Instance 1: Candy House
Chapter 8: Hide-and-Seek, Eerie Nursery Rhyme
Yotsuya Miko stared suspiciously at Haruto's plain black trousers. She could understand the flashlight and the phone, but how on earth did he pull a baseball bat out of there?
"You're not wrong to think of it as some kind of 4D magic pocket," Haruto said with a casual shrug. "I'll explain the specifics after we get out of this horror instance."
"Stop being so cryptic!" Miko huffed, her dissatisfaction clear.
After that brief interlude, the oppressive atmosphere in the house seemed to lift ever so slightly.
"Should we hide separately?" Miko asked, her voice hushed. "If we're on different sides of the house, it would significantly reduce the chances of us both being caught."
"There's no need." Haruto shook his head. "Do you remember the rules the Ouija Spirit mentioned? A round lasts ten minutes. At Wanwan's speed, ten minutes is more than enough time for her to search the entire house. After all, there aren't that many places to hide—wardrobes, under beds, and the like."
Hearing this, a cold sweat broke out on Miko's skin, but she quickly forced herself to calm down. "Haruto, are you saying Wanwan can't see? As long as we don't both stare at her at the same time?"
"She can't see," he confirmed. "Otherwise, the difficulty of this game would be far too high. It'd be almost impossible for us to win."
Haruto took out his phone, opened the recording app, and repeated the phrase 'Hide-and-Seek' three times into the microphone. He then set it to play on a loop ten seconds after pressing start, cranking the volume to its maximum setting.
He then walked over to the kitchen. On the flour-dusted floor, a new row of small, childish footprints had appeared, leading back toward the hallway.
"The doll went back," Miko observed, having noticed the same thing. "Haruto, should we start now?"
"No rush. Let's pick our hiding spot first."
Haruto wandered through the house, mentally mapping out all the potential hiding places before finally leading Miko to the bathroom. Based on their previous encounter there, he suspected Wanwan would likely return to the space above the bathroom ceiling every so often.
Two minutes passed... then five... then ten. Just as Haruto was beginning to wonder if his theory was wrong, a faint sound drifted from the hallway.
Da-da... da-da-da...
The sound grew increasingly clear, like a small child skipping across the wooden floorboards. Each crisp footstep seemed to pound directly on their hearts, making their breathing quicken.
"Now!" Haruto ordered.
Miko immediately hit the play button on the phone. She gave the device, which was wrapped in a thin layer of foam for protection, a hard shove, sliding it deep into the ceiling partition.
The two of them quickly exited the bathroom, hurried past four rooms, and arrived at a storage room filled with cardboard boxes. The boxes were open and stuffed with old clothes, a thick layer of dust covering everything. Without a word, Haruto and Miko slipped into a large wardrobe in the corner.
"Hide-and-Seek—"
"Hide-and-Seek—"
"..."
The recording Haruto had prepared began to loop from its hiding place above the bathroom ceiling. Almost simultaneously, a violent disturbance erupted from the living room.
Bang—!
A deafening crash echoed through the house, as if the bathroom door had been smashed open. It was followed by a dry, scraping sound of something crawling up the walls, and finally, the patter of rapid footsteps directly on the ceiling.
Crack!
Screech... screech, screech...
The sharp sound of metal piercing drywall rang out, followed by the grating noise of a knife being dragged continuously across the ceiling tiles.
A wave of residual fear washed over Yotsuya Miko, and her dread of the Ouija Spirit deepened. If Haruto hadn't seen through its trick... if she had actually listened to it and shouted 'Hide-and-Seek' face-to-face... she had a chilling certainty that it wouldn't be a cell phone being stabbed right now.
"Where are you...?"
"Where is everyone? Come out quickly! Come play with Wanwan~"
The little girl's voice echoed from above the bathroom, its sweet tone laced with a stiff, hollow quality that made one's scalp tingle. It was dissonant—clearly not a sound a human could make.
The two remained silent. They pulled several layers of thick, musty clothing over themselves, lying prone and peering out through the narrow gap between the wardrobe doors. Haruto had turned on all the lights beforehand, making it easier to observe their surroundings.
The footsteps on the bathroom ceiling stopped.
Then, a laughing countdown reached their ears.
"15."
"14."
"..."
"3."
"2."
"1."
The moment the countdown hit one, the footsteps vanished from the ceiling and reappeared in the kitchen.
The game had begun.
The two held their breath. The footsteps were still skipping and hopping, as if the child was in a very good mood.
"One, three, four; three, four, one,"
"Moonlight shines on Hide-and-Seek."
"Are you hidden? Are you hidden?"
"I'm coming to find you~"
The eerie nursery rhyme echoed along with the pitter-patter of footsteps, sometimes distant, sometimes alarmingly near, punctuated by soft, chilling laughter.
Yotsuya Miko's hands clenched into tight fists. A cold dread spread from the soles of her feet to the crown of her head, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably. Despite everything she had been through, the reality of being hunted by a ghost in a life-or-death game still terrified the high school girl to her core.
Suddenly, her hand was gently grasped.
It was Haruto. His index finger traced lightly across her palm, eventually forming two simple words.
'I'm here.'
Instantly, Yotsuya Miko's eyes grew slightly moist. The warmth of his hand enveloping hers seemed to chase away some of the suffocating fear in her heart.
Fortunately, Wanwan didn't seem to be looking in their direction, instead skipping off down another corridor.
"Under the bed, in the wardrobe,"
"Shadows drag long across the floor."
"Found you~ Found you~"
"Your voice is by my ear~"
The singing continued. Echoing through the deathly silent house, it was unbelievably eerie, like a phantom brush scrubbing against their scalps.
Previously, Miko had been too consumed by fear to notice, but now that she had calmed down, she became acutely aware of how close they were pressed together—practically touching from head to toe. A faint blush crept onto her pale cheeks.
After a moment's thought, she squeezed Haruto's hand and wrote a sentence back on his palm.
'Are you afraid?'Haruto was slightly taken aback. Then, with an expression of utter misery, he wrote back in her hand.'Can I say I'm scared to death?'
He really was. How could any normal person not be afraid after being thrown into this ghostly place? Not to mention, he had never been a fan of horror to begin with.
Yotsuya Miko smiled silently to herself. She couldn't see much genuine fear in Haruto; he was just being dramatic.
Haruto rolled his eyes at her through the layers of clothing and continued to watch the outside through the wardrobe gap. But as he watched, an inexplicable sense of unease began to creep into him.
In just four minutes, the footsteps had circled around from the right and were now approaching from their left.
"Count to fifteen and then begin,"
"Never, ever to be apart."
"Come stay with me, come stay with me,"
"This game is so much fun~ Slice by slice, red, white, and yellow~"
The light above them flickered, the bulb seeming to hesitate. The distorted nursery rhyme, the unstable light—everything signaled an unending, suffocating creepiness. The two held their breath, tensing for what was to come.
'Something's wrong!'
Haruto's pupils contracted. Without a word, he shoved open the wardrobe door and pulled Yotsuya Miko out with him.
Creeeak... a pair of pale, small hands pushed open the wardrobe door from the inside.
At that exact moment, the lights, as if influenced by some unseen force, went out, plunging the room into absolute darkness once more.
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