FDD 5

2. Breakfast with Corpses

Gerald spotted the boy moving and was the first to run away before anyone realized it. His feet were so fast that it seemed he could easily break Usain Bolt’s record. Chloe was not as unloyal as Gerald, and she agonized over her decision while looking at Noah.

However, before Chloe could reach a conclusion, Gerald grabbed her wrist, and she had no choice but to follow him away. Luca also desperately wanted to run away, but he could not leave Noah behind.

Noah struggled to pry the boy away with his free leg. Without exaggeration, Noah was twice the size of the boy and quite strong, so the force of the push was bound to be strong.

However, the boy’s obsession with Noah’s leg was even stronger. He clung to Noah’s leg as if his hand were a suction cup. And, undeterred by the kicks, he took hold of Noah’s two legs with both hands.

Luca could easily tell that Noah was struggling from the sweat beading on his face. Even though he looked like a fully grown adult, Noah was still just a boy in his teens, so he must be scared. Yet, in the midst of this, Noah reassured Luca, whose expression had stiffened.

“Luca. I’m fine. Get out of here quickly.”

Even in the midst of the urgency, Noah smiled at him. Even in this dangerous situation – with sweat beading on his forehead and something strange attached to his leg – Noah’s affectionate smile infuriated Luca. He wouldn’t have been this furious even if Noah had used Luca as bait to escape. However, it was not his fault. The blame was always Luca’s. It was always Luca who did the things that made him feel guilty.

“Don’t do this to me.”

Noah always made Luca feel guilty. He also sometimes gave him courage, and at other times, he engulfed him in fear greater than that courage. Luca was always [unauthorized copy]cowardly in his relationship with Noah. However, he was not one to act wretchedly in the face of another’s life. Luca pushed the fear that had surged from his survival instinct as deep as possible into his heart and approached Noah.

Meanwhile, the boy was still attempting to climb onto Noah’s legs. It annoyed Luca to see Noah filling the boy’s empty eyes. His attempts were thwarted every time because Noah kicked him and tried to pry him away. However, the boy did not let go of Noah’s legs.

Luca thought about taking off his bag and hitting the boy. However, upon seeing that he didn’t fall even when Noah kicked him, it was unlikely to work. He had nothing to threaten the boy right now. Even if he had a gun, it would probably be useless. Could it be a threat to someone whose breath had already stopped?

Luca looked around, thinking he should dismember the boy’s limbs. Paper and the materials needed to summon Baphomet were still scattered around. He quickly scanned the trivial and annoying objects with his eyes and picked up a piece of metal that looked at least somewhat useful.

It was an antique-designed candlestick. A conical base that narrowed toward the top was attached to a long stem, and a circular plate was affixed to the opposite end of the stem. Around the edge of the plate, about five thin, pointed metal prongs formed a ring.

That was the only useful thing Luca could find. Careful not to cut his arm on the rim, Luca peeled off the melted wax that had stuck to it, then raised it high and swung it toward the boy’s shoulder.

Thwack!

He felt the metal dig into his flesh. It wasn’t as easy as cutting through a dead animal’s flesh with a knife. Moreover, unlike animal flesh, the boy’s shoulder was moving and untreated.

The metal caught on the bone, and the moving muscles tightened and held on. Luca’s hand trembled at the sensation, but there was no time to be afraid. He put his body weight into the metal embedded in the shoulder and drove it further in. Whether the boy felt no pain or was too engrossed in holding onto Noah, he paid little attention to Luca. He was solely fixated on Noah.

Once the metal was fully embedded in the muscle, Luca pulled the candlestick down. It wasn’t easy, but the shoulder muscles were gradually parting to reveal the red flesh beneath. It was a disgusting sight. However, Luca, who had been focused solely on mangling the boy’s limbs, let out a cheer. But as the candlestick got caught on the hard bone, Luca couldn’t help but scream.

“Ack! Please let go! Just!”

Enraged, he swung the candlestick with all his might. The dead boy’s bones snapped with a ‘Crack!’ As the bones shattered, the shoulder split open, severing not only the boy’s clothes but also his muscles.

The poorly sharpened candlestick severed the boy’s shoulder muscles in a rough and crude manner. And as the strength drained from the dysfunctional muscles, Noah did not miss the opportunity. He pushed the boy again with all his might, and finally, the boy was sent flying.

The boy who had fallen on his bottom tried to quickly shift his target to Luca, who was right behind him. However, thanks to Noah pulling Luca quickly toward him, that did not happen. The candlestick, which had slipped from Luca’s hand as he was suddenly grabbed by the shoulder, fell into the pool of blood, and the splattered blood stained the hem of his pants.

However, neither Luca nor Noah had time to worry about their pants, and Noah grabbed Luca’s hand. Then they ran away from the boy. Like Lot escaping from Sodom¹, neither of them looked back. They heard the sound of speeding approaching from behind them, but neither of them made the foolish mistake that would turn into pillars of salt.

Just as Luca was gasping for breath, Noah kicked open a door, pushed Luca inside first, glanced around, and immediately closed the door. After locking the door, he even dragged nearby furniture over to block it.

“Hah, hah! What is going on?”

Luca gasped as he crawled on all fours on the floor. It was the first time in his life he had run this desperately. He felt as if blood were gushing from his throat. No, he could already taste blood. What was frustrating was, unlike Luca, Noah was perfectly fine, aside from his disheveled hair. Although Luca was a healthy teenager who exercised every day, his physical strength was fundamentally different from that of an athlete.

“Luca, are you okay?”

Luca wanted to reply that he was fine to Noah’s calm question. But he wasn’t, so he couldn’t answer. Luca simply raised one hand and waved it in the air. Noah knelt down beside him and raised his hand to rub his back. However, he hesitated and had no choice but to lower his hand, simply waiting for Luca to feel better. As Luca’s breathing returned to normal and he gradually calmed down, he looked around. The place Noah had led Luca to was a storage room. Luca dusted off his knees, stood up, and held out his hand to Noah:

“Why did you drag me here?”

Noah silently looked at Luca’s hand reaching out to him. His palm was white, and his lines were distinct. Noah liked this hand and wanted to touch it. However, not in this manner. Noah could not tolerate this attitude, which treated him like a mere classmate. Noah stood up without taking Luca’s hand and answered:

“I thought there might be something here that could serve as a weapon.”

Noah pointed to a corner of the storage room. This room was a place where old athletic equipment and musical instruments were stored. He searched the room first, and Luca followed him to search other places. They silently searched for useful items for a long time.

Noah, who had been focused on his search but could no longer bear the silence, spoke first.

“…It’s been a really long time. Four years?”

Noah was obviously speaking to Luca, but he wasn’t looking at him. He held up a dented aluminum baseball bat and examined it. Luca glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, then pushed the old cymbals aside and replied.

“…I don’t think it’s that long.”

Luca knew exactly how long it had been since he last saw Noah, but he spoke in a tone of guesswork rather than certainty. Noah retraced his memories. He realized it hadn’t been four years yet. Then he nodded and rummaged through the items again. He eventually found a baseball bat in decent condition and leaned it against a wall.

Noah also found a wooden hockey stick with a split tip and peeling paint, placing ​Read on​it next to the baseball bat. Then, he straightened his back, crossed his arms, and turned toward Luca. He spoke again.

“Really? Aside from seeing you from a distance sometimes, it’s really hard to run into you. You must have been trying really hard to avoid me.”

“Avoid who? It just so happened that we didn’t run into each other… You’re on the football team, and I’m just a nerd who only studies.”

Luca felt Noah looking at him. However he turned his back to avoid eye contact as much as possible. He crouched down and rummaged through the instruments. All he found were torn drums and tambourines; there was nothing suitable to use as a weapon. But he pretended to search as diligently as he could.

“Ah, so we attend a school with a campus as big as a city. I didn’t know that. I thought I had forgotten your face.”

At Noah’s words, Luca threw the triangle onto the cymbals, pretending it wasn’t intentional. The sound of metal clashing filled the space for a moment, silencing Noah. Despite Luca’s strained acting, Noah knew that his actions were deliberate. He smiled, out of sight of Luca. After a brief moment of thought, he changed the subject of conversation just as Luca wanted.

“So, did you find anything useful?”

Luca straightened his back, turned to look at Noah, and shook his head.

“No. There’s nothing useful. If you’re not going to swing both of them, can you give me one?”

Luca pointed at the hockey stick and the baseball bat, and Noah replied in a firm voice.

“No.”

“O-okay…”

Luca was flustered by the tone which was almost stern. He was so flustered that his arm moved strangely, causing the cymbals to make a ‘clang!’ sound.

“Haha. Luca. Sorry. Of course you can use them. Which one do you want?”

Noah laughed as if he were amused by Luca’s flustered expression. Usually, Luca was on the mature side. Noah was the same. However, he sometimes acted like a child in front of Luca. It had been so long since Luca had spoken to Noah that he only realized it now.

Afraid of saying something unnecessary, Luca kept his mouth shut and pointed at the baseball bat. Then, Noah handed him the dented bat and asked,

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what I did wrong.”

“What do you mean now? Is your leg okay?”

Although Luca knew what Noah’s sudden words meant, he pretended to be oblivious. Noah stared at his face without saying a word. As their eyes met, Luca felt a surge of guilt that made him want to die on the spot. Noah blinked his beautiful eyes a few times and let out a small sigh. That breath made Luca flinch. When he saw Luca like that, Noah slowly smiled. Then, he answered in a gentle voice.

“Yeah, my leg is fine.”

Noah always let Luca win, and Luca unconsciously took advantage of that. Due to the inevitable power dynamics between [stolen content]Luca and Noah, such situations were always repeated. As they returned to a comfortable topic, Luca let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

Then he spoke up while wiping his baseball bat.

“What do we do now? Continue from here…”

“Shh, wait a moment.

Noah covered Luca’s mouth with his right hand and pointed outside with his left. As an athlete, Noah had excellent instincts. Therefore, even though Luca felt nothing, he did not think Noah’s judgment was wrong.

Luca tried to erase the fact that his lips had touched Noah’s palm from his mind and shift his attention to the direction Noah was pointing. Noah and Luca slowly approached the door and cautiously peered out through the narrow horizontal ventilation hole in the warehouse door.

Luca almost screamed aloud. Outside, Michael Voorhees, a hulking figure wearing a stuffed goat costume, was dragging his feet as he passed by. Dr. Frankenstein of Haddonfield had succeeded in his experiment!

In Michael Voorhees’s hand was a knife covered in dried blood. It seemed he had used that knife to stab the boy.

And the stuffed animal Michael Voorhees was wearing was a black goat, with big, spirally coiled, pointed horns.

Its glass eyes gleamed coldly, and the goat’s characteristic black, rectangular pupils were terrifying.

The stuffed animal had its mouth wide open. Inside, all the teeth were ground to a sharp point, the tongue was forked like a snake, and the corners of the mouth were twisted upward in a grotesque way. Even without visit our siteresorting to physical violence, witnessing such a sight would undoubtedly cause faint-hearted people to die of a heart attack.

Luca trembled as he looked at the horrifying appearance. Sensing Luca’s anxiety, Noah wrapped his arms around his neck and patted his shoulder. As Noah’s gestures and Luca’s breathing gradually synchronized, he regained his composure and felt his trembling stop.

Luca held his breath; he dared not pull his eyes away from the air vent for fear of making eye contact. He was afraid that the sound of his breathing might give him away. Noah, who had been continuously watching outside, waited for Michael Voorhees to disappear and saw him turn the corner and go in a different direction. After waiting long enough for him to get far enough away, he spoke.

“This isn’t going to work. Let’s move.”

“Where?”

“Somewhere with a decent weapon, rather than here. This won’t do. It’s only a matter of time before we get caught if we stay here.”

At Noah’s words, Luca racked his brain. Stationery items like utility knives were not allowed in the school. He didn’t really remember seeing anything inside the school that could be used to cut someone. After searching his mind, he finally remembered one thing.

“Ah! There should be a saw in the art room. The kind used for for building sets or sculpting.”

“Good. Let’s go there.”

Noah smiled with satisfaction and nodded. Unlike the goat’s lifeless eyes, which were only glassy, Noah’s shone with vitality. Luca felt both satisfied and tormented that those brown eyes were directed at him.