Part 6: Dripping Dilemma

Story One:

It is a cold and rainy October afternoon. The skies were a foggy gray and the atmosphere had this sensation of security knowing you were inside and a sense of dread seeing the bright neon colors from street lights to cars drenched in a dull background.

Toma had gained a new friend named Suyashi Junie in his freshman year. Suyashi, being 15 at the time, was really sensitive and withdrawn. Especially to loud sounds or negative topics. They say her parents were pretty loving, but even with that in mind, nothing could stop what was about to happen. That very same October, 6 years ago, was the day when the game Candiere’s Cafe had been released. Suyashi did not play the game. Neither did Toma.

But their other friend, Wata Nozori, did.

He did not come to school the day he completed the game. During the after-school book club Toma and Suyashi had, he texted them on his phone about the abandoned library in the game. It showed him an open book saying that Suyashi was going to die and that he was sorry. They told him that he should report this information to the police and show them photographic evidence. But Wata didn’t respond after that, as if something happened to him.

Toma tried to comfort Suyashi, suggesting that Wata was probably talking to them now. However, she started to cry uncontrollably and ran away into the empty girl’s bathroom with Toma attempting to stop her from going in there. Unfortunately, he knew it was against school policy to enter. He tried to ask other girls walking across the halls for help, but they ignored him.

A male security guard who saw him chasing around after the crying girl assumed he was causing trouble and took him to the principal’s office. Toma went paranoid. He attempted to explain the situation. It only created more problems while shouting to the top of his lungs, trying to warn Suyashi as more security guards blocked his view.

In that instance, the fear of the game’s story began to create an unnerving feeling of anxiety that left him dead inside.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Suyashi was huddled in a corner. Her eyes were wet and her soul was dry. Shivers crept into her ears as the clouds turned darker. A thunderstorm was coming. At that moment, a voice suddenly whispered into her ears. It said something akin to an uncanny nursery rhyme as she glanced around to figure out where it was coming from:

Small Little Junie sat in a corner.

No one could really find her.

There she’d sit, all lost in the dark.

As her arm left an open mark.

Watching silently until the last day.

When the ill will of fate would take her away.

Suyashi looked at her arm as a small horrifyingly mutated female mosquito coincidentally bit into it. She smashed it away from her as fast as possible, but the sore was still present. It began to swell and caused her body’s muscles to freeze up instantly. She tried to get up, but it was too painful and overwhelming to even try. As she started trying to call for help, her voice box muscles were also shocked from the bite, refusing to even make one move.

Sweat poured down to her neck like the constant drizzling outside which also overpowered her tiredness from squealing. That was when a blackout had struck the bathroom. A massive headache ensued with sudden shadows of a strange creature appearing from the lightning’s bright shots of that imagery through the window. There, the figure stood. It was as small as a six-year-old child. Its head was completely round with eyes dripping like a monochrome watercolor painting undone.

Walking steadily towards her as she was in complete fright, the entity grinned, mimicking her sitting position before transforming into a mirrored version of Suyashi. The eye contact with this being caused her hands to follow its movements in a synchronized action as it playfully covered their eyes.

Suyashi woke up with no memories of her past life. Her personality was reset. She wore a pixelated stainless white dress with her name on a name tag. She was somehow able to move around freely again. She looked up and saw a lively candy world made of pixels. There, she was. Standing in front of Princess Candiere herself.

“Why hello Suyashi. I am Princess Candiere. Welcome to my cafe. We will be showing you the basics of your new job. I hope you enjoy your first 45 days and stay here with us, forever.”

A blind smile came from Suyashi as she grabbed Princess Candiere’s hand without much thought as they entered the place. Only for her to never return.

The next day at Dream Academy High, Toma saw the news at his house after being sent home with a petty warning. His friend in the bathroom was now covered with reddish-violet bumps everywhere and her eyes dripping blood from out of her eye sockets.

Suyashi had died.