Don't Turn Around

After having had sushi with her friends, Nami went home and straight to her room. It was late and she needed to get started on her homework. Her parents had left for a late dinner shortly after she had come home, leaving Nami all alone in a disturbingly dark house. The only light to be found was coming from her small desktop lamp.

“I don’t get this at all,” said Nami, thumbing through her textbook. “Why do we have to learn this stuff anyway? We’re never going to use it.”

Nami’s cell phone began ringing. “Hello,” she answered.

“Nami, it’s me,” said Sayuri.

“Oh, Sayuri-chan. What’s up? Need help on your homework?”

“I . . . I was thinking about what you told me at school today. When you asked me about ghosts. We didn’t get the chance to talk.”

“Forget about that,” said Nami. “I was just feeling a little stressed. With everything that’s happened recently . . . my mind was starting to play tricks on me.”

“No, Nami, listen.”

“It’s okay. Let’s not talk about this anymore. I just want to move on.”

“But . . .”

“Hey, you want to go to the game center tomorrow? I know Hana might be mad at you, but I’ll talk to her. I think she’s just in one of her moods.”

“Nami, please listen to me.”

Even through her cell phone, Sayuri could hear distinctly the sound of footsteps on the other end of the line. Nami had a wood floor, which made it easy to hear when someone was walking across the room.

“Nami, is someone there with you?” asked Sayuri.

As well as Sayuri had heard the footsteps, they were far more noticeable to Nami.

“Hey, Nami-chan,” said a girl’s voice that was deathly familiar to her. This was followed by a hand coming to a rest on her shoulder. “Don’t turn around.”

Sayuri had heard what had been said on her cell phone. And the next thing she heard was a scream that sent a chill down her spine.

“Nami-chan!” screamed Sayuri. “Nami-chan!”

The next day, Detectives Yamamoto and Tamaki paid another visit to the school. They were met with even more defiance when they interviewed Hana.

“Another girl from your school has met her fate,” said Yamamoto. He then took a long drag on his cigarette as Hana burned her glare into him.

Tamaki opened a window to allow the smoke to escape. “I don’t know if you should be referring to her death in that way,” he said.

“If things keep going this way, you won’t have any friends left.”

“I already told you,” said Hana. “Shizuko wasn’t my friend.”

“No, but Nami was. And now she’s dead. That can’t be a coincidence. Maybe a guilty conscious left her with no other choice. Or maybe . . . someone was trying to keep her quiet because of the information she had.”

“Just come out and say it,” said Hana. “You think I had something to do with this, too. You have some nerve. One of my best friends is dead, and you’re pointing the finger at me.” Though she was acting as if she was the victim, Hana’s acting skills were less than impressive. It was easy to tell that she was far from disheartened over what had happened to Nami than she was letting on.

“Then why is she dead? It doesn’t make sense. Her death has to have something to do with what happened to that Shizuko girl.”

“It didn’t,” said Hana, her demeanor calmed. “It had nothing to do with it.”

“How do you figure?” asked Tamaki.

“Nami was having an affair with a married man,” said Hana.

The usually talkative Yamamoto was at a rare loss for words after hearing something so shocking about a high school girl.

“He said he was going to leave his wife and take her away,” explained Hana. “But he lied. He said he didn’t want to shame his wife’s family, so he had to stay with her. I guess Nami couldn’t take it. And that’s why she killed herself.”

Yamamoto and Tamaki looked at one another as if hoping the other had something to say in response to what they had just been told.

When the interview was over, Hana left the cramped office that was becoming far too familiar for her liking.

“Do you believe her story about the affair?” asked Tamaki.

“Who knows,” said Yamamoto, lighting up another cigarette. “These days, anything is possible. But I know that girl didn’t commit suicide.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because when they found her body, most of her bones were broken. It was as if she had jumped off the roof of her house. But they found her slumped over her desk. That hardly seems like a long enough fall to cause such injuries.”

“I heard one of the girl’s friends was the one who found her.”

“She claims she called her and didn’t get an answer, so she went to her house and that’s when she found her. But when we checked the dead girl’s phone, we found that the two had been talking before we got the call about the death.”

“So she was lying. Do you think she had something to do with the murder?”

“Who’s to say this was a murder?” asked Yamamoto. “That girl was hiding something, but I know she had nothing to do with this.”

“Are we going to question her again?”

“There’s no need. She won’t have the answers we’re looking for.”

“How can you be so sure?” asked Tamaki.

“Call it a gut feeling, but I think the truth will come out with time.”

“Will I ever become as cavalier as you?”

Yamamoto began laughing. “It’s called ‘detective’s intuition’. And you still have a long way to go before you learn.”

On her way home from school, Hana received a call from Aika. The news of Nami’s passing was too much for her to bear, so she skipped school. “Hello,” answered Hana.

“Um, I was thinking I would go see Sayuri to check on how she’s doing,” said Aika. “She hasn’t been answering her phone.”

“I have a lot to do,” replied Hana. “I won’t be able to go with you.”

“Did you hear . . . about Sayuri being the one who found Nami’s body? I can only imagine how she must have felt having seen that.”

“Maybe she’s the one who killed her.”

“You shouldn’t say things like that.”

“Like I said, I’m really busy. Call me back later.” And with that, Hana abruptly hung up on Aika. “Why does everyone always bother me when I want to be left alone,” whispered Hana. Little did Hana know that Shizuko was standing directly behind her. Sensing that someone was near, Hana spun around but there was no one there.

Having been allowed entry by Sayuri’s mother, Aika made her way into her friend’s room. Sayuri was lying in bed hidden by the covers.

“Sayuri-chan,” said Aika, taking a seat on the bed. “How are you feeling? I heard you didn’t go to school today. Neither did I. Do you know when you’re going back?”

Not only did Sayuri not reply, she failed to make any movement whatsoever.

“As much as I think about what happened to Nami, I can’t make myself cry,” said Aika. “What kind of person can’t cry when one of their closest friends dies? Have I become that used to death because of what happened? So what does that make me, some kind of a monster?”

“You’re not a monster,” said Sayuri.

“Then what am I? I’m supposed to be like you, in bed and shut away from the rest of the world. It’s because of what I did, isn’t it? God is punishing me. Nami was so upset over the part she played in Shizuko’s death that she killed herself. As bad as it may sound, I wish I could feel the same, that way I could kill myself, too.”

“Aika-chan,” said Sayuri, rolling the covers off to face her friend. “If I tell you something that sounds strange, do you promise to listen to what I have to say no matter how much you might not believe me?”

“Of course I’ll listen.”

“I’ve seen Shizuko.”

“What?” gasped Aika. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m not the only one who saw her. Nami saw her, too. She never came out and said it because she was afraid to, but I know she saw her. I know it.”

“This is just too much,” said Aika, getting off Sayuri’s bed. She then made her way to her desk. “How can I believe that you’ve been seeing someone who isn’t alive? That would mean that you saw a ghost. And ghosts aren’t real.”

“I told you what I had to say was strange. But . . . I think it was Shizuko that killed Nami. I was on the phone with her when it happened. I didn’t tell the police because they wouldn’t have believed me, but I heard Shizuko’s voice. She told Nami not to turn around.”

“Nami killed herself because she couldn’t handle the guilt over what we had done,” said Aika. “That’s what happened.”

“No, you have to believe me. If what I’m saying is true, then none of us are safe. Any one of us could be next to die.”

The words that were coming out of Sayuri’s mouth were falling upon deaf ears as Aika’s full attention had become fixated on the picture lying on Sayuri’s desk that had been found in Shizuko's bag.

“This is a cute picture,” said Aika, who was clearly trying to change the subject. “Did you draw it?”

“Yes, I drew it a long time ago.”

When Aika flipped the picture over, it was discovered who the girls in the picture were. A note had been scribbled that read, “Sayuri and Shizuko.”

“Do you think there’s something wrong with me, believing a ghost is responsible for what happened to Nami?” asked Sayuri.

“No,” replied Aika. “In times like these, people can get so stressed that they start seeing things that aren’t really there.” She then looked at her watch. “Um, I was supposed to meet Hana, but I’ll see you later, okay.”

As Aika was making her way out of the room, Sayuri grabbed her by the wrist, preventing her from leaving. “Please, at least remember what I told you.” As Sayuri spoke, she kept her head lowered to prevent Aika from seeing that she was crying. “You don’t have to believe me, but you need to at least remember and look out for yourself.”