We're Not Alone

For some reason, in the dead of the night, my dreamless sleep is interrupted. My eyelids flutter as I struggle to open my eyes, and I groan slightly.

“Where the hell…?” I mutter unable to recognize my surroundings. Although everything is bathed in darkness, I can see I’m inside a classroom. The only illumination that assists my attempt of scanning the room, is the light coming from the hallway, breaking through the small glass panel of the door. That and the moonlight, paint a picture something other than just darkness. After a good 10 seconds of getting my thoughts back in order, I finally recall the events of the day before. “…I’m stuck at school…” On a weekend, nonetheless. But, that doesn’t even begin to describe my problems. I check my phone briefly, to see that it’s still right around 3 AM.

I lay back down once again, rubbing my temples, and looking up at the ceiling.

Need to go to the bathroom…

I realize as I get up. The worst part of this realization, is that the school bathrooms are a separate building from the main one, meaning I have to walk through the courtyard in the dead of the night. I ruffle my messy hair, as if that would salvage the situation, and throw a glance towards the girl’s direction. Everyone is sleeping soundly, and I can hear the faint sound of calm breathing mixed in with the slight snore coming from Tanaka-san. Despite that, something catches my attention.

Mochizuki-senpai?

I suddenly notice she is nowhere to be found, and her set of blankets is empty.

Where the heck is she?

Slipping out of my blankets and soundlessly out the room, I slide the door gently shut behind me. As I slowly walk down the stairs and towards the exit of the school building I continue to ponder on where the hell Mochizuki-senpai might be at a time like this. As I walk out the always opened doors and step foot on the pitch black courtyard I bring out my phone and turn on the flashlight function. The street lights outside the school illuminate the grounds, slightly enough for someone to make out the bare minimum, but I’m still not taking any chances. The street itself though, is eerily quite.

It’s like we’re in a different world, cut out from the fabric of time…

The hairs on my arm prickle as a chilling night breeze blows throughout the courtyard, making my hair sway slightly.

Is that light I see?

I notice some kind of illumination, at a small building just a few meters away from the school.

I’m guessing Mochizuki-senpai woke up for the same reason as me…

My tense body relaxes slightly, as I walk towards my destination. Without making a sound, I walk past the girl’s restroom, whose door is closed and I make my own way towards the men’s separate section.

I shouldn’t bother her.

I silently decide and go about my own business. After a minute or two, I step back out, and notice that the lights are still on inside the girl’s bathroom.

Would it be creepy if I waited here? But what if something happened to her on the way back? It’s dark out…

I heave a sigh at my dilemma, and decide to ensure her safety over my own reputation. Without making any sound, I rest my back on the wall and fold my arms. I wait for what feels like 5 minutes, when I start getting restless. Is she alright? It’s been quite a while…

I check the time once more. It’s now 3:20… the early hours of the morning. Just then, I hear a voice. A familiar one.

That’s definitely Mochizuki-senpai’s voice.

As her voice gets significantly louder, I can now make out exactly what she’s saying. “Ughh!!” She lets out a frustrated and angry groan, one that’s definitely not ladylike, and is miles off from her angelic image.

“I can’t believe I’m actually stuck inside this STUPID school! I can’t keep up this damn goody-two-shoes act forever! It’s fucking exhausting! Damn it!” Mochizuki-senpai yells and swears in a way I would have never thought her capable of. Then I hear a bang against the wall.

“Ouch! Damn it!”

She probably kicked the wall at the peak of her rage.

Conclusion: Do not kick concrete, even if you’re mad.

“Why did this HAVE to happen?!” She raises her voice even more, and stomps the ground hard with her foot. Probably, the other one.

For a moment, I’m left completely dumbfounded. She’s supposed to be the school idol that’s always cheerful and kind.

I thought that something was off about her, but damn… that’s a transformation and a half!

“I just want to go home and watch a movie or… Ahhh! Why me of all people?!”

Well, she has it rough…

As I’m thinking to myself, and divert my attention away from Mochizuki-senpai’s monologue, my eyes, having got slightly used to the dark, pick up a sudden motion directly across from me. Followed by the sudden rustling of a small nearby bush, I’m completely caught off guard…

“WOAH!” I jump up and instinctively cry out, probably loud enough for Mochizuki-senpai to hear. Hell, even the others back in the Home Ec room could hear me. Having realized what I had just done, I freeze on the spot, and gulp nervously. Not a moment later, I can hear her footsteps as she rushes to the door. In one quick motion the door swings open, and we’re now facing each other, from point-blank range.

“What are you doing here?” She blurts out, without shifting back into her persona.

“Uhm… I… well… It’s a funny story actually…” To my dismay, I’m unable to form any words, let alone a valid excuse.

“Oh, yeah? Let’s hear it.” She crosses her arms over her chest.

“Haha, you see… I just… I…”

“You heard everything didn’t you?” Mochizuki-senpai suddenly glares at me.

If looks could kill… Then I’d probably be dead five times over by now.

“No I…” The words catch on my throat once again. After a good couple of seconds of being glared at, I heave a defeated sigh and throw my hands up in mock surrender.

“Yeah… I did. For the most part, probably.”

“Tch”

She clicks her tongue in annoyance. And right when I thought she couldn’t give me a stronger death glare, I feel my soul shrinking back.

“Look! We all have our circumstances we’d rather not talk about!” I take a step back. “…So let’s just leave it at that okay?”

“So, you swear, you won’t tell anyone about this?” Mochizuki-senpai glowers at me, her eyes dead set on stripping my will to fight back.

“You mean about the fact that you’re pretending to be an angel but deep down you act like a delinquent? Of course, I swear to-“

Uh-oh

“W-W-What did you just call me, punk?! HUH?!”

I can visibly see her eyebrow twitching in anger, as her expression twists into one of pure rage.

“Delinquent?! Wanna go, punk?! HUH?!”

I’m doomed…

I CAN’T BELIEVE I JUST LET THAT SLIP OUT LIKE THAT!

But it’s too late. The bombshell has already been dropped.

And I need to take some cover and fast!

“I’m sorry, I swear that just slipped out! I won’t tell anyone about this! Not a soul, I promise! I don’t even have a reason to!” I almost shout out as I clasp my hands together and bow down in a 90 degree angle.

I didn't know women could be so scary!

“Hmph!” She looks away momentarily in a huff. “…I’m listening.”

“I mean… we’ve got more important things to worry about, why would I go around and start telling everyone about your personality?” I explain and she arches an eyebrow at me. “Of course, I'm not saying that if we weren’t trapped in here, I would run around telling people! You get where I’m going with this… right?” I preach my case, flinching in response to her every little eye movement.

Finally, she sighs deeply “You have a point…”

“I promise, I won’t tell a soul, okay?” I lower my tone, and try to come off as sincere as possible.

“Promise?” Suddenly, she looks deep inside my eyes, her hostile demeanor slowly fading away.

“Promise.” I give her a firm answer and a nod.

“Hold out your pinky then.”

“What?”

My pinky?

“Just… just do it already.”

Despite the absurdity of it, I do as I’m told. Then, she twirls her own pinky around mine and starts the famous chant…

“Cross your heart and hope to die…”

Aww! That’s so-

“…stick a knife through your dick!”

“WAIT WHAAAAAT?!”

My mouth falls open in surprise. THAT’S NOT HOW THE OATH GOES!

Despite my protests, she has already removed her finger from around mine.

“Done!” She announces with a delighted smile while bouncing on her toes away from me. All I can do is stand there mouth agape in horror.

“I can’t believe I agreed to this…” I hang my head as me and Mochizuki-senpai walk back to the main building together. “Well if you value your buddy’s life, you better keep that promise.” She passes me an evil smirk.

She’s 100% enjoying this…

“You’re evil…”

“Now that I think about it why where you standing outside the girl’s restroom?” She suddenly brings up a point I hope she had forgotten about.

“I just didn’t want you to-“

“Hentai!”

“Hey I was just-“

“Molester!”

“-concerned about you!”

“IDIOT!”

“…Hear me out at least…” I sigh. The real Mochizuki Ayase sure is a handful.

“No, thank you!” She pirouettes inside the school, escaping the conversation.

“Plus, why did you suddenly shout out of nowhere?” Mochizuki-senpai throws yet another question at me, that’s also likely to damage my reputation.

“Oh… I thought I heard something move next to the trees so I kinda jumped…” I scratch the back of my head awkwardly.

Congrats Hideki, you just made a fool of yourself…

“Wow, you sure reek of manliness.” She bluntly states, mentally stabbing my ego with a knife.

Having reached the Home Ec class, Mochizuki-senpai grabs the handle, but of course, taps into angel mode, before sliding it open. Before she can take a step inside though, I grab her shoulder, stopping her.

“Wait.” I whisper. “This isn’t the Home Ec class.”

Gazing inside the room, makes it pretty obvious that we opened the door to the wrong classroom. The inside looks nothing like our home base, or even the Home Ec class before we reformed its layout.

Thank God we didn’t run into a trap…

I think to myself as Mochizuki-senpai closes the door and nods. “You’re… right.” We hesitantly accept the fact that we made a mistake.

Or did we…?

I look around the hall and count down the classrooms once again. “5th door to the right…” I mutter while scratching my chin. Out of curiosity, I open the door next to the one Mochizuki-senpai just did and to my surprise, I find the chemistry lab.

“…How?”

“The chemistry lab is supposed to be on the 1st floor, what’s it doing here?” Mochizuki-senpai looks as puzzled as I am. The gears in my head start turning furiously as I try to grasp what’s happening. “Did we accidentally stop on the first floor..? No that’s not possible, I remember going up the stairs more than once…” Mochizuki-senpai scratches her chin in thought. Suddenly the realization hits me and I walk down the hallway in order to prove my theory. “Wait where are you going?” She hurriedly trails behind me as I make my way to the first classroom on the right.

“This has to be the arts classroom.” I announce as I swing the door open. And just as I expected…

“But, it’s not. This is actually, your classroom, senpai.” I announce gazing at the all too familiar, crumbled floor. “We didn’t make a mistake, Mochizuki-senpai.” I say as a slight drizzle of rain starts up, yet again. “The layout of the school just changed. The rooms’ positions are shifting.”

Mochizuki-senpai, not able to process the information, stands there looking at me, wide-eyed. “Shifting..?” After she mulls over it for a second, she nods slightly. “…That does sounds like the most plausible answer.”

“So we just need to search for the Home Ec class, right?”

“Yeah but we have no clue where it might me…”

We briefly decide to start looking, and of course look out for traps while we do so.

We reach the first floor, and suddenly the ear-splitting sound of thunder suddenly makes my ears go numb. We turn to look at each other, a slight hint of panic in our eyes. Soon, we both heave a sigh full of relief. “I swear that just scared the living daylights out of me…”

“Yeah me t-“

“Oh, Hideki!”

I’m interrupted by a familiar voice.

“What’s wrong?” He notices our troubled expressions as we turn around.

“Tanaka-san! Where’s the Home Ec classroom?” I ask him, a sense of relief slightly washing over me.

“The Home Ec classroom…? Heh, you’re a student and you don’t even know that?!” He chuckles briefly, unaware of our predicament.

“Tanaka-san, the rooms are shifting! Do you-“ Mochizuki-senpai cuts into the conversation, her tone urgent. And with good reason.

“Shifting? What are you talking about?”

Suddenly, the crackling of thunder starts up again, and not too long after, another fierce strike comes crashing down. Everything is bathed in light once more.

“Woah, it’s really pouring.” Tanaka-san comments briefly.

Just then, a thud. A loud, heavy thud. And another. Soon, the thuds take on the rhythm of marching. Heavy footsteps echo from the floor above. We all freeze in place.

“What… is that?” Mochizuki-senpai mutters lowly.

And then, another flash of light. My ears start ringing from all the commotion.

As I open my eyes, and wince, I notice something. A figure. A deformed, gigantic entity, is walking down the stairs. Its insanely long arms, brush off the ground slightly, and its red, bloodshot eyes are fixed on us. Slightly covering them, is a set of long, disheveled bundle of hair that looks more like seaweed than actual human hair. Its body is almost as large as a car, with abnormal pieces of flesh hanging from part of its body. Some torn rags hang from its back, and its posture is hunched forward, into an abnormal humpback. With every step the creature takes, the ground shakes beneath its touch. Even in my wildest, nightmares, would I have believed, that such a nightmarish creature could exist.

As it descends, its abnormal, heavy breathing quickens. Its eyes focus on the three of us. It stares down its prey, and opens its mouth. Speaking through its ransacked teeth, slowly it spells…

“F-F-ou…nd… Y-You… nau… ght-ty.. K-Ki…dss…”