Lock it away

 “It's okay, Yota! You can do it!”

Hikari knew he had ruined her plan and yet those were the first words she chose to say to him as the stone entity started to turn towards him. The biggest problem was that he didn't share her belief in him, even as it twisted back towards her and groaned as if its non existent feet were aching awfully.

If it went down the stairs, Hikari would be forced to run down the second flight, leaving both him and Juri on the top floor. Realistically speaking, she could probably make it to the ground floor alone no matter what got in her way. Unfortunately, the opposite was true for him. Even if the noisy creature left, he didn't think he would be able to make it back to his apartment.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he realised just how laboured his breathing was. He couldn't fight the monster alone. He couldn't let Hikari lead it away either. Nor could he allow it to find Juri, who definitely couldn't outrun it with her injured foot. Which meant he needed a new way to distract it and use its own momentum against it. But where could he possibly make it fall from?

The basketball rolled forward in his peripheral vision. He wobbled over to it without quite knowing why and snatched it up, turning back to the monster teetering on the top step. Perhaps if he threw the ball and hit the entity with it, it would follow him. But he still had nowhere to run and no weapon to fend it off with once it reached him. Even Hikari's airsoft gun was useless against it.

A soft bell rang behind him and he looked over his shoulder at the elevator he had used an hour or so ago. Its entry way was wide to accommodate various mobility vehicles and other walking aids. Possibly spacious enough to fit a huge stone slab of a monster too.

He hurried over to it. Doubts encircled his wrists and limbs like the soft weights Hikari tried to make him wear once a while ago. What if he couldn't draw its attention just by hitting it? Even if he were able to throw the ball that far, he would only have one shot to distract it from both Hikari and Juri. What if his hands wouldn't stop shaking? What if he missed?

He reached the elevator as soon as its doors rolled open. The monster tilted forward like a skier on a snowy slope. It hadn't stopped covering its ears but its grip seemed more symbolic than functional. Yota tried to call out to it but the words dried up in his chest. He swallowed, tried again, then clenched his teeth as the entity started to slide down the stairs.

It was going to kill Hikari. He had to stop it somehow. Her encouragement from a minute ago spiralled in his head like cherry blossom petals caught in a breeze. She said he could do it. He could do it. Now that he had been forced to think about it again, there were very few things he could do. He released the basketball with his right hand and adjusted the grip of his left.

Words weren't the only way to make noise in a place like this.

His palm flipped to face the floor, guiding the ball at the same time, before he pushed downwards. A loud booming noise echoed down the corridor as it made contact with the cool tiles and his heart contracted. The monster paused. Yota caught the ball briefly and widened his stance, hitting it down once again in the space between his feet. If any of the residents were still on the top floor, they all would have heard the repetitive sound of him dribbling a basketball for the first time in years.

Boom …

The monster straightened up and drifted backwards, away from the stairs. The pitch of its deep voice raised and it shuddered as though it had been tricked by a close friend. But it was several steps further from chasing Hikari. Several more seconds away from making her abandon him on the ninth floor.

Boom …

It turned to face him, eyes screwed shut and mouth agape. Away from where Juri was hidden in his apartment. Its desire to destroy and kill directed at him alone. Whilst he had nothing but an open lift behind him. The plan didn't seem as trustworthy any more and he didn't know what made him think he could rely on something he had put together that hastily.

Boom …

Although he suspected he could move faster than it, he wasn't sure the lift would close in time to keep them safe from the monster. It might not have the ability to rotate easily in the enclosed space but that didn't mean it couldn't glide back out and come for them again. He needed to move fast and press the button as soon as it was inside the compartment. A second's delay would be disastrous.

Boom …

The monster bore down on him, its voice rising, unable to witness how its presence alone gradually crushed everything Yota had tried to build up inside himself. Its constant drone of displeasure overpowered the beat of his basketball upon the floor and the resounding thump of his own pulse in his skull. Its grey mass filled up his vision from all angles, faster than anticipated, and his bones quivered like untuned guitar strings.

The basketball rolled away from him without warning and phantom wounds spread across his body. The heavy scent of alcohol and leather filled the corridor. The hot breath of a monstrous being that intended to hurt him flooded his entire body, blowing his blond curtains away from his eyes. Yota knew he had to move aside before the monster crashed into him, but he also knew what would happen if he tried to run again instead of taking it like a man.

He couldn't get out of its way. He couldn't fight back against the monster that descended on him as if being born a boy were a mistake he had willingly chosen to make. He couldn't hit the button and lock it away. He couldn't ever protect anyone. Not himself. Not Hikari. Not even his mu-

“Yota!” yelled Hikari. “Move!”

He jerked backwards and his legs carried him sideways before he crumpled. From the floor, he got a front row view as the monster stopped right before entering the elevator and his stomach cramped. He watched Hikari lift her right leg and slam her heel into the centre of its back, physically forcing it into the cramped space before it could defend itself. He tasted blood as she slapped the illuminated button and the doors slid shut, cutting off the monster's frustrated roar.

“Guess we'll have to deal with it later,” said Hikari as she crouched in front him. “Still, that was a great idea. Are you okay?”

The thought of what would happen once the elevator doors reopened hadn't even occurred to him and the potential consequences of his actions momentarily stole his ability to breathe.

“What if it kills someone else down there?” He grabbed her outstretched hand with both of his. “They won't expect to see a monster when they try to use the lift.”

“We don't even know if anyone else is still here,” she replied.

“But what if there is?” He pressed his hands over his face and panic battered his palms in the form of erratic gasps. “What if more people die because I –”

“– All the more reason for us to get to the fourth floor as soon as we can,” she said firmly. “Can you walk?”

It seemed unlikely that he could but the faces of random people living in the apartments below his flashed across his mind's eye. The thin man in the wheelchair who lived on the first floor. The little girl on the third floor who wore her hair in pigtails held in place by two tiny pink bows on her head. The lovely couple on the sixth floor who always went out on dates during the weekend and filled the corridors with their hearty laughter.

There was also Mrs Takeda who refused to change her title to Ms, Mr Haraguchi who always managed to get to the top floor to help Yota no matter how much his knees ached, Tomo who always made an effort to greet him even when he caught Yota trying to slip away unnoticed, and all of the other residents of the building he didn't really know that well.

He had to get rid of the stone monster to keep them safe. He had to make sure there were no other monsters before anyone else was hurt or killed. He had to get out and call the police for help. They were good at taking monsters away, weren't they?

“I see you haven't lost your touch with the ball yet,” said Hikari wryly as she aided him back onto his feet.

“If I didn't know how to do that much, I'd be even more of a disgrace to the team,” he said in between unstable puffs of air.

“You were never a disgrace to the team,” said Hikari but they both knew she was being gracious.

Because there was no way she had forgotten just how badly he messed up that one time in high school.

“Really? Someone should've told them that –”

A rough cry for help echoed up the stairway and cut off the rest of his sentence. Yota's blood hadn't stopped racing. Hikari cast him a final glance, then hurried back to the flight of stairs leading to the next floor. With a hand against his tightening chest, he staggered after her.

Had the stone entity discovered how to open the doors early? Or had it smashed its way out already?

Regardless, he couldn't let Hikari deal with it alone. He had to summon up the strength to stay by her side, just as she had always done for him.