Persona 02

Rein woke up in the morning. He was all sweaty. “A…dream?” he thought. He prepared himself to go to school and quickly went out of his apartment. He saw Konomi getting out of the room beside his place. “Oh, you live here too?” asked Rein. “Yeah. It’s nice to see you again,” she said, smiling. “Yeah, same here,” replied Rein. “So, you’re going to school, right?” asked Konomi. “Yeah,” replied Rein. “Well, since we live so close, why don’t we go to school together?” asked Konomi. “Sure, why not,” replied Rein.

The school ended before they realized it. Of course, it was just a welcoming ceremony so it didn’t take long to end it. Konomi decided to went home with Rein.

“See you later,” she said before she entered her room. Rein waved his hand. “Anyway, wanna come to my place tonight?” asked Konomi. “Err…what?” said Rein. “Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s so boring to be home alone, you know,” said Konomi. “Well, okay, I’ll see you at seven,” said Rein.

“Hi,” said Konomi when she saw Rein standing in front of her room. Rein smiled and entered her apartment. The moment he sat in Konomi’s living room, he heard something on the roof. It sounded as if someone was running around the rooftop. “Did you hear that?” asked Rein. “Hear what?” asked Konomi. “That sounds…footsteps,” said Rein. “Hey, come on, don’t scare me like that,” said Konomi. “No, I’m serious. There’s something or someone on the roof,” said Rein. “Oh, well, let’s just see it to make sure,” said Konomi. The rooftop was dark and pretty spooky. Rein was holding a flashlight on his right hand. He tried to find movements, but he did not see any. “Strange…I’m sure I heard footsteps,” said Rein. “It’s probably just your imagination. Let’s get back to my room,” said Konomi.

“What!?” asked Rein when he heard Konomi yelling. He quickly entered the room to see what had happened. “My TV…it’s gone!” said Konomi. “Are you sure?” asked Rein. “Of course I am!” said Konomi. Rein looked at the cabinet where the TV was before they went to the rooftop. “The thief must’ve been waiting for us to get to the roof!” said Konomi. Suddenly, they heard someone running in front of the door. “The thief is still here! He can’t jump down from this floor!” said Konomi. Rein understood and quickly went out to find the thief. He wondered why he didn’t see the thief while he was still outside when he heard Konomi yelling. He saw a shadow running away from them. “Over there!” said Rein. They chased the thief downstairs and before they realized it, they had run all the way down.

“Where is he!?” asked Konomi.

Rein caught a glimpse of movements near the bushes. “There!” he said. He kept chasing the thief until they arrived at the train station where Rein and Konomi met that afternoon. The thief was nowhere to be found. Instead, Rein saw something was different about that place. Even though he had only gone there once, he knew that something that didn’t use to be there was there. “This is a normal train station, right?” asked Rein. “What do you mean by ‘normal’?” asked Konomi. She was still upset about the stolen TV. “This isn’t a subway station, right?” asked Rein. “Of course it’s not!” said Konomi. “Then what’s that?” said Rein, pointing at a large staircase that went downstairs. It seemed that it lead underground. “A subway tunnel,” Rein continued. “How can it be there? There’s no subway station in this city,” said Konomi. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Something strange is going on here,” said Rein. “Hellooo…do you watch anime too much? You’re not saying that some kind of ‘unknown force’ is taking place, are you?” said Konomi. “That’s not what I meant,” said Rein. “Anyway, let’s just see what’s down there,” he continued.

The staircase looked old, so it couldn’t have been built a while ago. The subway station looked spooky. It only had very few lights. There were some train cars being parked on the railway. The strange thing about them was they were parked in line, just like other vehicles. “It’s uncommon for trains to be parked in line like that,” said Konomi.

Rein looked around. Most of the train cars were locked. There was only one car that was open. “Follow me,” said Rein. They went into the car to see what was inside. It looked like it was the front car since it had a control panel near the front window. Rein touched the control pad slowly. “It seems like it’s still good to go,” said Rein. “Don’t be silly. These train cars look very old, how can they still be good?” asked Konomi. Rein didn’t listen to her question. He pushed one of the control pad, causing the doors to be closed. “Oh my…what’s happening?” asked Konomi. “The train’s moving!” said Rein. “Moving!? There are still some other cars in front of this one! We’re going to crash if it moves!” said Konomi. They felt the train moving slowly. “What should we do now?” said Rein. They closed their eyes but they didn’t hear anything hit the car where they were in. “We didn’t…crash?” said Konomi.

Rein looked outside from the window. It looked as if the train was moving through a dark tunnel. “How did we pass the other cars?” asked Konomi. “No idea. We should just wait and see where we are going,” said Rein. They kept waiting and waiting, but the train kept going through the dark tunnel without stopping. “I’m starting to get bored,” said Rein. He recalled what Igor said, “Remember that your journey in life will lead you somewhere.” Maybe this was what he meant, Rein thought.