One Week Earlier
Tokyo, Japan
It was raining.
The sky was dark grey and the world around them was dark. Despite only being 5:00 pm, the street lights were on as the car trundled on the small country road.
Water was kicked up and sprayed by the rotating tires, spilling onto the blacktop. Soon, the car had arrived into the outskirts of Tokyo, where a subway station was running. The black SUV doors opened, and then were slammed closed as two people slipped out.
"Ready?" asked the girl.
At this point, Hanako stopped them to ask why they were driving to a subway. Rich was the one telling the story, referring to himself in the first person. He sighed, annoyed, at Hanako's interrupting.
"I'm telling you why," Rich said, and Hanako fell silent.
"Yeah," I replied softly, pulling a huge duffel bag from the backseat. I glanced over at Emma, who was wringing her hands nervously. "Hey," I told her, "don't be scared. We've done this before."
"Oh, sure," she said sarcastically, "like that helps my nerves."
I grinned and pointed at her sailor suit uniform: the sky-blue skirt and collar, the red tie and white shirt and socks, and the black Mary Janes. "Well, I can understand your nervousness. You are the bait, after all."
She jumped, mostly out of surprise, but a subway had just trundled by on the bridge above us as well. "You didn't tell me I'd be the *******' bait!" she said. She had been raised too well, she wouldnt swear to save her life. She was just a little Southern girl who liked me enough to join me on a little ghost hunt.
"Well... you know what you read about our prey..." I told her.
She sighed, and recounted, "Teke-Teke is a Japanese urban legend who stalks subways at night; she tends to go after girls who were her age when she died, yada yada..."
"That's right, Emma." I said, and after a little nervous grin, she followed me over to the open air subway platform.
"Bait?" Hanako interjected after processing the information in his head. "To catch the ghost Teke Teke?"
"Yes, didn't he just say that?" Emma answered. Then she added, "Hanako-san..."
"Yes," explained Rich. "To catch a ghost, bait is often needed. Uusally in the form of whatever the ghost goes after, or kills, the most. In Teke Teke's case, she hunted Japanese schoolgirls getting on a train or subway, usually at night."
"Yet Johnsmith isn't Japanese."
"Maybe not, but the uniform she was wearing was instantly recognizable. Had I made her wear another uniform from a local school here, she wouldn't have been believable."
Taking a deep breath, Emma walked towards the station, fiddling her hands and adjusting the messenger bag I had added for effect.
The rain contuined overhead, and Emma stepped out into the rain. The overhang from the platform was no longer sheilding her, and so her brown hair darkened into a duller color and flattened down her back. She was doing a good job at hiding her nervousness.
"How long do I have to stand here?" she inquired.
I moved out of sight of Emma, but I could still see her from behind the platform's ticket stand. "She'll be coming 'round in a minute," I assured her. "The reported sightings have been every 5:30pm for the last few weeks."
"You actually study the ghosts?" asked Hanako, in a montone and sacrastic voice. But deep down, he was surpirsed.
"Yes," said Emma. "We have to. Otherwise we could be running in blind."
Hanako leaned forward, rustling through his files. He found one on unidentified deaths and missing girls. These two tourists were right: for the past few weeks, a total of 15 girls had been reported missing, and later found torn messily in half somewhere near or in the station.
We waited a couple minutes, and Emme was starting to get the false impression that Teke Teke wasn't coming. "We can go now-" she said, but I hushed her.
"Stay still." i murmured. "Here she comes."
And from out of the pouring rain, a low figure was making itself clearer. The forest from where Emma and I had driven the SUV framed it. The ghost pulled itself along slowly, but was steadily getting faster.. until it crawled into the light.
A young girl, no older than 16, with no lower body, was approaching us, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.
AN: Thanks soooo much for reaidng the second part! The next part will be posted Monday, So! Make sure and comment to tell me you like it!!!
