Nanae Kitamoto had a younger brother.
They were not particularly close, but he was definitely the only sibling she had.
After graduating from college, Nanae became an office worker at a printing company.
Her days were filled with work. Her body became exhausted.
Her boyfriend laughed at her, saying that she had thick dark circles under her eyes.
While her classmates were getting married and having babies, she felt as if she was the only one left behind.
Overtime was the norm, and her new boss was unreasonable and yelled at her. The stress made her lose weight.
One day, she felt so sick that she went home from work.
She found her boyfriend who was supposed to be at work. And he was naked with a woman she didn’t know.
Nanae did not go crazy. She was calmly holding a kitchen knife in her hand.
She looked down at the sleeping man and woman who looked so comfortable.
When she came to, her hands were covered in blood.
She had a terrible headache and couldn’t scream. She just sobbed.
She called her brother. She couldn’t tell her parents. Of course, she couldn’t tell her friends either.
The only person she could rely on in a situation like this was her brother.
“Nee-chan, can you come over here now?”
She hadn’t heard from him in two years.
Nanae was surprised, thinking that she would be asked to go to the police.
But if she was going to get caught, she thought, she might as well meet her brother first.
She washed herself carefully in the shower and hurried out of the house.
She was still in bad shape. She boarded the bullet train.
“I’m in a place called Kukuashi Village…”
She was told that her brother was in a small village in the mountains.
In her sleep, Nanae kept repeating her brother’s voice.
“The village is a mysterious place…It’s like a tunnel between this world and the next. Before you go to the police, you should ask a teacher there to help you with the wisdom of your ancestors.”
It was a fishy story.
I wonder if my brother had fallen into some kind of new religion.
Even if so, I felt like I had to meet him.
“I can’t do it! I can’t, it’s impossible!”
“No, this is just the beginning.”
Mia, who was clinging to me, pressed her face against my shoulder.
It’s only fifteen minutes into the movie, and the main character, Nanae, is about to go to Kukuashi Village and have a number of horrific experiences.
“No….I can’t take the atmosphere anymore!”
Mia snorts with her face against my shoulder.
After fifteen minutes of watching, almost hugging me, Mia finally let out a weak cry.
Eda, who was sitting upright and watching, said.
“Look, she’s at the village.”
“Uugh… Aren’t you scared, Fukiko?”
“It’s not a scary scene yet. Even the scene where she kills her unfaithful lover was edited very well.”
That’s right.
The Channel movies, are not the type of movies that scare its viewers with blood and bizarre murders.
It’s a movie that shows the horrors of grudges and curses.
“Heey, let’s turn on the lights….”
Eda had turned off the lights in the Japanese-style room, hoping to create an atmosphere.
So in the dark, the three of us stood side by side, our eyes fixed on the TV.
Mia was on my right and Eda was sitting on my left.
“Eda….Let’s stop now.”
“Ara, Okutani-kun, you’re so kind.”
Even as she said this, Eda turned on the lights in the room.
The room was brightly lit. Eda pressed the stop button on the remote control.
“I stopped it….”
“Yeah…”
Mia nodded and pulled her face away from my shoulder.
She looked at the darkened TV and made a pained face.
“I need to use the bathroom…”
“Go ahead.”
Eda sits upright again.
Mia silently appealed to Eda.
“It’s at the end of the hallway.”
“I, I know…..Come with me.”
Eda let out a big sigh and stood up, probably regretting showing Mia the horror movie.
Mia also stood up and immediately clung to Eda.
Then they both left for the bathroom together.
“S, stay there, okay!?”
“I’m here.”
“Are you there?”
“I’m here.”
“Hey, Fukiko?”
“I said, I’m here.”
I heard such an exchange from the back of the corridor.
When Eda came back, she looked somewhat tired.
When Mia pulled away from Eda, she clung to me.
“You’re pretty scared.”
“Looks like it.”
I agreed with Eda’s words as I stroked Mia’s head.
As she pressed her face against my chest, Mia spoke up.
“I’m sorry. I know you two wanted to see it……”
At these words, Eda and I looked at each other.
Apparently, Mia thought that Eda and I wanted to see it.
That’s why she put up with it, even if she wasn’t very good with it.
“I’m going to sleep….”
“Ah, yeah.”
It was too early to go to bed.
But Mia looked up and stood.
Then she grabbed my hand and forced me to stand up.
“Koumei, stay by my side until I fall asleep.”
I opened the sliding door and walked into the room with Mia.
Mia crawled under the covers without closing the sliding door.
It seemed that she preferred to have a little light.
I lay down next to her.
“I’ll borrow your book.”
I told her, and started reading my book where Eda could see me.
It wasn’t long before Mia was asleep, clinging to me.
“She looked sleepy even before the movie….”
“Right.”
I left the sleeping Mia and went back to Eda’s room.
I made sure that Mia was asleep before closing the sliding door.
Mia’s face was defenseless as she slept, and she was breathing regularly.
I closed the book and put it on the table, and Eda looked at me.
“Hey.”
“Yeah….”
We both wanted to say the same thing.
We were both curious about the rest of the story.
I turned off the light, and Eda pressed the play button.
