the sound of bone striking bone. Clack. There were so many of them that the noise grated, loud enough to set my teeth on edge.
"Fuck. Seriously."
An ordinary person would already have given up. Searching any further couldn't possibly matter. But whether it was luck or the lack of it, I still had one chance left. I opened the gallery first. What I needed to check was the mood of the room.
Sure enough, the gallery was already nothing but talk about me, thanks to Anomaly Girl bringing me up again and again. I made myself as calm as I could and decided to write a post as if nothing were wrong.
Public opinion. From this point on, I was manufacturing the consensus that I had to live.
With this, there's a chance. A romance between a human and an anomaly would, from an anomaly's point of view, be nothing but unpleasant. But frame that unpleasantness as something being forced onto Juddak, and the situation itself became entertaining. There was a real chance they'd take its side.
Of course, if Anomaly Girl had already made up her mind, it would mean nothing. Still, there was always a what-if. At the very least, she would have no choice but to mind public opinion. It had been a coincidence, yes—but opinion of her as Juddak had already soured because of me. Ignoring it wouldn't be easy.
I watched the upvote count climb fast.
Upvotes 102 | Downvotes −3
Harassing Juddak in a post did the trick, as expected. People agreeing with me showed up almost at once.
The mood swelled even faster. So, figuring I was pushing my luck a little, I wrote one more post.
Please. Just let me live.
I prayed it and waited for Anomaly Girl's reaction. In that span the skulls had already come nearly to my face. They reached for me, slow, and honestly they were horrifying to look at. Being this close only made it worse.
I kicked away the one directly in front of me first. From here it was a fight against time. If Anomaly Girl decided to let me live, I could do something about this situation somehow. Believing that, I kept knocking the skulls back and checked the gallery.
Skulls had already started grabbing my legs. Those pure-white bones locked up my movements and made it harder and harder to keep going. Bit by bit, they began to climb onto me.
Damn it!
Do something—hurry!
I waited, desperate, and with the last of my strength I shoved the skulls off. That was when it happened.
A reaction had come.