'I'm stuck with a Ghost!'

Chapter 1, The Tape

It was a midsummer morning in Tokyo. There was the sound of the busy traffic down town as the wind breezed past the branches of the cherry blossom trees. Amongst the city was one apartment in particular, the curtains barely open letting in a small amount of light into the neat-looking bedroom. Inside of this room, was a clean black carpet and the walls are white and hardly covered by any sorts of photos or posters, except a simple clock on the wall. There was a closet in one corner, with a couple of drawers on the other side near the window. On the other side of the room, is a single adult-sized bed and a counter with a lamp, a pair of glasses and a phone on top of it. On this bed was a man in his late 20's, sleeping peacefully on top of the duvet, since he had felt warm under the covers that night. Lucky for this man, it was the weekend, meaning he could sleep for as much as he would want. A nice, happy, peaceful sleep...if he could have that at least.

An abrupt loud ringing of the alarm from his phone made the man jump out of bed from shock, falling onto the floor face down, his body toppling down to the ground with him. "Damn alarm..." he grumbled to himself, aching from the sudden pain, as he reached for his pair of glasses, putting them on. He had black, messy hair, a stubble beard, and plain-black eyes. He reached and grabbed hold of his phone, turning it on and looking at the screen to see what time it was. It was 8:30am, pretty early for him considering he wouldn't have set an alarm like that on a Saturday. He'd have still been asleep by then. He was trying to remember why he for some reason had an alarm set. That was until he looked at the sticky note under his phone. He peeled it off to see he had wrote certain things for him to remember, one of them in specific stood out to him.

"Movie day with Kameo..." He read out, sighing to himself as he pinched the bridge of his nose. It was one of those days that he regretted solely, and wished he could turn back time to which he never promised to make. But she was his friend, no matter how weird she could be sometimes, so he couldn't protest much. He put down his phone onto the counter, rubbing his eyes as he made his way to the bathroom to prepare for the day. Today, this was the beginning of the story of Toshiro Koware, and the start of one of his biggest mistakes yet.


He was finally here. It was a hassle, but Toshiro was finally here, in Shinjuku city, the buildings dwarfing everything underneath them, it's busy paths and roads, highlighted around them with lights and billboards. He decided to take the train there, even though he hated doing that. It was the fact that he was cramped up in them with so many people, considering he had a hard time even talking to at least one person. So in total, it took him about 45 mins to get to the city. about 30 mins by train, 5 mins struggling to get to the station in time, and 10 mins trying to figure out where the hell their meeting point was. In his defence, he had never been to Shinjuku till now, so it was all relatively new to him. Today he was dressed up in a chequered flannel and dark blue jeans, with brown trainers. Now some would say he looked rather plain, but some like him don't care and just throw on whatever they see in their closet.

Right now, he was looking for his friend at the meeting spot she had set up for them to, well, meet up at before going to the cinemas. It wasn't long though, since he always knew how to find her, which was to look for the hyperactive emo girl waving at him. But still, she was his best friend, Kameo Ryugu.

Now to explain Kameo, she's the most enthusiastic emo he's ever seen in his life. She loved a lot of things, especially the horror genre. She's usually seen, as she is today, with her medium length black hair, that was longer and lay on her right side, with purple strands. She had a simple piercing in her nose and exposed left ear, with light purple eyeshadow, mixing perfectly with her purple irises. Her getup was surely more duller in colour, with her black beanie and t-shirt, the type which exposed her shoulders and midriff, and had a broken skull in the centre of it. She wore purple fingerless gloves, and a black choker. She also wore black shorts that went down halfway to her knees, with black trainers, and striped black and purple stockings reaching up to said knees. See? Pure emo material there. She might as well have been a protagonist in a cheesy anime at that point.

In a short moment, she ran up to him with a grin on her face as she bumped Toshiro on the side of his elbow. "Toshiro my friend, you are officially five minutes late, you dirty oversleeper." She spoke out, glee on her face.

"First of all, ow. Second, you only said to be here before 11:30, not whenever you say so." He remarked back, rubbing his elbow. Funny thing was that she was joking, but no matter how many times she did it, he couldn't get used to them. "Also oversleeper isn't even a word, you mean to say I overslept, which I didn't do by the way." He added, pushing his glasses up in pride.

She blew a raspberry, unimpressed. "Jeez, ok Mr. Knowledge Man. Didn't know you took your dictionary wherever you go." As Kameo smirked at her own witty comeback, Toshiro couldn't help but sigh in annoyance at her humour yet again. "Anyways, you do know what we're doing today, right?" She asked him.

"Yeah of course. We're going to watch a movie." He replied to her, as they made their way down town.

"Yeah, but what kind of movie, hm?" she asked, her smile as smug as ever. He didn't reply at all, as he grumbled to himself over her teasing. He knew that today they were going to the TOHO cinemas in Shinjuku to go watch a movie, and said movie was going to be one of his most hated and feared genres ever; the horror genre. Remember when explaining Kameo and about how she loves the horror genre? Well usually she tends to go to the cinemas whenever there's a said horror movie that piques her interest enough. The only problem was that she liked to watch them with others, though no one else had the time to go and watch them with her. So in the end, Toshiro was invited with her to watch them, since he would hate do deny her request. That, and recently they've had less time to hang out with each other since they left high school.

The reason on why he hates horror movies is because of one simple reason; Toshiro is a scaredy-cat, and a big one at that. He couldn't stand even the smallest of jump scares. Though at this point, he had watched so many, he almost knew a lot of those said monsters and killers in the movies, the stories and their back stories, from old classics like Friday the 13th and The Grudge, to new films like Black box and A Quiet Place. Each one either chilling, psychological or even frightening in their own creepy way, and he honestly couldn't lie that a lot of work and effort were put into them to freak out their audiences. Well, almost. There are times when there's so many bad sequels, or just some low-budget drone, and there were more of those let-downs recently that even got Kameo annoyed at times.

"There it is!" She exclaimed, pointing energetically at the said destination of the movie theatre. He had to admit, the front looked nice and fancy, showing some other movies on posters that he'd maybe take an interest in checking out in his own time, it's black, white and grey colour scheme of a building, and...Godzilla? Yes, a somewhat statue of Godzilla peering over the building as if he was behind it. At least they have some creativity of some sort.

"So, what are we even watching today?" He asked, rather curious as to know what exactly was on at the moment. That and she didn't even tell him as she usually did at times.

"Another Stephen King remake my friend" She stated, "This time it's Pet Sematary, and I really wanna see another hit-or-miss with this one." Ah, he remembered Stephen King, a famous American author who writes all kinds of novels from fantasy and horror to science-fiction, Toshiro's favourite genre. Hell, the guy even has about 350 million sold copies of his works. Toshiro even knew how good his film adaptations were, such as It and The Mist. albeit he usually heard from Kameo of the 'the book was better' line from her, but he'd rather not find out if that was true, so he'd take her word for it. Kameo suddenly jumped in front of him, surprising him a bit. "I bet you 100 yen you'll freak out in the first 10 mins. No wait! 1'000 yen! Or maybe..." She went on an on, not surprising him one bit that she'd be betting on his first freak-out, and spoilers, she was almost always right. But what they did was somewhat fun either way, and he honestly couldn't complain, as they made their way to the entrance, with Kameo grabbing his arm and rushing along there. By the way, when he meant 'fun', he mean after the movie was done. He just really, hates, horror.


Kameo walked out of the building, stretching her arms above her head in pure bliss. "Now that was a remake I could watch." She said to herself. "What about you Toshiro?" She turned to see him walking out slowly, pale as a ghost and teeth clattering as if he was cold. Cold with fear that is. It was clear that he had NOT enjoyed it in a way that Kameo did. "I guess you did" She replied for him, as she waited.

"Y-y-yeah...s-s-sure..." He hardly replied, as he could barely stop shaking. He would not dare want to remember the creepy undead animals, the weird ritual thingies and the-dammit he was remembering it!

"Oh come on, it wasn't that scary" She said, hands on her hips as she stood there somewhat unimpressed with his wits. "I mean yeah sure, dead animals coming back from the grave is weird but it could have been a lot spookier." Well either way, it was spooky enough for him at least.

"Let's...let's just go already." She reluctantly obliged with him, walking alongside with him as he was recovering.

"Soooo, how was it?" She asked him, curiously.

"W-well, I'd say it was alright, though I preferred the original." He answered honestly.

"I know right?" She blurted out, making him flinch a bit. He hated it when she just did that without warning. "Sometimes my friend, you just can't beat the classics." He could at least somewhat agree with her on that statement, after all it felt like the originals had more work and constrictions put on them to make it what it was, and just feels all the more rewarding. Nowadays you can just throw in some CGI and boom! Your own creepy monster thing. He was immediately stopped by her hand in front of her, palm open. He turned to look at her, eyebrows raised as she smirked at him. "Now, about that bet..." she began.

He sighed in annoyance, reaching into his pocket and giving her the 100 yen. It had seemed that yet again, she had won one of her bets. Honestly, she was going to make him bankrupt at this point, that it isn't even fair. On the bright side though, they could do the favourite part of their hanging out; the actual hanging out. Usually they'd just wander around the city, or go eat at a ramen place, as he'd listen to her constant discussions and ramblings.

"So, where are we going next?" He asked her, as they continued to walk.

Her bright smile began to fade, awkwardly scratching the back of her head. "Oh, about that. I can't today." She said, bluntly.

"Really? Why's that?" he asked her, rather curious.

"Well I found a job, and It's about an hour to my next shift." She replied. A job? That was surprising to him. She usually droned on about how boring they were, and how she'd rather work independently. But on the bright side, Toshiro guessed that it was for the best. Maybe she'd be more mature for his sake.

"Well that's a new" he said, fighting back the urge to smirk at her like she's done for the past couple of hours. "What made you get one?" He asked.

"Hey, I wanna afford my rent, ya know" She stated sharply, "Right now I'm working as a cashier. You know, one of those jobs that has you standing there, and you know how much I HATE standing in one place for ages!" He somewhat nodded at her statement. To be honest, he wasn't surprised, since with her nature she couldn't be trusted to stay in one spot for more than a minute. She was just an impatient gal. All the more reason to remedy in her suffering. He lightly coughed, fighting back the urge to smile wickedly. "Speaking of which, my job is that way" She said, pointing to their right, where a crossing was. "So I should get going now."

"Right, of course." was all he said, standing there as she rushed her way to the crossing as it went over to the red light, letting the pedestrians cross over. As much as he joked about her, or how she loved to tease him, it still sucked that she had to go so soon. It's not the same when there isn't a Kameo to wind on about her favourite movies. In all honesty, he sometimes wished they were young again, just so they could hang out more.

"...Kameo!" He called out to her. She stopped in her tracks, turning back to his call. "Er, good luck!" he said, somewhat smiling awkwardly. She smiled once again, cheerful as ever as she waved him goodbye, crossing over the walkway. All he did was simply wave back, even though she couldn't see him now. He continued on walking the same direction, simply thinking of just having a long walk home. He didn't feel like having another train ride today. Especially with those damn smelly chairs!


Toshiro was walking down a local street, each side with small shops from foods to clothing. He had a bag of groceries held in his left hand, since he had wanted to get something for his dinner. Nothing big though, since he didn't even know how to cook, so he just bought simple microwavable foods or some sorts like instant noodles. The only people he knew could cook were Kameo, his friend Yasashi who owns a pet store near his place, and his mom and dad who he doesn't live with anymore. For example, when Kameo used to visit him, she was the one who made the meals, and as usual, tease him about his inability to cook.

But that was about a few years ago when they were still in high school. After they left, they still kept in touch, but due to how busy they both were and where they lived. While Toshiro lived in central Tokyo, Kameo lives far up in Toshima City, which is of course, pretty far. It's why they tend to meet up in places like Shinjuku, since they're somewhat in the middle of where they live. He tends to meet up with his other pals, but not as often as Kameo. It was mainly cause they've known each other since the start of, again, high school. But he couldn't complain much. He had friends, a nice house, a cosy life, all the simple things he needed solely. Honestly, life was just the way he wanted it, and he wouldn't do anything to change that.

"Just take it, man! Please!"

"I told you to get that crap outta my face!"

Toshiro was started by what sounded like an argument going on. He looked straightforward to see that the noise was coming from directly in front of him. It seemed to be what he could tell to be two guys shouting at each other in front of a hardware shop. One of them must work here, since he had a dark blue t-shirt, grey pants with black-polished shoes and a neat-looking red tie. He seemed to be in his mid 40's, his arms crossed as he looked annoyed. The other guy though seemed...odd? He wore school clothing of what was a white t-shirt, a black blazer with a school logo, with black pants and black shoes. From what Toshiro could tell, he was about maybe 16 to 17 years old, though he looked rather tired, bags under his eyes, but he seemed...scared? It was as if he was frightened for his life, but why exactly? He was holding something in his hands, what looked from his view a black box with a cord coming out of it, and a plug at the end, so it was obvious it was hardware. The teen was almost forcing the hardware in the worker's face, as if he was begging for his life. But for what? And mostly, why?

"Listen, I-I won't even charge you for it! You can have it! Just take the damn thing!" the man cried out, his voice pleading for the man to listen.

"And I keep telling you we don't buy things off of random folks, so just clear off already" The older worker replied, sounding annoyed as his voice was raised.

"Why!? What's wrong with you!? Do you want me to die!?" The teen shouted. Die? What on earth was he talking about? Was someone after him? Why would some high school teen die for not getting rid of some hardware? There were so many questions in Toshiro's head about this random situation, yet none could be answered.

"The hell..." The worker mumbled, his eyes widened from the shocking words of the kid. "Look, if you don't get out of here I'm calling the cops. This is your last warning." The teen just stood there, his heart racing as he grit his teeth forcefully in anger, his bloodshot eyes filling with sadness and rage. He threw the box aside, as it fell down onto the hard concrete, almost breaking from the impact, yet still intact with only a few scratches to it's surface.

"You bastard! You've gotten me killed! I hope you and anyone who ever watches that tape are cursed forever!" Was the last thing the teen shouted, his bloodcurdling voice chilling the worker and Toshiro, as he ran off and looked around him, as if he was being weary of someone watching him...

Toshiro was shocked to say the least. He could only think to himself; 'what just happened'? It seemed the worker looked somewhat the same too, but only for a short time as he sighed in relief. Usually it wasn't Toshiro's thing to pry into other people's business, but for something like this to happen was rather unlikely. To put his mind to rest, he at least wanted the context of what had happened to cause this scary predicament. He walked up to the man who was still standing there, luckily enough getting him to look at him as he came close by.

"What the hell was that?" Toshiro said, somewhat still shocked, yet curious. The worker shrugged, scratching the back of his head.

"No clue" he stated "I was just doing my daily shift, then this kid comes rushing towards me with a VHS player, asking me to take it from him." Toshiro could tell that this guy was being honest. He looked just as dumbstruck at the situation as he did. But that peaked his interest some more. VHS tapes and recorders haven't been used since 2006, when DVD's were taking over, and with a good reason too. They were cleaner, smaller, better looking movies, and didn't take you a century to rewind it. It was just a push of a button and you could do anything. So why did that guy even have one? And why sell it? "Anyways" the man continued "I kept telling him I couldn't take it, since we ain't allowed to just buy things from random strangers, but he was stubborn as hell. Like the kid was desperate or something" Why though? Was all Toshiro could think to himself. Why was he desperate? What was forcing that teen to act that way? It was those questions that he really wanted answered, yet he felt like the worker next to him didn't have them either, or hell, if he wanted to know those questions as well.

"Um, weird question but uh, what did he mean he was going to die? Were the Yakuza after them or some other gang?" He asked, a little nervous. A yakuza gang wouldn't be that harsh, would they? He knew they could sometimes be the reason, or even a gang, but he wanted to be sure.

"No clue, pal" the worker simply replied, "I was just as shocked. I just...didn't expect that, ya know? It's not normal." Toshiro lightly nodded. That was definitely no normal reaction of any sorts. Whatever the case, he was somewhere else now, hopefully not harassing anyone else.

"Well, don't let it get to ya" The man said to Toshiro, "Wherever he is, the cops will deal with him. Just keep enjoying ya day." He smiled, shaking Toshiro's hand as he walked back inside the hardware shop. Toshiro knew he was right, so like he said, he'd best not get involved with whatever that was and continue back home. As he began walking, he almost tripped, waving his hands frantically as he got back his balance. He looked down to see what he almost tripped on.

The tape recorder. He almost forgot about the teen throwing it to the pavement before he ran off. He bent down to get a better look at it, picking it up as he turned it around on it's sides. It had seen better days, but it still worked. It was a rarity to find just one of these, and if you did, they cost a lot. But who could blame anyone? They were relics now, to those who never used one, and those who used to. Something seemed to catch his eye however, something in the VHS recorder. It was a tape! Not just a working recorder itself, but a said-working recorder with a tape! Now that was even more rare. He slid the tape out of the box to get a better look at the contents of it. But it looked...well for starters; it had no label. At least, no name for the said tape of what it was, and the glass had minor cracks on both sides, Apart from that, the tape was just, blank looking. Though it looked as dull as dirt, it somewhat intrigued him, a sense of mystery to it. Now true he just said that he'd forget about this whole ordeal and get on with his life. But, well...

He placed the box and tape in his grocery bag, whistling innocently as he went on his merry way. The recorder and tape weren't apart of the ordeal anymore, right? So it was fine for him to take it. No one else was going to have it. The people at the hardware shop didn't want it, and the teen abandoned it, and he's gone now. So if it concerned him, the tape was going to a new owner, one who would not mistreat it. Besides, he'd just love to know what was on this tape.


Toshiro opened his front door, wiping his shoes on the rug at the front before stepping into his house, closing the door behind him. He sighed in relief, smelling in the air of his house, consisting of poorly looked after, yet neat and tidy. While he could sort things out like his books in an orderly way, he had no clue how to work a washing machine, resulting him in going to a laundromat when his clothes smelt of moulded cheese. But hey, home is home. He continued through his living room, and straight into the kitchen, placing down the grocery bag onto the work surface. Though he seemed like a person who wasn't neat, the house he lives in was rather niche and stylish of some sort, thanks to his mom and dad's inheritance.

On the left of his kitchen, he has an oven on the bottom and middle, including a built-in microwave on the top, with buttons and settings he had no clue in which one did what, especially when all he knew was how to put a burger in a microwave for a minute. Next to it was a work surface made of marble with a cupboard below and above it, followed next is a hob that he could use with pans to cook...which he doesn't know how to do. Below it is a set of four drawers, and above it is an expilair that connected to the chimney on the roof, that helped out with bringing out the bad smells. Continuing on, there is the drainer with cupboards that went on to the side, along with a dishwasher at the bottom, the left of it being the sink, with many plates and cutleries that hadn't been cleaned yet. He would get to them. Eventually. On the right of the kitchen, there were the basics of three massive cupboards, one set on the bottom, one on top and one at the side of it. There is a door that went out to the side of the house where the garbage bins were, next to it being his hoover that is hung up, ready to be used in another two months with his cleaning habits. Next to it is his fridge, the glorious food-keeper that kept him stocked up with his assortments of instant noodles, sodas, maybe an apple or orange, more noodles, and sodas...but there is ice cream in his freezer at the bottom, with...ice. Yeah. Maybe a lollipop or two. Toshiro didn't have much of a variety.

However, what was unique about this kitchen was that it has an conservatory connected to it, the top half of the room surrounded by windows, with a glass roof above it, and two doors on the left of the room. The only notable things he had in that part of the room is two bookshelves filled to the brink with different types of books, from simple things like science-fiction to instructions and guides, like those books for dummies and such. There is also a dining table near the far middle of the room, while at the bottom right side is some boxes, still filled with unpacked items.

As he took out the groceries from the bag, he placed the VHS player onto the side, continuing to ready one of his instant noodles for his dinner. He may not know how to make a proper meal, but he made one hell of a noodles in a bowl. Jokes aside, this tape was beginning to make him feel more curious by the minute. The amount of drama caused around it, it's mystery, what it even is. It was the mystery surrounding it that got him interested, though usually in the horrors he watched, curiosity killed the cat, most of the time even literally if unlucky.

After he finished cooking his noodles and sitting at the table to eat, he took the VHS player and went back into the living room to begin setting it up. Toshiro's living room was somewhat big, with it's white carpet, walls and doors. It has a window behind the grey couch that is at the far middle of the room, a comfy chair on it's right. In front of the couch is a small round table with cup holsters on it. On the left next to the door is a cupboard with a house phone and a wifi box on top of it. On the right corner of the room is a cabinet with what seemed to be ornaments and a picture of Toshiro and his parents, that was taken when he had passed high school, and his mom and dad just HAD to have something to remember it.

In front of the room is a build in woodwork of two cabinets on each side with a glass door, with assortments from different countries, such as a statue of an alligator, and another statue of the Eiffel Tower. There are two more cabinets on each side with high cabinet doors. In the middle is a TV, that was about 20 inches of such, yet it isn't as thin as they usually are, which was enough for him to say the least.

He had managed to set up the recorder to the back of the TV and plug, setting it below the said TV. As he sat down in front of it, he looked back down at the tape that was in his hands, somewhat hypnotising with it's lightly broken form. He didn't know why, but for some reason whilst he wanted to see what was on this tape, another part of him felt like it was shouting 'don't do it' at him. But he wanted to know what it was. After all he had no clue what movie it was or such, and if he was going to keep it, or even sell it for that matter, he at least needed to know what it was exactly. There was no point in arguing with himself, he HAD to do it. After all, what was he even worrying about? Cause some teen had a panicking fit and tried to sell an old VHS player and saying he was going to die? Cause it looked ominous? No, it was ridiculous. As he turned on the player, he lightly pushed the tape into it, as the rest of the tape slid in by itself. He took the remote for the television that was on his right, turning on the TV as he sat there with anticipation.

At first, there was nothing but static for only a few short seconds, until suddenly the screen changed, and all of a sudden the tone shifted. The film had sound, but it was...spine-chilling, it somewhat made him feel uncomfortable. The scenes didn't help at all, they didn't even make sense to him. Each one was different, but none the less creepier than the other. There weren't any other words for him to describe, but only for how he felt whilst watching it. For some reason as much as he wanted to turn it off, it was disturbingly hypnotising that he didn't want to turn it off. At first, the tape started with what was a scene of a shot coming from...a hole? It was pitch black, and the moon was out, but there was also a man staring down the hole. After that, the scenes got much more weird, or he didn't understand at least what they meant. There was another scene that was simple that showed a weird, alien-looking eye, with what he could see a reversed kanji inside of it. It reached to the end where it showed just one thing; a well. That was it, a well surrounded by trees. With that, after the screen went back to nothing but static, he simply turned the TV off with the remote, placing it back down onto the small table.

All he did after that, was sit there. Nothing to say, nothing to even think of, and nothing to do. All he felt he could do, was to sit there. But there was at least one thing he could think of in his head; 'What the hell was that?' That was no movie he's ever seen in his life, hell, it wasn't long enough to even BE a movie, only a couple minutes at least. It was like something you'd find in a haunted house. Like a cursed tape. One thing was for sure, he'd never seen anything like this.

The sound of the phone ringing made him jump, sighing in annoyance at the sudden scare. He got up and walked over to the phone to answer it. He stopped so suddenly, freezing in frame, not daring to take another step towards it. What was there to worry about though? It was a simple phone call, right? Well that was what got him so shook. It was a phone call, but just after the tape was done? After what he thought of it being a cursed tape? Was that too coincidental? Or was he right to be cautious? He decided to answer the phone, picking it up and placing the device to the side of his head.

"Hello?" He said calmly, waiting for a reply. Nothing. There was no sound of a voice coming from the other end, just pure silence. Until all of a sudden, there was one noise coming from the phone. The sound of what could be described of as an eerie screeching, like nails being scratched on metal. It chilled Toshiro to the bone, his hand beginning to shake. In an act of panic, he slammed the phone down onto it's pedestal, backing away from it. He looked at it in shock, trying to pry into his head in what was going on. What he knew for sure was that he was wrong, it wasn't a coincidence at all when it rang, that phone call timed so perfectly, that it was was meant to come after he had finished watching that tape.

The tape.

Tape...

He quickly turned to the VHS recorder under the TV, rushing over and grabbing it. He kept it in front of him, staring at it. Something in his mind found this familiar, he didn't know why, but he was well enough to go with his instincts. But what was it? What was it that made this familiar? He thought back to when Kameo found old movies for them to watch, against his own judgement. They were classics to say the least, and terrifying ones at that. But there was one of them that topped them all off. One of them that always gave him goosebumps. One that no matter what other movie he watched, it could never best the fear he felt from it.

The Ring.

The original, the 1998 classic. He even remembered the plot by heart, of how a man and woman watched the tape, and had seven days to live, going to find clues about the tape and hopefully stop the curse. It was a movie that needed no jumpscare, no gore, no cheap effects of such to scare you. It just creeped you out, made you feel uncomfortable and cold with fear itself. And it certainly made Toshiro fear.

But then, the reasonable part of him came out. Sure, Toshiro was a thumb-sucking frightened man near his 20's, but he was no idiot. He was clever enough to know one reasonable thing about these movies; horror movies aren't real. There was no such thing as creepy dolls that came to life, there was no such thing as a burnt man killing you in your dreams, and there was especially no such thing as a ghost in a well. The most reasonable explanation for this was that it could be a prank by someone. Like that teen from earlier. Yeah, exactly, he probably made (or stole) a perfect copy of how the tape was in the film and was acting like a weirdo, forcing people to take the tape and player so he could freak some poor old lady out or something. He'd just call the police and tell them about that guy, and he would be dealt with in no time. He knew the cops where he lives are great at their jobs, and friendly too when you didn't break the law, he knew this from his Dad, as he had a friend of his who worked there.

Scratching the back of his head, Toshiro somewhat laughed to himself over the predicament he made over this. Who could blame him though? It was freaky after all, no one could have expected it. He placed the player back down as he went over to the phone to make a call to the officers. If he wasn't as carefree as he was then, he might have noticed someone in the reflection of the TV standing right behind his couch.


It had been a whole lot of rest and relaxation for Toshiro, as he lay comfortably on his couch watching the latest episode of his favourite series. It had been A week since that incident with the VHS recorder, but luckily it had been sorted out thanks to his rational thinking of the situation.

After he had called the police, they had assured him that they would look out for him. It also helped that Toshiro told them where he was last at, including his appearance, so they had somewhat of an advantage. Either way, he did his part well, and he had nothing else to worry about. It was odd though, since yeah the week had been alright, He could have sworn there was something off at times. There was Wednesday night when he couldn't sleep properly, and there was Saturday where he could have sworn he saw something in the reflection of his mirror. But other than that, there was nothing wrong, so it was all good.

A sudden ringing got his attention, turning his head over to the source of the noise. It was his phone. I mean, of course, since it was ringing. He turned off the TV as he got up and stretched his arms, then walked over to the phone, picking it up and answering it.

"Hello?" He asked.

"Ah, good afternoon Mr. Koware" the man on the other end answered. "This is the Tokyo police station."

"Well then, it seems that they've finally gotten back to me" Toshiro thought to himself. He was wondering when he'd get a call till now. He continued to listen to the officer.

"I'm calling to give you an update on that teen you reported us about." The officer said. Toshiro was wondering when there would be some news on that guy.

"Oh?" He said, curiously. "Anything new?"

"You'll be happy to know that we caught him yesterday. We found him living in an abandoned house near the Roppongi district." So he was homeless? Strange. Was he kicked out or something? It was just odd for someone of that guy's age to be homeless. "He was freaking me out a bit though" The officer continued, "He kept mumbling to himself about he was gonna die or something." Again with that. Dying. The fact that this kid thought he was gonna die. But from what? A gang? A tragic accident? Just what was he on about. But that was besides the point. Toshiro had his own questions that he needed answering.

"Right, so um, did you manage to question him at any point." Toshiro asked, curiously.

"Well, funny you should ask, we did." The officer bluntly replied. "We questioned him about that player you mentioned, but he said he had no idea where it was. Or hell, that he didn't care where it was, just as long as it was away from the guy. Hell, he said he had no prank in mind at all"

"Odd, so he didn't purposefully throw it away that day?" Toshiro thought to himself yet again, "So maybe he might have tracked me down afterwards? But then, why would he just admit that he didn't have a prank in mind? Was he just lying?" He cleared his throat as he asked his next question. "Did you tell him that I watched the tape?" Toshiro didn't really know why he asked, but something told him he might get something from the guy at least. To know if this teen was being legit.

What was next seemed...unsettling. The officer on the other end sounded uncomfortable, as if he was sweating, pulling the collar of his shirt, like he was nervous. "Its...w-well his reaction was uh...unsettling to say the least." Unsettling? What did he mean? He heard the officer out. "When we told him you watched the tape, he was different. The guy was happy as all hell, laughing like a friggin' madman. It was like some weight was pulled off of him, glad as hell about it."

All of a sudden, Toshiro felt cold, no, shaken from this info. It wasn't just about the teen's reaction, or that he hadn't even planned to prank anyone, but that he was glad that someone had watched the tape. Like he wasn't going to die. Like someone else was going to instead.

Someone like Toshiro.

But no, It couldn't be right. That was stupid. Didn't he just say that horrors don't exist? Cause he was right, they don't. It must have been someone, if not that teen. Someone else who could have done that call. "T-Then what about the phone call? Did he do it?" He asked, trying to keep his cool.

It took a bit before the Officer replied to him. "Well that's the thing." He started. "We traced the phone call to...well nothing. No other phone, no mobile. Nothing. Even this guy didn't have any trace of your number."

Toshiro was sweating like mad, he didn't understand. He didn't understand at all. "Wuh...w-what are you s-s-saying, sir?" He stuttered out. What the officer said next made him freeze on the spot with terror, his heart racing like mad.

"Sir, no one called you that day."

He couldn't say anything. He couldn't move, he couldn't blink at all. He was terrified. No one made a prank on him. No one called him that afternoon. But what got him the most, since if both of what he thought was true then; No one faked that tape. "Thank you, officer." He said in a cold manner, placing the phone down, his hand shaking as he did. He wanted to think rationally, he wanted to say that this was stupid of him, and he most certainly wanted to know that everything was fine. But he didn't. All he could do was slowly look back at that player under the TV, like he was waiting for his demise. Waiting to see his fears come real. Nothing was happening right now, but a part of him was expecting something to happen. For a ghost to come out of the TV. For him to die. For him to...

This was stupid. That rational part of him was back at last. And it was right. His thinking right now was stupid. Hell, it was irrational at best. If something were to happen, it would have done by now. If he remembered, he had watched this tape a week ago, which of course, meant seven days. And if he also remembered correctly, he had watched it at exactly 5pm. He looked over to the clock in his living room to see what time it was now. As he thought, 5.15pm, again proving his rational side's point. He sighed to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose as he just lightly chuckled to himself.

"See?" He started saying to himself, "You're overreacting." He shook his head as bent down to pick up the TV remote. He turned to the screen to turn it on, but it was already back on.

Wait, it was already back on? Didn't he just turn it off? It was on to an image of the well from that tape, which the player was already on too. "Well that explains it." He thought, "I must have accidentally turned on the player instead and didn't notice." he rolled his eyes at his own amusement. "I'm going loopy" He jokingly said to himself, using the remote to turn off the player.

But it didn't.

He pressed the off button again. It didn't work. He resorted to rapidly clicking the off button to do anything that would turn it off, but to no surprise that didn't work either. He looked up from his panicked state to see the screen again, but something different was happening to it. There was something crawling out of the well. As it slowly came out, the figure was now standing there in front of the well, not doing anything. Just staring at Toshiro. He was chilling to the bone, his eyes widened in panic from the sight of this ghastly thing that threatened to just take his soul in an instant. The phone suddenly rang, grabbing his attention to rush over and grab it, hopefully begging whoever was calling to send help. But there was no one on the other end, just the same screeching sound like seven days ago when he answered the phone. When he turned to see the TV again, the figure had already making it's way slowly towards the screen.

Toshiro was never more frightened than he had been in his life. Horrors was one thing, and the scares from Kameo had been another thing on it's own, maybe not as terrifying and more of an annoyance. But this. Nothing that scared him made him fear for his life like this moment. Where he feared he couldn't do anything, like a helpless animal cornered by a pack of predators. And it got just as worse.

The figure began climbing out, that's right, out of the TV screen, their hands clawing onto the floor. He was able to see it in almost full detail now. It's long, black hair that covered it's face entirely, it's white dress creased and dirtied. It had grey skin like a ghost, and their hands didn't even have any nails, as if they were broken off with ease. But it wasn't even an it. It was a she. And she had fully crawled her way out of the TV, her movement stiff and awkward, like a spider.

He wanted to run as fast as he could, he really did. But he was afraid to, like it wouldn't matter even if he did run. Something this terrifying and powerful could probably catch up to him with ease. It was worse when he felt like he was gasping for air, as he breathed heavily, landing on the floor and moving away from this ghost woman. He only got so far though, as he was now feeling the front of the couch. "Dammit! There must be something I can do!" He thought to himself in frustration. So he looked around frantically, seeing if there was at least something that could protect him. He looked at the small table, and saw what was one of his heavy statues that he had put there today. He grabbed the object, holding it in his hands. "Alright, I have a weapon" He tried to reassure himself, though it didn't help much with the situation he looked at in front of him. The only other question was; now what? Did he whack her across the head? Kick her back? What!? As she continued to crawl towards him, he thought to do what came to his head, something brave yet stupid enough to work...

But instead of looking heroic, Toshiro screamed like a little girl, throwing the statue at the ghost. Just like that, She avoided it with a single movement, considering that was a terrible throw at a time like this, smashing something in the background instead. She merely got onto her two feet, now standing fully in front of him, Toshiro having a glance at the full detail of this ghost. Her black-raven hair, her ragged dress, and her grey skin. The one creature he feared the most out of anything he'd ever seen, he finally saw real in his final moments. The girl from the well; Sadako.

If he was a fan, he would be speechless in a fan-boy way, excited with joy and such. But this was being speechless out of fear, out of not being able to understand how this happened. Or hell, how this is even happening, And to him of all people. The worse part to him, was that he knew how this was going to end. She just had to show that eye of hers, that cold stare, and he would be dead. Game over. The end. He certainly wasn't ready for it. Who could be after all? No one would have expected this. And it was his fault. If he hadn't have been so curious, if he had not followed the basic tropes of a horror movie, he wouldn't have been in this situation right now. But like all curiosities, it killed the cat. And he was one dead feline.

Maybe he had some last wishes? Well that was dumb thinking. Who would even hear it? Maybe he could apologise for all the dumb things he did. But honestly, he hadn't done much in his life that was considered bad or such, so that was no good. As he looked up at the ghost's face, his own as white as her dress, he could tell. She was done with him. The only wish he really had left, was to say farewell to someone he knew, to at least say to them; goodbye.

As this Sadako tilted her head, her her parted from her left eye, showing it completely, it's singular black pupil and it's deathly glare staring right into him, the only thing he knew to do was scream in terror and squint his eyes to somewhat look away from his demise.

….

But...nothing happened?

He slowly opened up his right eye, seeing that this woman was still giving her ghastly look at him. Of course, he was still frightened as all hell. Why the hell wouldn't he be after all? But he was more, well, confused. Cause he wasn't dead. It seemed that Sadako had noticed too, looking as confused as he did. She instead tried again, giving a hard, evil glare.

Nothing.

She was now less confused as she was, and more annoyed, clenching her fists in anger. He would have almost laughed a little bit, if not for the situation at hand. It was clear as day to him but he couldn't get over it. The fact that Sadako couldn't kill him. It was a miracle, but he was still confused on the one reason; why? Why couldn't she kill him? She had no trouble with her other victims and killing them with ease. So why him? Was it his glasses? No of course not, that's now how they work. Maybe cause he closed his eyes? Well not that either, since he did it after he looked at her stare, so that should have killed him immediately. So what the hell was it!?

A sound of electric sizzling caught Toshiro's attention, turning his head to see behind the ghost towering above him. She must have noticed what he was doing and also looked behind. That's when he saw it. The statue that he had thrown HAD hit something after all. The player was crushed under the statue, almost broken in half from the mass of the object, wires poking out of it and sparks cracking from the said wires. But that wasn't the only thing that was broken. The tape itself was completely broken, film rolling out of it, the mylar on it broken in half. As for the TV, it was just static. No well or anything. Just plain static. So with his idiocy, he had destroyed the tape from whence she comes from. But how did that stop her from killing him exactly? Because he destroyed the manifestation of where she...

He had finally understood the madness. He screwed her over. He screwed her over big time. Because she comes from that tape, and that tape helps her in her killing, means that since he destroyed it, she can't use her powers to kill him, and maybe, just maybe...

"She's stuck here..." He mumbled to himself. Sadako was now stuck in the mortal world. She had no object to retreat back to, to way of harnessing her murderous rage for powers, she was just stuck now, somewhat harmless. He began laughing to himself, looking down at his hands in astonishment. "Sadako...is stuck" He found this moment a little too funny though, as he was laughing way harder than he should be, rolling onto his back as he held his stomach. "Sadako, one of the most powerful ghosts, is stuck because of me!" He kept laughing, though it died down slower and slower the more he thought about it.

"Sadako's stuck in my house."

"She's stuck in my house..."

"A ghost's stuck in my house..."

"A..ghost..."

"Stuck..."

"With me..."

"..."

That was when the realisation finally struck him, now once again as ice cold as the Arctic. That a ghost was stuck in his house. That said ghost is right here still. That said ghost he was laughing about, taunting, right in front of her. He slowly turned back to that said spirit, and he honestly wished he had a priest right now. She was looking right at him, staring really, but differently. She looked angry with annoyance, her dark presence feeling much more menacing than before. She was as you'd simply say, pissed. At him. Aggressively furious to say the least. He looked down, eyes wide with that fear again, not like before, but still scared for his life.

"I'm stuck with a ghost..."

[End Chapter 1]

A/N Took a week or two to finally finish this, and it was worth it. To me.
Hopefully this gives a good first impression on what I'm going for with this horror-comedy mix of a series, since I'd think it would be real fun to say the least.

I don't know if I'll continue it like this though. I was thinking of later on doing it like a manga or so, since I'd think it would look better with seeing it that reading it, ya know? Either way, hope this first chapter was enjoyable, and that you're looking forward to what will become of this predicament. ;]

P.S. Alsp I want to apologise for being absent for so long, I've had personal predicaments lately that I've had to been dealing with, so hopefully, you all understand.