“What do we do now? Tell me!” Starting to panic, Natsuna turned back to the boy to beg for help.
But he wasn’t there.
The moment Natsuna and Rin had taken their eyes off him, he’d disappeared.
“Natsuna, where did that boy go?” Rin asked.
“I’m not sure, but he was right there a second ago…”
The two girls could only stand there, dumbfounded.
That evening.
When Natsuna arrived home, she didn’t eat dinner, just locked herself in her room. That worried her mom, who knocked on her door.
“Natsuna, what’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?” her mom called in.
But Natsuna stayed curled up on her bed without responding.
What do I do? At this rate, the wriggler will catch up with me and Rin, too…
Her mom probably wouldn’t believe her, especially not the part about the urban legend.
Natsuna had no idea what to do and just shivered in fear all alone.
Buzz, buzz.
Her phone vibrated on the table. She had a message from Rin.
Natsuna scrambled to read it.
Rin: I figured out a way to avoid whatever happens after seeing the wriggler.
How?!
Natsuna sent a message back and received a reply from Rin right away.
Rin: Come to the shrine on the hill. I’ll show you there.
“The shrine on the hill?”
Natsuna had no idea why Rin would ask to meet her there, but she decided to head over immediately.
It was past eight PM.
Natsuna was in front of the shrine behind the school.
The shrine was on top of a hill and about thirty steps up some stone stairs. At the moment, Natsuna was standing on the lowest step.
The kids at the school called it the “hill shrine” and would play there a lot, but at night it wasn’t lit, so no one approached it after sunset.
The sun had already set, and the shrine was dark.
It’s a little scary…
Natsuna’s entire body shuddered.
Rin had messaged her that there were two rules they needed to follow to make sure they didn’t suffer a terrible fate. The first was to not tell anyone Natsuna was going to the shrine, and the other was to leave her cell phone at home. Natsuna had no clue why she needed to do either of these things, but Rin hadn’t explained anything else.
Because of that, for reasons she didn’t understand at all, Natsuna didn’t let anyone know she was going to the shrine and left her phone at home.
I need Rin to tell me how to avoid whatever is going to happen, and fast!
Even though she was frightened, Natsuna started climbing the steps.
At the top of the stairs, a path led to the shrine’s small entrance where the offering box was set. The rest of the area was surrounded by trees. Once Natsuna reached the top, she started to walk around the front of the shrine, searching for any sign of Rin.
At this time of night, no one else was around.
Where is Rin…?
Even though they were supposed to meet at the shrine, Rin hadn’t told her exactly where. She couldn’t call Rin even if she wanted to, since her phone was at home.
What do I do?
Natsuna felt uneasy and scared as she looked out for Rin.
“What’s wrong?” Suddenly, she heard a man’s voice from off to the side.
When she looked over, she saw a man in a tracksuit sitting on a bench. Maybe he was taking a break from a walk?
He saw Natsuna, stood up, and smiled.
“Um, I was supposed to meet my friend here…,” she said.
“A friend? Ah, if that’s who you’re looking for, there was a girl behind the shrine,” the man said.
“Oh, that’s probably her! Thank you so much!”
After thanking the man, Natsuna ran behind the shrine.
Once she got there, she saw someone standing alone.
“Rin!” Natsuna called to her while running over, and the person turned to look back at her.
“Natsuna!”
It was Rin, just as she’d thought. When Natsuna got close enough to see Rin clearly, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“I was looking for you,” she said.
“Sorry. I didn’t tell you exactly where to go.”
“So how do we make sure that nothing bad will happen to us even though we’ve seen the wriggler?”
Natsuna had come all the way here to ask that.
“Someone told me he would explain how,” Rin said.
“Someone? Do you mean the boy in the red hood?”
He had told them about the wriggler. Had Rin met him again after that?
But then Rin shook her head.
“It wasn’t him. But another person knew about the wriggler.”
“Then who was it?”
Natsuna was doubtful there really was a person like that.
Rustle, rustle!
Suddenly, they heard the trees moving behind them. At the same time, Natsuna felt a dull pain in her head.
“Ah!”
When she turned around, Natsuna saw Rin’s face twisted in fear, then a white figure, but then she lost consciousness.
When Natsuna woke, she saw a pure-white ceiling. She felt like something was wrong and touched her head, only to find it was bandaged.
Natsuna was apparently lying on a hospital bed.
“What’s…going on?”
When she turned to the side, she saw Rin sitting in a chair with a bandage also wrapped around her head. Rin was looking down and crying.
“Rin…,” Natsuna called out to her, and her friend quickly lifted her head.
“Natsuna! You’re awake?!” She smiled and hugged Natsuna. “Thank goodness!”
“Rin, why am I in the hospital?” Natsuna asked with a tilt of her head, and the smile suddenly disappeared from Rin’s face.
“I’m sorry. It’s all my fault…,” Rin said, and she started to tell her what had happened.
Natsuna and Rin had apparently been attacked by a man.
“A man?”
“Yeah, a stranger. He was trying to kidnap us.”