Chapter 6

  Black company, if you ever heard of a place where social being of their worker and working conditions weren't on the list of "must be prioritize", then may the gods or whatever deity you believe guide you.

  When the industrialization and business competition boom, unending development in the economy, and rapid growth in social hierarchy, like a disregarded seed that suddenly sprout, these companies arose.

  Working conditions? Environment? Workers life? Labor law? These things doesn't ring a bell to these types of companies. They rather have a chained rat that doesn't complain, than a barking dog that bites.

  Unfortunately, people can't avert their eyes on them, nor can they avoid it, even how much they want. Thats happen, when you don't want society to judge you. That's how I realized, how pitiful I have become.

  Money can change everything, anyone, and anything. Does it gives you happiness? I will be lying if I said it doesn't, but it doesn't come for free. It's like a swamp, if you don't want to sink, better hold unto something, if you don't, nothing will be left, not even yourself.

  It was December, almost Christmas, just an hour before you heard a loud bang, before the clear sky covered with colors and the surrounding area with scream. In the place where I poured my sweat and blood, where our 1st blessing comes and nightmare follows, atop of our bed, my wife was hanging.

  Holding our child's medical bill, and the money she left behind, I was mourning her death during our daughter's birthday. How did everything comes to this? The once blooming business we have had shutdown, gone bankrupt. The once merry and easy going wife of my, has lost her touch and succumb to alcohol. My once beaming daughter was stucked in the hospital, with only the machine keeping her alive. How did everything that I have worked for, ended up like this? What did I do wrong?

  After her death, I worked my bones in one of the oldest black company in Japan, just to pay our debt and to keep my child alive. Harassment, physical abuse, mental pressure, environmental stress, and workload, I endured everything. But even how much I did, our debt doesn't decrease, she wasn't getting better. I can't deny that there's time where I wish everything ends, my child will cease her breathing, and me meeting my end. And I regretted it.

  When I woke up, I wasn't sleeping anymore on the folding bed near my daughter, nor she was there. The tile walls were replaced with this cold, and old battered ones, with a stone cold floor. I panicked when I didn't saw my daughter, but when I looked around the area, I meet several people, and like me, they were anxious, sacred, and helpless. Everyone of us believe it was just a dream, a nightmare, and some even thought it was prank, a surprise getup from their friends or co-workers, and some, and some didn't care, they were just relieved that they can at least escape from their life, their reality.

  A hour or more came, as we sat there doing nothing, someone among us stood, yelled, and hurriedly walk towards the door beside me

  "Fuck this bullshit! I'm out of this place!"

  None stop himself, and when he opens it

  <[Welcome to the [Unknown Labyrinth] adventurer!] >

  A sudden voice rang in each of us, welcoming us. When everyone heard it, sigh of relief and cheers echoed, thanking it was merely a prank, a getup, a simple on-air joke. I was also too, as I already miss the only child I have. But even when we felt relieved, we are still impatiently awaiting for this getup to end, so we did our best just to enjoy and answer whatever this invisible friend of ours asked.

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  And when we are done

  Wooosh

  We then found ourselves in a long hallway, in this dimly lit, eerily silence, corridor. Everyone of us felt unease, but even so, knowing we can get out, knowing this wasn't real, we anxiously move forward. The quietness was suffocating, but we still hold ourselves and keep moving forward, and within this cold and silent walls

  "Wahhhhhh!"

  A child's cry reverberate.

  "Is my baby hungry?"

  She said, as she gently caress and cradles her child. She then, though a bit embarrass, breastfeed her child. And when it slowly settle down

  "We should con-"

  RAWWWWWRRGHHHHHHHH!!

  "!?!"

  "... Aw....wwaa....Waaaaaahhhhh!"

  "Shhhh, mommy is here. Mommy is here. What was that?"

  "I.. I don't know"

  "D-dont fret on it, everyone. That's just some sfx shit. W-we just need to keep going"

  "His right, we are either in a popular comedy skit, or some popular youngster proposed this setup. Anything you see or hear are either fake, or almost believable, but nothing is trARGHHHH!"

  Bang!

  "!!"

  Pang Pang Pang Thud Thud Thud

  That was his final word

  Roll Roll Roll Thang

  "... Aaa... AHHHHHHHHH!!"

  Before his head rolls towards us, and his body flew. We just then noticed the long, black hand that killed him, as it retracted back to where it came from.

  "Ahhhhhhhhh!"

  And that's where chaos, started. Everyone of us didn't care to who is who anymore, we elbow anyone who gets in our way, shove anyone out when they gets in our way, pull them when they get in our way, and drag them when we fall. It was disorder.

  I run as fast as I can, didn't bother to look back as those screams resound, and didn't even stop when someone fell in front of me. I just keep running, and running, and running. That was the 1st time I was afraid to look at death.

  As we got away from that monster, we found ourselves inside an empty room. I stumble down and heave a breath, trying to calm my beating heart, trying to settle my shaking hands, trying to hold myself together.

  "Hic Hic... Ahhhh... Hic Hic.. My baby Ahhhh My poor baby Hic Hic hahaaahhhh I'm sorry.... Ahhh..... I'm so sorry"

  The once 40 cherry people was left with 19 exhausted individuals.

  "Hahhhh Hah What the fuck!? I thought this was frank!? What the hell was that!!?"

  He furiously yelled, as he look at us.

  "That bastard just died, in front of us! And those people were massacred by that.. That.. That fucking shit!"

  His eyes then landed to someone, standing at his side, not far from him

  "Hey! Isn't you the one who said it was a frank? Huh!?"

  Closing the gap between them, he then forcefully pulled him and push him

  "You motherfucker said it was a prank! A fucking shitty prank! Then what the fuck are those then, ha!? You damn fucking shit! You killed them, you piece of shit! You fucking shit almost killed us all!"

  He cursed as he keep pushing him by the shoulder, repetitively placing the blame unto him, yet

  ".... "

  He didn't respond, only staring at him with a blank face.

  "You fucker!"

  Pissing him off even more

  "You damn fuck! You better take responsibility here you little shit! You hear!? You fucking bastard better ha-... Ghahhhh...aghhhh...."

  And just like the 1st, it happens so fast. Quick and easy

  "..... You..... Fuck..."

  A long black spear suddenly pierced him from his abdomen towards the back of his shoulder, dripping with blood. And the man itself, simply smiled as his neck twisted in a grotesque manner, and his head, as if being squeeze, slowly shrinking

  Bang!

  And pops like a bubble. Silence then envelope the room as everyone frooze in their place, weighted by the death before them.

  "Stop!"

  Until a sudden yell shattered the stillness. As everyone turned their heads, they then saw a man behind them, holding a black knife pointing at his head, and a woman beside him, with her arms and legs being twisted, like a puppet. As the woman's body turned in a gruesome turn and her mouth tightly shut in a disoriented form, the man, with a silent and blank look, keep stabbing himself without a care, motionless to his doing, landing each thrust without hesitation. It was disturbing

  Scream and cries then filled the once quiet room, unable to hold back their disgust and fear. And as my body froze in place, my eyes suddenly wonder, and landed to their shadow, creepily smiling as it toyed them without an ounce of mercy. My instincts screamed in plea, signaling me to run, to hide, to get away as fast as can, away from that monster, away from this place

  "Those thing, those thing are dangerous. So whatever you do, don't look at them"

  That once helplessness I felt back then, that hopelessness, I rather die by being eaten alive than to be tortured by them. Those things, those things are monsters among the monsters.