The apartment I lived in until last year had a U-shaped layout, three stories high, with no elevator. I occupied unit 204. From my entrance, I could see unit 201 directly in front of me. Unit 201 had already been vacant when I moved in.
To keep my room clean, I often smoked cigarettes outside the entrance late at night. Since some people would give me unpleasant looks if they found me smoking, I usually did it at night.
On that day, around 1 a.m., while taking a smoke break, I noticed something strange on the window next to the entrance of unit 201, which was directly in front of me. At first, I thought it was just some whitish stain, but as I approached and looked closely, it resembled a handprint about the size of a child’s hand.
I figured that maybe a neighborhood child had sneaked into the vacant unit and dirtied the window. “Oh well,” I thought, and absentmindedly traced the stain with my finger, but it didn’t feel like I imagined it would. I realized that the stain was on the inside.
Ah, it wasn’t a neighborhood child after all. It must have been someone doing cleaning or something who had made the mess. With that realization, I returned to my room for the day.
Several days passed, and I had completely forgotten about the handprint incident. One day, while going outside to smoke again, I happened to glance at unit 201 and noticed something strange. The handprint had gotten larger.
No, it wasn’t just getting larger. It looked as if someone had pressed their hand against the window and forcefully slid it sideways. The handprint had spread horizontally as if it had flowed. I thought, “There must have been some outrageous contractor involved.” Lost in my thoughts, I inadvertently stared at it when the door of unit 203 opened, and a man named Tanaka, who lived there, appeared.
“Oh…” Uh-oh, he saw me smoking. I quickly turned around, stuffed the cigarette into a portable ashtray, and hesitated to turn back because of the awkwardness. Then I heard a voice from behind saying, “Hahaha, don’t worry about it.”
“I’m sorry…” When I turned around, Tanaka cautiously approached and whispered, “Hey, it’s getting bigger, isn’t it?” “Ah… You think so too? Some outrageous contractor must have done this.” “Contractor… What do you mean?” “Huh? What do you mean?” “I thought the same, so I asked the landlord when I met them the other day. But if it was cleaning, it should have been done a long time ago.” “Huh? So, is it still a prank?” “But all the doors should be locked. I had them come and check, but they said it’s ‘existing dirt.’ The landlord’s vision has gotten quite blurry due to age.”
Then what could it be… As I pondered with a perplexed expression, sensing the awkward atmosphere, Tanaka said, “Oh, sorry for saying weird things in the middle of the night. My apologies. Well, I’m going to the convenience store…” and went downstairs, disappearing.
Feeling an unusual atmosphere emanating from that room, I decided to reach out to Sato, an acquaintance of a friend. Sato wasn’t someone who claimed to be a “spiritual medium” or had any supernatural abilities. He just had an interest in such things and read more books on the subject than others. He also frequented suspicious places more often than others, but he was an ordinary-looking person with a calm personality.
I felt embarrassed to make a big fuss about it, but I wanted to talk to someone about it. So, I thought of Sato. When I told him about it, he immediately expressed his desire to see it and suggested bringing him to my place on Sunday evening. I was anxious that someone might pass by and see us scrutinizing the handprint.
“It seems like it wants to get out, right? From this room.”
“Wants to get out?”
“It’s just a conjecture,” Sato said, making it clear. Someone or something wants to come out of this room. Until now, the previous resident must have taken some measures to prevent it from moving freely.
When the previous resident moved out of this room, they must have left some kind of restraint behind, so that entity can’t move freely even now. However, due to some accident, a gap was created only at this window. Why did the previous resident want to confine it in the first place? And what exactly is it? I don’t know.
“Then, shall we ask the landlord and go inside together?” I suggested, but Sato politely declined, saying, “I don’t have the courage for that. There’s something unsettling about this place. Even an amateur like me can sense it.” He quickly went downstairs, saying those words, so I hurriedly followed him and treated him to dinner outside as a thank-you for coming this far.
Sato was incredibly knowledgeable about such topics, and I unintentionally got engrossed in our conversation until late.
On the way back.
Since it had gotten quite late, I hurriedly returned to the apartment and ran into Tanaka in front of the mailbox on the first floor. He said he was coming back from work.
“Working until this late on a Sunday is tough, isn’t it?” I commented.
“Well, yeah…” Tanaka replied as we climbed the stairs together. It was late at night, and everything around us was silent, so I didn’t feel like looking toward unit 201. It seemed Tanaka felt the same way. We exchanged a few insignificant conversations while facing straight ahead.
When we reached the second floor, “Well then…” “Ah, yes.”
And we parted ways.
I took out the key from my pocket and tried to open the door, but I couldn’t help but think about Sato’s evening conversation. Maybe it’s okay to just take a quick look…
With that thought, I turned around slowly and caught a glimpse of Tanaka’s profile first. Tanaka had wide-open eyes and was staring fixedly at a single point. His gaze was probably fixed on unit 201. Timidly, I turned my face towards unit 201. Something was off…
“It’s open.” “Huh?” “The window, it’s open.”
I shifted my gaze to the window, and indeed, it was open. It wasn’t just that we couldn’t take our eyes off it. Something was trying to come out. It wasn’t in the shape of a person as I initially imagined. It was small, black, and slimy…
If I were to compare it, it resembled a reptile. It was crawling out through the gap in the window, inch by inch. This is bad. It would be bad if it spotted us. I felt it instinctively.
I hurriedly searched for the key in my pocket. Tanaka was already about to insert the key into the lock. It got caught and wouldn’t come out of my pocket easily. In a bold move, I pulled my hand, causing the key to slip out and fall over the railing, down below.
To go down, we had to take the stairs. And for that, we needed to head towards unit 201. I didn’t have the courage for that. When I turned around at the sound of a “slurp,” it had already crawled out of the window. I felt helpless and collapsed right there.
As Tanaka unlocked the door and was about to enter, at that very moment, The thing that had been moving very slowly suddenly crawled with tremendous speed on the ground, Slipping into Tanaka’s room just as the door was about to close. It must have been in Tanaka’s blind spot.
The door closed with a “bang!” and there were footsteps rushing towards the back of the room, And then, only silence remained. I couldn’t move for a while, just like that.
After that, I stopped seeing Tanaka. However, there was nothing strange about the state of his room or any strange noises. It could simply be that our timing didn’t match up, or maybe he was just avoiding me. I went to report this to Sato because I didn’t know what to do.
According to Sato, it was probably just a coincidence that Tanaka was chosen. Maybe it was because he was close by. That’s probably the extent of it. For now, you were lucky. We don’t know what that thing is that we saw, but based on its appearance, it’s definitely not something normal.
I don’t know what the plan is for Tanaka, either. Whether it’s immediate or taking time slowly. Anyway, it’s probably best not to get involved with Tanaka anymore. The best thing would be to hear from the previous tenant, but…
Upon hearing that, I tried talking to the landlord, but apparently, due to privacy laws or something, they couldn’t discuss such matters. Sato gently refused to get further involved in this matter. After that, I took advantage of a job transfer offer from my company and moved out of that apartment. It was many years ago. I wonder if Tanaka is still in that apartment, or if the apartment itself still exists. It’s something that piques my curiosity, but I can’t bring myself to go and check.
