Volume 4 - CH 1.2

“That was a loud scream,” Avril said gleefully as she opened the theater’s swinging door. “You’re such a scaredy-cat, Kujou.”

“I didn’t scream because of the skeleton,” Kazuya denied.

“Of course you didn’t.”

“I’m telling the truth. I was asleep the whole time.”

“Or you were so scared that you couldn’t keep your eyes open. I know you. Besides, if you were asleep, you couldn’t have screamed at that moment, could you?”

“Well, you were choking me.”

“Kujou.” Avril turned around with a serious face.

“What is it?”

“No excuses,” she said.

“What?!”

“Even if you’re a scaredy, pathetic wimp who fails at exams, I will still be your friend.”

Kazuya gave up trying to say anything.

Sure, I’m a little pathetic at times, but I’m definitely not a scaredy-cat, and I get the highest scores in class.

Paying no attention to Kazuya’s brooding, Avril walked out of the movie theater with a spring in her steps.

The busy street was bathed in the light of the early-summer sun. A passing shower had drenched the street, but the skies had cleared up now, and the wooden signboards and the trees lining the street sparkled from the droplets. Triangular roofs, the bright green vines hanging from the windows, and the blooming geranium flowers were dazzling under the sun.

It was a Sunday afternoon.

The two-month-long summer break was just a few days away. With exams over, the days seemed to pass by slowly. Kazuya and Avril were hanging out in the village, not in their uniforms, but casual attire.

Kazuya was wearing a cotton shirt and a leather vest, while Avril had a simple white muslin blouse and a pretty polka-dotted, flared skirt. She walked energetically, swinging her arms around.

“Hmm?” Avril suddenly stopped in her tracks, looking thoughtful.

Kazuya stopped as well. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just, I think I’ve heard that story somewhere before. A masked monster lurking in a black tower, and a woman dying inside.”

Kazuya just nodded, seemingly uninterested. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you did. You read every horror story there is.”

“I suppose.” Avril mulled it over for a bit, then resumed walking. “Hold on a second.” She stopped in front of the post office and went inside.

Kazuya waited patiently for her.

Two tall men came strolling in his direction. One of them had flaming red hair peeking from under his hat, while the other was an oriental man, like Kazuya, with handsome features and a cold look in his eyes.

Girls walking past them looked back at the unfamiliar men, wondering who they were. Noticing their gaze, the men stopped and winked at the girls, who walked away, blushing.

Kazuya watched the men go.

“I’m back!” Avril popped out of the post office, holding a parcel. “I did some mail order shopping. You can send money to some of the bigger stores in Saubreme, and they will deliver the goods you want by mail.”

“Really? I didn’t know that.” Kazuya was impressed.

As they started walking again, Avril said, “I swear I’ve heard of it before.”

“Heard what? Oh, you mean the movie’s plot.”

“I’m serious.”

Avril was unusually quiet as they ambled along the road back to the academy.

Houses became fewer now, replaced by sprawling vineyards on both sides. Grape vines glittered under the summer sun. A wagon slowly rolled past.

The main gate of the school came into sight. When they reached the iron fence, worked in gold and intricate scroll-leaf design, Avril suddenly exclaimed, “Ah!”

“Wh-What is it?”

“I remember now! Over here, Kujou!”

Avril grabbed Kazuya’s hand and pulled him away, through the main gate and into the school grounds.

The campus, modeled after a French-style garden, was more crowded than usual on weekends. Summer vacation was just around the corner, and students were lounging on the benches, gazebos, and the lawn, or laughing as they strolled along the pathwalks. The crystal fountain, wet from the shower earlier, glistened.

“What are you talking about?” Kazuya asked as they ran across the gardens.

“The black tower from the story! I remember where I heard it from!”

Avril stopped. Her blue eyes twinkled like she was really enjoying herself.

Kazuya hesitated for a moment before asking, “Heard where?”

“Here!” Avril exclaimed. “Right here at St. Marguerite Academy. I knew I’d seen that clock tower design somewhere. Look. There it is!” She pointed to the sky.

Kazuya followed her finger and saw a large, old clock tower looming up ahead.

The tower was dark gray, its roof of a pointy, complex shape. Far above, a huge round clock with jet-black hands showed the time.

Kazuya studied the pointed roof. It looked very similar to the black tower in the horror movie. It was too much of a coincidence.

Kazuya and Avril exchanged glances.

“What does this mean?” Kazuya wondered. “Why does our school have the same tower as the one in the movie?”

“Who knows? Maybe it’s some kind of a curse.”

“A curse? Why do you always have to link everything to the occult? Hey, wait. Where are you going?”

Avril approached the clock tower, and Kazuya quickly followed after. Avril slipped through the eerie, dead breech branches that surrounded the tower and stood in front of the door.

Kazuya stopped. A wind blew, sending the dead branches scraping against the stone walls like a sinister whisper. The old, rotting wooden door was covered in layers of cobwebs. He looked up and saw two small windows staring down at them like the eyes of a monster.

“Avril…?”

Avril pulled on the doorknob, but it was locked. Her shoulders slumped in disappointment.

“Looks like we can’t get in,” Kazuya said, relieved.

“Yeah…”

“Well, I have to go to the library, so…”

As soon as she heard the word ‘library,’ Avril abruptly raised her head and grabbed Kazuya’s hand. “Wait, don’t go. A-All you have to do is this!”

“What?”

“U-Uh… this!”

Avril swung her long and slender leg. Her polka-dot flared skirt billowed, and her silky-smooth leg went up in the air for a moment.

She then kicked the door. It fell silent, as though stunned, then slowly creaked open.

Avril frowned in pain and hopped around, moaning. She then forced on a smile. “It’s open!”

“More like broken!”

“S-Same thing. Let’s go check it out!”

Avril pulled on Kazuya’s arm. Despite his protests, Kazuya stepped inside the clock tower.

The inside was darkly-lit and wrapped in dreary silence.

There was a long corridor, followed by a long, narrow staircase. Dust rose as they walked.

Coughing profusely, Avril grabbed Kazuya’s arm. “Weird. I’m getting dizzy.”

“Yeah, me too.”

As they wandered the tower, Kazuya also began to feel a strange discomfort, as though someone was shaking his head.

Avril climbed up the stairs first. A few steps and she tripped and fell on top of Kazuya, screaming, sending them both rolling down the stairs. Coughing, they rose back to their feet.

“Let’s head back,” Kazuya said. “I gotta go to the library.”

“No!”

“…Why not?”

Avril turned around. “Uhm… I think the room in the last scene of that movie is in this tower.”

Kazuya slept through most of the movie, but he remembered the scene she was referring to when he opened his eyes after being strangled by Avril. An eerie room with huge clockworks and a metal pendulum that made a grating noise. It was the room that the masked monster lurking in the Black Tower used as a laboratory for his bizarre experiments.

“I doubt it,” Kazuya said.

Ignoring him, Avril proceeded onward. Both of them were pressing their forefingers to their temples. Their heads hurt for some reason.

Avril eventually found a door. Not paying heed to Kazuya’s protests, she kicked the door open.

She hopped around in pain. “There it is!” Her face lit up.

Kazuya peered into the room too.

It was an eerie gray room, similar to the one in the horror movie The Illusion of the Black Tower, slowly shifting as if it were some creature forgotten in time.

A dim, vast space.

It was hollow all the way above to the dark, high ceiling. The pendulum of the giant clock swung idly from side to side, cutting through the dusty air.

Four huge clockworks whirred, intertwining with the cogs. They made low, bizarre sounds. It was as if they had entered a hellish manufacturing plant. It was both suffocating and horrifying.

Kazuya clenched his fists. Once he had calmed down a little, he surveyed the room.

There was a large ebony table where a variety of laboratory equipment of different sizes lay scattered, like someone had just been here moments ago, except they were all covered in dust and wrapped in the same gray hue that enveloped the entire room.

Kazuya studied one wall. Only a large stained glass window, depicting a flower garden—one red flower blooming amid purple and yellow ones—gave off vivid colors in the otherwise gray workshop.

A dark and sinister room of pendulum and clockworks.

Kazuya swallowed and looked around.

The room was eerily similar to the movie they had just seen.

What does this mean, he wondered. He looked to his side.

Avril was deep in thought. “Maybe…”

“…Maybe what?”

“I told you the film’s story sounded familiar, right? I remember now. It’s very similar to one of the stories about this school.”