Standing in front of that old, scratched up door is all Suzume needed just to get chills traveling down her spine. The longer she stood in front of the door, the more she could feel her heartbeat. She slows down her breathing to try and get her nerves back under control.
“I’m only here for one thing. So I just get in and get out without getting side tracked. I can do this.”
With only one thing on her mind and her phone tight in her hand, Suzume slowly reaches out to the handle of the sliding door. After using a little bit of extra force the old, wooden door slides open. Suzume turns around to get one last glance at the forest behind her before she enters the mansion. Taking a deep breath, she takes her first step inside.
The front door leads into what looks like some kind of aged foyer; there’s a large set of steps that lead up to the second floor, but they’re broken and have sunken in. On each wall there is a single door that leads further into the mansion, one heading east and the other heading west.
With only patches of moonlight making its way through the screens and windows, Suzume turns on her phone and changes the settings, turning it into a flashlight. Everything now more visible, Suzume can get a better look at the area. She searches around the room, but doesn’t find anything of value or worth taking note of. She stops in front of the steps and flashes her phone up towards the second floor.
“There needs to be some kind of sign about where she went,” Suzume says out loud to herself. Flashing along the railing of the second floor, she comes across a blue ribbon tied along it; there’s a red splotch on it.
Suzume recognizes that ribbon, “That’s Hikaru’s hair ribbon…”
Fear begins to dwell inside Suzume, her mind rushing through different scenarios about what could have possibly happened. While she’s focused on looking at that ribbon, she can hear the sound of a door creaking open. Disturbed by the sound, she quickly turns around and sees the door to the east wing is cracked open just a bit.
“Hello?” Suzume calls out to see if somebody’s in the house. “Hello?”
Keeping the phone flashlight aimed at the door, Suzume slowly approaches the door, the floor boards creaking underneath her feet. She leans over a bit to try and peek into the other side of the door, but she doesn’t see anything except for a few lit candles dimly lighting up the hallway. She pushes the door open and makes her way through.
The hallways goes straight for a few doors down, them makes a sharp right, leading to more doors. With every door she walks up to, she tries to turn the knob to get inside the room, but most of the doors don’t budge. When she reaches the last door before the turn, it moves a bit, but it seems like it’s locked from the other side. She then realizes that there’s some kind of lock on it; it has a flower shaped symbol on it.
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