Ghost Story...
When it turns to this season, I recall...

I think it's a common fact that I like scary things, but until I came to Tokyo I was searching for a truly indiscriminate scary experience, and I went out to various 'spirit spots'... However, around that time, I completely stopped going to such places. Yes, it was because such a thing happened...

That day, when I didn't know what to do with my spare time and was idling around my house, I got one phonecall. I picked up the receiver, and the one calling me was Y-senpai.
"Hey, it's been a while. You free tonight?" he said, seeming to be excited with his fast talking.
"Yeah," I replied, "I have lots of time, but what do you wanna do?"
He said, "Really? I've found something somewhere! I've heard that I absolutely have to go at once! Ah, the dam is a little far though..."

As I heard those words I immediately caught on to the situation, and after we decided on a meeting time I hung up the phone. Yes, my senpai has the same unmatched love for spirits and ghost stories as I do, so we often went out to spirit spots within the prefecture, but not having ever seen or experienced anything in those places, we eventually stopped driving out to them. However, as people of the same mind we enjoy ghost story discussions, so my chest was pounding with excitement as I waited for nighttime, to go to this spirit spot.

Around 10 at night, my senpai came to pick me up at home in his car, and as I sat in the passenger seat as usual, I immediately started to introduce the new ghost stories I had in stock during the time I wasn't able to meet with him. Similarly, my senpai also told various scary stories, and with a harmonious atmosphere we began looking for the dam in the hinterland of our prefecture. Talking as we were the whole way, at length I asked about the place we were going.
"Ah, by the way Senpai. Where is that dam you mentioned?"
My senpai's face became serious when I said those words. "Ah, I'm not sure on the details, but from what I'm told, it seems a village sank there a long time ago. I don't know if it's related to that, but at this spot there's an interesting story that during construction, an accident happened with an unknown cause. Since it's pretty deep in the mountains it's not very famous, but even my own older coworker said that he saw ghosts there, so now it might be the real thing..."
When my senpai was done speaking, I had nothing to say for a little while. Until that point there was no feeling of tension, but then I was picking up excitement and fear.

Three hours passed since we began driving. The car was rapidly heading into a remote part of the mountains. Even the street lights were sparse, and as we expected there was no sign of any people. I started to feel a little uneasy and I couldn't bear it.
"Senpai, is this the way?"
My senpai answered, "It's okay. I think... Was that a stand just now? That's a landmark, so I'm sure we have to keep going straight at the fork!"
When he mentioned it, I thought that we'd continued straight past a turn in the road a little while ago. However... it was more than an hour since we passed through the stand back there. And yet when I thought back on it, I didn't see anything since that stand other than a private, neglected vending machine.

Eventually a light rain started to fall. Meanwhile, the car was steadily ascending a mountain road. Senpai also seemed to be becoming uneasy just as I was... Though he was busy turning the steering wheel for the winding road, his gaze was swimming about in search of those things. Just when I was thinking that we should give up and go home already, we saw a sign beyond the headlights that told us the location of the dam. It was a miraculous thing; when our objective existed properly, the anxiety we felt up until a while ago was cut away in an instant, and the rain that was falling up until a while ago stopped too.

Why was the dam at the top of such a mountain? The surrounding area was wrapped in pitch darkness, and it brought an atmosphere so eerie that I was speechless. When we got out of the car, each with a flashlight in our hand, we approached the dam that was surrounded by a simple wire mesh. Flickering in the darkness, the surface of the water was more frightening than I would have imagined. There was a staircase leading down to the side of the water, but I could barely bring myself to go down there. However, on the other hand it was just as scary to stay still, so we first took a walk around the dam. Only our footsteps walking across the gravel echoed in the desperate silence.

When we had walked half the perimeter of the dam, we were completely refusing to talk. It was as if saying nothing meant our unpleasant thoughts wouldn't happen. At times like this, I get so scared that something will abruptly leap out at me that I could die...

While I was thinking about such things, my senpai suddenly stopped walking. "Hey... Didn't you hear a strange sound?"
Those words startled me and I stopped too, concentrating on my hearing.
'kotsu-kotsu-kotsu-kotsu...'
Something was making a sound. It sounded just like walking over concrete with high heels... Was someone else here? No, wait. This is a gravel road. Furthermore, I wouldn't think that a woman would be in such a place at such a time...
A cold feeling ran through my spine.
"Huh? Can you hear it now? It's awful..."
Next to me, my senpai seemed to be thinking the same thing, and we couldn't move from that spot. However, we kept hearing that periodic sound of footsteps stamping in the same place. We would have ran away, but the car was in the direction we were hearing the footsteps, and we were too scared to get closer... We could do nothing but tremble in place.

I'm not sure exactly how long we were standing stock still in one place like that, but that sound stopped in the blink of an eye before we realized it. We scrambled for the car in a wild dash, vigorously pulling open the car doors to get inside. My senpai became desperate as he was starting the engine, but there was no sign it would start at all.
"What? Strange... Strange... The engine won't go..."
However many times he turned the key, the engine wouldn't start. Anyway, I reached up to at least turn on the light, but the light wouldn't come on either... Contrary to this hopeless situation, I couldn't help but be calm. Giving up on everything and reclining deeply into the seat, I started to feel a certain unease. Wasn't the rain shield still standing erect?

My senpai was trying so hard to start the engine it seemed he'd go mad, so I said, "Senpai... Perhaps the battery is dead?"
To those words, my senpai stopped his hand. "Ah," was all he said, casting his eyes down.
Indeed, Senpai got out of the car to move the wipers, and it seemed that the battery had been dead for a long time because it was left unattended. Now I'm ashamed to admit it, but the true identity of the "person" who made us tremble with fear, was the sound of the wipers moving... The moment we understood everything we roared with laughter.

Now, the true misfortune starts from here... The car wouldn't start so we couldn't go back home, and at that time we didn't have mobile phones so that we could call for help. Thinking 'Where can we find a telephone?', it turned out to be a long, long road to walk back to a gas station we'd passed by on the way...

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