Chapter 37: The X Bloody X Massacre

He was always lively, he was always cheerful. The first thing he does when he woke up was to play with his pet bunny, Lin.

But now that it's gone, he had always woken up just to printed out pictures of his favorite bunny and posted it out in every single place in their town.

"Don't worry, Archi." A pat in his shoulder made him feel relaxed. He turned around to see his uncle smiling at him with great hope while his other hand is holding his cane, "I'm sure we'll find him."

But he's still in grief. Ever since his parents died, his uncle and his bunny were the only ones who were always with him. He can't just forget his pet now that it's wandering around somewhere.

They went back to their printing store, ready to print out another batch of Lin's photos to post all around the town.

"Boss!" A middle-aged man showed up in their store, with apron hanging over his shirt, stained with different colors of ink.

"I asked my friend in the pet store if they found any bunny like Lin. They said that they haven't, but will help us in finding him." He said to him with a genuine smile.

"Thank you, Friv." The old man spoke and they all started working in the store.

Archi was always helping in his uncle's work, but right now, he doesn't have any energy to do anything. He was worried about his bunny after all.

While he was in sadness, his uncle walked towards the printer with his cane and checked for its ink to start printing his bunny's photos. But the containers were almost empty, and not enough for the whole batch of pictures.

"Looks like there's not enough ink." He said. "I'll buy some in the neighboring town."

"I-I'll come with you, uncle!" Archi said as he jumped out of his seat and ran towards his uncle.

He couldn't let him go there on his own, now that he couldn't walk very well. What if he lost his cane? What if his feet started to ache and can't walk? His uncle's lack of ability to walk worried him.

"Thanks, Archi. But I'm going alone. You can look for your bunny while I'm gone." He said as he patted his head. "Don't worry, I'll ride a train so I won't walk too much."

Archi was still anxious, but if his uncle said so, he doesn't have a choice but to follow it. Once he said something, no one can change it, even himself.

They walked him towards the train station to bid him goodbye. He won't come back for a while. After that short farewell, Archi and Friv went back to the store and started working on what they've got.

While waiting for the ink to be available, Archi was counting the money in the cashier. He doesn't like too much money at all, but every time he checked the cashier, he always caught some fake ones that were always sliding off through his uncle's eyes.

And now is the time. He noticed a paper Jenny that wasn't printed correctly, compared to the others who have the prints you can see every day. This might be slide through the naked eyes but a money checker will catch the fake money.

"Friv!" Archi shouted over his uncle's co-worker. He listened and walked towards the cashier.

"This one's fake money. The print's not correctly aligned." He said to him as the latter tried to inspect what's wrong with the paper. But unfortunately, he couldn't find any difference.

"You're doing the same thing again? You really have owl eyes, Archi." Friv said as he tried to detect any difference between the originals and the fake ones.

Ever since Archi was working in the printing store, he couldn't help but see through any details that were printed. Because of that, it results in him seeing through any small differences, which really amazed other people.

But...

That ability is useless in finding Lin, and he knew that.

***

The road towards the other town wasn't far and hard at all, but when the time he went back wasn't that easy, now that the train station was crowded and reaching for it was a challenge.

After a long walk inside the bumpy and crowded train, he finally found an extra chair to sit on. His legs are already in pain and if he walked too much, he will struggle.

As he was relaxing in his found seat, a woman with black hair came rushing towards his direction, holding a bag in both of her arms. She repeatedly turned on her back and moved her head around to see what's happening outside the train window.

Her face of beauty was horrified and nervous, dropping cold sweats in her cheeks. Her bright blue eyes that were once dazzling are now just a cloud of fear.

The old man was worried about her. He always couldn't let other people go without helping them. Archi always telling him to accuse those people who gave fake money to him, but he chose not to. His kindness was often abused and always got himself into trouble.

And he hadn't learned anything.

"What's wrong, miss? Can I help you?" He asked the scared lady. But she just freaked out after he said that, and couldn't even move in her position. She's just standing there, being paranoid of what's gonna happen.

He was just trying to help her, and he couldn't let a woman like her getting scared in the middle of the train like she saw a ghost. So he stood up and walked towards the woman, with his cane and aching legs.

"D-Don't come near me!" The woman shouted in fear as if she doesn't trust anyone anymore. Because of her yelling, all the passengers turned around to look at her, started gossiping that she might be crazy.

"Miss, calm down. There's nothing to worry about." He tried to calm her down but to no avail. She's still freaking out about something.

She started leaning in all of the directions like she can feel something will going to happen, and she doesn't like this at all.

Until she looked up in the ceiling of the train, with nothing than a small chunk of metal. But what she saw wasn't just the metal, and it leads her to widen her eyes, seeing a nightmare coming towards her.

She looked at the windows again, looking for something. The old man can't cope up with what she was doing, so he asked again.

"Miss, are you—"

But he couldn't finish his question, as she suddenly ran towards one of the train windows, and jumped at it, throwing herself outside. All of the people were shocked at the scene they had witnessed.

No one knows why she did that for. But the old man thought that it might be a way to get free out of something. Out of someone.

The next thing that happened was unexpected. After the quiet minutes of trying to understand what just happened in their eyes, the ceiling was destroyed by something coming from above.

Or was it something?

***

Archi couldn't find his pet around the town at all and gave up. He continued to work at the printing store but since there's no ink available, he was just selling papers and other school supplies.

Some people bought these, but some just entered and went outside for no reason. But Archi knew what was going on. Other townfolks were trying to take advantage of his uncle's aging and kindness, so they were buying his sales in exchange for fake money.

But now that it was the kid's turn to sell the papers and other products, they knew he can detect the fake cash from the real ones, and no one hadn't gotten away with it. All he can say that he was thankful for this talent he discovered, otherwise, they'll be living with fake money.

He already finished his work and decided to fetch his uncle up. It was already afternoon when he went to the train station, so the heat defeated him. But he couldn't let that stop him from waiting. His uncle was aching because of his legs, and he mustn't leave him alone when he went back.

His uncle is all that he left, so he wanted to protect him.

***

Stood in front of the passengers was something that they couldn't describe, something that was out of this world, something distorted.

A human wearing a cloak was wandering in the train, leaning his head in all directions, looking for something. But even he covered all of his body, everyone can see his wrinkled and purple arms, filled with many red eyes looking at them, and his tongue nails that wiggled all over the place.

His face was the same as his arms too. It was filled with not just two eyes, and his tongue was sticking out because of his extraordinary length.

"Where is she? Where is she? That b*tch! Where is she?!" He yelled out of irritation and anger and started destroying every bit of the train. His voice was cracked and every time he yelled, it was eerie and shattered. "We're not finished playing Hide and Seek yet!! She's cheating! She's cheating! That b*tch!"

The man stopped yelling at himself and turned around to notice the other people looking at him with fear and confusion.

"Oh. You also wanted to play?" He said in all of them, with his creepy voice that will send chills down their spines. "It'll be fun."

They didn't know what was happening and fear it, but they knew something. He's dangerous.

And the old man couldn't help himself but do something to protect the other passengers. He walked forward to face the man with no fear of death. He raised his cane and guarded them with all his strength. Even his legs are aching, even his arms are tired, he must do something. And he was angry, angry at the fact that he's doing it without any fear.

The monster saw him guarding the others using his cane, and couldn't help himself but to laugh at the scene. His laugh was that of a maniac in those mental hospitals, and added by his hanging tongue made him crazier.

"Haha! You're fun! You're really fun!" He was still laughing at the poor old man, leaving him confused and scared. He, then, stopped and widely smirked which almost reached his ears. "Okay, then. Let's play some tag. A deadly tag."

After he said that, the world stopped before him. Everything was fast that he couldn't catch up about what's happening. Once the monster moved his tongue nails, he couldn't catch up.

But when he turned around to see the passengers, he almost vomited at the site and cried out of failure and fear. All of the people seating behind him are now lifeless, with blood gushing out from their mouth and their heart laying on their chest, crushed and destroyed.

The whole section became a bloody mess and couldn't stop to feel despair. It was over for him. It really was over. He thought he could protect them, but no. And he was the only one who was left to see the disturbing scene.

"See? It's fun! Now..." The monster spoke, still not removing his smirk on his face. "It's your turn."

And everything in the old man's eyes was black, as he was begging for his heart to beat.

Little did he know, it was gone.

***

It was already night time, and Archi was still waiting for his uncle to arrive. He couldn't help but be worried, and his heart started beating fast out of anxiety. It doesn't usually take this long to wait.

Suddenly, a train arrived at the station, with slow-paced, with '04' painted all over its body. He couldn't help but be glad that his uncle's train arrived...

Until he saw what's happening at the back. The back of the train was gone, like the metal connectors at the bottom of the train was destroyed. Right now, it was just half of his whole body.

All the people inside the train station were confused about what's happening, especially Archi.

The workers and operators of the station tried to open the incomplete train, only to found several passengers crying and scared. They were all wrapping under their chairs, trying to hide from something.

"P-Please help us!" The driver of the Train 04 started yelling out of panic and terror, as tears started flowing from her eyes. No one knows what happened to them, and no one knows what they saw.

But that doesn't matter to Archi, and all that matters to him was his uncle. So he tried to enter the train sneakily to see him in one of the passengers.

But he wasn't there. No matter where he looked, he was nowhere to be found. His chest started pounding faster, scared to know what happened to him.

"What happened? Tell us!" He heard one of the operators yelled at the scared driver. He listened to know the truth.

"W-Wrinkled arms... their h-heart... their heart was gone!! T-There's a man... a monster!! A monster with tongues!! T-They killed them! They killed them all!!" The driver shouted, started going crazy after what he saw that will leave trauma for the rest of his life. For the rest of their lives.

At that time, Archi finally realized and accepted...

His uncle was gone.