Samara saw fear. She could smell it, taste it, feel it, who ever had summoned her up from that pit she resided in was near, to death.
The first thing Hikaru did was cry. She couldn't understand it, but she knew she'd overstepped some unspeakable imperceptible line. There'd be consequences; ominous whispers in the back of her mind told her that the rumours about the tape were true.
The second thing she did was to burn the tape. Setting it in a blanket of wood she set it alight and not till the last flame had flickered in her green eyes and the last black sludge had melted into a deformed lump did she settle down.
She was young and she convinced herself that the tape was an urban legend, that perhaps she'd been to one too many drama classes, watched one two many movies. But to be safe she crept into the combined bedroom of her sisters; Sachiko, Tsukiko and Sora, her two sisters chattered into the shorter hours of the morning and one by one Sachiko, Tsukiko and Sora fell asleep.Hikaru didn't.
One
Bubbles welled up like swollen fat under the murky water. The ring of light sliced around the thick slab of stone and demonic voices whispered like paper around the moss-slicked walls of the well. Samara was awake.
Mitsuko folded the paper in front of her into several small shapes. The paper cut her, deeper than she'd expected. Blood dripped in a slow motion from her finger. She watched her finger expel exactly seven drops of blood.
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
The distant authorative voice of her teacher filtered into her senses and she realised she wasn't alone. Some of the class gave her bewildered glances; Mitsuko wondered what was happening to her.
Two
Hikaru sat across from her boyfriend, she was crying now. He didn't understand, she was confused, incoherent. She kept muttering something about a tape. An unspeakable, nightmare vision that she'd seen. He didn't understand, how could he? She didn't understand herself, the strange blackness that lurked in every corner and every blink of an eye she took was too much to take. It was only a tape. A stupid, simple, tape that she'd found on that stupid, overly sunny day, the tape she should have watched with those same friends that had laughed off it's myth. Maybe then the she too could have laughed it off; she too could have been able to ignore it.
Kenji held Hikaru's hand for a moment and offered to take her out to the movies. This was a bid to lift her spirits. Hikaru agreed. If all her friends could ignore the tape, well then so could she.
Samara wouldn't ignore her. The girl had a place in her shallow, water graves.
Three
Kimiko was Hikaru's closest friend. They'd shared everything. Including the tape. Hikaru knew that if she could just speak to, or see Kimiko then everything would be all right. Kimiko would tell a wise crack about the tape and she'd reassure Hikaru that her overactive imagination was once again in active play and they'd laugh and talk. She knew from the phone calls she'd made to Kimiko's home that her friend was unwell and would not be at school. Still, she figured as she swung her backpack on her shoulder, Kimiko would need cheering up. She'd visit, for an hour or two. Give herself peace of mind and then go on home.
Kimiko was sick.
The very air of illness and suffering was heavy in the air of Kimiko's home. Her mother stood behind foamy bubbles, distractedly washing already clean plates. She at first was uneasy with letting Hikaru inside; her eyes were low and suspicious. Finally she relented, hoping this visit from a friend might do her daughter some good. With the warning not to act surprised at the change would find in Kimiko, Hikaru half ran up the smooth wooden steps to her friend's room.
Peering past the pale wood doorframe, Kimiko's room was immersed in darkness and Hikaru swore she could hear flies buzzing. She stepped in and found her friend rocking slowly in and out of the shadows, blank staring eyes, matted dark brown hair clumped around her face.
Hikaru didn't need to speak to Kimiko. She knew all she wanted to know. The curse was real.
As Hikaru's feet carried her further away from Kimiko's home, Samara's presence enveloped the room. Kimiko wandered, haunted and tortured downstairs into the lounge. The television there flickered like a lighthouse.
When Kimiko's parent's finally heard their daughter's muffled screams. It was far too late.
Four
Sora watched her sister sit in the back garden. Staring at the grass, utterly still. There was something wrong with her. She called the three other sisters and they all watched from the kitchen window, perturbed by the sadness in their sister. They opted to cheer her up, assuming she must have broken up with her boyfriend. They gave her a video to watch, an amusing horror movie parody. Hikaru declined, trudging up to her room and lying in her bed.
She awoke in the midst of darkness and found her radio was playing a summery song in her ear. Hikaru slammed it shut and turned back under her bed. It continued to play, Hikaru sat up and yanked the plug out of the socket and then she dropped back into the folds of her bed. Seconds passed and the radio came alive, of its own will. Hikaru froze, her blood became thick with fear and she knew that this was no technical difficulty. Her eyes closed painfully tight she ignored the fear in her chest and cried horrified tears till she finally fell asleep.
Five
Hikaru scratched the side of her arm. Her eczema was beginning to flare up again. She continued to scrawl black letters in the notepad, documenting everything about what was happening to her and what was surely to come. She had to warn someone. End the bloodshed, the lives lost. The words on her page began to spiral and loop, twist and contort till she felt like screaming. Her mind was giving up on her.
Squeezing her fingers around a wet washcloth she felt hot liquid swim over her body. It was funny, Hikaru thought, that this was the last bath she'd ever take. Dipping her head below the surface, she lay deadly still and in one maddened moment she wondered if she could fool Samara into believing she was dead.
Silent
Still
She lay under the water.
Then one bubble betrayed her and she came soaring back to the surface.
Samara was getting impatient; she needed more. More fear, more pain, more repulsion. That girl just wasn't enough. She had to let Hikaru's family know she was coming; the fear that would generate in the family would be enough to keep her going till the seventh day.
Sachiko found the bathroom door open; she called inside, wondering if it was being used, she could hear water running. When she got no response she walked in, the sight that greeted her made her fall to her knees. A wall of water surrounded her younger sister. She screamed to Hikaru and the sister turned to her, eyes blank. Sachiko ran to her sister and pulled her from the bath tub, the water crashed to the ground spectacularly. Sachiko cradled and unmoving Hikaru and keened on the ground. Something evil had taken over her home.
Six
Samara felt curling darkness whisper around her ears. She felt pure daylight bounce off her…but not touch. She was far too evil. She could smell life, hear sounds. It was only a matter of time now.
Hikaru picked up the phone dubiously. It was Kimiko's mother; her friend had died under 'unexplained circumstances'. Hikaru closed her eyes but did not cry. She hung up and stalked up to her bedroom, as she walked past her sister's rooms she could hear them talking about her. They were worried, she wasn't surprised, she hadn't been eating or doing much at all. Sleeping and rocking catatonically was all she seemed to do as of late. Once she had reached her room, Hikaru sat opposite the window and observed, as below her, the world kept moving. She wondered how that could even be possible. Kimiko was dead; it was only a matter of time before she would be joining her. Now she cried. Thick hot tears that built into a small puddle by her feet, then she began to choke, her body convulsed as she struggled to stop the monstrous pain that scraped her throat. Then she watched in horror as her fingers pulled a thick, clumpy chunk of hair from her throat. Hikaru fell on the floor in panic and sobbed. Her end was near.
Seven
It was time.
Hikaru smiled, she hadn't done so in what felt like such a long, long time, but this barbeque that her sisters had thrown (obviously in her honour) had really raised her spirits. She'd almost completely forgotten about the curse, seeing her friends, family, the sunshine. It had created a pretty little façade in her mind that perhaps; the past six days she'd just gone a little crazy. Her boyfriend joked that it was due to PMS. Smiling up at the sunshine she skipped up towards her bedroom to change into a swimsuit, she planned to sun bathe and maybe later go to the local pool. Walking over to her wardrobe and humming to herself she almost didn't notice the sudden activity in her television set.
Frowning and building a rapid wall against the horrible thoughts that threatened to eat into her mind she switched the set off and returned to the wardrobe.
Static hissed loudly in her ear, outside sunshine reigned but in her bedroom darkness skulked like spiders in the corners of her room. Hikaru felt fear close around her chest in an iron grip, and terror covered her eyes like a blanket. She turned slowly and sure enough, a small figure stalked in the television set. Climbing from a well. The stilted, unnatural movements grew rapidly closer, Hikaru felt every vein in her body screaming at her to run or call for help but god help her; her mouth and muscles had failed her.
Then those cracked worn nails curled out of the set, long black knotted hair spilled down onto her carpet, its darkness seemed to spread like black tar around the room.
Hikaru became catatonic, voices bubbled and shrieked around her, telling her to move. She couldn't. Samara stood and in the excruciating second that followed, she allowed one sunken manic eye to peer out from under a curtain of clumped hair. Hikaru saw death, pain, blood, hurt and fear. She tasted it; it bristled over her flesh like insects, sinking into her mind like a dead weight. Everything macabre, sinister, black and unspeakable tore through her spirit and sanity as if it were paper, her blood burbled with heat at the same time her body temperature dropped to a startling level.
Then Hikaru's world went black, and the nightmare began.
Hikaru meaning 'Light'
A/N: I was desperate to find a really horrific story about Samara that wasn't a parody or a vague poem (no offence to those who were actually good at them) so I wrote one myself! Please R and R if ya liked this disturbing little piece. Now I got to go to bed!