I kept walking.
“There was an accident in the tunnel.”
I kept walking.
“It was a white Matex compact car. Someone inside the driver’s side door is waving. Right there, just behind you.”
Tap tap.
The steady sensation of my right shoulder being tapped.
“Turn around.”
A whisper in my ear.
A presence stuck right up against me, walking in exactly the same rhythm as I did through the dark tunnel.
Very close.
“I think it was a hit-and-run.”
I kept my eyes facing forward.
…From behind, the broken headlights of the white Matex compact car shone on me. Because of that, my shadow stretched ahead of me.
And inside that car…
Swish… swish…
the shadow of someone waving.
“You saw it, didn’t you?”
A chill rose from my shoulders, and my heart slammed. There’s something beside me. There’s something beside me. There’s something—
“Mr. Cat. Please start your scary story!”
My heart nearly dropped out of my chest.
“Wasn’t that just a scary story? Saying someone’s beside you when there isn’t anybody there.”
“Ahaha. Is that so?”
…!
I barely managed to open my dry mouth and answer.
“…That’s right. A scary story.”
Yeah.
One must never turn around and run, nor act alone.
With this many people, there was no way that would happen. But honestly, blurting out that there was someone beside me and begging them to do something about it would be idiotic.
Ignore it.
I had to suppress the panic.
I had to ignore it as naturally as possible.
And to do that…
I have…