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."