It's late October and the nights have shorted plunging the green landscape around Yamaku into darkness. Good for stargazing, not so much for running. I will say it again, we need floodlights.

For lack of anything better to do I eye up the English homework that I abandoned last night; hoping the words might have morphed in to something I might be able to understand. I hate English.

Outside the wind starts to pick up, pattering rain against the glass of my window. That's just wonderful. Giving up on the pointless homework I grab my phone, flicking it open to check the text message screen.

[No New Messages]

Blah. Ayumu is taking part in a piano exam or something. He goes strangely quiet when I try and talk to him about his music, not even letting me hear him play. I thought it might have been some kind of revenge for me not inviting him to the track meet? Who knows, that boy has his head in the clouds most of the time. If he has a complex about his piano playing, that's fine I guess. I have one about my stump.

Ryouta and Ikuno are on a date tonight, though where they would go in this weather I have no idea. I guess the cinema is a safe bet for those two. Honestly could this evening get any worse?

With a flash of lightning, like a deity taking a photograph, the lights flicker and die, plunging me into darkness.

"Fucking perfect," I mutter, as thunder rumbles through the dormitories.

— — —

Opening my door I have to shield my eyes against the beam of a torch. "Gah!"

"Oh sorry!" The light vanishes, leaving behind a dark spot in the middle of my vision, through which I can just make out my blue haired classroom neighbour. Suzu? That sounds right.

"What's going on?" She asks, yawning slightly, apparently dressed for bed in T-shirt and sleep shorts, her leg brace has been taken off, leaving only it's imprint in her skin. She sleeps all day, how can she possibly be tired at night?

"Power cut I guess?" I say, peering down the dark corridor as doors start to open.

"Don't they have a generator," a disgruntled voice asks from the darkness. Sounds like Molly, another of my classmates.

"Nope," says a male voice. "They only have that for the medical centre."

At his words unseen girls in the corridor burst into giggles. There's nothing wrong with having a boy in the girls dormitories before curfew, but having one in your room is bound to draw the attention of those that like to gossip. Which to my understanding is everyone but me and Ikuno.

"Ryouta?" I ask, following his voice. So they opted to stay in bed instead of facing the rain.

"Good evening Miki, lovely weather for it."

He stands next to Ikuno, who by the light of Suzu's torch glows a delicate shade of red, her face in her hands.

"What's wrong with her?" Ryouta asks, alarmed.

"I think she might quite literally be dying form embarrassment, nice work smart arse."

He looks between us, confused. Wait for it. Suddenly he seems to become aware of the potential rumours he's just created. Cringing he looks as mortified as his girlfriend. Bless.

"Relax it's not a big deal," raising my voice slightly I continue. "Did anyone on this floor not know about these two?"

"Nope."

"I knew"

"I live next door to them I know so much that I feel like I'm having an affair with him."

The darkness bursts into laughter. My friends still look embarrassed, but their colour starts to return to normal. They are so cute together sometimes.

"So how did you know about the generators?" I ask, trying to change the subject.

"I knew lots of things about this school," Ryouta shrugs, looking around. "I know something about this place hardly anyone else does."

"Yeah?"

"Yes, sit down and I will tell you."

We form a small clump in the middle of the hall, with my back against the wall I sit between Suzu. Barer of the only torch and hence my temporary best friend. And Ikuno, who's watches her boyfriend with interest.

"You guys ever seen the members of the Yamaku foundation? I mean like even see portrait's of them on the walls?"

Now that he mentions it, I don't think I have, this seems to be the general consensus.

"No, thought not, they don't like people to know much about them. Do you ever wonder why Yamaku is in such a remote location? or why the medical centre is full of very expensive equipment despite having only a nurse on staff?"

Again most people seem to shake their heads. Where is he going with this?

"Its because since it's inception this school has been a cover for a series of top secret and, if known about controversial medical experiments."

There is laughter, but it dies away quickly as the torch illuminates his serious face from below, making his normally rounded features sharp and angular.

"I laughed too at first, that was until I found out about Yuri Yurei."

Ikuno sits up a little next to me, even Suzu whose head was drooping slowly towards my arm looks alert, in fact everyone seems to be listening now. I might be wrong, but I think Ryouta is enjoying a corridor of girls in their bedclothes hanging of his every word.

"Yuri was a first year when she came to Yamaku, having lost her sight in a horrible accident at her father's chemical factory the year before. Now all of us know what it's like to hate our conditions sometimes." There are nods and small sounds of agreement. "Yuri despised her blindness, hated it with all her being. She was suffering and it was evident to every student and teacher who met her."

He pauses, the only sound the rain pounding against the window at the end of the hall.

"Of course the school tried to help, they sent her to the therapist, but it was useless, there was just no consoling her. Until one day Yuri arrived in lessons a bright smile on her face and her eyes open and alert, no one could work out what had happened, but Yuri could see again."

The mood seems to have changed, from giggles and laughter we are all deathly silent.

"All she would say whenever anyone even teachers asked is that the school had helped her,"

Ryouta continues. "She seemed happy and this miracle was a reason for a jubilant feeling for most, however this wasn't to last. People started to notice she was becoming more withdrawn, she refused to look people in the eye, refused even to eat lunch with her classmates. This behaviour came to a head when in the middle of class she started begging her music teacher never to drive in the rain again."

"The teacher laughed her off, as did the rest of the class, everyone had simply assumed she had gone mad." Pausing for dramatic effect he continues in a low voice.

"The very next day the music teacher was killed while driving in very heavy rain."

My hand starts to tingle softly, a sure warning sign of the phantoms interest.

"Of course after that people started to talk, how had she known? For her part Yuri retreated to her room and would only talk to the school therapist and what she told him was very strange, because you see whenever Yuri Yurei looked into somebody's eyes she would see the manner of their death."

Perfectly timed a roar of thunder rebates around us, several girls scream, including the two on each side of me. I manage to keep my cool, but this is definitely getting wired.

"That's made up, it can't happen!" snorts Misaki, an artistic girl from my class.

"No? Consider this, during the second world war the United States, Soviet Union and even Japan studied the hidden powers of the mind, like ESP and telekinesis, it's claimed they found nothing. But the original files have never been released to the public and no one has ever been willing to talk."

I do remember hearing about some creepy experiments doing the war, but it can't be real. Can it?

"It's a well known fact we use only ten percent of our brains. When they did whatever they did to get Yuri to see again they went too far, they activated part of her brain that we all have, but can't use."

"So how come I've never heard of her?" Another girl pipes up from the shadows.

"Because of what happened next," Ryouta says darkly.

"She became a recluse, not leaving her room. Even when staff tried dragging her to class she would shut her eyes and scream until they left her alone, this went on for weeks. Until one wet and windy night, very much like tonight. Dressed only in her white nightdress she climbed to the roof, and jumped to her death."

The only sound for a moment is the howling wind.

"They never found a note, in fact all they found in her room was a broken mirror."

"W…which room was it?" Ikuno asks beside me, the fear in her voice a little startling.

"I've never been able to find out, it's one on this floor though," he looks around at his captivated audience. "You see realising the catastrophe her death would be for the school and their reputations the foundation erased all traces of Yuri Yurei, it's as if she never existed. I hear they gave her parents a large settlement not to talk."

There's a sharp intake of breath as another flash of lighting temporally throws our scared faces into sharp relief.

"Strangely though the story of Yuri Yurei does not end there, because you see even after her death she refuses to leave this school. Something they did here binds her to this place, sometimes on nights like this you will wake up to a gentle shuffling. Now heed my advice for you have a choice, you can either close your eyes tight, she's not a evil spirit, simply lost, she will leave you alone."

"Or?" I ask, surprised at the shaking in my own voice.

"You can look into her eyes, be warned though, because her reaction will tell you something about your future you might not want to know."

Well I'm never sleeping again.

"Well goodnight girls, it's getting close to curfew." Ryouta says cheerfully, getting to his feet.

"Wait!" Molly gasps, "Was that all true?"

He smiles simply, tapping the side of his nose with a finger before turning and walking down the corridor. He is an artist, even I almost believed him. Apparently I'm in the minority though, my hall mates gather in small groups, afraid to be alone. Babies.

Ikuno says nothing, she looks very shaken. She wasn't in on this? I don't know if I should be impressed or annoyed at Ryouta. I wonder how long he's been sitting on that story.

"Emergency sleepover?" I ask her softly.

"Yes please," she mummers. "Let me grab my night things."

"Err," I pause, "Do you have something other than that white nightdress?"

Outside the window wind howls and the rain pours, just as It did all those years ago.