Chapter Text
The pain in his leg was almost unbearable, each step sent a new shock of pain through his calf. Even then he didn’t dare stop, not until— He burst through the treeline and practically collapsed at the base of a small cobblestone wall at the bottom of a cliffside. Subaru looked over his shoulder and scanned the shrubbery closely, paying close attention for any sign of movement. Nothing, the forest is as devoid of life as always.
He turned over and sat on his rear, and rested against the cliff with his back. He needed to let his wounded leg rest but he refused to take his eyes off the forest. Subaru pushed the shirt up from his stomach and wiped vigorously at his face, rubbing away the specks of blood from Tanaka. He stared at the darkened stains of blood on his shirt…
Tanaka’s twitching face, the blood leaking from his neck stump, the rest of his body nowhere in sight. It almost looks like he’s trying to talk to him, like he’s trying to warn him of something. His eyes roll into the back of his head, his jaw spasms again, and then stops. It takes Subaru far too long to realize that he is dead.
Subaru shook his head and slapped his cheek as hard as he could, the sting bringing him out of his trance. He wiped at his eyes, clearing them of tears, he didn’t even know Tanaka that well, so why was he crying?
He pushed himself onto his good foot, taking care to keep the weight off his bad leg and looked down the gravel path. It wrapped around the tall cliff next to him and headed up, presumably into the village. With nowhere else to go he began following the path, hobbling along while supporting himself with the curved stones that make up the cliffside.
It only took a few moments until the village came into sight and… it’s a ghost town. Subaru couldn’t see anyone on the broken brick streets, the buildings were all boarded up and the windows were dark. There is no organization, the buildings are all laid out on twisted foundations, almost nothing is aligned with the street. Towering above the village were large black brick walls which hid everything inside the city, except for the tops of the buildings where that resided closer to the center, and the Moon Tower which seemed to always be in sight so long as he was facing in its direction.
Although the thing that stuck out the most was a statue in the center of the village, in clear sight from the entrance. A large turquoise blue crucifix, the edges lined with spikes, tied to the cross with ropes were two bodies. Both were stripped nude and split from groin to throat and hung upside down, their insides fell out over their chest and back and into a crimson moat carved around the statue to drain the blood. Subaru’s stomach turned and he instinctually averted his gaze. It took him a good few moments to gather the mental strength to raise his head again. He closed one eye to block out the horrific sight and looked around, there was nowhere to go but forward. So after taking another moment to ready himself he began walking deeper into the village.
The stench washed over him as he got closer, the smell of death and the phantom taste of copper on his tongue. It was so overwhelming that he had to cover his mouth with the crook of his elbow, and with his other hand he swatted at a crowd of flies that got too close with his plastic bag.
A creaking noise caused him to stop midstep, he whipped his head around to see a crooked wooden door opening, the inside was pitch black. He looked around frantically and pushed the door open to a smaller building next to him. The smell was somehow worse here, blood and shit and more, he pinched his nose in a futile attempt to keep it at bay. The building contained one room with no furniture, the only thing decorating it was a long wooden platform lined up against the wall with a series of holes. Each hole was covered with crusted feces and blood, some sort of old communal toilet that made him gag. He turned away and tried not to focus on it as he held the door open a crack to look outside.
A woman stood slouched over the outside of one of the ruined buildings, her skin was a strange yellowish color and something was wrong with her face. Her head was a bit too long, her lips were swollen and her face skin almost seemed to have been shifted off center with her skull making everything seem like it was stretched too long. A dirty white apron that was tied around her waist was stained with bits of red.
She awkwardly shuffled over to the crucifix and bowed her head, she began mumbling under her breath but either she was too quiet or speaking a different language, or perhaps she wasn’t saying anything and was just making noise in some strange mockery prayer. She stayed like that for a few minutes, all the while Subaru did his best to not make any noise in a nearby building.
‘Is she really just going to sit there?’ It was unbearable in the public toilets, he had to fight against his instinct to gag against the overbearing stench. Against his better judgment he slowly slipped through the crack in the door and moved quietly behind her. The moving was slow, even more so due to his bum leg, but she seemed to almost be in a trance of some sort. He couldn’t make any words out of her prayer, even from here. He shook his head and moved on…
He found a small alley behind a group of buildings and took the chance to get off the main street. Subaru glanced over his shoulder one last time to see the woman hadn’t moved an inch, the sight sent a chill down his spine, causing him to shiver involuntarily.
His shoes squelched quietly as he moved through the muddy back alley. Rats squeaked in surprise as what was probably the first person to walk through here in some time. He listened closely to the village as he walked, for footsteps or the sounds of doors opening or prayers. Nothing except for the occasional cawing of crows and skittering of rats, the quiet was unsettling and poked at Subaru’s anxiety.
He stopped at the final house in the line and leaned against the wall, slowly he poked his head out from behind the wall and scanned the street, his eyes stopped on a man who slowly shambled down the street, a meat cleaver in his hand. Unlike the previous man with his sickle this was a sharp and relatively well taken care of tool, such a clean utensil seemed out of place here. An old car, the kind one might find in a black and white film from the 40’s was parked at the end of the street right next to him. Behind the malformed man was a tall gate that wrapped around the brick wall of the city, luckily enough the entrance was right there… behind the deformed psycho with the sharp cleaver…
“Ugh…” Subaru rested his head against the outer wall of the building he took cover behind and waited. It took a painfully long time for the villager to shamble his way back down a street to the side. Subaru quickly slipped out from behind the building and limped into the street, peaking over his shoulder to watch the villager shuffle away. All the way down the street the woman continued to pray at the crucifix. ‘She’s still there? Guess I can’t complain’
He rounded the car and briefly considered giving it a go, but the door was locked. Subaru shook his head and turned his attention to the gate. He reached for the gate handle, but stopped part way. Wrapped around the handle was a thick chain, locked with two padlocks. One was engraved to show a roaring lion with the keyhole in its mouth, the other was engraved in a way that made it seem like an eagle was holding the padlock shut. Subaru gave the chain two yanks, but there was no give.
‘Nothing can be easy, can it?’ He let out a sigh and put his head against the bars of the fence, and then gave it another look over. A few large wooden boxes were resting against it, the car was pretty close too… He looked over at the two villagers in the street, both of which still faced away from him. He turned back to the fence, maybe he could just jump it?
He wrapped a hand around one of the posts of the fence, and put another on the hood of the car and jumped. His left leg landed on the hood and he began to pull himself, and instantly regretted it. The moment he put pressure on his leg to jump a white hot pain shot through his whole body, he let out an involuntary cry of pain and fell face first into the cobblestone. A second later another shout sounded out not far away, the villager who was walking away had spun around and was pointing at him. The praying woman turned to face him as well, she put her hands under her apron and pulled out two ridiculously large kitchen knives. The man began running and screaming, he held the cleaver above his head in preparation to swing. By the time Subaru got back on his feet the man was nearly on top of him, having no other choice Subaru braced himself and threw himself at the man as he got closer. The crazed villager must have not been expecting him to actually fight back because he didn’t even try to Dodge. Subaru’s shoulder connected with his jaw, and the momentum sent the meat cleaver wielding psycho sprawling onto the ground. He wanted to take a moment to celebrate this small victory but the woman had begun running and was quickly closing the distance. The dazed villager on the ground began to pick himself up slowly, but was sent back to the ground as Subaru kicked him in the side of the head before taking off in an awkward sprint along the fenceline.
It seemed like the whole village had suddenly woken up, as he ran the sounds of rage filled screams rang out all around him. Hands pushed through the holes in boarded up doorways trying to grab him, windows shook as people threw themselves against them, it was as if the whole village was full of wasps and he had thrown a rock at their nest His leg screamed at him as he pushed aside a clothesline of moth eaten shirts that was hanging across the middle of the street, he allowed himself a peak over his shoulder to see his pursuers. He had gotten a head start on them but with his limp they were both quickly catching up. His eyes frantically searched for anything that he could use to escape or defend himself, he locked onto a set of basement doors. He could hear the horrifying sounds of shoes slapping against cobble stone as his pursuers almost on him. Having no other option he grabbed onto both handles and pulled, praying to every god he could think of that they would not be locked.
The doors swung open to reveal a small staircase made of rotten wood that led into a void that Subaru couldn’t see into. Subaru let out an involuntary yelp as he jumped down, the feeling of a hand just barely tickling the hair on the back of his neck. As he fell he grabbed the handles of the basement door, turned and slammed them shut when he landed. Immediately the doors began opening again, but Subaru held on and pulled as hard as he could while using his one good leg to brace himself.
His attackers yanked and pulled, rays of sunlight occasionally lighting up the basement as Subaru desperately held on. Looking over his shoulder he could see a broom sticking out of a bucket, unfortunately just out of reach. ‘What do I do? Shit, shit, shit’
The duo pulled again and the step that Subaru was bracing himself with broke, his shin collided painfully with the step above and the door nearly completely opened up, Subaru couldn’t hold it shut much longer. He was barely holding on and would surely lose his grip if they managed to give it a few more strong pulls.
He placed his good leg on the step below him and waited, when the duo pulled again Subaru pushed instead. Light filled the basement and the two, who were taken completely by surprise stumbled and tripped, falling backwards. Subaru slammed the doors shut and lunged for the broom. He darted back up the stairs and slid the broom through the handles of the doors. Just in time, as the doors rattled and shook as the villagers tried to force it open. It struggled against the broomhandle a few times, after it became clear that the lock would stay. Subaru let out a dry “Ha!” in celebration, allowing himself to fall down and lay his back on the dirty basement floor and just watch the door shake. The pulling turned to slaming and scratching as the villagers became frantic in their attempts to break in. Subaru jumped slightly as two loud impacts slammed against the doors, followed by what sounded like a pig's squealing.
“What the hell…” He propped himself up on his elbows, and then shot up to his feet as another impact rattled the doors.
“Come on man, give me a break” He turned to face the rest of the basement, pulling his phone from his pocket and letting the light from the screen illuminate some of the room. Two hallways stretched out in opposite directions before him, one that led directly ahead and the other directly to his right, the light from his phone not being enough to show the end to either.
“Just how big is this place?” The clamoring above spurred him on, he moved quickly into the dark hallway ahead of him. The air was moist and heavy, it got under his clothes and agitated the cuts on his arms, and the smell, the damn smell. “Why does everything here smell so rotten!”
His foot smacked against a plate of rotten food and scattered moldy bread and beef and maggots all over the place. He sighed as small white worms wriggled in confusion against his pant leg before he shook them off.
He should have just stayed on the train.
The hallway stretched on for a while before coming to a turn, around the corner was a corridor full of weathered old furniture. Red leather cushions and rectangular metal frames, the kind you would see in a school storage room. He had to kick the chairs to the side with his good leg in order to make enough room to squeeze by. Flakes of wet rotten wood stuck to his clothes and sprinkled down into his hair as he pushed up against the wall and forced his way through the chair barricade.
He pulled his way around the corner and pulled a splinter from his palm as he emerged around the corner. He gave his clothes another pat down, before bringing his phone light up to brighten the dark hall. Along the wall on his right was the entrance to a room, and to his left a staircase that led deeper underground. On the other end of the hallway he could see where it turned to the right, back where he came from.
“Oh man, are you telling me both hallways led here, did I just take the long way? If I could get my hands on whoever designed this place…” He ran a hand through his hair in frustration and sighed before turning to the room to his right. Not wanting to go any deeper just yet, Subaru walked into the room on his right, stepping over a broken wooden plank on the floor as he passed through the doorway. The room contained bookcases and metal shelves which were scattered and knocked over as if someone had purposefully come in here and trashed the place. He bent over and picked up one of the books which sat in a patch of mud, the cover was an odd soft leathery texture that was strangely familiar and gave him an ominous feeling. There was no lettering on the cover, just an odd brown color with craters where the leather stretched tight against the binding, he shook the mud from it and opened it up.
“Yeah, I wasn’t hoping for much, but I can’t understand a word…” The words were made of strange symbols that didn’t match any language that Subaru understood. The images were also strange, behind the writings was the image of a child in the fetal position, a strange M with an upside down triangle placed in the center, something that resembled a four leaf clover, and with a page dedicated completely to it, a strange idol that only vaguely resembled a human. He tossed it to the side after thumbing through a few pages, no one else here seemed to care about the books so he wasn’t about to all of a sudden. He left the room and made for the staircase, careful to watch every step to make sure he didn’t crash through the decaying wooden boards again.
Below was a large room, in the center of which was a circular pit surrounded with stones, and in the middle of that, drawn in the dirt were nine squares placed in three evenly spaced rows. A tall metal stand held several unlit candles, and another book was placed on display, although Subaru didn’t give it a second glance as he knew he wouldn’t be able to read the words. There was a small passageway to one side, and another at the other end of the room, although unlike the damp darkness of the basement before there was a large ray of light that leaked in from above coming in that direction. Excited to finally leave this place he set off for what seemed to be the exit, only giving the other hall a curious glance with his phone light as he walked past it. The hall ended after only a few feet, one end of a chain wrapped around a pipe that ran from the ground to the ceiling, the other end sat in a small puddle of blood that seemed to have been leaking from a now decomposing arm. He turned his head away, couldn’t he go anywhere in this place without stumbling on something grotesque?
He turned the corner and stopped in place, in the middle of the hallway was a crouching figure with their head in their hands. Subaru’s thoughts went blank and his heart dropped into his stomach, his body froze and he wasn’t sure what to do. Perhaps the figure was caught in the same shock of seeing another person as he didn’t move either, he simply stared back at Subaru with what seemed to be a look of… fear?
Taking a second look this person was not like the villagers outside, he hadn’t noticed at first as his thoughts had been jumbled upon finding someone else here. The crouching man— no, he was young, around Subaru’s age, the boy was pale and gaunt but not deformed like the others. For clothing he wore a dark green jumpsuit with the sleeves rolled up that tucked into a pair of heavy boots. Subaru’s eyes widened a little further as he saw the rifle which laid on the dirt next to him. He turned his eyes back to the boy who stared at him intently, this boy was not a villager or at least is not the same as those above. Behind him, leaning against the wall was a wooden ladder that led up to the light which illuminated the hallway here.
“You’re hurt” Subaru blurted out abruptly, having just noticed a small streak of blood leaking down his arm, the other teen didn’t respond which left an awkward silence hand in the air. Subaru scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, the crouching teen looked away in what seemed to be embarrassment.
“I uh… don’t have anything to help that but… here?” Subaru reached into his plastic bag and pulled out a small bag of chips, he held it out to the shaking teen who gave him a suspicious look.
“Come on, it’s good” Subaru shook the bag a bit, the chips inside, which he now realizes have probably all been crushed could be heard jostling inside the colorful package. The boy gave Suabru another look, and slowly moved his hand from his head and stretched it out to grab for the bag of chips.
A loud bang and the ear piercing sound of metal grinding against metal echoed from down the hall, following it like a war cry was the squeal of a pig. The two teens froze in place and looked off to the entrance of the room, the sound of footsteps slapping against wood and sloshing through mud were rapidly approaching.
“S-shit” The other teen wordlessly shot up to his feet, he and Subaru locked eyes for a second and both made for the ladder. The teen snatched up the rifle as he went and strapped it to his back with the sling with a practiced motion, he didn’t miss a beat and jumped onto the ladder first. Another shrill squeal sounded off in the not so distance, the footsteps were louder, they had entered the room just outside.
It took all of Subaru’s willpower not to try and throw himself at the ladder, there just wasn't enough room for the two of them. The ladder creaked and shook as the boy pushed off the top plank and pulled himself into the building above. Subaru immediately began scrambling up the ladder just as the first person rounded the corner, the man with the meat cleaver came around the corner first, followed shortly after by the female villager with the knives. Stalking in behind the two of them was a tall man with a pig's mask over his head, he wore a long brown butcher's apron for clothing and seemingly nothing else. He held a small metal canister in one hand which was attached with a hose which was held in his other hand.
Subaru stomped on the first wooden board and cringed as a shock of pain shot up his injured leg. He grit his teeth and pushed through, his hands desperately grabbing for the edge of the hole— A new sharp pain pierced his leg. He let out an involuntary shout and looked down to see a kitchen knife piercing his good leg. The shock caused him to freeze, he had never before imagined that he would ever be in a situation like this, and when faced with someone who truly wanted to harm and kill him he didn’t know what to do. A pair of hands grabbed him from above, the boy had grabbed on to his arm and was now pulling against the strength of the villagers below. Subaru grabbed onto the other teen's arm with both hands and tried his best to pull himself up, he could feel the kitchen knife in his leg beginning to rip and tear through his calf.
A second pair of hands grabbed onto his other leg, the fingers whether intentionally or not dug into the wound from the sickle. Both arms were held tightly by the teen who gritted his teeth and leaned back to pull against the strength of two adults and both legs were held by a villager. He couldn’t do anything, only pray that somehow the other boy could help him… No, there was no chance of that happening. The other teen was trying his hardest but was clearly malnourished and weak, he could only keep Subaru from falling and probably not even that for much longer. Subaru grit his teeth and prepared for the inevitable pain of trying to kick someone with his bad leg, and looked down at his target—
Only an inch from his face was the end of a metal tipped rubber hose, there was a hissing noise as a burst of gas sprayed out and into his face. Any resistance he had to offer was gone immediately, his fingers which had unconsciously gripped the sleeves of the arms of the teen trying to drag him up slackened and his whole body went limp. He couldn’t breath and the world around him shifted like he was under water, he felt sick, he felt tired, he felt weak. He was pulled down to the ground violently, and slammed into the basement floor below with such force that all the air was driven out from him, but he could not even feel it. Standing above him, the villagers brought their weapons down on him, hacking away bits and pieces of his body with their sharp blades, but still he could not feel it. He could see the teen who had tried to save him peek their head over the hole, he seemed to say something but Subaru could not hear him, everything came out muffled.
The man in the pig mask came into view, blocking the light out and raised the metal canister high above his head, and then brought it down hard on Subaru’s skull. His vision went dark and he tried to scream but all that came out was a wet gargling mess, something was wrong with his head, the constant bludgeoning had turned it into a lump mass of flesh and broken bone.
He tried to cry out to his father to come and save him, he tried to cry out for his mother to apologize for the kind of son he had been but all that came out was a wet bubbly gurgle behind ruined teeth.
The squeal of a pig filled the hallway, and he felt another impact against his head, and then another and then another, and then—
His eyes shot open as he jumped to his feet, he quickly scanned the room looking for his attackers…
The room had changed, instead of the damp and rotten wooden walls of the basement he now saw rays of sun peeking through windows along a dry and clean wall of wood, leather seats lined the walls, a long red carpet separated the seats into two rows.
There was no one around him… there were no villagers and the other teen he had met was missing too. He was standing alone in the train car— he was standing with no pain in his leg, he looked down and there were no tears in his pants, no makeshift bandage with his tracksuit… he was wearing his tracksuit!
He ran his hands over his face and felt no wounds, he moved his tongue over his teeth and did not feel the same splintered ruins they had been before. He tentatively pulled his phone from his pocket and flipped the screen up, examining himself in the dark reflection he could see nothing wrong with his face. He collapsed back into the chair in relief, was it a dream? Some sort of nightmare that he awoke from? It felt so real and he could vividly remember so many fine details of it…
Slowly he stood back up from his seat and grabbed his bag of 24 hour store goodies, another thing that gave him pause before walking down the aisle. The door to the next car slid open easily, revealing another long hallway of chairs, at the end of it leaning against the wall was a familiar figure.
Subaru stopped in his tracks, the last time he had seen this man he was holding his decapitated head in his hands.
“T-Tanaka..?” Subaru nearly shouted, his voice full of confusion and fear.
“Late… already so late…” He mumbled under his breath, staring at the ceiling with empty eyes.
Subaru slowly put a hand out and poked him in the shoulder, the previously dead man’s body swayed for a moment but he never stopped his muttering. Subaru took a step back, his head spinning again just moments after he got it settled. His back pressed up against a door, the sound of conversation happening outside.
“No way…” Subaru turned from Tanaka and pushed the handle to the car door down, he shoved it open and—
“...So that must be the best course of action for now--” A voice suddenly stopped mid sentence as Subaru slammed the door open, a group of familiar faces stood around the front of the train and looked back at him with some surprise.
“Oh the… wait, I don’t know who that is.” A voice spoke from the crowd of people, an ashen haired girl around Subaru’s age with pigtails in a basic white blouse and long skirt looked at him confused.
“What…?” Subaru’s confusion had reached its limit and spilled over and so he could only blankly stare at the group crowded around the train who stared back at him equally confused at his arrival.
“Well by the look of things you’re just as confused as the rest of us” The man with checkered pants spoke up again, shaking his head as he pulled a cigarette out from behind his ear and lit it, the smoke vanishing into the heavy fog around them.
“The train left us here at the outskirts of the city, all the train personnel. Everyone. Gone. No explanations” He gestured all around with the lit cigarette, pointing at nothing in particular.
“...”
“...Uh” The man in checkered pants scratched the back of his head for a moment as if giving some time for any questions but just continued on when none came. “We decided to stay here for a while, someone’s gotta come looking for the train eventually”
The group awkwardly shuffled in place for a moment, seemingly not sure what to do.
“Well… maybe we could introduce ours-”
“Hey” Subaru suddenly cut off the ash haired girl, no, Marina. He remembered her saying that, he remembered all of this, they had already done all of this before hadn’t they?
“What the hell are you trying to pull here? It isn’t funny!” Subaru’s sudden outburst caused all eyes to turn on him, the sudden spotlight caused him to sweat nervously.
“W-What? Are you talking about?” A voice from below, Olivia, the girl with glasses stared up at him in surprise.
“All of this, we just did this earlier today. We talked about the dream, the tower, the city, the train and how no one was here. How the hell did you all— and Tanaka— this doesn’t make any sense!” Subaru couldn’t hide the frustration at their blank stares, as if he was the weird one.
“You’re the one not making any sense here, what are you even talking about?” Marina stared at him with a strange disgusted look on her face like she had just smelled something rotten.
“Maybe you should sit down kid, I know things are stressful but there’s no reason to uh… get all… riled up.” The one eyed man gave Subaru a concerned look, his hand motioning for Subaru to sit down in the grass.
Some part of Subaru thought that it would be for the best to just sit down and listen, but another part thought ‘I might need to run ’ but from what? The fear that he might be limited in his ability to escape caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up and the palms of his hands to get clammy. He slowly let his eyes scan the crowd whose faces were a mix of concerned and spooked looks. Even the exotic foreigner dressed in all yellow O’saa, who had previously refused to stop meditating had opened their eyes and now leveled an almost… hostile look at Subaru? He swallowed nervously and took a step back. He wasn’t thinking straight, there was nothing here that would harm him, he needed to calm down… he was safe here. Still, he didn’t move… he had no intention of letting anyone out of his sight.
The door to the train creaked open as a man stepped out, dressed in a business suit with short black hair tucked under a fedora and a suitcase in hand. A confused look was plastered on his face as he looked around at the tense situation around him. He nearly jumped back as Subaru pointed an accusatory finger right in his face.
“And you, you were dea-” Subaru’s voice suddenly stopped against his will, the whole world seemed to freeze at once. He tried to move but his body wouldn’t move, he couldn’t even move his eyes. Tanaka’s face stared back at him, seemingly unaware of what was happening in this moment of frozen time. Out of the corner of his eye Subaur could see a black shape spiral into existence, a single solid black hand which spiraled out from a single point in the middle of the air stretching towards him. His instinct was to move away but his body refused to respond at all leaving him completely helpless.
A cold sensation ran through his whole body as the hand found its way to his chest, he let out a mental whimper as he saw the palm and fingers of the appendage phase through his chest. He could feel the arm slowly slither into his torso and force itself deep until it found his heart. He could not see it but he could feel its fingers caressing and gently dancing over the still beating organ. Then— an unbearable pain shot through him as the hand squeezed, he could not scream at all despite how much he desperately wanted to, the brutal feeling of his own heart being turned to paste in his chest made him want to cry immediately. He would do anything to make the pain stop, he almost wished he could–
“AAAHHHHHGGGGUH” Subaru was screaming, time returned to its normal pace and his body was able to properly respond. He slammed his hands against his chest, grabbing the cloth above his heart with such a tight grip that he thought he might end up ripping the jacket and shirt underneath.
“What's the problem now?” A voice shouted from the group but Subaru couldn’t make out who it was, he was barely paying attention to anything anymore. As he turned around a hand suddenly grabbed onto his shoulder, stopping him in place.
“My friend, you seem to be confused… maybe you should rest?” Subaru looked up to see the gray haired, mustached face of August standing over him with a concerned look. The two locked eyes for a moment before Subaru roughly shoved his hand off his shoulder. “Don't! Just… Don’t touch me…”
He wasn’t sure what had just happened, he wasn’t sure about anything. Nothing made sense, he hated it, he hated the way they all looked at him, he couldn’t stand it. Without another word he turned from the crowd and began walking towards the stone path that he remembered from before. As he reached the entrance to the woods—
A woodsman with an ax standing over him, Tanaka’s twitching head in his hands, deformed figures chased him through tight alleyways, a man with a pig’s mask looming over him, the feeling of his face being crushed
He stared into the shade from the woods, his eyes following the stone path until it vanished into the fog. He shook his head and turned around, passing by the group which had picked up its conversation again and entering the woods from the other way. He had seen some of the other passengers go this way earlier, he knew he had seen it, nothing else made sense despite what he was told.
As he reached the edge of the woods he felt a strange uncomfortable feeling pass through him, as if he was being watched. He followed that feeling and turned around, his eyes instantly locked with the tower which stuck out in the distance, by far the largest structure in sight. He couldn’t stay here, he had to leave, he had to figure out what was going on, and his answers lied in the city. He turned away and stepped brazenly into the woods with a new found determination.