I opened the door into what felt like another world. The room I found myself in was rustic and homey, something I didn’t expect when thinking about its most noteworthy resident. The floorboards creaked beneath me as I stepped across the living room. Sitting on the table was a polaroid camera.

I approached the archaic device and picked it up. It felt heavy, just like it always had. I had held this camera before, not long ago. Why was it sitting on the table? It’s almost like she wanted me to find this.

The entire house was silent, aside from my footsteps of course. I wasn’t expecting a greeting from worried parents, but surely there would be someone home, right? Did she not have any siblings?

The kitchen was filled with dirty dishes and half-eaten food. It hadn’t gone bad quite yet, but it would if nothing was done about it. Someone else will have to clean up this mess, I have more important matters to attend to.

I walked into a hallway and searched for the room that belonged to my friend. It wasn’t difficult to find as her name was plastered across the door in block-letter stickers:

Brooklyn.

Where were you now, Brooklyn? What did you have to do with all of this?

That’s when I remembered that I wasn’t the only one who had been at all of this new set of killings.

[ cut ]

I awakened in my bed, back at home. One of the DEED members must have brought me here. I had just stabbed Eden, or at least tried to, I deserved some kind of condemnation, but kicking me out was probably the worst thing they could have done. I have no way of finding Noe now, I should have thought of that while I still had a chance to stick around.

It’s still a little unbelievable that they wanted to get rid of me, but such is how things went. I can probably go back to the life I had before. There was nothing stopping me from just living normally and ignoring the killings, all except for…

That girl.

I cared about her, didn’t I?

As much as I don’t want to admit it, I just can’t let go of Noe. It must have been a spell of some kind that she used to infatuate me, but that’s far from the truth. I felt that way about someone else as well, someone I was willing to dive into a blood-filled harbor to save. Maybe it wasn’t the same way exactly, but I did truly care about Brooklyn too. Both of them were gone now, I had failed to save them.

Noe and Brooklyn, the two people I want to save. Those two girls are my only reason for living and now they’re just beyond my grasp. If I had given up my life in that battle, could I have saved one of them?

I didn’t want to move and get out of bed. I wanted to stay here forever and never have to wake up to reality. This dream world where I saved my friends is the one I want to live in, not the one where they’re dead.

However, there was nothing I could do to change the past. Once that’s set in stone, I can’t go back. I dug myself out from under the covers and stood on the floor of my room. It was cold, even though there was a carpet.

I took a turn out the door and down into the living room. It looks like my sister is packing up for some reason. Were we leaving? Why wouldn’t she tell me about something like this ahead of time?

“What are you doing?” I asked innocently.

My sister shoved a handful of pants into a suitcase nearby. “Preparing to stay the night at a friend’s place,” it was an obvious lie.

“What friend?”

“Alex.”

That was the truth.

“DEED wants you, don’t they?” I asked.

“Yep, they need someone who’s good with computers to check out some image file. Supposedly it fries the brain of anyone who looks at it, a bit scary if you ask me.”

“Why did you say yes?”

“Because they’re counting on me,” Claire closed the suitcase and set it on the floor. “I can’t just turn them down like that.”

“You mean Scarlet, not them.”

“Fine, I mean Alex. I don’t want to let him down,” She said, facing away from me.

“You’re going to abandon me for some guy you already broke up with?”

“I’m not abandoning you; you know that. This isn’t about you at all, not everything is,” Claire looked back at me. “This’ll all be over in a few days, don’t worry about it. If you have any trouble with your arm or something you can keep in touch.”

“You’re not worried about me at all?”

“I’m worried about everyone, including you,” Claire was clearly getting agitated. “You think that I don’t care about you just because you’re not the center of attention all the time, don’t you? The world doesn’t revolve around you and bend to your whims. The difference between being a child and being an adult is realizing that.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

I was silent until she stepped out of the door. What could I say to that? Was I an adult or a child? At this point, I don’t really know. I know that the world doesn’t revolve around me, but I didn’t want it to be that way. I want to be special; I want to be the one to fix everything in the rotten, disgusting world. I was the only one who could do it, right? Everyone else was just complicit, ready to accept the system.

[ cut ]

I stepped through the door into Brooklyn’s room. Now was the time to confirm my suspicions. All I needed to find was that case. I searched through every drawer and closet, desperately turning the room upside-down in the hopes of finding my query. I heard a few cars pass by overhead, reminding me of my current location.

Eventually, I found a small box, something that would fit a pair of glasses, or…

The box had an indentation inside, a familiar shape. A chill went down my spine. This was it, the proof as to whether or not she was hiding something. I took the dagger out of my pocket and shoved the collapsed shape into the box; it was a perfect match.

“No… That’s…” I stepped backward, dropping the knife and box onto the desk. It was just then that I looked up. I was so stupid for not noticing this while I was searching the room, this changes everything…

[ cut ]

Now that my sister is gone, I figure I can sit down and play a videogame or something. Definitely not a horror game this time though, I made that mistake… last time… What was with that anyway? That voice said the same thing that Noe did when I first met her. I just can’t get this out of my mind.

I sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. The news was playing, my sister normally has it on in the background when she’s working in here.

“…The victims seem to be in a near-vegetative state, but still exhibit the ability to walk around and complete menial tasks. Several victims have successfully washed dishes, made and eaten food, and even finished shifts at work before being brought into a hospital…”

Oh right, they’re talking about this. I should change the channel.

“…It is still unknown what the cause of the condition is, but authorities have advised the uninfected to stay offline, away from the internet until further notice…”

This channel too? I guess I’ll try another. There has to be something else going on in the world.

“…This strange, zombie-like condition could be related to the series of accidents some people are calling the New Pentagram Killings. There is no proof that these mass deaths have been intentional, and the police have declared them all mass suicides, with the exception of yesterday’s roadway accident…”

What? What roadway accident? I killed Ronin, I stopped the third pentagram killing. If there was a roadway accident, that would mean a repeat of what happened two years ago, the accident that killed my…

“…The highway on which the accident occurred is now being reopened. Upon investigation, it is impossible that the accident was a deliberate act of murder…”

That’s not true. It has to be. There’s no other way. My parents weren’t caught in an accident, they were killed.

“…Residents of the neighborhood below have stated that they heard no gunfire or shouting, indicating no interference from pedestrians…”

The neighborhood below… I know someone who lives under a highway, don’t I? The houses shown on the TV looked strangely familiar, until I saw one in particular.

“That’s-“ I opened my phone and scrolled through my contacts. There’s no way this could be a coincidence, it’s too unlikely. The location was a match… The accident happened almost exactly overtop of Brooklyn’s home, which reminded me of something.

The knife that she had was the same one I found under my desk, right? I checked in my pocket, and it was still there. I ran upstairs to my room and checked the now-unlocked drawer. It was empty.

How did she get this? Shouldn’t it have been in my drawer the whole time? There’s no way Claire would have let her into the house, she doesn’t trust Brooklyn. Either I would have had to have given it to her, which is an impossibility since I’ve been accounted for since found the knife, or she stole it from me. Wait, there was a point in time where I wasn’t accounted for… the time I went to get food with Brooklyn. And…

That food never arrived.

It was impossible that Brooklyn was cursed by the fish from the harbor, since she never ate any. Everyone else who tried to jump in had reportedly already eaten, but Brooklyn hadn’t. She was by my side the entire time, it’s impossible that she ate the fish there. Brooklyn wasn’t cursed… She tried to stab me and jump in on her own volition. Why?

I have to find answers, even if it’s just me on my own. I’ll get to the bottom of this and avenge Noe by stopping the New Pentagram Killings myself…

[ cut ]

Sprawled across the wall of Brooklyn’s bedroom were over three dozen sketches, each depicting some kind of symbol. They were all the same shape, a familiar shape, one that I had seen once before. I need to confirm, though, and there was only one way to do that.

It was a risk, of course. Last time I tried something like this, it drove me to near insanity, and that was when Noe was around. There’s nobody else around to help me, I could die here. I started loosening the bandages around my arm as I walked into the living room to grab the camera. This thing supposedly can photograph demonic footprints, so it should be able to see the mark on my hand. If I don’t look at it, I should be fine.

I set up the camera on the table and held out my arm towards it as the bandage finally came off. I closed my eyes and pressed down on the camera’s switch, still holding my arm in place. The photo began printing.

I scrambled to pick the bandage back up off the ground and started wrapping my hand back up. While Noe opted to cover my whole arm, it wasn’t necessary. As I was wrapping the bandage, however, I caught a glimpse of what lay below.

Searing pain traveled up my arm as my gag reflex kicked in. The pain went away, but I started to become dizzy. Noe warned me about this, didn’t she? It’s a bit too late to go back now. I furiously continued wrapping up my hand and arm. I see why Noe covered my arm, too, now.

Once my arm was fully covered, my senses started to return to normal. The photo must have already finished printing by now, right? I walked over to the camera and picked up the small piece of paper next to it. The image was, as I had hoped, a picture of the mark on my hand. It was just as sickening as seeing it in person, somehow, but I didn’t get dizzy or feel that same pain as a few moments ago. Something I noticed this time was that the camera was slightly different from last time I saw it, some kind of port had been added. On the table next to the camera was a cable that looked like I could plug into a computer.

I walked back into Brooklyn’s room and held up the photo in front of the sketches that lined the wall. It was a perfect match. There was no doubt about it, Brooklyn was involved in the pentagram killings somehow. Even my closest friend was hiding that from me. How can I trust anyone if even Brooklyn was working against me?

[ chapter end ]