“Why the hell are all of these doors locked?” Suzume mumbles under her breath with frustration. She gives the door a little kick before turning to walk down the turn. After going through a few more doors, she finds another that opens and goes through the doorway.
Leaving the hallway, and now in a room that has a small fireplace built in the middle, she starts searching around for clues. She walks over to the fireplace first and can easily tell that it hasn’t been used in some time. She looks towards a small set of stairs that leads up to the second floor of the room, but doesn’t walk up them just yet.
Hoping to find something helpful, she opens the tiny closet underneath the steps. Inside are just a set of blankets and something wrapped up in a white cloth. Picking it up, she takes her time unwrapping the cloth and is surprised by her finding: a rusty dagger.
“Who puts a dagger in the closet? Did they want somebody to find it?”
Suzume looks at the dagger for a moment before putting it back in the closet. Right after she puts the dagger back, she hears footsteps, slowly but heavily, walking on the second floor of the room. Unsure of who may be lurking, she picks up the dagger again and holds onto it just in case. Trying to avoid being seen, she crouches down as she makes her way to the steps.
When she gets to the last step, she inches up just a bit to get a look through the railing without giving her hiding spot away. The second floor is split by a wooden divider with paper screens; there’s a faint light coming from the other side. Just on the other side of the divider, there’s a gentle outlining of a man just standing there with their back turned.
Is that the person who opened the door when I was in the foyer?
Suzume carefully makes her way through the second floor trying not to scare the person off. When she gets to the door of the divider, she calls out to the person, “Hello? Are you okay?”
The person hears Suzume call out to them, but doesn’t turn around. They just lift their head up. Suzume slowly slides open the door and steps a bit closer, “Hello?”
Suzume reaches out to tap the person on the shoulder, but before she can, the person quickly spins around, revealing their face. Color is drained from their skin, making them looks like a translucent doll. The whites of their eyes are all that remain. Patches of dark blue flesh, seeming like old bruises, are spread out all over their arms and neck.
“What the hell?!” Suzume screams out.
With a deep groaning in their voice, the person lunges out at Suzume, forcing her to the ground; the dagger she found flies out of her hand and slides across the floor. Being forced to the ground, Suzume’s head slams when she falls, putting her into a daze. Out of it, Suzume feels a cold sensation rising up chest, followed by fingers trying to claw at her. Quickly coming to, she sees the person has fallen on top of her and is trying to attack her.
Gathering all of her strength, she manages to hold them off long enough for her to get a kick on them, forcing them off of her. Free, she scrambles back across the ground to gain some distance between her and the attacker.
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