However, Saiki Kusuo's hopes of returning home were inevitably doomed to fail.
Peter Parker, overflowing with a sense of justice after hearing Joan's account, felt convinced something terrible had happened and insisted they investigate. The Maximoff twins, meanwhile, found the idea of a potential murderer thrillingly stimulating and were eager to join in the excitement.
Thus, with the minority forced to obey the majority, Saiki could only allow himself to be dragged along.
As they walked, Joan recounted the sequence of events.
Wright had wanted to take a shower, but given the potential "murder case" (or perhaps just the creepy atmosphere), he was nervous about being alone and asked Joan, his girlfriend, to accompany him to the bathroom. Once inside, he invited her to shower with him. Joan refused. Worried that things might accidentally escalate into unwanted intimacy (the kind of thing that gets censored online), she stepped out of the bathroom proper to wait in the anteroom.
Suddenly, she explained, the bathroom door locked from the inside. This was immediately followed by Wright letting out a bloodcurdling scream, after which... complete silence. Joan banged on the door for a long time, getting no response. Certain that something terrible had happened to Wright, she rushed back to find the others for help.
"One question." Pietro raised his hand, interjecting. Joan shot him a strange look, seemingly glancing at her companions as if to ask who this suddenly vocal person was.
"If the situation was so urgent," Pietro asked pointedly, "why didn't you just break down the door yourself? Why waste time coming all the way back to find us?"
Joan immediately looked distressed. "You think I didn't want to? I'm just a girl! How could I possibly have the strength to break down a locked door? If only I were stronger, I could have..."
All eyes turned accusingly towards Pietro. He scowled, muttering an unwilling, "Sorry."
The bathroom wasn't far from the lounge. Several of the men from the group put their shoulders to the door and forced it open.
BANG!
The door flew inwards.
An overwhelming, thick stench of blood assaulted their nostrils. When their eyes adjusted to the scene inside the bathroom, everyone froze, stunned.
Maybe you've played that childhood game—setting off a firecracker inside a pile of dog poop? BANG! The explosion sends crap flying everywhere, splattering the surroundings. An unforgettably pungent experience.
Wright's current situation was disturbingly similar. He was slumped face-down over the edge of the bathtub, his expression frozen in terror. A large, ragged hole gaped in the back of his neck, and blood had sprayed everywhere, coating the white ceramic tiles in grotesque patterns. Judging by the sheer volume of blood, he was unquestionably, irrevocably dead.
(Hmm? Does that analogy feel inappropriate? Saiki mused internally. Whatever. Who cares? In a word: gruesome.)
Those with weaker stomachs immediately gagged, covering their mouths and turning away to vomit. Even those with slightly stronger constitutions turned deathly pale. The 'life winner' and Ryan exchanged a grim look before quietly ushering the rest of their companions out of the bathroom.
The smell was unbearable; Saiki and his group had no desire to linger either. Just as they were turning to leave, Pietro's gaze flickered back towards the body. He caught something—Wright's eyes, wide open in death, seemed to blink.
A shiver went down Pietro's spine.
What the—? Not quite dead?
He rubbed his eyes furiously and looked again. The next second, the eyes blinked again, and the mouth stretched into a horrifying grin directed right at him.
Ho-… holy shit! It really IS a ghost?!
Pietro instinctively reached out to grab the others, to make them look, but his hand met empty air. He whipped his head around—they had all already filed out.
SLAM!
The bathroom door slammed shut behind him, trapping him inside.
Pietro: "..."
Behind him, the "corpse" was already starting to push itself up, letting out low, guttural groans. Pietro opened his mouth to yell for help, then hesitated. How embarrassing. He'd just been internally mocking Peter for being a coward. If he screamed now, wouldn't that make him exactly the same?
He took a deep, steadying breath and forced himself to turn around.
Corpses didn't scare him. He'd seen plenty of dead bodies, even ones in far worse states than this. The only thing that worried him was the possibility of reanimation... no, wait. Screw that. Even if it reanimated, he wasn't afraid.
The creature seemed genuinely surprised that Pietro wasn't terrified, but instead approached it menacingly. It let out a guttural hiss, like a wild beast asserting dominance, then lunged forward with stiff, jerky movements.
Splash!
Steeling himself, Pietro tackled the thing, wrestling it down into the bloody bathwater. Before it could effectively resist, he swiftly dislocated both its arms and legs. To prevent it from making any more noise, he grabbed its unnaturally long, lolling tongue and, with grim satisfaction, tied it into a tight knot. Then, grabbing a handful of its wet hair, he began systematically smashing its head against the porcelain edge of the bathtub, cursing furiously with each impact.
"Like scaring people, huh?!"
THUMP!
"Like locking doors on people, huh?!"
THUMP!
"Like flaunting your gross couple stuff in front of us single people, huh?!"
THUMP!
"Like spraying blood everywhere and making a disgusting mess, huh?! No respect for basic hygiene!"
THUMP!
He continued smashing its head while mentally cataloging its offenses, quickly concluding its crimes were too numerous to count.
The Wright-thing, dizzy from the repeated impacts, now just a dismembered torso flailing weakly in the water, seemed to realize it was severely outmatched. Its eyes rolled back into its head, and whatever entity had been animating it apparently departed.
Seeing the body go limp, Pietro abruptly smacked himself on the forehead. "Damn it!" he cursed aloud. "Should've been faster! This thing almost made me piss myself! Peter would never let me live it down! I needed to smash it at least fifty or sixty times to really feel satisfied! I only got, like, twenty-something hits in! What a rip-off!"
With a sigh of profound disappointment, Pietro wiped his hands on the grimy shower curtain, then dismissively shoved the now-limp form fully into the tub.
"Don't you ever let me run into you again," he muttered threateningly at the body, "or I'll definitely..."
He trailed off, turning away... and froze. Reflected in the bathroom mirror to his left, a woman was staring at him, her eyes filled with pure malice.
Still riding the adrenaline from the fight, Pietro found he wasn't particularly scared anymore. He raised a hand in a cheerful wave. "Hello there." He then proceeded to look her up and down critically, finger tapping his chin. "Why is it always long hair and a white dress with female ghosts? Seriously, have you considered a wardrobe update? No offense intended, really, but that look is so outdated."
Whether the spectral woman understood him or not was unclear. She snarled, baring her teeth, then slowly raised her hand... and gave him the middle finger.
Pietro: "..."
Okay, he thought, momentarily impressed. This one's got personality. I like her. Of course, that didn't excuse her rudeness.
He raised both his hands and flipped her off with double middle fingers. The woman made a sharp 'Peh!' sound, like spitting in disgust, and vanished from the mirror.
With her gone, Pietro suddenly felt bored. He washed his hands in the sink, intending to leave. As he turned, his gaze fell one last time on the abused form in the bathtub.
"Huh?" A flicker of confusion crossed his face.
It wasn't that it was moving again. It was... something else. Something wasn't right about the body itself.
He stepped closer, examining it carefully. And then he saw it. This wasn't a real corpse. It was... incredibly lifelike, yes, but ultimately, just a mannequin.
Fake? No wonder tying the tongue felt weird – how could a human tongue possibly be long enough to tie in a knot? But wait... why didn't the others notice? And if this is fake, is the real Wright dead or alive? And most importantly, what the hell was that thing possessing the mannequin earlier? And the woman in the mirror?
Pietro decided he needed to talk to Saiki Kusuo. He didn't know Saiki well, but Peter's advice echoed in his mind: "When in doubt, find Saiki Kusuo. He'll know what to do."
He hurried out of the bathroom, finding Peter and Wanda already engaged in an intense discussion about Wright's apparent demise.
Pietro walked up to them. "Hey," he began, a speculative glint in his eyes, "you'll never guess what I just saw in the bathroom."
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