The noise of a bell rang throughout a quiet room full of students and the only adult present, a middle-aged man with brown hair and glasses spoke, "Alright that's it for today's lesson, and remember guys, there's been a lot of disappearances in the area recently, so get home safely and quickly alright? Have a good weekend everybody."
The students stood up quickly, swinging their bags onto their backs just as they had been waiting to do for the past two hours, before flooding through the cramped doorway which was not built for more than one person to exit through at a time.Â
However, despite the rush of these students, there were two who waited behind for the stampede to dissipate.
"Thanks, Kao, sorry for making you wait, I'm just feeling worse and worse recently." A teenage girl, about seventeen years old, with black hair that has a streak of white running through it apologised to the boy next to her.
The boy, around the same age, responded, "Don't worry about it Bell, I know you aren't exactly in the best shape, it's not like you've suddenly grown weak, I'm happy to wait with you until you're ready any day, I've been doing it since we were practically babies haven't I?"
Bell smiled, the same beautiful smile which Kao had been looking at since they were both kids, "I love you, you're coming to mine tonight right?"
Kao smiled back, "You bet I am, wouldn't miss your mom's cooking for the world." He laughed.
"I see how it is, only with me for my mom, I'm nothing more to you than a stepping stone." Bell jokingly acted upset, and Kao couldn't help but find it cute. "We should probably get going anyway, I don't want to be out too late considering all of the rumours going around." She added in a somewhat scared voice.
"You don't believe them do you, it's just people trying to scare everyone, the whole thing is quite insensitive to everyone who's been kidnapped, to be honest." Kao was always sceptical about rumours and this was one he simply couldn't get behind no matter how much he heard about it. "There's no way that the ground has been swallowing them, there's just some psycho on the loose so focus more on staying safe instead of worrying about the floor gobbling you up, okay babe?"
Bell's look of fear was alleviated with Kao's words, "I know, there's just so many people talking about it, and I worry about these things, you know I believe in the supernatural side of the world."
"I know, but trust me, this one's definitely not real, now let's go." Kao reassured her once again.
The two began to walk towards the door to the classroom, now the only two still in the room, as the teacher and the rest of the students had disappeared during their conversation. Kao held up Bell's arm to ensure she would not fall or trip at any point during their walk, and despite it taking a bit longer than it probably should have the two of them managed to exit the school building.
Once they stepped outside into the cold winter's air, Kao could feel his girlfriend's skin become covered in goosebumps, not a spot was free from the frozen air. He was not particularly cold, as he had a natural tolerance for cold weather, never having too much of a problem with it.Â
"We best walk quickly then unless you want to get eaten by the ground." Kao joked.
"You're such a bully." Bell laughed before the two continued walking, at a slightly faster pace now, as fast as Bell's legs would let them go.
As they walked, the streets seemed much too busy for a town which had an all-time high in disappearances in the past month. Although, the more people in an area the less chance of being taken is a general rule, but in the face of the supernatural general rules do not apply.
As if she had never been there, Bell was suddenly no longer holding Kao's arm. He looked around, but it was to no avail, with all of the people in the bustling street there was no way he could pick her out.
However, he soon realised that he wouldn't need to look in the crowd, as he felt something tug at his foot, as a mass of shadowy black hands grabbed at his legs, dragging him into an abyss-like hole that he could not see anything within. He tried to scream out for help, but a hand grabbed his neck and simply pulled him into the hole faster than before. Despite writhing and thrashing about, nothing helped, and nobody seemed to be able to see him struggling.
Once his head had entered the hole, there was nothing left for Kao to do, and he allowed himself to be taken wherever the hands desired, just hoping that he would be reunited with Bell.
From the regular world which he had lived in before, Kao fell, and fell, and fell some more, not knowing when he would land, or if he would survive the fall at all.
When he finally stopped falling, his landing was softened by a mass of semi-squishy things which he couldn't quite make out in the darkness. Rather than moving rashly, Kao decided it would be best not to panic and to try and figure out where he was.
He waited for his eyes to adjust, and when they did he was greeted by a horrifying sight which he could clearly make out despite his limited vision. The pillow which he had landed on was a hill, except it wasn't a normal hill, it was a hill of human bodies, all of which were rotting more and more the further down they were placed.
Although he wanted to shout out in horror, Kao had no choice but to lie in silence due to the other discovery he had made. In front of the mountain of corpses was a creature, unlike any he had ever seen before.
It had a body like a wolf, although several times larger than what is naturally possible, and it lacked any fur, with its deep purple flesh being bare and wrinkled. On its back were what seemed to be at least a dozen contorted human arms which were moving aimlessly in directions which may or may not have been controlled by the beast. Its mouth was full of razor-sharp teeth, lodged into gums which could not bear to have any more space being taken.
These teeth were ripping apart a fresh corpse, and when Kao saw this he only thought one thing, the worst-case scenario, 'Bell?'