[X] You call Yomi, you need to hear a friendly voice right now.
It's too much all at once, not just the murder but everything going on in your head and that dream you had. You haven't looked for any pictures of the dead girl's face because while you know you've never even so much as heard her name before, you're scared that you'll remember seeing it on the girl who was getting torn apart by monsters in your nightmare.
You retrieve your phone from your locker at lunch and flip it open, pulling Yomi's number up on the quick dial by muscle memory and hoping that she'll pick up as you tuck yourself in behind the activity building and let the ringing resound in your ears.
One tone… Two tones…
"Hello? Mato?"
You let out a shuddering breath, even down the phone lines her concern is audible, warming you from head to toe.
"It's the middle of the day, is something wrong?"
"I… Yeah…"
"Are you okay?!"
"I'm fine!" Your fingers tighten on the phone, as though you can transmit reassurance through grip alone. "I just… It's only been a day and everything is… I don't even know where to start."
There's a pause, and then,
"…how about at the beginning?" You take a deep breath.
"Are you still having dreams about the Incident?"
"…yeah… I am, I remember…" She trails off into static,
"I remember things that don't make sense, I have dreams about fighting… You? But not you. And sometimes I have dreams about myself, but she's not really me, she's… Cruel."
"I am, Black Rock Shooter."
You swallow fear, and answer
"I've been having dreams like that too, where I'm always fighting, sometimes with you, sometimes with other people. I…" You trail off, struggling for the words to explain yourself. "There's been a murder here. In Inaba."
"WHAT?!" You wince as your phone's speaker screeches in protest at Yomi's volume.
"What do you mean Mato? You're okay-! You didn't kill someone did you?"
"No! No, nothing like that! I just… I… One of my dreams, last night, I think I saw the girl who got murdered,
I didn't kill her!" You take a deep breath and glance around, "I just saw her, or at least I think it was her, she was running from something, monsters, I don't know, it was something in the fog and she was just running, and running, but she couldn't run forever, and the monsters…"
You swallow again, you don't want to remember that.
"They found her hanging from a telephone pole this morning."
The silence is deafening.
"Damn." You blink, your heart doing a little jump at the rare sound of your best friend cursing.
"Damnit! Okay, I'm sorry Mato."
"You're sorry?"
"For joking about you killing her, that was…"
"It's fine, payback for my thoughtless messages yesterday."
"Mmh… Fine, okay, but this is… From a telephone pole?"
"I've only heard rumors, I was… I didn't want to look myself."
"Un," you can picture the little nod that accompanies that noise of understanding far too well.
"I'm sorry to spring this on you like this. I just… Needed to talk to someone who would understand." You're glad that Yomi can't see your cheeks turning pink.
The silence carries on for a little while after that, there's a sense of something unsaid, but you're not sure what it is, and she doesn't seem willing to say it.
"It's the lunch break right? You should eat."
"Probably, yeah. Thank you for listening."
"Thank you for telling me. Mato?"
"Yeah?"
"Stay safe, please." You smile.
"I will."
The convenience store rice dumplings aren't anything special, but they no longer taste ashen in your mouth.
-------
The rest of the day passes you by in a bit of a blur. The weight on your shoulders may have lessened but the paralyzing uncertainty has slowly given way to frustration and resentment. You listen to the rumors and that evening texts with Yomi confirm the bit about the telephone wires, texting you an article with a picture of the body that thankfully censored the victim's face, corpse pale with blood loss and hanging limply, tangled in the lines.
-
They aren't saying it in so many [19:22]
words, but the police are stumped.
[19:23] Twice?
Yeah, it's scary. [19:23]
You exchange more texts while you unpack the various boxes in your new apartment, taking inventory of what your parents have set you up with in this new town. Cookware and Utensils, a range, a selection of cutlery, a few lamps that let you exchange the harsh glare of the ceiling fixtures with a softer glow that feels a bit cozier in the night.
On a whim you check the box labels, but none of the remaining cardboard suggests that it might conceal a television anywhere.
You sigh, staring at the phone again. Essaying a few different replies before heaving a deep sigh.
The conversation goes into circles at that point and finally peters out as you make your way to bed but manages to set the tone for the rest of the week. You don't call Yomi at lunch again, but you keep up regular messages as she digs into the news surrounding the murders from her end and you listen to the ebb and flow of the rumor mill around you.
After your initial tense confrontation, Kanji seems to have assigned you a sort of wary respect, giving an abrupt nod after catching your eyes on Thursday morning as you entered the class but otherwise continuing his usual behavior as though you weren't there.
Your dreams are still filled with fog and visions of your Other Self but you don't have to witness a screaming girl being torn into by monsters so your sleep manages to be more restful.
On Friday you run into Narukami again, or to be more accurate he seeks you out, catching you in the shade of the activity building during lunch time.
"Kuroi-san?"
"Hey Narukami," you favor him with a wave and he sits down nearby on the steps. "Not eating with your friends today?"
"They'll probably be along to see where I've gotten off to shortly, but I just wanted to make sure you were alright, you know. I know we're in different years and all but the least I could do make sure you were okay." The silver-haired boy shrugs, "after everything that's happened I mean…"
He trails off and your lips thin into a grimace before something occurs to you.
"Say Narukami… Have you ever heard this rumor about something called the Midnight Channel?" A yelp and a heavy thump from the opposite side of you pulls your gaze towards the corner.
"You already know-?" You swing your eyes back to him, feeling the prickling sensation at the back of your neck that something isn't quite right here before you shoot to your feet, clutching your lunch in both hands as you dart away from the steps just in time for a boy and a girl to come around the corner-!
…and promptly faceplant in a tangle of limbs.
"Guys…" Narukami groans while the two try to pull away from each other.
"C'mon Chie you can't tell me that wasn't suspicious!" The boy is trying to roll while the girl is trying to pull and it's not working for either of them.
"Shut
up Trashamura! Why did I even listen to you!"
"But she said-!"
"It's just the rumor! She probably doesn't know about the TV World!"
"
Guys."
"TV World?" You let the words hang there, a faint hint of accusation on your lips that sees both of them fall silent and stop struggling against each other with matching expressions of concern. Next to you, Narukami gives a deep sigh. "Explain."
After another couple moments to actually untangle themselves and sit down properly, they do.
"The Midnight Channel… It's just this silly rumor you know? That if you look at a television screen turned to a dead channel at midnight, then you'll see your soulmate."
"Wait, is
that why you were-?"
"Now is not the time for that Chie! It was just a silly rumor you see, but then, well… Yu over here stuck his hand through his TV at home." The silver-haired student looks sheepish.
"We didn't believe him at first, but then he showed us." Satonaka takes up the story now with a certain relish. "We've been trying to explore that place, at first it was way too foggy to see anything, but then uh…"
"That creepy bear…"
"I swear we're not making this up but… There's a really weird bear thing in there, and it uh… Gave us glasses that let us see through the fog?"
"That was yesterday anyways…"
… … …
"You're taking this a lot better than I thought you would." Narukami observes as the loudmouth, (whose actual name is supposedly 'Hanamura Yosuke') finishes his tale. A meandering narrative plagued with frequent interruptions from the girl (Satonaka Chie) detailing their brief interactions with some kind of world they got into by going through a TV screen.
"Yeah what gives? Yosuke's pretty gullible and all but both of us were doubting Narukami until he stuck his hand through the big screen in Junes." Satonaka ignores the aggrieved 'hey' that answers the casual insult. "But you're sitting here like it's totally believable. So what's with that?"
…you probably should be a little more disbelieving shouldn't you… Damn…
"Well…" You take a bite of your rice ball to cover the need to think. "I guess it's because it sounds just like the world in my dreams. Fog all over the place, weird creatures. There's always mountains and sea though. And the foggy place looks sort of like Inaba stuck between them."
"Huh…" Chie actually looks thoughtful. "In your dreams?"
"Well I mean, I've always had weird dreams," you duck the question a little, "but ever since I've got here, they're always the same."
"Spooky stuff," Narukami nods sagely.
Both Satonaka and Hanamura look like they want to question you further, but the tolling of the bell to signify the end of your lunch break gives you an escape route that you're perfectly happy to take, absconding back to class in a rush. The whole discussion was already veering close to some topics you aren't interested in explaining, and it seemed like only Narukami had realized it, not that he had done much to steer the other two away from bothering you.
A world inside the TV huh? It really does sound familiar the way they described it. Not exactly like the world in your dreams, the world that you've been remembering more and more of ever since you started to recall that time last year…
The thought makes your stomach turn. What a terrifying place Narukami and his friends are going into.
"It is not so bad, we were well at home here once…"
Yomi arrives tomorrow, you'll tell her what's happening then.
Select TWO (2) things to focus on with Yomi over the weekend.
[ ] Getting your apartment set up properly. Unpacking the remaining boxes and likely making a trip to Junes to acquire any missing essentials.
[ ] Investigating the murders in the real world and putting together what you know.
[ ] Investigating the supernatural events in town such as the Midnight Channel and this 'World Inside the TV' business.
[ ] Take Yomi on a date to just casually explore Inaba and show her around the town.
