Chapter 26: The missing piece [4]
Silence.
The moment the music stopped, everything grew still. The breath behind me faded—and with it, all the noise.
I was alone now.
Utterly, impossibly alone in the room.
But the memories of what had just happened still lingered in my mind, pressing in on my mind from all sides.
My chest rose and fell unevenly, lips trembling, hands clutching the armrest so tightly they began to ache.
It took minutes—long, dragging minutes—before I could steady myself enough to breathe again.
'I survived.'
At least, I hoped I had.
Darkness still wrapped around me like a second skin, caressing me with its cold touch. I couldn't see a thing. The only sound was my own breath, heavy and slow as I tried to keep it even.
I needed to move. To get out of the chair. To see the room for myself.
I wanted to see if everything that had happened was real. That... it wasn't all part of my imagination.
But there was only one problem.
"I'm stuck."
The Nightwalker was nowhere in sight. Gone. As if it had never been there to begin with.
My heart dropped.
'Don't tell me that it got killed...'
I didn't know how to feel. I never had fond memories of the Nightwalker, but it was mine. I'd fought hard for it. It had been on my side. For it to be gone, just like that...
"...That might be quite problematic."
If not for the fact that I was desperate, I would've never called it out.
Then again, I now knew that the Nightwalker was unaffected by the music.
'Still, this is a bit of a problem.'
The absence of the Nightwalker made the situation a little complicated for me. I had originally planned for it to release me when everything was over, but that no longer seemed possible.
"Do I have no other choice but to call Kyle?"
My gaze shifted towards the phone.
Another reason why I kept it close to me was in case a situation such as this occurred.
But how could I possibly explain my current situation to him? The state I was in?
I thought about the room and all the noise that I'd heard. I was sure the office wasn't in good shape. How was I going to explain that to him as well...?
'Should I say I was trying to simulate a horror scenario to inspire myself?'
I felt that there was a chance it could work. However, this was the last thing that I wanted to do. In the first place, Kyle wasn't stupid. He was rather sharp. He could probably determine the discrepancies in my story, alongside the clues hidden in plain sight.
Because of the system requirement, I couldn't afford to have him figure anything out regarding it.
Calling him was my last resort.
"Then what...? What should I do?"
I tilted my head back, racking my brain.
Could I tip the chair over? Scrape the ropes loose? Break my wrist?
Each idea sounded more absurd than the last. Some were so absurd that I felt like slapping myself for even thinking about them.
I went through all the possibilities and came up with one conclusion.
'I'm really starting to lose it.'
Just the thought that for a moment I thought about breaking my wrist was enough proof of that.
With a heavy sigh, I continued to think of all sorts of possible solutions to get myself out of my current predicament. However, each solution seemed more useless than the next, and just when I resigned myself to calling Kyle, I felt a burning sensation coming from my wrist.
"....!?"
Sharp, sudden—like thousands of needles driven under my skin.
My heart jumped, dread curling in my gut. Was it the Conductor again? If that was the case then...
'Oh, no.'
However, my thoughts quickly calmed when I realized it was something else entirely.
"This..."
I turned towards my wrist, the source of the pain.
I felt a vaguely familiar sensation alongside the pain, and my eyes lit up.
'It's back!'
The Nightwalker had somehow returned.
I didn't question how or why. The only thing that was on my mind was getting out of the ropes.
I didn't think twice and thought to my arm.
A shadow unfurled in front of me. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
"Help me untie the ropes."
But—
"....."
It didn't move.
The shadow stood in front of me in silence, its gaze directed my way without making a single sound. My scalp tingled under its gaze, and I swallowed nervously.
'Don't tell me...'
It moved, and my body tensed.
Arriving before me, its breath fell on me as I stared at it unblinkingly.
I didn't blink. I didn't breathe.
I stared back at it in full anxiousness.
Then, slowly, it reached out—and began to untie the ropes.
I didn't feel happy as the ropes were untied from my body. The entire time, my gaze was locked on the Nightwalker in front of me. Something about it felt off.
Unsettling.
The more I stared at it, the more unsettled I felt, and the moment all the ropes were untied, I pulled it back into my wrist.
Thankfully, I had no problem there.
The silence returned, and I stood up. I then raised both of my hands and reached out for the wall, looking for the light switch.
It took a while, but I soon found it.
Click!
As the office lights flipped on, my eyes squinted involuntarily.
It took a few seconds for me to adjust to the light, and it was I did that I finally took notice of the state of the office.
I took a cold breath.
'...It's worse than I thought.'
Cracks spiderwebbed across the wooden table, and the door bore deep, splintered dents. The gray carpet was torn in places, its threads frayed like something had clawed its way across it.
But what stopped me cold...
Was the wall.
A vivid red smear trailed across the white surface, rough and jagged—like something had clawed its way through.
And just above it, scrawled in the same red:
[VI]
"Six?"
I stared at the symbol.
I recognized it— VI , the Roman numeral for six.
"What does this mean? A sort of warning...?"
My stomach twisted. Was it trying to tell me that I only had six days left? That it would come for me after six days? ...Or was it six hours? Six minutes?
My thoughts rumbled as I thought about the markings on the wall.
However, I quickly snapped out of it and shifted my attention towards my computer. With newfound alarm, I moved towards it and opened the game. At the same time, I unlocked my phone and stared at the recording.
I took a deep breath.
'Please work. Please work. Please work...'
As my finger hovered over the play button, I hesitated for a moment before pressing play.
Soon enough, a familiar tune began to play in the air.
I listened to the tune carefully until...
My mind started to feel hazy.
The moment that happened, I didn't hesitate to close the recording and slumped down on the chair.
"Haha."
A small laugh escaped my lips then.
"It worked."
The recording...
It worked.
My gamble had paid off, and the moment I realized this, I immediately got to work, transferring the recording to my laptop while loading up the engine.
I had no time to waste.
Especially not after thinking about the markings behind me.
'Six...'
What exactly could it mean?