Chapter 7 - Run-N

"NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN!!"

We started running as soon we saw that thing. We could hear over a hundred people running behind us as we traveled through the station path.

Everyone was scared including me. I was swearing curses internally as i felt my heart pounding, however Sophia was considerably more scared as she ran with all her might while screaming in german, she even surpassed Haruto who is he most athletic of us four.

Even the always composed Touji was making a scared face as he ran with all his strength. Haruto looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

Fuck fuck fuck!

"Dear father in the heavens please let this be just a fucking nightmare!"

I could still hear those monster but i couldn't muster the courage to look back.

"Just why is this damn path build like this!"

Haruto screamed as he took a sudden turn. The path was made of concrete but it had a lot of turns and curves. We couldn't just ran in a straight line because the soil surrounding the path seemed to unstable, if any or us slipped on it it would mean death.

I was desperate so i started looking in my bag for anything that could be of help. There was a lot of useless junk that i found in the lost and found or in stores at a cheap price, there were only a small amount of useful things like bandages, matches or rubbing alcohol but that wouldn't help us right now. I keep rummaging until i grabbed a bag of marbles.

I took a bunch of them and threw them behind me. It didn't took long before i heard the sound of those monster tripping and falling in the soil. As we expected the soil was too unstable and those things stared sliding down.

However the sound was stil there, so probably only some of them fell.

"Is that a tower?"

Touji said that with a puzzled face. When i followed his gaze i found a black tower that was insanely big. There is no way that something like that exists in Japan, just where the hell did we end up?

Regardless of my question, the path seemed to go in the direction of the tower, so we had no other option than running towards it.

We started running even faster with those monster still chasing behind us. It didn't matter how many marbles i threw there was just too many so i simply stopped doing that.

Eventually we reached the tower. It's gate was enormous and of a deep red color, it didn't look like something we could open but Haruto just tackled it, opening it slightly, just enough for us to pass.

"Close the door!"

The moment i passed through the four of us pushed the door to close it. It was damn heavy but thankfully we did it in time.

I could hear the aggresive scratching and moaning from those monster, but it seems like they couldn't open it, so that's a relief.

I quickly pushed everyone away from the door, mainly as a precaution but also because it would be stressful for them to hear those sounds, above anything else, my priority were my friends.

"Is everyone...alright?"

Touji and i recovered quickly, but Haruto and Sophia were another story. Haruto wasn't that bad, he was still out of breath just like the rest of us but he was panicking quietly, Sophia on the other hand was noticeable scared, her legs gave up the moment she felt slightly safe and her whole body was trembling.

Seeing them in that state i took some candy out of my bag and put it in their mouths before hugging them both. Sophia quickly embraced me as tears began flowing down her cheeks, so i started patting her head to console her as i usually do. Haruto on the contrary seemed nervous about the sudden skinship and didn't knew what to do, however that's good since that replaced his panick with just nervousness.

I stayed with them like that for a while until they calmed down. Sophia's eyes were red from crying and Haruto was still a nervous mess but that's way better than being scared to death. I really hate seeing them like that.

Now i really want to go out and beat the crap out of those monster for making them like that, but i know that's suicidal.

"Guys...y'all need to see this"

Touji suddenly called us. He was wandering with a small flashlight that he usually wears in his belt since it is too dark to see clearly.

When we got to him he was reading some kind of stone slab, but i couldn't understand it.

"What does it say?"

"No idea, this doesn't look like any language known to man"

I get why he says that, the writing is very strange even if you compare it to languages like chinese, the letters seem overlapped and there are even hieroglyphics mixed in. It looked as if a child was trying to make an ancient language for some fantasy novel.

"It looks funny!"

Sophia said so with a happier face compared to before, she was probably trying not to think about it and instead diverged her attention towards the slab we were looking at. She reached out to it and touched it.

I didn't tried to stop her because i tought that it wasn't dangerous, but that was a mistake.

As soon as her hand touched the stone slab the letter started shinning brightly.

"Everyone get back!"

My body reacted in it's own and i put myself between them and the slab, but it was futile. The light engulfed us rapidly.

I could hear Touji swearing and Sophia apologizing frenetically. I will have to scold him later for swearing at her, ah...I'm losing consciousness.

Fuck...