Haunted

“Yes sweetie?” Harumi turned her attention from her washing up to look towards Satoshi. He looked a little shaken by something. Putting the plate down and walking over to him, she knew something was wrong. “Satoshi, what's the matter?”

“Mama, this house is bad, I don't like it.” He said biting his lip and looking over his shoulder like he was expecting something to be behind him.

“Whatever do you mean?” She kept her voice light and airy. She knew Satoshi wasn't happy about their move but both herself and Hanzo had agreed it was for the best. They'd needed to get away and have a fresh start.

“The ghost doesn't want us here.”

Harumi blinked a few times at that. “The... Ghost?”

Satoshi nodded, “He's scary mama, I don't like him.”

“Oh.” She wasn't sure what to say to that. It seemed Satoshi had an imaginary friend, though the term friend didn't seem to be the correct word for it. “Well, don't you worry about him, if he does anything to upset you, you just come to me alright?” She smiled and tried to not be too disappointed when Satoshi didn't look convinced.

Still he went off to continue playing and she returned to the housework. She wondered if this bout of imagination was brought on by such a sudden life change. She supposed it could be the case, and it would most likely go away once he'd gotten used to his new surroundings and made a few friends.

She didn't think about it for the rest of the day. Hanzo returned home from work, they ate dinner, put Satoshi to bed and then after a brief discussion on Hanzo's work day the couple retired to bed themselves.

Harumi found herself drifting off to sleep until she found herself distracted by a dripping sound. She groaned, knowing she'd never be able to sleep unless she eliminated the source of the noise. She slid out of the warm safety of bed, walking to the bedroom door. Pausing in the hallway it sounded like the dripping was coming from the bathroom. She sighed, either Hanzo or Satoshi hadn't turned the tap off properly. Great.

When she got to the bathroom door, she jumped back in surprise as she felt water touching her feet. “What the...” she whispered, wincing as the door creaked as it opened. Inside she found the bathtubs tap on, and the water overflowing out of the top. “Oh for god's sake.”

She grumbled to herself as she angrily stormed towards the bath and clicked the tap off. She just hoped this wouldn't cause too much water damage, they couldn't afford such work so soon after moving in.

As she bent to reach for the plug, she suddenly felt a hand on the back of her head. Before she could react, she was pushed down, face submerged in the water in seconds. She panicked, fighting against the grip of whoever was holding her down, but she couldn't seem to shake them off. She couldn't even reach the plug. Water entered her mouth as she mistakenly opened to try and take a breathe. She choked. She choked and-

She shot upright. Panting, she surveyed her surroundings. She was back in bed. A nightmare? It had been a long time since she'd had a nightmare, especially one so vivid. She tried to relax, just a nightmare, but then she felt something. It was something wet that dropped down onto her face from above. She frowned, then slowly turned to look up.

There was someone on the ceiling staring back at her.

Her scream must have been loud enough to wake the entire neighbourhood.

She closed her eyes, hearing the click of a light switch and feeling hands scramble to reach her shoulders and Hanzo's voice cutting in to say “Harumi? What's wrong?”

She couldn't speak, but risked opening her eyes again to glance at the ceiling. The figure had gone. That hadn't been part of the nightmare, she was sure of it, she had been awake when that happened.

“Shh, hey, what's wrong, what happened?” Hanzo asked, placing his hands on each of her cheeks.

“T-There was someone on the ceiling,” she sobbed, and Hanzo looked like he was trying to stay neutral but it was clear he must have believed it was a dream. “I-I had a nightmare, someone was trying to drown me in the bathtub... and then when I woke up I felt something dripping from the ceiling and I looked up and...” She stopped, choking on her words instead.

“What... did they look like?” Hanzo questioned, she knew it was his way of trying to be supportive, getting her to think about what she saw and rationalise it.

“He was male, had short black hair and a beard... A scar over his right eye, and his eyes were clouded over like he was...” She paused, thinking about those soulless eyes that were looking down at her. “Like he was dead.”

The ghost doesn't want us here.

That was absurd though, ghost's didn't exist. She barely registered the small knock on her door, and Hanzo's questioning Satoshi what he wanted.

“Is mama okay?” Satoshi asked. Harumi's eyes met his. The ghost doesn't want us here.

“Mama's fine, she just had a scary dream that's all-”

“Was it about the bathtub?”

Harumi gasped. Satoshi hadn't been in the room when she said that. She blinked a few times. There was a possibility he overheard it, but there was something about the tone he used that suggested he knew something that neither she or Hanzo knew. “How did you know that?”

“I had a nightmare about it last night,” Satoshi replied, padding over to the end of the bed and crawling up to settle between his parents. “I think it's how Kuai Liang died.”

Harumi shared a looked with Hanzo, before cautiously asking, “Who is Kuai Liang?”

“That's the ghost,” he answered confidently, “I've been talking to him. He looks scary, and was kinda mean at first but I think he's nice really. He's just upset and doesn't want us living in this house.”

Harumi didn't know what to say, what was there that she could say? Next to her Hanzo sighed softly, “Alright, it's late, Satoshi why don't you hop in bed with us for the night and we can talk about this in the morning.” It was avoidance, in a way, but Harumi had to admit she was exhausted. She needed to get to sleep. She just nodded.

As she settled back into bed, Hanzo did the same on his side, while Satoshi buried himself under the covers between them. As Hanzo turned off the light, Harumi tried her best to put the nights horrors to the back of her mind.

And as she finally closed her eyes she definitely tried to ignore what looked like someone standing in the corner of the room.

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