Just in case, Madoka asked her mom, who was in the kitchen making dinner, but she didn’t know where it had come from, either. Her dad, who was still at work, wouldn’t use crayons.
“Then whose is it?”
Right at that moment, Madoka remembered the story Ai had told her.
“One day, a family moved in, and supposedly, they found a red crayon inside it.”
“Wait, no way!”
Suddenly, Madoka was filled with fear and quickly threw the crayon into the living room garbage bin.
Ding-dong.
Their doorbell rang, and her mom yelled “Coming” as she went to answer it.
Then she returned right away.
“Madoka, your friend is here,” her mom said.
“A friend? Is it Momoka? Or maybe Ai?”
“No, it’s a boy. He’s wearing a red hood.”
“What?”
Who could it be? She didn’t know any of the boys very well, so she doubted any of them would visit her at home.
“Wait, if he’s wearing a red hood…”
She remembered what Momoka had said.
“The kid is supposed to be a little boy who wears a hood, but he hasn’t got eyes, a nose, or a mouth.”
“The faceless kid!”
Madoka poked her head around the door to get a peek at the entrance of the house before she’d even thought it through.
A boy wearing a red hood was standing there, just like her mom had said.
But this boy had eyes, a nose, and a mouth for sure.
“Madoka, is something wrong?” her mom asked from behind when she saw Madoka behaving oddly.
“Uh, no, n-nothing’s wrong…” Madoka smiled awkwardly.
That’s right. It’s not like the faceless kid really exists…
If the boy hadn’t had a face, her mom wouldn’t have been acting normal when she came back inside the house. Besides, the faceless kid was just an urban legend—it was only a story people told.
Madoka felt silly for being so scared in the first place as she went to go greet the boy.
“Um, I’m Madoka. What’s your name?” she asked.
The boy had pale skin, large and clear eyes, and a straight nose. Even his small lips were handsome. He seemed slightly older than Madoka. Even though he was hiding his face with his hood, he was surprisingly good-looking.
He stared at Madoka.
“I don’t care about your name,” he said. “I came here to warn you.”
“Warn me?” Madoka had no idea what he meant by that.
But the boy didn’t seem to care and just kept talking. “This house might be cursed by the red crayon—”
“What?” Madoka blurted out from shock. “How do you know about the red crayon?!”
She’d only found it ten minutes ago, but the boy already knew about it. As Madoka grew uncomfortable, the boy simply stared at her.
“I just know. But at this rate, you and your family are in danger of—”
Madoka felt a shudder go through her.
That was when her mom, who’d been listening the entire time from the living room, walked over to them.
“Excuse me! What are you telling my daughter?! Madoka, is this boy not one of your friends?”
“No, I’ve never met him…”
“Then I think it’s about time you go home!” Madoka’s mom seemed to be upset because she thought the boy was trying to scare Madoka.
“I’m telling you the truth,” the boy said to her mom. He didn’t show any sign of leaving, either.
“Leave! Go on, the sooner the better!” her mom shouted at the boy, and she ushered him out the door. “My word! I’m sure he must be a neighborhood troublemaker.”
Madoka understood why her mom was bothered. Anyone would be if someone came by to tell them the house they’d just moved into was cursed. Madoka wanted to ask the boy questions, but it seemed she’d lost her chance.
But how did he know about the red crayon?
Madoka couldn’t shake off that thought.
She’d only told Yurika and her mom about it, but then Madoka realized something.
Maybe he planted the red crayon here?
Her mom had said he must be a troublemaker, after all. In that case, maybe he’d left the crayon in their house to scare her family?
That’s it! He was just playing a joke on us!
Madoka felt relieved as she went back to her room.
“Madoka…” When she got to the top of the stairs, Yurika was standing in the hallway. “Did he say our house is cursed? I’m scared…”
It seemed Yurika had overheard them even from the second floor. She looked worried and was tightly clutching her teddy bear.
“Everything’s okay. He was just playing a joke on us is all.” Madoka gently ruffled Yurika’s hair.
“Really?”
“Yeah, so you have nothing to worry about, okay?” Madoka said, then Yurika broke into a smile and answered, “Okay!”
That made Madoka smile back.
It was evening on the same day.
Madoka was reading comics late into the night in her room, so she wasn’t asleep yet. It was already midnight.
She realized she needed to get to bed and quickly scrambled under the covers.
After a while, she started to nod off.
She was almost fully asleep.
—elp…
Suddenly, she heard a tiny whisper that seemed close to fading away. At first, Madoka was convinced she’d dreamed it, but then the voice became clearer and clearer.
—elp me… —elp me… Help me!
Madoka’s eyes snapped open.
Someone was calling for help.
She heard a loud clatter in the hallway.
Then she heard a young girl’s voice.
Aaaahhh!
It was the same scream she’d heard before.
“I’m not dreaming!”
She wasn’t half-asleep this time.
Madoka rushed into the hall.
The hall was lit slightly by the moonlight, so Madoka could peer down it as she searched for the owner of the voice.
But she didn’t see anyone at all.
“How could that be…?”
Maybe she really had been half-asleep?
Right then, as Madoka was staring down the hallway, she realized something was on the ground next to the wall.
“Wait, is that…?” She got closer and discovered it was a bear stuffed animal that had been abandoned. “This is Yurika’s…”
Madoka picked up the bear and couldn’t help but think the worst.
“Was that scream Yurika’s?!” The thought sent a jolt through her. “Yurika! Yurika!”
Madoka began shouting her sister’s name, but no matter where she looked, she couldn’t find her younger sister.
“Yurika! If you’re here, answer me! Come on, Yurika!”
Then she heard a feeble voice come from somewhere.
Help… Help… Help me, Big Sis…
That was definitely Yurika’s voice.
“Yurika, where are you?!”
Madoka started to search where she thought she’d heard the voice coming from.
“Oh!”
She realized that the wall at the very end of the hall was slightly offset. Looking closely, she found that one of the panels was loose and led to a hollow space.
“Was that noise from earlier the wall panel falling off?”
The opening was just wide enough for one person.
“Yurika, you’re not in here, are you?!”
Madoka grabbed the flashlight in the hallway and quickly crouched into the opening.
When she crawled through on all fours, she realized the space was much bigger on the inside than she’d thought it would be.
It seemed to be a small storage room.
It was probably about half the size of Madoka’s room, and she could even stand all the way up inside it. But why was it sealed up with boards? She couldn’t think of a good reason for hiding a storage space like this.
As she wondered about that, Madoka used the flashlight to look around.
“Yurika, where are you? Yurika?”
The room was filled with dust and smelled like mold, but it was completely empty. She would have noticed Yurika right away if her sister had been here.
“Yurika, are you not here? Answer me!”
Madoka lit up the space, searching corner to corner with the flashlight. Then she found something on the ground by a wall.
It was a half-used red crayon.
“Wait, isn’t that—?”
Madoka knew it was the very same crayon she’d thrown away.
Why is this here?!
Had Yurika picked it out of the trash?
“Yurika! Tell me, where are you?!”
Madoka suddenly felt scared. She pointed the flashlight all over the room as she kept shouting Yurika’s name.
Right then, when she lit up the wall for a moment, she saw something.
“Ah!” Madoka cried out instinctively.
She’d seen a line as red as blood along the wall. But it wasn’t just one red line—there were a lot more bright-red marks all over the wall.
“What is this…?”
Madoka was frightened, but she aimed the flashlight at it.
That was when she realized it wasn’t blood but crayon marks.
“Wait, does that mean…?”
Madoka glanced at the red crayon lying on the floor. The many, many red lines all over the wall seemed as if they’d come from that crayon. Madoka pointed the flashlight at the wall again and studied the lines this time. They appeared to be forming some sort of shape.
She backed away slightly to light up the entire wall.
“Huh…?” When she saw the whole drawing, a small noise escaped her.
At the same time, a shiver traveled down her spine, and her entire body trembled in fear.