RABBIT 2: Hunting Ground

I struggle to connect with others, which is why my only relationships feel so passionate and important. If I lose them, then I lose meaning. I'd die for the people I truly care about. But being too close to the light can blind you, and I struggled even more with that than loneliness. This tunnel vision prevented me from taking proper care of those who mattered most to me, and I ended up hurting them without even trying. I had to put effort into loving, but found it effortless to hurt. The same goes for myself. But I can't spend time thinking about that right now, since I've completed the first instruction. I need to concentrate my thoughts on the next stage.

I entered a drab and dreary hallway, connected to a dozen apartments. It was long and nauseating, dimly lit by the yellow hue from the fluorescent lights above. The noise level was sickly, with the sound of nonexistent cicadas plaquing the neverending halls. I placed my feet against the cold tiled floor, and anxiously made my way to one end of the hall. The doors to other apartments could be opened, but I had no reason to search inside, and strangely enough, there were no locks unlike the apartment I was inside. I was also nervous to run into other people, so I decided it would be best to let them run into me, and decide then whether or not I'd like to approach them.

That's when the smell of blood seeped in.

The hallway was layered in fresh blood, from the floor, to the walls, to the ceiling. It took brief moments for me to pass by an open door, led by unnatural trails of blood. I couldn't muster the strength to go inside, but I could tell by the open bloody palm just barely in my sight that what was inside was not worth investigating. Before the realisation hit, I began to feel even more nauseous, and had to support myself by placing my hand against the apartment wall. I quickly returned my hand after feeling a warm liquid press against it. Before I could begin to collect my thoughts, I fell to the ground, my legs shaking like never before. I took deep breaths and began to pick myself up, before continuing further down the eternal hallway. After about four minutes, I had reached the elevators and staircase leading down. The windows leading outside remained blocked off, and the elevators themselves were nonfunctioning, so I began to descend down the stairs. The plaque on the stairway wall read 9.

After descending down two flights of stairs, I heard a loud thud and whimpers from the floor below. I slowed my pace and peaked my head around the closest corner of the floor below to determine the source of the sound. In the distance, I bore witness to the gruesome sight of a girl laying on the ground, taking a severe beating with a heavy instrument; a wooden bat. I couldn't make out the assailant, as they were embedded in the darkness.

With the attacker distracted, I quickly made my way down the remaining steps, before coming to a stop on the fifth floor. The stairs were blocked off by old broken furniture, and it seemed nearly impossible to push past them - and if I got stuck…

I began to lightly spring through the halls, hoping to find a second pair of stairs on the opposite side. The lights seemed to follow me, turning off as I passed them. The tiled floor was stuck to my feet as I attempted to bounce back up and reach the end. My heartbeat was unsteady, and I felt like I could collapse any minute from fear alone. But that failed to compare when I approached the stairway, as the silhouette of a bat, with liquid dripping from its end lowered down the stairs, being shadowed against the opposite wall directly in my vision. My pace began to slow and my heart sank. I need somewhere to hide–

I was pulled to my left. Before I could look at what had grabbed hold of me, a subtle thud echoed and silence filled the gap. I was in a familiar room; an apartment. It was in the same state as the one I had woken up in, missing the smell of blood from the ones I didn't dare to enter.

And at the end of the entry hall were four strangers, all staring daggers towards me, clearly stressed beyond normality. The closest to me, the one who had pulled me inside in the nick of time, was a boy below average height - slightly shorter than myself. He had thick, short pink hair that contrasted strongly with his bright blue eyes. The thick bang in the centre almost split his face in two parts, and a blue face mask covered his lips. I noticed a sharp piercing digging gently through his left eyebrow as well. He sported a dark, warm long-coat on top, covering a bright pink hoodie. His most noticeable feature however, was his feminine face… I wouldn't deny him being cuter than me.

Pink Haired Boy: "Are you okay?"

Amano: "...Ah, yeah. Thanks."

I awkwardly dusted myself off, despite my clothes being relatively clean. I didn't know how to break the everbuilding tension in the room, but to this boy, it seemed like the easiest thing in the world.

Konsako Akihi: "My name's Konsako Akihi, it's nice to meet you. We've got a small group formed inside here if you want to stay until things calm down."

Amano: "Oh, sure…"

His manner was polite, and his pitch high yet gentle.

Konsako Akihi: "Can I ask for your name?"

Kobayashi Amano: "Kobayashi Amano. Nice to meet you…"

Konsako Akihi: "Ahh, Amano-san, hm? That's a great name. I hope we can be good friends!"

He wrapped his small hand around mine, gently holding it to reassure me that the deadly situation wouldn't get any worse.

???: "Oi, would you get the hell away from the door already? Talk any louder, and that bastard will know we're in here."

Konsako Akihi: "Ah, sorry Daikubara-san."

The man Konsako-san named as "Daikubara-san" was tall, likely six foot, and was fitted with long, wavy brown hair and an unshaven stubble. His eyes were a dark orange, partly hidden by the lens of the shades resting harshly on his thick nose. His outfit insinuates he worked as a mechanic, his overall appearance being very rough and dirty. The most unique aspect of his appearance were the three thick strands of hair standing atop his head. His voice was heavy and implied years of heavy smoking. He was clearly at least a decade older than us.

Daikubara: "Get the hell over here already."

Konsako-san and I moved to the furthest wall enclosing the living room, where the other three stood anxiously. Curious, I began to pry for information.

Kobayashi Amano: "Excuse me… what the hell is going on here?"

Daikubara: "Exactly what it looks like. That psycho rabbit bastard is hunting us down one by one, and if we're not careful, he'll kill all of us."

Daikubara: "Fuck, I told you bringing more people in here would only mess things up, Konsako."

Konsako Akihi: "...But I couldn't just leave them outside! Besides, it's not against the rules, is it?"

Daikubara: "That's not the issue, dipshit. The more people here, the more likely the rabbit will know we're inside."

Kobayashi Amano: "Rabbit?"

Konsako Akihi: "Did you not get a close look at it, Kobayashi-san?"

Kobayashi Amano: "Not exactly…"

Though, it's not as if I was trying to.

Konsako Akihi: "It's the Rabbit Devil. It's the one hunting us right now, I think."

Kobayashi Amano: "...Seriously?"

Daikubara: "Tsk. I knew that bastard was up to no good. The least he coulda' done was tell us exactly what we were in for to begin with."

Girl: "But he basically did, right? In a subtle way."

The girl that had spoken up was the only other female in the group. She also seemed to be around my age, and had two thick auburn buns that shot up, holding two long strands of hair which nearly covered her forest-green eyes. She wore a college school uniform with a light weight jacket atop. I have to wonder how she hasn't frozen to death by now. Her voice was sharp and cold, with a hint of Kanto dialect.

Konsako Akihi: "You're right, Michifuku-san, but–"

Daikubara: "Subtle? Who the hell calls that subtle? He might as well have thrown us into a lion's den."

Michifuku: "I guess it makes it easier for him to hunt us, whatever the case."

Konsako Aikihi: "Kobayashi-san, if you don't mind me asking… How many bodies do you think you came across on your way here?"

Kobayashi Amano: "E-Eh? Umm… I think two, at most…"

Konsako Akihi: "Which floors?"

Kobayashi Amano: "I think the ninth floor, and maybe the eighth? I can't really remember."

Konsako Akihi: "Mm. That's three confirmed, then."

Kobayashi Amano: "W-What?"

Konsako Akihi: "Daikubara-san discovered two of the bodies, while Michifuku-san and myself discovered the other."

Kobayashi Amano: "Three… people? How many of us are there?"

Michifuku: "Twelve, we're assuming. The rabbit didn't give us much information, but going by what we know, it's most likely."

Kobayashi Amano: "What backs that up?"

Michifuku: "There are twelve floors, and only one apartment in each floor has a unique lock, belonging to the apartments we had to escape from."

Michifuku: "Also, you were the one of the last to escape the apartment room, so you didn't see it, but…"

Michifuku: "There was a one-hundred and twenty-minute long timer on each floor. When that timer ended, all the doors to the apartments we were in unlocked. So anyone who hadn't yet escaped was able to."

Michifuku: "And, once that happened…"

Daikubara: "The rabbit was let loose. Anyone who hadn't already escaped their apartment and found a good hiding spot was as good as dead. You're damn lucky you even made it this far."

Kobayashi Amano: "..."

Konsako Akihi: "The earlier you escaped the apartment, the more time you had to assess the situation and locate a decent hiding spot."

Konsako-san began to describe the order of events he and the other three suffered through in detail.

"After I got out of that room, I made my way to the first floor. I think there were around forty minutes left at that point on the timer, and none of us knew what it meant. I met Daikubara-san, Michifuku-san and a few others down there, and we struggled to open the front doors to the apartment. It looked as if we needed some sort of keycard, since the doors were blocked off similarly to the apartments."

"We split up to look for the keycard, Michifuku-san and two others joined me, while Daikubara-san left with the other three."

"That's when we found it, on the twelfth floor. The only apartment that was unique to the others. The rooms we woke up in had a specific keyhole you could spot from outside, whilst the regular apartments had a simple keyhole in comparison. That's why the door to that room was so noticeable."

"There was no keyhole, but it wouldn't budge. That's when someone, I think Sakakibara-kun, mentioned the timer. He thought maybe once that timer ran out, we'd be able to enter this room. Of course, some of us had second thoughts, debating that the timer's intentions could be malicious."

"But, it didn't really matter. We already spent that much time looking around, and the only clues to getting out were the missing keycard, the unopening door and the timer - so our best bet was to just wait it out. And so we did. When the timer ended… not even a moment passed before that door shot open."

"Sakakibara-kun was first. Everything happened too fast for us to properly process; all I remember was a dirty bat striking him across the head, and his glasses falling against the ground… he didn't even say a word. I just recall his fingers twitching as I began to back away."

"Michifuku-san and the other person who was with me, Shiroito-san, and myself all ran for the staircase on the other end of the hall. It didn't take long for the rabbit to finish with Sakakibara-san, and they soon caught up to us. Shiroito-san must've realised she wasn't going to outrun it, so she decided to take her chance by running into an empty apartment. We didn't see what happened, but after the rabbit followed her inside, unbearable screaming filled the halls… and, I guess that's it."

"The two of us hid in this apartment, and we haven't left since. That was about… fifty minutes ago?"

Konsako-san ended his disturbing explanations of events, leaving the rest of us in an uncomfortable silence.

Kobayashi Amano: "Daifuku-san, what about you?"

Daifuku: "What about me?"

Kobayashi Amano: "The three people you were with, what happened to them?"

Daifuku: "Lost sight of two of them. The rabbit probably got them."

Kobayashi Amano: "And the other person you were with…?"

Daifuku: "He's standing over there."

Daifuku-san jolted his thumb towards the darkly dressed boy standing against the kitchen counter. It was the first time he had looked towards us.

Daifuku: "Don't know his name, don't care to ask."

Kobayashi Amano: "Konsako-san?"

Konsako Akihi: "Ah… He hasn't introduced himself to me either, I'm afraid."

That was enough to convince me not to pry further, as the boy seemed to enjoy the comfort of his own. He had thin black hair which covered the top of his forehead, but didn't reach his eyes. A unique clip was attached to the right side of his hair, and attached to his earlobes were dark cross earrings. Like Michifuku-san, the boy wore a college uniform - though it was more of an open gakuran. He had a very delinquent appearance, but it argued strongly with his beautiful, deep blue eyes.

Konsako Akihi: "I assume you're up to date now, Kobayashi-san?"

Kobayashi Amano: "Mm. Thanks. I think I might've lucked out by not figuring out that escape room sooner."

Daifuku: "Be thankful you're thick, then."

Kobayashi Amano: "..."

Konsako Akihi: "Then, Kobayashi-san… do you mind if I ask you something personal?"

Kobayashi Amano: "Ah?"

Konsako-san's flexible, innocent expression changed to a serious, intruding one. He opened his lips and asked the following question.

Konsako Akihi: "How exactly did you die?"