Chapter 141: Haunted Houses are Seriously Scary

As if descending to the very bottom of the ocean... we stepped into the School of the Deep Sea Abyss.

The first thing to greet us was the school’s main entrance.

Deep within the darkness sat a meticulously crafted, weathered shoe locker area. The faint, flickering lights overhead provided a vibe that was nothing short of agonizingly eerie.

"Uh... isn't this place already way too creepy?"

"――――"

The atmosphere was a total disaster. When I let that comment slip, unable to keep it in, Tsubaki—who was standing beside me—remained utterly speechless. She simply grabbed my sleeve and huddled close to my side.

According to the briefing we’d received before entering, this attraction had no emergency exits. Once you were in, you had to explore the entire thing until you reached the end.

Great. Checkmate.

No matter how terrified we got, there was no escaping and no leaving. We just had to survive.

Ding—dong—dang—dong.

Since moving forward was the only option, we stepped further into the entrance. Immediately, we were struck by the sound of a school chime—the kind I hadn't heard since my elementary school days.

It was a dull, heavy sound that felt fundamentally wrong. The digital chime was layered with the zaa-zaa of static, a sound that made my skin crawl. The grating white noise seemed to vibrate inside my skull, stoking the fires of my anxiety.

Then—right on cue for a school setting—a voice echoed as if rising from the depths of the earth.

『—Students who have for-gotten items... please promptly collect your belongings—and leave the school.』

The campus broadcast reached our ears, heavily distorted by interference. Through the speakers, I could hear violent audio clipping mixed with the high-pitched, manic giggling of children. We had barely started, and I already wanted to go home.

『Repeating—the forgotten items... [glitch]... are reeking... [glitch]... please—[glitch]... val.』

Whatever. If we didn't move, this would never end.

We followed the arrows that served as our guide. The path started with a set of stairs, so we ascended toward the second floor, taking each step with agonizing caution.

We hadn't even been attacked yet, but the sheer quality of the atmosphere was doing a number on me. When we reached the second-floor corridor, we were met with a recreation of an elementary school hallway—the kind of place that wouldn't be scary at all if the lights were actually on.

"R-Reima... the, the window..."

"Hiee!"

Outside the glass, I could see the school’s sports ground. Mounds of dirt were piled up everywhere, each topped with a stone. It looked exactly like a graveyard.

And that wasn't the half of it. Wandering through the grounds was a swarm of aberrations—grotesque, deformed parodies of sea creatures.

"...Tsubaki, do you think we're actually going to make it out of here alive?"

"I... I do not know-degozaruuu..."

There were pale, blurry fish ghosts. Some monsters looked like they had corroded and melted into heaps of sludge; others were octopuses whose tentacles had been replaced by human arms. Anglerfish with glowing will-o'-the-wisps for lures drifted through the air.

"Wow, this is actually pretty scary, isn't it?"

Levi’s annoyingly cheerful voice snapped me back to reality. If she hadn't spoken up, I probably would have frozen in place right then and there.

"Now, now, there’s no point in standing around forever. Let’s keep moving!"

"Levi, you're way too damn strong for this."

"I have decided. I am sleeping in Laura's bed tonight-degozaru."

Every so often, I heard the faint tittering of a child or the persistent sound of playful footsteps echoing nearby. From the endless darkness ahead, the melody of Kagome Kagome drifted toward us. Even without a jump scare, the psychological pressure was immense.

"...Wait, what’s that?"

I suddenly noticed something lying on the floor of the corridor.

I leaned down and picked it up. It was a scrap of paper, likely torn from a sketchbook. It was completely blank at first, just a plain white sheet, and yet...

『Wanna... play?』

Blurred red characters suddenly bled into the paper. A split second later, a girl’s laughter erupted from directly behind me.

"Gah!"

"Wao, that was unexpected."

"Dammit—run, you two!"

I flooded my body with magic to boost my physical stats, scooped Tsubaki up in my arms, threw Levi over my shoulder, and bolted.

"Scary! This is way too scary! This is bad!"

After that, things only got worse. We encountered a woman clinging to the ceiling, the ghosts of tattered children, and traps designed to force us into tight corners. We spent the next thirty minutes solving various gimmicks while searching for the "forgotten items."

"Hah... hah... I'm done. I can't do this anymore."

"Hic... sniff... Reima-dono..."

I was on the verge of collapse and Tsubaki was legitimately sobbing. I could see a sign that said "100 meters to exit," but I couldn't feel any relief. Levi remained cheerful, though she seemed to be constantly scanning our surroundings for something.

"...Ah, it looks like there aren't any more traps ahead of us. Shall we?"

"I'm trusting you on this. I am seriously, seriously trusting you, okay?"

She was light, so carrying her wasn't the problem; it was the sheer exhaustion from the terror that had pushed me to my limit.

We moved forward with agonizing slowness, keeping our guard up. Just as we crossed the fifty-meter mark, I heard footsteps behind us.

"—Honestly, I saw that coming!"

"Ahaha! I told you nothing would come from the front!"

We sprinted the rest of the way, bursting through the exit and collapsing into the chairs in the rest area.

"Never again. I am never going into a haunted house again."

"............Me neither-degozaru."

"That first part was quite something, wasn't it?" Levi added, looking entirely unbothered.

A little while later, Ayane and the rest of the group emerged. We all met up to exchange our thoughts on the experience.

As everyone else chattered excitedly about which parts were scary or how impressive the production was, Tsubaki and I mentioned that the paper gimmick at the start was the most terrifying part for us.

"Huh? There wasn't anything like that when we went through, right Laura?"

"No. I have no memory of such a thing."

"...Wait, what?"

I checked with Shiki and Kaiser, but they both gave me the same answer. There had been no paper.

The blood drained from my face. I realized my pocket felt strangely heavy. I reached inside and pulled out a small scrap of paper.

『Come back... soon, big brother.』

...I don't remember much after that.

All I know is that by the time I finally came to, it was evening. I made a silent vow that day: I would never step foot in a haunted house again for as long as I lived.