Dangerous Curiosity | Japanese Horror Stories & Urban Legends

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Dangerous Curiosity

801 Anonymous from a True Scary Story April 22, 2006 – 03:48:18

This is kind of a long story, but if you’ve got time, give it a read.

Back when I was in elementary school, we built a secret base deep in the woods behind our school.

And I don’t mean some half-assed fort made of branches. This was legit—a small shack about the size of three tatami mats, built with nailed-down planks that actually kept out the wind and rain.

After school, we’d go hang out there. We’d eat snacks, flip through dirty magazines… It really felt like our own little house, just for us.

Me, Shin, Jun, and two stray dogs—we used that place together.
It was the summer of 5th grade when we decided to spend the night at our secret base.

We each told our parents a lie like, "I’m staying over at so-and-so’s place," scraped together our allowance, and bought snacks, fireworks, and soda. We were more excited than for a school trip.

We met up at school around 5 p.m. and headed to the mountain behind it.
About an hour’s hike in, we reached our secret base.

The area around it was also the territory of the two stray dogs—Happy (♂) and Touch (♂)—so as we got closer, they’d always appear from somewhere, tails wagging to greet us.

We’d pat their heads, say, "Good job on the welcome party!" and give each of them a stick of Umaibo.

Once we got to the base, we stashed our bags in the shack, and since the sky was still bright, we went to the big pond nearby to fish.
Not that we caught anything fancy—just a bunch of bullfrogs.
(The frogs we caught, by the way, were for the dogs.)

As we were fishing, the sky slowly started to darken, so we broke out the fireworks.
Honestly, the two strays were more excited than we were.

We thought we’d bought a lot, but the fireworks ran out in less than 30 minutes. So we headed into the shack for a bit.

It was everyone’s first time being at the secret base at night.
Deep in the mountains, there were no streetlights—only moonlight.
The only sounds were bugs chirping.

The three of us sat in the dim shack, lit only by a single cheap flashlight.
At first, we were just munching on snacks, talking about girls we liked or trashing our teachers.

But then we started hearing things from outside the shack—
"SPLASH!" (like something falling into the pond),
"Rustle!" (maybe footsteps… some kind of animal?)

And little by little, we started getting freaked out.

"Did you hear that just now?"
"What if it's a bear?!"

It stopped being funny real fast.
It was around 9 p.m., and the shack was hot and stuffy, full of mosquitoes—not the kind of place where you could fall asleep.

But more than that, it was the mountain’s weird, heavy atmosphere.
It started to swallow us whole.
And honestly, all of us were starting to regret coming at all.

We started talking about how we were going to survive until morning.
In the end, we decided to head down the mountain. The shack was too hot, and we couldn’t see anything outside—what if a bear got close?
Honestly, all I could think was, I just wanna go home, now. Please.

We used the flashlight to light the ground at our feet and started walking fast, making our way downhill.
For the first five minutes, Happy and Touch were running circles around us, and having them there was a huge comfort.
But soon after, the two of them ran back toward the shack.

Even though we’d walked this trail a bunch of times before, at night it felt like a totally different world.
It was a narrow path, maybe 30 centimeters wide—more of an animal trail than anything—and we all walked in total silence, making sure we didn’t slip.

That’s when Shin grabbed my shoulder from behind and whispered,
"There’s someone there."

We instantly dropped to the ground and turned off the flashlight.

Straining our ears, we heard it too.
Footsteps.

Rustle, rustle—

It was the sound of something moving through the underbrush on two legs.

We squinted in the dark, trying to spot whatever was making that noise.
About 20 or 30 meters away from us, deep in the brush—we saw it.

There was someone there.

They had a flashlight in one hand, and in the other, something long—like a stick.
They were using it to push through the overgrowth as they slowly made their way up the mountain.

At first, we were terrified.
But once we realized it was a person—and just one person at that—
our fear gave way to something else.

That childish, reckless curiosity.

I whispered, "Who do you think that is? Wanna follow him?"
The other two just grinned, like they’d been waiting for someone to suggest it.

Using the faint beam of his flashlight and the sound of rustling grass as our guide,
we started following him—slowly, carefully, quiet as we could.

That person kept climbing for about twenty more minutes before finally stopping.
We were about 30 meters behind, so we couldn’t tell their gender or really make out any details—
just the faint outline of a human figure.

Once they stopped, they took off the pack they’d been carrying on their back and started rummaging through it.

I whispered, "What do you think they’re doing out here alone? Maybe looking for beetles or something?"
Shin replied, "Let’s get closer."

We crouched low, sliding our feet carefully so we wouldn’t step on dry leaves or branches.
And like that, we crept forward—slowly, ever so slowly.

[yokonaga]

We were grinning like idiots as we crept closer, thinking about what kind of prank we might pull on this guy.
But then—

“Kon!”
A sharp, metallic sound rang out.

My heart almost stopped.

“Kon!”
There it was again.

For a second, I had no idea what just happened. I turned to Jun and Shin.
Jun pointed and whispered,

“It’s him! He’s doing something!”

I looked back toward the figure.

“Kon! Kon! Kon!”

He was hammering something into a tree. I couldn’t see exactly what was in his hands,
but somehow, I knew—

It was a ritual. A curse.

See, this mountain had always had rumors.
Stories about straw dolls^[1] and the people who nailed them to trees in the dead of night.

I’d always thought they were just urban legends. Until that moment.

I was terrified.
“Let’s get out of here.” I whispered.

Shin leaned in and whispered,
“That’s a woman. Look closely.”

Then Jun jumped in, getting all hyped up.
“Don’t you wanna see her face? I mean, really get a good look?”

They started moving ahead, faster and faster.
I didn’t want to follow.

But I also didn’t want to be the coward.
So, reluctantly, I trailed behind them.

The closer we got, the clearer it became—
there was another sound mixed in with the “Kon! Kon!”

Not really a sound, though.

She was muttering something.

It sounded like... some kind of chant. Maybe a sutra.

We took a slight detour and hid behind a tree, maybe eight meters behind her and off to the side.

She had shoulder-length hair, a skinny frame,
and had placed her backpack and flashlight on the ground by her feet.

She was driving nails—one after another—into what looked like photos.

There were already six or seven nails stuck in.

And then—

“Woof!”

We jumped at the sudden bark and spun around.
There they were—Happy and Touch, tails wagging, panting like crazy, looking at us with this goofy expression like,
"Whatcha guys up to?"

The next second—

Shin suddenly screamed,
"WAAAH!!"

and bolted.

I whipped my head around to see what he was running from.

The woman was charging straight at us.

Hammer in one hand.

Her face twisted in a furious, monstrous snarl.

And she was shrieking—
“AAARGHH!!”

But then—

Something grabbed my left shoulder from behind.
Hard.

With incredible force, I was yanked backward and fell to the ground.

Lying on my back, a heavy THUD hit me square in the chest—hard enough to knock the wind out of me. I almost threw up.

I couldn’t register what was happening at first.

But when I looked down—

She was standing on my chest.

The woman.

Her foot planted firmly, pinning me down. I was stuck, staring up at her.

Her jaw was clenched so tight her teeth looked like they’d snap.
She was grinding them audibly, like she wanted me to hear it—
and making these guttural, inhuman noises,

“Nnnnghh—”

All while twisting her foot back and forth into my chest.

There was no pain.
The fear had numbed it all.

She was trembling, slightly.
Not out of fear—
she was thrilled. She was at her peak.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

Because I knew—
If I looked away,
she’d smash my skull in with that hammer.

Even in that situation—
No, because of that situation—
her face burned itself into my memory.

She looked to be about forty.
A slightly gaunt face.
Eyes bulging wide open.
Teeth clenched in an underbite.

Trembling as she stared down at me.

I have no idea how long it lasted.
Ten minutes? Twenty? I couldn’t tell you.
Time had completely slipped away.

She was still grinding her foot into my chest,
slowly bending forward—
bringing her face closer… and closer…

That’s when Touch leapt onto her back.

She flinched—just for a second—
and lost her balance.
Her foot slipped off me, and she staggered.

Then Happy came charging in, playfully jumping up at her.

I guess because the two dogs were used to playing with us,
they weren’t afraid of people at all.

In that instant, I scrambled to my feet and ran.

"Hurry! Hurry!!"
I could hear Shin and Jun shouting from a distance,
shining their flashlight toward me.

I ran toward the light.

“Thud.”

A dull sound behind me.

I didn’t dare look back.
I just kept running.

By the time Shin, Jun, and I finally made it out of the mountain, it was past midnight.

We didn’t hear any footsteps behind us,
but we couldn’t shake the feeling that she might still be chasing us.

So we ran—
all the way to Shin’s house.

When we got there,
for some reason, I started laughing.

Maybe it was just the release—
being free from that overwhelming tension.

But Jun…
Jun started crying.

I said,
"We’re never going back to that secret base, huh. What if she’s still looking for us?"

And Jun, still crying, snapped back,
"Idiot! We have to go back in the morning! Once it’s light out!"

I was like, “Huh? What the hell are you saying?”
Then Shin turned to me and said,

"You got away from her thanks to Happy and Touch, you know that?
When she was about to hit you from behind—
Happy jumped in and took the blow instead."

Then Jun started crying even harder,
choking out,
"She… she hit Touch too… Touch… ugh…"
and completely broke down in tears.

Later, Shin told me exactly what happened.

As I was running away,
the woman raised the hammer—
ready to strike me from behind.

That’s when Happy lunged at her—
and got hit in the head instead.

Even then,
she tried to chase after me again.

But Touch got in her way, playing at her feet like he always did—
and she hit him in the head with the hammer, too.

And then—

She looked over at us.
Just once.

But she didn’t chase us.

She just kept swinging—
beating the dogs over and over.

We ran.

We ran like hell.

Shin said he wanted to go back up the mountain in the morning.
And of course… I agreed.

But what was waiting for us there…
was something even worse.

I was too shaken to sleep that night,
but I dozed off a bit in the morning, until just before noon.

Then we headed back up the mountain.

This time, we came prepared.
Each of us brought something—a bat, an air gun—just in case we saw that middle-aged woman again.

At the mountain entrance, Shin said,
"She might still be there."

So instead of taking the usual trail, we entered from another route.

In the daytime, the mountain looked peaceful.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves, cicadas screamed from every direction—
it almost made the events of last night feel like a bad dream.

But as we got closer to where we saw the woman—
a heavy silence fell over us.

Our steps grew slower.
Nobody said a word.

Each of us started remembering what happened.
The closer we got, the sharper the memories became.

My palms were slick with sweat as I gripped the bat.

And then—
we saw it.

The tree.
The one she had been hammering things into.

We got a little closer…
And we all fell silent.

The trunk of the tree was covered—
with nails.

Each one driven through a photo.

Photos of a small child.
A girl, maybe four or five years old.

But that wasn’t the part that truly shocked us.

At the base of the tree—

Happy was lying there.

His body was unrecognizable.

Tongue hanging out,
covered in blood,
and—

a single nail driven into his forehead.

We were speechless.
None of us could bring ourselves to step any closer.

Flies, and bugs we’d never seen before, were already swarming the body.

That day,
we learned what death meant.

Looking at Happy’s mangled corpse,
all I could think was—

If I run into that woman again… I’ll end up like him.

I wanted to go home. Right then and there.

But Jun suddenly shouted,
"Touch…! Touch’s body isn’t here! He might still be alive!"

Then Shin added,
"He must’ve gotten away! He’s probably waiting at the base!"

And I thought—
Please. At least let Touch be alive.

The three of us took off running toward our secret base.

When we reached the clearing where we could see it—

Shin suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

Jun and I froze.
Was it her?!
The middle-aged woman?!

We hit the ground, holding our breath.

Then we looked up, slowly, at Shin’s face.

Shin was—
"...What is that?"
Shin muttered, pointing toward the base.

Jun and I slowly stood up and looked.

Something felt off.
Something about the base…

There was something on the roof.

We crept closer—step by step—
and then we saw it.

It was Jun’s drawstring pouch.
(The one he always carried his snacks in.)

The pouch we’d forgotten there the night before—

It was nailed to the roof.

With dozens of nails.

We froze.
Our blood ran cold.

The woman knows about our secret base.

Shin tightened his grip on the bat and cautiously stepped forward.

Jun and I stayed a few steps back, raising our air guns.
She could still be inside.

Shin slowly reached out for the door—
and in one swift motion, yanked it open.

"UWAH!"

He staggered backward, fell on his butt, and scrambled back toward us in a panic.

Jun and I had no idea what had scared him so badly.
But we kept our guns up and cautiously peeked inside the shack.

And there—

was Touch.

Or what was left of him.

"UWAH!"

Jun and I both reacted the same way Shin had.

Touch—just like Happy—
had a giant nail hammered into the center of his forehead.

And in that moment,
a single, clear thought hit me:

That woman is a pervert. No—she’s insane. A total f***ing lunatic.

No normal person would ever do something like this.

We had gotten tangled up with something—
someone—
far beyond what we could handle.

And I deeply, truly regretted ever stepping foot on that mountain the night before.

For a while, the three of us just stood there, frozen, staring at Touch’s body in stunned silence.

Then Shin suddenly pointed into the shack.
"Hey!! Look at that…!"

Jun and I followed his gaze—
quietly, cautiously.

Inside the shack…

Something was off.

The walls.
The floorboards.

There was something carved into them.

We moved in closer.
Looked carefully.

There it was—

Jun Curse Kill(淳呪殺)
Jun Curse Kill(淳呪殺)
Jun Curse Kill(淳呪殺)
Jun Curse Kill(淳呪殺)
Jun Curse Kill(淳呪殺)
Jun Curse Kill(淳呪殺)…

Over and over, in nail-scratched writing—
the same three characters: Jun, Curse, Kill.

They were everywhere.
On the walls.
On the floor.

Carved again and again and again.

Jun just stared.
"Huh...? What...?"

His eyes were wide, frozen in shock.

Honestly, we were all stunned.
How the hell did she know his name?

That’s when Shin said,
"Jun’s pouch—it has his name on it!"

"?!"

My eyes shot up to the roof,
where the pouch was nailed in place.

And sure enough—
scrawled in marker, barely visible beneath the nails—

"Class 5-3 ○○ Jun"

Jun burst into tears.

And honestly,
so did Shin and I.

She knew.
The woman knew not just Jun’s name—
but his grade and class.

She could find out about us, too.
It was only a matter of time.

There was no more running.
No more hiding.

We were next.
Just like Happy.
Just like Touch.

Nails.
In the forehead.

That thought clamped down on my brain,
and everything went white.

Then Shin shouted,
"We have to go to the police! It’s over—we can’t escape this!"

But I panicked.
I shouted back,

"If we go to the cops, they’ll find out about the base!
About last night!
That we lied to our parents and snuck out!"

It wasn’t rational.
But at the time,
the idea of our parents finding out…
That was scarier than anything.

Jun just kept crying,
his breath hiccuping—

"Hhk... hhk..."

I didn’t know what to say.
None of us did.

Then, without a word,
Jun reached up and ripped his pouch down from the roof.

He stuffed it deep into his pocket.

スポンサーリンク

We stopped talking after that.
And just quietly started down the mountain.

Jun was still crying.

And me—
I couldn’t shake the feeling that the woman was still watching us.
From somewhere.
Somewhere we couldn’t see.

Once we got to the bottom, Shin said,
"Let’s never come back here again.
If we just stay away,
she’ll probably forget about us sooner or later."

I nodded.
"Yeah… and let’s keep this whole thing between us.
If she finds out we told anyone…
she might come after us again."

Shin agreed.
But Jun just kept crying, wiping at his face with his sleeve.

That day, we all went home.
And for the rest of that summer break—
the three of us never hung out again.

Two weeks later, the new school term started.

But Jun…
wasn’t there.

Shin came to school,
so it was just the two of us.

We both thought the same thing—
"What if she got Jun…?"

After school, we went to Jun’s house.
Nervous.
Expecting the worst.

We rang the bell—
and were met with a bright, cheerful voice.

"Hellooo~!"
It was Jun’s mom.

I asked,
"Is Jun home?"

She smiled and said,
"Aww, thanks for coming to check on him.
He’s in his room—go on up."

Shin and I looked at each other, relieved.
Then we headed to Jun’s room.

"Jun! We’re coming in!"

When we opened the door—

Jun was lying in bed, reading manga.

He looked totally fine.

Way more normal than we’d expected.

Shin and I both felt a little weight lift off our shoulders.

Shin said,
"Why weren’t you at school today?"

I added,
"We were worried, man! You sick or something?"

Jun didn’t answer.
He just closed his manga and looked down at the floor.

Then his mom came in with snacks and juice, smiling.

"This one’s had a rash that won’t go away—been like ten days now," she said.
"Probably from eating too much junk food, right?"

She chuckled and left the room.

Shin and I laughed, too.

"Seriously?! You scared the crap outta us—it’s just a rash?"
"You must’ve eaten something off the ground, huh?"

We were joking, trying to lighten the mood.

But Jun didn’t laugh.
Still staring down.

Then Shin asked,
"Hey… Jun, what’s up with you?"

Without a word,
Jun took off his T-shirt.

His whole torso—
covered in red blotches.

Yeah, it was a rash. For sure.

I said,
"Come on, that’ll go away with some ointment or something."

Then Jun spoke.

Quiet, but firm.

"This is that woman’s curse."

He turned and showed us his back.

Same thing—
hives everywhere.

Shin scoffed.
"Don’t be ridiculous. Just forget about her already."

Jun’s tone sharpened.
"Look at my right side."

He pointed to his ribs.
It was the worst spot—angry, red, swollen.

We didn’t get it.
Why would he say that’s from a curse?

Then Jun said,
"Look closer.
You don’t see it?
That’s a face."

We leaned in—

And froze.

He was right.

About five centimeters wide—
the rash looked exactly like a face.

A woman’s face.

Twisted. Swollen. Raw.

Shin and I both tried to laugh it off.
"You’re overthinking it, man.
I mean… yeah, it kinda looks like a face, but still."

But Jun snapped.

"Don’t mess with me! It’s a face—plain as day!
I’m the only one she cursed!"

We didn’t know what to say.
More than anything,
we were just overwhelmed by Jun’s energy—
or lack of it.

He was always the calm one.
Kind.
Level-headed.

But now—
his face pale, eyes vacant—
he looked… broken.

Cornered.

Shin and I suddenly felt awkward, like we didn’t belong there anymore.
So we decided to leave.

On the way home,
I asked Shin,

"What do you think? You think it’s… really a curse?"

Shin replied,
"There’s no such thing as curses."

Somehow,
those words gave me a strange sense of comfort.

Three days passed.

Jun still hadn’t come back to school.

Neither Shin nor I felt like calling him.
We just… didn’t know what to say.

But the teacher told the class,
"Jun’s out for a while with rubella."

And hearing that,
we were honestly relieved.

But around that time—
rumors started floating through the school.

About a woman.

Wearing a trench coat.
And sandals.

Seen standing along the school route.

Staring.

Glaring.

Staring down each child,
one by one.

When I first heard the rumor,
I panicked.

Because out of all of us—
I was the only one whose face she’d seen up close.

I talked to Shin about it.

He stayed calm, maybe to keep me from losing it.

"Don’t worry. It was dark that night—she couldn’t have seen clearly.
And even if she did, it’s been weeks. She probably forgot."

But what bothered me more than anything—
was that Shin and I lived in completely opposite directions.

Jun’s house was close to mine,
but he was still out of school.

So I had to go home alone.

I told Shin,
"Can we walk home together for a while?
I’m scared."

He looked a little annoyed,
but eventually said,

"Alright. But only until Jun’s back."

And from that day on,
Shin started walking me home after school.

From that day on,
Shin and I started walking home together.

That first day,
we didn’t see the woman in the trench coat.
(Suspected to be the middle-aged woman.)

Same thing the next day.
And the day after that.

Still, the rumor hadn’t died down.
At school, people were still whispering about
"The woman in the trench coat."

On the fifth day of walking home together,
we decided to go visit Jun.
It had been a while.

We brought along some leftover orange jelly from school lunch as a little gift.

When we got to Jun’s house,
we rang the bell—

And as always,
his mom came to the door, cheerful as ever, and let us in.

Jun didn’t look any better.

The rash had mostly faded,
but Jun seemed distant. Disconnected.

He told us,
"The face on my side… it’s getting bigger every day."

But Shin and I couldn’t really see it.
If anything, it looked better than last time.

It was probably the stress.
He was still mentally wrecked.

We didn’t tell him about the trench coat woman.
No way we could’ve.

As we were leaving,
Jun’s mom followed us out and asked, her voice low and worried:

"Is Jun being bullied at school?"

We told her no.
But inside—
we both felt guilty.

Because the truth…
was something we couldn’t even begin to explain.

Three days later—

That day, unusually, I walked home with Naito, Sasaki, Shin, and myself.

Naito was huge.
Sasaki, super short.
They looked like a live-action Gian and Suneo.

By then, for Shin and me,
the whole “middle-aged woman” thing had started to fade.

Even the rumors at school about
"The woman in the trench coat"—
we were starting to think she was just someone else entirely.

That day, we decided to take a detour and hit the capsule toy machines near the station.
We took a different path than usual.

That was our mistake.

We were joking and talking as we walked,
when suddenly—

Sasaki said,
"Hey… isn’t that the trench coat lady?"

Naito went,
"Ugh, gross! Yeah, that’s her!"

My heart dropped.

I looked over.
And silently begged,

“Please… let it be someone else.”

She was standing still on the sidewalk,
one hand clutching a plastic grocery bag.

It was still hot—late summer heat rising from the pavement.

And she just stood there.

Staring at the ground.
Motionless.
Expression unreadable.

Shin whispered, his voice low, tense:
"Don’t make eye contact."

Step by step,
we got closer.

The tension was unbearable.

She didn’t move.
Didn’t blink.
Just kept her head down.

Then—
when we were maybe five meters away—

She lifted her face.

And stared.
At all four of us.

Then her eyes shifted—

Down.

To our chests.

I realized it right away—

She was checking our name tags.

I panicked.

Every muscle in my body tensed as I tried to act normal.

But just one glimpse of her face—

And everything from that night came rushing back.
A flash of horror.

My heart felt like it was trying to crawl up my throat.

No doubt about it.

It was her.
The middle-aged woman.

I kept my head down.
Kept walking.
Praying she wouldn’t move.

Waiting.

Every step felt like it took forever.
Seconds dragged on like hours.

Naito laughed.

"Did you see her eyes?
That chick’s totally lost it!"

Sasaki chimed in too.

"Who wears that crap in this heat? Gross!"

But Shin and I…
we couldn’t laugh.

We just couldn’t.

Then Sasaki added,

"Shit. You think she heard us?
She’s still staring, man!"

I turned, instinctively.

And our eyes met.

Her face—

Blank.
Lifeless.

Like a wax figure.

Then—

She smiled.

A slow, disgusting grin.

Like she knew.

Like she was enjoying it.

That was when I finally understood what it meant
to have your blood run cold.

I felt it.
A warm trickle.

I had pissed myself—just a little.

Did she recognize me?
Did she remember my face from that night?

And if she did—
Why didn’t she attack?

Why just smile?

My brain went in circles, spiraling into panic.

Naito kept goofing around.

"Dude, she’s still watching!
Sasaki! She totally heard what you said!
I ain’t taking the fall for that!"

No one cared about the gacha machines anymore.
We turned the corner—
out of her line of sight—
and I grabbed Shin’s arm.

"Let’s go home!"

Shin looked into my eyes for a moment.

Then he nodded and said,
"Oh, right—cram school today, huh?
Yeah, we better head back!"

He was playing along.
And we ran.

Not even toward our houses—
just anywhere.
Away.

After a few blocks, I said to him,
"It’s her. I’m telling you—
those eyes—
she’s come looking for us!"

Shin, surprisingly calm, replied,
"She was totally staring at our name tags.
And she knows the grade and class—
she saw it on Jun’s pouch."

His calmness made me snap.

"What the hell do we do?!
We’re screwed!
She’ll find out where we live eventually!!"

Shin said,
"We’ve gotta go to the cops.
We can’t keep this up.
We need help."

I fell silent.
He wasn’t wrong.
There really wasn’t any other way.

But still—

"What are we even gonna tell them?"

Shin thought for a second, then said,
"The mountain.
We show them what’s up there—
the nailed-up photo,
Happy and Touch’s bodies.
We take pictures.
Prove she’s a pervert or something.

Then the cops will have to arrest her."

I didn’t want to go back up that mountain.
But we had no choice.

So we decided—

Tomorrow, after school,
Shin and I would head to the mountain together.

The plan was set.
Tomorrow after school—
we’d head to the mountain.

But even with that decision made,
we were terrified.

We had no idea where she might be lurking.
So we took the long way home.
Really long.

A trip that should’ve taken 20 minutes—
we dragged it out for nearly two hours.

The moment I got home,
I called Shin.

"What if she knows where I live?
What if she comes tonight??"

I couldn’t stop.
Kept going, rambling.

I didn’t realize I was this much of a coward.

But then again,
Jun’s name had been carved into the base—Jun Cursed to Death—
and now he was barely hanging on.

I finally understood how broken he must’ve felt.

Shin told me,

"It’s fine.
She’s not gonna figure it out that fast."

That calmed me, a little.
And in that moment,
I realized something.

We always talked like equals.

But Shin…
he felt more like an older brother to me.

Of course,
I didn’t sleep that night.

Every tiny sound sent my heart racing.

And every time I closed my eyes—

I saw her.

That grin.
Etched into the back of my eyelids.

Morning came.
I went to school.
Sat through class.
Survived the day.

And then—

3:30 PM.

Shin and I stood
at the entrance to the mountain.

[yokonaga]

I hesitated.
Couldn’t move.

The middle-aged woman.
Happy and Touch—
broken and bleeding.
All those nails.

They spun in my head, vividly—
like someone had pressed “rewind” on my worst memory.

It all came flooding back.
That night.

I glanced at Shin.
He was silent,
staring into the woods.

He had to be scared too.

Inside, I was screaming—

"Come on, man… just say it.
Say you’re scared too…
Say we don’t have to go."

But Shin reached into his pocket.
Pulled out a disposable camera.

Held it tight in his right hand.

Then he shattered my last hope.

"Let’s go."

He said it quietly—
and dashed into the forest.

Without looking back.

And I…
I chased him.

I had to.

The thought of being alone—
was worse than anything.

Now that I think about it,
Shin must’ve been terrified too.

That’s probably why he ran.
Didn’t look.
Didn’t speak.
Just ran.

We got closer.

Closer to that place.

And the closer we got,
the more it came back.

That night.

Too clear.
Too real.

The fear crept up my legs,
locked my knees—
and still we ran.

Then—
we arrived.

Where she drove in the nails.
Where she killed Happy and Touch.
Where she dragged me down.

The place where
we met her.

Suddenly—
I felt eyes on me.

Not just anyone’s.

Hers.

That feeling—
like she was watching—
sent my head whipping around.

But there was nothing.

Just the mountain.
Its heavy silence.

And the fear growing inside me.
The two synced up perfectly.
My legs started to shake.

I stopped walking.

Shin didn’t even glance back.

He just kept going.

Toward that tree.

Then—he stopped.
Dropped into a squat.

"Happy..."

Just hearing that name—
snapped me out of it.

I walked toward him,
forgetting all about my trembling legs.

Happy…
was already turning back into soil.

His skull lay exposed.
Right in the center—

A rusted nail.
Still there.

I reached down,
wanting to pull it out.

But Shin said,
"Wait."

Then he raised the camera—
and took a photo.

His calmness surprised me.

But I didn’t say anything.

I reached for the nail again.

The moment I pinched it—

A swarm of insects
I’d never seen before
burst out from inside the skull.

"UGH!"

I yanked my hand back.
Stumbled to my feet.

The bugs—
crawling over each other, spilling out—

I couldn’t take it.

I couldn’t go near Happy anymore.

Worse—
I felt sick.

Real, stomach-twisting nausea.

I doubled over, gagging.

Shin didn’t say a word.
Just gently patted my back.

That night—
I let Happy die.

And now,
I let him die all over again.

I’m the weakest.
The worst kind of person.

Shin raised the camera again.
This time, pointing it toward that tree.

Then suddenly—

"Huh?
Hey—come here a sec!"

Something caught his eye.
He called me over.

I hesitated, then slowly walked to him.

Shin pointed at something.

"This… this wasn’t here last time, right?"

I followed his gaze—

A photo.

Nailed up with dozens of rusted spikes.

At first, I thought,
"Wait… wasn’t this already here before?"

But then I looked closer—

No.
It was different.

The photo we’d seen before—
the little girl, maybe four or five years old—
that one was still there,
just to the side.

This was new.

There was another one now.

The old photo was already weathered,
faded beyond recognition by rain and wind.

But this one—

This one was fresh.

Still clear.
Still whole.

Also a little girl.
Maybe four or five.

Shin didn’t say anything—
but inside,
my heart was pounding.

What if it had been me?

What if the new photo was me?

Shin snapped a photo of the nailed-up image.

Then he said,
"Let’s go get the engravings in the base next."

And took off running.

I stood there.

Frozen.

The feeling returned—
like she was close.

Like she was watching.

I panicked.

Didn’t want to be left behind.

So I ran—
as fast as I could—
after Shin.

As we neared the secret base,
I felt it.

Something was wrong.

"Shin!"
I called out, stopping him.

Something didn’t feel right.

From here, we should’ve been able to see the roof—
but we couldn’t.

Shin seemed to notice too.
He froze.

And that’s when she flashed across my mind.

The woman.

My chest tightened.
My pulse sped up.

Shin said,
"Let’s take the back path."

I nodded silently.

The back path—
not the usual animal trail we took through the woods.
No, this one crawled under the bushes,
looping around to the rear of the base.

We made it for fun,
as a "just in case" escape route—
in case anyone ever attacked our base.

Never thought we’d actually use it.

But now,
it might be our only hope.

If she was in the base,
this would keep us out of sight.

We dropped to all fours
and crawled through the green tunnel.

Branches snapped under our weight,
leaves brushed our faces.

About 5 meters from the back of the base—
we saw it.

And we understood.

Why we couldn’t see the roof.

It was gone.

Our secret base—
the one we’d built together—

had been torn to pieces.

Smashed.
Scattered.
Reduced to nothing but planks of wood.

We stayed in the bushes,
watching.
Listening.

No sign of her.

No presence.

So we crept out.

Into the clearing—

into the ruins
of what used to be our secret base.

We stood there,
staring at what used to be our base—
now reduced to splinters.

And I almost cried.

That place wasn’t just a hideout.
It was our second home.
Ours, and the dogs’.

A chunk of stone sat among the wreckage.
Huge.

It looked like someone had used it to smash the place.

Someone…
or more likely—
her.

Shin didn’t say a word.
Just took out the camera and started snapping pictures.

He flipped a few boards aside.
One of them had it—

「淳呪殺」

Carved right in.

He took a picture of that too.

And that’s when—
from a narrow gap between the boards—

A fly buzzed out.

And beneath that…
we saw it.

Touch.

Or what was left.

Happy.
Touch.

They meant more to us
than that base ever did.
And now they were both gone.

Shin stood up.
Said quietly—

"Alright.
Let’s get this film developed
and take it to the cops."

We ran.

Ran down the mountain.

Straight to the police box
by the station.

All I could think about was—

"These photos…
they’ll prove everything.
They’ll catch her.
We’ll be safe."

We stopped at a camera shop on the way.
Handed over the disposable.

They said it would take 30 minutes.
So we waited inside.

We didn’t talk.
Just sat there.

Waiting.

Anxious.
Restless.

The longest 30 minutes of my life.

Then—
finally—
the time was up.

"Thanks for waiting~!"
A girl behind the register—probably a part-timer—called out to us.

Shin and I jumped to our feet and rushed over.
She looked kind of puzzled as she handed us a photo envelope.

"They’re all developed.
Please check them before you leave."

That look on her face—
probably because the photos were just a bunch of disturbing images:
dead dogs, little girls’ pictures with nails through them.
Who wouldn’t look weirded out?

Shin opened the envelope right there,
flipped through every single photo.

"All good.
Thanks."

He paid.

And we bolted.

Straight to the police box near the station.

"This is it.
It’s over.
We’ll be safe now."

We pushed the door open.

"Huh?
What’s up?"
A young officer inside turned to us with a smile.

We walked straight up to him.

"Please, help us!"

We told him everything.

That night.
What happened in the mountains.
The woman.
The dogs.
The photos.

We laid out the pictures one by one.
Told him how she was still after us.

He listened quietly.

Then, with a gentle look on his face, he asked:

"Have you told your parents about this?"

We said no.

He nodded slowly.

"Alright then,
Can you give me a phone number?
One of your parents’."

Shin snapped.

"Why do our parents even matter?!
We’re the ones being hunted!!"

For context—
Shin’s mom’s a nurse.
His dad’s a doctor.
His older brother?
Top private high school.

Out of the three of us,
Shin had the strictest parents—
and the most to lose.

If they found out about the lies,
the base,
that night...
It wouldn’t just be bad—
it’d be the end of the world.

Shin stepped forward,
his voice shaking.

"Aren’t you a cop?!
Help us!"

The officer gave a tight, awkward smile.

"You guys are in elementary school, right?
You need to tell your parents.
They should really know what’s going on."

It turned into this stupid loop.
Back and forth.
No progress.

Then the officer leaned in a bit—

"Alright then,
What’s your teacher’s name?"

To us,
that wasn’t just a question.
It was a threat.

Maybe to him,
he just wanted to hear from someone responsible.
Reasonable, right?

But to us—

“Parents”
“Teachers”

—they weren’t protectors.
They were punishers.
All we saw were people who’d yell,
blame,
ground us,
and never believe us.

The more we stood there,
the more something grew inside us—

Distrust.

Toward the guy behind the desk
wearing a badge.

And the thought hit me like lightning:

"If we stay here,
they’ll force us to give our addresses,
call our parents—
rat us out."

That’s when I started thinking—
“Maybe this cop doesn’t believe us.”

Even though we were desperate,
even though we brought photos,
even though we kept saying her name—
“the woman.”
He just kept talking about parents,
teachers.

We had evidence.
Proof.
And he still didn’t get it.

I shoved the photo back in front of him.

"She killed a dog.
Like this."

The officer went quiet.
Picked up the photo.
Then said something I didn’t expect.

"Hmmm...
Wait—this is a dog? Are you sure?"

"What?"
Shin and I both stared at him.
Was this guy for real?

He wasn’t joking.
He looked genuinely confused.

"No, no—I’m not saying I don’t believe you.
Just… help me understand.
Is this the head?"

He pointed to the photo.

I snatched it back.

"It’s—uh…"

I froze.
Mid-sentence.

Looking at the image again—
from his point of view—
it kind of made sense.

To us, it was obviously Happy.
We’d seen his body just yesterday.
We knew how he looked, how he fell,
how he curled up like that.

But if you didn’t know—
if you’d never seen him alive—
you’d probably think it was just some stained old rags
wrapped around a weird brown rock.

Maybe it really didn’t look like a dead dog anymore.

I looked through the rest of the photos again,
this time with a colder eye.

The plank that read “Jun Curse Death (淳呪死)”,
the child’s photo stabbed with a hundred nails—
Was any of this really enough to prove the woman existed?

Maybe the officer thought
this was just some prank by bored kids.

"That's it... he's planning to call our parents."

I leaned toward Shin and whispered.

He didn’t answer.
Just gave me a sharp nod,
and jerked his chin—
“Let's bail.”

In the next second,
he spun on his heel and dashed for the door.

I took off right behind him.

"Hey! HEY!"
the cop shouted from behind us,
but we didn’t look back.

No footsteps.
No chase.

He probably figured
"Just a couple of punk kids making up ghost stories."

We ran.
Hard.
Didn’t stop until we were sure no one was behind us.

Then we sat down on the curb, gasping,
and held an emergency meeting right there on the street.

"So what do we do now?"
"I don’t know…"
We sat there, lost.

We’d already played our last card—
and the cops didn’t believe us.
Now we had no way to protect ourselves from that woman.

We’d thought:
“This’ll fix everything.”
But it didn’t.
And the shock hit hard.

"If she finds out where we live—"
The thought chilled me.

Then Shin said,
"…Maybe we just need to be careful. Avoid her for a while…"
But I cut him off.

"That’s not gonna work!" I snapped.
"She already knows Jun’s name and class—
It’s only a matter of time before she finds us too!"

Shin paused. Then said:
"But… do you think she really wants to hurt us?"
Huh?

He kept going.
"I mean, remember the other day, after school? We ran into her.
If she really wanted to do something, why didn’t she do it then?"

I stayed quiet.
He had a point.

"And in the mountains," he added,
"If she was still pissed at us, don’t you think there’d be more curses carved out somewhere? Like with Jun’s name?"

I nodded slowly.

He was right.
When we went back, there weren’t any new carvings about us.
The base had been wrecked, yeah—
But no curses with our names,
not even Jun’s full name, even though she knew it.

Only a new photo of another little girl,
nailed up on that same tree.

It was like…
she’d moved on.

Or… had she?

I wanted to argue—
"That can’t be right, can it?"
But I didn’t.

Because deep down,
I wanted Shin to be right.
I wanted to believe that she didn’t actually hate us.
That maybe she’d already forgotten.

Shin added,
"If she really held a grudge, she would’ve done something by now, right? Some kind of action."
It sounded like he was trying to comfort me.
Then he said,
"Maybe she’s been hanging around school to look for that girl in the photo, not us."

"Yeah…"
Hearing him say that made me feel a little better.

No—
It wasn’t just his words.
I wanted so badly for them to be true
that I forced myself to believe them.
It was almost like denial—
maybe Shin felt the same way.
Maybe we both knew we had no other way out.

So we clung to that idea.

"She’ll forget about us soon, right?"
"She probably already has!"
"Damn it, we got scared over nothing!"
"Hell, maybe we should scare her next time!"

We laughed—
loud, cocky, fake laughs.

It wasn’t confidence.
It was desperation.

For a while, Shun and I just stood there, joking around and talking trash about the middle-aged woman.
The sky had started to dim, so we decided to head home.

As we reached the fork where we usually split up, I said, "Wanna go check on Jun after school tomorrow?"
"Yeah, sounds good!" he replied with a wave.

I felt... lighter.
"Yeah… Shun's probably right. That woman’s forgotten all about us by now..."

I repeated it to myself like a mantra, like I was trying to hypnotize myself.
My steps felt lighter as I kicked pebbles along the road.
When I looked up, the sky was clear—no clouds, just stars sparkling across a crisp night sky.

All the gloom I'd been dragging around about the middle-aged woman felt stupid now.
As I neared my house, I remembered there was an anime I wanted to watch, so I picked up the pace.
My footsteps echoed through the quiet neighborhood.

"Tap tap tap tap..."
A still night.
"Tap tap tap tap..."
Huh?

Another set of footsteps.
I turned around.
Too dark to see clearly—but no one was there.

Maybe I imagined it...
I sighed and chuckled to myself, "Man, I really am a chicken."
I started running again.

"Tap tap tap tap..."
"Tap tap tap tap..."
...Huh?

Someone’s there.

I stopped again and squinted into the darkness behind me.
...Still no one there.

But I could’ve sworn—absolutely sworn—that someone was running behind me, their footsteps mixing with mine.
Was I losing it, like Jun?
Had the middle-aged woman gotten into my head without me even realizing?
Was I just scaring myself to death?

I stood still, staring into the shadows.

My heart thudded—thump, thump, thump—
And then, for a second, it almost stopped.

About fifteen meters back, near the entrance of someone’s house, behind a parked scooter—
Someone was crouching.
No, not crouching.
Hiding.

I couldn’t see the face in the dark, but one thing was crystal clear in the moonlight:
They were wearing a coat.

I froze.
Whoever it was clearly thought they were hidden—but I could see their silhouette perfectly.

My mind short-circuited.
"It’s her. It’s her. It’s her. It’s HER. The woman. The woman. The woman!"

My knees nearly buckled.
But then—instinct kicked in.

"Run. Run. Run. RUN. RUN! RUN!!"

A voice inside me screamed the command over and over.
I sprinted—faster than I ever had at any sports day.
The world narrowed to the sound of wind rushing past my ears.

I didn’t even breathe. I just ran.

I ran for my life, with nothing but sheer panic pushing my legs forward.
Just 10 meters to my house.
Almost there—I was going to make it!

But then—
Something flashed through my mind.
“If I run straight into the house, she’ll know where I live!”

Without thinking, I bolted past my own front door and kept running—
through the tight alleys of the neighborhood, with no destination in mind.
I just had to lose her—the woman who I knew was chasing me.

I must’ve run for five minutes, zigzagging blindly.
Eventually I ran out of breath, slowing to a walk, glancing behind me.
No sound.
No shadow.
No sign of the woman.

Still on edge, I carefully made my way back toward home.
When I was about ten meters from my front door again,
I scanned the area one last time—nothing.
Then I sprinted to the door.

Both my parents worked, so I was used to coming home alone.
I unlocked the door as fast as I could,
slammed it shut behind me,
and locked it.

“…Fuuuuu…”
Relief hit me like a wave.
I let out a long, shaky breath.

I had to tell Shin.
I stepped up into the house and was just about to take off my shoes when—

Clunk.

A sound from the porch.
“!?”

Still crouched in the motion of removing my shoes, I froze.
My eyes snapped to the door.

Our front door was a sliding one, with frosted glass framed in aluminum.
And behind that frosted glass—
A shadow was standing there.

The woman was right there—just a meter away on the other side of the door.
I stopped breathing.
Stopped moving.
Tried to erase my presence completely.

But no—it wasn’t something I consciously did.
I literally couldn’t move.
Like I was paralyzed.
“Like a frog frozen under a snake’s stare”—I finally understood what that meant.

All I could do was stare at the silhouette behind the frosted glass.
She didn’t move.
Just stood there.
Completely still.

Does she know I’m here…?

Then—
Through the glass, I saw her left arm slowly start to rise.
It reached for the door handle.

“Creeeak…”

The door groaned softly.
She was testing it.

My heart was pounding harder than it ever had in my entire life.

When she realized the door was locked,
she slowly lowered her hand again—
and stayed right there.

I was still frozen.
Still stuck in place.

Then she moved again.
This time, she crouched down—
right up against the door.

She pressed her left ear to the frosted glass.

She was listening.
Trying to hear what was happening inside.

I could see it.
Clear as day—
Her ear, flattened against the glass.

My stomach twisted. I thought I might throw up.
My heartbeat was so loud and fast, I thought she might hear it.
I was sure she would.

The woman kept her ear against the glass for a few minutes, then slowly stood back up.
Still facing the door, she began to step backward—
one slow, deliberate step at a time.

Her shadow faded from the frosted glass,
and eventually disappeared.

She’s gone…?

But I couldn’t relax.
Not even a little.

Because—
Was she really gone?
Did she know I was right here?
Was she still lurking outside?

What if she’d seen me enter the house?
What if she was absolutely certain I was in here?
And that whole act was just to mess with me—
To make me think she’d left when she hadn’t?

If that was the case,
then she was still out there.
Right now.

I slowly and silently slipped off my shoes and made my way into the living room.
I didn’t turn on the lights.
No way.

Any light could expose me. Confirm I was home.

In the dark, I grabbed the phone.
I knew the number by heart—
I called Shinn’s house.

Three rings.
He answered.

“Shinn?! She was here! The woman! She came! She found me!”
I was whispering, but panicked. My voice was shaking.

“What? What happened? What do you mean?” he asked.

“She came to my house! She was at the door! You’ve got to help me!”
I was begging him.

“Calm down!”
Shinn’s voice came through the receiver.
“Is there anyone else at your house?”

“No! No one! Please, get over here!”

“First, check all the doors and windows! Where is she now?”

“I don’t know! She was right out front just a second ago!”

“Don’t panic! Just check the locks! You hear me? Now!”

“Okay! I’ll check! Just hurry!”

I slammed down the receiver and started checking the house,
not turning on a single light.
I stayed pressed to the walls, feeling my way through the darkness.

First stop: the bathroom.

I crept in, barely breathing, and slowly shut the window without making a sound.

Next, the bath.

Same thing—I gently closed the small bathroom window and latched it shut.

I stepped out and headed down the hallway toward the veranda windows.

My hand brushed along the wall as I entered the tatami room.

Nothing looked different.
The window was closed.
Curtains drawn.

But—

Something felt off.

I looked closer at the left edge of the curtain.
A dark silhouette—
pressed up against the glass.

Someone was outside.
Staring in.

Their face mashed against the window,
hands cupped around their eyes like binoculars.
Trying to see inside.

Because the lights were off, it was brighter outside—
and I could see her clearly.

The woman was stuck to the window like some kind of gecko.

My knees nearly buckled. I almost collapsed.

Was this... some kind of animal instinct?
Like prey sensing a predator, my body reacted before my brain could—
I dropped into a crouch.

My whole body trembled. I didn’t even notice I was shaking.

Could she see me?

The woman stayed there for a while, peering in through the glass.

Then, still pressed to the window,
she slowly shifted sideways toward the center.

That’s when I heard it—

"Screeeee... scree scree scree..."
A high-pitched scraping sound.

Her right hand was rubbing the window.
Left hand still cupped at her eyes, watching me.

"Scree scree scree..."
The sound didn’t stop.

I was paralyzed with fear. Not just scared—
this was raw, primal terror.
I couldn’t even scream.

And then—
she suddenly spun around and bolted away,
disappearing into the night like a beast.

I didn’t move.
Just stared at the window, trying to understand what I’d seen.

That’s when I noticed it—
red flashing lights outside, reflected in the glass.

A patrol car.

“The cops! She saw the cops and ran!”
It finally clicked.

She must’ve noticed the flashing lights and taken off.

I stayed there, crouched and shaking, unable to do anything else.

Then—
RIIIIIIING! RIIIIIIING!
The phone rang.
My heart nearly gave out.

I looked at the caller ID. It was Shinn.

I scrambled to pick up the phone.

Shinn: “How is it?”
Me: “She was peeking in my room, but… I think she’s gone…”
Shinn: “Your folks back yet?”
Me: “No. A patrol car happened to drive by. She saw it and bolted.”
Shinn: “Ahh, thank god. I actually called in a report. Told them there was a suspicious person near your place.”
Shinn: “Still… if she knows where you live now, you really gotta tell your parents. It’s getting too dangerous.”
Me: “…”
Shinn: “I’m telling mine tonight. You should too. Seriously.”
Me: “…Okay…”

Then we hung up.

About thirty minutes later, my mom came home from her part-time job.

I ran to the door in the dark—hadn’t turned on a single light—
and the second I saw her face, the fear and relief overwhelmed me.
I broke down crying.

She looked stunned at first, not understanding what was going on.

I just kept sobbing.

Then, still crying, I choked out a quiet, “I’m sorry.”

And I told her everything—
from what happened “that night” in the mountains,
to what had just happened.

While I was explaining, my dad got home.
My mom filled him in.

He didn’t say anything.
He just walked over to the window in the living room.

The glass was scratched up—deep gouges like something had clawed at it.

I could tell right away:
those marks were from a nail. A huge one. A five-inch nail.

But neither of them scolded me.
My mom held me close, and my dad quietly picked up the phone to call the police.

About ten minutes later, the police showed up.

My dad did most of the explaining.

I stayed in the living room with my mom for a while, until one of the officers came over and asked me directly about “that night.”

I told them everything.

About Happy and Touch…
About the photo of the girl nailed to the tree…
About how Jun’s name had been carved into the base with nails…

I even told them about that encounter after school,
and of course, about what had just happened.

Someone from forensics must’ve come too,
because while I was being interviewed, they were dusting the window for prints.

The part the officer focused on most was the photo of the little girl.

He asked a lot about her—what she looked like, if I’d ever seen her before.

All I could say was, “I don’t know.”

They had me draw a rough map of the back mountain.
He said they’d go investigate the area the next day.

Before leaving, they promised to strengthen nighttime patrols around our neighborhood.

In the end, they didn’t find any usable fingerprints.

Not long after, our house phone rang—
Shinn’s and Jun’s parents were calling.

Our parents talked for a while,
but it didn’t sound like they were discussing “the woman.”
It was more about how to explain all of this to the school.

That night, for the first time in years, I slept with my parents.
Not out of embarrassment, not because I wanted to—
but because I was terrified of the woman.
Even then, I could barely sleep.

When my mom woke me up the next morning, it was already past 8 a.m.
I bolted upright. “I’m late!” I yelled, panicking.

But my mom calmly said, “You’re staying home today.”

Apparently, she had already called the school and explained everything.

Dad had already left for work,
but my mom had taken the day off from her part-time job.

I figured Shin and Jun were probably skipping school too.

Still, I didn’t call them.

Shin was probably getting scolded by his strict parents,
and Jun’s parents…
Well, if they had finally learned the truth about what was going on with their son,
I couldn’t even imagine how shocked they must be.

To be honest, I was too scared to call.

I stayed holed up in my room, praying that the police would catch “the woman” as soon as possible.

All I wanted was to be free from this constant, gnawing fear.

Oddly enough, my mom never brought up anything about her.

Maybe she was being considerate.
I thought so, anyway—so I didn’t bring it up either.

After lunch, I went back to my room again.

Then—

Thud.

A dull noise hit the outer wall of our house.

For a moment, I thought, “Shin!”
That idiot always called for me by tossing a small stone at my window instead of ringing the doorbell.

I looked out the window.
Shin should’ve been standing by the utility pole on the street out front.
But… he wasn’t there.

I figured maybe he was hiding somewhere as a prank,
so I scanned the area as far as I could see—
but there was no sign of him anywhere.

That’s when I suddenly heard a scream from our yard,
right below my window.

“Kya!”
My mom’s voice.

Startled, I threw open the window and leaned out.

She was standing in the yard,
a hand covering her mouth as she stared down at something on the ground.
Her face was twisted in shock.

I had no idea what was going on.

“What happened?!” I shouted.

She flinched when she heard my voice,
then looked up at me, pale and wide-eyed—
and without saying a word, she slowly raised her hand and pointed to the house wall.

My heart dropped.

I followed her finger, already feeling a bad chill down my spine.

Stuck to the side of our house was something thick and dark,
a purplish liquid mixed with some kind of jelly-like goo.

It must’ve been the source of the thud I’d heard earlier.

My eyes drifted down to the base of the wall, to what was on the ground.

It was a massive bullfrog.
Dead—its guts spilled out grotesquely across the dirt.

My mom just stood there, frozen, unable to speak.

And me?

Only one thing came to mind—

“That woman.”

I darted my eyes around, scanning for any sign of her.

But there was no one.

Then suddenly, as if snapping out of a trance,
my mom bolted back inside, straight to the living room,
and I heard her calling the police.

My mom looked pale.
It was probably the first time she truly realized how insane that woman was.

Yeah… that woman isn’t just creepy.
She’s deranged.

Even now, after she threw the frog,
she’s probably out there somewhere, grinning,
watching us panic.
Watching me.

I felt goosebumps ripple across my skin.

“Please, let the cops get here already…”
I screamed it over and over in my head.

This place—it wasn’t “home” anymore.
To her, it was a cage.
And we were inside it,
completely exposed.

I couldn’t shake the feeling.
We were being watched.

Eventually, a patrol car arrived.
It wasn’t the same officers as yesterday—these two were new.

One of them started inspecting the outside wall and the road where the frog must’ve been thrown from.
The other came to question me and my mom.

“Did you see anything unusual?”
“Can you describe what happened again?”
He kept asking vague questions, over and over.

And then he said something that made my blood run cold.

“You said you had trouble yesterday too, right?
If that’s the case, there’s a good chance the same person will try something again.
Soon.”

I couldn’t take it anymore.

“It’s that cursed woman!” I cried, my voice cracking.
“She wears a coat, she’s about forty—SHE’S INSANE! Please, just catch her already!”
I was half in tears, begging.

Then the officer said,
“We went to check out the mountain earlier today…
We found the dog’s remains, your friend’s name carved into the wood, and that photo of the little girl too.
We’re going to investigate everything. We’ll catch whoever did this—promise.”
He patted me on the shoulder, then walked over to my mom and started talking to her.

I heard something like,
“We’ll contact your husband...”

They took photos of the frog’s bloodstain on the wall and its mangled body,
and then after about an hour, the two officers left.

Not long after, my dad came home—before 5pm.
Guess he was worried, considering everything that had happened.

My mom was in the kitchen making dinner,
my dad sat quietly with the evening paper,
but I could tell—they were both on edge.

And me?
I was terrified.
When would she come back?
I kept glancing toward the windows.

That night at dinner, nobody said much.
The only sound was the TV murmuring in the background.

Then around 11pm, we all got ready for bed.
To be safe, we decided to keep the lights on in the downstairs living room.

That night, all of us slept together in the same room again.
Of course, I could barely sleep.
I don’t know how much time had passed…

Suddenly—
“ORAaaa!!”
A deep, angry shout came from the front door—
followed by shrieking,
“AGHH! AGHHH!”
It was that voice.
That awful, familiar voice.

The voice of the woman.

We all bolted upright.
My dad rushed toward the front entrance.
My mom clutched me tightly, holding me in our room.

Then—
Clack clack…
RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE!!

The sound of my dad unlocking the door and sliding it open.

As soon as the door opened—

“AGHH!! DAMN YOU!! AGHHHH!! AAAAAGHHH!!”
The woman’s shrieking voice exploded again.

“Calm down!”
“Stop struggling!”
Two men—probably cops—were yelling back at her.

That’s when it hit me.
They caught her. The police got her.

The woman kept shrieking, like an animal backed into a corner.
I was shaking so badly I couldn’t move from my mom’s arms.
Then my dad came back to us and said:

“They want you to take a look. Just to make sure she’s the one you saw in the mountains. Can you do it?”

I wasn’t okay—
But if I didn’t do it now, this would never end.
I told myself this was it. This was how we ended it.

“…Okay.”
My voice was small.

I slowly made my way down the stairs, my dad’s hand steady on my shoulder.

From the entrance, I heard:

“YOUUU!! DAMN YOU!! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME TOO?!”
Her voice cracked and twisted with rage.

My knees locked up, but somehow, I kept walking.

And then—
I was standing in front of her.

The woman.
Held down by two officers, wild-eyed and snarling like a cornered beast.

At first, I couldn’t look at anything but my own feet. I was frozen with fear.
But then—my dad gave my shoulder a gentle pat.
I lifted my gaze, slowly, and met her eyes.

She was pinned to the ground by two officers, her face mashed against the floor—
And even like that, she was glaring up at me.
Her hair was a tangled mess, her eyes bloodshot, saliva dripping from her mouth like a rabid dog.

“YOU!! YOUUUU!! HOW MUCH MORE ARE YOU GONNA MAKE ME SUFFER?!”
She kept screaming nonsense, thrashing around in the officers’ grip.

One of the cops looked at me and asked,
“This the woman from the mountain? Are you sure?”

I couldn’t even speak. Her intensity was overwhelming.
But I nodded. Silently.

That was all they needed.

The officer clicked the handcuffs onto her wrists and said,
“You’re under arrest—for attempted arson.”

She kept howling, still trying to break free.
But the two officers wrestled her into the back of the patrol car.

One of them stayed behind. He turned to us and said,

“Let me explain what happened.”

Officer: “We were patrolling the area and noticed a shadow near your front door.
It was that woman.
She was crouching down, trying to light something on fire. You keep old newspapers by the entrance, right?”

Mom: “No… we don’t keep anything like that out front.”

Officer: “Then I guess she brought them herself…”
He pointed down at the ground.

There was a bundled stack of newspapers. Definitely not from our subscription.
Then the officer furrowed his brow and said,
“Hm?”
He reached into the bundle and pulled something out.

A wooden board.

And carved into it—clear as day—was:

“○○○ BURN TO DEATH”

It was my full name.

My whole body broke out in goosebumps.
She had found out my name. All of it.

If the police hadn’t happened to be patrolling just then…
That thought alone made me feel dizzy.

My mom broke down and pulled me into her arms, sobbing, running her hand over my head again and again.

The officer went quiet for a moment, then said:

“Actually… this woman—she’s mentally ill.
She lives over in ○○ Town.
We’ve had complaints about her before… though, to be honest, there’s also been some sympathy from the neighbors.”

Officer: “That woman… she lost both her husband and son in a car accident about a year ago.
Since then, she’s been emotionally unstable—somewhere between severe emotional distress and schizophrenia.
There’ve been incidents with her neighbors too, escalating over time…”

“We actually identified her because of that photo of the girl you found in the mountains.”
“That accident two years ago… the little girl had run into the street.
The driver swerved to avoid her, crashed into a wall, and her husband and son were both killed.”

“The girl herself wasn’t hurt at all.
Since then, the woman has been harassing the girl’s family nonstop.
But because of the nature of the accident, the girl’s family never filed any formal complaint…”

“She must really hate that little girl.”

I listened to the officer’s explanation, but I felt no sympathy. None.

All I could feel was the creeping, overwhelming sense of how deeply obsessed this woman was.

And more than anything…

“Emotionally unstable. Schizophrenic.”
Even the police admitted it.

Would they really just… release her?

Would I have to keep living, constantly looking over my shoulder, waiting for her to come back?

More than relief,
what filled my chest now was despair.

Five years later...

Shin, Jun, and I had all gone to different high schools.

We’d completely drifted apart.

Each of us had moved on to our own lives.

Of course, none of us could ever forget the incident with the middle-aged woman, but the fear had faded with time.

Then, during winter break of our first year of high school, I got a call from someone I hadn’t heard from in a while—Jun.

“Yo! Long time no talk!”

We barely got through the greetings before he hit me with it:

“So… I kinda wrecked my bike. Broke my leg and my back. I’m in the hospital right now.”

“What?! You dumbass. Which hospital? What, you lonely and want me to visit or something?”

“Well, yeah… that too. But…”
“Do you remember her? The middle-aged woman?”

“Not the incident itself—
I mean her face. Do you remember what she looked like?”

“…Why?”
“What’s going on?”

There was a pause.

Then Jun said—

“…Every night, after visiting hours… some weird old lady comes by and peeks in on me. Just stands there. Staring. Smiling.”

As soon as Jun said those words, her face—the middle-aged woman—came rushing back into my mind, clearer than ever.

The first time we saw her in the woods, the way she clenched her teeth in rage.
The disgusting, leering smile when we ran into her after school.
That night she stood screaming like a lunatic outside my front door.

I’d spent years trying to forget her… but she’d never really left me. That face—that trauma—was still etched deep inside me.

I told Jun, “What the hell are you talking about? Just forget it! God, you’re such a damn coward!”
But really, I was saying it to myself too. Trying to convince myself it was nothing.

Jun replied, “Yeah, you’re right… it’s just, being in the hospital like this—makes you feel weak, y’know?”
I laughed, “Some things never change with you.”

I hadn’t really changed either. We were both still stuck in that night.

I asked which hospital he was at, and said, “Alright, I’ll swing by soon with some dirty magazines or something.” Then I hung up.

But the second I put the phone down… that uneasy feeling crept in.

The middle-aged woman.
What Jun said kept echoing in my mind.

After I hung up, I sat there thinking.

There’s no way that middle-aged woman could be back.
She was arrested… wasn’t she? Or had they let her go?

But the more I thought about it, the more it pissed me off.
We never did anything to her. Nothing.
All we did was stumble onto her twisted little ritual in the woods—and we paid a huge price for it.

She took Happy and Touch from us.
She smashed our secret base to pieces.
And worst of all, she carved fear into our bones so deep we were still haunted by it, even now.

We never hurt her. We never stole anything from her.

She just showed up, out of nowhere, and attacked us like a wild animal.
And yet we’re the ones who’ve had to live with the trauma.

Even if she is as obsessed and deranged as they said, I couldn’t believe she’d still be after us.
Not after all these years.

If she was going to fixate on anyone, it would be the girl in the photo—not us.

I forced myself to believe that.
Convinced myself everything was fine.

“I told you on the phone, right...” Jun said, his voice low now, serious.
The grin from earlier was gone, replaced by something tight and uneasy around his mouth.

I stayed quiet, waiting.

“She comes every night.”

That one sentence was enough to flip my guts inside out.

“She shows up after visiting hours. Doesn't come in or say anything. Just... stands there.”

I glanced toward the window beside his bed. It was darkening outside.

“Over there?” I asked, nodding toward it.

Jun gave a slow nod.
“Just stands on the other side of the glass. Smiling.”

My throat went dry.

“I tried to tell the nurse,” Jun muttered, “but they said no one was there. That maybe it was a dream. But I wasn’t asleep, man. I swear to god, I was wide awake.”

He looked at me, eyes searching mine for something—confirmation, maybe. Sanity.

I didn’t know what to say.
My body had already gone cold.

Was she really back?

Was she here—right now?

"It’s something... no, you mean that middle-aged woman, right?" I said.

Jun replied, "I mean, I think it’s just in my head... but there’s this lady who always shows up around this time... and something about her just... feels off, you know?"

I tried to sound tough. "I’m telling you, it’s nothing! Stop freaking out!"

Jun seemed a little ticked off.

"That’s why I said it might be a mistake, didn’t I?! Sorry for being such a coward!"

The mood got heavy.

I was about to read the room and apologize when—

Rattle, rattle, rattle...

The sound of cart wheels echoed down the hallway.

Jun muttered, "She’s here..."

I turned my gaze toward the entrance of the room.

Rattle, rattle, rattle.

The cart came to a stop right in front of the door.

Then the door opened.

There she was—a middle-aged woman in a dark blue janitor's uniform.

"Oh come on, don’t scare me like that. It’s just the trash lady," I said, letting out a small breath of relief.

She began collecting garbage from each patient’s trash bin. Finally, she approached Jun’s bed.

Jun whispered, "Look at her!"

I glanced at the woman’s face.

"...!" I held my breath. She looked familiar... No, was she the middle-aged woman? I froze, staring at her for a while. Then the woman turned toward us, gave a polite little bow, and walked out of the room.
Jun asked, "Well? So I was just imagining things, right? I’m just being paranoid?"

I replied, "Not even close! She's just the cleaning lady!"

But still... she did look like her.
Was it just a random resemblance...?

"...Anyway, I’m heading out! Quit thinking about creepy stuff and just get discharged already!" I said.

Jun smiled and said, "Yeah, you’re right... That woman couldn’t really be here. Hearing you say she’s someone else helped. Come visit again, alright? I’m bored as hell!"

I left the hospital room and quickly went down the stairs.

I couldn’t get that woman’s face out of my head.
I remembered the middle-aged woman's face clearly.

But the biggest thing about her—the thing that stuck with you—was that "unhinged" vibe.

The woman just now had a calm, gentle expression.

If she really had been that woman, she would’ve shrieked and lunged at me the second she saw my face.

Yeah. It had to just be a lookalike.

That’s what I told myself.
Still, something about being in that hospital made my skin crawl.
So I hurried home without looking back.

Even after getting home, I couldn’t shake the thought that the middle-aged woman might’ve been the cleaning lady.

It kept bugging me...

That night, it was all I could think about until I finally fell asleep.

The next day, I was still stuck on her. So I cut my shift short and decided to head to the hospital.

It was a 30-minute bike ride from my part-time job.

By the time I got there, it was past 8 p.m.—well beyond visiting hours.

I knew the cleaning lady would’ve gone home by now. Still, I slipped in through a side entrance and made my way to Jun’s room.

When I got there, the curtain around Jun’s bed was pulled shut.

“He’s probably asleep?”

I slowly pulled the curtain open and peeked through the gap.

“Whoa!”

Jun bolted upright, startled.

“Don’t scare me like that!” he said, quickly shoving something under his pillow.

Looked like he’d been deep into a porno mag.

I deliberately ignored the porno mag and just clapped Jun on the shoulder.

"Figured you’d be bored, so I came to hang out!"

Jun looked a little awkward but said,
"Oh, yeah! It gets real boring around this time. Wanna head to the lobby and grab a tea or something?"

I wheeled over a chair, helped him up by the arms, and got him into it.

Jun whispered, "The lobby’s on the first floor, so we gotta make sure the nurses don’t spot us."

We snuck through the halls like a couple of thieves, dodging the nurses every time we heard footsteps—ducking into shadows, holding our breath—until we finally made it to the lobby.

Unlike during the day, it was pitch black. The only light came from the vending machines and the emergency lamps.

Jun said, "Sneaking around in the dark like this... kinda reminds me of that night."

"Yeah... Why the hell did we even decide to follow her back then?" I replied.

Jun didn’t say a word.

[yokonaga]

I wanted to tell Jun why I really came to the hospital today—
about the cleaning lady.

But I hesitated.

He was going to be stuck in here for nearly another month.

Bringing something like that up… it didn’t feel right.
What if he started breaking out in those mystery hives again, like last time?

Then Jun said,
"You didn’t come here just ‘cause of that lady, did you?"

I reflexively played dumb.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"

But Jun didn’t let it go.

He leaned in, dead serious.
"You did, didn’t you? She looked familiar… no, it could’ve been her, right? The middle-aged woman?"

Pushed back by the intensity in his voice, I finally admitted,
"Yeah… she looked like her. The vibe was totally different, but... she looked alike."

Jun dropped his gaze and started speaking softly.
"I figured. Like I told you on the phone before..."

He lowered his voice further.

"It was my second night in here. My legs and lower back were killing me, and I just couldn’t sleep.

I couldn’t roll over, lights were out, so I just closed my eyes and tried to force myself to sleep.

Then I started dozing off... and that’s when I felt it.
A gaze.

At first, I figured it was just a nurse on rounds, so I ignored it.

But then I heard this weird breathing... like huff... huff...

I thought maybe it was just the guy next to me snoring, but... I cracked one eye open.

My bed curtain—it was open. Just about three centimeters.

And through that little gap... someone was staring at me.

The eyes were unmistakably smiling at me.

I was scared out of my damn mind. I pretended to be asleep.

Next thing I knew, it was morning.

But later, I kept thinking about it.
Those smiling eyes.
They looked so familiar...

And now I know why.
They looked exactly like the cleaning lady’s."

Those smiling eyes.
I knew those eyes.

Jun didn’t have to say much for me to picture exactly what he saw—
because I’d been stared at the same way by the middle-aged woman myself.

Jun kept going.

"And that cleaning lady... when she came to collect the trash, I kept catching her looking at me.
Like, I’d glance up and she’d already be staring—
with this half-smile on her face..."

That sealed it.

The suspicion I’d been holding—“Is the cleaning lady the middle-aged woman?”—
turned into conviction.

That’s it.

She’s back in society.

My hand, gripping the canned coffee, started trembling.
And it wasn’t from the cold.

My body remembered.
That fear.

And then—

A light suddenly flashed behind me.

"Hey!"

I turned around.

A nurse doing rounds was standing there, looking pissed.

"Jun! I’ve been looking everywhere for you! How many times do I have to tell you—
no wandering around after lights out!
And you! Visiting hours ended a long time ago!"

She scolded us hard.

Jun, looking sheepish, said,
"Yeah, yeah... Anyway, come see me again soon, alright?"
Then the nurse started pushing his wheelchair back toward the room.

I called out,
"Take care, alright?"

Guess I should head home too...

I turned toward the emergency entrance I’d come through.

The hospital at night gave me the creeps.
Was it because we’d just been talking about her?

As I walked—

Huh?

There was someone at the end of the hallway.

Wait...

The cleaning lady?
No...

The middle-aged woman?

She was doing... something.

There’s no doubt about it.
That’s her.
The middle-aged woman.

She was near the exit ahead, doing something.

I instinctively ducked behind cover and watched her closely.

She hadn’t noticed me. She was focused on… something.
Crouched down, fiddling with something in a bag.

I squinted, trying to get a better look.

She seemed to be rummaging through a large bag and separating its contents into smaller ones.

Still completely unaware of me, she continued with that odd, focused energy.

Wait—
Was she sorting trash collected from the hospital?
Our hometown had strict rules about garbage separation, after all.

Just then, a voice came from behind me.

"Hey! You’re still here? This isn’t a game for me, you know. Enough already!"

It was that same nurse.

I jumped.
"Ah, sorry! I’m leaving, really... Thanks..." I stammered.

I glanced toward the exit—
And saw the middle-aged woman staring straight at me.

Not moving.
Just... staring.

"Unbelievable," the nurse muttered as she walked off on her rounds again.

But I wasn’t thinking about her anymore.

She saw me.
The middle-aged woman saw me.

What should I do?
Run?
Call the nurse back for help?

My mind spun in a panic. My heart pounded louder and louder.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

Then, she did something strange—
She broke eye contact.

And just went back to sorting trash.

"What...?"

I froze. That wasn’t what I expected.

I thought she’d charge at me
or keep staring, grinning—
do something.

But no.

She just kept working, like I didn’t exist.

I stood there, watching her.

She didn’t look up. Didn’t smirk.
Just silently kept sorting garbage.

Was it a trap?
Some kind of act?

Then another thought crept in—

Was she... not the same person after all?
Maybe... they just looked alike?

Had Jun and I just let our paranoia get the better of us?
Was she really just some woman who happened to look like the middle-aged woman?

Even as I stood there, thinking all this through, she kept quietly doing her job.

I steeled myself and started walking toward the exit—
right past her.

Step by step, I drew closer.
She didn’t even glance my way.

But I didn’t take my eyes off her.

Before I knew it, I was behind her. Nothing happened.

She kept sorting trash, pulling items from a big bag, separating them into burnable, non-burnable, and plastic bottles.
She wore rubber gloves, working intently.

Looking at her like that, I started to think:
"Maybe she really isn’t her..."

And then—

She whipped around.

"You’ve grown so much."

My mind went blank.

“You’ve grown so much?”
You’ve… grown?”

She knew something about my past?

Who was she?

Was she really the middle-aged woman?

No—
She was.
She is!

She paused her sorting, peeled off the rubber gloves, and started walking toward me.

She was smiling.

What kind of face was I making?

Probably one twisted with raw fear.

She came right up in front of me and said,
"You turned out well... How old are you now? In high school?"

I didn’t know what she meant.

What the hell was this?
Was she mocking me?
Laughing at my terror?
Messing with me?

Was she enjoying this?

I stayed silent.

Then she said,
"Your friend grew up too... Jun-kun. Poor thing, breaking his bones like that...
You should be more careful, big brother."

None of this made sense.

Had she forgotten what she did to us all those years ago?
Had she really forgotten the fear she burned into us?

She kept grinning.

"There was one more... that boy. How’s he doing? The darker-skinned one?"

Shin!

What the hell is she?!

She was talking like we were old friends bumping into each other after years apart.

This wasn’t normal.

Was she doing this on purpose?

Was there a reason she was acting like this?

I kept my eyes on her—on the middle-aged woman—watching her every move.

"Does she even understand what she’s saying?"

She stepped closer and said,
"I’m sorry about back then... Will you forgive me?"

I couldn’t respond.

I just took a small step back in silence.

Then she said,
"I know... I should’ve apologized way sooner..."

I couldn’t believe my ears.

Was she seriously apologizing?
Or was this some kind of trick?

She kept approaching—
now within arm’s reach.

"I really did want to apologize to all three of you... I mean it."

She came closer still.

Close enough that I could feel her breath.

Unlike back then, I now stood a good 20 centimeters taller than her, with a much bigger frame.

And in that moment, I made a decision:

If she lays even a finger on me—
I’ll knock her the hell out.

The middle-aged woman looked up at me, staring straight into my eyes.

But there was no hatred, no rage, no resentment in them.

Just a steady, direct gaze.

She said,
"I wasn’t myself back then... I did awful things, didn’t I?"

Her words sounded like genuine remorse.

But I couldn’t take it anymore—
the tension in that moment overwhelmed me.

I turned and ran.

As I ran, I glanced back, half-expecting her to come chasing after me—
but she was gone.

Weirdly, that almost disappointed me.

I stopped, caught my breath, and thought.

Was that really a sincere apology?

I couldn’t trust her.
All I could do was doubt her.
And honestly, after what she did, that’s only natural.

Still... curiosity pulled me back.
I jogged quietly to where I’d last seen her.

And there she was—wearing rubber gloves again, silently sorting trash just like before.

Had she really changed?

Watching her work like that...
it didn’t look like the same woman who once terrorized us.

In the end, I just went home that night.

[yokonaga]

I lay on my bed, alone with my thoughts.

Can a person really change that much?

The woman who, with a demonic face, killed Happy and Touch...
The woman who hunted me, Shin, and Jun...
The one who even tried to burn everything down.

Could that woman really say "I’m sorry" from the heart?

Or...

Had I changed since that incident?
Had I become the kind of cold person who couldn’t trust anyone?

Maybe believing her words—
accepting that apology—
was the only way to break the mental curse left behind by that day.

I had to see her again.

This time, I wouldn’t run.

I made up my mind.

And the next day, I called in sick to my part-time job and headed to the hospital.

First, I went to Jun’s hospital room and told him everything that had happened the night before.
Then I told him:
“Today, I’m going to meet the middle-aged woman. I want to talk to her—face to face.”

At first, Jun was against the idea.
“She hasn’t changed,” he insisted.

But when I asked,
“Are we really gonna live our whole lives scared of her—trapped by this trauma?”
he finally said,

“…If you’re gonna meet her and talk, I’ll come with you.”

We sat in silence for a while.
Time passed.

And then—
as the chime signaling the end of visiting hours rang through the hospital—

Rattle, rattle, rattle...

The sound of the garbage cart echoed from the far end of the hallway.

“…She’s here,” Jun muttered under his breath.

I held my breath and turned toward the door.

Rattle, rattle, rattle.

The cart came to a stop right in front of our room.

The door opened.

And there she was—
the middle-aged woman in her work uniform, bowing politely as she stepped inside.

Jun and I followed her with our eyes.

She began collecting trash from each bedside bin, starting from the far end of the room.

A patient greeted her with,
“Thanks for your hard work.”

She returned the greeting with a warm smile and nod.

It was hard to believe this was the same woman from back then.

And then—
she reached Jun’s bed.

Time to face her.

The middle-aged woman didn’t make eye contact with us at all.
She gave a slight bow and began collecting the trash.

I didn’t know how to start.
I just watched her silently.

Then Jun suddenly blurted out,
"Hey, lady! What the hell’s your deal?"

She froze.
Her hands stopped moving, and she stood still, head down.

Jun continued,
"You remembered me, didn’t you? Don’t you have anything to say to me? Not even one word of apology?"

My heart jumped.
I didn’t expect Jun to snap like that.

The woman, still looking down, said softly,
"…I’m sorry."

Jun seemed thrown off by her honest reply.
He glanced at me, looking a bit confused.

I asked,
"...Are you really sorry? Like, do you actually regret what you did?"

She looked up at us and said,
"I’m truly sorry… because of what I did, Jun-kun had that accident…
It’s all because of me… I’m really sorry!"

Jun and I looked at each other, dumbfounded.
Wait… what?

I said,
"No, I mean everything—what you did to the dogs, how you came to my house, all of it!"

The woman cried out,
"I’m sorry! If only I hadn’t done those things… this accident wouldn’t have happened… I’m so, so sorry!"

She was almost in tears.

Everyone else in the room had turned their heads toward us.
All eyes were on the three of us.

And then, in the dead silence of the hospital room—

"I’m sorry!
I’m sorry!
I’m so sorry!"

Her voice rang out.

Jun looked embarrassed now.
He muttered,
"Alright, enough! I mean, seriously, my accident had nothing to do with you!"

The woman kept bowing over and over as she collected the trash by Jun’s bed.
Then she said one last time,

"I’m sorry..."
and hurried out of the room.

The other patients had been watching the whole thing, and now an awkward silence filled the space.

Jun hit his pillow and grumbled,
"What the hell was that? That lady’s nuts. My accident had nothing to do with her!
What’s she even talking about?"

But as I watched her, listened to her words—
I realized something.

The middle-aged woman really was a little off.

No—she was probably sincerely apologizing.
But it was like she was apologizing for the curse ritual.

She really believed in that curse.

Jun said,
"Back then, she was the scariest thing in the world to me. I’ve had nightmares about her for years...
But now that I’ve actually talked to her, I realized—
she’s just some nutty occult lady."

He said it with a kind of relieved look on his face, like something heavy had finally lifted.

I nodded.
"Yeah, and we’ve gotten a lot bigger since then. We’re not kids anymore."

"Anyway, that’s that. Case closed. I’m heading out!"
"Alright! Come by again when you’re free!"

We said our goodbyes, and I left the hospital for home.

On the way, I started thinking about Shin.
I figured I should tell him everything.
Maybe hearing this would help him finally shake off the trauma of that day.

As soon as I got home, I called a guy from the soccer team who used to play with Shin and got his number.
Then I gave Shin a call.

"Yo! Long time no see!"
That familiar voice—Shin’s voice—came through the line.

We chatted for a while about life and how things were going.
Then I told him about Jun’s accident and hospitalization,
how the middle-aged woman was working as a cleaner at the hospital,
and how she seemed like a completely different person now.

Shin was stunned to hear that she had apologized.

Finally, he said,
"Once Jun’s out, the three of us should get together and throw him a little party."

Of course, I agreed, and told him I’d call as soon as Jun had a discharge date.

The next day, I went to the hospital and told Jun,
"Shin said he’ll come back to celebrate once you’re out!"

Jun was honestly overjoyed.

About a week passed without me visiting the hospital.

No real reason—
the new school term had started, and I just hadn’t found the time.

Besides, the middle-aged woman seemed to have turned over a new leaf, so I wasn’t as worried anymore.
I figured if anything happened, Jun would call me.

Then one day, he did.

"I’m getting discharged next week!"
That was the news.

I congratulated him and asked about the cleaner.

"She’s doing her usual thing—just collecting trash. Nothing strange."

Another week went by, and Jun was officially discharged.

On my way home from school, I stopped by his house.

He answered the door on crutches.
"Yo! Come on in!"

He still had a cast on, but looked like his old self again.

We hung out in his room for a bit, just chatting.

When evening came, I headed home, had dinner, and gave Shin a call.

"Jun’s out!"

"No way, really? Awesome! Then we’ve gotta celebrate. I’d come right now, but practice is brutal. I’ll head out your way near the end of the month!"

Sounds like we had a reunion to look forward to.

And then came the last Saturday of the month.
Me, Shin, and Jun—
it was our first time all together since elementary school.

We met up at the McDonald’s near the station around noon.

Shin had gotten even darker, tanned like it was still summer, and had kind of a flashy, “gal-boy” vibe going on.
Well, whatever.

We spent the afternoon catching up.

Talking about our different high schools.
About love.
And of course, memories from back in the day...

Naturally, the topic of the middle-aged woman came up too.

Back then, she was the thing we feared most in the world.
But now, she was just the lady who collects trash at the hospital.

Jun and I told Shin all about what had happened there, in full detail.

Shin laughed and said,
"She’s not the same as back then. Hell, if she came at us now, I’d knock her flat."

For us, the middle-aged woman was already just someone from the past.
A relic from a long-gone time.
No longer a trauma—just an old story.

スポンサーリンク

In the evening, we headed to a karaoke box.

Since it was our first reunion in forever, we decided to celebrate—with drinks.
Nothing too wild, just some chu-hai.

Back then, that was more than enough to get us buzzed.

We each downed four or five drinks, and all of us were pretty tipsy.

We sang, joked around, got loud.
Everyone was riding that happy high.

Two hours passed, and we were starting to get tired of singing.

Then Shin made a suggestion.

"Alright, let’s go to the secret base.
Let’s finally pay our respects to Happy and Touch—we left them behind back then."

The mood instantly froze.

Jun and I fell silent.

No way...
We didn’t expect that place to come up.

Shin, maybe a little drunk, grinned and said,
"You guys haven’t changed a bit! You seriously scared? For real? Hah!"

Jun, tipsy and irritable, snapped back,
"Huh? Who you calling scared?! You wanna start something, Shin?"

The tension was rising again.

Even though I was tipsy, I could still read the room.

"C’mon, knock it off.
Jun’s still on crutches, remember?" I said.

But Shin instantly shot back,
"Oh yeah, right... If you’re on crutches, you can’t run away, huh? Hahaha!"
He was clearly drunk and getting obnoxious.

Jun got even more fired up.
"Shut up! If you wanna go, fine—we’ll go!
Just don’t chicken out halfway, got it?"

It was turning into a dumb argument between kids.

And somehow, it ended with us all agreeing to go—
under the excuse of “praying for Happy and Touch.”

To be honest, Shin and Jun were probably too drunk to back down.
And honestly...
I had always felt like we needed to do it eventually.
Maybe this was the right time.

With all three of us, the fear wouldn’t feel so strong.

We left the karaoke box and stopped by a convenience store.
We bought Umaibo and cola—the two dogs’ favorite treats.

Then we took a taxi to my place, picked up a flashlight,
and headed for the mountain behind our elementary school.

The taxi driver gave us a weird look as we got out at the mountain entrance.

As we stood there, memories of that day came rushing back.

I couldn’t believe we were going in again…
At this hour…

Jun, oblivious to my unease, proudly said,
"Alright, let’s do this!"
and started marching in, crutch and all.

Shin followed, smirking as he held the flashlight.

I said,
"Jun, watch your step."
and trailed after them.

Once we were inside, I was surprised how different everything looked.

Or maybe it wasn’t the scenery that had changed.
Maybe we’d just gotten bigger,
so it all seemed smaller now.

As we hiked, Shin kept teasing Jun:
"What if the middle-aged woman shows up, huh? I’m totally ditching you!"
(And honestly... I’d probably do the same.)

The trail was easier than expected.

About thirty minutes later,
we arrived at that place.

That place.
The place where we first met the middle-aged woman.

We all fell silent as we slowly approached that tree—
the one where she performed her curse ritual that night.

We lit it up with the flashlight.
Now it looked like just an ordinary, old tree.

But the holes from the nails were still there.
A few marks, pitted scars in the bark.

The police must’ve pulled them all out after the incident.

The three of us stood there quietly, staring at the nail marks.

Then Shin said,
"It was around here that Happy died, right…?"
He shone the light on the ground.

Of course, Happy’s body wasn’t there anymore—
but we remembered exactly where it happened.

I set down some Umaibo and cola at the spot.

The three of us put our hands together in prayer,
and then turned to head to where Touch had fallen—

the remains of the secret base.

As we walked, Jun muttered,
"A lot’s happened… but man, this brings back memories."

Then Shin added,
"Yeah… If we hadn’t come to camp out here that night,
none of those awful memories would even exist."

He had a point.

If we’d never encountered the middle-aged woman in these woods,
this mountain would’ve stayed our sacred place.

Shin stopped.
"It was around here, right…?"

The secret base ruins.

Nothing was left.

Not even the shattered wooden planks from that night.

Jun crouched silently and set down the Umaibo and cola.
Then he put his hands together.

Shin and I joined him.

We held a moment of silence.

Then Shin said,
"If it weren’t for Happy and Touch…
we might not even be here now."

Jun:
"Yeah…"

Me:
"Right… and now the middle-aged woman’s changed.
Feels like we’re finally free of that nightmare."

Silence settled over us.

Shin swept his flashlight around the clearing and across the nearby pond.

"This place used to be our secret spot...
but looks like other people have been coming here lately."

Where the light landed, we saw empty snack bags and soda cans scattered around.

I said,
"For real... back then, there wasn’t a single piece of trash out here.
I wonder if kids these days even know about this place."

Jun added,
"Yeah… we used to be serious about taking our trash home, huh."

Then suddenly, Shin shouted,
"Whoa! What the hell is this?!"

Startled, Jun and I looked where his flashlight was pointing.

Something was stuck to one of the trees—
Trash.

As we got closer, we saw that snack wrappers, empty cans, and old magazines
had been nailed into the trunk.

"What the hell is this?!"
Shin stepped in to get a better look, lighting it up.

Jun and I followed behind.

I muttered,
"Some kind of prank...? Who’d do this..."
as I stared at the bizarre pile of nailed-up garbage.

That’s when Jun, voice trembling, whispered,
"Ahh... this... this is... my trash... ahhh..."
His whole body went stiff.

"Huh?!"
Shin and I both looked at him, confused.

Jun backed away, mumbling,
"This is... the trash I threw out... at the hospital... ahh..."

Shin snapped,
"Hey! Jun! Pull yourself together! That’s impossible!"
and angrily yanked one of the wrappers off the tree.

But then—
Jun let out a strange, broken moan:
"Ahhh... ahhh..."
and collapsed on the ground with a thud.

Shin and I froze.

Then, suddenly—
"UWAH!!"
Shin flung the wrapper he was holding.

I turned my eyes to it and saw—

"淳呪殺" (Jun. Curse. Kill.)
written in marker on the back.

My heart stopped.
No way.

I rushed to the tree and began tearing off the trash, one by one.
Every single piece—
On the back of each one:

"淳呪殺"
"淳呪殺"
"淳呪殺"
"淳呪殺"

All of them.

Jun sat frozen on the ground, mouth opening and closing like a fish,
completely silent.

Then Shin picked up a piece of trash lying nearby on the ground.
His expression changed.
"Yo—look at this!" he said, holding it up to me.

On it, too, was written—
"淳呪殺"

Even the garbage lying around the area had it written on it.

That’s when it finally hit me.

The middle-aged woman… had never changed.

She never “reformed.”
She never let go of her grudge.

Back at the hospital, when I saw her obsessively sorting trash with those gloves on—
she wasn’t being thorough.
She was separating out Jun’s garbage.

All that talk about "I'm sorry"...
It was all a lie.

A deep chill ran down my spine.

My instincts screamed:
We shouldn’t be here.

I turned to Jun.
"Hey! Snap out of it—we’re getting out of here!"

But he was gone.

"My trash…
my trash..."

He was broken.
Raving.
Completely unhinged.

Shin and I hoisted him up and carried him down the mountain.

It’s been eight years since that night.
And none of us have gone near that mountain since.

We haven’t seen the middle-aged woman again, either.

Does she still hate us?
Is she watching from somewhere, even now?

But… we’re still alive.
All three of us.

Except—

Jun still can’t walk.

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