𝙻𝚘𝚠 𝙻𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜

Chapter 6: Lady in White Gown

I am Hiroshi, and my sister is Aiko. We live with our parents in Hokkaido, Japan. My cousin, Takashi, lives in America. He came to visit us after a long time during last winter.

A very cold winter had already frozen everything. Hokkaido is a very beautiful place. Usually, there are many great ways to enjoy winter in Hokkaido, from skiing to snowmobiling and soaking in a steamy outdoor hot spring bath, etc.

It was about one evening when Takashi accepted the dare from my sister Akio to go to that abandoned house on the riverside without even knowing about the story behind it. People used to say the house was cursed.

We had to visit the house because of Akio's dare. In this very cold, dark night, when no one even dared to drive this way, even in the bright sunlight, my cousin was about to enter the house. and me and Akio were waiting outside, a bit closer to the river.

As soon as he stepped into the house, he realised that it was a bad idea to accept the dare. "How does it look from inside? I wonder, It's a broken old house." He thought it was just like any other broken house before stepping inside.

My cousin's condition got pretty bad after entering the house. Although he told us that he doesn't believe in ghosts, doesn't fear graveyards, and doesn't care for dead bodies, that's why he broke into the house for a dare on this spooky Halloween.

But this house was far beyond his imagination. The doors and windows of the house were sagging; moss and small trees had grown in the cracks of the wall; the path from the gate to the front door was full of weeds; and two tall trees on both sides of the ground had darkened the sky overhead. It's very quiet. There was no sound around, but a musty smell was coming to the nose. He lit a candle and started walking towards the front door. His eyes kept moving towards the broken window on the second floor. It seemed that someone had suddenly moved away from the front of the window. He had to open the front door with a hard push.

The entrance of the house was a large, empty hall, yawning in the shade. Takashi's shadow was moving on the wall in the light of the candle. He quickly crossed the hall and took the stairs to the second floor. There was a large balcony with broken railings and a few rooms whose doors were half open. There was nothing else except a broken table, surrounded by white stone statues; a couple of huge, broken, ornately made rugs; and a large mirror.

Takashi finally had a sigh of relief when he saw the lights of our car flashing outside from the second floor.

He was scared, but stubborn Takashi wouldn't accept the truth. Maybe because if he does, he will get a hard kick from Akio.

He was standing on the balcony and kept looking at his watch. As per the dare, he had to spend 30 minutes in the house.

After 20 minutes...

Takashi started to get bored. He had his phone, but he couldn't use it as per the rules of the dare. The place was not clean, and there was a bad smell everywhere. It was already making him feel sick. The house had gotten a thick layer of dust. and a black, fat wire with some kind of sticky substance hanging at the upper corner of the stairs. Takashi was standing in the same spot for at least 20 minutes.

But standing only in one place will not work for him. He wanted to describe each room of the house to my sister, so he started to move and view them all one by one. Almost all the doors of the houses were open. It was completely empty, grey with dust. A couple of broken cupboards and a few pieces of wallpaper were hanging on the wall.

Looking at the ceiling, there were big hooks for hanging lights. After viewing all the rooms. Now, Takashi was about to leave the house when he heard someone's footsteps from behind. He turned around immediately and saw a beautiful lady in a white gown standing next to him. What a good look: a fair face, curled hair, and piercing eyes. Takashi was surprised and stunned. Before Takashi got into his senses, the lady raised her hand and said, "I have been waiting for you for decades. Now give me the hug I deserve. When will you come to my arms?"

Takashi couldn't control or move his body. The lady slowly came closer and hugged him. Takashi's body started to get freezing cold with the embrace of the lady, and he was already feeling uncomfortable by now.

After hugging him, the lady said, "Here, I bless you, my love. Thanks for coming back. I wish you lived for a hundred years more." She then gave him a white ring and vanished into the air. Takashi fainted right after the incident. When me and Akio saw that 30 minutes have already passed, we went inside the house and carried Takashi out. My sister was so scared and worried that she even forgot about the dare. When Takashi woke up after I split some water on his face, he was all scared, yet he told us everything right away, and the white ring was found on Takashi's right index finger. He never wore that ring. He gave it to Akio before leaving Japan. We still don't know who the lady in that riverside house was; it's a mystery that hasn't been solved till today....
________

~ Will see you in the next story ~