He reflected, saying to himself, "I am almost done. I have waited this long." It had gone well, he thought, in an innocent voice that carried a rhythm of warmth. He kept thinking about how he would finish the meal. He then grabbed one more bite of the miso soup slowly, slowly, and slowly as he ate the noodles. He wondered how the manga would end. Would it be a horror, a trilogy, or a thriller? He looked toward the gss window. He felt a fog; he felt its presence. The fog was rolling outside. He was shocked, asking himself, "Why is it so foggy outside?" He looked out and noticed something: a visual that showed the slight shadow of a hand. He watched it while he was eating. Then he said, "It's just in my mind. It's just my head." He thought, I guess there are pces ghosts can haunt sometimes. He looked again, and then—whoosh—it disappeared. After that, he finished the food and walked slowly. He paused, reflecting on what he had seen. A shadowy hand that never stopped looking at him. The hand belonged to a woman filled with a glowing aura. It was right over his head. It felt crispy cold—a crispness that never sends a breeze. A breeze that will never stop. The kind of breeze that can shake anyone to their core and send them shivers. He walked upstairs, looking down at the stairs that were five steps away, but that thought never stopped lingering. It felt as if the thought was increasing. He never stalled or anything; he just wanted to get up faster because when he thought about the hand again, it sent shivers down his spine—a shiver that he could never forget. He could feel it; he could sense it. He could sense what that thing was. It was not human. It was not alive. He then went upstairs and opened the door. He went crazy. He looked at his room and jumped on his bed, thinking only about the manga itself. His voice sounded excited as he said, "I must read this manga!" He felt so happy that he could finish the volume immediately. A single volume wouldn't feel like enough for him; he needed the entire series. His excitement, his ambitions. He kept reading, and then he read the first panels. It said that the girl's ghost was standing in the window, and then suddenly, a fog came. And... after that, a quiet came over the room. Very, very quiet. Everything became quiet. As the ghost blew in instantly, he was in the dark. He tried to run to the door, but it was locked. He couldn't get out. In the manga, he read—

  The candle wasn't working anymore. It was a mp. He couldn't turn it on. And then after that, he thought to himself, How is this supposed to happen? How am I going to see in the dark? And then the manga was blown out of his hand. And then the window kept bashing, bashing, bashing. He felt fear and anxiety rising, like spikes through his heart. It was beating fast.

  Fog came out of the window. It kept spreading like wildfire. He could feel the coldness coursing through the veins of his heart, finally feeling his pulse click, as if his heart were about to jump out. He stood there, stepping back extensively.

  Afterwards, the fog went under his shelves as the shelves began to twitch, twitch, twitch. He could feel the atmosphere change. The sky grew blue as he felt his head waver. He could not stand what he was seeing. He saw his eyes widening. It was an extraordinary experience. He could feel the dread in his heart.

  He watched as this all unfolded around him. He said, "I thought it was going to be a normal book. Not some horror thing." He looked around. Lights became... nothing. He could barely see anything. All he could see was the dead light of the darkness. The stars. The sky. The fog. All he felt was dread.

  The room started to rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble. As the time got closer, something bashed the window, but it didn't break; it was like knocking through the gss. It kept knocking—bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash. It kept going over and over and over, until he could feel that someone was there. He was not alone.

  Then after that, a hand wiped the fog into a shape. He saw a pale hand shining through the darkness, and his eyes went wide. As he started to bite his lip, he backed away and then stood and watched in fear. The thing kept going. The fog intensified even more. The room was fog-covered. He could no longer see the room; all he could see was the hand standing there in front of him.

  And after that, the head smmed into the window with a shock. The gss started to creak from the impact. It didn't break, but once he saw the head of the girl, he saw her eyes were emotionless and her hair was bck. Her smile grew red and wide enough to shock him to the core, through his bones. He didn't look at her. He felt the fear intensifying like a fire.

  He stood there, his eyes widening, his mouth twitching from the impact. He said to himself, "No one should stand near her. No one should be near her. She is not human. She is a monster. I would rather run from her instead of staying here." He tried to run, but he couldn't. His body wouldn't budge. He said, "Move! Move! Why can't I move? Why am I stuck here?"

  The ghost looked at him, thinking, Why is he scared of me? I'm not trying to be scary, she said to herself, while reflecting in shock at how scary she actually was. So she made her smile widen, but it still scared him to the core. He still backed off. He said, "This is not right. I should run. I should run."

  "Why should I stay here with a freak like that?" he said to himself. "Why should I? Why should I? Why should I? Why should I?" He kept thinking it over and over. He said to himself, this ghost should leave me alone. They say in tales that if you say "leave me alone," it will leave you alone. But he was too afraid to speak this out loud.

  Afterwards, he said, "I hope you make it to the afterlife." But the ghost felt offended. She started to smash the window instantly, shaking him to the core. He stumbled and fell on his back. He looked confused. Why is she affected? She should be resting right now. But... he saw her smile widely. Then, the ghost's smile grew even wider. It grew so wide that it shook him. And then the gss broke. Instantly. And then after that, the gss was shattered. And then... he knew that he was not turning back from this. He closed his eyes. He was afraid of what would happen next. But then, the candles and everything went back on. The fog was suddenly nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, the mom was downstairs. She heard the commotion and was shocked by what she heard, so she walked quickly and then ran upstairs. She ran so fast that a dash, dash, dash could be heard all the way from the basement. And then she said—and then she said—when she saw the window, she was shocked by what she saw. She said, "Oh my, what happened here? Who did this?" Then he said, "Mom..." He lied just to cover up that the ghost had done it. He said, "I did it. I didn't mean to, Mom. I'm the one who did it." As he looked down, he felt uncertain of her reaction, but he felt guilt because he was only doing it to show empathy toward the ghost. He knew that he would be in trouble, but he willingly took the bme anyway. He said, "I'm sorry, Mom. I won't do it again next time." He spoke with sincerity, and then he said to his mother, "How can I pay for it? I'll save up and fix the gss. I'll make sure it's fixed so you don't need to deal with it anymore." He then fidgeted with his thumbs.