“Hell, are we actually g-going in there?” Gee muttered, her eyes darting between the darkened subway entrance and us. “Y-you guys are fucking crazy.” 

“Aren’t you embarrassed? A ten-year-old is more brave than you,” Ave said somewhat mockingly. 

“Mm? Why is big sis Gee scared?” Lila asked in an innocent voice while playing with her phone flashlight. “Big bro Nico and Big sis Mori are here to protect everyone!” 

Ave feigned shock at her declaration. “I-I’m not included…?” 

I wondered to myself where her unfounded confidence sprung up from. Nico must certainly be very good with children, I thought, though of course I didn’t voice this opinion out loud.

“Lila, can you hold the light steady and keep it pointing forward?” Nico said gently, pointing down at the flight of stairs leading into pitch-black darkness. “We need you to help us illuminate our surroundings clearly. It’s very important, you get it?” 

“Yes, big bro Nico!” she answered with a beaming proud smile. 

In all truthfulness, the light from her phone didn’t do much to dispel the darkness; but I didn’t sense any living beings underground, so I figured it was safe enough to head down. 

“Everyone, remember not to stray too far, alright?” Ave instructed us before heading down first together with Lila. Gee and Nico followed close behind their backs, and I was last to descend down the stairs. 

“This is just like the haunted house from the theme park,” Lila said excitedly. “It’s so fun!” 

“W-w-what’s so fun about this…hell, I-I shouldn’t have s-suggested coming h-h-here,” Gee stammered, barely able to contain her trepidation. 

Even Ave was too nervous to come up with a retort; he simply focused on guiding Lila forward with the flashlight. 

“Guys, look. It’s a sign.” Nico stopped the group and pointed at an object hanging from the ceiling. Sure enough, when Lila directed the beam of light on the ceiling again, there was a signboard that read ‘TRAINS THIS WAY ➤’.

Ave nodded his head. “We should be turning right at the next junction. Let’s go—” 

“Wait.” 

Everyone directed surprised stares at me simultaneously. I walked to the front and pointed a finger at myself, hoping this gesture made it clear that I wanted them to stay here first while I went on ahead. 

“Big sis Mori?” Lila asked worriedly. 

“I’ll need to borrow your flashlight for a second.” I met her wide eyes. “May I?” 

She passed the phone and power bank to me without hesitation. Ave looked at me and mouthed, “what’s wrong?” 

I shook my head and smiled in an attempt to reassure him before leaving. To be honest, I was probably just being paranoid. And secretly, I was hoping to chalk my unease up to mere paranoia. I still didn’t detect any living souls down here except ourselves; there was also no indication of any danger around the corner. 

But I knew that did not mean there weren’t any monsters lurking around—and I was certain I caught a faint presence ahead that shouldn’t be there just then.

I backed against the wall, and with a deep breath, stepped out of the corner while shining the light straight ahead. 

“...here too?” 

I could feel my body tense up in alarm, but since I had yet to understand the emotion of ‘fear’, I was still able to process what I was seeing in a detached manner. Perhaps that was for the best, since I had no doubts all of them would be traumatised if they were in my shoes at that moment. 

I was gazing directly into the frozen faces of corpses upon corpses of men, women, and children. They were heaped together haphazardly in the center of the passageway, forming a twisted mess of heads, torsos and limbs that screamed unnatural to me. Some were missing body parts; some had their torsos sliced open to reveal shrivelled guts; and still other bodies were completely drenched in congealed blood. Despite all that, however, they looked to have no signs of decomposition, hence their deaths must not have happened long ago.

Maybe these people were the survivors who hid in this subway station and were unfortunate to be discovered by the monsters. Maybe they were all killed before being able to make it to the exit. 

I found myself subconsciously trying to rationalise what happened for this many bodies to end up in one location. But no matter how hard I racked my brains, something just didn’t seem to add up to me. 

Just like the bodies outside the hospital, every single dead body lying here was missing their thread of Life. The one thing that marked living souls from the departed, Life from Death. 

It was impossible. Without me to sever it, there was simply absolutely no way a thread of Life could just disappear. Unless…unless… 

“The monsters stole them,” I breathed.