Chapter 19
Right in front of the haunted house.
“Don’t tell me you’re scared?”
At Carlisle’s question, Vita immediately denied it.
“Huh, no?!”
And then he covered his mouth.
‘No, that’s not it!’
After all, any man should be able to face something like this. Vita knew that perfectly well, of course. So, out of pride, he had unconsciously answered no, trying to prove that he wasn’t scared, but—
His face had gone white. His lips had gone bone-dry.
That was only natural, because Vita Shamal was quite afraid of ghosts. It was terribly embarrassing, but still.
Did he need any other reason? What was he supposed to do when he was scared?
When Vita was around seven.
[Hey, Vita. You’re all grown up now. I hear you’re getting your own room?]
[Yeah, jealous?]
[Jealous, my ass. Your big brother’s going to show you something good.]
His mischievous second-oldest brother had deliberately shown Vita those ghost movies. Vita had first seen things like that at a fairly young age.
[…]
He couldn’t move, and couldn’t even bring himself to scream. They were too alien to Vita, who had an innocent nature.
Ghosts walking down the stairs upside down, ghosts chasing people with mouths split all the way to their ears.
[Aaaah-!]
Of course, Vita couldn’t sleep alone that night. His brother laughed at him the next day, but Vita couldn’t even react.
The memory had remained traumatic to this day, so Vita was still rather afraid of ghosts. Even while believing there was no such thing as ghosts in real life.
‘But what if… they really do exist?’
It was because of thoughts like that.
But in the end, if you were a man, you had to overcome fears like this.
Overcome it, overcome it…
As Vita continued to hesitate, Carlisle spoke again.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to go because you’re scared. Of course, I’d like to go in with you, but… if you’re scared, it can’t be helped.”
Grr, that bastard.
Vita knew, of course. He knew Carlisle was deliberately provoking him.
But.
‘If I’m scared?’
At that repeated expression, Vita clenched his fists tight.
“…No, I’m going in.”
Vita never dreamed that Carlisle had smiled because his provocation had ultimately worked.
And that was how the two of them entered the haunted house.
It was called a haunted house, but this place changed its theme each season.
[The longest and scariest abandoned hospital of terror and screams.]
Once they entered the tent, a grand space opened up. It had actually been a partitioned-off area, not a tent.
An abandoned hospital with a spooky atmosphere, a well-decorated set.
The two slowly approached its entrance.
‘It’s fake. It’s fake.’
Even as he repeated that to himself.
Vita’s face turned white.
Just reading the signboard’s explanation made his knees go weak.
[Entry restricted for young children, people with heart conditions, and the faint of heart.]
[This abandoned hospital was originally built to house patients with rare mental illnesses…]
According to the explanation, the premise was…
It had apparently happened about twenty-five years ago. This site had originally held a specialty hospital with fifty years of history. But its director had been a psychopath the likes of which the world had never seen, exploiting socially vulnerable people with mental illnesses for his own profit.
[Human experimentation, organ trafficking.]
Carlisle’s low voice could be heard reading the explanation.
“…This place was practically hell. When the director’s evil deeds were accidentally exposed, he decided to kill the patients and bury everything completely. He locked them in solitary rooms and sealed those doors shut with concrete, turning them into walls.”
And although the hospital had continued operating in secret.
It went bankrupt twenty-five years ago.
However, recently.
[The concrete wall collapsed due to torrential rain, exposing part of this old ward to the world. By a twist of fate, you have happened upon this place, and we now have a request for you.]
“Looks like this is the request.”
Carlisle unfolded a letter stuck into the information board.
[Go to the examination room, the emergency room, and the morgue.]
“…What are we supposed to do there?”
At Vita’s anxious question, Carlisle lowered his voice, making it deliberately somewhat eerie.
“Once you enter this place… you can escape only after passing through those three locations.”
Creak-
Then. At last, the hospital entrance in front of them opened.
It was so dark inside that the chilly air seeping out made it feel cold.
***
The two began walking through the dark abandoned hospital corridor.
‘It’s fake. It’s fake.’
Even thinking that to himself, his heart kept pounding.
Before long, Vita genuinely felt like running away.
But it wasn’t because he was some spineless loser.
It was simply that he was rather frightened of things like this to begin with, and this place was unnecessarily convincing.
The interior was so dark that he depended almost entirely on the flashlight Carlisle was holding.
Whenever its pale light shone here and there.
‘Eek-!’
Vita had to stay tense, growing nervous for no reason.
And sure enough, just as they were nearly at the first location, the examination room, a frigid chill could be felt.
“W-what is that-!”
“Probably some kind of special effect.”
In fact, cold air was being blown up from the floor.
And the scene before them: papers strewn messily everywhere, bloodstains covering the walls, and even bizarre scorch marks running across the ceiling.
Vita really did hide behind Carlisle without even realizing it.
“There’s nothing strange here, right…?”
He was practically on the verge of tears by now.
This wasn’t a joke. He was genuinely—
It was too frightening, but he couldn’t exactly run away, and although he found himself pathetic, it was still just too scary.
Swoosh-
Then. Something brushed past Vita’s ankle.
“Kyaaaah-!”
Vita screamed with all his might. By then, he didn’t even notice that his scream sounded almost exactly like a woman’s.
“Ca-Carlisle-!”
The tears that had nearly pooled in his eyes spilled right out, and Vita clung to Carlisle’s back like a grasshopper.
“What’s wrong, Bianca?”
“J-just now! There was something just now…!”
“Hmm, not really. I don’t see anything.”
Carlisle’s voice sounded as though he were laughing, but that was surely just Vita’s imagination, right?
“Carlisle, now! Let’s get out of here right now. I can’t do this anymore…”
Though his clear, delicate voice had nearly turned into a sob.
Carlisle didn’t care.
“What are you talking about? We’re only at the first location.”
In truth, he was a little dumbfounded too. But since Vita was that cute, he spoke in a serious voice with the deliberate intention of teasing him even more, and Vita’s body stiffened.
“…R-right.”
“Why are you so scared?”
“It’s not that I’m scared…!”
Carlisle turned his head and spoke as though soothing him.
“I’ll give you one arm. You can stick close to me as we go. It doesn’t mean you’re scared. You can do it, right, Bianca?”
Then, more seriously.
“Surely you’re not thinking of giving up as soon as we reach the first location, the examination room.”
It really was frightening. But Vita couldn’t refuse Carlisle when he spoke like that.
Vita Shamal always had his pride and competitive spirit.
Still, what was fortunate for Vita was—
The fact that both of them were fairly quick-witted.
They desperately worked through the riddles.
[An Old Doctor’s Medical Records]
[Diary of the Isolation Ward]
They searched for the hidden messages in the faded, torn papers.
They unlocked the padlock using the chemical formulas written on the medicine bottles.
“…The problems aren’t particularly difficult.”
They solved the riddles with almost no trouble before reaching the second location. Of course, along the way, bizarre noises would suddenly ring out, or a model corpse would suddenly drop beside them.
“Eeeek!”
“Aaaah!”
“Kyaaaah-!”
And so. Vita screamed with all his might the entire time, but somehow, together with Carlisle, he made it to the final location.
The morgue, naturally, was a place with corpses. Sure enough, a chill seeped up from the entrance.
By then, Vita was clinging tightly to Carlisle.
The distance between them had gradually shrunk, and by now, it had disappeared entirely.
“W-what, nothing there, right?”
Vita didn’t even have time to care that his upper body was rubbing against Carlisle’s arm.
“Eek!”
He simply clung to Carlisle’s body with both arms as hard as he could whenever he was genuinely startled or frightened.
By now, his face had gone almost deathly pale.
Carlisle Schultz, on the other hand, remained perfectly calm.
Even when Carlisle occasionally hugged or stroked him, Vita didn’t notice.
Carlisle was completely unlike him, utterly unafraid. Strangely, that made Vita both indignant and reassured.
In truth, he was barely managing to endure because Carlisle was there. At least he had someone to rely on.
‘It’s all an act. This cold is all being created by mechanisms, too.’
Vita kept repeating that to himself, but he was still scared.
He was wearing only a thin cardigan, so he was also subtly cold. Something was draped over Vita as he shivered.
“If you’re cold, wait here.”
Carlisle’s leather jacket.
After saying that, Carlisle started to go in alone, but Vita grabbed him tightly.
“What are you talking about…?! You want me to stay here alone?!”
Are you insane, seriously?!
Vita pressed himself completely against Carlisle’s side again, like a summer cicada clinging to a tree.
“If you leave me behind, you’re on your own.”
There was absolutely no way he could stay alone.
Satisfied, Carlisle chuckled and hugged Vita once.
“All right, then.”
You’re just teasing me, you bastard.
Vita pouted furiously, but couldn’t bring himself to pull away.
But this was quite unexpected, wasn’t it?
The final room, on the contrary, had remarkably little in it.
“Isn’t the last room usually the hardest?”
“It is strange.”
The two of them safely made it out of the abandoned hospital.
Even timid Vita was tilting his head in puzzlement.
Of course, Vita and Carlisle had no idea.
-Hey, I can’t do this. What the hell are those two doing?
-This job is giving me a serious reality check, too.
-Some of us are hiding in costumes to do this, you know.
-They’re crazy about each other. Ah, I’m jealous.
-Screw this, I’m done. They won’t care anyway.
That the morgue staff had gone on a temporary strike that day.
That they had suffered a serious reality check because the lovey-dovey display had been outrageous from the very entrance.
***
There are essential stops on any amusement-park date.
Namely, the night view and the Ferris wheel.
Carlisle Schultz had actually been looking forward to this all along.
A confined space with just the two of them—surely the mood would be perfect.
He had thought it might be nice to gaze at the night view for a while, then slowly try some physical affection.
“…Ah, I’m tired.”
Bianca was completely exhausted.
Carlisle gave a small, hollow laugh.
He usually looked so bold, yet he was quite frightened of things like this.
That must be why Bianca Shamal kept catching his attention.
He always showed Carlisle unexpected sides of himself.
He had a prickly, haughty appearance, yet was surprisingly innocent; he had an incredibly strong competitive spirit, yet was hopelessly inept in the strangest areas.
He supposed it was these very charms that had ensnared him.
‘Do I like Bianca Shamal?’
If someone asked him, he still wouldn’t be able to give a definite answer. But Carlisle Schultz thought that perhaps he might be able to answer differently before long.
He had never liked anyone before, after all. He suspected this feeling of his was that kind of feeling, but he couldn’t be certain.
In any case, he was having a very enjoyable time right now.
Bianca Shamal was fun to look at, in a way.
“Did you have fun today?”
At Carlisle’s question, Vita nodded, looking utterly exhausted.
“…Mm, I guess?”
It would have been better without the haunted house.
But in the end, he had overcome it!
“The haunted house wasn’t such a big deal, when you think about it.”
At that proud, smug grin.
Carlisle was dumbfounded, but chuckled along with him.
At this very moment, he felt that all his effort to get Wizney Park tickets had been worthwhile.
Wizney Park opened for only a limited time each season, so if he had missed this opportunity, he would have had to wait until winter.
The reason Carlisle had been busy after school for the past week was that he had been swamped working part-time. He couldn’t understand why he had done it; he had never done anything like this before.
He had put quite a lot of effort into going on this date with Bianca Shamal. If he was going to do it anyway, he wanted to make it special.
Besides, Bianca had recently gone through something unpleasant. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason he had made this decision, but for now, Carlisle fixed his gaze on the Ferris wheel in front of him.
“Let’s ride this.”
“Oh, of course.”
If you came all the way here, the Ferris wheel was obviously a must.
Somehow it had gotten late, and there weren’t many people around. Vita opened his mouth.
“Are we the last ones?”
“Looks like they’ve practically boarded already.”
Then the two of them boarded the Ferris wheel together.
***
Vita had been to an amusement park as a child, but—
This was his first time on a Ferris wheel, and his heart was fluttering with excitement.
[Please fasten your seat belts. The Ferris wheel will begin moving shortly.]
An announcement played, and the view began to change.
“Wow-”
Vita let out a small exclamation at the night view outside.
As they rose higher, the people below grew small and scattered. The beautiful scenery opened up before him in its entirety.
The enormous Wizney Park looked like a castle from a fairy tale. With its lights shining, it really did have that sort of atmosphere.
Vita, his face flushed with excitement, thought back over the day.
‘Today was fun.’
The haunted house had been scary, but looking back, it had been nothing but a series of enjoyable moments.
Even though he had been with Carlisle Schultz, his sworn enemy and rival.
Being with this guy was strangely comfortable, and enjoyable at the same time.
The night view outside the window was so fantastical that Vita’s spirits soared.
‘Let’s figure out why I reacted to that idiot’s nonsense!’
That had been his original goal.
To confirm once again whether the emotion he’d felt when Carlisle had confessed to him was the so-called ‘that kind’ of feeling.
He had forgotten that goal somewhere along the way.
‘I guess it’s fine for now.’
He was having fun right now, after all.
And so Vita failed to realize it.
What a situation like this usually meant.
A situation in which a young man and woman were alone together in a Ferris wheel car.
The night view outside was beautiful, and the surroundings were very quiet. In short, the atmosphere was perfect, and Carlisle had no intention of letting the opportunity pass him by.
“Bianca.”
So, after calling Vita’s name.
When Vita turned toward him, Carlisle pressed his lips to Vita’s.
Vita’s startled amethyst eyes widened right before him. Vita fumbled as he raised his hands, but they hovered helplessly in the air, as though he didn’t know what to do.
Whether to push Carlisle away or not. The answer was actually obvious, but for some reason, Vita didn’t know how to react right now. Before long, both of Vita’s hands were caught in Carlisle’s.
The sound of lips being sucked, and the sensation of tongues tangling.
“W-wait a second.”
In an instant, embarrassment flared up, but Vita tried to stop Carlisle with an enraptured expression.
“Even so, here…”
Without even knowing what he was saying, he blurted that out just to stop Carlisle.
“That’s what this place is for.”
Carlisle smiled strangely.
Still, had he made a little progress?
Didn’t that mean it would be okay somewhere other than here? But he was greedy, so he had no intention of stopping.
His golden eyes, heated with desire, scanned the adorable heart-shaped headband and the pretty features beneath it. Meanwhile, his hands clasped Vita’s, much softer and smaller than his own, interlocking their fingers so Vita couldn’t escape.
“Mmm… ngh!”
Vita, too, was swept up in the mood.
In the end, the two of them wound up kissing for the entire Ferris wheel ride! For twenty whole minutes!
To be honest, Vita had been swept along of his own accord for about half of it. For some reason, the inside of his underwear felt strange.
‘Th-this is insane…!’
He couldn’t even speak. Overcome by self-loathing, Vita covered his face with his hands. And of course, he punched Carlisle, who laughed at the sight, because the bastard was so damn annoying.
[Passengers, please disembark. Your ride time has ended!]
An announcement played. After hesitating a little, the two awkwardly got off together. Getting off immediately felt a little awkward, since they were both disheveled.
An employee approached the two of them after they got off the Ferris wheel.
“You’re Mr. Carlisle Schultz, correct?”
“Yes, but…”
“The reason I’m here is that you’ve won an event. As for the prize…”
After hearing the whole explanation, the two looked at each other.
“Oh, really?”
Vita asked again. He was extremely flustered about whether he should be happy about this or not.
The employee smiled warmly and explained once more.
“In other words, the two of you can stay at the Wizney Park Hotel tonight. Could you tell me what you’d like to do?”