FDD 7

The boy lunged toward Luca and Noah, but was sent flying far away after being struck in the head by Noah, who had stopped abruptly and swung his hockey stick with all his might. Luca marveled at this while gasping for air. He commented that the football and baseball worlds would have to battle over Noah.

“Heh, heh-heh-heh!”

The boy jumped to his feet and chuckled as if it was the most amusing thing in the world. He bent down and lunged at Luca, but the attempt ended in failure as Luca quickly stepped back. The boy stretched out his right arm to grab him again, but his half-severed shoulder muscle could not function properly. Because Luca swung his bat at that spot, the boy’s right arm gradually turned into a rag.

Noah, who was standing nearby, struck the boy’s head again with his hockey stick, and Luca, seizing the brief pause, hit him in the head with his bat as well.

Clang!

The sound of the aluminum bat colliding with his skull echoed through the hallway. Noah took advantage of the commotion to struck the same spot again with the bottom of his hockey stick.

Thud!

This time, the sound of a skull shattering was heard. Literally, the skull was shattered, and one side of the boy’s head had caved in. Even though his brain was dead, the shock of his skull shattering must have been enough. The boy stopped before clutching his deformed skull with both hands, and Noah and Luca ran forward in that moment.

They did not go straight into the art studio. This was because the studio was located in the hallway that extended straight from where they had struck the boy’s head, so the boy could see them. The two turned a corner to get out of the boy’s sight and quickly hid inside the room right in front of them.

That room was on the corner, and passing through the other door led to the hallway where the art studio was located. Just like when they were in the storage room, the two dragged stolen contentsurrounding furniture to block the door and decided to observe the boy’s movements from inside.

When they heard a crashing sound from outside, Luca and Noah crouched down beneath the window to hide. Unlike Luca, Noah was so big that his hiding posture looked ridiculous. Luca found Noah’s appearance amusing. Eventually, unable to hold it in, he laughed.

“…Pfft!”

Startled, Luca hurriedly covered his mouth with his hand, but it was too late. The laughter had already escaped, and it was audible to Noah as well.

“Is it fun?”

Noah frowned exaggeratedly and pretended to be sulky, while Luca shook his head from side to side with his mouth covered. Even so, when Noah turned his head away pretending to be upset, Luca felt a little apologetic and leaned over to Noah. Just then, the cigarette pack Luca had stuffed into his inner pocket fell to the floor.

“……”

“…..”

Noah unconsciously shifted his gaze toward the source of the sound. He could see Luca’s cigarette pack more clearly than anything else. Embarrassed, Luca tried to quickly grab the pack, but Noah’s hand was faster. He opened Luca’s cigarette pack and looked inside. There were only four cigarettes in the pack.

Noah closed the pack again and held it out to Luca. The latter quickly grabbed the pack and tried to pull it toward himself, but Noah wouldn’t let go. It looked as though Luca and Noah were amicably sharing the pack, each holding one side. After a moment, Noah loosened his grip on the pack and asked,

“…When did you start smoking?”

Luca quickly tucked the pack back into his jacket and tried to answer as calmly as possible.

“The year before last? I don’t remember exactly.”

Even when asked when he started smoking, Luca didn’t know either. The one thing Luca could be certain of was that he started smoking after cutting ties with Noah.

“What was so hard?”

Even though Noah had a grim expression because he hated cigarettes, he was still worried about Luca.

Noah was so kind. So much so.

Luca gave the most plausible and appropriate answer to Noah’s question. It wasn’t a wrong answer. It just wasn’t the decisive reason.

“You know what my family is like. ‘You have to go to the Ivy League,’ ‘You have to listen to your elders at school and at home,’ ‘You have to do everything well,’ ‘Obey God and always be thankful,’ and so on and so forth… Dad says that all the time, so how could I possibly endure it? If I say I can’t go to church on Sunday once in a while, he gets furious. It cut back a bit after I got accepted to medical school, but now that it’s actually calmed down, it’s not that great? It’s like getting into med school all there is… Anyway, since I hear those things every day at home, I find myself putting a cigarette in my mouth without even realizing it. And now that I smoke, I can’t even go to Dad for a checkup because I’m afraid he’ll find out.

“What?”

Luca rambled on for no particular reason. Since it was true that he usually had a hard time because of his parents, the words came easily. Noah, who had been listening to what stolen content Luca was saying, opened his mouth once Luca finished speaking.

“…I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m giving you orders, but you should have just come find me instead. I would have listened to whatever you had to say. I hate seeing you ruin your health like that.”

How could he go find Noah when one of the main reasons he smoked was Noah? His words were a contradiction.

However, Luca tried to lighten the mood by smiling as if nothing were wrong.

“I was trying to quit too. I was out of breath when I ran earlier.”

“…”

Noah stared at Luca silently, and Luca’s smile, which had been quite natural, gradually froze into an awkward expression. He wiped the smile away and tapped the floor with his fingernails. Noah reached into his back pocket, took out a tin case, and held it out to Luca.

“If you’re bored, eat this. You can’t smoke here. I don’t want to be a passive smoker either.”

What Noah offered Luca was spearmint candy in a light green tin case. Luca hesitated for a moment before opening the tin case resting on Noah’s palm. In the process, their hands touched, and Luca could clearly feel Noah’s body heat at his fingertips.

Although the contact was brief, he could tell that Noah’s body temperature was very high. Luca had the foolish thought that the candies in Noah’s hand might melt. Noah’s body temperature wasn’t that hot, but to Luca, Noah shone brighter and was hotter than any fire.

The tin case contained round, pill-like mint candies. Luca picked up two candies, put them in his mouth, [Read on]and rolled them around a few times. The candy, made from compressed powder, crumbled. A refreshing, tingling mint scent spread over his tongue.

Noah watched as Luca put the candies in his mouth, then closed the lid of the tin case and put it back in his pocket. Then, he stretched out, stood up, and yawned. He gently pushed aside the furniture blocking the door, opened it, and looked outside.

Fortunately, there was nothing there. Now was the perfect time to move, so Noah gestured to Luca. It meant they should go.

Luca nodded slightly, then stood up and rolled the candies around in his mouth while stretching his stiff body. He had to get ready to dive back into this crazy situation.

Luca followed Noah, who was leading the way. His back was very broad and looked sturdy. Since the art studio was very close, they were able to arrive quickly. Noah grabbed the doorknob and turned it. However, it only made a hollow sound, and the door did not open. Noah tried turning the doorknob a few more times, then he let out a sigh.

“The door is locked.”

It was a situation he hadn’t anticipated. In his panic, Luca brought his hand to his mouth to bite his nails, but Noah stopped him, so he put his hand down. Struggling to suppress his anxiety, Luca looked around and spotted a red fire extinguisher hanging on the wall. He felt like he could do something with it.

“Noah.”

“Yes?”

Noah, who had been staring silently at the doorknob, looked at Luca with an affectionate gaze even in that moment. As Luca struggled to ignore his gaze and pointed at the fire extinguisher, Noah nodded, unfastened it, and picked it up. Then, he immediately slammed it down on the doorknob.

Clang!

The sound of metal colliding echoed through the hallway. It was loud enough to attract attention.

Feeling anxious, Noah struck the doorknob again, and after just two blows, the handle fell to the floor.

Despite this brief obstacle, Luca and Noah were able to successfully enter the art studio. However, the noise made when opening the door must have drawn attention. Luca and Noah had to find the saw quickly.

The studio was a rectangular room resembling a cube, with a large wooden table in the center. Because there were many items to store, the walls facing each other – excluding the one with the door and the one directly opposite – were filled with drawers reaching to the ceiling. Tools were bound to be contained within those drawers.

They had to find the saw among the countless drawers. Luca, holding the heavy fire extinguisher in his arms instead of a baseball bat, began by opening the drawers on the lower floor. The bottom corner drawer contained oil pastels and colored pencils, but they were useless unless Michael Voorhees and the crazy boy were artists.

The drawer above it contained something at least somewhat useful. It held carving knives of various shapes. However, the metal parts of the carving knives were only about two finger joints long, so they would likely only tickle the monsters. And even when he opened the drawers above that, there were only printmaking tools, red ink, and pens. To search deep inside, Luca picked up an ink bottle but the ink bottle slipped from his hand all too easily and fell to the floor.

Crash!

The ink bottle let out a shrill scream as it spilled out the ink it had been holding inside. The ink was a vivid, transparent red, reminiscent of the puddle of blood the boy had spilled. The sight made Luca anxious. However, the shame of having made a mistake while with Noah outweighed his fear, so Luca glanced nervously at Noah before pretending that nothing was wrong.

He acted as if the red ink splattered all over his pants were invisible. Despite Luca’s efforts, Noah, who had known about the mistake all along, pretended not to notice, just as Luca wanted.

While Luca continued his fruitless actions, Noah rummaged through the room just like him. The drawers Noah opened contained oil paints, watercolors, and worn-out brushes, all left unorganized.

While repeating his pointless activities, Noah discovered a hacksaw in one of the drawers. It was the most useful item among what he had found, but even that was only useful for dismembering corpses. Moreover, the blade was blunt, making it look useless.

Noah put the hacksaw back down in its place and set out to look for something else. Even while searching the room, Luca kept a close eye on the fire extinguisher, never knowing what might appear at any moment. However, the extinguisher was too heavy for his wrist to bear. He kept switching hands to lift it, but unable to endure the throbbing pain in his wrist, he placed the extinguisher on the wooden table.

To quickly search inside, he hurried toward the built-in cabinet on the opposite wall and smiled.

This was because the cabinet had a small door that he hadn’t noticed earlier. The cabinet looked sturdy and seemed likely to be storing something dangerous. And Luca’s hunch was exactly right. He had finally found a saw there. Unable to hide his excitement, Luca turned to look at Noah with a bright expression.

“Noah, over here!”

At that, Noah turned his back and walked toward Luca. Then, Noah picked up the saw with a sleek blade on only one side.

The two were about to leave the room. However, they heard the sound of thumping footsteps drawing closer. Noah and Luca looked at each other in silence. In Noah’s eyes, Luca, whose eyes were wide with surprise, looked small, while in Luca’s eyes, Noah’s face, with his lips pursed in a resolute silence, was reflected. They could not leave like this. The footsteps were excessively loud, and if they did, they would come face-to-face immediately.

Luca hugged the fire extinguisher, and Noah, after hiding under the table where he could at least conceal himself, reached out his hand to Luca.

Luca grabbed Noah’s hand without even noticing his body heat. Noah’s hand was dry, while Luca’s was terribly damp. They held each other’s hands tightly.

Noah and Luca held their breath while hiding under the table.

The sound of footsteps grew closer, and Luca flinched. He lowered his gaze as much as possible, but it was not easy to ignore the source of the sound. It was Michael Voorhees, wearing a stuffed goat head. Michael Voorhees entered, still clutching a knife. His footsteps were so leisurely, slow and lazy, like a hunting beast.

It was an expression of arrogance, a conviction that he could never be the weaker party in this space. Michael Voorhees slowly walked past the studio. His long, curled horns gradually concealed his body until they soon vanished from sight.

Luca let out a sigh of relief, but it was too early. Michael Voorhees suddenly stepped into the studio!

Crack!

Michael Voorhees stepped on a broken ink bottle, but he paid no heed. It was only Luca who flinched at the sound of shattered glass being trampled, as if he were the one being stepped on. Red footprints were left wherever Voorhees passed due to the ink pooling beneath the soles of his shoes. It felt like a proclamation that every place he went would become a sea of blood, forcing Luca to curl up even more.

Luca clutched the fire extinguisher tightly, and Noah adjusted his grip on the saw handle. Michael Voorhees walked slowly, then suddenly stopped. He abruptly bent down, facing directly in the direction where Noah and Luca were. Consequently, Luca had no choice but to make eye contact with the glass eyeballs attached to the stuffed goat.

It seemed that Michael Voorhees’s failure to look at Luca and Noah as soon as he entered was simply intended to drive them further into a psychological corner. He knew where Luca and Noah were even before he entered. They were hiding so poorly that it would have been harder not to know. Luca knew this too. Nevertheless, Michael Voorhees instilled a glimmer of hope in Luca. He briefly thought that it was all just to mock him. However, there was no time to figure out Voorhees’s intentions. Michael Voorhees was getting closer and closer.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!