Art by Zakkuverse.
My Name is Dan Zatch. I am a 5' 7", thin young man with green eyes and red hair. I am currently wearing a brown long-sleeved shirt with a thick yellow stripe across the chest and baggy gray trousers over green shoes. I also have on a pair of red-framed glasses.
{A Picture will be updatde to the chapter, if possible, idk if it is, I'm new here.}
My hometown is Motochi, Akita. It's a rural Japanese town with a lot of old legends like ghosts and such. I am writing this as I am now standing at the apartment building on Narahara Ave. I've lived here for 14 years and I turn 15 in a few weeks.
This is the last week of my Summer Break, so other teens like me are working on their summer reports. My teacher told us that each student was to write a report on something different, and even made us announce what we'd write about before school let out. That way she wouldn't be looking through the same report just copied and pasted.
The reason I picked the apartment on Narahara Ave. was to disprove the rumors about it. I've never been one to believe in urban legends and lore. As a child, I wasn't scared of fictional horror like zombie movies, but realistic horror. That always got me.
So I've grown to enjoy exploring the so-called cursed places and proving the hoaxes and lies spread by greedy tourist trappers and old people who were afraid of the unknown.
This apartment building has a small reputation for mystery. First, is its owner, who nobody has any knowledge of. Neither the town's oldest people nor the town's mayor knows anything about the owner, not helped by the fact the apartment doesn't have any kind of name. The apartments have been here since before Motochi was ever built.
Next up is the floor plan, the apartment building is two stories tall, but both floors have a single apartment that takes up the whole apartment, there are three doors on each floor but each just leads to the same room. People say it's haunted, some say it's cursed and kids should stay away, but that's why I came here.
To disprove those rumors.
I do a quick stretch and ready my phone. I was standing in front of the apartment room #256. It was the only one of the doors but from what I've learned, it is the first door of the second floor.
But... For a moment... A Single Second... I thought the door was letting off an orange light, cracking the air glowing with red energy, forming ice and orbs with snowflakes inside, eldritch eyes and shadow tendrils, and cybernetic circuitry with splatters of oozing blood.image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/695207835113357332/1223720463411314829/Screenshot_20240330-0744044.png?ex=661ae17e&is=66086c7e&hm=3b02627b5c2c64726808a0feeb883c0e27631fc596f501b116ff17500a17a1e4&]
A/N: Full pick of the cover.
My eyes snapped shut, and I shook my head violently before looking at the door again, seeing nothing of what I just saw. 'A lack of sleep... Yeah... That's it!' I thought as I grabbed the doorknob.
I then opened the door, where a large hand grabbed me by the face. "Who the fuck are you!?" A crass female's voice was announced.
It was hard to see but I managed to see the woman currently holding me by the face.
Calling her huge would be an understatement. The woman was standing 8 feet tall with a normal female bodybuilder's physique.
She had long black hair that was wild and unkempt, and looked stiff too, almost like touching it would be crunchy. She also wears a black jacket over a white shirt with a red stain near the neck, dark grey jeans with knee tears, and heavy black boots.
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/695207835113357332/1224182073774833704/Screenshot_20240331-1921222.png?ex=661c8f66&is=660a1a66&hm=268a291a15996da2432df13758b07b8700d1f02fc8224f8beb074fca032c5242&]
She looked like she had just robbed a hot topic and killed the person who worked there. My first immediate thought was, Someone lives here?!’ Followed soon by. ‘How has nobody noticed?!’
The tall woman then began shaking me violently, shouting, "Oi! I asked who the fuck you are!! You don't barge into someone's home!"
"Quick shaking me, you over-sized cow!" I shouted back, while I could've chosen my words better I think my reaction to an over 8 ft tall bodybuilding woman shaking me like a shake cup.
The huge woman seemed very irritated by my poor choice of words. She bared her canines at me... Wait... One, two, three, four... This woman... Has roughly 6 rows of teeth… The front teeth were all canines while her side teeth were molars… With what appeared to be more teeth growing in her gums! Calling this woman a freak, much like her height, would be an understatement!
I’ve heard of people with Supernumerary teeth, the condition of having an excessive amount of teeth than normal, but this looked almost natural, the teeth were perfectly aligned for each row like a shark’s. “What the hell…?” I muttered as the woman opened her jaw far beyond what even a snake could do unhinging its jaw! I clenched my eyes as the woman growled like a feral beast she seemed like she was going to bite my head off, literally.
Suddenly, an audible ‘Thunk!’ rang out, followed by a young boy’s voice speaking, “Bad Eva!” Then the large woman named ‘Eva’ dropped me on the floor as she looked behind her. I took a few deep breaths as my life had just flashed before my eyes.
My savior was a boy who looked younger than me, probably 13, standing 5'3", he had an average-looking build. Orange eyes, snow-white messy hair with a large tuft of his hair sticking upwards on his left side and two strands sticking up on his right, and fair skin.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
I could spot a scar along his left arm going from his forearm to under his shirt, a white shirt with short orange sleeves. He also had on blue jeans and white sneakers with orange stripes.
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/695207835113357332/1224010481740550185/Screenshot_20240331-0753332.png?ex=661bef97&is=66097a97&hm=bd9503646fdd490c946aedbf86a838d99c0f3455dbefd5712da789c7eba454ac&]
‘Someone lives with this crazy freak of nature?! She was about to literally bite my head off!’ I thought in a frantic panic.
“Come on, Linc, I was only gonna bite his jaw off for calling me a cow,” Eva stated bluntly and forwardly. Great… She was actually going to kill me…
Linc then motioned for Eva to bend down, which she did, and Linc flicked her so fast that it created a Sonic Boom! I was sent tumbling back out of the door. When I adjusted my glasses, Eva was now missing a head, as well as most of her head, all that was there now was a stump! I could see her spine and collarbone, torn muscle tissue, and her esophagus and windpipe!
But before I could even think to puke, Eva suddenly regrew her head, growing the same length of hair right back. It was like watching a antihero with a healing factor! Eva rolled her neck as Linc spoke, “We don’t kill people, Eva.” Unable to take this barrage of insanity, I slowly begin to slip into unconsciousness.
“Have you seen Drew’s kill count? That dude makes a mass murder look like a small robbery gone bad! And- Is he passing out?” Eva interjected herself as I blacked out.
*****
‘Someone lives with this crazy freak of nature?! She was about to literally bite my head off!’ I thought in a frantic panic.
“Come on, Linc, I was only gonna bite his jaw off for calling me a cow,” Eva stated bluntly and forwardly. Great… She was going to kill me…
Linc then motioned for Eva to bend down, which she did, and Linc flicked her so fast that it created a Sonic Boom! I was sent tumbling back out of the door. When I adjusted my glasses, Eva was now missing a head, as well as most of her head, all that was there now was a stump! I could see her spine and collarbone, torn muscle tissue, and her esophagus and windpipe!
But before I could even think to puke, Eva suddenly regrew her head, growing the same length of hair right back. It was like watching an antihero with a healing factor! Eva rolled her neck as Linc spoke, “We don’t kill people, Eva.” Unable to take this barrage of insanity, I slowly begin to slip into unconsciousness.
“Have you seen Drew’s kill count? That dude makes a mass murder look like a small robbery gone bad! And- Is he passing out?” Eva interjected herself as I blacked out.
*****
I opened my eyes slowly to the smell of something really good, I found myself inside the apartment building on a couch. Sitting up I spotted Linc in the kitchen which had an open floor plan. "Oh, you're awake," Linc stated as he saw that I was back up. He walked over to me and presented a tray of sugar cookies to me. "Here."
I took one of the cookies and ate it... I felt like I was back home, I had fallen off my bike and my mom smiled gently at me. Sitting me down at the table and giving me a plate of cookies to cheer me up. They were warm and sweet... Then I was back at the apartment building, with tears in my eyes...
I just had a Ratatouille moment from eating this cookie! I grabbed my head as I got a headache from how wild this place was. "Every second here gives me a migraine..." I grumbled, looking at Linc, I followed up and asked, "What's up with this place?"
Linc looked at the door and replied, "I think it would be best to show you first." Linc stood up and walked over to the door, I followed him as he opened it. I was expecting to see Motochi, but what I saw was a metropolis! I went outside and saw the towering skyscrapers of the metropolis glittering in the sunlight, casting long shadows over the bustling streets below.
Superheroes soared through the sky, their colorful costumes standing out against the backdrop of steel and glass. People with extraordinary powers walked among the crowd, there were people with psychic abilities and extraordinary powers, and others had body parts like animals. I could even spot some street performers creating and controlling fire and water.
I looked down to see the apartment building was the same. "What...?" I muttered as I stepped back into the apartment, Linc shut the door then motioned for me to open the door. I did and I opened to see my hometown of Motochi again.
After breathing in I slowly looked at Linc, hoping for some answers. He shrugged and replied, "This apartment building is connected to different worlds."
Before slipping into unconsciousness again, Linc slapped me across the face. "OW!!! Thanks..." I grumbled as I rubbed my cheek. I looked at the door further and noticed little paper slips that seemed to cut off.
Linc then added, "Oh, I sometimes like to go to the other's worlds when there's a store with a discount sale." He must've been referring to the crazy woman I saw earlier, who was absent, strangely not knowing where she was. Was scarier than having her be here.
Linc then shut the door grabbing one of the paper slips and reopening the door, showing a completely new town to the one I just saw, the paper slip now connecting to the other side of the door.. "The door only lets the person who opens it exit their world. But you can put a paper slip or something flat on the door frame, you can sort-of, 'save' the exit. That way even if you're not from that world, you can still go there." Linc explained, clearly to the best of his ability.
He seemed to know only a little about the apartment himself. "My world is one of superheroes and superpowers, and despite what you saw, I don't have any superpowers." Linc explained, with an honest smile.
Linc was about to go further into it, but I stopped him. "Let's talk more tomorrow, I need a break to process all this. My world doesn't exactly have this kinda thing as the norm." I explained, Linc nodded and shut the door for me to open to go back to my world. I quickly exited and made my way home, before I left I saw Linc put a slip of paper on the door before shutting it.
About a block away from the apartment, my phone gets a notification. It was from one of my classmates putting something on the class's group chat. A picture that made me make a face that looked like I tried to eat a whole lemon. It was of Eva, that crazy woman was eating enough food to feed a hungry nation, using up about 10 tables too. "Hard Pass..." I muttered as I turned off my phone and hurried home.
*******
Dan's Notes; The Apartment Building #1
The apartment building on Narahara Ave. is a bridge of other worlds. The three doors work as the gateway and the apartment itself is the bridge in-between worlds. Each door working differently from the others. Despite connecting to different worlds, the apartment building remains the exact same, two-stories with three doors on each floor that lead to the same room.
When exiting from the front door, or the first door on the second floor, whomever opens the door will, the door will in turn, open to that person's world. When someone knocks or rings the doorbell, the door will prioritize that person's world when someone on the inside opens the door.
However, a person is able to 'save' the exit to a world through simply placing a slip of paper on the door frame.
Further study is required.
To Be Continued...