Case 00: The Disturbing Mansion (5)

Whenever the entire house made an awful creaking sound, the sisters would look up at the ceiling.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light outside the window, and a sharp sound roared all around. The two sisters screamed in unison – and huddled together on the sofa.

It was a lightning strike. Extremely close by.

At the same time, the television and all the lights in the house turned off.

“…Eh? Eh? A blackout?”

In the pitch-dark cottage, the sound of the wind and rain echoed more intensely.

The mansion was creaking as if it were being smothered by a giant hand from the outside.

“O…onee-chan.”

“It’s alright, wait a second.”

Saying that, A stood up in the pitch-black darkness and headed off somewhere.

“If I recall correctly, there were candles in the kitchen drawer.”

A rustling sound together with that voice echoed nearby.

“—Found it!”

Eventually there was a sound of the gas stove knob being turned, and the candle was lit. She dripped a little wax onto a small plate to make a foundation to keep it from falling over, and returned with it in hand to where M was.

“If you have around three, then it gets quite bright.”

As if talking to herself, A transferred the light to the other candles, and placed them in the other small plates she had brought. When the candles illuminated the top of the low table in front of the sofa -- A winked, ‘Say’.

“It’s like Christmas, isn’t it?”

M smiled slightly.

“But it’s so annoying that the TV isn’t on. I didn’t even set today’s drama to be recorded. Even though it’s dark, there should be something we could play… Oh, no, my phone.”

She said, standing up with the candle in the plate.

“Where are you going?”

“My phone is in my room, I’m just gonna go and grab it.”

“I-I’m coming with you.”

M spoke, refusing to be separated from her elder sister for even the briefest period.

‘Alright’, A took the candle in her left hand, and with her right, kept M’s small shoulders in an embrace as she began to walk.

In the darkness, with only the flickering candlelight as their guide, the sisters slowly exited the living room. They gradually creaked down the corridor to the stairs. In the pitch-dark world, the creaking of the floor which I hadn’t noticed until now, became ever louder.

“Be careful where you step.”

A spoke as she ascended the creaking steps one by one. M, instead of nodding, squeezed the edge of A’s clothes in response. I walked further behind M as if clutching on to M’s clothes.

From the bottom of the stairs, I heard Leo whimpering.

“We’ll be right back, just wait.”

M spoke. Leo seemed to be afraid of the steep stairs and did not seem to follow.

Thereupon—halfway up the stairs, the elder sister abruptly stopped in her tracks.

“…Huh?”

“…”

“Did you hear something just now?”

“…I heard it.”

M gave a feeble reply.

“A person’s voice…?”

--No, rather it was…

“…Mama’s…voice…?”

In response to M’s whisper, A said, ‘That’s right’, as her voice bounced.

“…That’s right, M! Isn’t mama still in the house? Look, didn’t papa say that mama’s shoes weren’t missing? Papa said he searched the whole house, but there must have been somewhere he didn’t look – and mama must be there right now!”

“But…why would mama be in such a place…?”

“Well, I don’t know. She must have entered somewhere she couldn’t get out of. I mean, mama has her careless points.”

A was very vocal, as if to encourage herself.

“Mama! Are you there? Where are you?”

However, no matter how much she strained her ears afterwards, nothing could be heard anymore.

I, too, tried to concentrate and put all my energy into my ears, but all I could hear was the wind and rain blowing against the building. No – but, just now, I definitely heard something that sounded like a human voice. And, if I were to put my finger on it, it was more like a sobbing voice. A voice that continued to cry for help, but after no one could hear it, the voice died and turned into a sad voice that seemed to have given up on everything.

“…Let’s just go get the phone first. We’ll search after that.”

Saying that, A took M’s hand and began to ascend the stairs once more.

They entered the bedroom, and A grabbed the cell phone on the bedside table. When she turned it on, a bright artificial light illuminated her face.

“Ah…even the pitch is out of range.”

By pitch she was referring to a PHS* wasn’t she? That word spread a strange nostalgia in my heart. The realism of being here made me forget all about it, but I might really have been nothing more than weak signals peeking into the world ten years into the past.

“M, they made you carry it too, didn’t they? Is it getting anything?”

Flustered, M produced a white phone from her luggage. It was apparently something the neighborhood association had handed to the children since several suspicious incidents had occurred.

“Hmm… No luck here, either. I mean, it’s pretty much been this way since we came to this mountain.”

She waved the phone in the air over and over again to try and look for a signal.

“Anyway, let’s try looking for mama.”

M nodded, and the two sisters stepped out into the dark corridor once again.

Since the lights were out, they seemed to have decided not to use the light from the PHS not knowing when they would be able to charge their phones again. With the candle on the small plate in hand, A and M called out to their mother as they continued down the second-floor corridor.

The second floor only had three bedrooms and one toilet. So, there were only a few places to look. The two first investigated the room their mother and father were using. Next, they investigated the attached walk-in closet inside. But there was no one inside, just a few of the parents' clothes on hangers.

Even so, A continued to call “Mama?” out loudly as she tapped around the walls of the closet.

“There’s no hidden room or anything, right?”

A spoke somewhat jokingly, as she went around tapping the walls of the bedroom.

However, a high school girl who was not an expert on buildings probably couldn’t find anything, and she eventually prompted M to move to the next room. They entered one of the three rooms – the room that no one used. But there was no one there. As expected, A called out her mother’s name, and tried to knock on the walls, but the result was the same.

After that, the two sisters came down to the first floor. Leo, who was waiting at the bottom jumped up and down in joy, and M embraced his head and stroked him; thereafter, I, M, A and Leo began to search around the first floor once more. The candle ended up waning midway through, so it was changed to a new one.

“Leo, you have a good nose, so search for mama.”

When A told him that, Leo excitedly began sniffing around. M smiled slightly at this and stroked his ears and said, “Please”. For a while, Leo walked around in front of us as if leading the way, but only accompanied A in tapping on the walls here and there, and did not point to any place in particular.

After holding a candle to the bathroom, toilet, living room, and kitchen, the last room that remained was a storage room at the end of the corridor. The door was opened and therein was a room about 10 sqm wide -- it had vacuum cleaners for janitorial use, step ladders, buckets and mops which were carelessly strewn about. Other than that, there was a large toolbox crammed with tools to the point where tools were placed on top of it, and next to it were several cardboard boxes. Leo rubbed the head of his nose against the toolbox and started to sniff it, but M quickly took him up in her arms, perhaps not wanting him to be covered with dust.

“…Huh?”

A suddenly whispered.

She handed the candle over to M, asked her to give her light, and crouched in front of the cardboard boxes.

“No, there’s no way…right?"

A muttered to herself and shook the cardboard box.

It shook around as if there was something heavy crammed inside.

--No, there’s no way.

I thought that as well, as A slowly put her hand on the cardboard box.

If it was a woman – and moreover one with the extreme flexibility, she might have been able to fit inside this cardboard box… However, I don’t know why they would do such a thing. But it would be wise not to think of the opponent as the mother anymore. It was an existence akin to “concentrated malice”. If – If it was inside this, what would I do? If it held the knife used to puncture the tires, what would I do? Could I protect these sisters?

While I was thinking this, A took a deep breath, and placed her hand on the lid of the cardboard box. Then, she flipped the four parts of the folded lid and opened it in one gulp.

M hid behind A’s back, as she held out the candle.

Peeking inside the cardboard box with the illuminated light of the candle, was—

Tightly packed plastic bottles of mineral water.

“Oh, it says it right there on the outside of the box, tasty water…”

A laughed sounding relieved, and then screamed out once more, “Mama?”

There was no one who would answer her tearful question. She tapped on the walls here and there, like she had done in her parents’ bedroom, and called out her mother’s name together with M. However, as expected, only the hard echoes of solid wood echoed in response from somewhere.

“I guess she’s not in the house after all…”

After finishing a check of the entire mansion, A returned to the sofa and muttered feebly.

Even though it was close to midnight, the father did not return, and of course neither Sako nor the old man showed up. A encouraged M, and suggested they return to the bedroom. After making sure that all the doors and windows on the first floor were locked, she tapped M on the shoulder and with deliberate cheerfulness she spoke, “Let’s get some sleep”.

The two then brushed their teeth with the light from the candle, and carried Leo’s food bowl and toilet to the second-floor corridor. M then carried Leo in her arms while A illuminated the bottom of their feet with the light of the candle as they ascended to the second floor.

Leo should have been happy to be together with them, but instead he gave an unusually sharp bark, angering M who shouted in a small angry voice, “Hey!”. And he once again had something on his mouth which M diligently wiped away. Smiling at this, I patted Leo on the head.

When they entered the bedroom, A locked the door. A had a slightly miserable look on her face as she faced M who was looking up at her.

“We can open it when papa and mama come back.”

And with a slightly hoarse voice, she added.

“I'm kind of… scared.”

Her words after that made me gulp.

“Somehow, it feels like… there’s someone else in this house besides us.”