Haruka stops the bicycle, and Yume gets off in front of her house. Haruka stared at the building, trying his best to keep it in his mind. Yume waved him goodbye with a sweet smile, and Haruka waved back. Turning the bicycle, he went back to his house.
With a happy tone once again.
Haruka: "Uncle i am home!..."
He opens his shoes and goes in.
Jack greeted him with a playful tone.
Jack: "Well, I suppose today was better than yesterday? Nah, no worries, you don't have to get all red and explain it now. Take rest. It is evening now. I was worried, but now that I see your smile, it all makes sense."
Haruka, without saying anything but smiling nervously, went to his room and, after being refreshed, he ate dinner and went back to his room.
He was doing his homework. After doing it, he checked his phone; it was 9:30 pm. It wasn't that late, but he was tired today. He jumps on the bed and embraces the peace and comfort.
He fell asleep immediately, but in the middle of the night, around 11:00 pm, he got sleep paralysis. He was conscious, he was sweating, he was struggling to breathe and move. But suddenly it eased out... He was breathing heavily as he woke up and sat on the bed.
Suddenly, he was hearing whispers... The whispers had no direction. No identifiable source. They did not call his name.
It just told him to go back to the place where he saw the strange plague doctor. He thinks that he was hallucinating it all, so closes his eyes and went back to sleep, but the whispers only got louder. He pressed his ear, but it wasn't working, as if the whispers were inside his brain. He thinks that this was all because he was too tired from driving the bicycle for the first time. It was bugging him. Something was not right, but he didn't know what. He looks at his phone, the time is 11:27 pm right now... So late at night... "Should I go to that place?"-- He thought to himself.
When the whispers got too annoying and loud, with a sigh, he put on the forehead band and went to the living room. Jack wasn't awake; he was in deep sleep as Haruka peeked through the door to Jack's room.
He took out the bicycle, he started to drive it to the place, he knew that he would see no one, but he had to calm down his thoughts too; humans are slaves to their curiosity.
When he got to the spot, he stopped his bicycle. He saw no one, he sighed with a smile, kind of relieved that nothing went bad. But... what 'bad' did he imagine?
Suddenly, he started to see... a figure... Was it that guy? That cosplayer?... He thought as he proceeded to move forward.
The air felt denser the closer he approached it.
The road was empty.
The figure was not.
The plague mask faced him before he fully stopped walking.
No greeting.No movement.
Just the stare.
Haruka felt it before he understood it.
Not fear... Maybe... fear?
Not dread.
Something closer to recognition.
He went blind... Nothing was visible, but he could see his hands and the figure; the whole area was dark, pitch black. He was rubbing his eyes so hard that his eyes might come out.
His body remained upright.
His breathing accelerated.
Sweat gathered at his temples.
Yet within the absence, one object remained visible.
The figure.
Clear.
Centered.
Uninterrupted.
The stare deepened.
It did not widen.It did not narrow.
It intensified.
The whispers multiplied.
Not louder.
Nearer.
Layered over one another as if several mouths were speaking inside a sealed room.
He stepped back.
He took a step back. He was nervous, but when he took a step, he felt flesh underneath his leg... Soft, but looked down, but he saw nothing, but he still felt the flesh.
There was resistance.
Warmth.
Subtle movement beneath pressure.
He looked down.
Nothing.
No ground.
No texture.
No confirmation.
Only the sensation of something that should not have been there.
He rubbed his eyes.
Vision returned violently.
The city was gone.
An endless green field was visible.
Uniform...?
Artificial as it was also perfect.
A fence stretched across the horizon... it never ends, as far as his sight went.
No visible termination point.
Above him...
A planet was rotating...
Massive.
Close enough to distort scale.
It did not fall.
It waited.
The clouds were motionless.
The wind wasn't classical wind, it was hollow but then again, it had something... something Haruka never felt before.
The figure remained at the same distance as before.
Unchanged.
Unmoved.
Still observing.
Haruka realized something then.
The whispers had stopped.
They had brought him here.
The field did not feel large. It felt... suffocating... Something isn't right... a yellow-colored classical hut was visible nearby, but the thing that was more visible than anything else was the road, nothing, simple. In front of him was the cosplayer... or is he something else?
The sky contained a planetary body occupying approximately 37% of the visible atmosphere.
Distance estimated as catastrophic.
Cloud formations displayed abnormal density.
Wind speed: zero... but something was moving, Haruka doesn't know what, but... something was.
The planet above him rotated slowly.
Too slow... enough to make one uncomfortable and annoyed.
As if it were seeking attention.
Haruka realized something...
This place was not silent or a normal thing; it was breathing, it was alive, and...
It was listening...