Waiting For A Freakout

【POV: Mari】

Night descended upon Kyōto, slow and cloying. After a chaotic afternoon at Shijō-Kawaramachi, alternating between shopping sprees and arcade battles, we were finally facing the final boss of this trip.

The Kiyotaki Tunnel.

Akari-sensei sat behind the wheel of the rented EV, looking disturbingly thrilled, her eyes gleaming with a manic light. Riku, in the passenger seat, was clutching his seatbelt so hard his face had turned ghost-white.

In the back, the three of us huddled together. Yuria hadn't uttered a word, her hands busy fumbling with a silver cross. Tetsu kept his "stone-faced" act up, yet I could feel his left hand reaching out to squeeze mine in the dark.

The car came to a halt before the pitch-black mouth of the tunnel. The jaundiced glow of the headlights hit the damp rock walls, casting a series of eerie dancing shadows.

The traffic light above the tunnel entrance was glowing with a ghostly green hue.

「Stop!」 Riku screamed, nearly causing Sensei to stomp on the gas by mistake. 「It's green! The light is green, Sensei! Don't go in!」

「What's the matter, Ōtsuka?」

「No!」 Riku stammered, pointing a trembling finger at the light. 「The legend goes... if you arrive and it's already green, it's a demonic trap meant to lure us to our doom! We have to wait for it to cycle back from red to green first!」

I burst out laughing, the sound ringing through the quiet interior. 「What ghost has the time to hack a traffic light just to troll a scaredy-cat like you?」 I shook my head, leaning back against the seat.

「Actually...」 Tetsu's voice drifted over, steady and annoyingly logical. 「If we enter immediately upon seeing green, we might collide with oncoming traffic that hasn't cleared the exit yet.」

「Mori is spot on. Safety first!」 Akari-sensei nodded in approval.

The dry sound of a relay echoed from the control box in the dead of night. The eerie green signal had now switched to a burning red. The crimson glow bled onto the moss-covered rock at the tunnel's mouth, staining the entire hood of our EV.

Akari-sensei let out a slight smirk. She reached for the center console, her fingers sliding across the screen. 「Might as well have some music to match the atmosphere, right?」

The high-end surround sound system of the EV began to vibrate. A murky bass line thrummed through the cabin, followed by frenzied electronic rhythms.

Koraii – Purgatori

The red light continued to shine patiently into the dense darkness inside the Kiyotaki Tunnel. I'm trying to peer deep into that pitch-black throat. And then, my mind began to play tricks on me.

Physics hadn't changed, hopefully... but my eyes started auto-completing the scenery. The cracks on the walls under the red glow suddenly looked like mangled smiles. Water dripping from the ceiling curved into long fingers scratching at the asphalt.

I took a hard gulp. Every single hair on my arms stood on end.

Human weren't lying: Man will always see what they fear most. Auto-suggestion was turning this concrete tube into a psychedelic circus. To put it bluntly... I was shitting myself.

I squeezed Tetsu's hand. But wait.

It was soaking wet with cold sweat. He was shaking. It was subtle, but I felt it. Tetsu had his lips clamped shut, eyes glued to the red light, throat bobbing as he swallowed. His whole "cool stoic" act had gone out the window.

Yuria was even worse. Our Heretic was death-gripping her silver cross against her chest, mumbling some prayer under her breath.

For a moment, I found myself amused by my own reaction.

Think about it. Who am I? I'm the boss of a horde of multidimensional geometric horrors. That kind of mind-shattering Cosmic Horror is as normal to me as a wheezing Pug.

But... J-Horror takes the W. Hands down.

Click.

The light turned green.

「It's time, kids.」 Sensei shifted gears. The EV plunged straight into the bottomless black hole, leaving the faint moonlight behind.

The air inside the Kiyotaki Tunnel was ice-cold, thick with the scent of damp moss and decades of accumulated malevolence. Sickly yellow lights fixed to the ceiling flickered incessantly as they glided over the glass, casting fleeting streaks across our strained faces.

The back of my neck went cold.

An itchy sensation crawled up my spine, starting from my shoulders and tingling all the way to the crown of my head. A primitive survival reflex screamed at me: something is back there.

No longer able to endure the crushing pressure, I let go of Tetsu's hand and turned completely around, knelt on the seat to peer out the back window.

The tunnel entrance shrank into a flickering red dot before vanishing entirely around a bend. Now, there was only the endless trailing darkness clinging to the back of the car.

Humans truly are the universe's most perfect self-torturing machines.

Instinct dictates that facing a demon eye-to-eye is far better than sensing an ambiguous shadow lingering behind your head.

While my eyes frantically scoured the pitch-black tunnel trailing behind us, this brain of mine... wasn't praying for safety at all.

With every heartbeat, my subconscious was screaming with anticipation. I was waiting for a bloodless face to crack against the glass. I was envisioning a figure in a white dress gliding through the sickly yellow glow of the lights.

When we are closest to panic, we don't want the comfort of an empty road, but instead find ourselves aching for the nightmare to be... real (?)

「Mari... hey...」 Yuria's words stuttering, vibrating against the heavy bass of Purgatori booming through the car. 「What... what are you staring at so much? Is there something?」

Without turning my head, eyes still fixed on the void outside the window, I let a small grin creep onto my face.

「Nothing.」 I murmured in a monotonous voice. 「Just seeing if my mind is about to manifest a ghost out of thin air just for the hell of it.」

「Quit it with the creepy philosophical crap, you freak!」 Yuria snapped.

・・・

The EV sliced through the dense darkness, finally delivering us from the moldy throat of the Kiyotaki Tunnel.

I let my body go limp, sliding back from my kneeling position onto the rear seat cushion. Beside me, Yuria let out a heavy exhale, her hand finally releasing the crucifix. Tetsu loosened his collar, his chest heaving. In the front, Riku leaned his head against the passenger window like he'd just finished a marathon.

No specters. No handprints on the windows. Not a single thing.

Yuria stroked her chest, her tone shifting back to its usual smugness. 「Ghosts? Please, there's nothing but—」

「KYYYĀĀĀĀĀÁÁÁÁÁÁÁÁÁÁÁ!!!!!!!!!!」

「SHIT!」 Riku jerked so hard his head hit the roof with a loud thud. Yuria let out an incoherent shriek. I practically leaped into Tetsu's lap.

The scream cut off abruptly.

Instead, the barbaric laughter of our teacher filled the car. Akari-sensei was wheezing, slapping the steering wheel as tears streamed down her face.

「HAHAHAHA! I'm dying! HAHAHA!」

「Are you out of your mind?!」 Yuria snapped.

Sensei wiped her tears with the back of her hand, adjusting the rearview mirror to get a good look at our pathetic states.

「That was psych lesson number two for the trip.」 She huffed, fighting back another giggle. 「You guys were scared out of your wits back there, right? Because you were stuck on a loop: "Don't think about ghosts, don't think about ghosts..."」

She shook her head in mock disappointment. 「The more you try NOT to think about something, the more vivid it becomes. You try not to think about ghosts, so your brain automatically renders one in crystal-clear 8K.」

Riku rubbed the bump on his head, muttering, 「So what are we supposed to do? Turn on the glasses and watch anime?」

「Exactly!」 Sensei snapped her fingers with a pop. 「Don't crush the thought, replace it. Think of something irrelevant. Like your favorite C.O.R.E highlights.」

I folded my arms, pouting. 「But a jump scare is still gonna wreck my heart rate no matter what, Sensei.」

「Well, you won't forget the lesson if there's a bit of a shock involved, Shushō!」 Akari-sensei winked through the mirror and stepped on the gas. The car glided smoothly over the asphalt, moving further away from that damn tunnel.