Let’s play hide and seek!

This dream again.

A myriad of triangular flasks. The rats, the guinea pigs were stuffed into transparent capsules, lined up in a row.

Carcasses, carcasses, and carcasses being produced.

Being abandoned.

Unaware of love.

Having no grasp of compassion.

Simply to be consumed, to be disposed of.

The song that was being played. The joyous tune of "Oh, Happy day". The demise of the rats.

"So this is the next one…"

From above the head, a voice was heard. It caught me by the neck and lifted me up.

I burst into a frenzy. Yet, upon catching sight of the mirror propped up by my side, I stiffened. For hundreds of times, dozens of times, I've stiffened here.

Then I…

A screeching cry erupted from me.

◇

Screaming, she jerked awake. Her eyes widened as if they were set to burst out of their sockets while her heart raced with such force that it threatened to rupture. She pressed against her head. It was as though a hammer was striking her from within. The pain hurt raspingly.

Fighting to keep the focus of her hazy vision, the young girl reached for the breast pocket of a brand new hospital gown that she wore. Panting, she gasped for air in a ragged manner. Perspiration trickled down her nose and dripped downward. What a dreadful dream. One that she has had a dozen times.

"…"

After a couple of minutes of breathing, the girl wiped the sweat from her face with the palm of her hand and drew a deep breath. Shaking her head lightly, she settled down on the edge of the bed where she had been lying. The inorganic sound of the ventilation fan spinning in the background simply reverberated in the room.

She was a stunning girl with brown eyes and straw blonde hair. Her age was perhaps fourteen or fifteen. She was dressed in hospital uniform and her underwear. No other clothes were on her. As her consciousness finally focused on the world of reality, she glanced around.

"What… here…" She muttered faintly. The room was like a cell, enclosed by white walls on all sides. There were no windows. Only the ventilation fan was running dry. On the ceiling, a single incandescent light flickered on and off, as if it was nearly broken. The floor was stained with rust.

The girl was stunned by the bizarre scene surrounding her for a while, but eventually, she timidly stepped out barefoot. Then she approached the toilet bowl and the washroom that were set up in a corner of the room. The toilet bowl was clogged with sand. Even after turning on the tap, neither water nor anything else flowed out.

"…"

In a daze, she checked the rusty door by the side. Although the iron bars were attached to it, the girl was barely high enough to reach it, and the darkness on the other side precluded her from inspecting it.

With trepidation, she grabbed the knob of the door and attempted to turn it. No sooner had she done so than the knob snapped from the corroded part. As she backed away from it, her eyes were met with the sight of the door opening slightly with a squeak… The girl pried the door open forcefully and climbed out through the crack.

◇

The unpleasant sensation of mud coated the soles of her feet. Stepping on it, black and viscid, she drew back her shoulders and let out a soft shudder.

It was cold. Almost freezing. Every breath she exhaled would turn white.

There, in a long, narrow corridor, were innumerable doors lined with iron bars. A few of the doors were open, but the vast majority of them were shut. No sign of life was to be detected. On the ceiling of the tunnel-like passage, light bulbs installed at intervals occasionally flickered on and off.

"Jiji…"

That was all the sound it made. Casting a gaze at the eerie passage ahead and behind her, she shuddered, looking as if she might cry.

Where am I?

How did I wind up here?

The moment she thought about it, a piercing pain shot through the temporal area of her head. With a shriek, she clutched her head and collapsed down into the mud. Using the other hand, she clawed at the cold mud. Her head felt like it would split open.

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.

She wailed, shrieking.

By the time she came to, she was slumped over in the mud. Her body was as chilly as ice. Apparently, she had fainted.

The headache was gone, but she couldn't refrain from trembling. As she lifted herself up within the dim light, a high-pitched, deafening…. voice that was neither that of a boy nor that of a girl rang in her ears.

"Good morning, Alice. Today is the seventeenth 'A Very Merry Unbirthday To You', isn't it? For the, 'A Very Merry Unbirthday To You', congratulations!"

Cackling into her ear, the girl who had been called Alice sprang up in a panic. Then she fell on her buttocks and backed away.

"Congrats, congrats, welcome to the world of rottenness! Welcome to being flesh and blood!"

There was scarcely even time to shout, "What?". Out of the corner of her eyes, there was something glittering in the light of a lamp.

Letting out a brief yelp, she collapsed on the spot, restraining her head. A tremendous metallic sound was produced and "something" slammed into the solid wall behind… her, which was likely built of stone. Glancing up at it, she was dumbstruck. Her mouth began to quiver and her body contracted. In the place where the girl's head had previously been, the blade of a shiny black, curved scythe, quite huge for a grass cutter… had been stuck.

"Hmm…?" A dubious voice came out. Before the girl stood a human-sized, stuffed animal-like object. It was tattered and the cotton was falling out in places. It turned out to be a dirty stuffed rabbit with eyes made of buttons. The thing was making a creaking motor sound as it approached the girl, who was hunched over as if to pull her closer.

"You dodged it? You dodged it! You dodged it!" Laughing hysterically, the stuffed rabbit reached out and yanked the sickle out of the wall. There was the deafening high-pitched noise of stone grinding. Seeing the glittering blade and the rabbit's body smeared with something, the girl stiffened.

… Blood…?

Before she could register it, the stuffed rabbit opened its mouth with a snap.

"Congratulations, Alice! Today is another anniversary of your death as well!"

A mechanical circular saw darted out of its mouth as it screeched something incomprehensible. Exclaiming, the girl forced her loose hips into motion and ran. The circular saw cleaved her shoulder with a shallow cut. Before she even sensed the pain and heat, the girl was running at full speed down the dimly lit passageway.

"You wanna escape, Alice! Fine! We haven't played in ages! Let's play hide and seek!"

With a chortle, the blood-soaked rabbit took a short step forward.