Chapter 3 The Double in the Mirror (3) "Don't run around..."
"Don't run around, Xiaohua." Zhu Yi caught the calico cat that was arching its back and about to jump from his shoulder, and held it in his arms. He skillfully stroked the cat's back, and the calico cat immediately made a satisfied purr. Its eyes closed comfortably, and it completely relaxed and let the other person pet it.
Zhu Yi scratched the calico cat's chin: "If you run around here and get lost, I'll have a hard time finding you."
Suddenly, a meow came from beside his feet. Zhu Yi stopped what he was doing and looked down.
It was a white cat that kept nudging Zhu Yi's trouser leg with its head, making gurgling sounds.
"I've found you while playing hide-and-seek, you naughty kitty."
Zhu Yi squatted down, holding the cat, and poked the white cat's nose with one hand: "Take us away from here, 001."
As if it understood, the white cat turned around and its tail swept across Zhu Yi's palm. Then it gave him a short meow and continued to burrow deeper into the alley.
The alley was dark, and the path ahead was shrouded in darkness. But Zhu Yi did not hesitate at all. He stood up, picked up the cat, and followed. The calico cat in his arms tensed up. The two of them walked slowly into the depths of the alley until their figures were gradually swallowed up by the darkness.
They came out, and the streetlights stood crookedly, their light dim and yellowish, only vaguely illuminating a small area around them. Fortunately, the surroundings were not engulfed by darkness. Even though the light flickered on and off, as long as there was light, the area was safe.
The calico cat suddenly poked half its head out from Zhu Yi's arms. It turned to look behind it, and the alleyway it had just walked out of was now just a mottled cement wall covered with small advertisements. The peeling paint revealed countless eyes watching them.
At some point, the white cat under Zhu Yi's feet turned into a black cat.
If someone were to pass by at this moment, they would be surprised to see that the black cat had no shadow.
But did you really see clearly that it was a black cat?
...
Kunikida Doppo and Nakajima Atsushi were arranged to stay in the room next to Sakamoto Hiroki's hotel. Sakamoto Hiroki was still worried, so he arranged for several bodyguards to patrol the door of the room, while four bodyguards took turns guarding the room.
Even so, Hiroki Sakamoto still felt unsafe, so he placed several surveillance cameras in various corners of the room. This way, Kunikida Doppo and Nakajima Atsushi could arrive immediately if they encountered an emergency, and he could also alert them and their bodyguards.
Tonight, Hiroki Sakamoto, who was staying at the hotel, was trembling with fear. His extreme fear amplified his senses several times over, and even the slightest sound could scare the other person half to death.
Seeing Sakamoto Hiroki's sunken eye sockets and bloodshot eyes, and the undeniable fatigue on his face, Kunikida Doppo suggested that he rest for the night.
Upon hearing Kunikida Doppo's suggestion, Sakamoto Hiroki shook his head frantically in terror: "No, I can't sleep. If it kills me, I won't be able to wake up."
"Excuse me, but how long has it been since you had a proper night's sleep?"
Hiroki Sakamoto was momentarily stunned. Due to chronic sleep deprivation, his brain was like a rusty gear, and he didn't react for a long time. After a while, he slowly and hoarsely answered, "Three months."
“I still suggest you get some rest first. There are surveillance cameras here, and we'll wake you up if anything unexpected happens.” Kunikida Doppo adjusted his glasses. “Besides, chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk of sudden death.”
Hiroki Sakamoto shuddered and muttered to himself, "It really is cunning. I almost fell for its trick. If I die, it will be to its advantage."
Kunikida Doppo: "My colleagues and I monitor the system and take turns every two hours."
Hiroki Sakamoto felt much more at ease, but he was still lying in bed with some doubt. Due to the long-term tension and lack of sleep, the other person soon fell into a light sleep, and the furrowed brows gradually relaxed.
After watching the other person fall asleep, Kunikida Doppo signaled to the bodyguard in the room to leave, quietly turned the doorknob, and walked out of the room, returning to the hotel room that had been arranged for him.
"Mr. Kunikida." Atsushi Nakajima sat up from the sofa and yawned when he heard the noise. Before Kunikida Doppo went to discuss things with Hiroki Sakamoto, he had told Atsushi Nakajima to catch up on his sleep and then they would start taking turns guarding the area.
Atsushi Nakajima said somewhat embarrassedly, "I'll keep an eye on the monitor for a while, since I replenished my energy while I was sleeping."
"Okay." Kunikida, who had been frightened multiple times in just one day, felt physically and mentally exhausted, especially with Dazai Osamu's words playing on repeat in his mind.
He actually had a secret he was afraid of: ghosts and the like.
Dazai's words were like a curse on him; he felt himself becoming neurotic about his surroundings, but his professionalism kept him calm in front of others.
Otherwise, Dazai would definitely mock him in an annoying tone.
Soon, Kunikida Doppo, who was casually lying on the bed, began to feel his eyelids grow heavy and his vision became increasingly dim.
When he woke up again, Kunikida Doppo subconsciously looked at his watch. It was exactly midnight, two hours had passed.
Why didn't that kid Atsushi Nakajima wake me up at this time?
When Kunikida Doppo got up, he immediately saw Nakajima Atsushi sitting at the table. Nakajima was facing away from him, staring motionless at the monitor screen, which emitted a dim light. No matter how much Kunikida called his name, there was no response.
He walked over and patted the other person on the shoulder. The other person seemed to be a beat behind before slowly turning around.
"I'll guard this place, you go and rest." Kunikida Doppo assumed the other person was just too tired.
Atsushi Nakajima looked at Kunikida Doppo without saying a word. He simply nodded, stood up from the chair, quickly came to the bedside, curled up with his back to Kunikida Doppo, and fell into a deep sleep.
Kunikida Doppo sat in front of the monitor, while Sakamoto Hiroki was still asleep in bed, and his bodyguard stood motionless beside him.
Everything seemed normal.
The clock in the room was ticking away slowly, and the sound of its ticking was exceptionally clear in the quiet room.
Time was passing slowly, and the hands of the clock were crawling slower and slower. No one noticed this subtle phenomenon. The ticking sound in the room was still very regular. Even if the hands paused for half a second, the ticking sound did not stop at all.
Watching the surveillance cameras was undoubtedly a tedious and long time, and Kunikida Doppo couldn't help but yawn.
One minute has passed.
The shadow in the corner of the wall seemed even thicker in the surveillance footage. Was it due to the lighting? Kunikida Doppo didn't think too much about it; besides the lighting, it could also be due to the surveillance camera.
Ten minutes have passed.
In the room where only Atsushi Nakajima was present, there seemed to be other noises mixed in with the ticking sound.
Kunikida Doppo heard the sound of the plastic bag rubbing together; it was very faint.
Kunikida Doppo, who was acutely aware of the sounds around him, suddenly turned around and looked around the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"Am I hallucinating? I guess I was too nervous." Kunikida Doppo was sweating profusely. He felt his heart pounding rapidly from fright. After a while, he looked at the monitor again.
Haha, Kunikida Doppo tried to comfort himself by saying, "I'm just scaring myself."
Thirty minutes.
The surveillance footage remained unchanged. Kunikida Doppo sensed something was off but couldn't quite put his finger on it. His thoughts were being distracted by something, causing him to subconsciously ignore the oddity.
A growing sense of unease crept into his heart, and Kunikida Doppo felt inexplicably irritable. He unconsciously tapped the table with his knuckles, a feeling of unease like needles piercing his temples. The fleeting thought was right before his eyes, but when he reached out to grasp it, he only found emptiness.
Kunikida Doppo finally stopped what he was doing. He decided to trust his intuition, picked up the walkie-talkie on the table, pressed the call button, and said to the bodyguards, "Something's not right. Check the surrounding area."
There was no response from the walkie-talkie, only a hissing sound of electricity. He stared intently at the monitor when suddenly a sharp pain shot through his head. Fine beads of sweat appeared on Kunikida Doppo's forehead. He shook his head and endured the pain as he looked back at the monitor.
No change.
Kunikida Doppo then realized where those feelings of unease came from.
Neither the bodyguard nor Hiroki Sakamoto showed any change, not even the slightest fluctuation in their breathing. His breathing became rapid, and the sudden sound from the walkie-talkie made his heart skip a beat.
The bodyguard made no move, and the surveillance footage remained frozen, but the walkie-talkie inexplicably responded to Kunikida Doppo, the original hissing sound being replaced by a voice that was neither male nor female.
"...Buzz, we... know." The voice sounded like a radio that had been soaked in water, with a hoarse, breathy quality to it, as if each word required all its strength to be uttered.
What followed was a scene that Kunikida Doppo would never forget.
"Creak—" Kunikida Doppo dragged the chair backward, the chair scraping against the ground with a screeching sound. He looked at the screen in horror.
The bodyguards on the screen turned their faces around—or rather, their heads, which were originally in front, turned to the back, their necks twisted like pretzel tubes. Most shockingly, they all stared at Kunikida Doppo, their eyes wide open and motionless, their mouths stretched wide towards their ears.
Hiroki Sakamoto disappeared from the surveillance screen.
Kunikida Doppo swallowed hard, his hair standing on end. It wasn't just because of the bizarre scene, but also because he could hear faint breathing behind him and smell a strong stench of blood.
He dared not look behind him.
A voice, both strange and familiar, rang in Kunikida Doppo's ears: "Kunikida, sir..."
Kunikida Doppo's face turned deathly pale. After struggling internally for a moment, he still didn't have the courage to turn around. Instead, he raised his hand and slowly reached behind him until his fingertips touched the sticky substance. He trembled as he withdrew his hand, brought it close to his eyes, and finally saw that it was blood that was about to congeal.
Fear gripped Kunikida Doppo's entire body.
His neck stiffly turned, and Nakajima Atsushi, who had been sleeping soundly on the bed, appeared behind Kunikida Doppo at some point. His face was a bloody mess with only one eye embedded in its socket. His neck was bent and deformed at a ninety-degree angle, and the white bone at the neck pierced through the skin, crookedly supporting the shaky head.
“Mr. Kunikida…” The other person’s mouth opened and closed, and several more pieces of flesh fell off his neck.
Kunikida Doppo couldn't catch his breath, and his eyes rolled back as he fainted.
"Mr. Kunikida...Mr. Kunikida...Mr. Kunikida!"
Kunikida Doppo sat up straight in bed, clutching the fabric of his shirt and gasping for breath. Cold sweat soaked through his clothes, and his heart was still pounding in his chest. When he saw Nakajima Atsushi, he wanted to say something, but his throat was dry and tight.
"Mr. Kunikida, are you alright?" Atsushi Nakajima poured him a glass of water and handed it to him, his face full of concern.
"It's alright." Kunikida Doppo brushed aside his sweat-dampened hair, took the water bottle handed to him, thanked him, and drank it all in one gulp, his chaotic thoughts gradually calming down.
He almost screamed the moment he woke up and saw Atsushi Nakajima, but thankfully it was just a dream.
"Are the surveillance footage all normal?" Kunikida Doppo asked casually.
“Yes, I just contacted the bodyguards and had them patrol the room and the doorway. Nothing suspicious was found,” Atsushi Nakajima replied.
"What time is it now?"
"It's midnight." Atsushi Nakajima yawned, tears welling in his eyes, and sighed, "Staying in front of the monitor screen for so long has made time feel so long."
Kunikida Doppo: "It is indeed quite boring. I'll keep an eye on the surveillance for a while. You go to sleep."
Atsushi Nakajima's expression faltered for a moment, but then he broke into a wide smile, looking at him with gratitude in his eyes: "Then I'll leave it to Mr. Kunikida. I can finally take a nap."
Kunikida Doppo watched as Nakajima Atsushi fell asleep on the bed. The other man rubbed his face against the pillow with a satisfied expression. The hotel bed was very soft. Soon, Nakajima Atsushi yawned again and noticed Kunikida Doppo's gaze. Nakajima Atsushi looked at him in confusion, but Kunikida Doppo looked away and returned his attention to the surveillance camera.
In the surveillance footage, bodyguards were patrolling back and forth outside Hiroki Sakamoto's room. Inside the room, other bodyguards took turns on duty, occasionally changing shifts to rest and replenish their energy—all of this seemed perfectly normal.
Time passed slowly, and Kunikida Doppo finally heard the sound of someone sleeping soundly snoring behind him. After waiting for a while, he slowed his movements, stood up from the chair, and carefully walked to the door and grasped the doorknob.
Just as he was about to open the door, a voice behind him interrupted his next move.
"Mr. Kunikida, where are you going?"
Kunikida froze, a chill creeping up his body from his feet.
A note from the author:
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