Chapter 4: First encounter

Hiro twisted the doorknob gently, holding his breath and ensuring not the faintest noise escaped. Naturally, the door emitted a soft creak, and he froze.

"..." His eyes darted to the swirling mist outside.

"Phew..." 

Leaning forward, he scanned the hallway cautiously. The silence was eerie, broken only by a faint whistle of wind slipping through the cracks.

He stepped out, easing the door shut with all the care of someone defusing a bomb. The latch clicked softly, and he crouched, fingers brushing the cold wall. His gaze drifted toward his neighbor's door.

"..."

"It's too quiet... is nobody home? Or are they just better at hiding than I am?"

Unable to resist his growing concern—or maybe his curiosity—He crouched near the neighbor's cold window. The cold weather had blurred it, but he wiped the glass with his hand after fogging it with his breath. Peeking inside , he found the room tidy and lifeless. 

"There's nobody here. Lucky them, probably at safer place while I'm starring in a budget horror flick." he muttered, shaking his head.

He gulped, breathing slowly and straightened and walked toward the stairs. The corridor stretched out before him, sunlight barely illuminated and lined with flickering shadows.

He finally reached the ground floor, his steps hesitant and his eyes scanning his surrounding at every moment. The ground floor, the storage room door hung ajar, revealing a heap of discarded furniture and steel pipes. 

"Ugh...It feels like something straight out of a zombie movie..." 

A sudden rummaging noise from the furthest room snapped him out of his sarcastic haze.

"Out of all places, it had to be the landlord's room. Oh, fate...why such twisted sense of humor..."

He approached cautiously. The door was slightly ajar, the edges marred with deep scratches.

"Yep, it's not funny at all."

His instincts screamed at him to run.

"You saw nothing, Hiro. Let's just walk away." He murmured, Just as he started to turn and step back, a faint voice— barely above a whisper—called out.

"Ugh...p-please..."

He startled, instinctively lowering his body and gripping the knife strapped to his side. 

"L-l-landlord?"

...

"If i leave now, I'd feel guilty my whole life..."

"Please consider this payment for the three months of rent i owe..."

Swallowing his nerves, he pushed the door open. The sunlight barely illuminated the room, but it was enough to showcase the disaster inside. 

The living room was a mess—books scattered everywhere, shards of glass glittering on the carpet and there were some...questionable items scattered on the ground. The landlord's infamous reputation for his eccentric tasted had not been exaggerated. 

The walls bore deep, brutal slashes, and metallic tang lingered in the air. 

"What the hell happened here...Nope. Never mind. I don't even what to know." He said looking at those toys on the ground.

He stepped inside, his sneakers crunching on the broken glass. 

"Uh...L-l-landlord? You here?" His voice trembled, despite his jokes, he was really concerned for the landlord.

His right hand gripped the knife at his side so tightly he could feel his pulse in his palm.

 No response.

As he moved deeper into the apartment, his eyes locked on a trail of red smudges leading toward the bedroom. 

"No...no...no..."Hiro shook his head, his breath coming out uneven. His gaze locked onto the red smudges, his stomach twisting. "How the hell did I think this was a good idea?"

Every instinct screamed at him to turn around, lock himself in his room, and pretend he had seen nothing. But instead, he let out a shaky laugh.

"Sure, since I'm an idiot, let's follow the blood trail."

With dread clawing at his chest, he pressed on. The unsettling noise grew louder as he approached the bedroom. 

He froze as he peeked inside.

The metallic scent thickened, blending with unsettling noises. The scene before him looked ripped straight from a nightmare. 

The landlord and his wife lay motionless on the floor, their hands still clasped tightly in death. Their mangled bodies were riddled with bite marks and deep claw wounds. 

In the corner of the room, something twitched. A grotesque figure hunched over the landlord's mutilated arm, its small, greenish body drenched in blood and its hand holding a glinting skinning knife. The goblin's grotesque face twisted as it made gurgling noises, savoring it gruesome meal.

Hiro's grip on his knife tightened, his hand shaking.

"Fuck...why does this thing look scarier than the video game version? who designed this thing? Satan?"

His knees weakened, and he collapsed to the floor with a lout thump. 

The goblin turned its head around, its bloodstained maw twisting into a snarl as it locked eyes with Hiro.

"Grrrr..."

Hiro stared at the creature, wide-eyed.

"Ah, so this is how it ends."

"Ahhhhhhhh!!!" 

Hiro screamed at the top of his lungs as the goblin lunged, its bloodstained knife gleaming in the dim light.