Don't Turn Around

With a recent week of school missed, Hana was put far behind in her studies. She was unable to partake in any festive activities after school and instead spent her nights locked away in her room catching up on assignments.

On this night, Hana had worked herself to near exhaustion. At her desk, she could barely keep her eyes open, but she was shaken from her lethargic state when a floorboard behind her creaked. Hana knew immediately who the visitor to her room was. She knew that Shizuko had come to make another attempt on her life.

“Come to finish what you started?” asked Hana. “You shouldn’t bother. I know all about you now. You can’t do anything to me if I don’t turn around, can you?”

The lack of an answer was more than enough of a reply for Hana.

“Just as I thought,” said Hana. “You should have known I wasn’t as stupid as the others. If only you had come after me first, then you might have succeeded. But I learned from the mistakes the others made. Hey, why don’t you go after Sayuri instead? She’s been on edge lately. I bet you won’t have any trouble finishing her off.” Hana then began laughing. “It was all my idea to lure you up there. The others had nothing to do with it, but they didn’t try to stop me. Because people are afraid of me. Just like you should be.”

Shizuko reached her hand toward Hana’s shoulder but pulled it back.

“Nothing to say? That’s what I thought. Why don’t you do me a favor and go back to hell where you belong. There’s nothing you can do.”

Shizuko faded back into the darkness.

The next few days went by without any incidents. There were no sightings of Shizuko nor were there any signs that she was present. It seemed the whole matter had finally been laid to rest. But on Hana’s walk home from school one day, she would find out the hard way that an angry spirit never just went away.

Waiting to cross the street, Hana found herself suddenly feeling a familiar presence behind her. There were others around, leaving her unable to make any crude remarks without looking somewhat disturbed. Doing her best to ignore Shizuko, Hana waited impatiently for the light to turn green.

A hand clutching her by the shoulder startled Hana but she remained calm. The calm was short lived, though, as Hana was then pushed off the curb and into the road. She had been pushed with enough force to send her falling. A speeding truck slammed on the brakes but there was no way it would be able to stop in time.

Fortunately for Hana she hadn’t been pushed very far from the curb, making it possible for a man waiting to cross the street to pull her back to safety. “Are you alright?” he asked. “Why did you jump into the street? Are you trying to kill yourself?”

“You bitch,” exclaimed Hana, completely ignoring the man who had just saved her life. “You can’t do that! You can’t change the rules!” She then began looking for the source of her frustration but all Hana found was a crowd of curious onlookers.

Realizing how strange she was making herself look, Hana sprinted away.

The so called changing of the rules did not end with that single act. For days, Hana was subjected to numerous random shoves by Shizuko. Most of them came at school, where Hana was made to look quite foolish in front of all her peers. For no reason at all, it seemed, she would nearly fall down the stairs, fall while running during PE or fall in the middle of the hallway while there was no one near her to cause such an accident.

The students at school were all entertained by Hana’s recent string of clumsy behavior, but Sayuri felt far different about what she witnessed. She was able to see Shizuko while she was pushing Hana to the floor. Though Hana could no longer be considered a friend, Sayuri felt she had to do something to help her.

“Hana,” said Sayuri, catching her one time friend in the hallway.

“What do you want?” asked Hana, not bothering to turn around.

“I know that it’s Shizuko that’s been doing these things to you.”

“Oh, so that’s what you want to talk about,” said Hana before spinning around to direct her glare at Sayuri. “You came to rub it in, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t. I just wanted . . .”

Hana cut off Sayuri before she could finish what she was saying. “Did you think I needed your help?” she asked. “Well, I don’t. Even if I did, there’s nothing you can do. Just because she won’t hurt you doesn’t mean you can do anything to help me. You think if you ask her to stop, she will? Of course not. She’s not going to stop until I’m dead.” The anger that had been so evident on Hana’s face quickly gave way to sorrow. “I didn’t do anything to deserve this. I just wanted to scare her.”

“If you let me help you, I’m sure we can figure something out.”

The grief that had overtaken Hana was quickly replaced by anger. “You did this to me, didn’t you?” she asked.

“What?” asked Sayuri.

“You told her to do this to me and the others. It’s because you were friends. That’s why she won’t hurt you.”

“That’s not true.”

“You probably go home at night and laugh at me behind my back! You wanted one last chance to rub this in my face before that bitch finishes me off! You thought I wouldn’t figure it out. But I’m too smart not to see through your act.”

“No, you’re wrong,” said Sayuri.

“I know how to put an end to this,” said Hana. “You didn’t think I’d be able to figure it out. But there are people who specialize in this sort of thing.” She then made her way past Sayuri, bumping into her roughly with her shoulder. “Don’t get in my way again.”

Hana had rushed to a local psychic after school. Most of the girls at school knew of the woman as she was sought by young ladies who wanted to know what kind of boy they would soon start dating. Though many times her predictions proved to be quite wrong, she remained a sign of hope for those who had little left.

So sure was Hana that her idea would work that the smug demeanor that was so familiar to her returned once she entered the woman’s establishment.

Hana sat across from the shriveled old woman at a small table and listened intently.

“So, you say the ghost of your dead friend has come back to seek revenge?” asked the old woman. “What did you do to her that caused her demise?”

“Who said I had anything to do with it?” asked Hana. “She died all on her own. And I never said she was my friend.”

“A spirit that comes back for revenge always has a good reason.”

“I didn’t come here to be accused of something I didn’t do,” exclaimed Hana. “Now tell me how to get rid of this thing or I’ll go to someone else.”

“You must return to the place where the girl’s spirit left her physical body,” said the old woman. “For that is where her vengeance was born into this world. It is there where you must destroy something of hers that will take the place of her once physical self.”

“Is that all it will take?” asked Hana. “Are you sure?”

“That is all you need to do. If you don’t believe me, you’re free to go somewhere else. But I’ve seen this work many times before.”

“I have a picture she owned,” said Hana. “Will that work?”

“It will work just fine. Take the picture to where your troubles began and destroy it. Once you have destroyed your chosen object, your troubles will be gone.”

“I’m going to get that bitch,” whispered Hana.

Before she made her way to the beach, Hana called Sayuri and told her to meet her at the cliff where Shizuko had met her demise. She made sure to let Sayuri know that she was going to rid the world of Shizuko once and for all.

The once clear sky had since become filled with ominous black clouds. And a fierce wind had begun to sweep across the beach.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” said Sayuri, who stood at a distance from Hana, who was very near the edge of the cliff, just like Shizuko had been.

“Of course you would say that,” said Hana. “You don’t want me to do anything to your precious Shizuko. But you can’t do anything to stop me. Oh, Sayuri-chan, if only you hadn’t told Shizuko to take revenge on us. We could have remained friends, but you had to betray me. Maybe you did it to save your own life, I really don’t care. But for that, I had to make sure you never betrayed me again.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Before I called you, I sent a letter to the police. It tells them that they should look into the elementary school Shizuko used to attend, then check what elementary school you went to. It won’t be hard for them to realize the two of you used to know each other. That alone will make the police suspicious of you. As for me, I have no connection to her. I didn’t even come to live in this city until junior high.”

“Why would you do that?” asked Sayuri.

“Don’t ask stupid questions. It’s because you sent that bitch Shizuko after me like she was your attack dog.”

“What made you think she wasn’t going to do the same thing to me that she did to Nami and Aika?” asked Sayuri. “I was there when she died, too. I’m just as guilty.”

“Stop talking to me like I don’t know what’s going on,” said Hana, pulling out the picture Sayuri had drawn all those years ago. She then produced a lighter. “You two have been working together from the very start. You tried to stop us from bullying Shizuko, and now you want us to die for what we did.”

“How can you think that? Why would I have wanted any of this to happen? Nami and Aika were my friends, too. I never wanted them to die.”

“How should I know why you wanted this to happen? Maybe it’s because you’re crazy.” Hana then held the picture up. “Where are you now, Shizuko? Huh? Now that you know the end is near, you hide? That doesn’t sound like much of a ghost to me.”

“Please stop this.”

“Shut up!” shouted Hana. “I’m going to prove to you that no one messes with me. I don’t care if they’re living or dead!” And with that, Hana lit the picture on fire. She held onto it until there was barely anything left, then let it go, where it danced on the whipping wind before it burned away to nothing. “It’s over.”

“I hope you’re proud of yourself,” said Sayuri.

“Of course I’m proud of myself,” said Hana. “Why shouldn’t I be? I haven’t a care in the world.” She then looked to the gloomy sky above. “Maybe I’ll visit you in prison sometime. How does that sound?”

“Afraid to look at me when you say those things?” asked Sayuri.

“I’m not afraid of anything,” said Hana before turning around. The cheer died quickly when Hana found Shizuko standing behind her. “How?”

Shizuko took Hana in a tight embrace and jumped off the cliff. Like Shizuko had done before her, Hana slammed into the jagged rocks below.

With much trepidation in each step, Sayuri made her way to the edge of the cliff. Lying in a mangled mess upon the jagged rocks below was Hana. Even in death, her eyes were casting a vicious glare at Sayuri.