Chapter 4

Waking up refreshed and stretching my body felt great, a luxury in my life. I hadn't felt this great since years. I sat up, my eyes were still getting adjusted. I had wiped the rheum off my eyes with my hands. In this empty room I was alone. Where was Kaiser? I hadn't been away from him since we left the town. Touching the sheets next to me, it lacked warmth. Completing what they call an ideal wake up routine, I took a whiff of what should be a fresh room. My nose barely detected it, the smell of the room was as if something was rotting.

Sliding the door open, the repulsive smell had disappeared. Heading downstairs, the lady from the night before was sitting down where we ate yesterday.

"My apologies for the smell. When we had woke up, we found a dead rotting deer that had been ripped open by it's predators. It had wandered into our yard and died there. We had just removed it as we came to the conclusion we'll use it as decompose in honor to the gods for blessing our crops."

It was logical. I think.

"You must be wondering where your companion had gone to. Don't worry. He's with my grandfather, they're both going for fresh air. I'll be back, sit tight. I'll cut you some watermelon."

She got up and disappeared in the house. I laid down on the floor. I was bored already. It was quiet and the sun's ray was intense. Rolling to the shade, I had spotted a boy exposing half of him at the door. His extremely short height along with his more child features gave off he was younger than me. He had tanned skin and his eyes were huge. His hair was rugged and you could tell he played outside a lot as he was also covered in dirt. Returning his stare, he ran away as soon as our eyes met.

The lady came back with a plate of watermelons. I had only seen watermelons in books. Her hand had extended towards me with a watermelon. Her face held a kind warming feeling. I took it from her hands carefully, I would feel a sense of doom if one of my goals in life was to crumble from a mere slip of the hand. Yes, eating watermelons were one of my goals in life.

"I'm sorry about the behavior of Yusuke, he's quite shy but really he wants to play with you."

"No, it's okay."

"What?"

"It's okay."

I didn't really mind about Yusuke, what annoyed me more was having to repeat myself. I was too occupied with the watermelon anyways. Sinking my teeth into it, it had gushed into my mouth. The sweet fluids had leaked out of my mouth. I didn't expect watermelons to be this good.. I absolutely love it. She had a plate full of it too! This truly was a bliss.

"I'll be right back."

She left and I didn't care. Getting the watermelons inside my stomach were the only things that mattered right now. Finishing the plate was no problem, it only took me a minute. I laid my legs out in front of me and moved hands behind me, supporting my body. It was truly one of the best lazy positions. It really did feel great on my stomach right after eating.

She had came back again, instead she had brought Yusuke with her as well.

"Come now, don't be shy. You can play with the big brother over, he won't hurt you."

Yusuke had been hiding behind her with his head peeking out. Listening to her, he came out and in his hands were a deck of cards. With both hands, he held it in front of him.

"Want to play?"

I had seen cards before, but I had only seen things like tarot cards. Keeping myself occupied until Kaiser showed up didn't sound like a bad idea so I nodded my head.

"You'll have to teach me the games."

"Of course, we'll be playing War." he responded with a friendly smile.

"Be nice now Yusuke." she chuckled as she left us.

As he taught me, he also explained that it was a popular game in his village. My image of him being a quiet boy was destroyed, he was talkative and wasn't like what he had been earlier. He was just a shy kid. He had done most of the talking and I only had responded with one worded answers. When I tried to participate in the conversation, he would cut me off.

Hours passed as we kept playing War. I was bored and hiding my boredom was no longer possible. The same enthusiasm he had at the start was still the same. It was ill of me but I wished Kaiser would come so we could leave. As much as I loved how much hospitality this place had to offer, I still had something I needed to do. My head was tired of hearing his voice. He had been talking and talking, it pained my head. I felt like a terrible person since he hadn't been mean to me but I had tuned him out and he became like a buzzing noise in my ears.

"Yusuke."

"Yes?"

"Can we play another game?"

"Yeah! I know another game we can play, we can play-"

I was tired of him steering the talk, the past hours wasn't even a conversation at all. It was one sided. I couldn't help it but snap.

"NO!"

He stared at me and his happy face disappeared.

"Ah-uh I mean, there's a game I really wanted to play. How about Murder Murder?"

"Oh I love that game! let's play! let's play! I'm super good at that game, me and my friends in the village always play that game!"

Murder Murder was a popular game across Mytheques with kids. It only needed a minimum of two people. One person was the murderer and had to go seek the other people who were hiding. When the murderer found it's victim, he would say die three times. After he found all the people playing, the game would end. The murderer always won in the end but it was supposed to be fun anyways. I've only seen other kids play it but grasping the concept of it wasn't hard, it had simple rules.

"Y-yeah, I'll be the murderer. So you go hide okay?"

I had closed my eyes, counting back from ten slowly. I could hear his loud footsteps hitting the floor.

"If you're ready or if you're not I'm coming for you ki. ki.. Kiii" my voice had lacked energy..

I had immediately saw Yusuke with his butt sticking out towards me. He was hiding in a blanket, except the blanket didn't cover his lower body. The blanket hadn't been there before either. Amazing, this kid is purely stupid. I had ignored him and walked away. I specifically chose this game to get away from him. The feeling of guilt no longer resonated with me. I wanted to be freed of him.

Walking in the house, I had noticed it was kind of dirty. There was dust in a lot of places. Getting into the room I had believed to be the kitchen, it was moldy and the knives was rusty. The tables were missing a leg. Was she using a rusty knife to cut the watermelon? I didn't want to think about it! The flooring had holes in them and were broken. Yesterday we didn't go to these parts of the house. The only parts of the house that was clean and serviceable was where we had been to yesterday.

I had wandered around inside for an hour, making laps both downstairs and upstairs. The sight of the creepy interior was becoming dull. Inside really wasn't what I imagined it to be and it was really hard to believe anyone really lived here. Oh well they must've had it rough. Replacing everything would be costly. Shrugging all thoughts aside, I had reached back to the main room. Yusuke was still there giggling.

"She'll never find me" he squealed.

Yes Yusuke, I already found you.

"Oh. Yusuke's preeetty good. Where could he had gone. Oh I know, he went outside didn't he." I made sure I was close enough so he could hear. It would be bad if he gave up hiding because he thought I wasn't looking for him anymore. He was a weirdo. I would have gave up hiding If I hid for more than half an hour.

Leaving through the front door, It was time to start making laps again except outside. Stupid Kaiser! Hurry up and come back! Thinking about what he said before made me even more mad! What a liar! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! It was already past noon!

My face was flushed. Him leaving me after taking my entire life savings crossed my mind and it really ticked me off. It was a possibility he was a scam! Or when I fell asleep in the forest, he took advantage of it by making a detour so he could drop me off in this village since he knew I was an orphan! And acting all nice right before he dumped me off… My feelings were all over the place.

Clink! I came back to reality, to my left came a metallic noise. I was too distracted by my thoughts that I didn't realize I was at the back of the building. I had passed the bathing area earlier. I had turned towards to the sound. It was just the house. There was a cellar door leading into the house. The balcony to our room was also directly above it. It was coming somewhere from the house. Either could be metallic items from inside that have traveled through the walls but I couldn't pinpoint the source. Closing my ears, I focused on my hearing. Clink. Clink. Clink. Slowly walking towards it with my eyes closed, it was getting loud.

Stopping in place, I opened my eyes. In front of me was the cellar door. Even though the house had been made with wood, this portion was a bit more sturdier. It didn't have any dust on it, it was clean.. Someone had used it recently. Squatting down, I was debating whether I should open and see it. I didn't want to be too nosy to people who have been nothing but kind to me.

Clink! Bdum! dum!

"Ah!" a yelp left out my mouth as I fell on my ass.

The cellar door shook rapidly. My heart raced, the pounding of the door didn't cease. I didn't know what to do. A person could be there. A demon. A ghost. Should I open it, should I not. My hands were shaky but if it was a person that happened to lock themselves in I should help them. I'm going to help them. Reaching out to it, I dreaded opening it, contemplating every moment of it as my sweaty hands were inching to grab the door latch.

My hands had reached their destination, having positive control of the door latch. The pounding stopped. Closing my eyes once again, I brought my face closer to it to hear what could possibly be the cause of the pounding. I could hear a faint growling noise coming behind this door. Did I really want to open it.. This was creeping me out. I opened my eyes and had let go of it. I really shouldn't open it after all.

"You shouldn't be snooping around."

My heart had stopped.

"Big sis doesn't like it when you stick your nose in our business." it was a child's voice but lacked any sort of friendliness. It was chilling and a hint of anger could be heard from the tone.

I looked behind my shoulder's trying to smile the best I could. I felt sick, the scare wasn't good for my heart.

"Oh it's Yusuke. Yay. I found you. Die. Die. Die."

The once hyperactive kid was no longer energetic. He bore a monster's predator's gaze looking at his prey. It was cold and dead. It further intensified as he appeared towering over me with his smile completely gone as a frown replaced it. Both of his hand wasn't visible, it was behind him. Everything about him was bad! I needed to get away from him, he was going to do something horrifying.

"H-hey let's play again, I'll be the murderer again ok?"

"No." a lifeless response came back.

He moved his hands in front of him, placing it over his eyes and began counting down from ten. My heart dropped. This boy had a rusted knife in his hand. My legs were trembling.. No, not yet, I didn't want to die here! It took me a second to get up, I lifted my robes as I sprinted. No way I'm dying because of something silly as tripping over. My leg's were moving the quickest they could go, I had almost lost balance a few times.

"TWOOO. OOOONE. IF YOU'RE READY OR IF YOU'RE NOT, I'M COMING FOR YOU! KI! KII! KIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

I could hear the hysterical voice from behind me. I didn't dare to look back and see the face he had while saying that. I had to leave this place! He said big sis, then that means the villagers are in on this.. No.. Did they.. Then they already killed Kaiser since this morning, how could I be so stupid! I'm getting out of here!

I could hear giggling, and the image of his crooked smile had repeatedly flowed into my head. It became distant as I had descended the stairs. He had stopped following me. Running out of breath, physical activities weren't my strong suite. My heart had burned but my leg's kept moving. The straggling villagers in town turned their heads to stare at me, each one of them full with killing intent. Without meeting their eyes, their gazes pierced me. I had wanted to slip in the gaps between the houses lined up and make way to the forest, escaping this quicker but all of exits had been blocked by a villager carrying rusted farm tools. Animals playing with their live food. I could only continue on the road leading to the entrance.

I was too occupied trying to look left and right to see if there was any villagers not occupying the gaps between the houses that I failed to notice I reached the last house on the road and directly in front of me was the entrance.. What stood before me was an old man standing at the center. His cane supported his small back bent body. His friendly face with his gap teeth. Lazy eyes that were bulging from his eyelids and had resembled fish eyes. It was the head villager.

"Where are you going?"

I couldn't answer him, my body was busy trying to calm down. I was gasping for air as my lungs were trying to keep up. My chest expanding and legs painfully tight. I was feeling light headed.

The man's lazy fish eyes rolled inward, fixing themselves. For the first time, he was actually looking at someone, at me. His long tongue leaving the side of his mouth, sliding across his gap tooth and to the other side. I could hear the synchronized footsteps of the villager from behind me. They no longer blocked the paths leading out and had stepped onto the road. They were getting closer… I had mistaken. This wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare.

"Dear Guest won't you stay for another night?"