“Where should we start?” Takeshi whispers, trying to keep his voice low.
Ayane looks down one end of the hallway and walks down it, stopping in front of Room P1. She turns the knob, but it doesn’t move even the slightest, “Next door down.”
The pair walk up to the next door. Ayane grabs the knob, Please, let Satoru be in here…
The door opens and it’s a large, empty room. The walls are padded from the floor to the ceiling and along the walls. Ayane enters the room and lights the room up, but she doesn’t find much, except for a few strands of hair scatted around.
Takeshi enters the room and looks around, “The Psychiatric Ward is nothing but isolation rooms.”
“What were they used for?”
Takeshi gives a brief overview of the hospital’s history, explaining how it was temporarily used to house mental patients until another hospital was constructed. However, one of the patients refused to leave, so the hospital allowed the patient to say in the psychiatric ward. The patient ended up dying in one of the rooms and the hospital ended up leaving the rooms alone.
Ayane gets chills down her spine just listening to Takeshi’s historical lesson about the hospital. There’s still one thing on her mind. She shows him the ripped notes she found earlier, pointing out the note about leaving the ward locked. Takeshi quickly gives an answer.
“Patients reported seeing somebody traveling in and out of the ward late a night. Some of the other guards who usually did the overnight shift would go check the ward on foot, but never found anybody or anything. One night on a patrol, a guard said he felt like he was being attacked by something. Claw marks were found all over his back.”
Ayane examines the room again and finds something different about one of the padded walls; it seems like it was ripped apart and sewn back together. She walks up to the spot and calls Takeshi over, asking him to use the ax to cut along the spot. Giving a strong swing, he slashes the spot and the stitching falls apart. Behind the spot was a hole in the wall with papers squeezed into it. Ayane takes the papers out and reads it.
It’s been about three weeks since I was moved here… There’s no sense of time here, no light and barely anything to do here. I feel like the world is closing in on me and I can’t escape. The voice in my head is getting louder and louder, constantly telling me that I need to embrace my full potential… I came here stop myself from reaching my potential… I don’t want to hurt anybody.
“These pages seem like some kind of diary entries,” Ayane says out loud. “Look, this one was dated three years ago.”
Ayane passes a few pages to Takeshi and they each read a few sections to themselves. Ayane flips through the pages, noting how the writing style slowly changes from organized thoughts, to repeating lines and phrases. She jumps to the last page and only one thing is written on it.
She’s out… She’s out… She’s out… SHE’S OUT!
“Hey Ayane? Do you believe in spirits and ghosts?”
“Not exactly.”
Luka's Notebooks 