Horror Game Developer: My games aren't that scary! novel Chapter 26

Chapter 26: The missing piece [4]

Silence.

The moment the music stopped, everything grew still. The breath behind me faded—and with it, all the noise.

I was alone now.

Utterly, impossibly alone in the room.

But the memories of what had just happened still lingered in my mind, pressing in on my mind from all sides.

My chest rose and fell unevenly, lips trembling, hands clutching the armrest so tightly they began to ache.

It took minutes—long, dragging minutes—before I could steady myself enough to breathe again.

'I survived.'

At least, I hoped I had.

Darkness still wrapped around me like a second skin, caressing me with its cold touch. I couldn't see a thing. The only sound was my own breath, heavy and slow as I tried to keep it even.

I needed to move. To get out of the chair. To see the room for myself.

I wanted to see if everything that had happened was real. That... it wasn't all part of my imagination.

But there was only one problem.

"I'm stuck."

The Nightwalker was nowhere in sight. Gone. As if it had never been there to begin with.

My heart dropped.

'Don't tell me that it got killed...'

I didn't know how to feel. I never had fond memories of the Nightwalker, but it was mine. I'd fought hard for it. It had been on my side. For it to be gone, just like that...

"...That might be quite problematic."

If not for the fact that I was desperate, I would've never called it out.

Then again, I now knew that the Nightwalker was unaffected by the music.

'Still, this is a bit of a problem.'

The absence of the Nightwalker made the situation a little complicated for me. I had originally planned for it to release me when everything was over, but that no longer seemed possible.

"Do I have no other choice but to call Kyle?"

My gaze shifted towards the phone.

Another reason why I kept it close to me was in case a situation such as this occurred.

But how could I possibly explain my current situation to him? The state I was in?

I thought about the room and all the noise that I'd heard. I was sure the office wasn't in good shape. How was I going to explain that to him as well...?

'Should I say I was trying to simulate a horror scenario to inspire myself?'

I felt that there was a chance it could work. However, this was the last thing that I wanted to do. In the first place, Kyle wasn't stupid. He was rather sharp. He could probably determine the discrepancies in my story, alongside the clues hidden in plain sight.

Because of the system requirement, I couldn't afford to have him figure anything out regarding it.

Calling him was my last resort.

"Then what...? What should I do?"

I tilted my head back, racking my brain.

Could I tip the chair over? Scrape the ropes loose? Break my wrist?

Each idea sounded more absurd than the last. Some were so absurd that I felt like slapping myself for even thinking about them.

I went through all the possibilities and came up with one conclusion.

'I'm really starting to lose it.'

Just the thought that for a moment I thought about breaking my wrist was enough proof of that.

With a heavy sigh, I continued to think of all sorts of possible solutions to get myself out of my current predicament. However, each solution seemed more useless than the next, and just when I resigned myself to calling Kyle, I felt a burning sensation coming from my wrist.

"....!?"

Sharp, sudden—like thousands of needles driven under my skin.

My heart jumped, dread curling in my gut. Was it the Conductor again? If that was the case then...

'Oh, no.'

However, my thoughts quickly calmed when I realized it was something else entirely.

"This..."

I turned towards my wrist, the source of the pain.

I felt a vaguely familiar sensation alongside the pain, and my eyes lit up.

'It's back!'

The Nightwalker had somehow returned.

I didn't question how or why. The only thing that was on my mind was getting out of the ropes.

I didn't think twice and thought to my arm.

'Don't tell me...'

Click!

'...It's worse than I thought.'

But what stopped me cold... _{ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com}

A vivid red smear trailed across the white surface, rough and jagged—like something had clawed its way through.