The hotel lobby had become a madhouse.
Shouts echoed off the walls. Classmates who barely knew each other were suddenly locked in heated arguments. Someone had dragged a chair into the center like it was a town meeting. Another started recording on their phone, hoping for viral fame or proof of insanity.
"The teacher was trying to kill us !"
"No, she wasn't—what are you even saying? She's alive!"
"You saw her body too, didn't you? Her face!"
"But she served us breakfast happily! What the hell is going on?"
"Shut up!" Leonardo barked from the reception desk, silencing the crowd. He looked like he hadn't blinked in hours. "Everyone—listen. We need to make a decision. Stay or leave. Now."
There was a pause.
Hiroshima stood first. "I'm not going. I need answers."
Tento raised his hand next. "I'm staying too."
Bix, Mira, Sakura, Tom, Kiara—others slowly followed, their eyes shadowed by dread but glued to some invisible string pulling them deeper in.
A rest of the classmates didn't even argue. Bags were already packed. They just wanted out.
As the group thinned, Leonardo stepped forward. His voice dropped low, sharp. "Don't tell anyone what you saw. Don't say a word about Kobashi Island. They'll laugh—or worse."
Tom raised an eyebrow. "What about the hotel staff?"
Leo's eyes narrowed. "I don't want anyone else involved." His tone dropped to something heavier. "No more."
Before Tom could argue, Leo turned to the group. "Everyone—shut your windows. Lock them. Cover them with blankets if you have to. No light. No sound. Nothing."
Confused glances were exchanged. But no one argued.
Then Leo whispered something to Father Solomon—low, urgent. The priest nodded and looked to Bix and Tento. "Come with me."
The three moved quickly, slipping away while the others trudged toward their rooms. They found Mrs. Chizuru unconscious where Solomon had left her, still bound and muttering under her breath. Tento flinched just being near her.
The trio led her to storage room's basement, quiet as shadows.
Meanwhile, Leonardo descended deeper into the hotel's heart—past the wine cellar, the rusted pipes, the mildew-choked storage—and pulled open another door.
A second basement.
Damp, silent. Like something had been waiting.
Candles flared to life as he lit them one by one, revealing a vast floor painted blood-red. Strange black glyphs covered every corner. And in the center, a massive ritual circle—stitched together with religious symbols from every faith Bix could name...and some he couldn't.
Hiroshima, Mira, Kiara, and Sakura had followed, along with a few others. Their eyes widened at the surreal sight, unsure whether they'd stepped into a horror film or hell itself.
Then Solomon and the others arrived, dragging Mrs. Chizuru toward the center.
They placed her inside the circle.
Solomon gently peeled the talisman from her forehead.
Her eyes snapped open—glowing with something inhuman.
She tore the ropes like paper. Mira gasped. Kiara backed into Hiroshima. Bix took an instinctive step back—but the circle held her.
She tried to cross it, snarling—but something invisible repelled her.
Then she straightened. No longer wild—just smug. Arrogant. Unafraid.
Solomon stared her down. "Which Whisper are you?"
Mrs. Chizuru grinned, slow and wide. "The world is selfish. A lie. A rotting machine pretending to be fair."
Her voice was calm—too calm.
"I'm going to take you all to paradise," she whispered. "And I've already booked a place for you three." Her finger pointed straight at Bix, Solomon, and Tento.
Tento froze. Bix felt the hair rise on his neck.
"You've made a crucial mistake," she hissed. "And now—"
She burst into laughter. Loud. Shrieking. It echoed off the ritual walls like knives on glass.
Everyone staggered back—except Solomon and Leonardo, who stood like statues.
Finally, Solomon sighed, tilting his head mockingly. "Are you done, psycho teacher?"
She just smirked..
CRACK.
The storm split the heavens open.
The lights were the first to die—swallowed by the dark. Then thunder screamed overhead, drowning the last fragments of sanity.
Rain hammered the windows like fists.
The sea raged in the distance.
Something had been unleashed.
Only the faint glow of candlelight remained, trembling like it was afraid too.
Mrs. Chizuru raised her head, her lips stretching wide in a bloodstained grin.
"He's coming," she whispered. "And you know what happens when you disobey."
Leonardo and Solomon locked eyes—years of understanding in a single look. Bix's heart pounded like a drum. Something ancient stirred deep within him. Something that told him: Leave. Now.
But he didn't move.
Screams echoed from above. The upper floors were in chaos.
Hiroshima and Tento bolted up the stairs. The others—Kiara, Mira, —backed into each other in fear, eyes flicking to every shadow. Solomon didn't move. Neither did Leonardo.
Mrs. Chizuru began scratching herself, giggling. Skin peeled under her nails.
Bix stumbled backward. His knees weak. He had no weapon. No plan. Just fear.
Fear and the dreadful sense that he knew this storm.
He had felt it before—perhaps in another loop, or another death.
Then—
He appeared.
Out of nowhere. A man in a black cult robe. Face hidden behind a deer skull mask. his presence sucked all warmth from the room.
Mrs. Chizuru gasped in delight.
"Yes!" she shrieked. "Destroy the circle! Free me!"
The masked figure's voice was slow. Heavy.
"Freedom... is for all. I bring salvation."
Solomon didn't hesitate.
BOOM!
Shotgun blast to the chest.
Nothing.
The figure didn't even flinch.
"Don't you have manners?" the robed man growled, turning his head. "Don't interrupt when I'm talking."
Bix's eyes widened.
Leonardo and Solomon were sweating—actually sweating.
That never happened.
The man turned to Chizuru. "You want salvation?"
She nodded eagerly.
He raised a hand.
Fire.
Chizuru shrieked as flames erupted around her, devouring her body.
She screamed in agony—and then laughed even louder.
Even as her flesh blackened and cracked, she laughed.
"This is your salvation, Chizuru."
Solomon yelled, "Leo! Get the kids out!"
Leonardo grabbed Bix. "Move!"
But Bix froze. He couldn't look away.
Chizuru burned like paper. The cultist stepped forward.
Solomon gritted his teeth. Threw his talismans like knives—blazing barriers of light erupting mid-air.
He shot again and again, shells echoing like thunder. The masked man lunged.
They clashed.
A blast of force shattered the circle as the two collided.
Solomon screamed as the figure's burning hand grasped his chest—
Flesh melted. Armor cracked.
Still, Solomon fought.
His body caught fire.
"GO!" he screamed through the flames.
Bix cried out. "NO—!"
But Leonardo yanked him back, arm tight around his shoulder. "Don't look. Don't stop. MOVE!"
They ran.
---
The group burst into the hotel lobby.
Blood. Everywhere.
The floor was slick with it.
Coriander's headless corpse twitched near the receptionist desk.
Classmates sprawled in mangled heaps—hearts ripped out, faces frozen in silent screams.
Bix stared in horror.
"What have I done…?"
He stumbled forward. "What should I have done…? WHY—?"
"Where's Sakura?" Mira cried, grabbing his arm. "Kiara's gone too!"
Leo snapped, "They're dead! We need to leave—NOW!"
Mira screamed, "No, I'm not leaving them!"
But Bix… something snapped inside him.
He turned to Mira.
Held her hand.
"I'll find them," he said, voice shaking. "But not now. Not if we die here too."
He pulled her with him. Together, they ran.
CRASH.
Leonardo kicked open the hotel's front door.
Storm winds blasted in—sheets of rain, sea spray, and a foul, salty stench of rot.
He pulled Bix and Mira into Solomon's broken jeep.
Hot wires sparked. Engine groaned. Then—
Rumbled to life.
They sped off into the storm.
---
Outside, Kobashi Island had changed.
The streets ran with blood.
Bodies twisted into unholy forms littered the sidewalks.
And from the sea—
They came.
Corpses, bloated and wet, crawling from the waves.
Not human anymore.
Mira buried her face in Bix's chest. He held her tight.
Leonardo gritted his teeth as he drove through the nightmare.
Behind them, the hotel began to collapse—its red floor glowing faintly in the distance, like a wound reopening.
Bix clenched his fists.
Leo muttered
That wasn't just a monster.
That wasn't just a cult.
It was a Whisper.
The Whisper of Anger.
And Leo knew—
This one, even Solomon couldn't stop.
The jeep's wheels screeched across the wet asphalt.
Rain hit the windshield like bullets. Wind howled like dying voices.
Bix sat in the back seat—cold, soaked, silent.
Mira gripped his arm tightly, eyes still wide from everything they'd just witnessed. Leonardo's face was pale, old pain showing through his stoic mask.
No one spoke for a while. Not until Bix finally asked:
"…What could we have done?"
His voice cracked like a boy who hadn't cried in years. "To stop this?"
Leonardo didn't answer at first.
Then, in a hoarse voice:
"Nothing. It's… it's too late now."
Tears welled in his eyes. "They're all gone."
He gripped the wheel tighter, knuckles white.
"I've been stuck here for ten years, Bix. Ten years, watching this place eat people alive. And I still don't know how to end it."
Lightning lit up the road ahead—twisted shadows of something crawling on the rooftops.
Bix leaned forward, desperate. "Isn't there anyone? Anyone who knows more than us?"
Leonardo nodded slowly.
"There's one."
Bix's heart kicked.
"The Island Head. The man who lives in the shrine. He's been here his entire life—eighty years by this year. He knows something. I'm sure of it. But he never told. Not even when we begged him."
Silence again, broken only by thunder.
Bix stared at the floor. His mind racing. Then quietly:
"If… if I had met him earlier… If I found him—would things be different?"
Leonardo didn't answer immediately.
His hands trembled slightly. His voice came out rough:
"…Maybe."
That was all Bix needed.
He turned to Mira, who sat beside him, soaked and shivering. She clutched the pistol Solomon had handed her earlier, finger trembling near the trigger.
Bix reached out and gently took it from her.
"Bix?" she whispered, confused.
He smiled weakly, his voice calm. "I'm sorry."
"I'm a loser. I always have been. But I can't keep watching people die."
He looked at her one last time.
"I'll find a way. I promise."
He turned to Leonardo, eyes sincere.
"Thank you… Uncle Leonardo."
"Bix, what are you—"
Bix raised the pistol to his head.
Mira's eyes widened in horror.
"BIX, NO!"
BOOM.
RESET
Silence. Then—
VROOM.
The sound of an engine. Wind in his face. The rattle of the jeep.
Bix's eyes snapped open.
He was in the jeep again—but it was the first time.
Mira wasn't next to him.
Solomon was in the front seat. Young. Unburned. Still whole.
He was gripping the shotgun, face set with determination.
The sky was still bright.
The storm hadn't come yet.
The massacre hadn't happened.
Bix had gone back.
He gasped. Hands shaking. Chest heaving.
He remembered it all. The fire. The circle. Chizuru's laugh. The Whisper of Anger.
Sakura and Kiara's missing bodies.
The blood. The dead classmates.
And the bullet.
He had reset again.
But this time—this time he had a lead.
The shrine.
The Island Head.
Eighty years on this island.
If anyone knew the truth—it was him.
Bix clenched his fists, still shaking, but a fire burned in his chest now.
He whispered to himself:
" This time…"
"☕ Support this horror story & read early chapters: patreon.com/KobashiIsland"