This happened 13 years ago now.
I still don’t know what that was. I hope to be able to forget it soon.
At the time, I had just moved to Tokyo and didn’t know what was right or left.
I wandered around the strange city with a tattered map of Tokyo given to me by my grandfather, which I had no idea when it was.
The reason I came to Tokyo was to look for a job.
Having been out of work in the countryside, I relied on distant relatives to help me find a job.
My uncle said ”I don’t know about jobs, but I can offer you a place to live at a reasonable price.”
I had never spoken to this man, my uncle, except on the phone, and I was completely uneasy.
Looking back now, however, I realize that my uneasy feeling at the time may have been an insect’s warning.
When I arrived at the apartment, it was almost dark.
A large lady was standing there.
She said, “Welcome, my dear. You must be tired. Let me show you around.”
I followed her lead and entered the dimly lit apartment.
I was surprised to find that not only was the building in a very complicated location, but also the building itself extended into a more secluded part of the building.
I felt a strange sense of oppression. Weeds were growing freely.
In fact, perhaps because the sun was setting, I even felt as if I were entering a dark cave.
I was strangely afraid of the fly that had perched on the lady’s back before I knew it, and I clutched my baggage.
I said in a loud voice, “Well, it’s my first time in Tokyo, so there are a lot of people here.”
Then the lady turned around and said, “Quiet!” she was so angry that I could not speak.
I then realized that she was an uncle dressed as a woman.
I was disheartened and at that moment I felt the horror of the city.
Now I am aware that it was an unusual place to be.
The room was fully furnished, except for the putrid smell, and I had nothing to complain about.
The room was a six-tatami mat room and a kitchen with a cracked floorboard. The water was unbearably muddy.
I was thankful for my own private toilet.
However, the hole in the Japanese-style toilet smelled terrible because of the summer heat. I could smell it even with the lid on…
The aunt…no, the uncle’s thick makeup glistened and the smell of the disgusting makeup made me nauseous forever.
Then the uncle, who had removed his makeup, came to visit me again and greeted me as if nothing had happened.
”Thank you for coming so far from home. I’m sorry I couldn’t come to pick you up. A woman answered the door, didn’t she? How did it go?”
“What?”
“Was she beautiful?”
The little fat man then looked into my eyes.
Is it called eyeliner? The makeup was still on my eyes.
“Nothing to tell…”
When I replied vaguely with only my mouth, he was in an overtly bad mood.
The smell of stale air in the room, my greasy sweat, and his makeup filled the six tatami mats, where there was no breeze.
That night, I got into the dusty and stuffy futon provided and slept forcibly because I was tired.
How much time had passed? There were several moving objects in the dark room.
I don’t know if it was a sign, a sound, or a rotten smell…whatever it was, something was around my futon.
But I forced myself to meditate and went back to sleep. I was also quite tired.
The next day, I looked for a part-time job in several places.
But I couldn’t find one, so I ordered coffee at a coffee shop and felt small and lonely, frightened by the hustle and bustle of the city.
Suddenly, my eyes fell on my wrist holding my coffee cup.
…Tooth marks?
You have to look closely to notice. But it was clearly marked with teeth marks.
I assumed I must have chewed it in my sleep.
It tasted bad to drink coffee with a hand that had much smaller teeth marks than mine.
Frankly, I wanted to leave.
But the place to return was my apartment.
Would I meet my uncle? Terrified, I trudged back to my room and locked the door.
The putrid smell had subsided somewhat, but there was a new lingering scent of makeup in the room.
That night, as I slept under the covers, which were covered with a lot of slobber, I again felt some presence.
I think they were cats, but I was in the middle of what seemed like a tropical night (it wasn’t really summer yet), in the sweltering heat.
I was wrapped under the covers, sweating.
But I couldn’t bear to do the opposite, and in the darkness I suddenly pulled my hand out from under the covers and tried to brush the black mass away with my hand.
I wanted to make sure it was all in my mind.
But the back of my hand hit something cold, and it seemed to hit the wall with such force that it rolled onto the tatami mats.
I felt a chill run down my spine at the sensation in my hand.
It was the same feeling I had felt on my cheek when I was a young man and got into a fight.
The black mass rolled around and stopped. Suddenly I understood that it was a human head.
A moment later
“Where am I?”
Suddenly it screamed in a low, throaty voice.
I seemed to have fainted when I heard it.
When I awoke, many heads were gone.
I was drenched in sweat, so I took off my shirt to wipe myself off. Then I was astonished.
My whole body was covered with teeth marks. I didn’t do it in my sleep.
The proof was that I had teeth marks on my cheeks that almost bled.
And the teeth marks varied from large to small.
I screamed and tried to leave, but I did not forget to shave.
Uncle Auntie and Uncle did not show up, but I was being driven further and further away.
In fact, I was acting strangely at this time, even when I think about it now.
The most important reason for this is that I was still sleeping in that room.
I had lost more than 10 kilograms of weight and had turned pale enough to give people the creeps.
I couldn’t find a job at all, and I would return home exhausted.
The teeth marks did not disappear for a day and were all over my body, and one of the interviewers asked me, “What are those teeth marks?”.
I couldn’t find a good excuse, so I just said, “something bit me.,” and he laughed at me.
He must have thought my girlfriend did it.
But I was nearing my limit.
I began to see visions and even wore bandages all over my body to hide my teeth marks.
I was going crazy.
That night, I found a piece of paper and a nutritional drink in my room with a note from my uncle saying it was for me.
I was tired, so I gulped it down without hesitation.
And I seemed to fall into a deeper sleep than usual.
When I woke up in the middle of the night, my head was clear.
And I clearly realized that the dozen or so black blobs clinging to my body were biting me, which was unusual.
This was no time to be scared.
Well, yes, it was. I thought I was calm enough to think that, but I must have been at my peak.
I woke up with a start, and in the dark room, the black lumps proceeded to roll across the tatami mats.
I felt it disappear into the kitchen.
I said, “Wait!!!!” I raised my voice, which I had never raised before, and went to the kitchen.
Then I felt as if those shadows had somehow escaped into the bathroom, so I ran into the toilet.
The toilet was Japanese style, but it was pitch black inside.
I tried to turn on the light, but it did not work, so I turned over the luggage box and grabbed a flashlight.
Then, laughing, I pointed the light into the toilet.
I saw the filth in the darkness. If you look closely, you can see maggots crawling around.
And in the middle of it all, looking up at me, were many rotting heads and skeletonized heads.
Covered in my feces and urine…
Geeaaaahhh!
I screamed and for some reason grabbed my hat and ran out to kick in the door in my underwear.
Geez!”
There seemed to be someone on the other side of the door.
When I turned around, I saw a man dressed as a woman lying on the floor with a master key and a saw.
“Don’t open the door suddenly!”
I was so angry that I threw stones at the nearest one.
The uncle screamed and cowered.
I soon realized that the stones I was throwing were human heads.
They were biting him more and more.
He kept screaming, as if his flesh was being bitten off.
I got scared and ran out of the apartment.
I have not been in touch with my uncle since then, and he has not contacted me.
I hope that head is a ghost.
Otherwise, I would have been in that apartment the entire time I was there, every single day, shitting and…
Thirteen years have passed since then, and though it is now a distant memory
The single tooth mark that remains on my neck did not disappear for some time.
It may have been the bite mark of the raw head I hit.
