The staircase descending into darkness stood plainly before them.
Takakai was certain—this had never existed in his home before today.
The steps were bare concrete, utterly unlike the tiled stairs of his apartment building.
"Upstairs."
With only a glance at the abyssal descent, Takakai pulled Miko toward the ascending steps.
The house was merging deeper with the dungeon. The hallway outside the living room window had been the first sign. If they delayed further, every exit would seal shut.
They had to leave before it was too late.
Thud.
Their footsteps echoed—too loud.
Too many.
Ahead, students climbed the stairs, their outdated uniforms stained with blood.
They turned, smiling.
Thump.
A head tumbled down.
Crushed. Bloody. Shattered.
It rolled to Takakai's feet.
Thump. Thump-thump.
More followed.
A river of dark blood cascaded with them.
They couldn't go up.
The second floor wasn't his home anymore—but a school corridor.
Headless students stood bathed in twilight.
The light had deceived him. Nearly lured him in.
Only his caution had saved them.
Miko was catatonic, mechanically following his lead.
The first-floor hallway had transformed further.
Walls smeared with crimson graffiti:
[Play with me]
[Believe in her]
[My guardian angel]
[You are my goddess]
[She is pure]
Most were illegible—just frenzied bloodstrokes.
The headless pursuers were gone.
But the corpses had multiplied.
A boy hung from the ceiling, skull pulped by wire, dripping.
A girl sprawled limbless, erasers crammed into hollowed eyes, a stapler piercing her tongue.
A man nailed to the wall, gutted, a flayed figure stuffed inside.
A woman hooked through the skull, a bloodied skeleton dangling from her neck.
...
The stench of decay thickened.
Every step squelched on viscera.
Flies swarmed. Maggots writhed.
Miko's stomach convulsed—but nothing came up.
The hellscape had shattered her psyche.
She moved numbly, dragged along by Takakai.
[Do you like it?]
A whisper behind her.
She didn't react.
Thud.
A crisp footstep.
The carnage vanished.
The hallway was pristine—exactly as when they'd entered.
What...?
Miko's mind frayed further.
Takakai remained silent, pressing forward.
He reached the far end, opening a door—
—to reveal a sunlit backyard.
Normal. Peaceful.
But he didn't step through.
His gaze dropped to the door's base.
Light streamed through the window above—yet nothing seeped beneath the door.
Bang.
He fired.
The sunlight shattered.
The "backyard" dissolved into a grim concrete room—
—strewn with sheet-covered corpses.
A shattered bulb lay on the floor.
In the flash, a gaunt figure flickered at the room's edge.
The torch still burned.
Turning, Takakai faced a derelict hallway—
—cobwebbed, dust-choked, debris littered.
A crimson [ -1 ] marked the wall.
"We're in the basement."
Miko blinked.
"From the start, our senses were compromised. What we thought was 'up' was actually 'down.' When we tried descending after realizing the 'ascent' was trapped, we truly began descending."
That explained the headless students "above" them earlier.
The grotesque hallway had been another layer of deception—masking their true descent.
The "normal" exit was just another snare.