Footprints in the Dust
You decide to search around the dilapidated porch for something you can use: a wire, or some other rigid object that you can shape into a pick and wrench. As you turn away from the door, your foot kicks something away. From the sound, it appears to be made of metal. It could be just what you need. Bending down and adjusting your specs, you try to search for it by the dim lighting.
There. The object is gleaming dully, nestled in a patch of weeds. You reach in and take it.
It turns out to be a proper set of lockpicks. You feel a strange familiarity with the object – it seems to resonate with your soul – and as you peer at it, voices begin to float into your mind.
I think we’ve found it. This should be the right place. Kaimei Hospital, right?
I don’t know why we’re out at this spooky based on some random rumour, man.
It’s not a random rumour. Adachi-san assured me that it was real.
Really? You believe his bullshit about German gold hidden here after the war? Get real.
Even if there wasn’t, there’s always that other thing. That would fetch a pretty penny too.
No use having money if we don’t live to spend it.
Alright, I’ve got the door open…
A powerful headache drives the voices out of your head, blowing them off like leaves dancing in a strong gust of wind. As they dissipate, you somehow understand that what you heard was connected to the lockpick that you just obtained. Perhaps the voices belonged to its former owners. Still, you know that you will get nowhere standing out here in the cold. The door needs to be unlocked first. Unfolding the picks, you kneel in front of the door and begin your work.
It is done in a matter of seconds.
An audible
click tells you that the bolt has been drawn back.
The door drops a shower of paint flakes on you and creaks in an unnervingly loud manner when you push it, broadcasting your entry to anyone in the vicinity. Maybe you should have tried to grease the hinges too.
You step into the hospital proper. There is enough moonlight shining in from the open windows, filtered through the ragged, gossamer-thin curtains, for you to see by for the most part.
The main lobby of Kaimei hospital is in as much of a mess as its exterior. The linoleum tiles are missing or cracked, and mold has begun to creep in on the walls. The steel feet of the benches, bolted into the floor, are rusted. The cushions on top of them are lumpy and misshapen. A thin layer of dust has settled over all of the surfaces, undisturbed. On the wall behind the receptionist’s desk, a large portrait can be seen: that of a stern, plump man in a doctor’s coat, sporting a well-groomed moustache above his lip.
You recognize the man. It is the apparition you encountered in the women’s bathroom… the one who had attacked Mitsuki. Under the portrait is a nameplate:
There is a newspaper folded up and left on one of the benches. The pages are yellowing and brittle, and the ink faded. You can just about make out the headlines:
May 28, 1979
CURSED HOSPITAL SHUT DOWN
The Kaimei Group has announced that the Kaimei Hospital will cease operations at the end of the week.
Following a high profile murder case 3 years ago, a series of fatal accidents and disappearances have troubled the once popular medical institution. The final blow came just last month, when Hospital Director Maeda Keiji (62) reportedly set fire to the paediatrics ward after chaining up the exit. A nationwide manhunt is still underway for Director Maeda, who has now been missing for three weeks.
The victims’ families are currently engaged in legal action against the Kaimei Group for negligence, insisting that the influential zaibatsu take responsibility for the incidents in the hospital.
You close your eyes and sift through your memory: the paper is likely referring to the dismemberment case of 1976… there was an article about it, wasn’t there? Of course, it is also possible that the case in particular was forgotten in the shadow of another,
higher profile murder. Regardless, it looks like Kaimei has had a rather troubled history in and of itself.
What about Ikei? You wonder, stepping away from the bench and looking around the empty lobby.
Did it also show a similar pattern? Somehow, you doubt it: even if your memory was lacking, if Ikei Hospital did have a reputation for mysterious accidents and disappearances, it was likely that the others would have mentioned it during conversation. It is the sort of topic that Amanozaki, the psychic, would relish, at least.
You pause. You recall talking about Kaimei Hospital with Amanozaki. The story that she told you does not appear to match up with what was written in the article you just read. There are similarities, here and there – deaths, the director being the arsonist, a paediatrics ward – but the differences are quite jarring.
First and foremost being that the hospital is still standing a month after the fire according to the article, while Amanozaki claimed that it had burnt down to the ground on the night of the fire itself.
Did she lie, or embellish the story?
Or is the article wrong?
Certainly, the scene before you does not seem to be a place ravaged by fire. It is abandoned, yes. Derelict, sure. But there are no signs of fire damage, at least in the lobby.
As you ponder the possibilities, you notice some disturbances in the dust on the floor. They appear to be footprints, leading further into the hospital.
Could the others already be in here?
***
A. You follow a pair of prints made by dress shoes and high-heels, leading down a wide hallway lined with many windows.
B. You follow a set of smaller-sized prints that look like they were made with sneakers, along a small, chilly corridor.
C. You follow a set of small prints that are clearly made by someone not wearing any shoes, going bare-footed, going up a nearby staircase.
D. You go down the only path without any footprints: the stairs leading down into the basement.
E. You exit the lobby and explore the exterior of the hospital further.
F. You decide not to go anywhere. You will just stay and wait in the lobby. Sooner or later, those who are trapped should find their way here. Running around is just a waste of your energy.
, Codex. "I want to be Kaimei", indeed.
