Chapter 3: The Missing Body
The sickening THUD from below had ripped through the last vestiges of their playful mood, leaving behind a chilling silence.
For a long moment, no one moved.
The broken window, a jagged, gaping maw, let in a rush of cold, night air, carrying with it the faint, metallic tang of blood that made their stomachs churn.
Then, a collective jolt seemed to run through the group.
"Hiroshi!" Sakura shrieked, her voice high and thin with terror.
Kaito, still clutching his phone, was the first to scramble to the broken window.
He peered out into the inky blackness below, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
"I... I can't see anything! It's too dark!"
Ren, his face pale, pushed past him.
"Move! Let me see!"
He leaned out, straining his eyes against the gloom.
"Nothing! Just trees and shadows!"
Panic began to spread like wildfire.
"He actually jumped?" Yui whispered, her voice trembling. "He actually jumped?"
"No, no way," Akari stammered, trying to sound logical, but her eyes were wide with fear.
"It has to be a trick. A prank. He's probably hiding somewhere."
"But the sound... the thud," another student, Haruna, whimpered, clutching her arms.
"We have to go down!" Kaito declared, his voice shaky but firm.
"We have to find him!"
Without another word, the group stumbled over each other, rushing towards the grand staircase.
Their earlier laughter was gone, replaced by frantic whispers and the pounding of their feet on the old wooden steps.
They descended two flights, their hearts hammering with every creak and groan of the ancient hotel.
The sweet, decaying floral scent seemed to follow them, growing stronger with every floor.
They burst through the heavy lobby doors, their frantic energy filling the vast, dimly lit space.
The reception desk was empty, Mr. Kuroda nowhere in sight.
The lobby was silent, save for their own ragged breaths and pounding hearts.
Ignoring the empty desk, the students flung open the massive front doors and spilled out onto the hotel's front lawn.
The night air was cold, but they barely noticed.
Their flashlights, now frantically activated on their phones, cut shaky beams through the darkness.
They searched the ground directly below the broken third-floor window.
"Hiroshi!" Kaito yelled, his voice cracking. "Hiroshi, where are you?!"
They spread out, their beams sweeping across the manicured bushes, the ancient trees, the gravel path.
They looked under benches, behind statues, in every shadow.
The ground was soft earth and scattered leaves.
There was no sign of a body.
No crumpled form, no dark stain, no disturbed foliage.
Nothing.
"He's not here," Ren whispered, his voice laced with a strange mix of relief and confusion.
"There's nothing. No body. He's not here!"
"It was a prank!" Yui exclaimed, a nervous, almost hysterical laugh escaping her.
"He must have set it up! He's probably hiding, waiting for us to freak out!"
A wave of confused relief washed over some of the students.
It had to be a prank.
It was the only explanation that made sense.
But the thud had been so real.
The broken window is real.
"But where is he?" Akari asked, her brow furrowed.
"And how did he do it? No one could jump from three stories and just... disappear."
"He probably had a trampoline or something hidden," Ren suggested, though his eyes still darted nervously into the shadows.
"Or maybe he landed in a bush and ran off."
The initial terror began to recede, replaced by a tense, uncomfortable feeling.
If it was a prank, it was a cruel one.
A really, really cruel one.
They stood on the lawn for a few more moments, shivering from the cold and the lingering shock, before slowly making their way back inside.
As they entered the grand lobby, they saw other students emerging from the elevators and staircases, drawn by the commotion.
"What happened? We heard a crash!" a girl named Emi called out, her eyes wide.
"Did something break?"
Ren, still trying to maintain his cool, forced a shrug.
"Yeah, Hiroshi just jumped out the third-floor window. Total drama queen. We think it's a prank. We can't find his body anywhere."
A murmur of disbelief and nervous laughter went through the newly arrived students.
"Jumped out the window? Seriously?""That's messed up, even for Hiroshi."
"But... why would he do that?" another student, Daiki, asked, looking at the main group with concern.
"And why is everyone so pale?"
"We don't know!" Yui exclaimed, her voice still shaky.
"It was just... weird. And Mr. Sato's still not back. Has anyone seen him?"
They looked around the lobby, then checked their phones.
"Oh, man, my phone has no service," Kaito mumbled, tapping his screen.
Others checked theirs.
No signal.
Not a single bar.
The hotel's Wi-Fi, already spotty, was completely dead.
They were cut off.
The confusion and a growing sense of helplessness began to escalate into a chaotic clamor.
They were stuck.
Alone in an old hotel, with a missing teacher, no way to contact the outside world, and the chilling mystery of Hiroshi's impossible disappearance hanging heavy in the air.
The night was far from over.