Zone in the Distance 1

There was a distant call.

It wasn’t a call like one would get from a phone, neither was it a call one would hear passing by a political speech, it wasn’t even a call one would find themselves turning to when a friend spoke to them in a school hallway. The call reached out as if it was through a thick layer of water. Its sound was muffled, distant and one could barely make sense of it. But it was a call nonetheless, a distant voice echoing through the dark abyss.

Deep within the abyss was a girl barely into her second decade. She looked up from the bottom of the abyss’ waters towards the glimmering surface. The call reached for her and she struggled to move. She didn’t know if it was even meant for her but, slowly but surely, she swam to answer it.

Something or someone made the effort of reaching her, all she had to do was answer it.

…..

….

…

Furukichi Ayame opened her eyes as she realized that she dozed off. The bell for her stop went off and she watched as students from her school began moving. It was time to get off or else she’ll end up several stations away from where she was supposed to stop. The morning commute from her home to school always gave her time to doze off so she took whatever sleep she could. It was hard enough to get decent sleep with the workload she kept getting so any brief moment of rest was appreciated.

She hugged her schoolbag on her lap before she too got up. Following the mass of high school students, she went through the station with little issue. The morning ambience was comforting in that it was familiar, people talked, greeted one another or simple spoke to others over their phones.

It was just the din of everyday life, a peaceful life, one that she was currently content with as she made her way to school alongside the other students. She passed by some widescreen advertisement for an Idol Concert only for them to turned black in their next Ad transition. Ayame caught a glance of herself on the screen wearing her tan colored skirt with her blazer tied around her hips. Her dark schoolbag hung over her shoulder was the same color as her hair which swayed behind her back.

A normal high school girl stared right back at her before she kept going.

It was the start of a new stage in her life. High School.

It was a tumultuous time in which people sought to change themselves in order to make a better impression on others. It could be said it was a popular rite of passage for those unfortunate enough to go through a sad Middle School. It didn’t come to a surprise to Ayame that as she made her way to school, she found awkward boys trying to speak to his fellows before class or girls exchanging empty words with one another about their image changes. Of course there were some people that were just content with who they were.

Ayame sighed as she put on her earphones and set her music playlist to shuffle. She stopped by the school gates and looked up at the Sakura Trees blooming. Students idled by the trees or old friends met up with one another, the First Day of school always seemed to be like this. Unfortunately for Ayame she didn’t have any friends to meet up here or recognize due to her family only recently moving in Tokyo.

She was a long way from her hometown in the countryside but she didn’t mind it. Ayame was always happy to experience new things.

Somehow, she felt that this was the start of a good year for her.

…..

….

…

Having somehow survived the atrociously boring entrance ceremony, Ayame found herself idling in her new classroom. She greeted and exchanged words with some of her new classmates, some of them were curious about her while others were only looking for someone to speak with. They weren’t bad people at all, just a bunch of nervous high schoolers looking to fit in and Ayame tried helping them with that.

However, her exchanges with her classmates came to a halt as the Homeroom Teacher stepped in. It was then that Ayame was surprised for the first time. The teacher was a foreigner, tall and rugged dressed in a dark blue polo shirt and dark pants. His blue eyes were crystal clear, aged and sharp enough to seemingly look into one’s soul.

His graying hair was swept back on his head with his beard trimmed to a modest length. He was broad shouldered and powerful, some of the more delinquent boys tensed up by just the sight of him. He carried with him his suitcase and set it down on his table.

“Greetings,” he then grabbed a chalk near the blackboard and wrote his name on the surface. Lowering his hand only when he finished writing it and facing the class once more, “My name is Nikolai Kuznetsov, I will be your English and Homeroom Teacher for this school year. It’s great to meet with all of you and I hope you will have a pleasant year. Please, do take care of me. Now in the interest of time, we will be undergoing a rollcall. I hope you’re all within your assigned seats. Seat Number 1: Aokawa Shinichi?”

“Present!” a boy with a shaven head barked.

Nikolai raised an eyebrow at him and said, “At ease, boy. We’re not in the military.”

“Sorry, sensei,” the boy apologized.

The rollcall continued with students raising their hands and answering to the call of their names. Some of them even added little bits about themselves as some sort of introduction but the Teacher didn’t mind that. As the rollcall went on, the students began to feel more comfortable, finding themselves at ease as the initial shock of Mr. Kuznetsov’s appearance faded.

That was until Ayame had her name called.

“Furukichi Ayame?” Nikolai called.

Ayame slowly stood up and raised her hand, “Here.”

She exchanged looks with the Teacher for a half second before she sat back down. No different from the other students, she did what she was supposed to do. She didn’t stand out or neither did anything change that much. For a moment there, she thought that things would be more exciting with a strange foreigner as a Teacher in her school but she soon realized that he was just probably another instructor.

Her mind began to wander again until she fell back into autopilot once more. Just when she thought that something different was going to go off, it slowly turned back to familiar normalcy. That was actually a bad thing but, she just found it a bit disappointing. Glancing out the window, she saw dark clouds gather in the distance. There was this feeling at the back of her mind, a feeling she couldn’t quite explain…

It was almost like a longing she didn’t understand how to appease.

…..

….

…

Rain fell and she found herself running through the streets. A hiss of frustration left her lips as she ran down the sidewalk she was on while carrying a bag of her favorite crepes. It was a bit much for one person but it was one of the few stimulations she found joy in partaking. Some stupid rain wasn’t going to ruin this for her.

Ayame continued to run, her legs moving as fast as they could while she tried to find adequate shelter. She ended up running to a dark building to take shelter from the rain. A grimace filled her face as she checked to see the damage. She was soaked but it wasn’t too bad. Maybe she would need to call her parents to pick her up.

A sigh left her lips as she stepped back and leaned against the boarded doors of the building behind her. She took out her food and looked up the gray skies, taking a bite as she thought back to her first day at school. Ayame didn’t quite make friends but she managed to fit in with the rest of the class. She was still left with the hollow feeling in her chest as she stared at the clouds.

It was all the same.

It was always peaceful.

Nothing ever changed.

“How boring,” Ayame breathed as she felt the wood behind her back snap.

Her eyes widened and she cried out in surprise, her crepe flying into the air as she fell back and hit the ground.

“No!” Ayame yelled as her food plopped on the ground unceremoniously. A splash of disappointment dropped inside her stomach as she looked at her wasted food with a heavy heart. With a mourning sigh, Ayame sat on the floor staring at her food before grabbing her bag and standing back up.

The rain echoed within the abandoned building and the interior looked like it hasn’t been entered for a long time. Ayame frowned and she barely even recognized the abandoned building in the distance before she took shelter but being here just felt right for her. She tried to check her phone but there was apparently no signal here, confusing her even further.

She was in the heart of the Tokyo Metropolis; how could she not have signal here? Her grimace turned to a look of annoyance before she used her phone to light the inside of the building. Checked floors and decorative plants that had rotten greeted her upon shining her light upon them.

Looking back, the exit remained open for her, broken pieces of woods scattered along the ground she fell on. Ayame looked within the building and found herself taking a step forward, inspecting what seemed to be the building’s lobby as defunct elevators stood on either side of the hall. Her footsteps echoed as the musty smell of a place never been visited in a long time made her wrinkle her nose.

This place couldn’t have been more than 40 years old. Places like this would have been demolished a long time ago with a new building raised on top of it. It reminded her of the Sunshine 60 building built on top of a prison.

“Creepy,” Ayame breathed as she continued exploring, walking past the reception desk and finding a staircase.

Unfortunately, the path upwards was boarded up and blocked by chairs and desks. She would have to find another way up. Rust and decay marked the railings of the stairs while pieces of the blockade began to wear down, quite possibly from age.

There were signs that building walls have been struck heavily by earthquakes given the cracks and broken pieces. This place must have been vacated due to the danger of a collapse. However even knowing that, the girl found a path down.

“That’s pretty dark,” she breathed as she shined her phone light downwards. There shouldn’t be anyone or anything here. The lobby looked like it hadn’t been visited in a long time… It’s not possible for someone to be down there.

The darkness was just playing with her mind at this point. The smart move would be to head back but… If she stepped out again, she’ll probably never change. She’ll end up remembering this as just one fascinating excursion.

“I don’t want that,” Ayame frowned as she took the first step down below the building, followed by another step, and then another. The air was stale, stagnant and quite old. It hurt breathing it in and Ayame had to use her handkerchief to breathe.

Some portions of the lower levels were blocked but she did find a path that was noticeably clear. Eventually, she came upon a fire exit door and opened it, leading her to a wide open abandoned parking lot. Moving her flashlight, she could see rubble and old cars left here to rot and decay.

Water flowed from the streets above while the foul smell of sewage drifted through the enclosed air. Her shoes splashed against the ground as she saw at the center of the underground parking lot was a door. It was wide, almost twice bigger than she was and seemed to be sealed by a valve-like wheel.

“Now that’s strange. This is a parking lot, why would a door of that size be here?” Ayame wondered as she passed by some ruined white vans with the paint peeling off. She shined her light on them and found words she didn’t recognize.

They certainly weren’t Japanese.

“Chinese?” Ayame blinked in surprise as she got up and turned to the door.

She tried taking a picture of it but the image turned out blurred and dark… No, it was distorted. A chill went down Ayame’s spine as she looked to the door again. Internalizing what she was feeling, it was a mixture of curiosity and familiarity.

It was an odd feeling; she wasn’t sure if it was even hers.

Walking towards the steel door, she noticed that it was slightly ajar. Grabbing its edge, she pulled and found that it wouldn’t budge. She turned off her light and pocketed her phone, pulling on the edge of the door and using all of her might. Soon, a loud scraping sound was heard the door slowly moved.

Ayame stepped back and she felt… Wind.

As if greeted by the breath of life, her eyes widened as she stared into the gaping maw of the darkness which laid ahead of her. It was dark, so pitch black that light seemed to have been absorbed by the darkness before it could even travel far.

Taking out her cellphone, Ayame turned on her flashlight to see the way. Was it a tunnel? An underground passage? Ayame heard stories of the Chinese Mafia being as bad as the Yakuza, engaging in human trafficking and Artifact Trade. Curiosity overwhelmed her as she found herself taking a step toward into the dark… Almost like something was beckoning her inside.

Almost like she was being called to…

There was a distant call.