Suddenly pushed by Duan Ji, Er Nai almost tripped. Luckily, she was right next to a street lamp and was able to brace herself against it, avoiding a fall.
As she watched Duan Ji's retreating figure, Er Nai pursed her lips, feeling a shiver run down her spine. She didn't dwell on it, however. Right now, all she wanted was to get home.
After turning into an alleyway, Duan Ji's frantic pace came to an abrupt halt. Her breathing grew heavy.
“Pfft!”
A crisp sound echoed through the alley. Something had exploded. Duan Ji’s body fell to the ground with a thud.
The white mist slowly dissipated, revealing Duan Ji’s face in the faint moonlight. It was filled with terror, as if she had seen something truly horrifying.
Her face was covered in blood and mangled eyeball flesh.
And two gaping, unsettling eye sockets.
......
“Really, that Duan Ji lady is so weird, saying creepy things like ‘the next one will be you.’ ”
“So many ghost stories, it’s getting strange.”
Walking down the road, Er Nai mumbled to herself. But she was the only one on the entire street, so no one could answer her complaints.
“Ting-a-ling~ Ting-a-ling~”
After walking for what seemed like forever, a series of bell sounds suddenly echoed behind Er Nai.
These copper bells were incredibly ethereal. Their clear chimes seemed to pierce through her soul, causing Er Nai to stop in her tracks.
“Is… is it a cat?”
Looking over her shoulder, Er Nai furrowed her brow in confusion.
She wasn't as afraid now. After the previous events, she had reaffirmed her faith in materialism. The world definitely didn't have any ghosts or demons. She was just scaring herself!
Yes! It must be!
Comforting herself, Er Nai forced herself to be brave. She stood there for a moment, but couldn’t find the source of the sound. She frowned, her heart pounding, but still tried to maintain her composure.
“Don’t follow me. There’s nothing for you to eat in my box. Go home.”
Thinking the sound was from a cat she had seen earlier, Er Nai forced a smile and waved her hand behind her, acting as if she had seen a cat and was urging it to go home.
Except, there was no creature behind her.
Seeing nothing behind her, Er Nai retracted her smile, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. She swallowed hard.
She didn’t want to stay long, so she turned and prepared to leave.
But as Er Nai’s footsteps echoed on the silent street, the sound of the copper bells followed.
“Pata, pata.”
“Ting-a-ling~ Ting-a-ling~”
With each step Er Nai took, the sound of the bells grew closer.
Yet, whenever she turned around, she saw nothing behind her but the street lamp and that inexplicable mist.
“Strange…”
Muttering to herself, Er Nai assumed she had heard wrong and turned to speed up.
Her leisurely pace quickened, and the sound of the copper bells, echoing in her ears, gradually became more urgent as she started to run.
“Ting-a-ling! Ting-a-ling! Ting-a-ling!”
The sound of the bells was becoming increasingly clear. From being barely audible to now distinctly ringing through the night sky!
“Huff, huff…”
Out of breath, Er Nai's fear was growing. Despite usually having bad stamina, she found herself running swiftly, holding the box of sweets.
After an unknown amount of time, the sound that had been echoing in her ears suddenly disappeared, as if it had never existed.
“Just… just what was that?”
Er Nai swallowed, catching her breath. She made sure her surroundings were safe before leaning against a wall and asking herself.
She was certain that the owner of the bell sounds wasn’t the cat she had seen earlier!
She didn’t dare think about it further. She just wanted to clear her mind.
Duan Ji’s bizarre behavior earlier had already scared her enough. Now, this, too? Er Nai’s nerves were bouncing between relaxation and tension, nearly at the breaking point.
After a moment, she had stopped hearing the sound of the copper bells. Her body slowly began to relax.
Standing under the street lamp, she once again surveyed her surroundings. The night was now free of the mist and the copper bells, but it was as quiet as before, chilling.
Suddenly, Er Nai’s peripheral vision caught something reflecting off the street lamp.
Driven by curiosity, she looked down. A round crystal bead lay at her feet.
She picked it up and examined it carefully. Then, her face suddenly turned pale, and her sapphire eyes filled with terror!
“This… this is… Duan, Duan Ji’s hand, bracelet!”
Looking at the crystal bead in her hand, Er Nai gritted her teeth, trying to appear calm. But her stuttering words betrayed her current state of mind!
As if she still couldn't believe it, Er Nai threw the crystal bead to the side and looked around on the ground.
Coincidence! It must be a coincidence!
Duan Ji had broken the entire bracelet earlier, so there was no way there would only be this one bead. It must be a coincidence that someone dropped it here!
She tried to convince herself, but the small cluster of similar crystal beads in the distance shattered her illusion. Her legs gave way, and she collapsed on the ground.
She had run so far, only to… return!
As she felt despair creeping in, not knowing what to do, a memory of something Nakano Yu had told her popped into her head.
While she had initially thought it was just comforting words, Er Nai had no other choice now.
Opening her mouth, she was about to call out Nakano Yu's name, but the eerie sound of the copper bells cut her off:
“Ting-a-ling~ Ting-a-ling~”
Hearing the bells, Er Nai snapped out of her thoughts and turned toward the source of the sound.
She saw a figure wearing a red robe emerge slowly from the darkness ahead. The figure held its hands forward, with a red string tied through its palms and a copper bell dangling from the end of the string, which was constantly ringing!
Seeing the familiar outfit, the word "Shiroi" flashed through Er Nai’s mind.
As the figure fully stepped out of the darkness, its iron-blue face was illuminated by the street lamp, revealing the ghastly, dry, eyeless face with black, hollow eye sockets!
“Aaahhh!!!”
The moment she saw the ghostly face, Er Nai let out a scream. The desire to survive made her scramble up from the ground and drag her exhausted body away, trying to flee.
But no matter how quickly she ran, she inexplicably found herself back under the street lamp. Shiroi stood there silently, its hollow eye sockets seeming to hold a hint of mockery in Er Nai’s eyes, as if she were merely its toy.
As if it had seen enough of Er Nai’s panic, Shiroi slowly walked toward her. Er Nai stopped running.
She had broken down. She wanted to escape, but her legs were stiff. She couldn’t even take a step, let alone run away.
All she could do was wait for this grotesque being to come and claim her life.
Suddenly, a flash of insight crossed her mind. She remembered that in the story, as long as she looked at Shiroi, it wouldn’t move.
With the desperate hope of a drowning man clutching at a straw, Er Nai forced herself to open her eyes and face the terrifying monstrosity.
As soon as her gaze fell on Shiroi, the grotesque figure actually stopped.
Seeing that the method from the story really worked, a long-lost joy appeared on Er Nai’s face.
Just as she was steeling her heart to endure the standoff with the grotesque being, a gentle voice, one she hadn’t heard in decades, came from behind her, shattering the sliver of hope she had found:
“Now, Er Nai, it’s been a while. You… you’ve grown quite a bit. I’m so happy, my dear!”
......
The second chapter of the first day! Please give some flowers~ and tickets!