🌙 Episode 26 – “The Whisper Through the Thread”

Rain hammered the city that night, turning streets into silver mirrors. Ren couldn’t sleep. Every time he shut his eyes, he saw the thread yanking Yuto into that shadow.

At 2:43 a.m., his phone buzzed.

Yuto: Are you awake?

Ren frowned, typing back: Yeah. What’s wrong?

The reply took almost a full minute.

Yuto: It’s still tugging.

A Quiet Infection

The next day, Yuto’s eyes looked… different. Not bloodshot from lack of sleep — darker, as if the whites had thinned and shadows had pooled behind them.

In homeroom, he didn’t sketch. He just stared at his wrist, fingers twitching slightly.

During lunch, Aika tried to joke with him about a teacher’s awful handwriting, but he didn’t laugh. He leaned toward her and whispered:

“They’re calling me by name now. All of them at once. They say they’ve been waiting.”

Aika’s chopsticks froze midair. “Yuto… there’s no one calling you.”

Nara, sitting cross-legged on the rooftop floor, spoke up without looking at him. “Not no one. Just not anyone here.”

Ren snapped at her. “Don’t encourage him—”

But Yuto cut him off. “She’s right. The thread isn’t gone. It’s in me now.”

The First Pulse

After school, heavy clouds smothered the sky. Ren, Nara, Yuto, and Aika walked together through a narrow alley that smelled of damp concrete and soy sauce from a nearby ramen shop.

Halfway through, Yuto stopped. His breath hitched.

The others turned — and then they felt it.

The pulse.

It rippled through the air like a shockwave, making the neon sign above them flicker and spit sparks. Puddles quivered. The sound of traffic outside the alley dulled, as if someone had pressed a hand over the city’s mouth.

Nara tilted her head, a smile curling her lips. “Ohhh… I know this song.”

Ren’s skin crawled. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Before Nara could answer, Yuto stepped forward — and something stepped into him.

The Possession

It wasn’t violent. No thrashing, no screaming. His body just straightened, his head tilted upward as if listening to the rain. When he spoke, it wasn’t his voice.

“Three in the light. One in the dark. We will fix the balance.”

Aika’s voice cracked. “Yuto, stop—”

His gaze slid to her, and his eyes were now entirely black. “Do you want to see the hall too? It’s beautiful.”

Ren moved forward to grab him, but Nara caught his arm. “Wait. This is the fun part.”

Ren yanked free, furious. “Fun?! He’s being—”

Yuto’s hand lashed out, gripping Ren’s throat with unnatural strength. His nails dug deep, but his face was eerily calm.

“Don’t pull away. Not yet,” the voice whispered.

Then, just as suddenly, the grip loosened. Yuto’s knees buckled, and he collapsed into Ren’s arms, gasping.

Aftermath

They dragged him to Nara’s apartment (really Ren's appartment), since it was closest. Yuto sat slumped on the couch, eyes half-lidded, murmuring words they couldn’t understand — consonants that didn’t belong in any human language.

Aika sat beside him, trying to get him to drink water.

Ren paced. “That wasn’t just some hallucination. Something’s inside him.”

Nara watched Yuto like a scientist watching a new species. “Mm-hmm. And it’s marking him. Like a cat that’s found its favorite toy.”

Ren rounded on her. “You think this is a joke?!”

Nara leaned in until her nose almost touched his. “No. I think it’s the first move of a very, very patient hunter. And they’ve just told us they’re here.”

The episode closes with Ren looking out the rain-streaked window — and in the glass reflection behind him, a tall, thin figure stands just outside the apartment building, staring up.