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

Chapter 790: Plague [3]

[You have been haunted]

I stared at the notification for several seconds before lowering my gaze towards Geneva’s brother.

He was looking right at me.

The smile had returned to his face, stretching his lips as his eyes remained wide open. A nurse was fixing the dressing around his forehead, but he didn’t seem to notice her at all.

He just continued to stare at me.

As if I was the one he was directly speaking to.

But to make matters even worse, my connection with the hypnosis had also faded. Right now, it felt as though it was someone else who was looking at me.

“…..”

I took a slow breath before looking towards Geneva.

She looked back at me.

Neither of us said anything, but her gaze briefly moved towards her brother before returning to mine. Her fingers tightened around the side of the bed.

She seemed to have understood the situation.

I could tell that much.

‘An anomaly…’

I looked at her brother again.

What if we had been looking at things wrongly?

I had been looking for something physical the entire time. Something or a location that the compass would be able to find.

But what if it wasn’t something physical?

My hand stopped near my pocket.

‘Right, in that case…’

A disease?

An anomaly that behaved like some sort of disease or plague.

My heart suddenly raced.

That would explain why nobody could see it. In the first place, if it was a disease, then it was no wonder people couldn’t detect it. A disease that acted like the most common cold…

It could make them feel unwell before drawing them somewhere else.

A dream?

Geneva’s brother had also spoken as though he was in a meeting with someone. If his mind was somewhere else, perhaps that was where the anomaly actually met its victims.

Where they waited for their turn.

An appointment.

“…..”

I felt my heartbeat pick up.

That would explain quite a lot.

‘A disease that brings them to the dream world where the anomaly meets with them for an appointment.’

My heart raced even further.

I felt closer and closer to the truth.

Unfortunately, understanding what might be happening didn’t make me feel any better. I knew how to look for something that left behind traces. I could at least think of a few ways to deal with something standing in front of me, but this…?

Where was I supposed to begin?

Just in case, I put on my sunglasses and looked around. But as I expected, there was no anomaly near me.

A small pressure against my arm drew my attention to the side. Geneva was looking towards the doorway.

“Can we talk outside?”

I nodded.

She waited until the nurse had finished adjusting the dressing, then followed me out. Even after we stepped into the corridor, she remained close to the door.

“I think we’re of the same opinion on this, aren’t we?”

“Yes.”

I nodded, watching as she rubbed the side of her arm.

“I’ve been too hung up on the idea that it was an invisible anomaly to even think of the other possibility. This possibility… To think that the anomaly could be a disease.”

Geneva glanced through the doorway.

“And what he said about waiting…”

She pressed her lips together.

I looked down at my hand.

There was something else bothering me. If it was a disease, did it have a mind of its own? Could it choose who it entered?

The notification did not tell me anything beyond the fact that I had been haunted. If that meant I had been targeted, then…

‘Does that mean I’m already infected?’

My fingers slowly curled. I didn’t particularly like that thought.

Actually, I hated it.

I had only just managed to get my head into a somewhat decent state. The idea of something else entering my body and potentially fucking it up was annoying.

And yet, I couldn’t simply reach inside and pull it out.

“Seth.”

I looked up.

Geneva had taken out her phone.

“I need to contact the BUA.”

I was taken aback.

“What?”

“If this is what we think it is, then this is much more serious than we thought. There are other patients here. The staff…”

Her thumb moved.

I reached over and stopped her hand.

Anything but that.

“Don’t do it.”

She looked at me.

“…What?”

I met her gaze.

“What do you think they’ll do if you tell them there’s an invisible disease spreading through the hospital?”

Her expression changed.

“They’ll close the place down.”

“Yes.”

“They’d have to.”

“And where would that leave us?”

Geneva didn’t answer immediately.

I looked back towards the ward.

They wouldn’t just close the doors and let everyone leave. They’d want to know who had come into contact with whom, where they had been, and whether anyone else was showing symptoms.

In the meantime, we would get to sit here.

Waiting.

Again…

I wistfully looked up.

“I was stuck once. I moved past that.”

“…What?”

“Anyways, don’t call them. At least, not yet.”

Geneva stared at me for a moment before looking down at the phone.

“But if this can spread…”

“Then we need to find out how.”

“That’s why I need to call them.”

“And tell them what, exactly? That we think it’s a disease?”

Her mouth stopped moving.

I let go of her hand.

“Your brother has been around other people. You’ve been with him. The nurses have been looking after him.”

Geneva glanced towards the room again.

“Have they all ended up like this?”

“No, but—”

“Then we still don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

I lowered my voice.

“Even if it can spread, it doesn’t seem to be happening to everyone who comes near him.”

At least, that was how it looked to me.

It could be moving between people slowly. It could be choosing them. There might be something else that had to happen first. I didn’t know, and that was the problem.

Was delaying the call a little irresponsible?

Probably.

But getting stuck in a hospital because of an assumption didn’t sound particularly responsible either. Especially when I was one of the people trying to work out what was happening.

Geneva had yet to put her phone away, and I could understand why. She wanted to report this to get more aid from the BUA.

I waited until she looked at me again.

“If we need to get to the bottom of this, we can’t be stuck.”

Getting stuck meant not being able to investigate.

Anything but that.

Her gaze remained on me as I continued.

“We’d be waiting for them to decide when we could leave, while this thing keeps doing whatever it’s doing. We need to understand more before that happens. Your brother doesn’t have much time.”

She looked towards the ward for several seconds.

Then, slowly, she lowered her phone.

“…You’re right. But only for now.”

Her expression grew thoughtful as she turned back towards me.

“Then we should—”

“Did you know that I went to the doctor?”

“Ah?”

“That doctor…”

I wistfully looked up. It felt as though I was doing that quite a lot lately as I reminisced about my time with the doctor.

“…I went to him.”

“”…

“…”

“…”