I really like this chapter..Lol!



“I’m just going to the bathroom.” Maki left her best friend on the couch. Maki went straight to Hitomi’s house after their class. She let Hitomi go first because she will buy a DVD that she spotted earlier in her favourite video store. Hitomi was her best friend ever from the time when they were in elementary school but they knew each other since kindergarten. She knew her friend was a cool person but as her best friend, she noticed something every time they would watch something scary or she will tell scary tales. She went to the bathroom to check whether her hunch was correct.

On the other hand, Hitomi turned off the DVD player and scanned the channels on her TV. Her scanning was interrupted when her phone rang.

“Moshi-moshi?” The other line didn’t answer.

“Moshi-moshi? Dare ni?” Hitomi unconsciously tapped her feet on the ground as a sign of slowly getting pissed in this kind of prank.

“I’m going to turn this off if you didn’t answer!” Hitomi warned. She was about to turn off her cordless phone when the other line decided to say something. The message immediately sent shivers down her spine. She heard a girl’s voice but it seemed that it came from the depths of hell. Her voice was cold and creepy that her knees were already shaking. It’s the same as the movie they watched. She was thinking whether the voice that she heard was the original voice of ‘Sadako’.

“Seven days….” The other line went out after that message. Hitomi went back to sit on her couch. She didn’t know what to do. She was hiding her fear with her coolness. Whenever Maki would tell her creepy stories, she would divert her attention on happy things and pretend that she’s listening intently. Whenever they watch scary movies, Hitomi would always look on the clock on top of her TV so that Maki will not see that she’s really a coward which she cleverly hidden for the past 4 years that they know each other.

“What happened to you?” Maki asked. Hitomi looked at her worriedly. She decided already. It’s a matter of life and death now. She didn’t matter whether Maki will laugh at her. All she wanted to do was to escape the curse of that girl who called.

“Are you sure that movie of yours is not cursed?”

“What are you talking about? I bought it at the movie shop down the street; where I always buy my DVD collection. Why? What happened?”

“I’ve got a call; a girl with a creepy voice said the same line that Sadako said on the movie.” Hitomi related. She looked at her best friend’s eyes. It had a blank look. The look on her best friend’s face was adding in the frustration that she’s feeling right now.

“Oooh, that’s why you think my video’s cursed. Yocchan’s imagination is running wild again.” Maki laughed. “I shouldn’t have watched that movie with you. It’s just a fiction dude, it’s not true. You’re such a scaredy cat.” Hitomi knew this would happen, she’s somewhat expecting this to happen but then again, she’s not expecting her phone to ring again. She was too scared to answer it this time. Hitomi just covered her ears.

“Please, answer it!” She begged. Hitomi didn’t want to hear that girl’s creepy voice again.

“Fine… Scaredy cat….. Moshi-moshi?” As Maki answered the phone, her eyes grew wide. She looked at Hitomi’s direction with a worried face. She put down the receiver back on the phone and walked slowly towards the couch. Her face was lowered so Hitomi couldn’t figure out what her friend was feeling right now.

“I told you I’m not joking! Your DVD’s probably cursed!” Maki got her cell phone from her pocket and look for something. She shoved it in on Hitomi’s face right after finding what she was looking for. Hitomi looked at it and her eyes almost bulged out from disbelief. She grabbed a pillow behind her and hit her best friend on the head.

“YOU”RE MEAN!!!!” Hitomi screamed as she repeatedly hit her best friend.

“Hahahaha!!!! Gomen! I can’t help it!!!” Maki tried to evade Hitomi’s hits. What she showed her was the call memory from her phone. It showed that she made a call to Hitomi’s landline number earlier. Hitomi stopped hitting Maki.

“You’re the one who called earlier? The girl with a creepy voice? ”

“Yup.” Maki’s hunch was confirmed. Her best friend was really a coward when it involves scary things.

“Then who called you?” Hitomi was curious to how Maki played her trick. If she was the one who called, then two calls, instead of one, would register on Maki’s phone. Maki opened her sent items on her phone and showed it to Hitomi. Hitomi looked at her best friend in disgust. Maki even involved her sister to scare her.

“Miki, call Hitomi’s landline after 30 seconds. I’m scaring her. We’ve watched ‘The Ring’ (^_^)

“Geez, you’re so mean. You even asked your sister for assistance. Would you try to act normal even for just a day?”

“You’re the one who’s mean. I’m a normal person.”

“Yeah, but your hobbies besides gaming is really freaking me out. You like gothic fashion, you always wear black colored clothes, you read witchcraft books and you keep collecting horror movies and books.” Hitomi enumerated. Maki started laughing again.

“But then, you’re still my best friend even though you don’t like scary things.” Maki patted her best friend’s head. They treat each other like a real sister and sometimes, they would invite Miki to join them.

“Yeah, I guess I have no choice about it.”

“Well then, it’s getting late now. I’m going home. I still need to study for our test tomorrow... Ja!” Maki stood up and got her bag beside the couch.

“After letting me watch that scary movie… you’re going to leave me alone?!? You’re really mean!!!!”

“Your parents will come home at 11:30 right? Just finish playing Kingdom Hearts until then, and you’ll forget that you’ve watched ‘The Ring’. I promise I’ll not call you this time.”

“Fine, take care. Just mail me when you get home. Mail… not call, got that?” Hitomi stressed the word ‘mail’. Now that her best friend knew her other phobia besides snake, she must be very aware of Maki’s every move. Maki likes to scare other people so, even if she was her best friend, she know that she’s not spared.

“Hai, Ja!”

“Ja!”


………….

Hitomi Yoshizawa opened her computer to write her blog entry for this day; from watching a scary movie with her best friend to finishing her game. She didn’t write the part where Maki scared the wits out of her. After typing her entry, she visited Miki’s fic blog. There’s a new entry about her favourite pairing in a well known boy band group in Japan. She clicked the link to her best friend’s blog. She was surprised to see her picture while she was on the phone in Maki’s blog.

This picture best describes the prank I did to my best friend earlier… (^_^)

“I knew it! Damn Maki!” After reading her best friend’s entry, she visited a game forum and chatted with her fellow gamers. A member sent her a personal message. She typed her answer.

“Konbanwa! :D”

“How are you today? :)”

“Fine. I just finished playing Kingdom Hearts. It feels great! XD”

“When did you start playing it?”

“4 days ago. We have a periodical test this week so I have to limit it to four hours every day. ”

“Hahaha! I’m better than you! I finished it in just three days, three hours each… ROFL”

“That’s just your ‘beginner’s luck’. X))”

“But still, I finished it earlier than you… XP”

“Hidoi! (T_T)”

“Hey, that’s my line! Don’t steal it! >=/ ”

“Hahaha!!! LoL…. By the way, tomorrow’s the last day of our exam. Care to meet up?”

“Sure, I’ll visit your school tomorrow.”

“I have a short, blond hair. You can distinguish me immediately for I’m the only one with a blond hair. Oh yeah, I’ll introduce you to ‘Usa-chan Peace’, ‘Nutcracker’ and ‘Nihon Yankee’. They are my friends and school mate”

“Really? Now, I’m getting excited. XD… Well then, see you tomorrow! Oyasumi!”

“Oyasumi!”

Hitomi logged out of the forum and turned off her computer. She sat on her couch and read a game magazine. She was reading when their phone rang. Unknowingly, she answered it.

“Moshi-moshi… Dare…”
“Shit! I totally forgot… What if…

“Yocchan!!! Konbanwa!” Hitomi sighed in relief. She thought she would hear another ‘seven days’ on the other line.

“Sayumi? Wow, you sounded happy right now that you didn’t even let me finish my greeting… What’s up?” Hitomi chatted with her kouhai for a while. She put some water and coffee on the percolator. She needed to stay up late to study for tomorrow’s exam. A couple of minutes later, she heard her cordless phone making soft beeps, signalling her that it’s time to charge it.

“Hey, my battery’s gonna die any minute now.” They decided to meet up tomorrow at school. After she turned to phone off, she put some coffee on her cup and proceeded to read the magazine. Her parents arrived a minute later so she decided to go to her room and study.


………………
“Good morning class!” The students rise up in respect to their teacher. The short teacher went directly to the table and put all of her things on top of it.

“Good morning ma’am!”

“Are you ready for our History test for today?” Mari Yaguchi was Sayumi’s favourite teacher. If she heard her other classmates making fun of their teacher, she would always defend her teacher. Even though Sayumi likes gaming, she would always give extra time to study her History subject.

“Yes ma’am!”

“Good, but before that, I’ll check your attendance first.”

“They’re late. I guess it’s a bad idea to lend them the game. That’s odd, I thought that they are here already. Where did they go?” Konno thought as their teacher, Yaguchi-sensei, called her name.

“Konno?”

“Present!” She looked back on the empty seats of her three friends. The teacher continued to call the names of her classmates.

“Michishige?”

“Ma’am she’s not here yet.” Sayumi’s seatmate answered. The teacher proceeded to call other students after marking her class record.

“Takahashi?”

………..

……….
“Takahashi?” Yaguchi-sensei called out loud. She looked at the seat of Ai and marked her record when she saw that it was vacant.

“Next, Tanaka!”

“Ma’am, she’s not yet here, too.” Konno was the one who answered this time. She knew that those three were together. After the teacher finished the attendance, she put down her class record on the table.

“As much as I want to wait for them, we need to follow the school’s order to start the test at once to avoid cheating.” Mari took out the test papers and gave it to the students seated in the first row.

“Please start now!” The students passed the papers towards the back. Those students in front of Ai, Sayumi and Reina, left a test paper in their desk in case they came in late, before passing it to the next student.
“A really, really bad idea. Sayu will blame me if she failed her favourite subject.

……………..
“Time’s up! Pass your papers!” Yaguchi said after they heard the bell. She was getting their test papers when the vice principal of their school entered. The students stood up to greet the visitor.

“Good morning, Vice-principal Abe!”

“Good morning too, although what I’m going to say is a really sad news. A police officer called our school this morning.” The students started whispering to each other, curious to find out why the police called their school.

“Please listen to our vice-principal!” Yaguchi-sensei said after the student’s whispers were becoming too loud.

“As I was saying, a police officer called our principal this morning. He reported that…” Abe paused for a while, she can see the look of impatience on each student’s eyes. “Three of your classmates were brutally murdered by an unknown person in the Michishige residence.” Yaguchi-sensei and the students were shocked to hear the news.

“It can’t be! What happened to those three?

“The principal and I decided to have a wake service in memory of them this afternoon after the test. That’s all.” Abe left the room quietly. The student’s were too shocked to say anything.

………………
A tan girl with a long, black hair was lurking in front of the gate the school. Judging from her plain blue skirt, she’s from the Mizushima Gakuen. It seemed that she was searching for something or someone. She finally saw a boyish looking girl with a blond hair coming her way.

“Konnichiwa! Are you ‘Charmy’?” Hitomi asked. The girl nodded in agreement.

“Hai, you must be ‘Kabutomushi’. Nice to meet you. My real name’s Ishikawa Rika.” Rika took out a Canon Polaroid camera and took a picture of Hitomi. Hitomi smiled and made a peace sign.

“I almost forgot that you’re in the photography class. Hey, why won’t you come inside? We can’t go home yet, an accident happened.” Hitomi became sad suddenly.

“What happened? Is it alright for me to come in?”

“Yeah, you just need to get a visitor’s pass. I guess you can’t meet ‘Usa-chan Peace’, ‘Nut Cracker’ and ‘Nihon Yankee’ today… and you’ll not see them for a long long time. You see, they passed away last night. We were having a wake ceremony for them.”

“Uso?! I’m really looking forward to meet them and this happened.” Rika remembered how she and Nihon Yankee chatted for hours, talking about the beautiful places in America; how Nut Cracker shared some useful cheats to help her survive in ‘God of War’ and how Usa-chan Peace introduce her online to Kabutomushi. Rika went to the entrance and got a gate pass. Hitomi waited for her and they went together on the school field where the wake was to be held. Almost all of the students were looking at their direction.

“Don’t mind them.” Hitomi held Rika’s hands and they walked towards the line where Maki was.

“Where have you been?” Maki asked as soon as she saw Hitomi coming her way. She looked at the person who was walking beside her best friend.

“Maki, this is Ishikawa Rika, also known as ‘Charmy’.”

“Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!” Rika lowered her head.

“Yoroshiku! I’m her best friend. My name’s Goto Maki, known as ‘Goth Chick’ online.”

“Wow, I didn’t know that many of the chatters in that forum were from this school. Sugoi…”

“Yeah, and now, that number decreased by three.” Sadness fills the air. They listened to the speech of Iida Kaori, the Principal of Seijiku Gakuen followed by Natsumi Abe. After an hour, the school finished paying tribute to the three students. Miki Fujimoto, Maki’s step sister walked towards them. Her mother decided to retain Miki’s surname from her original father. Maki and Miki were almost of the same age; Maki was older by just 5 months.

“Who’s this fresh meat?” Miki touched Rika’s bottom which made Rika scream in surprise.

“She’s ‘Charmy’.” Hitomi said while hitting Miki’s head.

“Wow, it takes you an hour to take a leak. Did you take a revenge on your kouhai?” Maki sarcastically asked. Miki shook her head. Maki smiled and turned around to talk to Rika. “By that incident, you can guess the name of this person online.” Maki asked. Rika thought for a while.

“Is she ‘Grope-Queen’?”

“Bingo! Correct! Yoroshiku! Fujimoto Miki’s the real name.”

“I’m Ishikawa Rika. Nice to meet you too.” Miki got Rika’s hand and shook it. She then turned to Maki.

“By the way sis, I saw an old book in the library. By the looks of it, I can tell that it’s your type of book.” Miki winked at her sister.

“Wait… Sister? But your surname is Goto right? And you’re Fujimoto.” Rika scratched her head. Hitomi was the one who explained.

“She’s her step sister. Maki’s mom died when she was three. Her dad married Miki’s mom when she was seven. Miki’s dad and mom divorced when she was two years old and because her dad was still alive, Miki’s mom decided to retain Miki’s surname.

“Ahh, souka…” Rika looked at Maki. “You don’t get scolded or abused by your step sister or step mom… do you?” Maki and Miki looked at each other weirdly and then to Hitomi. The three of them laughed simultaneously.

“Do you read too much fairy tales? She’s not Cinderella… Though our personality’s different, we still treat each other like a real sister.”

“Yeah, and though this little rascal’s always getting on my nerves, I still love her.” Maki seconded while messing up her sister’s hair. Maki earned a soft smack courtesy of her sister.

“Don’t say such crappy things in front of other people…. I prefer your ‘witchcraft’ language this time.”

“What witchcraft language?” Rika asked in confusion. It seems that there are many things to be learned about her ‘online friends’.

“Based on her on-line name, you will have an idea of her personality. In real life, she’s really a Goth-girl; she likes to read ‘black books’ and so, she knew some Latin words.” Hitomi explained. She saw a girl walking towards their direction. The girl looked directly at Hitomi.

“Ano sumimasen, are you Yoshizawa-Sempai?” Hitomi nodded the other three looked at the new comer.

“Is she from the forum too?” Rika asked.

“I don’t think so.” Miki answered and looked closely at the girl. “You’re a freshman, aren’t you? If I’m not mistaken, I always see you with Sayumi before, right?”

“Wait, then you must be Konno Asami?!” Hitomi exclaimed. The girl nodded in agreement.

“Hai, I guess she always talks about me when she’s with you.”

“Right! It looks like you’re her idol when it comes to gaming. She always praises your skills… but now…” They all became sad at what happened to their friends.

“She’s been bugging me ever since she met you. She said that you want to play with me. I guess this time I’ll give in to her wishes. She wanted to play this game with everyone.” Konno took out a black cd-case and handed it to Hitomi.

“The Maiden’s Curse… But how?” Hitomi looked at Konno questioningly. Sayumi was playing this last night so technically, it must have been inside Sayumi’s house where the murder happened.

“I don’t know I just saw it in front of my door when I woke up. I thought that Sayumi did it and they were already going to the school.”

“But then Vice-Principal Abe went into your classroom and broke the bad news?” Konno nodded to Miki.

“Maybe the ghost of Sayumi did it.” Rika thought out loud. Hitomi looked nervous and the two sisters laughed together.

“She really wanted to play this game with Hitomi right? Maybe it’s true. I’ve read lots of dead people rising up again because of unfinished business.” Maki tapped Hitomi’s shoulder lightly. Hitomi moved away from her best friend.

“No way! It’s not possible.”

“Dude, I know my sister very well. If she says that it’s true, then believe her.”

“You’re teaming up again to scare me! It’s not possible!”

“You’re afraid?” Rika asked innocently. The two sisters laughed out loud once again. Konno covered her mouth and tried to suppress her laugh.

“You’re right! She’s a scaredy cat! Aside from being afraid of snakes, my sister discovered last night that she was afraid of ghosts and scary stuffs!”

“All this time, she’s pretending to be cool whenever I’m telling her stories about vampires and witches and…”

“I’m not! Let’s play that game today!”