Hikiko

Number Two ~ 二 ~

''I don't know.'' Satoru whispered, looking around. ''I've never been to a girl's toilet before.'' He chuckled lowly, stepping inside carefully as if there were wild beasts hiding inside. Well.

''Really?'' I asked. ''Not even with...''

''No.'' He was quick to respond.

''One...two...three...''I counted the stalls. ''We should do it at the third stall.'' I said and touched the door. Usually, the doors were not locked but when I pushed it with my hand it remained still, as if it was locked. I frowned and felt for the lock, turning it but the door did not move.

''We have to open it?'' He asked nervously.

''No. But it should not be locked, right?''

''I don't know...''

I turned the handle once more and that was when we heard the sound. It sounded like someone bumped into the door from inside the stall with the entire force of their body. I screamed and jumped up, my back landing right onto Satoru's chest. He swallowed and squeezed my hand, looking around.

''Here.'' He grabbed the first thing that could serve as a defense weapon – a broom – and said ''We know you're in there. Come out...We won't hurt you...we just want to negotiate.''

''Do you think-''

''Sh-'' He told me. He was quite certain that we were talking to Hikiko. But, somehow, I knew that we were not. The thought of talking to her seemed ludacris to me. Why would an evil spirit negotiate with us humans? I agreed to the terms and conditions of this curse the moment I dialled that number. This was as clear as a summer day. So, what on earth were we trying to do? Get the two of us killed as well?

''I think we should go...'' I said, hearing a strange sound come from the stall. It sounded like a child choking on something and scratching on the wooden door.

''Satoru...Let's go...'' I said, gritting my teeth at the sound. There was a need inside of me to cry but I stopped it, not wanting to look like an idiot in front of Satoru.

''Hikiko...''

Suddenly, someone bumped into the door as hard as they could again and it broke. Hikiko fell down to the floor with it and I screamed. Really, what were we doing? I looked at the creature, entirely wet, her body as thin as if she did not weight any more than twenty kilogrammes, her hands long and thin like chopsticks and her face...Oh her face was horrid. It was cut multiple times and I could see the flesh, opening and closing as she tried crawling towards us, letting out those horrendous sounds.

''Satoru, let's go!!'' I screamed and he nodded, throwing the broom at her. She made no sound at that and instead, managed to stand up on her two feet in order to follow us. We ran, down the stairs, bewildered with fear, but what waited for us downstairs was way out of what we expected. It was Ami, staring at us with a puzzled face expression.

''Why did you two call me? Don't you know it's A-Aoi's funeral today.'' She asked, wiping her eyes with the tissue she was holding.

''We did not call you, let's go!'' Satoru yelled and reached to grab Ami's hand so that we could escape together but I knew it was late.

Hikiko was holding my hand.

Ami screamed. I did not dare to move and Satoru stared at us, his face almost as white as snow. I could not bear looking at the girl that stared at its second victim. Number two. Ami. She squeezed my hand and looked up at me. I could hear her neck crack as she moved those joints.

She did not ask me anything but somewhere in my mind, I gave her an unwilling permission. A part of me wanted to scream and jump at the spirit before she harmed anyone but I could not move. She let go of me and started walking towards Ami who hid behind Satoru, screaming about what was going on.

Satoru hurled himself on Hikiko but ended up being tossed at the next wall. Finally, I screamed and ran after him, helping him get up. Ami did not matter. I did not care about her, I cared about Satoru.  As he got up, he muttered 'Ami' and I remembered her and her horrified face as she saw the creature.

This was wrong. I knew it was and I wanted to help. Suddenly, I silenced this little voice in my head, at least for the time being, I looked around searching for any kind of weapon to protect Ami. Before we could do anything, however, there was an awful sound of tearing and screaming...And I knew it was over.

I turned around and saw Hikiko, dragging Ami upstairs with her body almost torn in half on her waistline. My stomach did a backflip and I spun around, throwing up on the floor. I saw Satoru sliding down the wall in shock as he watched another one of our classmates getting killed by a creature I summoned.

It was all my fault.