Chapter 9 – The Boogieman - Part 2
Day 19 – 573 students remaining.
Shuji wakes up and begins his day. Unknown to him, the boogieman is preparing for the morning announcement.
Somewhere else in the city, in a dark basement, the girl who was abducted last night wakes up. She looks around in a panic and tries to move but is unable to. She looks down and realises she is chained up to as makeshift medieval torture device. The room is full of blood and tools.
“H…help.”
The girl notices the noise and slowly looks to left with a look of terror on her face. She notices that two other people are tied up on similar devices to her left. A creaking sound occurs. The sound of chains being dragged down the stairs then begins to echo through the quiet basement.
The girl closes her eyes and pretends to be asleep. Once the noise has stopped, she slightly opens her eyes out of curiosity. The boogieman stands with his back towards them as he places the chains on the table.
“One person isn’t enough anymore. If they resist, then there’s a chance I could be chosen. Three should be my guarantee.”
The boogieman appears to be making something as he speaks. The girl looks to the corner of the room and notices one of the camera guns.
“Wakey wakey.”
The girl proceeds to shut her eyes as hard as she can as the boogieman turns around and begins to walk towards them.
Luckily for her, the boogieman has turned his attention to the man who is in the middle. The man wakes up.
“Where am I?”
He wakes up to see the boogieman directly in front of him and begins to scream. The boogieman quickly puts his hand on screaming man’s mouth. He then pulls out a wrench.
“Your turn to suffer. As long as you keep a smile, you can survive. Now, smile or die.”
Back at the office, Shuji is talking to Kanna and Maro Taro about their next move. The two of them are split on the issue. Maro Taro is pushing for an investigation.
“We have to go after him. We have to find him and bring him to justice!”
Kanna seems to disagree.
“Are you insane? You want us to go after a deranged kidnapper? We should leave this to Mikuni!”
Kanna turns her attention to Shuji.
“Shuji, back me up here!”
Shuji is still contemplating.
“I’m still not sure. Though, I’ll meet with Mikuni to discuss the situation again.
”
Shuji leaves his building and begins to head towards Mikuni’s office. Shuji stops as the morning announcement begins.
“The time is 7am. This is day 19. The system has decided that Hiro Abe is the saddest person in the city.”
Unknown to Shuji, this is the man who the boogieman is currently torturing.
Shuji heads into Mikuni’s office and takes the elevator up to his floor.
“Mikuni, I need to talk to you about the boogieman.”
Mikuni is surprised.
“So, he’s real then?”
Shuji looks uncertain.
“I can’t say for sure. But I have a feeling that he is.”
Mikuni gets slightly annoyed.
“A feeling isn’t good enough to justify action, Shuji.”
Shuji continues to speak.
“People aren’t feeling safe enough to leave their homes at night. I feel that it could result in some unrest if no action is taken.”
Mikuni speaks up.
“Fine, I’ll have a few men patrol the streets at night, that should be enough to make everybody feel safe.”
Shuji nods in agreement. Before Shuji could leave, he notices that outside of Mikuni’s window, a wall is being constructed in the city. Shuji instantly begins to question it.
“What’s that?”
Mikuni turns to see the wall.
“Oh, that? I ordered a wall to be constructed throughout the city. To separate Kenro’s territory from my own.”
Shuji wonders if this measure is a bit extreme.
“Is that really necessary?”
Mikuni shakes his head.
“Not at all. I no longer have the patience to try and get Kenro in line. I think it’s best that the eastern part of the city is sealed away. Don’t worry, my men will still deliver food rations there.”
Shuji does not believe this to be the right course of action but holds his tongue. Shuji knows that the only thing that should be on his mind right now is catching the boogieman.
“Alright. In the meanwhile, I’ll work on finding out the boogieman’s identity.”
Shuji heads back to the office where he regroups with Kanna and Maro Taro. Kanna is the first to question Shuji.
“What’s happening?”
Shuji responds with some form of optimism.
“Mikuni is going to put some of his crew on patrol at night.”
Thought it’s not everything that they had hoped for, they all seem calm knowing that some form of action will be taken. However, as the city detectives, they know the job falls on them to find the boogieman. Shuji has already begun to think about the next step.
“Tomorrow, we’ll go to the eastern part of the city and try to gather information. If I was the boogieman, that’s where I’d be hiding.”
Maro Taro is unsure about this.
“What about Kenro and his crew? I don’t think they’ve forgotten about the food parcel incident.”
Shuji brushes off Maro Taro’s concerns.
“We’ll cross that road when we come to it. I don’t think Kenro wants any trouble just yet, considering he’s getting his own territory soon.”
Kanna is confused by this statement.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Shuji begins to elaborate on the wall he saw from Mikuni’s office.
“Mikuni’s building a wall that separates everyone from the far eastern side of the city.”
Kanna feels strongly about this and voices her opinion.
“That’s not right. Nobody deserves to be stuck under Kenro’s control.”
Despite Kanna’s anger at this, Shuji tries to confront her.
“I feel the same. But we aren’t the ones who get to make that call.”
As nightfall arises, the streets are empty. One of Mikuni’s crew is patrolling the city, armed with a bat. He hears a strange noise coming from a dark alleyway and decides to walk through it.
“Hello?”
The man from Mikuni’s crew heads further down the alleyway. As he keeps slowly walking, the suspense builds. Unknown to him, the boogieman now stands behind him. The boogieman lifts a tool up and strikes the victim on the head, knocking him unconscious.
The member of Mikuni’s crew falls to the ground as the sound of his bat falling and bouncing echoes through the dark alleyway.
The boogieman strikes again.
