The monster just continued to tremble, speechless in response to my question.
"…You can't laugh, can you?"
I exhaled a sigh, half out of pity, half from disbelief. There was no point in talking to this monster any further, nor in getting an apology for Nina.
I realized that I just needed to get on with what I had to do.
"Where is everyone from school?"
"Oh! Right! You must be worried too, huh? About where your classmates went?" The caterpillar-like creature in front of me writhed as it shouted back in a shrill, panicked tone.
The teachers, the kids at school… no one could find them. I couldn't exorcise this monster without knowing where they were, so I had to ask. The wriggling monster shouted as if in agony, and its frantic, squirming movements reminded me of a documentary on caterpillars I'd recently seen in science class.
"If you kill me… they'll all disappear! They'll be left here, all alone!"
