Disclaimer: The following names in mentioned is not associated with any one of the same names. The story is purely original work and is not published for profit. This is only a fiction.
Black Nuisance
August 13, 1999
11:59 PM
13th St. Hinohara Village
Kurosawa Keiji walked the empty, dim –lighted path alone. The busy street in the morning turned into a creepy alley way in midnight. He was a night shift nurse from a nearby hospital. He was once a resident of Okutama, but was forced to transfer in the mountainous upper reaches of the Akigawa in favor of his career. The hospital where he was working was said to be haunted by ghosts and unwanted spirits. And because he was given a gift, he can see and sense them whenever they were watching him. In fact, he was already used to it.
But tonight was different. An unexpected encounter happened.
Keiji’s mobile phone rang. He pulled it out from his left pocket and answered the call. It was his girlfriend telling him to go home early. Oh boy, did he pick a really good girl. She’s pretty, sweet and almost perfect. Only she was not aware that it will be her last call to her beloved.
As he ended the call with an ‘I love you’, he caught something on his peripheral vision. He tried to ignore it but an annoying sound added disturbance to his thoughts. His pace became larger and every time he does, his heart would skip a beat. He was unsure of what’s happening. Thump. Thump. Thump. He’s dropping buckets of swear. That time he already wanted to run, but his feet won’t do so, as if a heavy object had landed on it. He wanted to scream, but no one would hear him anyway. The village was asleep. The people were deaf in silence.
Then suddenly, it stopped.
He calmed himself and paused at his tracks. The nuisance was gone. Or so he thought. Then a flashback came to his mind…
Two years ago, there was a woman who was diagnosed with a severe illness. She was his very first patient in the hospital where he works. She is friendly and nice to her nurses and doctors, but she liked to be taken care of Keiji. She was hopeless of living, for she knew that her life would nearly end. When Keiji came along, she became the cheerful woman she was. Keiji hang with her as much as he could possibly fit her in his schedule, for there were many patients in the hospital. From sunrise until she go to sleep, he would look after her. He never grew tired of taking care of her.
Until Erika, Keiji’s girlfriend came to his life. He would go home early and come late to work. He would lack some sleep because of her. At lunch, he would eat together with her. He almost forgot his patient. And because of that, his patient became jealous of Erika. Every time he would visit her in her room, she would throw tantrums. She would demand him to stay with her until she finally told him to go.
