Japanese ghost stories

Sakurako The Cat

   Touko's father came home after work. He saw no traces of Touko but heard cat's meowing from her room. Touko didn't realised her father was home already as she was too absorbed playing with the cat. The house was cold and cheerless since Touko's mother passed away a year ago.

   Ever since losing her mother, Touko seldom talked but stared at the ciling with a blank mind all the time. Touko's father didn't want her to shut herself out of the world, so he bought a cat to keep her company, hoping it would revive her. Touko name her cat Sakurako. The cat's companion did make her a little happier. 

   Touko's life was now all about Sakurako that she had forgotten about her father. Her father was unhappy about it and even stared to hate Sakurako.

   One night at two'o clock,  Touko's father woke up because he felt thirsty. Sakurako was walking out of the kitchen when Touko's father was going in to get a drink of water. Sakurako meowed loundly at its master, making him furious. Touko's father gave the cat a kick and it dead on the spot. Touko's father got paniked. His relationship with Touko had been vary  cold these days, and things would be even worse if Touko  found out that he killed the cat. So he secretly hid Sakurako's body in the underground storeroom.

   The next morning, he went to work as if nothing happened. He felt heavy on one side of his shoulder since morning. After work, h didn't join his colleuages for dinner, as he had rush home and deal with the dead cat. Discarding it into a cartoon, he dumped it in the wood nearby. This was when his heavy shoulder when aching.

   He reahed home when it was almost midnight. Touko welcomed her father homewith a broad smile. Her father felt relieved, for he thought Touko was as happy as she was in the old days again. He asked Touko the reason why she looked so happy. 

   " I thought Sakurako had run away. I was so worried just now. " " Ye-Yeah, it run away. " " Stop kidding, dad. Isn't that Sakurako sitting on your shoulder? Haha! "

   On my shoulder? Sakurako? Touko's words sent chills down her father spines- that's why he'd been surffering from an aching shoulder?