Their feet splashed in shallow puddles as they ran.  They never looked back to see if they were being followed, but they could hear the distant skittering of creatures chasing behind, echoing off of the walls of the narrow streets and alleys.

“We can’t run forever,” Hideki huffed, not as much for himself or the extra weight he was carrying with Suu on his back, but he could see that Fumi was slowing down.

Fumi shuffled to a stop, bending over with her hands on her knees to catch her breath, as she looked around.   Her eyes settled on a nearby door that looked less damaged than most of the others.  She lifted a hand to point, and between panting breaths, she said, “There.”

When Fumi slid the door open, Hideki hurried inside with Suu still on his back.  Though the house was entirely silent from the outside, he was shocked when they entered to see a family sitting on moldy tatami mats, around their table.  The mother, father, and their little boy all looked emaciated under their tattered clothes, but the mother still smiled pleasantly with chipped teeth and said, “Welcome.  Would you like some tea?”

Though Hideki was shocked by the sight, Fumi ran right past them and up the creaky stairs.  She turned back halfway up and said, “Come on!”

Hideki was snapped out of it by her voice, and he hurried after her.  The rotten wooden steps gave way under his feet, capturing his sneaker briefly before he wriggled it out and hurried to the second floor.

The second floor of the house was little more than a finished attic, with low ceilings and exposed rafters.  Fumi grabbed ahold of a nearby table and flipped it over, to slide it over the top of the stairs, beginning to barricade themselves into the attic.

“I didn’t hear a soul alive in here,” Hideki muttered as he carefully eased Suu off of his back, to set her down on the dusty wooden floor.  Suu had been quiet this whole time, softly crying on occasion, but never speaking.

“I think ‘alive’ is probably a generous term for them,” said Fumi, “I hate acknowledging any shred of truth to those rumors, but we can’t wholly deny them at this point.  All signs point to those ‘people’ being the ghosts of Old Kibitani.”

“If they’re ghosts, then what were those things crawling on Suu-chan’s bike?” Hideki asked, flopping down on the floor next to Suu.

“Logically speaking, I don’t know,” Fumi muttered, “But my gut screams ‘demons’ from the look of them.”

“I didn’t take you for the type to believe in the supernatural,” Hideki said with a weak smirk.

Fumi turned and glared sharply at him, saying, “I don’t, but I won’t also argue what’s in front of my eyes. Do you know what the ‘backfire effect’ is?”

“Backfire effect?” Hideki asked, raising an eyebrow, “Can’t say that I do.”

“Human beings are fragile creatures with fragile minds,” Fumi scoffed as she pulled more furniture from around the room to help pile on the table, perhaps past the point of what would be reasonably necessary to barricade them in; “When you present a person with a fact that challenges their narrow little view of the world, the amygdala kicks in with your ‘fight or flight’ response. People treat ideas they disagree with, with the same level of panic and defensiveness that you’d treat a feral dog.”

“Really?” Hideki asked, surprised.

“Really,” replied Fumi as she huffed, finally satisfied with her work.  She combed her fingers gently through her mussed hair, smoothing it back into place as she said, “I’ve seen far too many fools waste their breath arguing against proven fact.  As difficult as it may be, I refuse to join them.”

“Where’d you learn about a thing like that?” Hideki asked with a smirk.

Fumi looked at him a moment, before moving to sit down in front of Suu, saying softly, “I get along rather well with Nara-sensei.  She has always been kind to me and willing to talk with me after classes.  Though she pursued education, psychology was her passion.”

“So she just talks theory with you at random?” Hideki asked.

“Sometimes,” Fumi replied, “I often come to her with various annoyances… ‘Why are people so stupid’, ‘how can people act like that’, and she often shares some views on what their reasoning might be.  It doesn’t make them any less stupid, but I suppose it helps me gain some shred of empathy.”

“You, empathetic?” Hideki chuckled.

Fumi glared at him, before she looked to Suu, who had calmed somewhat.

“Onishi-kun?” Fumi asked softly, trying to muster whatever empathy she could, even out of spite.

Suu sniffled softly, lifting her head, and asked, “Y-Yes?”

“Can you tell us why you came here?” Hideki asked quietly.

Suu looked down at the floor and whispered, “A friend of mine… wanted to try to call one of those payphones… but she said she was scared… she… she asked me to… try it for her… to tell her what happened... I never thought anything like this would happen…”

“Your friends,” Hideki muttered, his hands balling into fists.

“I’m kind of shy,” Suu said quietly, “But they still eat lunch with me anyway, so… It’s really nice to feel included.”

Hideki relaxed his hands, falling quiet. The thought occurred to him, ‘Even ifthey’re horrible people, they’re all Suu-chan thinks she has. It would only hurt her more if she knew the way they talked about her.’

“You can’t keep being so selfless,” Fumi said, shaking her head, “You’re literally hurting yourself to try to help other people. If your friends actually care about you, do you think they’d want to see you acting like this?”

Suu still stared at the floor quietly, before whimpering, “But, I’m needed…”

Before Fumi could voice a retort, she was startled by a banging sound.  All three of them looked to the furniture piled atop the stair access, and watched as the makeshift barricade jarred from another knock.

“Won’t you come downstairs?” a woman’s voice called out.

“I was hoping they’d leave us alone,” Fumi mumbled.

“Do you hear that?” Hideki asked quietly, lifting a hand.  Between the bumps against the barricade, they quieted, and they listened to a soft skittering sound.

“A rat?” Suu whispered.

Hideki walked over to the pile of furniture, and put his foot on the base of a wooden clothing rack. He grabbed a long wooden bar and began to pull, until he broke it off, and held it in both hands the way he would grip a bamboo practice sword.  His eyes scanned the room suspiciously as he said, “It sounds bigger than a rat…”

Holding his makeshift weapon in one hand, Hideki reached into his back pocket with the other and pulled out his cellphone.   He turned on the ‘flashlight’ function, and the meager bulb of his camera flash turned on, casting a bit more light as he swept it across the floor from one side of the room to the other.  Another skitter drew his attention upward, and he shined the light on what appeared to be the boy from downstairs.  He was wearing the same tan shorts and the same dirty jinbei shirt, but his skin was solidly blood-red, and his fingernails and toenails were firmly dug into the side of a wooden rafter. He turned his yellow eyes toward Hideki, squinting and hissing as his three-foot-long tongue dangled from his open maw.

Suu and Fumi both screamed, and Fumi held Suu’s face to her shoulder so she wouldn't look at the tiny terror.

“Oh that's it!” Hideki shouted in exasperation as he lowered his phone.  He tapped the old-fashioned rotary dial symbol, and turned the 0, before holding the phone up to his ear.  As the phone rang, he looked at Fumi and Suu and said, “It's as good as option as any.”

“What are you doing?” Fumi asked, holding Suu tightly.

“Trying to call out of here!” Hideki said, gripping the phone tightly as it continued to ring without answer.  His eyes tore away from the demon up above, to look at his phone.   In that brief moment, the demon leapt from the darkness, letting go of the rafter to fling itself at Hideki.

“SORATO-KUN!” Suu shouted as she peered up from Fumi’s shoulder, clinging to her classmate desperately.

Hideki fell onto his back on the ground, as his cellphone clattered next to him.  His hands gripped both ends of the wooden stick, using it to hold off the red demon.  With the bar caught in its wide open mouth, its teeth couldn’t reach his face, nor its swiping claws reach his throat, though its long, filth-encrusted tongue slapped weakly across Hideki’s cheek and the ground next to his head.

“Augh!” Hideki groaned in disgust as he struggled to hold the creature back, his arms flexed hard, “Yamamoto-kun, just take care of Suu-chan!”

“While you do what?!” Fumi shouted, standing and pulling Suu to her feet with her.

Hideki clenched his teeth, not finding an answer as he struggled to hold off the demon that was slowly gnawing its way through the wood.  Between the sound of teeth scraping at wood, and Suu crying out in fear, Hideki heard the repetitive ring of his phone a few feet away from his head as it finally stopped.

From the phone, a woman’s voice asked, “How may I direct your call?”