Hauntings

CHAPTER 6

I'm watching the news when Grandma comes into the living room. "Oh, look," she says, seeing stories of political tension, violence, and death, "the news is as cheerful as ever."

Now, I know laughing while watching that kind of news is a bad idea, but I just can't help it. Shou, who's sitting next to me, starts laughing too.

Grandma smiles at us, and continues re-arranging some things. "It's good to see you here, Shou," she remarks. "Ayame has told me so much about you over the years."

He grins awkwardly, and mutters, "It's good to be back here" before turning his attention back to the TV. Judo club was cancelled for the week, as they need the gym for a tournament that's coming up. Shou isn't in the match, so he took advantage of that to walk back home with me today.

"When was the last time we went home together after school?" He asked.

"I don't know...sixth grade, maybe?" Even then, we'd been quite busy with sports practice and homework.

"Still, it's nice to walk together like this," he said, stretching.

Now, we're relaxing in the living room, pretending like homework doesn't exist, though we've found it easier to finish things when we do it together.

Shou's dark circles look worse when I see them up close, and his lips and nails have been bitten so badly they look like they could bleed any moment. Whatever part of his visible body that's not pale is bright red. He keeps looking down at his feet if not at the television, as though he's ashamed of something. When he thinks I'm not looking, he opens his mouth as if to say something, but shuts it quickly.

"Hey, Shou...is something wrong?" Honestly, we both seem like we're in trouble, if Hiroshi was right about me dying in a year.

"What?" He stares at me blankly for a couple of seconds, before he processes what I've just said, then shakes his head. "No, no, nothing's wrong."

I narrow my eyes. "Are you sure?"

I like to think that I have a piercing gaze that scares people, but I don't want to use it on Shou (if this gaze even exists; Satoshi isn't convinced). But he probably thinks I'm using it anyway, because his face goes even paler.

"Hey, hey, you don't need to force yourself to tell me," I say, backing off a little. "It's just...you've been looking a little...out of it, as they say in English. You haven't been looking very well, that's why I was wondering if anything was wrong. Of course, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Just what I needed, another round of rambling.

I must have looked the same way Shou does now, when I found out about my possible death in a year. I don't remember anything that happened the rest of that day. I must have been in some daze of horror, as Kenta commented that I looked like I had seen a ghost. I actually had seen multiple ghosts, but obviously, that wasn't what I was horrified at.

By the time I reached home, I'd recovered from the shock, and now my heart was beating at a much faster rate than usual. I could feel my vision tunneling as I entered my room, and it took all my efforts to make it to the bed.

"Ayame?" Hiroshi sounded quite concerned. "Is everything okay?"

"What do you mean, is everything okay?" I wailed into my pillow. "You've just told me I might die in a year!"

"Well, you will, unless we break the curse." His voice was quite matter-of-fact. Since he's already dead, I suppose it's not a big deal to him.

"How can we do that when I don't even know what you did?"