The Charcoal Diary

This village... Is haunted. I can't even believe we're sitting in this
house.

Mayu and I headed down the eastside path from the hill. As we passed the
spot where we found the bag, a vague figure of a woman flitted before
us, entering a door to a house just to the left of us. Its name block in
the door frame read Osaka. At first, we thought that the fog had just
blurred our site, reasoning that with why she seemed so hazy.

We knew instantly it was that woman from the photograph, Sudo. We walked
closer to the door, a high lattice window to the left of the door
suddenly seemed as if someone with some sort of light passed it through
the inside. Mayu question if someone was in there.

This place is haunted. I should've realized then, as we stood staring at
that Osaka door. I thought Mayu put her hand on my shoulder... I put my
hand upon hers, but then, Mayu walked passed me, both hands at her side.
As Mayu passed me, I turned around, but the hand was gone.

"Are you leaving me again?" the words sent a chill down my spine. Mayu
didn't say them... No one was there but us. Atleast, I wanted to believe
that and associate that hand to just being scared.

But no...

Mayu paused infront of the door, leaving me room to go and open it. My
hand was shaking so bad as I grasped the handle. I guess this village
was torn between traditional and modern. The door is a turn knob, like
the one's we have in our houses. Shouldn't I have been opening a sliding
gate or shoji screened door? The house does have sliding doors, but only
one.

As I turned the knob, I felt the lock buckle from the mechanism. The
door opened to the inside. As I opened the door more and more, I felt
the cold air rush out. I figure a house as seemingly old as this that is
empty gets cold from lack of repair and life. That, or ghosts... But
that's silly, right?

I can't understand what's happening.

As Mayu and I were fully entered into the entryway I shut the door. We
walked a few steps and nearly fell over as we jumped from that vague
woman appearing for an instant behind the lattice wall to the left of
the front door. She was gone as quick as she came, I just wish I
could've blamed how she was there and gone to us being too hopeful to
find Makimura and Sudo. I really wish I could.

As our hearts pounded, Mayu and I just held each other. Our eyes
searched the place where she stood. My eyes finally caught sight of the
house door. I took a deep breath and as I held on to Mayu's hand, I
opened the house door.

The door creaked and let an ever rush of cold air pass us, or rather it
felt like it was going through us. It's shoji screens are tattered and
torn, yellowing from age. The floors creak with each step. At first
glance, I made out a fireplace in the center of the main room. Besides
where we stood and a corridor leading far back on the right, the rest of
the room was raised up. Still, the fireplace had sunken into its base,
and beams of wood were falling down from above it.

Oddly, candle's were lit. In a house so old, why were the candle's lit?
I wish I didn't know.

I made out a large sliding screen door behind the fireplace, a set of
stairs to the left leading up to perhaps a second level. That corridor I
mentioned and that room with the lattice walls on the left side of the
entryway.

I made a few steps in, but I didn't hear Mayu walk. I turned around and
she was just shaking uncontrollably, her hands grasped infront of her. I
reached out to her to see if she was okay. As I touched her a rush of
flashing images swirled in my head and I began to pull away but Mayu
held onto me.

"Masumi!" a voice called out. It was the woman from the picture. Blue
skirt and white top with straight black hair to her shoulderblades. She
carried a flashlight, the bag that Mio now wore wrapped around her,
resting on her side.

"Where are you?!" she cried, seemingly lost in this house just like they
were about to be.

Suddenly, I was as if I was her, looking through her eyes. "Masumi..."
She begged again, but it sounded different, as if she had to gasp to get
a single word out, "Where did you go?". To twins in violet kimono's
suddenly hung from nooses in a hallway that was not the one she was just
in but she continued on. In an instant, the hallway returned to normal
and the twins were gone.I noticed that she stumbled as the flashlight
jutted around, never steady. Still, the unsteady light made out a figure
of a man in white. She was walking down the corridor of this house. It
turned, seemingly going to a backroom. She just followed this man into
the room.

As the woman, entered the room, the man she was following had his back
turned. In a twisted second, the man twitched and the candles blew out.

"I don't want to kill anymore..." A voice echoed out.

I returned to my own point of view, now as myself not looking through
her eyes. The woman screamed as the man came upon her, his hands
stretched out. She was weak and couldn't hold him back. His hands
wrapped around her think neck, crushing her windpipe and killing her
screams. She seemed to gasp for air as she fell down, the man still at
her neck.

Manic laughing suddenly started, the scene now a young girl, our age?
Stood in a white kimono, a white obi, but a strange obiage (the cord
that holds the obi up). It was very thick, a red cord, but tied at the
side not in with the obi knot in the back. It was long and dragged on
the floor. Still, the front of that kimono dripped with blood, and she
just laughed.

"Why!" the raspy voice of the woman pleaded again, the sight of the
choking woman came back. The man over her with bone cutting gashes all
across his body and face, blood running out.

Then, it was gone. I let go of Mayu, both of us were wide eyed. She
didn't know what it was and either did I. I grabbed Mayu and walked onto
the raised floor. I had seen a lantern in that lattice room. I shuffled
us to the door and opened it, walking in.

It seemed like it was used for storage. Kimono and boxes everywhere. The
room felt odd, like we we're being watched, but it went away. Mayu sat
down on the floor by the lantern and rested her head on it. I think
whatever she projected to me took a lot out of her. I'm sitting on some
kind of desk.

We haven't even searched the house and we're scared. This place is
haunted. I know it.