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  Just then, that pale, naked boy, who had been somewhere in the room, jumped into the still-open closet.

  Toshio —Katsuya knew the kid’s name, for some reason.

  Yes, I almost forgot. I have to take care of the kid, Toshio, too. That’s not my son. It’s Kobayashi’s. Yes, Kobayashi, the teacher.

  Katsuya looked around. He took a roll of tape from the dresser, and sealed up the closet, nice and tight, so that Toshio could not get back out.

  Hitomi

  Hitomi Tokunaga was dripping wet, thanks to the evening rain. She removed her dainty, strapped sandals, and wiped her wet feet on the mat at the entrance. She checked that her cobalt-blue toenail polish hadn’t come off before stepping into the house. “Kazumi-san! Katsuya! Anyone home? It’s Hitomi!” She walked down the hall toward the back of the house. All of the lights on the first floor were turned on. Kazumi was probably at a nearby supermarket, buying something she had forgotten. Thinking this, Hitomi walked through the kitchen to her mother’s room. Sachie was there, sitting up on her futon, staring blankly at the wall. “Oh, Mom, there you are. How are you feeling? Anywhere hurt?” Of course, she knew better than to expect a real answer. “Where’s Kazumi? Shopping? Has Katsuya come home yet?” Her mother, in the late stages of senile dementia, was unable to answer, but Hitomi talked to her anyway, out of habit.

  She wondered when the last time was that she had spoken to her mother. It wasn’t all that long ago. Two years ago, when Hitomi graduated from college, her mother was her old self. Yes, that morning her mother had cooked rice with sweet red soybeans, to commemorate her graduation. But now …

  It was hard for her to see her mother this way. She really didn’t want to come. But, she couldn’t just force the care of her mother on her brother and his wife.

  “Mom, I’m going to fix dinner now. It’ll just be a little while, okay?”

  As she said this, she was already putting the groceries she had bought on the kitchen table. She heard a thud from upstairs.

  She went into the hall and called up the stairs, “Kazumi-san, are you home? Katsuya?” But there was no answer. She walked back down the hall to the foot of the stairs.

  Ah, she screamed in her mind. She felt fear.

  Scared? Of what?

  Even Hitomi didn’t know why, but she felt that there was something very bad, something very terrible, lurking upstairs.

  Trembling, she started up the stairs. She rounded the corner at the landing in the middle o{ the stairway.

  “Iyaaa,” she cried, involuntarily.

  Katsuya sat at the very top o( the stairs, a roll oi tape in his hands.

  “Hey, you’re here? Don’t scare me like that!”

  Katsuya lifted his face slowly when he heard Hitomi’s voice. He had red stains all over his face and chest. But, Hitomi did not realize what those stains were.

  “Where’s Kazumi?”

  “Kazumi, um, she’s not here now. Uh, something came up.”

  “Something came up? Isn’t she just at the store? She’ll be right back, won’t she?”

  “Who knows?”

  Katsuya’s eyes were blank. Even his speech patterns were completely different from usual. It was almost as if it was another man, not her brother, in front oi her.

  That other man slowly stood up.

  “Hitomi, sorry, but today’s not a good day to do this,” he said, standing as if blocking her from going up any further. He slowly pushed her back.

  “Huh? What are you talking about?”

  Hitomi resisted, but her brother wouldn’t let her go any further. He forced her back down the stairs. “Anyway, why don’t you just go home now?”

  “What’s going on? Katsuya, did something happen to Kazumi?”

  “Kazumi… yes, Kazumi had herself another man on the side,” her brother said, his voice suddenly changed.

  “Huh?”

  “Kazumi’s been lying to me all this time … She’s been hiding it all this time … That’s not my kid … that’s not my kid … that’s not my kid …”

  Hitomi couldn’t comprehend what her brother was telling her.

  “Katsuya! Katsuya!” she shrieked.

  In that instant, the strange look disappeared from his face, and Katsuya came back to his senses.

  “Oh, Hitomi, when did you get here?”

  “What do you mean when did I get here?”

  “Anyway … please just leave now,” he repeated. “I’ll be fine. I just need to be alone for a while.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah, sure, I’m fine.”

  “Okay, I’ll leave. I don’t know what happened between you two, but I expect you to make this up to me anyway.”

  She slipped her feet back into her sandals as she said this. She opened the door. It was still raining hard.

  “See you later.”

  Opening her dainty umbrella, she turned back to look at her brother’s face. Hitomi did not know the man she saw standing there.

  Katsuya

  After chasing his sister out o{ the house, Katsuya locked and chained the front door. His jowls shaking, he headed up the stairs. He went into the master bedroom and locked that door, too. After checking that all o{ the windows were locked, he sat down on the edge of the bed. He looked at the deluge of blood covering the hardwood floor. The rain outside started falling harder. Just then, he heard a cat cry.

  Meeoow!

  He lifted his face and looked around the room.

  Meeoow!

  Did it come from inside the closet? Yes, there is a cat inside the closet, the closet he had taped shut to keep that kid inside.

  Why?

  He didn’t feel like finding out.

  He felt like he needed a smoke, and instinctively reached for his chest pocket.

  Smoke? Me?

  He was mystified. Katsuya didn’t smoke.

  Meeoow I

  The cat in the closet cried out again.

  Meeoow! Meeoow!

  Shut up, he thought, as he stood up. He stood in front of the closet.

  At that moment, he felt an unbearable pain that pierced from his back through to his abdomen.

  “Ugh,” he groaned, as he looked down at his stomach. He saw his white shirt quickly turning red at the stomach, the tip of a blade sticking out of his gut. He turned around.

  A longhaired woman, wearing white, stood in front of him.

  “Who are you?” he tried to say, but no words came out. Instead, a gout of fresh blood bubbled out of his mouth. His legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees.

  In the window, he saw the reflection of a man kneeling on the floor, with a knife embedded deep in his back. But, that man wasn’t him. No, it was another man, who had a receding hairline.

  Who’s that? Who’s been killed, and by whom?

  He didn’t have time to think about it. He was losing consciousness quickly.

  “Ka … ya … ko … ” Katsuya babbled, incoherently.

  Looking up, he saw that longhaired woman looking down at him, her face twisted into an unnatural smile.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  About three hundred years ago, in Salem, Massachusetts, there lived a Puritan by the name of Matthew Maule. He was poor and his house was small, but in his yard was a beautiful well

  This well was truly beautiful. Not only was the sight of it beautiful, but the water was very pure and famous for its deliciousness. People came from far away just to get some water from that fountain. Maule had no intention of keeping the well to himself He shared freely with all who came. He viewed it as a gift from God.

  At the same time, there lived in Salem a rich merchant named Gilbert Pyncheon. Hearing the raves of the townsfolk, Pyncheon set his eye on obtaining Maule s land where the well was. Pyncheon planned on building his mansion on that land.

  Pyncheon offered Maule a large sum of money to sell his land, but Maule refused to sell. Maule was not interested in the money: he was very attached to the land that he believed G
od had presented to him. Pyncheon did not give up. He charged Maule with a crime that he did not commit. The trial was finished quickly. Pyncheon had the judges in his pocket, and Maule was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death.

  Maule was hanged soon after his conviction. Just before he died, Maule cursed Pyncheon, crying, u God will give him blood to drinkl “

  No one at the site believed those words. Maule’s body was not even allowed to receive a proper funeral Pyncheon got his land and the well, just as he wished, and built his mansion there.

  But — Maules curse lived on.

  On the evening of his open-house party to celebrate the completion of his home, Pyncheon was found dead on his bedroom floor, having vomited a great deal of blood.

  The official cause of death was a stroke. But, even so, it was whis-pered that Pyncheon died just as Maule said he would, drinking blood.

  The Pyncheon house came to be called the House of Seven Gables, and is still standing in Salem, three hundred years later.

  Nobuyuki

  The apartment complex where Takeo Saeki brutally murdered Shunsuke Kobayashi’s pregnant wife Manami, slit her stomach open, and ripped her fetus out, is still standing, and even now many people live their mundane daily lives in that complex.

  Apartment 205 in Building D is empty now, but until recently, a divorced real estate agent named Tatsuya Suzuki lived in that very room with his son Nobuyuki, a junior high school student.

  Nobuyuki Suzuki had pale skin and a pretty face. When he was a little boy, he was often mistaken for a girl. Just as his appearance suggested, he was always a quiet, introverted boy. Rather than goofing around with his friends, he enjoyed spending his time alone reading a book or just spacing out.

  Nobuyuki was always alone, but he was never bored. That’s because, even when no one was around, he could see things all around him.

  Yes, no one knew it, but ever since he could remember, Nobuyuki had the ability to see things that other people couldn’t. At first, he thought that everyone could see them. He soon realized that this just wasn’t so.

  He would look around, and see them everywhere: the little girl clinging to the front bumper of a moving truck, the young man hanging from the traffic light, the elderly person who was always bent over in the elevator, the middle-aged man covered in blood at the edge of the train-station platform, the baby on the other side of the closed cohvlocker door, the woman who came aboard the bus dripping wet even though it wasn’t raining, the uniformed school girl who came into the classroom through the back door and left the same way, the boy sitting on the guardrail with his legs hanging down even if it was rainy or windy. Nobuyuki could see things that no one else could.

  Once, he even told a friend about it.

  “There’s a middle-aged woman who’s always in the locker room by the pool, covering her face and crying.”

  But his friend didn’t believe him. On the contrary, his friend thought Nobuyuki was crazy, and wouldn’t talk to him anymore.

  After that, no matter what he saw, he never told anyone about it.

  When his parents split up, and Nobuyuki and his father moved into this apartment, 205 in Building D, the boy noticed that something was here, too. But this was nothing new. There was a young woman in the condo that he lived in with his parents before, too.

  He was used to seeing them. But…

  But what Nobuyuki saw there, in apartment 205, was nothing like he had ever encountered before. It was the product of unimaginable envy, incalculable hatred, and unspeakable evil.

  Nobuyuki was scared. For the first time in his life, he was scared of them.

  Tatsuya

  With land prices continuing their downward trend, it was not easy competing with the big corporations in the real estate industry. Tatsuya Suzuki, swamped with work every day, did not notice the changes in his son. He left for the office every morning before Nobuyuki woke up, and often came home late at night, after his son had retired to his room for the evening. Even though they were living together, father and son hardly ever saw each other.

  Tatsuya didn’t notice until he received that phone call from Nobuyuki’s teacher.

  “Nobuyuki has been absent for the past three days. Did something happen? No one answers the phone, the door was locked, and no one seemed to be home when I stopped by today.”

  “That’s odd … “

  After hanging up, Tatsuya called his home. But, just as the teacher said, Nobuyuki didn’t answer, no matter how many times the phone rang.

  Tatsuya rushed out of his office and raced home. There, he saw Nobuyuki.

  It definitely was Nobuyuki there. At least he thought it was. But, it was only an empty shell, Nobuyuki was no longer really there. It was nothing more than a breathing mannequin, or a living cadaver. That’s the impression Tatsuya got. Those long, slim eyes were blank, and no matter how loud Tatsuya called out or how strongly he shook Nobuyuki’s shoulders, his son gave no response. He probably had not

  eaten for days. Nobuyuki’s skin was paler than usual, his breathing shallow, his body weak.

  Nobuyuki was admitted to the hospital immediately. Shrugging several times, the doctor who examined the boy told Tatsuya he had no idea what the cause was.

  “No idea?”

  “Yes,” said the doctor, who fell quiet in thought. After a long moment of silence, the doctor opened his mouth, as if he had decided to share something very important. “It seems as if Nobuyuki-kun has experienced some tremendous shock. That’s the impression I get.”

  “Shock?”

  The white-haired doctor replied, “Yes, that’s how I see it. Actually …” But the doctor stopped talking. He seemed to be deciding whether or not to continue. He began speaking again. “Actually, I have seen a patient with similar symptoms before.”

  “Similar to Nobuyuki’s symptoms,” Tatsuya repeated the doctor’s words, but the doctor did not nod in acknowledgement. He merely stared at the wall.

  “You may laugh, hearing this from a medical professional, but it seems as if Nobuyuki-kun has experienced a terror beyond human comprehension.”

  The doctor looked back at Tatsuya, and smiled slightly, as if he had lost his self-assurance.

  “Terror beyond human comprehension,” repeated Tatsuya again. This time, the doctor nodded slowly. He continued speaking.

  “You may think I am full of it, but please hear me out,” the elderly doctor prefaced his story. “A few years back, a patient with symptoms identical to those o( your son was brought to this hospital. He was

  a young man in his early twenties, and it seems that he went with three of his friends to test their mettle.”

  Tatsuya was indeed surprised to hear a medical professional speaking of people actually testing their courage by going to a supposedly haunted area. The doctor, however, did not change his expression, as he looked Tatsuya in the eye and continued.

  “Nearby, there is a tunnel where, how should I put this, where it is rumored that ghosts dwell. Not that I actually believe in ghosts … Anyway, these four young individuals went to that tunnel in the middle of the night, when there were hardly any cars passing through. Suddenly, their car stalled and came to a quick stop, even though the young man driving didn’t step on the brakes. The headlights also went out. At that instant, according to the driver, he saw a bloody woman in his rearview mirror.”

  The doctor gave an embarrassed smile as he said this.

  “The driver screamed, jumped out of the car, and started running to the tunnel’s exit. The others quickly followed. Out of breath, they reached the exit, only to find that one o{ their number was not accounted for. They headed back to their stalled car, along with a truck driver who was passing by, and they found their friend there, in the back seat, just like Nobuyuki-kun.”

  “Are you serious?”

  The doctor nodded silently.

  “There were dozens of female handprints all over the car window. This was confirmed by the paramedics who responded. But thos
e youngsters were adamant that those handprints were not there before.”

  A chill spilled down Tatsuya’s spine, and he shuddered.

  “I later heard that a young woman on a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run driver in that very tunnel a few years before this incident.”

  The doctor stopped talking, and looked directly into Tatsuya’s eyes.

  “Doctor, do you think the same thing happened to Nobuyuki?”

  “Hmmm, I cannot say for sure … Can you think of anything that might have caused such a reaction?”

  This time, it was Tatsuya’s turn to shrug.

  Of course, Tatsuya did not know of the terrible events that had taken place in apartment 205 o{ Building D in that apartment complex.

  You

  Now, I am definitely not recommending this, but if you have the same ability as Nobuyuki, and really want to know what it was that he saw, then you should go to Building D, apartment 205 of that apartment complex to find out for yourself.

  I am not in a position to put the address down here, but if you are serious about going, then a simple Internet search or old news-paper articles should yield all the information you need to find it.

  That apartment is empty now, so under the number 205 you will not find a nameplate of the occupants, but in the past, the names Shunsuke and Manami Kobayashi could be found there.

  Opening the bright green steel door to apartment 205, you will see the entrance, and the long, narrow kitchen. Going through the kitchen—the floor is covered with dust by now—you will arrive at a western-style room.

  That’s where it happened.

  Close your eyes, focus your nerves, and feel.

  Soon, you will hear a high-pitched woman’s scream. You open your eyes.

  You are now a witness. You see a tall, slim woman in her final month of pregnancy, and a strongly built man standing in front oi her. In his rough hand is a knife.

  “Your belly is so big. Are you in your final month?”

  The balding man speaks in a low voice, as the woman screams and scuttles backward.

  “Stay away … stop it… no … iyaaa!”

  “There’s no need to be so scared. I just want to help you to deliver your baby, Manami-san …”