“00027. An unfortunate soul who became a-a-a-a—-a failed exp-p-periment.” The voice glitched in and out a few times, it was hurting Haruto’s ears a little bit.
“And why should I trust that this isn’t a trap?” Haruto stepped back.
“Because you have no CHo1IC3.” All the exits had a bell and string attached to it.
“How is that supposed to keep me here?” Haruto couldn’t help but laugh a little. He began walking over to the exit.
“You’re free to leave, but The Pup3t33r wouldn’t let that pass. He has sens1tive ears, if the b3ll rings he’ll attack. Your ch0ice.” The voice explained. Haruto stopped in his tracks, bewildered.
“...Fine.” He slowly stepped towards the seats in the auditorium, trying to find an empty seat without a mannequin. The only empty one was in the front row.
“Ar3 y0u r3ady?” The voice sounded slightly distorted, but not that much. Haruto nodded his head, prepared for anything.
“Let the show b3g1n.” The mannequin began moving, like a puppet. There was blood leaking, and even more blood oozing down the joints with every move.
“00027 was a kind boy, wh0 was br0ken by the w0rld. Hurt and t0rtur3d by fellow kids h1s age.” The mannequin was covering its ears while four other mannequins were dropped, in a position as if they were hurting it.
“A young sixteen year 0ld h3 was, an inn0cent on3 at that. 3veryday, he w0uld b3 tortured everyday when he went to g3t educated, he w0uld be made fun of b3cause of h1s ‘oversized’ w1ngs and h1s small size.” Wings arose from the mannequin, which appeared large.
“As the t0rment 0nly got wors3, it was the last straw wh3n the f00lish boys b3gan threatening to k1ll 00027’s fam1ly. L1ttle did 3veryone kn0w, 00027 was b0rn w1th someth1ng kn0wn as: C0rr#*!!!!!!!!!n—-” Haruto’s ears began hurting badly, so bad that his ears were bleeding.
“STOP THE NOISE!!!” Haruto covered his ears, breathing heavily. Finally, the glitchy, distorted voice stopped.
“0h my, d-d-d-did y0u not take h33d of my warning? 00027 w0k3 up, and now h3’s hungry. G-g-g-g00d luck.” The voice faded out, distorted. Haruto was puzzled, 00027 was a young boy, probably died young too.
“Who even is 00027? Why and how would he come he–” Haruto stopped as soon as he heard bones crack before dead silence. He stepped slowly towards the exits, but at that point, he didn’t care whether he set the bell off or not. Upon stepping over the string, Haruto’s foot got caught in it, and the bell began ringing loudly. Haruto fell down, struggling to get back up.
“This damn string–” The cracking became louder, and Haruto finally knew why the sound was being made. The Puppeteer slowly climbed down the walls of the stage.
“CRAP, CRAP, CRAP! NOT A GOOD TIME!” Haruto already forgot about the noise sensitivity, only alarming it more. He was only panicking even more, trying to find a sharp object.
“A mirror shard..! Come on, come on!” Haruto began trying to cut the string, but it was made out of a strong material. Looking behind himself, he saw The Puppeteer getting closer as the lights flickered. Haruto finally broke free of the string, instantly getting up and running. But he wasn’t the only one moving fast. The Puppeteer spread its wings, flying, easily catching up with Haruto.
“I need to find somewhere to hide..” The lights began flickering violently, The Puppeteer was hungry, letting out a distorted roar. Haruto found an area near the backstage with lockers, quietly slipping into one of the lockers. The steps were loud, so were the bones that were cracking.
“1 CAN H3AR Y0UR H3ARTB3AT.” It was the first time Haruto ever heard The Puppeteer’s voice, but it was very similar to that of the voice that was telling the story about ‘00027’. A shiver ran down his spine, Haruto could hear the steps only getting louder, before The Puppeteer broke the locker door, reaching in for Haruto. As soon as he was in The Puppeteer’s grip, Haruto began panicking and struggling.
“LET ME GO!” As Haruto continued struggling, The Puppeteer’s head turned around, revealing the mouth on the back of its head. It was prepared to eat, Haruto no longer knew what to do, would he survive this?
“Bushida..?” A warm breeze passed through the air in an abandoned city. A large city at that.
“Where am I..?” The blond-haired boy sat up, noticing a book that was on his lap.
“YUKIO!” Upon hearing his name, Yukio got up, but the back of his neck was hurting really badly.
“Bushida?” Yukio followed the direction of the voice, finding absolutely nothing. Worried about the whereabouts of his friend, he continued exploring.
“This isn’t a city.. at least not a normal one.” Yukio looked at the signs that pointed to different science facilities, different name tags, belonging to different experiments. The only thing that each name tag had in common was the five digit number combination.
“00037… 44710… 09992…00096… how many of these are there?” Yukio entered one of the scientific facilities, searching for information on the billboards.
“Experiments to keep contained… no… NOTHING HERE IS HELPFUL!” Yukio punched the wall, resulting in a bloody fist. “CRAP!” Everything on the billboards were only about the experiments and different plants and locations that were destroyed. There were a few staff IDs, a majority of them were bloody. Upon looking at all the warnings, Yukio almost forgot that he was in the Mirror Realm.
“Ok… maybe these warnings will do me some good.” Yukio searched his pockets for any guns or daggers, the only thing he had was the pocket book with information on the Mirror Beasts.
“Let's see if there’s anything on these facilities..” He opened the book, turning to the table of contents.
“Guess I should find out what the main company is… ‘C.C.E.F.’ whatever that stands for.” Yukio searched the table of contents until he found the abbreviation. Page one hundred two, that’s where he turned.
“‘Corruption Containment Experimental Facilities. A place where gods and demons alike are kept, but specifically the ones with a rare condition known as… corruption. Corruption is considered a disease that’s often passed down, it’s not contagious. Symptoms include anger bursts, depression, paranoia, intense anxiety, sudden hunger bursts… for the same species. Very few experiments come out alive, but I’ve given a list of live experiments that are very deadly, if you see these digits on one’s arm or neck… keep away: 00008 00027, 00032, 00094, and 00126. These experiments have escaped from containment many years ago, their corruption is too strong. Stay strong, keep alive, good luck.’ That’s totally not concerning information at all.” Yukio chuckled awkwardly. The facility was full of mirrors and dead staff members, but one dead member caught Yukio’s eye, but rather the thing used to kill the worker.
“An ID? That has got to be the most embarrassing…. Death.” Yukio pulled the ID that was tightly wrapped around the person’s neck. It had a picture of a sixteen year old boy who looked absolutely miserable, with the numbers: 00027 on the bottom. Yukio became worried, not sure of whether he should keep exploring or not. Putting it in his pocket, he decided to continue, not like there was anything else that could be done. Instead of going further into the building, Yukio simply studied the papers on the billboards, looking for information on the ‘need to be contained’ experiments. Sure enough, it had the exact same digits listed in the book, but this time, it had the room numbers next to them.
“A7, Q9, F4, E1, and B1. All in order of the experiment digits I guess. Since those experiments escaped, it should be somewhat safe for me to investigate those rooms.” Yukio tore the paper off of the billboard. “Investigator Yukio. Hm. Has a nice ring to it.” He chuckled, looking at one o hi f the maps before taking it down and carrying it with him.
“Looks like I’m pretty close to Q9, which is right…. here.” Yukio looked at the room number again to make sure it’s the right one before opening the door. When he opened the door, he saw at least four dead staff members and tons of broken chains. There was also a sign that said: EXPERIMENT 00027 KEEP AWAY HIGHLY DANGEROUS.
“Guess the book was right, the experiments did escape. Didn’t leave a single person unharmed… scary.” Yukio looked at the scientists, they were all ripped up, bone and flesh visible.
“Ugh. Disgusting.” Yukio threw up a little in his mouth. There were also quite a bit of supplies that were used to test on the boy.
“Guess the testing didn’t go so well for that scientist.” There was a scientist with a syringe that impaled his neck. The medication that was supposed to go into the syringe was in the man’s hand, the glass that contained the medication was shattered. Yukio turned around after inspecting the area, back into the hallway, but something was off. After a few moments of silence, there was a giggle that could be heard.
“Wh-who’s there..?” Yukio quickly turned around. It was simply a window, there he could see the sight of the blood moon.
“Guess the clock is gonna hit twenty-four soon.. hopefully me and Bushida missed a majority of the blood moon while we were in the neighboring realm.” The blood moon had a strange circle on it, it was black though. It was at the very edge of the moon, that must’ve meant that the blood moon duration was already almost over.
“Kuroki, Bushida, please be alive. I can’t live without either of you.” Yukio sat down in the corner of the hallway, looking out the window at the clock, waiting for the next day. Yukio noticed something strange though, the clock kept on glitching.
“What the he–” before he could finish his sentence, there was an incredibly loud chime, instead of Yukio appearing somewhere else, the window and hallways glitched, the windows turned into a door and the facility became an endless maze. Mirrors appeared everywhere, eyes opened on the mirrors, Yukio began running immediately with no idea what could be happening. Instead of finding an exit, the rooms twisted and turned, more mirrors and eyes appeared.
“GAH!!” As Yukio fell down, a spike impaled his arm. “J-just b-b-breathe…” He slowly pulled his arm up, shouting out in pain. Blood ran down the hallway like a river, it didn’t stop bleeding. Yukio ripped off a portion of his shirt, tightly wrapping it around the hole in his arm. As he got up, all he saw were eyes, seemingly staring into his soul. That is before something grabbed onto his leg, dragging Yukio at a rapid speed.
“LET GO!” He began kicking the claws that tightly held onto Yukio’s leg. Eventually, Yukio was held upside down in front of a large mirror with a silhouette of a monster with six eyes, six arms, and six wings. It was about two hundred sixty-two centimeters, extremely large. All it did was wipe blood from Yukio’s arm, digesting it before dropping him, letting Yukio fall down to his death. The arms emerged out of the mirror, it had chains all over its body. One of the arms transformed into a sharp object, breaking the wall, allowing light of the blood moon to enter the area before it pulled itself out of the mirror, appearing larger.
“CRAP!” Yukio began looking back and forth, hoping that there was something he could grab onto, but he had no luck finding something.
“Am I really going to die..?” Yukio murmured, until a slant appeared, causing him to roll at a fast speed, resulting in hitting a wall. It was extremely painful, but he was still alive.
“...th-those eyes… I-I need.. to s-s-stay out of s-sight…” Yukio coughed up blood, leaning up against the wall, avoiding mirrors. He got startled by the deafening roar of the creature, it was a mirror beast without a doubt. Yukio stumbled into a room, shutting the door and making sure there was no reflection of anything whatsoever. He searched in his jacket pockets, looking for the book on the Mirror Realm.
“H-here we are…” Yukio coughed before pulling the book out, searching through the mirror beast pages until he found the one that fit the description of the one he saw.
“‘The Watcher, eyes everywhere and anywhere… he’s always watching, even when you don’t think he is… he is c-contained within the m-m-mirror, the only exception is during the b-blood moon…’” Yukio began coughing badly, blood dripping down his mouth. “‘...he must digest b-blood before revealing the l-light from the blood moon…’ S-so that’s what he did!” Yukio continued. The piece of clothing he wrapped on his arm was drenched in blood, he thought it would’ve stopped bleeding by now. Yukio used the wall to help himself up, about to walk out the room, that is until he heard a loud crash.
“M-maybe, I should look for w-w-weaknesses and strengths..!” Yukio said in a whisper yell, sliding back down into the corner of the room, avoiding bones.
“That’s it… h-he has terrible h-hearing! …but incredibly g-g-good eyesight…” Yukio hung his head, sighing. He closed his eyes, exhausted from all the energy he used up from running and trying to keep himself alive.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
–CHAPTER 13 END–
Comments (0)
See all