Young Writers Society

The trio finally made it to Haruki's. Kenta could not travel any farther; she sat down on the front porch stairs, crying again. Masaru, as awkward as it was, sat with her, letting her lean on his shoulder. Kaito walked up to the door and knocked twice; Haruki's mother arrived a moment later.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Yes, is Haruki here? We're friends of hers."

That's when she saw Kenta on the stairs. She frowned a little, but nodded. "Come inside." She left the door open for the group while Masaru helped the broken girl to her feet. "Haruki, your friends are here."



***Sorry, it's all I can think of. I'm drawing blanks on this one...***

Haruki came in from one of the other rooms. She was dressed in a pink and white floral patterned kimono that all the female workers in the inn wore. They must have caught her during her shift. She was about to ask why Kaito and Masaru were here when she saw Kenta in tears.

"Kenta! What's wrong?" She ran to her friend's side, which proved difficult in her outfit. Kenta immediately latched onto her and started sobbing into her shoulder. As she comforted her friend she looked up at the boys and asked, "What happened?"

Masaru scratched his head and said, "Let's just say that the story Kaito told us this morning about his T.V. turned out to be true."

Haruki blanched. "Not this nonsense again. Boys, really - "

Kenta finally spoke up. "Stop it, Haruki! It's true - we were there. We were trapped inside the fucking television! Literally!"

The softer girl blinked, looking taken aback and even hurt a little by her friend's words. But she did as commanded and fell silent; she gave Kenta some slack and backed away a step, looking at the floor. "I...I'm sorry... But I don't understand..."

The boys took turns sharing the story of their undesired adventure; after a while, Kenta pulled away and merely leaned on the porch railing, beginning to regain her standard stoic, bad-girl temperament. Haruki listened to the tale in silence, eyes slowly getting bigger and bigger as the suspense and terror built and built, until even she began crying softly. Tears were falling from her eyes by the time they came to the conclusion, their fortunate escape.

She looked at Kenta. "I'm sorry, Kenta... But, what should we do? Anyone we share this with will think we're crazy!"

"I agree with Haruki," Kaito said. "If we try to tell anyone they'll either not believe us or throw us in the nut house. Right now, I think we should just keep this to ourselves."

The others nodded in agreement. Kenta said, "I've got enough problems in my life right now, I don't need this on top of it." Only Haruki understood the true meaning of her words. Kenta was referring to her troubles with her father.

Haruki let out a weary sigh. "First Ms. Tsutsume was found dead and now this. Just what in the world is going on in this town?"

"Wait a minute..." A light seemed to flick on inside Masaru's head. "That's it, Tsutsume Natsuru!"

Everyone looked at Masaru. Kenta was the one who said, "What are you babbling about now?"

"Remember the room with all those faceless posters?" He asked. "I just figured out where I saw them before. Those were promotional posters for one of Ms. Tsutsume's recent movies! I just didn't realize it at the time because her face was cut out of all of them."