VOLUME 6 – TO THE LIMITS OF DESPAIR (1) prologue

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The fair moon radiated a cold light –

Ishida Naoto felt suffocated, as if a weight was on his chest, and opened his eyes.

He looked at the clock. It was just past three in the morning. He had woken up too early. He closed his eyes to try to fall asleep again.

However, Ishida was bothered by the sound of other people sleeping on the opposite side of the divider curtain and was unable to fall asleep again.

– Let’s try something else.

Ishida slowly got up.

At that moment, he felt a slight pain in his side. It was the place where he had stitches from the surgery three days ago.

The doctor had told him to move as little as possible the day after the surgery. That would make it recover faster.

Ishida unsteadily got up from the bed and left the hospital room.

The corridor went straight down. It was empty.

The corridor was lit up by the green emergency light, which gave it an uncanny atmosphere.

He had seen a similar corridor in a horror film before. In the story, a strange contagious disease had spread through the hospital and people had died one after another.

– What was the title of that movie?

Ishida searched his memories, but in the end, he couldn’t remember the title.

Instead, he remembered something the nurse had said yesterday.

The ghost of a girl with no face was wandering the hospital. She always asked the people she met the same question.

– When are you going to die?

The people whom she asked this question always died soon afterwards.

It was a common story that could have been found at any hospital.

Ishida thought that the nurse whose eyes had been sparkling when telling the story was scarier. She had been plump and quite his type, but his emotions had cooled all at once.

Ishida walked into the lavatory at the end of the corridor.

He stood in front of the sink and put his hands at the faucet.

The sensor reacted and water started flowing. He used his hands to take that water and washed his face.

He repeated that a number of times and felt a bit better.

He wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his pyjamas and looked at the mirror.

– Hey.

Suddenly, he heard a voice.

Ishida hurriedly turned around, but there was nobody there.

He decided it was his imagination and turned towards the mirror again.

When Ishida saw what was reflected in the mirror, he jumped, like he had been splashed with cold water.

There was a girl behind Ishida in the mirror.

A girl in a red dress. She was looking down so he couldn’t see her face.

‘Don’t surprise me.’

Ishida turned around. However, nobody was there.

'Eh?’

He looked at the mirror again.

The girl was definitely there –

A cold sweat ran down his whole body.

– Hey, mister.

As the girl said that, she slowly lifted her face.

Her face was completely hidden by a black shadow, as if it were smeared with ink.

Ishida was so shocked he couldn’t even scream –

His heart was beating wildly, thumping against his ribcage.

– When are you going to die?

When the girl said that, she thrust her two hands forward.

Ishida couldn’t breathe.

Hah, hah, hah, hah.

Ishida ran out of the lavatory blindly.

He didn’t have the courage to turn around. With the corridor’s wall as support, he just went as far as his legs would take him.

– Hurry. Back to my hospital room. Almost there, just a bit more…

Just as the hospital door appeared in front of him, Ishida felt somebody’s presence and stopped moving.

– Hey, when are you going to die?

The girl spoke.

She was in front of the hospital room.

'Augh!’ Ishida screamed and went back down the corridor.

– Where should I run to?

Ishida, in his confusion, spotted an elevator.

He ran as quickly as he could to the elevator and hit the button again and again.

– Hurry, hurry, hurry!

However, the elevator was taking its time to show up.

When he looked down the corridor, he saw the girl slowly walking towards him.

– It’s no good!

Ishida gave up on the elevator and headed towards the stairs ahead of them.

He turned around.

The girl was approaching quickly.

Ishida took a step to go down the stairs.

– When are you going to die?

The girl was waiting for Ishida at the bottom of the stairs.

Ishida’s body froze.

– Ah!

The moment he thought that, it was already too late.

Ishida lost his balance and tumbled down the stairs.

A sharp pain rain through his thigh and his back.

Ishida’s consciousness fell into a pitch-black darkness –

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