Dread and the Fugitive Mind

“Ki… saragi?” Naomi tilted her head, puzzled by the name of the station where their train had stalled. “I’m not an expert on the lines, but I’ve never heard that name before.”

“It’s an odd name…” Hasumi added, nodding as she scanned the desolate surroundings.

Eiji had already hit a wall in his own thoughts. He leaned his head back and whispered under his breath, “Meh. Explain.”

There was no answer. Despite the direct order, the shikigami was nowhere to be found.

“Meh-chan?” Naomi trotted over to Eiji’s side, looking around anxiously.

“The hell...?” Eiji muttered. “What’s going on?”

“What are you two whispering about over there?” Hasumi asked, joining their small circle on the aged platform.

“Senpai?”

Eiji didn't answer Naomi. Instead, he fixed his gaze on her and reached out. With his fingers outstretched, he caught her cheek in a firm grip.

“Heh, Senpai—”

Snap.

He applied a sharp, sudden pressure.

“OUCHEEE?!!” Naomi shrieked, clutching her instantly swelling cheek.

“Huh. So it isn’t a dream,” Eiji muttered, pulling his hand back.

“That hurt, Senpai!!!” Naomi rubbed her face, blinking back tears of betrayal.

“I think you’re supposed to pinch yourself…” Hasumi pointed out, watching the two teenagers with a look of mild concern.

“Figures...”

For Meh to ignore a summons in a situation like this meant one of two things: either they were in a dream, or they were in a space where the connection between soul and shikigami was being severed. Since Naomi clearly felt pain, the dream theory was out. That left a much darker reality.

With Eiji’s "genius" stress-test out of the way, the only three people left in a kilometer radius began to scout the station for clues. A deathly silence hung over the area like an airborne plague.

“Nothing here,” Naomi muttered, peering into the tiny attendant’s booth next to the bulletin board.

“There’s no map on this one, either,” Hasumi noted, staring at the empty frames on the wall.

“Are you sure you’ve never seen this place before, Hasumi-san?” Naomi asked, cupping her hands around her eyes to peer through the glass of the station office.

“I'm certain. I’ve taken this route a hundred times.”

“No stations indicated before or after this one,” Eiji noted, checking the track signs.

Finding nothing of use on the platform, they moved toward the front of the train. Moving away from the lone flickering lamppost felt like a mistake, but they needed to find the driver.

“Maybe we made an emergency stop at an abandoned station?” Naomi suggested, her natural optimism struggling against the gloom. “Maybe the driver didn’t want to wake us up?”

Eiji didn’t have the heart to crush her hope, but Hasumi shook her head. “I doubt it’s that simple. This has never happened.”

They reached the front of the red, glossy train. Naomi pressed her face to the driver’s cab window. “Hm.”

“What is it?”

“The shutters are closed,” she whispered, clicking on the flashlight function of her phone. The beam hit a solid metal barrier behind the glass.

“Just our luck,” Hasumi sighed.

Eiji looked back at the length of the train. Everything felt deliberate. The silence, the lack of information, the missing driver—it was a trap designed to keep them guessing. Without Meh, he couldn't be sure, but the "Specter" theory was looking more like a certainty.

Hiss.

The sound of sliding metal cut through Eiji’s thoughts.

“Did the doors just...?” Hasumi turned back.

The train doors had hummed shut, sealing the sleeping passengers inside. Eiji walked over and tugged at one. Locked. They were officially denied entrance.

“Right.” Eiji shook his head. Too many coincidences. Something was pulling the strings.

“What do we do now?” Naomi asked, looking at Eiji as if he were an all-knowing guru.

“Maybe we should get out of here... I have a bad feeling,” Hasumi gulped, hugging herself.

“But where?” Naomi asked.

Outside the tiny circle of the station's light, there was nothing. No buildings, no streetlights, no signs of life. Just a barren, flat land stretching into an infinite void.

“The tracks,” Eiji said, pointing into the dark. The rails gleamed faintly before vanishing into the pitch-black veil. “If we follow them, we’ll eventually hit the next station.”

“Ehhh? But... it’s so dark…” Naomi winced.

“I don’t care where we go, as long as it’s away from here,” Hasumi agreed immediately.

“Weren't you into horror?” Eiji asked Naomi. He wasn't poking fun; it was a genuine question.

“I... am. But being in it is different,” she gulped.

“Here.” Eiji held out his hand.

Naomi blinked at it, surprised by the gesture. “Oh, uhm... here?”

With a proud smile, she reached into her bag and handed a heavy-duty flashlight to her upperclassman without a second thought.

“Hm?” Eiji looked at the item.

“Do you… always carry a flashlight, Naomi-chan?” Hasumi asked, baffled.

“’Course I do! You never know when you’ll need one!”

Eiji didn't argue with the logic. He switched it on, the powerful beam cutting a hole in the darkness. “...Let’s go.”

He grabbed Naomi by the hand and stepped off the platform onto the gravel.

“S-S-S-Shhenpai?!”

“Wait! Don’t leave me!” Hasumi jogged to catch up, and the trio marched into the unknown.

The crunch of gravel and the metallic ring of their footsteps were the only sounds as they entered a tunnel. The air inside was damp, and the atmosphere thickened with every step. Outside the beam of the flashlight, the world didn't exist.

The silence was a stretching, predatory thing. Naomi tried to break it.

“We’ll find civilization on the other side,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “...Right?”

“I wouldn't get my hopes up,” Eiji replied.

Naomi’s response was to dig her nails into his arm.

“Oi.”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Hasumi muttered, sticking close to Eiji’s other side. “I just wanted to go home.”

“D-Don’t worry! I’ll protect us if something goes wrong, Hasumi-san! I’m a karate student now!” Naomi’s declaration was bold, but her voice was shaking. She was clearly terrified, yet she was trying to keep the mood from plummeting into total despair.

In stark contrast to her brave words, Eiji could feel her legs shaking with every step.

As Eiji and the girls pushed deeper into the tunnel, the air grew stagnant. The oxygen felt thin, and a localized, bone-chilling cold began to settle into their bones. They weren't getting closer to an exit; they were venturing deeper into the "stomach" of whatever had swallowed the train.

Suddenly, the steady, rhythmic beating of a drum echoed through the darkness.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

“W-What?!”

“Eh?!”

Hasumi and Naomi jumped, the sound seeming to crawl up the tracks from the station they had just left. Before they could process it, the shrill, festive ring of bells joined the percussion, as if a macabre ceremony was beginning just out of sight.

“It’s coming from the station!” Hasumi cried, practically throwing herself against Eiji and Naomi.

“Senpai…?”

“We can’t turn back,” Eiji muttered. He kept walking, his face a mask of iron, though his eyes betrayed a flicker of discomfort.

“But there could be people back there! Naomi-chan, tell him!” Seeing Eiji wouldn't budge, Hasumi turned to the younger girl in a panic.

Naomi looked between her and Eiji for a second. But her opinion was clear.

“I’m sorry, Hasumi-san, but… I trust Senpai.” Naomi’s voice was small, but her conviction was absolute.

Something in Hasumi finally snapped.

“How can you be so… calm?!” she shrieked, her voice cracking under the weight of the void. She stared at Eiji with a mixture of terror and sudden, sharp distrust. “Who are you two, really?”

“What do you mean… Hasumi-san?” Naomi asked, glancing back.

“Two kids on a midnight trip to Hachioji on a weekday… none of this is normal! And then all of this happens while you just happen to be on the train? What are you two hiding?!”

Her paranoia was infectious, a frantic bug crawling beneath her skin. She halted, clutching her chest and glaring at the teenagers as if they were the architects of her nightmare.

Eiji stopped. He didn't defend himself. He just watched her.

Suddenly, a guttural growl erupted from the darkness ahead.

“HEY!”

A beam of light—Eiji’s flashlight—swung forward to reveal a silhouette leaning against the tunnel wall about ten paces away.

“You can’t walk on the tracks! It’s dangerous!”

“AAAAAHHH!”

Hasumi let out an unearthly shriek at the sight of the man. Eiji winced, and Naomi squeezed her eyes shut on instinct. Upon closer inspection, the figure was a hollowed-out wreck of a man. He was missing a leg, his skin clinging to a skeletal frame that screamed of long-term malnutrition.

“Who are you?” Eiji asked, his hand hovering near his pocket. He didn't move closer.

The man’s eyes bulged, darting between them like a cornered animal. His face contorted into a mask of pure terror. “Don’t come closer!!!” he wailed, waving a frantic arm.

“What?”

“Begone, you demon!!!!” He scooped up a handful of gravel and hurled it at them with a desperate, weak force.

Eiji and Naomi flinched as the stones clattered harmlessly around them. By the time Eiji leveled his light again, the man was gone. He hadn't run; he had simply ceased to exist, leaving only the damp, heavy air behind.

“I…. I can’t take this anymore!!!” Hasumi clutched her head and screamed. The encounter had pushed her over the edge.

“I’m going back! I’m going back to the station! Away from this! Away from you!”

“Hasumi-san?!”

Naomi reached out, but the older girl was already sprinting back into the blackness of the tunnel. Her long, frantic strides echoed against the stone walls, accompanied by her fading screams. Within seconds, the tunnel swallowed her voice.

She was gone.

Naomi clutched Eiji’s arm, her breathing shallow and ragged. “S-Senpai… what do we do?”

“Calm down. We’re getting out of here soon.” Eiji spoke as softly as he could.

“But… shouldn't we go after her? She’s all alone and…”

“There’s no need.”

“Eh? But what if she—”

“Trust me on this.”

Eiji didn't explain. He just tightened his grip on her hand and pulled her toward the far end of the tunnel.

“O-Okay…”

Naomi didn't question him again. She couldn't. Her entire world had narrowed down to the warmth of his hand.

Sure enough, a few yards ahead, the tunnel opened up. A massive, jewel-like full moon hung in the sky, illuminating a barren landscape.

“S-Senpai! We made it!” Naomi gasped, greedily inhaling the fresh night air.

“Hm.” Eiji looked at the moon and smirked. It was a cold, knowing expression.

As their bodies began to shed the tension of the tunnel, a new figure stepped into the moonlight.

“Hey, you two!”

Naomi jumped back. A man was approaching them from the tall grass near the tracks. He looked healthy, normal—nothing like the wraith in the tunnel.

“What are you doing here? This tunnel leads nowhere,” the man said. His voice was warm, grounding.

Naomi’s shoulders dropped an inch. “Our train made a stop at an abandoned station… there was no one there, so we started walking…”

“Your train stopped?” The man looked puzzled. “Why would it stop at Kisaragi? That’s impossible.”

Eiji’s smirk widened.

“Never mind. You kids look lost. I can drive you to a nearby hotel if you want.”

“Really?” Naomi beamed with relief. She turned to Eiji. “But… what about Hasumi-san?”

“Do you have another friend out here?” the stranger asked, looking around.

“Yeah, she’s right here,” Eiji said.

Naomi blinked, confused. “Eh? Where?”

The stranger’s kind expression didn't waver. “So there’s more of you, huh?”

“Drop the act,” Eiji growled, his eyes locking onto the stranger with predatory intent. “Hasumi.”

“Eh? What?” Naomi looked between the man and her upperclassman, her brain struggling to catch up.

“What are you talking about, kid?” the man asked.

“Or should I say… Specter?”

Eiji’s words acted like a chemical trigger. The man’s "kind" face melted away. A menacing, jagged grin split his lips, and his body flickered and warped under the moonlight. In a heartbeat, the man was gone.

Standing in his place was the university student. Hasumi.

She wasn't shaking or panicked anymore. She stood tall, her doe eyes now cold and predatory.

“So, you’ve realized,” she purred, her voice overlapping with a hollow, metallic echo.

“Now we both know what the other is… Exorcist!”