16: Mah-jong

Master wasn't good at mah-jong.
Needless to say, he was not my master of mah-jong.
He was one of the graduated students in my university who had extraordinarily strong sixth-sense. Since I was interested in the occult, I admired him as a master and became his pupil, while knowing people would say it looked like a weird relationship.
I could infer Master's real ability of mah-jong by just a few rounds of games.
Because I'd been playing mah-jong with my friend ever since when I was a high school student, the senior students in the club were annoyed with me as I was better at playing mah-jong than other freshmen who were total beginners.  
I was pleased to have something better at than Master. So, I often asked him to join mah-jong while he rarely did. 
Apparently he didn't want to show me his weak point.
In summer when I was a first year student, I happened to be alone with one of the graduated students.
We casually started speaking of Master. When I mentioned about how poor at mah-jong Master was, the student started talking something I didn't expect. "I don't know much about mah-jong though," he made a premise.

According to him, when Master had just entered this university, Master began to play mah-jong like most of healthy boy students did. He won his debut game by Yakuman - the highest combination rank.
Since then, he often won the games by Yakuman, terrifying the group. "Cuz I only heard such kind of rumors, I was like 'oh,' though, he’s poor at mah-jong in fact. I see."

"Sometimes there's a player who aims only Yakuman. That kind of person wins by Yakuman more often than other players do but is generally weak," I explained.

"I heard he frequently won by certain Yakuman which kills the player who's made it," he said.

"What?"

A combination rank called Nine Gates came into my head.

Nine Gates consists of 1112345678999 and one arbitrary number with one color. The combination rank is said to be the most beautiful in all the mah-jong combination ranks.
The Nine Gates was not only extremely hard to collect the pieces to complete but also there was a tradition behind it to be said that the player would die if it ever be completed.

Of course, I'd never completed it, not to mention the fact I'd never seen it.
So, I was kind of thrilled,

"He seemed to burn mah-jong pieces for several times," he added. As he said, the tradition also said all the pieces have constituted the Nine Gate must be burn not to be used again.
While I was flinched from Master's mysterious side could be seen, at the same time, I made out one thing.

That kind of person wins by Yakuman more often than other players do but is generally a poor player...

That's what I've just said earlier.
In other words, ever since Master had gotten a taste for the Nine Gates which let him win accidentally at his debut game, he'd been trying to complete the Nine Gates single-mindly.
He was mostly in a losing streak because the combination was too hard to complete.
However, he very rarely won and the pieces ended up with being burned every time.

"The player would die when the combination is completed. Very likely his taste, isn't it?" I shared my reasoning to the student.

However, the student was puzzled to hear my state.
"Hmm... but I wonder if the Yakuman was named the Nine Gates," he groaned. "The name of it sounded like 'killing with one thrashing', I guess. Like Heaven's something," then he clapped his hand. "I've just called up. It's the Blessing of Heaven."

The Blessing of Heaven.
I was stiffened.
Certainly, the Blessing of Heaven also had the same rumor as the Nine Gates.
However, unlike the Nine Gates that is possible to complete if the player aims, the Blessing of Heaven is already completed when the pieces are dealt which means only the player's luck can complete the Yakuman.
Despite the equal chance for every each player to complete no matter they aim or not, the rumor has it the player would die if it happens. The difficulty is much higher than the Nine Gates.
Master often won by the Blessing of Heaven...
I got shivers down on my spine, feeling like I'd seen Master's bottomlessness.

"The player would die if it's completed. Very likely his taste, yeah," While the graduated student laughed innocently, I wasn't be able to laugh.

Ever since that, I've never played mah-jong with Master.

15: Searching for a Key of Dream

It was in a summer vacation of the second-year in the university.

A senior who was an occult mania told me "Come to my place so I'll show you something fascinating."

It couldn't be optional as he was the person I looked up to as my master.

I headed to his apartment as he told.

Master's room was on the first floor of an old apartment. Having knocked on the door which was unlocked as always and entered the room, I saw him playing with something while sitting on the tatami.

It was a toilet roll sized cylindrical object. It seemed to be a metal container. I could see rust forming on its surface.

"Is it something fascinating?"

"I hear this box kills the person who opens."

I thought this man wouldn't understand how crazy he was until he dies.

"Do you intend to open it?"

"I'm trying. But still can't."

As I looked at it, I found lots of projections which looked like tiny buttons stuck out of the entire surface of the cylinder, also there was a hole looked like a key hole on top of it.

"It seems it never opens unless I push all the buttons in the correct order."

Master said and kept struggling with the box, being absorbed. 

"Why do you die when it opens?"

"Don't know."

"Where did you get it?"

"An antique shop in XX city." 

"Do you wanna open it?"

"I do. But it doesn't open."

I kinda wanna see him dead.
Because I liked solving puzzles, I wanted to try but I was patient.

"There're 50 buttons here. I don't know how many I have to push correctly in a raw, though, I can feel I'm close to the goal by the sound."

"What's the keyhole?"

"That's the thing."

Master sighed.

As the box had a double lock, it seemed to be unable to open without a key eventually.

"And you don't have it?"

"Yes. I bought it with this box," He said, "But I've dropped it," sadly added Master.

"At where?"

"This room."

Should he look for it. This room's ridiculously tiny. But Master shook his head.

"I've picked it up."

"Huh?"

I didn't get what he meant.

"Listen, I dropped the key that had been in my pocket at somewhere in this room. But I went to futon, thinking I would find it tomorrow. At the night, I found the key left on the floor of the entrance so I picked it up. In my dream."

He's idiot or something else.

"Then I woke up in the morning and thought if the dream came true, you know. So, I tried to find it at the entrance but there weren't. I was like hmmmm....? and searched entire　room. But it couldn't be found. I was bothered. Then at the night, I found the key in my dream. It was in my pocket."

I shuddered a little.

Somehow the story was going strange.

"The next morning, I woke up and put my hand into my pocket. But of course there weren't the key. So I thought, 'I shouldn't have picked it up in the dream.'"

He was creepy as I knew.

"Since then, the key hasn't come out of my dream. It's always in my pocket in my dream. I've placed the key in a drawer of my desk in the dream and opened the drawer when I woke up. But there weren't. There's no other way. I'm a little in trouble."

He was telling an unbelievable story.

The key disappeared from reality and existed only in his dream? Because he'd picked it up in his dream?

In addition, he was trying to find the way to return the key from dream to reality.

Although that was a total crazy story, when Master told, it took on a reality which made me feel creepy.

"Ugh! I missed it up again!"

He put the box on the floor, complaining.

Apparently the sound of pushing buttons that had been going well was restored to the original.

"But even if you succeed to solve the puzzle you can't open it without the key, right?"

As I pointed out, Master smirked creepily.

"I know. But I invited you here today because I'm so ready and able to open."

Feeling a chill for some reasons, I stepped back.

"Since the key never comes out of my dream, I thought, I should open this box in my dream."

What?

What?

What the hell was he saying?

"Now, all I have to do is to solve the puzzle to open."

Hey, wait, wait a minute.

Despite me being pale, Master began to feel for the key, plunging his hand into the pocket of his jeans.

Then ...

"With, this key."

A rusty gray key was in his hand.

At that moment, a terrible sound as if a rigid metal broken went around.

The floor crumbled, the world blacked out, and I became unable to understand what was happening.

As I was shaken by somebody by the shoulder, my world got the light back.

It was Master.

"I was just kidding."

I still had my head dazed.

In his hand, the key was still held.

"You got unconscious by that," Master helped me to sit up by my armpits and said, "That's you."

He looked so satisfying.

"You got what the key meant in a moment. It's amazing. If you were more susceptible to suggestion, you might've been banished in front of me."

...

I didn't manage to say anything.

He revealed it was a lie that he picked up the key in his dream and yada-yada.

He invited me to make fun of me that day and he couldn't solve the puzzle after all.

I don't know about the rest of the story of the box.

14: Headless Grasshopper

I've ever torn off a grasshopper’s head when I was a kid. The tentacles were still moving restlessly while the headless body also kept jumping about. As I was scared of it, ran away leaving the head behind.

The memory had become some sort of trauma, but there was an event made me remind it when I was in university.

In spite of being coward, I often visited haunted places out of curiosity overcame fear.

There was a senior student who initiated me into occultism. I called him Master with a respect, and sometimes cracked jokes to him.

It was in autumn when I was a freshman, I and Master sneaked into a deserted building rumored quite dangerous. The building used to be a hospital. There was a rumor; in the middle of the night, some footsteps could be heard in the corridor that should be empty.

Since I got the rumor, I was looking forward to it being certain that it would satisfy Master for sure.

"There must be someone. 'Cause people heard it," Master, however, tripped me up as if he was answering the question of philosophy; When a tree falls down in the forest without any people, can any sound be heard? I went into a huff.

When the corridor began to echo with clicking footsteps, I was like "Gotcha," rather than being scared nontheless.

Since Master's sixth-sense was so strong, ghosts would definitely appear if the place had such a rumor. Moreover, even smoke would be there without fire.

"Shhh," said Master. We went into a sickroom which seemed to be a multi-bed room to hide ourselves, holding our breath. The footsteps were approaching from the back of the dark corridor toward us at even intervals. "It's a kid," Master whispered. "I can tell by the pace."

Even when he faced a haunting; footsteps could be heard but no one was around, he guessed who’s by the sound. I would say that's Master over all for his idea.

Not long after, the footsteps passed by the sickroom we were hiding. Only footsteps passed by.

I saw neither of the moving shadow nor even any signs.

The rumor was true.

Although my knees were trembling, I was kind of happy, feeling like I won Master who was not interested in this adventure.

However, as I looked into his face in a faint moonlight, I found him being pale.

"What the hell …"

My heart was almost stopping.

Master was scared.

That was my first time to see him scared.

I could go anywhere, any haunted spots no matter how dangerous they were, because Master was always beside me calmly.

I can't even imagine how awful the situation is now!

I was crying.

"We've gotta get away now."

No sooner had Master said, we ran away from the room. Until we got out of the deserted hospital, I'd felt numb, feeling like I could hear the footsteps following behind us.

Finally we reached to the outside and got into Master's car.

"What the heck was that?"

"I don't know," Master said that only footsteps could be heard. Though I told him that the rumor had it in the first place, Master stubbornly claimed, "No way. It's impossible that I couldn't see any." According to him, the ghost that worked on human's perception so clearly couldn't have existed with only sound.

――He's proud of his sixth-sense this much.

I was amazed by his self-confidence.

About six months later, Master asked me "Do you remember that footsteps we heard in the deserted hospital?" He looked excited. "The mystery has been solved, maybe," He continued. He seemed to have been wondering about the case and kept investigating the background little by little. "I think it was phantom limb," Master concluded.

In the past, a girl had an accident and was given a surgery to cut her legs off at the hospital. After the surgery she'd been complaining of phantom limbs like she felt itchy on her already lost legs. The phantom limb was still wandering in the hospital.

It reminded me that headless grasshopper.

"This kind of case is the first time even for me. The occult is profound," Master looked awfully happy.

"How's the girl been after that?" As I asked Master in unbelievable feeling, he said something had to be a joke in the form of a joke.

"Killed by me yesterday."

13: What Happens When a Person Dies?

There were lots of pigeons in a park I used to have a walk when I was a university student. They were waking about, pecking on the paved ground as I wondered what they could find there. Especially, they always formed a group in one corner of the park where I sat on a bench while idling away. A group of pigeons repeatedly poked on the ground, pecking something.

 ――Someone might've fed them from this bench.

 I simply guessed so at that time.

 In spring when I was in the second year, we held a cherry blossom viewing combined with a welcome party for freshmen of our circle, occupying a part of the grass in the park.

Beautiful cherry blossoms bloomed there.

Though it was just an ordinary circle, there was a senior student who was recognized as 'God of Occultism'. I called him Master. I looked up to him while I treated him with contempt at the same time. Master looked sick, unusually getting drunk.

 "I wonder who the first person began to say that there's a body underneath a cherry blossom was." Someone said with a canned beer in hand.

 "We can't certain that the one buried underneath a cherry blossom should be happy," spouted Master with his twisted tongue, slowly sitting up. Other seniors quickly caught him. If they would let Master be, he would creep the freshmen out for sure. For me, it was a bit pity they shut Master up.

"I'll get him have a little rest over there," having told them, I took Master to the bench I usually sat on, then laid him down on it.

After a while, I sat down next to him with a bottle of water. "What were you about to say earlier?"

 "There're pigeons there," he pointed, panting. As I looked up, some pigeonish shadows were wriggling in the park grew dark. The pigeons raise their head in unison. I faced the heaps of a pair of tiny lights. "I am going to tell you something very important," It might be because he was drunk, he talked to me in unfamiliar tone. It got me stand ready. "Well, I've ever told you before though … Where do you think human beings would go when they die?"

 "Huh? The next world, I guess? " Master gave a deep sigh at my answer.

 "They can't go anywhere. They just disappear, or be there."

I didn't get any picture.

Master always taught me various things but it was unusual that Master said something philosophical or religious like that.

 "That's why we're next to them." It took a little while to understand he was saying about spirits or something like that for human. "You know, the one being eaten by pigeons there, will be being there, until it disappears eventually. That's all."

 ――What?

I rubbed my eyes, but nothing appeared.

"It's very feeble. Almost disappearing. Of course those pigeons don't know what they are eating, but the one being eaten understands he will disappear when the pigeons eat him up all. So, he'll disappear."

 "I don't understand what you mean."

 "Most of the birds can see human's spirits," Master muttered. Does he mean someone died in the past at where the pigeons always gathered?

 "It's only a little bit away though. I'd rather be nutriment for cherry blossoms than a feed for pigeons," Master fell silent there, giving a beery sigh. I could hear the horseplay going on across the grass.

 "Have you ever thought about when you die, Master?" I asked him what I had wanted to, but couldn't somehow.

 "Same as others. I'll become an awful evil spirits, be there to disappear, then, the end. "

 There was an extra phase but I mentioned nothing about it.

12: Creek Where the Moon Gushes up

When I was a second-year university student, in summer vacation, I had an opportunity to tag along with my friend to his home town.
He was my master of occultism.
Master seemed to be looking for something uncanny, while I had nothing to do but going out to kill time as I felt awkward to stay his relative's house. Every day, I mostly spent time in the mountain where I could find nothing.

A full moon was shining at night of the fourth day.

After finishing dinner served by Master's relative, I went out for a walk, again, not feeling like staying, leaving Master who went to somewhere alone.

As I was walking around aimlessly, I got a faint sense of discomfort. I stood still at the point.

There was a creek. Although it was a somewhat secluded part of the mountain, a moon threw light on the creek which I had passed by yesterday and the day before yesterday. I thought it was a dried up creek but this time, mysteriously, the moonlight danced on its surface.

As I came closer, the creek contained water, mirroring a beautiful moon.

――Hmm…　It's kinda strange. Haven't rained lately though.

When I came back to the house being puzzled, Master had already been there.

"That's a creek where the moon gushes up," Master said as I told about the creek. Apparently, the creek was famous around here. It was usually dried up and only when the moon was full, it was filled with spring water.

I was curious about the reason of such a mysterious phenomenon.

"There's a reservoir,“ Master began to explain matter-of-factly. "Located around 300 meters down below this village. I think that's it. The elderly of this village say that the places of spring water have changed much since the reservoir had been constructed. It's changed the flow of ground-water artery, I guess."

Well, but I thought it was still weird that water gushed and dried up so frequently. Besides, that's too good to be true that water gushes up only at a night with the fullmoon.

"It's 'Tide-producing force'," despite my confusedness, again, Master said frankly. "Even though attraction of the moon causes some just minimal changes on the Earth, but liquid -like sea- is directly affected. The rise and fall of the tides is a well-known example, you know. And the power like this is called 'Tide-producing force'. When the fullmoon rises, the force is maximized to affect even a reservoir," Master continued. "There might've been a slight change in water pressure of the reservoir. I guess, this change caused another change in the pressure of under-ground water pouring into the reservoir, which decides where spring water wells up."

"I see."

Though I didn't understand everything about what he said, simply felt admiration for his answer.

"But the point is, listen, the creek is a place where the moon gushes up to the end in this village. Not due to the tasteless mechanisms I mentioned. Tradition has it; Those who have drunk the moon gushed up in the creek will acquire a spiritual power."

Romantic story.
But, I also certainly felt something ominous in the sound of 'spiritual power' when he said.

"Okay then, we're going," said Master. Sure enough.

We took our route through the gloom, narrowing the range of the flashlight.

The creek is not so far away. If someone saw us, two strangers, sneaking out in the midnight, it would be even more awkward to be here. Fortunately, we didn't passed by anyone.

I gave a sigh with relief as we were at the creek. Because I had a feeling that water would possibly disappear like an illusion. On the surface of the water running down the mountain slope, the fullmoon swung and swayed.

Master crouched on the edge of the creek, looking down at the moon with glairing eyes.

In the meanwhile, I was thinking of what I got in my mind when he told me "It's a tide-producing force."

Though I've never been good at science, I knew about the force existed.

However··· I wonder wether the tide-producing force would be maximized only when the fullmoon?

If my dim memory serves right, the force becomes the maximum in the day of new moon either. If so, then, what about this creek that wells only with the fullmoon?

Above all, his eyes looked like denying his own answer, a tide-producing force. A chill from nowhere attacked me. I saw Master scooping the water, making a sloshing sound.

Had Master seen the scooped fullmoon on his hands? He began to drink the water as if giving his body and soul. Again and again. Scoop after scoop. I was looking at it, standing stock still.

In the end, I collapsed to the ground as I saw an unbelievable thing. Master had stopped moving his hands and the surface of the water was waving softly.

The moon wasn't there anymore.

It had disappeared.

I was trying to give a reasonable interpretation to this unreasonable occurrence, restraining myself wanted to run away.

――It's 'Tide-producing force'

I just wanted to find a convincing word like he said before.

While I was stunned, Master walked up to me as if nothing had happened saying, "Finished drinking the moon. Let's go home."

That was the moment I found out the truth. As I looked up at the sky, I began to ridicule myself, still sinking down. Before I knew, the sky had been clouded, hiding the moon.

It was absolutely ridiculous… if I had forgotten about the question of the new moon.

The next day, Master revealed a trick to me so easily.

"That reservoir does a test discharge every 30 days."

The period of discharge and the period of waxing and waning of the moon happened to be almost the same.

The period of the moon waxes and wanes is called lunation. It makes a round in roughly 29.53 days on average. Since the test discharge is held each 30 days, there should be about six days of time gap a year between the period of the test and lunation. However, if the scheduled date of the test is a holiday, the test is held one day before, which makes the period of the test closer to lunation.

"It's still rare that the creek gushes up on exactly the same day of the fullmoon though."

To hear that, I grew weak. It was neither the change of under-ground water pressure nor even a tide-producing force but just a discharge of a reservoir.

I was deceived after all.

However, when I understood the true meaning of what happened at the night, Master had already disappeared.

A few years later, after his mysterious missing, I was remembering the night and aware of one thing that hadn't been solved.

That night, Master and I headed to the creek with a small light of a flashlight. To the creek where the moon gushes up.

Since when was the sky clouded at the night…?

11: The Fish-man

Uh, I'd like to finish all of the episodes before the end of summer.
Though I think  I've said I wouldn't write anymore, I wanna end this by writing them all.

I've done various dengerous things and visited heaps of dengerous spots. But fortunately I've never been possessed by spirits so far. All except only once.

In autumn when I was a first year undergraduate, I played 'Kokkuri-san', Japanese table turning, with my fellow circle members. At my boarding house. In a genuine way. 
I had a master of occultism who was a senior in the circle. He learned about the genuin way of Kokkuri-san.
 ― The 50 letters of Japanese alphabets were written on a piece of Japanese writing paper called 'hanshi' with black india ink using a Japanise brush. The ink contains saliva of all the participants.
― Japanese sake which is placed beside the torii - a type of gate often seen at Japanese shinto shrine - is sanctified in a taboo-space fenced by a sacred straw festoon.

Usually we played Kokkuri-san just casually but once Master joined, the atmosphere was quite different to make everyone seriouse and behave.

Around 10 minutes later, a guy with white cloth came out of a wall of the room in a sudden manner.
His face was pale, blank and … had a face looked like a 'fish', hard to explain though.
No one but me, frozen, noticed the guy.

"Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san," as they went on, he soon disappeared into the wall after staring at us.

Before he completely disappered, I slided my glasses down to check if his outline would grow blur. But it didn't. I don't know why or how but I can clearly see ones not alive no mattter if I don't wear glasses or contact lenses.

We finished playing Kokkuri-san while I had butterflies in my stomach, then the meeting broke up.

"What was that?" I asked Master when we were about to go home. He must've seen it because even I saw. However,

"I don't know," He simply said.

From the next day, freaky things began to happen in my room. 
I could put up with the rapping sound. What scared me out was a man shaped bulge in the bed sheets. I often saw it when I unintentionally turned around to my bed while playing video games in the midnight. As I winced at it, the sheets were back to the original position, sagging.

What else was that fish-face guy. As I heard the ringing in my ears and looked at the window, he'd just passed by.
I was okay with just seeing them though, seeing a blanket actually wriggle was mentally tough.

Being unable to stand it anymore, I begged Master for a help. However, he said it wasn't a ghost or spirit of a human. If it was, he could've felt what the ghost thought about. But he couldn't.

It was also different from a simple animal ghost. He had no idea about what it really was. He also said that sometimes there were those kind of ghosts or spirits he never wanted to be close to. 

Master, who was one I rely on, said so. The fact made me feel like I was dying.

Because the spirit must've been summoned by Kokkuri-san, my idea was to play Kokkuri-san once again to exorcise it. But Master didn't agree with the idea.

Eventually, it suffered me for half a month.
The fish-man sometimes appered, not showing any rueful look but only malice out of curiousity, I don't know. 
Although that man shaped blanket was certainly creepy, I also hated that the door I locked before going to bed was unlocked in the morning.
One midnight, when I woke up, I was clasping the doorknob in the darkness. Apparently, the door was unlocked by no one but myself.

When I started considering to move out as I became sure that I got a neurosis, Master aimlessly visited my place, asking me to let him stay for three days or so.

While he was staying, neither the fish-man nor any hauntings appeared.
"Probably," said Master when he went home, profusely giving sighs. "He's not coming here again," He looked like feeling sluggish.

"Care to tell what was going on here, at least?" As I asked, he told me reluctantly.

"Do you know that hidden travelers' guardian statue? Of the Mt. What its name?"
It was quite a famous haunted spot. I'd ever heard the place was pretty dangerous. "I went there to break down the statue," said Master as I nodded.

It got me speechless.
He told me that much more dangerous one came with him and chased the fish-man away. And solving my fish-man problem was just an opportunity for him. But he didn't tell me what his true purpose to break such a dangerous statue was .

"Well, I'll take care of myself," Master said, giggling feebly.

10: The Sound of Water

Did someone call me? Alright, I'm gonna tell a short story.

It was around the beginning of the summer when I was a first year student of the university. Because I didn't have a fan, let alone an air-con in my room, everyday was like living in blazing inferno for me.

One such sultry midnight, I got a sudden phone call .
It was already one o'clock in the night.

――Who the hell is it, in this freaking midnight?!

I picked it up, slightly snapped. Then, I heard a gurgling sound from the receiver.
It was just like someone was speaking forcibly in the water. I thought the line was crossed or something and it made the voice strange. But, I felt like each interval was too long for someone speaking.
Well, it's difficlt to discribe though, if I dare, it would be 'Gurgling ... gurgling ... ... woosh ...  gurgling ... woosh ... woosh ... gurgling ... '

If it was an usual day, a shudder would just through my back. But at that time, I was so irritated that my head was almost puffing. I had to say "Shut up. Who the fuck is it?"

The phone call, however, wasn't hung up and the gurgling, bubble sound still could be heard at regular intervals.

"Who's it? Who's it? Who's it? Who's it?" I also kept asking who repeatedly, being obstinate for more than 10 minuts untill I became aware of the caller wasn't going to hang up. Eventually, I hanged up the phone feeling quite rediculous about it.

About three months later, when the happening had been completely swept away from my memory, I found that gurgling sound left in the answerephone of my house.

'Gurgling … gurgling … woosh … gurgling …,'

It filled all the available recoding time. Because it was creepy, I was going to delete it at first, but didn't as I somehow wanted to hear my friends' opinion about it.

Around three days later, one of older students in the circle I belonged to would come to my house.  I waited for him preparing the recordings, with only the gurgling sound part left, to let him listen to.

"Can you drink this coffee instead of me, please?" No sooner had he arrived than he said so.

According to him, he wanted to buy a cold canned coffee at a vending machine, but for some reasons, he ended up to press 'HOT' button by mistake. It was September when lingering summer heat was still tough.
However, to hear the recordings in question, he began to drink  the hot coffee while gasping, clasping the can.
He had so strong six sense that I looked up to him as a master of occultism and, even the master was shaking hard.

"Shall we start it over again?"

"Stop!" He shouted angrily when I was about to approach to the phone. "Do you even listen to this sound as warter gurgling?" he asked me, being pale.

"Huh? What do you hear? "

"It's wraith. Don't listen to it forthrightly if you don't wanna get your life shortened," he said,  "It's here even now. The head."

I had a person in mind. At the time, I'd been stalked by a woman. Since I kept ignoring her, she often said she would kill herself with sleeping pills or whatnot.

"Do you see the face? Isn't it a woman?"

"It is. But it's not only the face but also whole head. The neck extends through the window into this room."

I was horrified.
Because I'd ever heard that wreith would come to a person who are in a love-hate relationship, extending its kneck while the wreith sender is in asleep and not knowing about it.

"P-Please help me."

As I begged for a help in tears, he was unstable, as if being ready to run away shortly, saying, "Anyway, never ever answer or listen to the phone next time. The only way to solve is meeting the sender herself and talking this out while she's awake," he momentally stopped there looking up at the sealing, then, opened his eyes widely. "… Plus, it's not just a sleep. This looks like … in the worst case, she's possibly gonna die before waking up. Look at her neck. It's nearly torn off."

I didn't see any of it though.

Since he'd gone home despite my effort to keep him stay, I reluctantly headed to the stalker-woman's place.

I'd like to omit what happened after that because it strays from ghost stories and because I don't wanna talk about it, though, I'd been stalked by the woman for whole two years or so after all. 

To be honest, it was much scarer when she called me to report herself attempt suicide live than that gurgling sound on the phone.