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My sister has been missing for two weeks now.
I don’t know what to do anymore; everything feels like sand slipping through my fingers. Almost like the tighter I grasp it, the faster it spills out.
The police took her boyfriend—Ryota—into custody. As far as I know, he hasn’t been charged with anything, and I know he won’t be.
He loved Maya, and Maya loved him.
Besides, now I know the truth.
Though I wish I didn’t.
Yesterday, I started receiving texts from Maya. At first, my heart stopped, and I began crying. All the fear that had been seizing my chest evaporated.
But then I read the texts.
The first one was time-stamped on September 15th, one day after she went missing, but almost two weeks ago. There had to have been a delay in reception. I called her back immediately, but her phone didn’t even ring. All my messages to her were left “unread.”
Her texts kept on coming in, all of them from weeks and days ago. I could read everything she wrote. But it was like nothing I sent her way made it.
I could hear her.
She couldn’t hear me.
I’m just going to put what she wrote here for you to read and judge for yourself what’s going on. If you have any idea what to make of it or how I can help her, please tell me.
Please.
Before I do something stupid.
September 15th
Rie, I need help!
Call me. NOW!
My phone logged five calls from her, but they didn’t come in when the call log said they did. They all rushed in at the same time as the texts.
I’m scared. I’m at Kisaragi Station. I don’t know where that is. Tell Ryota to come get me; he’s not picking up.
Ten more calls from her.
There’s something watching me.
The next text I got from her was time-stamped September 16th.
Rie, why aren’t you answering me!? My phone isn’t going to last much longer; it’s only at ten percent. I’ve been here all night, but nobody is answering me! My phone says it’s been twelve hours, but the sun hasn’t come up yet.
I’m so scared, I don’t know what to do.
I was at a drinking party with my coworkers in Osaka and got, you know, wasted. I think I passed out on the train ride home. When I woke up, I was here at Kisaragi Station. I’ve never heard of this place. I have seen no one yet. There’s not even a road or walkway outside the station. It’s just black all around, like some kind of lake.
I don’t know what to do.
I already checked the internet for Kisaragi Station, but nothing came up. I asked her if she was sure that was the name of the place, but of course, she never replied to my question. It could have been some countryside station way out in the middle of nowhere, but I’m not so sure of that.
I traced every train line that leads out of Osaka, all of them to their last stops. None of them have a Kisaragi. I even looked at where she could have possibly switched over to a different line, though that was unlikely since she’d have to leave the original train and exit that station and enter a new one. If she was near blackout drunk, sure, maybe. I doubt it though; Maya was always the girl who just passed out when she drank. She wasn’t the kind of person to get all crazy and loud and adventurous.
She was the good daughter, the respectable one.
Not like me at all.
The next text was time-stamped on September 20th.
Is this hell?
I think I’ve been here for three days now. Maybe four? The sun isn’t rising, Rie. It’s dark all the time here. I tried to leave the station. There aren’t any exits, so I just walked down the tracks to my right. I had to use my phone’s flashlight because it was pitch black. Funny thing. My phone’s power isn’t going down. Always at ten percent. I’m not even hungry or sleepy. I still even feel a little drunk from the party, but that’s not possible.
I walked down that track for four hours. The whole time it was pure darkness on either side of me. When I pointed my light into it, I saw nothing. No ground. No trees. Just… nothing. I heard things in the dark. Scratching like mice in the walls. I was so scared I almost passed out but kept forcing myself to walk on.
I called you, Rie. Many times. But you never answered me. Do you hate me so much that you’d leave me here? Ryota is also ignoring me. I even called Mom, if you can believe that. I hate her, but I need to hear somebody’s voice….anybody’s.
I heard things, though. Not voices. And not even that scratching sound. After a few hours on the tracks, I heard this, I don’t know, shuffling like something big was moving in some grass I couldn’t see.
I flashed the light into the darkness, and two eyes caught the light and reflected it back to me. Something faded back into the dark. I saw it only for a second. It was like a large person wrapped in a gray sheet, two burning green eyes in an oversized head.
I screamed. Sprinted forward into the nothing. And then I saw light up ahead. I was so happy, and that feeling made me run faster. But when I got to the light, I broke into a sob. It was a light above a signboard that read: KISARAGI STATION. And beyond it, the same station I’ve been stuck in for days.
After lying on the floor of the station for several hours, I tried again. Kept on going down the tracks in the same direction I had chosen. Five hours later, I was back at Kisaragi.
And… I saw it again. That gray thing. But it was closer to me now. It was crawling under the tracks. My light caught its green eyes through the track slats while it was under me, looking up at me. I saw thin fingers wrapped in that sheet like a webbed claw. The sheet was over its face except for its lower jaw. It was a rotted mouth with jagged teeth. I saw a barbed black tongue…
I ran again. And you know what? I didn’t get tired at all. Not tired. Not hungry. Not sleepy. Still tipsy. I ran all the way back to that fucking sign: KISARAGI STATION.
I didn’t cry this time. I laughed, and my voice echoed off the station walls like some kind of squawking bird.
So, what do I do, Rie? You were always the one who knew things. You always knew how to get me out of trouble. Maybe that’s because you were always getting into it. Big Sis, I wish you were here.
I don’t think I’ll try the tracks again. That… thing will be out there. It will get me.
I just know it. It wants me. It’s hunting me. But I don’t think it can inside the station.
I hope.
This is a dream, right? All I need to do is squeeze my eyes shut until I wake up in my bed.
And you’ll be there, won’t you? You’ll keep me safe.
I love you.
Maya.
My hands shook the whole time I read that text. I mean, it sounded like some sick joke, right? But if you knew Maya, you would know she didn’t have an ounce of humor, or even malice, in her.
As hard as it was to accept, I believed her.
Right after reading that last text, I called the police. They told me to come down and show them the texts. I walked down to the station around the corner from my apartment and did just that. The man at the counter hmm’d and oooh’d like he was reading a novel. Said my sister must have quite the imagination. Called his colleagues over and after an hour of waiting, they told me they were calling off the search and letting Ryota go. Said it was obvious she was messing with us.
I caused a scene.
Flipped over the clipboard they handed me, and the papers fluttered around the room. The main cop’s face turned red, and his hands shook like he was going to smack me in the face.
His buddies restrained him while I screamed and cursed at him.
Thankfully, they didn’t charge me with anything.
After that, I called Ryota and told him everything. Sent him screenshots of the texts.
He replied, “Don’t mess with me.”
That was it. Five years of being with my sister came down to those four words. Didn’t hear from him again.
Fuck him.
So, it’s just me. Dad is dead, and Mom is a bitch. I suppose I might have to tell her, eventually.
For now, it’s all on me.
I decided to head out to the station my sister should’ve entered that night going home from the party. Figure out which train she could have gotten on.
My plan?
Well, since Kisaragi didn’t show up on any map, and no attendant I had spoken with knew of it, I was just going to get blackout drunk, take the last train, fall asleep, and see what happened. With luck, I’d end up where Maya was trapped.
I grabbed my jacket and put it on. Was about to fill my bag with food, but if what Maya said was true, I wouldn’t be needing it, so I stopped.
I was about to leave my apartment when my phone chimed.
It was one last text from Maya.
Time-stamped: this morning.
I left the tracks.
It’s been… how long since I came here? Weeks, I know that. No sun. No stars or moon. Too hard to tell time. My phone doesn’t give me dates or times anymore. Rie, yours is the only number I can call or text now. Everything else, all my pictures and apps, erased.
I never described the station to you, did I? It’s got two platforms with two sets of tracks between them. It’s open air with a small overhang over both platforms. There are five lights, with exactly four metal bars wrapped around each one. I’ve had some time on my hands to count. They flicker with yellow light that makes me queasy. It took me days before I noticed the bugs clinging to the bulbs. Like black spiders with wings and blood-red eyes. They’ve never landed on me or bitten me. They just suck on the glass like they’re trying to drink in the light itself.
I ate one yesterday. I told you I wasn’t getting hungry, yeah? That’s all changed. I’m starving now. My bones are aching. I looked at the skin on my arms, and it’s withering away. I don’t feel tipsy anymore, so that’s good. But my phone started dying. It’s at two percent now.
The spider-thing splattered in my mouth. But not before stinging my tongue. It hurt like hell. But I liked it. It was something different. It was a change. I grabbed a handful of them and zipped them up into my purse for later.
Don’t think badly of me. I need them. I need something to change.
That’s why I stepped off the tracks into the darkness.
Did I fall? Am I still falling? It doesn’t feel like that. I can’t see the tracks anymore. Can’t see the station. I can feel the spider-things wriggling in my bag.
They make me drool.
Is that enough for happiness?
I’m in this pool of darkness now. I move my feet to walk but don’t feel anything. Yet, it does seem that I move.
I had forgotten about my Gray Friend. The bandaged thing with green eyes and a barbed tongue. Weeks had passed with no trace of him, enough to make me forget what could be out here. But he’s out here somewhere; I can feel him.
That shuffling through grass sound is out there, like the breaking of ocean waves. Do you remember, Big Sis, that one time we camped out on the beach in Chiba? You were teasing me for being afraid of the dark, and I started crying. You felt bad and wrapped your arms around me as we stared up at the stars.
You sang me to sleep.
I’m humming that song right now. Never could remember its name.
I’m still afraid of the dark.
It’s moving.
I hear it swimming through the black.
Sniffing me out.
It’ll get me.
Big Sis.
I love you. My phone is about to die. I hear it close now. I lov—
I collapsed in my kitchen, clutching my phone to my chest, sobbing. I stayed like that all night. Didn’t sleep a single wink.
When the morning light filtered through my living room window, I got to my feet. Grabbed my backpack. Filled it with water and food this time. And a large butcher’s knife. And my pepper spray. Who knows if it will help me.
My phone rang. It was Maya.
I answered it. Screaming her name.
There was a raspy breathing on the other end. Something humming that song I used to sing to her. But it wasn’t her voice. It was something old and foul and cruel.
It hung up on me. I think I heard a laugh.
I can’t leave her there in the dark.
I’m coming, Maya.
I won’t leave you there.
If anyone knows anything, respond to this post within the next six hours. After that, I have a funny feeling I’ll be able to respond to you.
But I won’t be able to read what you send.