Chapter 6

Saeko has once heard that crying would make one feel better. She couldn't remember the scientific explanation behind it, but it came with one.

What a load of lies. It's not like things will magically become okay if you cry. Also, the tears would ruin any applied makeup (not that Saeko ever wore any). Most importantly, crying is a sign of weakness. In a world where the strong consumes to weak, Saeko can't afford to be weak.

...And, done. The numbers have finally been fixed. Hopefully, Asakura will forgive her, even though it wasn't even her fault to begin with.

She looks at the time. It's now twelve minutes to four. The train station has already closed, which means she has to take the taxi, or go to the manga café again.

She chose the manga café in a heartbeat.

It wasn't even a competition. For starters, it's much cheaper to spend the night at the manga café than taking the cab. Next, since she doesn't have to take the train, she doesn't have to wake up earlier, either. And speaking of trains, she doesn't have to endure the rush hour and squeezed between passengers until she could barely breathe. Lastly, and this is the most important part, she could take a hot water shower. For free. Without having to worry about water and gas bills.

Oh, right. She can also investigate the eyes using the internet. She can't believe that she has prioritize taking a shower over that.

Looking at the time, Saeko remembered about something Hinata said. That the time between midnight and four in the morning is called the Witching Hour. She has no idea what that is, but she couldn't help but wonder if something would happen just before the eyes disappear at four.

Now's a good time to find out.

She waits at her seat patiently for ten whole minutes. Even though it's already been a few days, she's still not used to being stared at. As such, she wants to wait as long as possible. Once the ten minutes is up, she left the office and heads outside, bracing herself for the fear-inducing stare.

***

The eyes were not staring at her.

Well, this is new.

They're there, sure. Saeko could see them from beyond the window of a shop lot. As usual, she could see their whites and their pupils clearly, as if they're right in front of her. The only difference, though, is that their attention is elsewhere right now. They find something to their right far more interesting.

Saeko can't believe what she's seeing right now. None of the posts and comments at the online forum ever mentioned this, so Saeko is certain that she's the first one who witnessed this. Instead of being excited, she's even more afraid.

An irregularity like this is never a good sign.

The entire street is so quiet she could hear her own heartbeat. That's how she knows it's beating louder and louder by the minute. She's just standing at the entrance to the office and staring at the eyes, thinking that they'll stare back at her.

Any moment now...

But no, that never happened. The eyes disappeared just like that. Saeko looks at her wrist watch. It's now one minute past four.

At least it's now proven that the eyes could only stay at the time between midnight and four in the morning. That said, Saeko wonders what were they staring at. She looks to her left, the same direction the eyes were looking at-

-And hears some footsteps.

Saeko feels her heart stopping.

The footsteps are getting fainter and fainter, which means that the person is distancing themselves from her.

Should she give chase?

She quickly shakes her head. No, it's too dangerous. She's alone, and has no tools to defend herself with. The only thing she could do right now is seek shelter. She heads to the manga café at once.

***

She arrived at the manga café wheezing. Not only is she out of breath, her whole body is drenched in sweat, and her feet hurt. She was always an indoor person to begin with, and she simply hates exercising. In fact, she hasn't properly moved her body ever since she has graduated from high school. She hopes she doesn't have to do this too often.

The staff sitting behind the counter is different from the one last night. She approaches him while still trying to get her breath back.

"Huff... Huff... Good evening..." she wheezes. "I-I would like to spend the night here..."

"Understood. The fee is..."

Thankfully, he's willing to mind his own business and didn't ask her a single question. After she paid for the room, she asked him for dry towels and some hangers, then looks down towards her drenched work uniform.

"Is there by any chance that there's washing machines here?" she asks the staff.

"There is."

YES!

He gestures towards a door to their right.

"Please go through that door and head upstairs," he instructs. "By the way, we have bathrobes that you can rent for free. Would you like one?"

"Yes, please."

Saeko heads to the restroom first so that she could take a bath. Once again, she has to pass by the Devil's Den, that is, the huge table piled with food. Now, the sight itself doesn't pose an issue. The main threat is the aroma. Previously, there were several instances where Saeko was very close to order something from the menu. Unfortunately for the management here, she has prepared a countermeasure this time.

She takes out a mask from her pocket and puts it on. There. Now those aromas won't be able to tempt her. With that out of the way, she could head to the restroom in peace.

***

Not only does this place have washing machines, each and every one of them comes with a dryer function. And to top it all off, they also provide an electrical iron.

...Saeko should have done her research before she arrived at the city.

Alas, this knowledge came a little too late for her. When she rented her apartment unit, her landlord forced her to sign a contract that legally keeps her around for at least a year. She has signed two similar ones so far, and a third one just two months ago. In other words, she has to endure for ten more months before she could move here. Ah well, better late than never.

Instead of just waiting until the washing machine is done with its job, Saeko goes to her room and logs in to the online forum using the computer.

Even more comments were posted right below her post while she was gone. She spent some time in looking through all of them. Unfortunately, none of the comments gave any useful advice or any concrete evidence. Time to move on.

"Hello, everyone. Just now, I tried to verify the theory that the eyes only appear during midnight and four in the morning. Sure enough, they disappeared once it was after four. However, it wasn't even looking at me. Did any of you experience the same thing?" she wrote on the forum.

This time, replies came almost immediately. She's rather surprised that this many people are still online at this hour, although she's not one to talk.

"No, that never happened to me."

"Me neither."

"Not me. Also, I don't think I saw another post that shared the same experience. At least, not on this forum."

"Did you find out what the eyes were looking at?"

"No, but I did hear some rapid footsteps, like they were running," she replied.

"Maybe someone was jogging."

"At this hour?"

"Hmm, maybe not."

"Also, they ran the moment I looked towards their direction," Saeko wrote next.

"...Okay, that's even freakier than the eyes themselves, if that's even possible."

"There's no way it's a coincidence."

"You got that right."

"Listen to me. Go and buy yourself a pepper spray or a switchblade as soon as possible. Remember to keep them near you at all times. If someone decides to try their luck on you, don't hesitate and let them have it. After that, run. Just run and don't look back. Don't even bother with a security buzzer. By the time help arrives, it'll already be too late."

Saeko decides to take this advice to heart. She's too scared to get a switchblade, so she has to settle with a pepper spray. She checks the price on the internet. What she saw flabbergasted her. The money spent on a single bottle is enough to buy her at least twenty rice balls. Then again, this is a necessary expense. There's no point in saving money if her life might be in danger.

After the incident just now, she became painfully aware of every single sound around her. She could hear people snoring a few doors away. Somewhere else, someone turned in their bed, the frame creaking under their weight.

She also couldn't help but notice that the walls between the rooms are quite low. It's to the point where you can look over the other side by just standing on the bed.

Her imagination starts to go wild. She imagined one of her neighbors, the same one who ran away just now, is now lurking and waiting for an opportunity to strike at her. That thought freaked her out so much she can't even breathe properly.

...Oh, wait. That's because she's wearing a mask right now. The blasted thing is useful in protecting her from temptations, but it's also suffocating her.

Saeko shakes her head several times to clear her thoughts. Enough with the vivid imaginations.

Suddenly, she hears some loud shuffling of feet, followed by some groaning.

"Welcome back, Suzuki-san," she hears the receptionist saying. "Out late drinking again?"

"Sure was! I managed to down twelve glasses! It was my best record yet!" a man replies loudly.

She then hears a loud burp and a hiccup.

"Good for you. Do remember to head to the restroom the moment you feel like puking. I don't want to clean up your mess again."

"Yeah yeah, I know! No need to keep pestering me about it!"

Saeko groans softly. Can't she just use the internet in peace?

She takes out the headphones from behind the computer screen and slips them over her ears. Since they're already covering her ears, she might as well listen to something. She opens up a new tab, goes to Y*utube, and searches for "Relaxing and calming music." After a quick glance through the results, she chooses the one with the most views and clicks on it.

The video starts playing, and she hears some musical instruments being played at a slow and steady rhythm. She could hear at least five types, but she only recognizes the piano and the guitar. Even so, she could still recognize good music when she hears one. She could feel herself relaxing and calming down already.Now then, where was she? Oh, right, she was still in the middle of looking at the comments.

While she was distracted, loads of comments have been posted to reply her. It would seem that a lot of people are interested in this new phenomenon. One comment in particular caught her attention.

"Is there a possibility that the eyes were looking at someone who tried to do you harm?" the comment asked.

"Is that even how the eyes work?" another comment right below it asked.

"I mean, we don't even know for sure at this point, so we have to consider every single possibilities," the person who posted the first question replied.

"So, what? They were actually benign the entire time?"

"No way. Absolutely not. You guys remember the sensation of being stared at by those things, right? How could anything nice and kind give out that kind of vibes?"

Saeko couldn't agree more. The eyes are neutral at the most, but definitely not here to be helpful. The story about K proved that above all else.

Well, enough about the eyes for now. She should research about the Witching Hour before she forgets about it.

Let's see... According to W*kipedia, the Witching Hour is also known as the Devil's Hour. It's a time of night that's connected to supernatural events where witches, demons and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful. It include the hour immediately after midnight and the time between three and four.

The website also mentioned that from a scientific angle, this whole idea stemmed from the human sleep cycle. It also mentioned something called REM sleep, which occurs right at the witching hour. Lack of said sleep would cause all sorts of problems, one of them being memory issues.

Saeko smiles in relief. In the end, that's all there is to it. She was exhausted from the lack of sleep, and as a result she started to hallucinate. The same could be said to her unreliable memory. She was freaking out over nothing.

Until she remembered that at least thousands of people are also suffering from this "hallucination." Every single one of them saw the same eyes and felt the same thing when they were stared by those things.

Stop running away from reality, Saeko!

As she's chiding herself, she notices something from the corner of her eyes. She looks towards the direction and sees a man staring at her.

Saeko pulls down her mask and screams.