Shiratori allowed herself to smile, at least for a moment, before nodding her head.

With a brief glance at her phone, she took another step forward.

"Follow me, we're going to meet up with some others who've gotten pulled over to this side," she said, "Stay close!"

With that, she broke into a sprint.

Everything looked the same, here. The same inky black buildings. The same strangely red shadows. The same gore-spattered streets. But Shiratori Nozomi knew where she was going. Even if she hadn't had any experience here before, the map provided to her from her phone would have done its job.

She wasn't at all concerned with finding her way.

Rather, it was finding her way with Nozaki in tow and without running into-

A sound like creaking wood came from an alleyway ahead.

The thing that emerged from it was spindly, shaped something like a child's idea of a spider. The lengthy, joined black limbs ended with five-fingered, grasping hands, currently being used to scuttle across the ground and suspending it in the air above both Nozaki and her own heads.

Each limb connected to a central body, a circular shape with three white masks, each sporting a simple pair of black eyesockets and a thin smile.

When it caught sight of them, a lengthy crimson tongue emerged from each of the masks, hanging, twisting in the air below it.

Damn it, in a tight place like this, with someone she had to protect...!

"Tch...! This way!"

Grasping Nozaki's hand in her own, Shiratori Nozaki immediately tugged him down the nearest alley, as the creature started to follow after them.

"Don't look back!"

[@Bartimaeus]

[hr]

Unfortunately for both of the girls, it wasn't going to be so easy.

No sooner then they'd started running then the source of the slimy noise became apparent.

A black, shadowy pool of darkness on the floor, sliding along it, leaving a trail of inky goo in its wake. But it wasn't entirely featureless.

In its center was a white mask, sporting two empty sockets and a wide smile. It stopped just in front of them, the strange thick fluid that made up its body roiling for a moment before suddenly rising into a black lump, about as tall as a grown man and twice as wide, the mask suspended in its center.

A sound not unlike the giggling of a young child came from it, and the mask twisted upside-down, as numerous black hands rose from its base, suspended on long, thin arms, already reaching, grasping...

[@Pitsuji][@Psyker Landshark]

[hr]

The moment anyone made to peek outside, they would be greeted with what was perhaps a surprising sight.

It was a boy, a high schooler from the very same school as they were. He wasn't particularly recognizable. Maybe one of them had seen him before, maybe one of them hadn't. But he was most certainly clad in the very same school uniform as they were.

His gaze was fixed on the sky.

Or more specifically the moon.

He was shaking. Trembling with terror, backing up as if something was looking at him. His trembling breaths were loud enough to be barely audible from the store.

And then he grasped at his face, screaming, shuddering, falling to his knees as his entire body seized, spasming and twitching. Black fluid began to pour from his face, from his eyes, mouth, and nose, splattering onto the ground beneath him.

Moments later, he fell face-first into the pool of inky darkness, and no longer moved.

[@AThousandCurses][@hatakekuro][@DarckLeon]