90's Carpet!

* Click *

Shota turned off the lights to the classroom and began his exit out of the school grounds.

Shota Kyofu was an overworked, Japanese elementary school teacher. He was average at best in most things, but that was completely fine with him. His appearance was just as ordinary as his life. He had the typical short black hair, black eyes, standing at 5'9" and dressed in normal school teacher attire, that being a black suit and tie with a leather briefcase in his hand. He could pretty much fit into any crowd for anything, at least in Japan.

"Another all nighter, huh?"

As he noticed that there was no one in the empty building, he checked his watch that showed

[ 3:23 AM ].

He walked out the main exit gate that was completely open, connected by two pillars of brick.

"Hah, Isn't it way past your bedtime?"

As he made his way to the nearest station, he saw an old man walk towards him on the opposite side of the sidewalk. Shota commented his sarcastic remark under his breath. However, as the two got closer to each other, he noticed something..?

"What the fuck?"

When Shota was close enough to get a clear view of the man's face, he noticed that he was smiling directly at him with the widest grin that one could possibly make. The slits of his eyes staring right at Shota's. The old man stopped in place and moved and continued making the same expression at the young teacher as he walked away, trying to ignore the weird encounter.

However, this was not the last time such a thing would happen that night. As Shota continued on to the station, every single person that he walked past made the same expression.

"Alright, would you just fucking quit it already?!"

He yelled at a middle aged woman in business attire who made the same expression as everyone else, hoping to put an end to whatever this was. If it was some kind of elaborate prank, it was weird to pull it off on an average nobody teacher like him. Unfortunately, she just continued to give him that same horrifying smile.

"I'm too tired for this shit, I need a fucking coffee."

Shota, mentally and physically exhausted, walked towards the nearest vending machine for a coffee. After making his choice and putting his 200 yen in, he pressed the strongest black coffee it had. The tumble from inside could be heard as it dropped straight down. As he reached in the pitch black opening at the bottom of the vending machine, he felt a cold, fleshy feeling in his right hand.

He retracted his hand out of instinct and looked at it to reveal what looked like a dark red liquid covering his finger tips, but it was difficult to make out with the only source of light coming from the vending machine.

"Jesus Christ!"

At the realization of what was on his hands, he frantically wiped his hand on his jeans as he continued to yell swears. Once his hand felt clean enough, he took out his cell phone and turned on it's flashlight, slowly moving it towards inside the opening of the vending machine.

He wanted to be wrong so badly about what was inside, but -

" - ! "

What lied before him was a sight so disgusting, Shota couldn't even continue to casually swear. Inside the opening of the vending machine was a mutilated body with pieces spread around the compartment, it's head, arms, hands, legs, fingers, eyes all mixed around in a pool of it's own blood.

At this point, his mind was in a more instinctive mode, producing no coherent thought except for the idea that he absolutely needed to get to the train station and leave. He began to run to the station, ignoring all possible irregularities around him to his periphery. Eventually, the Tokyo Metro sign was visible, he continued to run towards it and once he made it to the entrance of the station, jumped over the stairs down, almost breaking his ankles from the impact.

However, right now, any pain he endured did not exist.

Shota tapped his IC card and ran towards the line and platform to get back home. The station shouldn't have even been opened at this time, but it was for some reason. And Shota was once again, the only person inside.

Just as he made it to the platform, the train arrived. Anxiously tapping his feet on the ground waiting for the doors to open, he practically jumped inside once they did.

However, Shota would come to realize this train was no escape from the horrors chasing him.

After he made it inside the train, he looked to his sides, and -

" Bleargh! "

Inside the plastic handles of the train were the necks of Japanese elementary school children lifelessly hanging. Shota could do nothing but kneel on the ground and vomit uncontrollably as the doors behind him closed and the train began to run.

He continued to stare at his own vomit on the ground, because looking anywhere else, would break his mind once again.

Eventually, after a small eternity, the train slowly came to a stop and with it the speakers announced - “Now arriving at *phzzzzzzzzzht* station.

Shota slowly got up and turned around to the direction from which he entered, only to see a pitch black void outside the doors. However, he walked out anyways. Yes, this was his station. Yes, Shota Kyofu was not an Elementary Teacher. He was a man who just committed one of the most horrific mass murders in 1990's Japan. And the dead children surrounding him, were the ones he killed. Pretending to be an innocent man, someone who he was not, landed him here.

And now, he was going to have to accept the reality, the consequences, before him.

A step into the void.