I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about this, but just in case it’s a statute of limitations.
More than 10 years ago, when I was a freshman in high school, I used to sneak into an abandoned house in the suburbs with my friends and smoke thinner.
It used to be a love hotel, and some of the rooms still had beds.
Of course, it was always midnight when we went there, so we took a flashlight and hung out mainly in what used to be the lobby.
The springs were squeaky, but there was a sofa.
There were usually four or five of us going there.
It was a great spot for the bad guys.
But the (high school) seniors in front of us were pretty rough around the edges, so the other guys didn’t stick around.
The five of us, including myself, were in the lobby that day.
As a light rain started to fall, Shirou, the idiot, said, “I have to go to the restroom.
I usually pee outside in the grass, but now that it was starting to rain, he didn’t want to go out.
‘Wasn’t it behind that door?’ One of the guys shined a flashlight on the door at the back of the lobby.
Shirou said, “It’s okay,” and disappeared with the flashlight.
“There it was,” a muffled voice said.
However, he did not come back after 10 or 20 minutes.
One of the men became concerned and opened the back door, saying, “Hey, Did he have a stomach ache??” and one of them opened the door at the back and went in.
Then, a little later, he came out with a blue face.
Hey, he’s not here, Shirou.
Not here?
He said, “He’s not here, but look anyway,” so we all opened the door.
Two rooms were connected, but we knew immediately that there was no bathroom.
Rather, there was no other way in or out anywhere else.
I only had two flashlights because Shirou had taken one, but it was clear that there was nowhere else that people could get in.
We then searched thoroughly in lockers and behind desks, but in the end we couldn’t find Shirou.
The unusualness of the situation turned us blue, and we decided not to tell anyone about it.
I don’t know if it’s fair of me to say this, but Shirou’s family was not a normal family.
They didn’t even file a missing persons report when their son didn’t come back home.
In the end, Shirou disappeared without a trace.
We stopped going to that love hotel.
Even after graduating from high school, I kept thinking about it.
Why did Shirou say, “There it is, there it is,” more than the fact that he disappeared?
For some reason, that scared me unnecessarily.
Some years later, I happened to meet my then-treasurer in town.
When we were chatting at a restaurant, we naturally talked about that incident.
Tsure told me that after that incident, he was told by his senpai why that love hotel was abandoned.
I was horrified.
She said it was because some of the guests had gone missing.
I don’t know how they disappeared, but that was enough for me.
After telling me this, Tsure somehow turned his head down and continued to stir his lemon tea, which was now only ice, with a straw.
Oil sweat was floating on his face, so I shook his shoulder and said, “Hey, what’s going on?
Then Tsure started to talk about the fine stream of events after that time Shirou said, “I have to go to the restroom”
Do you remember when I was closest to the door that Shirou entered?
I think I was.
After the door closed, I heard a little voice.
The one that said, “There it is.”
Tsure nodded with a blue face and continued.
That one, it wasn’t Shirou’s voice.”
I felt as if all the goosebumps I’d had for the past few years had risen all at once.
