The hazy smoke seemed to be sliced clean away as it drifted toward the sky above the manor, vanishing without a trace.
The Occult Club quickly packed up the cookware and cleaned the mess outside. The president led the members back into the manor. The sun was about to set. The whole process took about five minutes, maybe less. Soon, night would fall completely.
"Yume? What are you looking at?"
The president looked back. For once, Kanagawa Yume was quiet, standing by the window and staring out at the thick, black fog that had inexplicably rolled in.
The manor was shrouded in mist, reducing visibility to almost nothing. The naked eye could only make out the immediate surroundings within a few meters. Beyond that was just a vast expanse of fog, obscuring everything.
"I think there's someone standing out there," Kanagawa Yume said, pointing into the black mist.
The president, being a rather cautious person, walked over to her side and followed her finger, but she couldn't see so much as a shadow.
"There's nothing there. You must be mistaken."
"I don't know, maybe I just mistook a tree in the fog for a person. It wasn't moving... Anyway, what's the plan for tonight? It's only 7:58 PM. Going to bed this early isn't my style."
The president smiled, pulling a handful of flashlights from her bag and switching off the large spotlight. Instantly, the room plunged into a darkness so complete you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Everyone quickly took out their phones, using their faint light to illuminate their immediate surroundings.
"You were zoning out just now. We've already planned out the night's activities." With that, the president handed a flashlight to Kanagawa Yume. "We're going to play hide-and-seek. The game area is limited to the first floor, excluding the bedrooms. The hiders aren't allowed to turn on their flashlights or phones, only the seekers. Whoever is found has to join the seekers until everyone is found."
Kanagawa Yume nodded, approving of the game. Hiding in a haunted house without any source of light was bound to be unsettling. Especially when tucked away in a cramped, dark corner, hearing the faint sound of approaching footsteps, forced to stifle your breath and cover your mouth in suspense.
Yes, yes, more material! Note it down, note it down. Kanagawa Yume quickly jotted down the idea in her notebook, where she was outlining her supernatural novel.
The manor was huge. For a normal person, it would take a good ten minutes of constant walking just to get through it. To sweep every single corner would take at least half an hour. Factoring in various delays and physical exertion, the game was likely to last at least an hour. That meant the hiders would have to stay in the dark for an entire hour.
Wouldn't anyone with a fear of the dark get PTSD from this?
"So who's seeking? There are twenty-four of us. It's too tiring for just one person to search."
The words had barely left her mouth when all eyes turned to the president and Kanagawa Yume. In unison, they said, "The president will lead by example and be the seeker for the first round. Yume, you're with her."
"Why me?"
"Because you're loud and clumsy when you walk, not like the others who tiptoe around and scare the crap out of people," the president sighed, patting Kanagawa Yume on the shoulder.
"Fine, I've got no problem with that. But you all better hide well, don't let me catch you. Or else I'll make you scream for mercy..." Kanagawa Yume teased. She could hardly wait to pop out, grab her friends, and document their flustered reactions.
Kanagawa Yume and the president went to the main door of the manor to face the wall and count to one hundred.
The sound of rustling footsteps came from behind them, occasionally punctuated by a sharp thud, likely someone tripping over something in the dark. The members of the Occult Club had pretty good nerves; no one was a spoilsport who would cry and want to quit after a simple fall. But good nerves were only relative to the fainthearted. In the end, everyone here was just an ordinary person.
"98... 99... 100."
Kanagawa Yume opened her eyes, switched on her flashlight, and after a moment's thought, set it to its dimmest setting. She also abandoned her usual stomping, instead moving with a surprising lightness.
"Prez, you search the right side, I'll take the left." Kanagawa Yume was fearless and didn't mind going alone at all.
The president hesitated. To be honest, she was a little scared. The hiders were probably huddled together in groups of two or three in the dark. But the seekers, if they split up, would be all alone, wandering through the vast, gloomy, and oppressive manor with only the faint beam of a flashlight. The pressure was just as intense.
"O-Okay." But not wanting to be a wet blanket, the president forced herself to agree.
Soon, Kanagawa Yume was searching the left side of the manor, flashlight in hand, her steps steady and quiet.
In the dim light, she started noticing things she hadn't seen before. Shining her flashlight on the floor, she saw that the once-clean surface was now covered in traces of moss and dust. Had they missed a spot during cleaning? Someone must have been slacking.
Kanagawa Yume continued on, flashlight held out, but after walking for a long time, she hadn't seen a single person. Instead, she saw more and more dust, and the air grew thick and cold.
"What the hell is wrong with the weather? Did the temperature just drop by ten degrees?"
Yes, Kanagawa Yume glanced at her phone. Half an hour had passed, and she hadn't found a single damn person. Did that make any sense? The manor was big, but because it was so big, there weren't actually that many places to hide. Most hiding spots could be easily found with a quick sweep of a flashlight.
Yet Kanagawa Yume had been searching for a full thirty minutes and hadn't found anyone. Could they all be hiding in the right-side area where the president was searching?
"Am I cursed? Are these people that good at hiding? I haven't seen a soul this whole time. Son of a b*tch, someone must have broken the rules and hidden in a room! Otherwise, there's no way I wouldn't have found anyone."
"I should call the president and see what's up."
Kanagawa Yume wasn't stupid. After failing to find anyone for so long, she realized something was wrong. She immediately dialed the president's number, but to her surprise... an automated voice kept repeating that the call could not be connected.
"The number you have dialed is currently unavailable. Please try again later..."
"Sorry, the party you are trying to reach is not available at the moment. Please try again later..."
"The number you have dialed does not exist. Please check the number and dial again..."
"Your account is out of credit. Please recharge your phone immediately..."
"Huh? Are you f*cking with me too? This is disgusting! What a useless-ass carrier!" Kanagawa Yume grumbled, filled with resentment.
The automated messages were getting weirder and weirder, going from unavailable to non-existent, and even claiming she was out of credit. This was just ridiculous. It was like absurdity's parents opened the door for absurdity, and now absurdity had come home to roost.
How could the president's number not exist? A number can't just vanish into thin air, and neither could the president and she.
The next second, she noticed the "No Signal" icon at the top of her phone screen.
How was that possible? She'd had decent signal when they first entered the manor grounds. How could it just disappear?
Kanagawa Yume's senses sharpened. She cranked her flashlight up to its brightest setting. Suddenly, she felt a pair of eyes on her back, watching from the endless darkness.
"Who's there?!" Kanagawa Yume spun around to find nothing but empty space behind her.
Was it her imagination?
"Phew... I probably just scared myself. It's probably some asshole hiding in the dark, laughing at me. They better not let me catch them!" Kanagawa Yume tried to reassure herself, but her heart was pounding faster and faster.
Yes, for a while now, she'd felt eyes on her from all directions. Innumerable, so many... From every corner, every angle. But she couldn't see anything.
"I'll go check the corridor outside the bedrooms. Maybe someone broke the rules and went into a room."
Kanagawa Yume invented a flimsy excuse, forcing herself to jog towards the corridor. She had to gather her courage and keep moving forward, because a female voice had inexplicably risen in her mind, warning her: Get into a room, quickly, or it will be too late.
Kanagawa Yume's pace quickened, her breathing and heartbeat becoming rapid and erratic. And behind her, a dense swarm of spider shadows followed close behind.
Soon, she reached the corridor, and this time she finally saw a member of the Occult Club. Under the bright beam of her flashlight, the member who had played the masked ghost earlier was standing at the end of the corridor, in the same position, same costume, even the same posture as before.
"Ha, finally found someone. Scared me to death... ahem, wait, no, I wasn't scared. After all, there's no such thing as ghosts in this world."
"Alright, alright, stop pretending. I already exposed you once during the day. You want me to do it again?"
"Hmph, fine, I'll humor you!"
Kanagawa Yume was full of confidence. She had been the one to walk up and expose the ghost prank during the day, so she knew the drill. This time would be no different.
But as she got closer, she realized something was wrong. The figure seemed to have her back to her, but was actually facing her. Kanagawa Yume's attention was so focused on the head, obscured by long, black hair, that she had assumed it was the back of the head. But the distinct curve of a chest made her realize the body was facing her. Then why was the head...?!
Relax, relax... Kanagawa Yume forced herself to calm down. She must have done her hair like this on purpose, to cover her face and scare me in a different way.
Kanagawa Yume aimed her flashlight at the figure's head. Even under the intense light, she couldn't see any flaw in the illusion. Growing impatient, she quickened her pace.
So cold... The closer she got, the more the air temperature dropped. A bone-chilling cold instantly enveloped her.
Wait... Where's her shadow?
Kanagawa Yume's head snapped down to look at the figure's feet. She clearly remembered seeing a shadow at the masked person's feet during the day, which was why she had confidently walked up to expose the prank.
But now... The figure's feet weren't touching the ground. And beneath them, her shadow was a giant spider. If she took one more step, she would be standing on it.
The spider shadow suddenly twitched. A terrifying eye opened and looked right at Kanagawa Yume.
Run!
Without a second thought, Kanagawa Yume turned and bolted back towards the main hall, flashlight in hand, wanting to find the president and tell her there was a ghost. This was something science couldn't explain!
As Kanagawa Yume fled, the spider and the masked ghost didn't move until she had left the corridor, losing her chance to hide in a room. Only then did the masked ghost slowly turn its head. The mask fell off, and a dense swarm of black spiders crawled out from within, melting into the shadows and rapidly chasing after her.
.....
Meanwhile, in the main hall, the president had been waiting for a long time, but Kanagawa Yume hadn't returned.
"That Yume... did she fall asleep somewhere? Why has it been so long? I've already found almost everyone!" the president complained, then began to count everyone again.
She counted three times. Only two people were missing: Kanagawa Yume, and one of the members who had pretended to be a ghost earlier.
But there had been two ghost pranksters during the day. The president walked over to the other one and asked, "Wasn't the person who was pretending to be a ghost with you earlier?"
The other girl shook her head. "I was hiding with some other people. I didn't see her."
"I see... Strange. Where on earth did Yume go?" the president wondered.
A nervous voice piped up from the crowd. "President, you don't think Yume... ran into a ghost, do you?"
The president immediately cut them off. "Don't joke around. If there were ghosts, why haven't we seen any? There are so many of us. I refuse to believe that only Yume and one other person encountered a ghost. Don't forget, we cleaned every corner of this place earlier and didn't find anything unusual."
"But that was during the day."
"..."
The president started to get anxious. She checked her phone; there were no call records. She tried calling Kanagawa Yume several times, but the calls wouldn't go through. The message said the phone was unreachable. Not turned off, not deliberately ignored, just... as if there was no signal.
"The remaining twenty-two of us, split into groups of four and search the house. Call immediately if anything happens. One other student and I will form a group and search outside. If you find Yume or see anything strange, post it in the group chat right away."
The president gave her orders. If they couldn't find her inside, she might be outside. Given Kanagawa Yume's bold personality, it was entirely possible she had gone outside to look for people, even if the rules said not to.
---||---
At the manor gate, Li Mo stood motionless, looking up at the indistinct black fog. The air all around was thick with the smell of rust.
"The time for paranormal activity has arrived. It's 8:32 PM, so it's been a little while."
"A rusty iron gate, walls covered in cobwebs, a strange black fog."
"It's normal for an iron gate to rust, but there seem to be far too many spiders. It doesn't fit a normal ecosystem. There are plenty of birds around here; the spider population shouldn't be this rampant."