Created: 01-02-2004
The lights of the school hall were out. The whole place was dark as the inky blackness engulfed the open space. The only light that could be seen in the entire darkness was the luminous glow of 100 candles in the center of the school hall.It was the annual (actually prohibited) 100 ghost story camp party. It was actually Miki’s idea to hold this camp party because she doesn’t give a damn about the dangers that might happen to her gang. Everybody was there; all 100 of them, including their favorite teacher, Nueno Meizuke @ Nube. It was surprising Nube agreed to let them come over to school to hold this totally restricted event; he was a very strict teacher (sometimes) and would never do something against the rules, unless necessary or forced to.
Overall, they were all present. None of them wanted to miss the thrilling moment. Though scared to the bone, they carried on with the ghost story-telling. Majority of the candles were blown out, as it is said in the rules that after every ghost story told, the story- teller has to blow out the candle he or she is holding. The only candles left now were 6, all belonged to Kyoko Inaha, Miki Hosokawa, Hiroshi Tateno, Katsuya Kimura, Makoto Kurita & Nube. Now it was Kyoko’s turn to tell her tale.
“My story started when I was 5 years old. I was at my kindergarten playing with some toy blocks while waiting for my parents to come and fetch me. Suddenly, I heard someone crying somewhere in one of the classroom. I went to investigate and I saw a little girl at about 3 sitting near the window crying and whimpering. I thought she was one of the junior students, so I walked towards her and asked, ‘Are you alright? Why are you crying?’
“‘My Mummy… she… she didn’t come and pick me…’ she sobbed, ‘I waited for so long but she never came… I was hurt… hurt so bad… and yet she didn’t come to save me…’
“What a cruel mother! I thought, who does she think she is?! She mentioned that she was hurt, so I asked, ‘You said you were hurt, can I help you?’ She didn’t answer. I repeated my question and she whispered, ‘You… can help… me…?’
“‘Yes, anything. Just name it!’
The kid slowly looked up and sneered, ‘Then… can you find… MY EYES?!’
“I got the shock of my life at what I saw in front of me. She doesn’t have any eyes at all; she only had black, empty sockets that were so spookily hollow, and she was crying tears of blood! I ran for my dear life away from that ghastly girl but I could feel her chasing me, crying, ‘MY EYES! MY EYES! YOU SAID YOU’LL HELP ME FIND MY EYES!!!’ When I finally saw my mom waiting for me outside the gate, I was so relieved. I turned around to see if the girl was still chasing me but she was no longer there. I couldn’t even answer when my mom asked me what happened because I was in critical shock.”
Kyoko shivered as she finished her tale, “After I graduated from that kindergarten years later, I finally learnt the truth about the girl: she was waiting for her mother to fetch her when the kindergarten janitor was under a schizophrenic-seizure and mindlessly attacked her, digging her eyes out of her sockets. She was also unluckily alone at that time, so when her mother finally got there, it was too late.”
After finishing her tale, she blew out her candle with relief that she had finally let it all out. Everybody had a chill running down their spine after listening to Kyoko’s frightening tale. Only Nube let out a low chuckle and said, “Nice story, Kyoko. I’m sure everyone had a chilling thrill. Now, who’s next?”
“I am,” voiced out Katsuya, trying to sound as brave and as scary as possible. “Now, my story goes way back when I was about my sister’s age (8 years old). My father was assigned on a business trip and I was taken along with him. I had the time of my life; enjoying the cool, refreshing swimming pool, playing at the resort playground and the like, while my dad busied himself with his meetings with important people. One night, I realized that I couldn’t sleep because I have intoxicated myself silly with the 3-in-1 coffee packets in the hotel room. I got such a headache that I decided to go downstairs to get myself some ice from the ice-vending machine for my head.
“I got into the lift, press the 2nd floor button and waited. Although I had a slightly bad feeling about this, my headache forced me to ignore it. I finally got the ice and was proceeding to the lift once more when I heard a sound, a very peculiar sound. It sounded somewhat like a dragging noise; as if someone or something was dragging the upper half of his body across the floor. The sound became nearer and nearer until I was terribly agitated. The lift was abnormally slow and the bucket of ice was rattling because of my shivering.
“When the door of the lift finally opened, my eyes almost popped out of my sockets. In front of me was the lower part of the body of a man, slumping on the wall of the lift. The waistline was covered with blood with the spine grotesquely snapped. The flesh around it was still oozing with yet more blood. I was speechless, backing away with terror. At that moment, I suddenly felt the chill just right beside me. I turned to look and saw the torso of (probably) the same person: just the torso without the head, only the handless arms dragging it, leaving long streaks of blood starting from the hallway.
“That was it; I screamed and flung the bucket of ice away as I took the stairs straight to my room. I didn’t even stop to rest until I saw my room number in gold. I quickly slammed the door shut and locked it. I closed all the windows and all the other doors, including the bathroom. Then, finally feeling secure and safe, I lied on my bed, my headache all forgotten. I looked at the ceiling and I turned blue (I think) when I saw the head of that severed-body man suspended in mid-air, grinning at me…”
Everyone became intense at hearing his story. One of them suddenly asked in the midst of the thick silence, almost making everyone jump, “Then… what happened?”
“I don’t really remember after that, I think I must have fainted. But then I remembered my dad told me when I got back into my senses that he saw me sprawled on the ground, all covered with blood and he noticed something black and luminous penetrating the window and out into the darkness…”
Katsuya finally blew out his candle with a mysterious puff. Miki suddenly asked, “What’s the resort you’re staying again?”
“I think it’s somewhere near Chillingham,” he replied.
“No wonder! Don’t you know that place was once a torture dome where people get their bodies chopped off and thrown all over the place? Some business trip you’re going!”
“And what’s your tale, Miki?” asked Nube, after a long silence from him, “Care to share it with the rest of us?”
“Boy, have I got a story for you!” cried Miki indignantly. She was the best story-teller in the whole class, not to mention ghost stories. “My story started when I was about 10 years old. I was walking home from school when I noticed a black-robed man handing me a brochure of some sort before walking away silently. When I looked at the brochure I was thrilled to see that a carnival was going to be held at the recently burnt-down building. You guys do remember about the fire back then, right? It was nasty, I tell you! Fire burning, people screaming and running, trying to escape. Anyway, I was so happy about the opening of the carnival that I didn’t know what was ahead.
“The next day, after school, I dashed to the carnival straight away, for I didn’t want to miss even one single event in store there. I tried everything; the merry-go-round, the Ferris Wheel, the roller-coaster, the horseback ride… everything! I had such a good time that I lost track of time. When I finally had my fill and I was about to leave while enjoying my ice-cream cone, my mother called me suddenly, knocking me out my senses, ‘Miki! Where have you been? I have been looking for you everywhere!”
“‘Mom! Did you see me? I was having so much fun! That carnival was way cool! I gotta come here again! Please, Mom, can I?’
“‘Carnival? You mean this burnt-down house is a carnival?!’ I turned around to see that she was actually right; there stood the black, sooty house, burned down to smithereens. The ground beneath it was also black with burnt soot. It was so eerie-looking, that I couldn’t believe that it was the carnival I just went.
“‘But, Mom!’ I protested, ‘It was a carnival just now! I was here before! Look! I even bought one of their ice-cream!’ I held out my ice-cream and both my mom and I screamed, for what I was holding was actually a batch of rotten flesh stuck onto a wooden stick…”
Miki then, with a cool attitude, blew off the candle, as if she just finished telling a simple fairy-tale, while the other students shivered with fear and disgust. Nube clapped his hands with a wide smile and exclaimed, “Bravo! Bravo, Miki! Nice story! Now, who’s next?”
“Me, me, me! My turn!” Hiroshi called out, waving his arm frantically. Nube nodded, allowing him to start.
“This story happened when I was 12 years old. My cousin was having a Christmas party at his new home that time. We were really bored after having our Christmas dinner and we were suggesting to each other what are we suppose to pass our time when my uncle suggested a game of hide-and-seek. He altered the rules by saying that once the ‘Catcher’ has found everybody, he or she must gather them to one spot and count their heads to see if everyone is there. He also said that we must play this game in the dark to make the game even more challenging.
“After all said and done, we picked the longest stick to see who will be the ‘Catcher’. I, unfortunately, am the one. When I started counting to 10, everyone’s footsteps were pitter-pattering about, obviously looking for a place to hide. Finally I finished counting and started looking. I found the first 3 and went on searching. When I came across the door which led to the basement (my uncle always warned me about not barging in to prevent from falling down), I noticed an outline of a girl crouching down. I yelled, ‘Found you!’ and pulled her up. She giggled as I half-dragged her to the place where I gathered the other 3. I asked her, ‘What’s your name?’ She replied, ‘Aino Udegawa.’
“Finally, after much effort, I gathered everybody. I counted them in the dark by touching their heads.
“‘10, 11, 12, 13! 13 of you! Hah, I’ve got everyone of you!’ I exclaimed in delight. Suddenly everyone was eerily silent, not seemingly fun at all. ‘What? What is it? Why are you all so silent?’
“‘Are you sure you didn’t accidentally counted yourself? Because excluding you, there are only 12 of us.’ My uncle said uneasily.
“‘Of course I’m sure! I’ve counted everybody, including Aino Udegawa!’
“Soon, everyone was beginning to move to the fireplace in a hurry. I was puzzled. My uncle took me aside and said, ‘Hiroshi dear, you’d better be sure about what you said. You know how your aunt feels about telling lies…’
“‘I swear I’m telling the truth! I saw that Aino girl and I brought her to the gathering spot, although her arm does feel a little chilly.’
“‘Hiroshi, I don’t know where you heard it from, but I want you to forget it. Aino Udegawa was the daughter of the previous owner of this house. She was also playing hide-and-seek with her friends in the dark and she fell down from that basement stairs and broke her neck. She died on that very spot.’ ”
Hiroshi blew out his candle. Everyone began to feel chilly all of a sudden but decided to ignore it. They were too anxious to hear the second last story from Makoto. Nube turned to him without a word, gesturing him for his turn with a nod. Makoto got the cue and began, bringing his candle closer to himself.
“My spooky tale started when I just moved in to this area. It was a lovely house really; a double-storeyed house with a very exotic air lingering around. The best of it all is that it has a swing in the backyard. I was so thrilled with the swing that I played with it every single day after school. I had to be forced back in the house, or else I might just spend the night out there.
“One day, as I rushed back home to enjoy my swing, I noticed a boy sitting on it. His eyes were sort of blank, like looking straight ahead like that of a blind child. I assumed that he was until he looked up and greeted me. I made friends with him immediately and we began spending most of our time at the swing.
“Slowly, the swing became an obsession. Sometimes I refused to go inside the house for fear that the boy would walk away and I’ll never see him again. My parents had enough of me and grounded me in my room. From my room, I could see the boy sitting on the swing waiting for me. I wanted so badly to go out there and play with him, but they even hired a baby-sitter to guard me.
“That night, I heard the boy calling out my name. That was the first time I ever heard him speak. My door opened by itself and soon, I found myself in the backyard, the boy smiling at me on the swing. I ran to him and we played until at last I felt myself soaring in the air. Then, everything went black.
“When I woke up, I found myself lying on bed with a monk praying and chanting by my side. My head was bandaged and I couldn’t move. When he finished praying, he took my worried parents aside, but I could hear what he was saying. He said that the son of the previous owner broke his skull when he accidentally fell off the swing that was at my backyard. He was a very lonely boy with workaholic parents, and it actually took a week for the parents to come back and find his rotting body at the backyard. The boy obviously wanted to take my life so that I can be his friend for eternity. The monk also apologized, saying that he was unable to exorcise the boy for his aura was too strong for him to battle. We moved from the house the very next week.”
Makoto blew out his candle with a sorry look on his face. It was clear that he missed and pitied the boy after leaving the house for so long. Nube clapped his hands, congratulating everyone in the hall for sharing their spooky tales. Nube picked up his candle and said in a low tone, “Kids, do you know why the 100th ghost story camp party was banned?”
“Because grown-ups want to take away all our fun?” Miki chortled in sarcasm.
“Legend has it,” Nube replied, ignoring Miki’s obnoxious remark, “that when every time the 100th ghost story is finished, the jinn of the Dead will carry these 99 souls into the Land of the Dead where they’ll never leave, no matter what exit they went into. Usually the 100th ghost story-teller will be the jinn himself.”
Everybody finally felt the chill that has been surrounding them all this time. Nube grinned an evil grin and said, “Well, kids. Here goes my story. One night, there was a group of students, all 99 of them with their teacher sat together and shared 100 ghost stories among themselves. Suddenly the jinn of the Dead popped out of nowhere and tugged the souls out of their bodies, leaving them sprawled dead on the ground. In the end, they were all trapped in the Land of the Dead, undergoing torture after torture for eternity.”
Nube blew out his candle. It seemed like a pointless story but the students were really shivering in fright. For they saw another replica of Nube standing at the door of the hall, looking severe and scary with his arms folded. They cowered to one side, praying for their dear lives.
“Have you done enough story-telling, jinn? If you do, then taste my wrath!!”
The Nube from the door of the hall raced towards the candle-holding Nube without warning and slashed his Ghost Hand at him. By that time, the students realized that the Nube with the candle had the black glove to hide his Ghost Hand was on another direction. That Nube revealed his true self and withered into nothingness. Then silence. It was peaceful again.
“Nube! We’re so glad to see you!” Everyone cheered and ran towards their beloved teacher. With one swipe, Nube knocked everyone’s head with his knuckles.
“How many times have I told you?! This type of camp party is banned! Now look what have you got yourselves into?! Hm?? What do you have to say for yourselves?”
“Sorry, Nube…” They all said in unison.
“Sorry won’t get you anywhere! You are to write an essay of apology in about 200-300 words and pass it up tomorrow! That’ll teach you a lesson for goofing around. If it weren’t for my night-shift, I can’t imagine what would happen to you guys!”
“Yes, sir.” They said in unison again before leaving gloomily away from the school hall.
“Actually, … I have to thank you kids too. Because I’ve been trying to exorcise that jinn for quite sometime now.”
“You WHAT?!” Everyone turned to him, beginning to crack their knuckles.
“Hey, n-n-no need to g-g-get so ex-ex-excited…” Nube stammered, backing away in a hurry.
“Pulverize him!!!” Katsuya yelled. Everyone ran to the fleeing Nube.
The whole school was filled with bashing noises and blood curdling screams.
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