Abruption

Sakura pulled Takumi toward the stairs as security rushed past them.

“Yes sir, we’re on our way.” A random security man says, avoiding Sakura and Takumi.

“What is going on Sakura?” Takumi asks.

“No idea, probably something either is broken in the basement or a drill. It happens way too often.” Sakura answers in an annoyed tone.

The second floor was a reflection of the first with endless doors, ukiyo-e landscapes, and a hallway that seemed to go on forever.

“Sakura, I have no idea how big your home is. I can imagine the third floor looks like this too.”

Sakura giggles hearing his comment.

“Well sort of, upstairs is mainly storage and my dad’s private study. But I want to show you this room.”

Sakura goes to a nearby door and opens it to Takumi’s astonishment. It was a massive A/V room consisting of various cameras and storage units full of memory cards and tapes. Takumi sees some camcorders that take up cassettes to store footage.

“Your dad must love collecting these. Not going to lie, these camcorders were probably the best to capture footage back then.” Takumi says with passion.

“Well, then you’re going to love this.” Sakura says as she pulls a cabinet door open.

Takumi sees a camcorder that looks modern yet old fashioned. It has a mini screen, custom led light, and a moderate lens that looks spheric in shape. Holding it up, it’s fairly light and can be strapped to his hand.

“Remember how we used to make movies in our yards?” Sakura says, smiling.

“I remember, your dad didn’t like it when we used up his memory card on his camcorder.” Takumi smiles as well.

“Well, this one is purely custom made, my dad ordered it to take more larger cards. Want to record a video tour of the house with this card?”

Sakura pulls out a 1 terabyte SD card from her pocket.

“I promise, my dad won’t get mad like before, as long as we treat the camera carefully.” Sakura says, inserting the SD card and handing over the camcorder to him.

Takumi turns it on and sees a classic monitor displaying the menu and everything caught in the camera’s point of view. Takumi points it to Sakura and is stunned by the quality of it being high definition. Takumi sees a button that says filter and presses it, changing the perspective into one that is of a classic VHS camera.

“Whoa, your dad ordered it to go like this?” Takumi says in awe.

“Yeah, he especially loves that filter.” Sakura says as Takumi aims the camcorder in different directions.

Takumi walks around the room while Sakura smiles at him geeking out. Takumi heads to the sliding door leading to the hall and opens it. He views the absurdly long hallway in the camcorder's filter.

“This looks like one of those films about haunted houses. Even all of your pretty ukiyo-e comes out nicely.”

“Thanks, my dad is just obsessed with them and…” Sakura stops talking as she notices something is off.

She steps forward to the ukiyo-e across from the door.

“What’s wrong, Sakura?”

“This isn’t right. Why is there nothing here?” Sakura utters in a puzzled yet frightful tone.

“What do you mean? There are really pretty valley and hills.” Takumi responds.

“That’s the thing, there’s supposed to be a yokai on this one.”

Takumi views the art and immediately sees the rest in the hallway. Viewing as far as he can see, there’s countless ukiyo-e art with only nature and/or houses in the second-floor hallway.

“Say Sakura, is every other art up here supposed to be nothing but nature?” Takumi expresses.

Sakura turns around in confusion and horror. She sees all of the hung-up art having only nature and/or houses.

“What? What is even happening? Takumi, I’m scared.”

Sakura hugs Takumi’s arm with the latter closing the camcorder and hugging her back.

“Maybe your dad had his guys hang up some new art without any monsters.”

Rumble

With no warning, a tremor is felt by the two and by the interior of the manor. The duo falls to the floor and crawls back to the A/V room. Entering, they hug each other as every piece of equipment shakes and some tapes fall to the floor.

The tremor continues for a minute until it settles. The shaking stops as Sakura and Takumi get back up.

“There must have been an earthquake. Are you okay?” Takumi says to Sakura, while checking for any injuries.

“I’m fine. But what about my mom and dad?” Sakura says in a dreadful tone.

She hurriedly dashes downstairs, with Takumi right behind, to the first floor. Going through the main hallway, she sees there are no yokai’s at all in the art anymore. Brushing it off for now, she reaches to a door that leads to the basement.

“Hold up Sakura, I’m sure they’re fine.” Exhaustedly said by Takumi.

Sakura rushes down as Takumi sees the stairs in front of him leading to somewhere bright. Squinting, he follows behind a flustered Sakura. They walk down and reach the basement whose lights shine brightly.

Takumi looks around and sees various documents, and oddly shaped symbols resembling Japanese writing characters and shrine offerings. What catches his eye the most is various guard equipment like radios, mace, and flashlights are seen scattered.

“Mom, dad, are you alright?!”

“Sakura we’re here.” A gentle female voice says

Sakura reaches the bottom and sees her mom hugging her dad.

“Thank goodness you’re alright. Your father was fixing the lights and then that tremor happened. I rushed down here to keep him safe.”

Sakura’s mom hugs her and lays a kiss on her forehead.

“Hitomi, we need to leave now!” Mr. Hoshino yells out.

Everyone there is stunned by his order.

“Honey, what are you talking about?” Hitomi says.

“Please, I can’t explain right now. But we’re in trouble if we don’t leave now!” Mr. Hoshino says to his wife.

Just then, another tremor happens but something else is heard. Moans, screeches, knocks, scratches, and various voices whose origins can’t be seen are heard. Takumi and the others look around as nothing can be seen.

The lights flicker on and off as an eerie orange glow appears on the ceiling and walls. Mr. Hoshino drags his wife upstairs as Sakura and Takumi follow behind.

“We need to leave! Something horrible is coming our way!” Mr. Hoshino guides them all in a hurry to the front door. Opening it, they all look in horror with what they see, nothing.

Everything is pitch black as far as their eyes can see. No yard, buildings, stars, or people can be seen. Everyone is petrified, looking at the empty void outside.

“We’re too late. Please forgive me Hitomi, I never meant to bring any of this to you all.” Mr Hoshino begins to shed a tear and hugs his wife.

Slam

The door closes abruptly as more shaking is felt by all. Takumi holds Sakura until the shaking stops; uneasy voices can be heard. Men and women pleas, but what stands out is a gruff tonal voice.

“Mr. Hoshino, your debt must be paid!”