Ayame stared at the door in front of her.

When she had bought the house, she had looked closely at the floor plan, planning out where she wanted to put everything by drawing it out on paper with furniture to scale.

Nowhere on the floor plan, nor during the showing of it, had she noticed this specific door. She had lived here for a week now, had walked through this corridor dozens of times by now, you’d think she would have noticed it.

Did magic exist? Was that why she hadn’t noticed it before tonight?

She looked around, as if doing so would bring her any answers. It of course didn’t. She looked down at Aru-kun, who looked back at her. “Should I go down there?”

He did, of course, not answer. Though if doors could appear out of thin air, maybe dogs speaking wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities.

She had no idea what she would find, but she couldn’t deny she was curious.

Pulling out her phone, she decided to text Takayuki-han first. At least that way, someone would know where she went if she slipped and fell and needed someone else to take over her dog-sitting duties.

 

Ignoring the nervous response to please at least wait until he got there, she turned the knob. The door slid open without a sound, revealing a set of stairs leading into darkness.

She turned on the flashlight on her phone, illuminating her way down. As she reached the bottom, she found herself in a dark basement, the room empty aside from a long counter with cabinets above it along one of the walls.

Moving her flashlight around, she saw a beaded string, similar to those of a ceiling fan, hanging from the center of the room.

She tugged it, expecting the light to turn on.

 

As soon as it did, she realised she was no longer alone.

 

There was a woman with bleached hair sitting on top of the counter, legs crossed, eyes staring at her with zero emotion.

Ayame jumped, a yelp escaping her. “How’d ya get here?!”

The woman sighed, jumping off the counter’s worn surface. “I’ve been here the whole time.” She walked over to her side, tapping at the string to the light. The lack of movement as she did made Ayame’s eyebrows knit together. “And now you’re stuck here too. Don’t they teach people not to be so nosy, these days?”

“What do ya mean, ‘stuck’?”

The woman pointed at their feet. “You need to pay better attention.”

 

Looking down, Ayame stumbled backwards. “That’s- that’s me!” How was her body lying on the floor while she was standing right there?!

“Your body and soul got separated,” the woman said, wandering over to the counter again. She jumped back on top of it. The dust stayed, unmoving. “You shouldn’t have pulled that string.”

Ayame’s eyes darted back and forth between the woman, the string hanging from the ceiling, and her prone body on the floor. “I, I don’t understand.”

“This room is cursed. And now so are you.”

Ayame crouched in front of her body, trying to flip it over. Her hand went straight through her shoulder. Finally, she lost her footing, collapsing on the ground. She was a ghost! A real ghost! She felt her eyes burn, turning them toward her only company.

Wait, where was Aru-kun?

She looked around, eyes finally finding him. He was staring right at her.

Not at her fallen body, no. At her, what she understood had to be her soul. “Can… can ya see me?”

Aru-kun barked. She felt tears roll down her cheeks. She didn’t know how him being able to see her would help, but it was a comfort, in a way. To know that someone knew she was there, even if it was a dog.

She wiped at the tears on her face, eyes turning to the other woman. “Is there a way to get out of here?”

The woman shrugged. “Beats me. It’s not like I ever made it out.”

“What do ya…?” She followed the path the woman’s finger made as she pointed. Had she still been inside her body, she would have lost her dinner at the sight.

In the corner was what had once been the body of a woman, dried to a husk.

“Is that…?”

“It’s me. Or what used to be me.”

 

The woman leaned back where she sat, back of her head resting against the cabinet above the counter. “Eventually it’ll be you.”

Ayame felt like she was going to throw up, but it was like the bile was stuck in her throat. “There’s gotta be a way…”

 

She heard the sound of the front door open and shut, a voice calling out to her.

Takayuki-han!

“Aru-kun!” She knelt in front of him. “Can you go get him?”

With a bark that sounded more like a huff, Aru-kun trudged up the stairs. She’d never been happier about how clever he had always been.

She heard Takayuki almost trip over Aru-kun, his voice faint from the basement. She could hear him try to calm Aru-kun down, but instead only seemed to get more stressed out himself.

Soon, she could see him peer down from the top of the stairs, Aru-kun pulling at the leg of his trousers. “She’s down there?” he asked, Aru-kun huffing again. “Okay…”

He turned on his own flashlight, slowly making his way down the stairs. By the sudden gasp, it was clear when he spotted her body on the floor. ”Ayame-san?!”

He made his way down faster, still careful where he put his feet. Ayame could hear the woman behind her sigh a quiet ’Great, I’ll be stuck down here with a wimp too.’

 

Eyes widening, she saw Takayuki reach for the string. “Aru-kun, don’t let him pull that!”

 

Aru-kun leapt into the air, teeth digging into Takayuki’s calf. Takayuki screamed. “What- what did you do that for?!”

Aru-kun’s huffing barks were louder than usual as he tried to keep Takayuki-han from catching the same fate as she had done just fifteen minutes earlier.

“Alright, alright, let me just grab her okay! Don’t bite, you’ll just make it harder to carry her,” Takayuki begged, taking Ayame in his arms. With wobbling knees and shivering arms, he dragged her lifeless body up the stairs. Every second felt eternal, but she knew she had little time.

She turned to look at the woman who had been stuck here for way longer than she had. “I don’t know if this’ll work, but if it does… I promise I’ll try to get your body out of here. Ya deserve to rest.”

The woman stared at her for a long second. Then, she nodded.

“What’s your name?” Ayame asked.

“Koizumi Ayame.”

Ayame’s eyes widened. She had the same name as her. “Me too,” she said. “Matsuyuki Ayame.”

She watched Takayuki climb the last few steps with bated breath, eyes never leaving him. As he crossed the threshold, finally leaving the basement, she felt a strong pull, as if tugged by a chain around her waist.

 

The next thing she knew she took the deepest breath of her life, Takayuki almost dropping her at her sudden movement. She had never felt so relieved before.

She wrapped her arms around Takayuki, tears streaming down her face.

Staring down the stairs, she knew that she would no longer be able to see the women she had spent this nightmare with.

 

Still shaking, she vowed to protect anyone who had the misfortune of walking down those steps for as long as she lived.

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