Shrouded in Mystery

Shadow of a Doubt

"Hello, Miss! Are you lost?"

Yashiro let out a noise that sounded an awful lot like a squeak, much to her own embarrassment. She really hadn't expected anyone to initiate a conversation with her. After all, who would care enough to do so? Who would bother themselves with an average-looking girl with larger-than-average, daikon-like, ankles?

This girl would, apparently. The stranger had deep purple hair tied up in ribbons, with her violet eyes matching that hue.

Suddenly, Yashiro felt hideous compared to the other girl. Hideous and incredibly self-conscious.

I wasn't even pretty before, but standing next to her, I look 10 times uglier!

"Um— hello! I didn't notice you there," stammered Yashiro nervously. She tucked a strand of her behind her hair, re-adjusted the skull hair barrette that sat within the cream-colored locks. "I'm not lost, or at least I don't think I am..."

Yashiro removed her gaze from the pretty girl's face and shifted it to what was in front of her. A large, nondescript, modern-styled building. She had seen multiple that had looked similar to this one, but judging on the address she was given, this specific building was the correct one.

"Oh, alright, then. My name's Aoi, it's nice to meet you!" the girl—Aoi—extended her hand in a warm greeting. Yashiro shook it gratefully, glad that Aoi had better conversation skills.

"Likewise. I'm Yashiro Nene," she introduced herself as confidently as she could manage. "I don't mean to bother you, but are these—" Yashiro fumbled around with a half-crumpled post-it note, trying to make sense of the letters scrawled on it hastily. "—Kamome apartments?"

Aoi nodded and smiled. "Yep! I work as a receptionist here, actually."

Yashiro sighed in relief.

Well, that's good! At least I know one person, now!

And then, she caught sight of the hundreds of windows on the face of the building and felt a fit of dread open up in her stomach.

But that's just one person out of the many.

Her mood seemed to do another drastic switch, shifting to a more hopeful perspective.

But statistically speaking, out of all those people, there has to be at least one hot guy!

A hot, kind, rich, guy. I can just imagine it...

Yashiro felt a little guilty for being so boy-crazy. But, what could she do? She was already 18 years old— a legal adult. Yet, she hadn't found success in love. Not even once.

Oh, how Yashiro longed to have what heroines in a romance novel had.

But frankly, she was getting tired of being the one to do all the yearning. Couldn't somebody yearn after her, for once?

As if that could ever happen.

Aoi led her inside the building, making delightful and meaningless smalltalk the entire way. Yashiro had mostly been tuning her out, instead choosing to continue fantasizing about the man of her dreams. It was a little bit rude, but Yashiro wasn't exactly the self-aware type.

"—but yeah, I guess that can be a little bit of a nuisance, at times. Some people get scared away at the mere idea of ghosts!"

Yashiro was immediately snapped out of her reverie, albeit a little unwillingly.

"Ghosts?"

"Yeah! Have you heard all the rumors around here?" Aoi lowered her voice until it was barely a whisper. "They say these apartments are haunted by seven apparitions: the seven mysteries."

Yashiro's eyes widened in shock. "Haunted? These are—" She felt sweat begin to form on her forehead. "These are just rumors, though. Right?"

Aoi smiled— a cryptic and vague gesture, really— and patted Yashiro on the shoulder. "I don't think it's my place to say. I mean, I'm not saying that you should be scared, or anything. But..." Her voice trailed off temporarily. "Maybe be a little more aware of your surroundings."

Yashiro gulped, her steps growing more and more hesitant.

That can't be right. Ghosts aren't real, they can't be real! These are all just silly rumors. Aoi's probably just joking.

But there was another voice, deep inside her head that was telling her that perhaps Aoi's rumors weren't completely fictional.

"Right... I'll remember that," Yashiro said. Her suitcase suddenly felt 1,000 pounds heavier than it did before. An eerie sense of dread was creeping up on her, threatening to close in and compromise her mind completely.

"Mhmm. Now, about the issue of rooms—" Aoi approached the large desk (which most likely belonged to her) in the middle of the room. She disappeared underneath the desk for some time before returning to Yashiro, this time with a small key in hand.

"There— room number 44. It's the only one available, right now," Aoi informed, placing the key in Yashiro's hand. "From what I've been told, the rent in that room is a lot cheaper than usual."

Yashiro closed her fist around the key and furrowed her eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah... it might have something to do with strange occurrences people have been reporting in the bathroom suite," Aoi explained. "But, I'm sure it's nothing!"

Yashiro nodded tentatively. "Right... nothing at all."

Yashiro was pleasantly surprised. To be fair, she really didn't know what to expect. Although, she did have a loose image in mind as to what room number 44 would look like. It wasn't a pretty one.

The room was fine. There weren't satanic symbols etched upon the walls, the carpets weren't stained with crimson— in fact, the view from the window was actually quite nice.

However, there was one thing Yashiro was a little skeptical of:

The bathroom.

From what Aoi had told her so far about the supposed existence of supernaturals around Kamome Apartments and the testimonies of room 44's previous habitants, Yashiro had more than just a little bit of reasonable doubt.

The bathroom door opened with a creak. Yashiro quickly moved her right hand to flip the light switch— dealing with a vengeful spirit was difficult, nevermind dealing with a vengeful spirit in complete darkness.

And...

Nothing. Nothing happened.

Nothing of note, anyway.

The only thing that could even be considered remotely frightening about the experience was how frizzy Yashiro noticed her hair was after looking in the mirror.

So, naturally, Yashiro assumed that the rumor was false.

...

Big mistake.