Curse Revisited

The Haunting

We were about to begin the fight for our lives. Haru and I attended class the following morning, but our exhaustion was evident to our fellow classmates and to our professor; so all eyes were on us as we made our way into the lecture hall. Since I ran from my apartment in the middle of the night, I was wearing the same outfit I wore the previous day, and I was limping with each step I took because of my injuries.

Haru and I sat in our usual seats and the professor raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything. Thank goodness today was review day for our exams.

However, myself and Haru were still on edge from our near death experience last night. With trembling hands, I fished for my notebook and pencil to take notes to aid in my reviewing for the test. Kayako's death rattle was still plaguing my mind as I tried with all my might to concentrate on my notes. I could almost feel the cold breath of death creeping down my neck.

Crooooaaaaakkkkk...

I wasn't imagining it this time, I was actually hearing Kayako right behind me. My senses were invaded with the stench of death. Something itched my skin, and I thought it was just a tag on my sweater I forgot to take off, but when I reached down the back of my shirt to investigate, I pulled out a fistfull of black tangled hair! My heart painfully beating against my ribs, I turned around to see Kayako staring at me. Her lifeless black eyes bore into my soul and her cold breath was in my face, "Crrrooooaaaakkkk!"

I couldn't get up and run or else I'd look insane. Haru was dealing with the same thing as me, and it turns out, he was. Kayako's pale hand was inching its way across my face, while her other hand reached across Haru's. His brown eyes were wide with absolute fear and he was fighting the urge to scream.

Suddenly, Kayako was grabbing my jaw and squeezing it painfully. I was suddenly reminded of when the class talked about her and how she killed people, she ripped her victim's jaws off. That's what she was about to do to me.

"James, what's the matter?" the professor asked me. It was a custom in Japanese culture to refer to an individual by their last name. I couldn't answer, Kayako's hand was across my mouth, suffocating me. I slammed my hand on the table to let him know that something was wrong.

Everyone was staring. Haru was close to losing consciousness and then we both passed out. Our heads hitting the desk as we fell. "Someone call an ambulance!"one of the students shouted. "It looked like they were being choked." someone else observed.

While Haru and I were unconscious, the professor rode with us in the ambulance to the hospital. He noticed both of us had finger-like bruises on our necks and put two and two together... Little did we know that he knew about our encounter with Kayako and Toshio, and would do all he could to save us from the Ju-On curse.

I woke up in a hospital bed all by myself. In fact, it was not that I was injured that frightened me, it was the fact that I was alone that did. When I realized I was alone, I began to cry like a child. Almost unable to see through my tears as I cried, I began to scream. "Haru?" I needed to know that my best friend was okay. I needed to know if he was alive.

The professor was sitting in a chair near the window of my hospital room, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that I woke up. "Thank goodness you're alright, James, I thought she killed you and Kaneko."
"What?"