The girl’s explanation was as Richard expected.

Her name is Takata Yumi, she’s in her third year of senior high school, basically 12th grade. She was supposed to be preparing for her University Entrance Exams.

Because the travel from her cram school back to her parents house was quite long, she ended up living alone in an apartment between her high school and the cram school.

Although she lived alone, her mom would visit her from time to time and the neighbors were kind people.

Initially things were going well... until three months ago when mysterious things started happening in her apartment.

The first problem was her missing clothes, but unlike others who lost their underwear to perverts, all she lost was a single sock from a pair.

Of course that sounded like her just misplacing the darned sock somewhere so she just ignored it.

It was not uncommon for people to lose socks and Yumi thought nothing of it until-

A month after her socks started to disappear... It started.

Whenever she fell asleep, she would feel a tug on her foot.

She chalked it up to a dream of falling.

The kind where you end up jerking away thinking you fell or something similar.

Of course, Yumi did not recall what kind of dream she was having when the incident happened but her rational mind explained it as such-

"Just a falling dream"

But since then, things started to escalate.

Then it happened...

IIt started with her indoor slippers, the left slipper went missing, then her shoes- again, the left shoe vanished.

When these things happened, things started to connect themselves. Whenever she had those "knee jerk" dreams, it was also from her left foot...

Dread immediately washed over her and she can’t fall asleep. She kept the lights on every night but the growing dread did not let her rest.

She tried to sleep on a futon instead but when she lay on the ground, she found that her bed had some space underneath.

Although it was the middle of the day, when she tried to sleep on her futon, she felt as if there was a pair of eyes staring at her from underneath the bed.

Unable to take it, she threw the bed away, she didn’t wait to sell it and directly disposed of it.

Yet- even after the bed was gone, Yumi still had that feeling of constant dread.

She tried to talk to her friends about it but they brushed her off telling her that she was freaking herself out.

She invited them over yet, when they were about to enter her house, her friends would receive calls. Some had a family emergency and others had various reasons why they couldn’t. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Even the boy that had a crush on her and tried to get into her room ended up getting called by the principal after one of her friends found a suspicious powder in his bag the day he went out of his way to propose he accompany her if she can’t really sleep in her room.

At first, the mysterious occurrences that surrounded Yumi’s room visits were chalked up to bad luck but soon. Rumors started to spread and they said that it wasn’t the room but Yumi who was haunted.

People stopped talking to her and she grew increasingly isolated.

Then it came-

One night, Yumi was unable to bear the fatigue. There was an exam and unlike before when she was able to sneak in some sleep during lectures. This time, Yumi had to stay awake for the whole day.

By nightfall, Yumi was completely exhausted and collapsed on her futon.

But that was her mistake as she was dragged into a nightmare.

All Yumi could remember was getting dragged through mud by a hand, she couldn’t resist nor could she move. All she could do was watch as the back of a dark shadow was reflected in her eyes as the hand of the shadow dragged her by her left foot.

Fortunately, her mom had visited her that day and the moment she fell asleep, she was immediately woken up by her mother as Yumi had apparently started to go into a seizure moments after falling asleep.

She woke up in a hospital bed and she told her mother everything yet the doctors said that she was only experiencing the effects of "sleep deprivation".

Apparently, much like when people who starve for a long time were made to eat solid food suddenly, people who are deprived of sleep would experience the same thing.

Though it was rare, it wasn’t impossible to happen.

Yumi’s mother believed the doctor and calmed down her daughter.

It also didn’t help that many teens were susceptible to paranoia and other problems during the period leading up to the university entrance exams.

The doctor recommended therapy, sleeping medication and other calming medicine.

Yet to Yumi, that was just the world and people she trusted turning their backs on her.

To her, the things she experienced were paranormal.

Even her mother didn’t believe in the missing shoes and socks, blaming her for misplacing them or losing them!

Because of all that, Yumi immediately believed in the mysterious text she received.

Although she thought that it was a scam, to her, this was her final shot at escaping this problem yet-

"Didn’t you think of just going back home? Tell your parents that home was more calming for you and all that"

"They... they say that I need to learn to be independent"

"..."

Yumi;s problem had an immediate solution yet the doctors report had already muddied the water.

Her parents already believed that she was simply acting out, that everything was nothing more than a delusion she made in response to the stress of her exams.

"You said that you felt comfortable here right? Do you perhaps feel uncomfortable everywhere else- I mean, did the "evil presence" somehow attach to you instead of your room?"

Richard had a lot of things to say but the thing he felt was weird was the fact that Yumi could have moved somewhere else.

Internet cafes were a cheap option where she could avoid sleeping in her room for cheap. All she had to do was sleep in the private room- something many people do actually.

But the fact that she didn’t proved something-

"I... I only feel calm when sleeping in the presence of others. But... it has to be many people and they should be near me"

She was basically attacked in her sleep when her mother was with her but she was able to sleep in class.

There were other places she could sleep but she avoided them.

Maybe the nurses office during breaks or the aforementioned internet cafe’s.

But the fact that she didn’t do that showed that she wasn’t simply feeling uncomfortable in her room, shhe was feeling unsafe everywhere... everywhere she was alone.

"I see..."

Richard turned to Cindy who had approached them a while ago and nodded his head at her.

"This is our resident psychic, do you mind if she could give you a reading? Free of charge of course!"

The girl nodded, she was willing to do anything if it meant getting rid of the ghost that was haunting her.

Cindy took the seat opposite of the girl, her chair was positioned sideways from the desk, it was for consultation after all and opposite of her seat was another.

Sitting down right across from Yumi, Ciindy took the girl’s hand and closed her eyes.

Then-

Within Richard’s vision, he saw it-

The monster that was haunting Yumi.

It was a giant glimpse but somehow, his ability which used to only give him faint hints, "feelings" that took various forms depending on what he wanted to know-

Now, he saw a quick glimpse-

IIt was a dark figure in a swamp, it didn’t "stand" instead, he could see that only its upper body had emerged from beneath.

He couldn’t make out the figure’s full image but he knew that it was huge-

A dark shadow over the swamp... he can’t remember any Japanese folklore or story related to such a being.

But that was what he "saw".

"She’s under a pact... by the way she described her experience- she was likely contracted forcefully by whatever is haunting her. From the looks of it, she’s currently being sustained by that one that made a pact with her but I don’t know how long that would last."

Cindy spoke in english, Yumi is unfortunately bad at it but she could grasp a few of the words.

"Contract? I didn’t sign anything!"

She exclaimed but Richard answered her words bluntly.

"You haven’t found your missing items yet have you?"

Yumi went silent... even for her, she knew that contracts had to have an exchange. If the contract that the woman before her talked about related to the spirit haunting her... then there should have been something taken from her right?

"But, you probably know of the tales related to the devil right? You don’t need to make an immediate exchange, sometimes, the price would come later"

"But I never agreed to anything! I don’t even know what this is!"

Yumi found it difficult to accept, if they said that she was haunted by a ghost then she could still nod her head. But the words that the woman before her used insinuated that the haunting was not something that happened by pure accident or coincidence!

"Those in the mystical world don’t abide by rules, they use any tricks to entrap people. I’m sure you’ve come across one or two stories about people being "spirited away". While Gh*bl* made a movie that turns the horrific encounter into something somewhat tame and fantastical- reality is harsh and sometimes, its stranger than fiction"

Yumi went silent, she didn’t know what too say all she could was ask-

"What do I do?"

Richard smiled as he extended his hand towards the girl.

"Fortuantely you came across our advertisement, we made sure that only those who need it would receive it. So... are you willing to make a deal?"

Richard extended his hand towards the girl.

At that moment, Yumi felt as if Richard could solve all her problems. A mysterious charm emanated from the young man and she reached out and grabbed his hand-

"Please"

She asked with a desperate tone in her voice and Richard...

"Don’t worry, we will solve all your problems"

He said before leading Yumi to the next room where the actual deal would be made.