Chapter 4: Sayuri’s Paranormal Talk — The Abandoned Hospital

That night, Sayuri drifted softly through the night sky.
The moon hid behind thin clouds, and the wind rustled with an uneasy whisper.

Her destination was a notorious abandoned hospital—
a place where a nearby supernatural being had warned her, “Never go in.”

Being told that was exactly when Sayuri would want to go.

—If things got dangerous, she could just run away.

With that lighthearted thought, she slipped through the rotted hospital door.

The inside was ruined, the walls covered in countless scribbles.
A desolate scene spread out before her, just what one would expect of an abandoned building.

Letting her curiosity lead her, she drifted around here and there.
As she floated, she noticed that the floor was unnaturally clean.

…Was it even like this at the beginning?

Even when she tried to remember, nothing came to mind; still puzzled, Sayuri set her foot down on the hallway.

Clack.

The moment the sound rang out, her eyes widened.
She was a ghost—yet a sound had come from her.

Just then, from far away, tok… tok… the sound of footsteps—shoe steps—began to approach.
Slowly, and at steady intervals.

Her curiosity itched, but even more than that, her instincts were screaming.

—Gotta run.

She dove toward the wall—only to—

“Eh?”

Her forehead hit it. She couldn’t pass through.
When she hurriedly looked toward the sound, someone in a white coat was slowly approaching.
Their steps were slow, as if they were deliberately making each footfall echo.

She tried to shoot off in the opposite direction—only to slam into another wall.
She couldn’t see anything there, yet a wall was unmistakably in place.
Beyond it, the ruined hallway was still visible.

—This was its “nest.”

By the time she understood that, it was already too late.
Footsteps were closing in from behind.

All or nothing.
Sayuri turned toward the supernatural being and shot past it at full speed.
For an instant, she felt something brush against her—but she managed to break through.

—I made it—

…or so she thought, when another jolt struck her forehead.
Even though the ruined hallway lay before her, she couldn’t move forward.

When she turned back, the supernatural being in a nurse’s form was faintly smiling.

Before she knew it, Sayuri was lying on an operating table.
She had been laid out with her arms and legs spread, her wrists and ankles fastened by something.

She couldn’t move. She couldn’t escape.

In the dim room, a pale face slid silently into view.
It was the nurse from a moment ago.
In its hand was a silver scalpel.

—A blade shouldn’t affect a ghost.

But she was restrained, unable even to slip through the walls.
That fact was taking her fear and giving it a definite shape.

“Stop… take it off… please…”

Even as she begged desperately, the supernatural being pressed the scalpel to her ankle, wordless—and pushed it in.

“…ah— AaaAAAH!!”

A burning pain shot through her.
She was supposed to be a ghost, yet it hurt. It hurt clearly.

It was the first time she had ever screamed from pain since becoming a ghost—
let alone shed tears.

“Why… why is this…!?”

The scalpel moved slowly, as if to torment her.
Each time it tore her skin, a scream burst out of her, and her body twisted, trying to flee on its own.

It hurt. It was terrifying. Help—!

Through vision blurred by tears, the supernatural being lifted something up.
It was—Sayuri’s own foot, still wearing its sneaker.

—It had been her favorite sneaker…

The torture went on until she lost all sense of time.
Fingers, ears, hair, eyes—every part of her was taken.

Before long, a whisper-like voice dropped beside her ear.

“I’ll come to see you again tonight.”

After the supernatural being vanished, Sayuri kept crying, still pinned to the operating table.

If only she had listened to that warning.
If only she had run sooner.

In that hopeless space, only her quiet sobs echoed.