Tatemono // Building

In the cold breeze, Shinji travels through the path covered by the dried leaves and twigs, walking towards the direction of where the disappearing building that was found in the photo twenty years ago. With the help of the dim moonlight, Shinji thought he eventually comes to see the strangeness of it. The school that consists only of two buildings as everyone knows, tonight, Shinji finally sees the truth.

Just a few distance away from the classroom building, one extra building appeared, it leans quietly on the foot of the mountain. Just like how Shinji saw in the old commemoration book. It is the missing four-storeys building, it is engulfed by the plants growing under the mountain foot, the walls which are corroded by time vaguely exposed under the veins, these walls are covered by water, they reflect the dim moonlight.

Odd, why didn't it reflect the sunlight during the day? As Shinji ponders, he pulls out the flashlight from his pants pocket and switches it on. He holds it in front, lighting up the path before him. He then heads to the four-storeys building.

After crossing the office building and classroom building, Shinji finally reaches at the front of the four-storeys building. Holding the flashlight in his left hand, Shinji stretches out his right hand to tear down the vines that had fully covered one of the entrances into the corridor. Unexpectedly, just when he tears the outer layer down, a rough hemp rope enters Shinji's sight. Following the hemp rope, Shinji finds a small acrylic plate hanging in the middle of it. It is a sign. The surface of the sign is covered by mud and dust, hence Shinji simply wipes the mud away from the sign with his hand. There, he is able to read the sign. Under the bright flashlight, Shinji can see the surfaces of the acrylic plate are full of scratches, it makes the words printed on the sign a little harder to read.

The base of the sign is yellow, while on top of it, there are two kanji words printed in red.

"Kin... shi..." softly, Shinji read the words out, "Forbidden...?"

As he sees the sign, Shinji bites the flashlight in his mouth and quickly tears down the rest of the vines which are blocking his way. While he continues to tear them down, other lines enter his sight, but this time, they are not some common hemp rope, they are police cordons. They look very old, almost all of the colors faded. Turning his head around, Shinji finds the cordons actually were tied at every entrance of the corridor, just like the whole building is wrapped up by the cordons. Looking at the cordons, Shinji is now pretty sure something must have happened here inside this building, which was serious enough to involve the local police.

Perhaps the cordons had been through twenty years of sun and rain, Shinji can easily break them down. Then, as he clears every obstacle in his way, he takes a deep breath, and he enters the building. While just as he steps into the corridor, deafening voices abruptly overwhelm Shinji.

"WAS IT YOU!?"

"IT WAS YOU!"

"YOU ARE THE MURDERER!"

"YOU ARE FINALLY HERE!"

The voices echo across the building, they scream, they cry, they chide, they curse. The voices do not sound like a voice from the same person, they are from many of them, different people. Their voices surround Shinji, their voices are full of indignation and resentment, their feelings are strong enough to engulf Shinji, just like Shinji is brought into the other world.

An intense headache raids his nerves, Shinji shuts his eyes and covers his ears, gritting his teeth trying to move forward. However, instead, he turns around and heads back to the entrance where he came in from trying to escape this forbidden building. But unfortunately, as he travels swiftly for a few seconds, he realizes something's off.

The width of the corridor isn't very long, how is he still in the building even though he kept running? With his breath shuddering, Shinji slowly opens his eyes again and gives his surroundings a glance, there, he realizes the voices have faded away, then, he finds himself standing alone in the dark, he can't even find the dim moonlight showering through the veins at the entrance of the corridor.

It's gone. The entrance where he just came in from, it's gone.

"Nani!?"

In a troublous mind, Shinji did not consider much, he runs down the route trying to search for an exit along the corridor, at least a light from the outside! However, no matter how far he ran, he still finds his surroundings engulfed in darkness. Fear overwhelms him at once, he keeps on running, running, and running... Until he finds himself somewhere he could only hear his own breath and heartbeats.

The ferocious voices vanished, just like Shinji has successfully escaped from part of their world. He eventually stops his footsteps, he bends his body holding to his knees gasping hard in the middle of the corridor.

When he gradually gains his breath back and calms himself down, he straightens his back and raises his head. However, just as he gives his surroundings a glance, he finds himself standing somewhere else.

"Yabai, I just entered, and I'm now lost..." slapping hard onto his forehead, Shinji exclaimed along with a deep sigh.

Fortunately, he is still standing at the corridor, whereas unfortunately, he is now standing at a different corridor. From where he stands, he turns to his left and looks out of the corridor, it is different. The openings are not covered by veins, dim moonlight is able to penetrate in and shower the floor. Slowly, Shinji steps into the moonlight, he feels a little safer. While just by the moment he thought so, he sees a brighter light comes in from the corner of his right eye. There, cautiously, Shinji turns his head to his right.

Unexpectedly, as he gives the scenery on his right a glance, he finds himself standing outside of a classroom. Bright lights seeps through the gaps of the apple green curtains from the inside, he hears the students reciting in the classroom.