Prologue: The Girl in the Photos

Prologue:
The Girl in the Photos

 

PART OF MY daily routine included dropping by this one library after school, but not because of any particular fondness for reading. Given the choice, I preferred to run free in the great outdoors. In an age where I could read manga on my smart phone with the click of a button, pretty much the only physical books in my life were the textbooks necessary for my senior high school classes.

I never saw much appeal in physical books. My eyes grew tired simply from running across the rows of text. As such, the reason why I frequented this library lay elsewhere.

“Fascinating!” squealed █████-senpai, standing right in front of a poster with the words “NO TALKING!” written on it in large, bold font. A third-year student (and so a year ahead of me), she was the Vice-President of the Student Council at my high school.

Thanks to some ancestors from Canada or the U.S.A., the color of her hair resembled honey in the sunlight. Her eyes were such a vivid ultramarine that it was hard to believe the color was natural. Although her well-defined facial features matched the image of a Western beauty, her wild imagination kept the other students at bay.

“Let’s get right down to it, ███-kun,” █████-senpai said, twirling her finger around as she looked down at me excitedly. I was average height for a senior high boy, but she was abnormally tall. To top it off, she made sure to tower over me whenever she spoke, which really laid the pressure on. It was intimidating. I shrank back a bit.

My back rammed against the bookcase fixed to the floor. While I nimbly caught a few books that fell from the shelves, █████-senpai rattled on. “There are some really strange rumors surrounding this library. People rate it one of the Seven Wonders of the School—and, ah, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but apparently this library was originally part of a university that got shut down. It’s uncertain whether it was deemed too much of a hassle to demolish after the university was gone or if some kind of intrigue was in play, but it’s all that remains standing.”

She was a bit hard to follow, that girl. She never really bothered to stop and gather her thoughts; she let her words spill out however they came to mind. But I felt like I needed to at least give the pretense of listening, so I bobbed my head like an idiot.

Indifferent to my lukewarm response, █████-senpai continued prattling on, completely unfazed. “That’s what makes it one of our school’s Seven Wonders. Apparently, the strange rumors surrounding the place date all the way back to when the university was still standing. I’m nuts about paranormal stuff, so I’ve been looking into it.”

Like I didn’t know that. That was precisely why I decided to talk to her in the first place: I was currently caught up in some supernatural mumbo-jumbo of my own. I had no idea who else to turn to—certainly not my parents, teachers, or friends—let alone the police. I had no doubt they would just laugh it off, saying something like, “Where did you come up with that crazy idea?”

Grasping at straws, I turned to this upperclassman, a girl who’d been ostracized for never once backing down from her declaration of “I love the supernatural!”

That love was on full display. “This library is incredible! It’s a treasure trove of mysteries and creepy rumors! The occult on parade!”

She drew so close that I swore it was bad for my poor adolescent heart—and then she broke into a big grin. Throwing both arms wide open, she looked lovingly around her, taking in several deep breaths. It was nerve-wracking, the way her breath touched my forehead when she exhaled.

The two of us were surrounded by countless aisles of library stacks. Even though it was an early summer’s afternoon, the lighting was dim and gloomy. Blame that on the black curtains lowered over the windows to prevent the books from yellowing. Apparently, the fluorescent lights arrayed along the ceiling were burnt out. They failed to offer any light at all.

Put bluntly, it was one creepy library. Going by the stains and cracks along the walls, it was a rather old building. Mold and cobwebs completely overran places where damp had settled in. The place was practically in ruins. It was hard to believe the building was currently in use.

I guess nobody wanted to set foot in that creepy facility, because I didn’t see any librarians, let alone other patrons browsing the aisles. Senpai and I were the only ones there. Her voice carried so well, it actually hurt my ears.

Oblivious to me squinting in pain, she continued her excited rant. “Actually, there are so many weird rumors, I can’t even remember them all! For instance, they say there’s a demon that will pop out of a book here and grant any one wish in exchange for your soul. And if you crack open this one other unlabeled book, your fate will appear on the blank pages for you to read! If you stick your hand in the crack between the stacks, you can get drawn to another world! There are a whole bunch of awesome rumors. Oh, there’s even one about a girl ghost who reads all by her lonesome self for all eternity in the girls’ restroom—and that room’s sealed shut! …Uh, actually, mind if I go to the little girl’s room?” Seeming to think nothing of asking that awkward question, she spun right around.

She was on cloud nine. Seemed pretty safe to assume that her love of ghost stories was the real deal. Personally, I didn’t care for that sort of thing. As far as I was concerned, an upperclassman going gaga over scary stories and creepy rumors just looked nuts. I hadn’t come here for cheap thrills or ghost stories. Honestly, I was more than ready to leave.

“Now about the strange phenomenon you experienced…the, uh…why don’t we dub it ‘The Girl in the Photos?’ I’ve never heard of anything like it. You might have something completely new on your hands! Too cool!” she squealed, squirming in delight and pushing her face even closer to mine. I thought I might lose my mind. She was so dang close that her legs and chest brushed up against me.

“Okay,” she said. “Okay. I’d like to take a sec to review what you told me, so be sure to correct me if I’m wrong about anything. The other day, you came to this library to do some of your summer homework, correct?” Senpai must have noticed she was getting a little short on personal space, because she slid back a few steps before continuing, “You had to write a personal reflection on a reading assignment, right? What a stupid piece of homework! But since you’re a relatively diligent student, you decided to take it seriously and went to the nearest library. That just so happened to be here, right? And that’s where you encountered the paranormal!”

Senpai picked up one of the books that had fallen earlier and began callously flipping through its pages. “Wasn’t there supposed to be a photo stuck inside every single book you picked up in the library?”

That was right. If it was as simple as that, it would be nothing to freak out about. I could dismiss it with the perfectly rational theory that someone who borrowed books from this library used photos instead of bookmarks and forgot to remove them before returning the books. But if that was the extent of the situation, it wouldn’t have me so upset. I wouldn’t turn to this weirdo for help, either.

“No matter what book you grabbed and flipped open, there was the photo! The result was the same, regardless of which stacks or books you tried! Do you still have one, by any chance?”

No way. They were so creepy, I stuffed them back into the books I found them in. I didn’t see any good coming out of holding onto one, and honestly, just making off with them didn’t seem right.

“Aw, too bad! If you still had them, I coulda used one to dig up a whole bunch of stuff. Oh, just so you know, it’s not like I don’t believe you or anything, okay? It’s rare to find physical evidence in the world of the occult!” Senpai cackled, before a stern expression suddenly crossed her face. “All of this, well, could be explained logically. Someone could have contrived a highly elaborate prank. It just requires stuffing a photo in every book in this library. It’s possible for me—or anyone else, for that matter—to pull off with a bit of effort. But that’s where things get really weird.”

Exactly. This was where the story took a turn for the truly paranormal.

“Even after you left…you found a picture of her stuck in every book you cracked open. It didn’t matter if it was a school textbook, a book for sale at the convenience store, a manga magazine that you borrowed from a friend, or part of the ancient masterpiece collection your parents have on display in the bookcase at home. These photos appear in any and all books you open, anywhere, without exception, right?”

Right. There was obviously something weird going on here. No logical explanation could cover this. It was truly a supernatural phenomenon.

Was someone going ahead of me and stuffing photos in every book I might possibly open? I couldn’t see what anyone had to gain from that, and it was far too unrealistic for anyone to pull off. I found it hard to imagine there was a person—or organization—that would benefit from me finding pictures stuck inside books.

Whenever I found them, it only served to startle me. It wasn’t as if the rate of my pulse and the speed of Earth’s rotation were linked, so there wasn’t anything to gain from spooking a guy like me.

The possibility that someone hated me to death and was doing this to torment me didn’t seem likely, either. The life I led shouldn’t incur such spite—I was like any other mundane high school boy out there. Besides, if someone was going to bully me, a better plan would be to stick in something gross, or at least use a more disturbing photo. But each time I found a photo stuck in a book, it was of the same cute girl.

 

***

 

“I assume that girl’s an acquaintance of yours…or is she not?” Senpai frowned thoughtfully. You could practically hear the gears turning in her head.

I could give her a clear answer on this one. I was absolutely certain I’d never met the girl before. She was a complete and total stranger. Although I didn’t possess a mind so brilliant that I could remember every single person I’d met, nothing had come to me even after pulling my hair out and wracking my brain in an attempt to remember her. I was drawing a blank. I’d definitely never seen her before. I couldn’t see how I had anything to do with this unfamiliar girl.

What’s more, she was a foreigner, probably a Westerner. Although it was difficult for a Japanese guy like myself to guess the age of a Caucasian, I thought she was probably somewhere around my age, either in her early twenties or late teens. Wearing a kind, warmhearted expression, her pretty face was reminiscent of a flower in bloom.

Neither her eyes nor her hair were particularly unusual colors, but appeared to be shades rather common for Westerners. That hair extended slightly below the shoulders, generally worn loose rather than kept back, although she would bind it with a cheap-looking hair tie once in a while.

No matter what, there was always an ancient camera in her hands. It gave her a vivacious air, somehow, like a newspaper journalist. Her casual attire showed a disinterest in fashion; many of her outfits were clearly secondhand. She was such a normal, happy-looking girl it seemed weird to call these photos of her “ghost photographs.”

Highly intrigued, Senpai crossed her arms and fell into deep thought. Finally, she said, “I wonder who she is. I’ve never heard of anything like this before… I’m certain she must be related to you somehow. After all, no one else has ever seen the Girl in the Photos. I checked online to see if anyone else shared a similar experience, but no hits came up.”

Well, that was less than helpful. I really, truly did not know this girl. Based on their genetic traits, I felt like Senpai was way closer to being “related” to the girl than I was.

After thinking good and hard, Senpai held her head in her hands, its distinct features revealing her own foreign ancestry. She cried out, “Gah, I just don’t know! This is too far out there! It would have made things way easier if the Girl in the Photos presented a threat, like putting a deadly curse on you. That’d make this a standard ghost story! But as things stand, I have no idea what this girl is trying to do.”

I didn’t want to die of some curse! Sure, this was a pretty creepy situation, but it seemed ultimately harmless, so at least I wasn’t living in fear. I was simply curious what was up with the pictures…and the girl in them. It was also a bit depressing to think photos like this would appear in any book I cracked open for the rest of my (hopefully long) life. If at all possible, I wanted to do something about this supernatural phenomenon.

“If only you knew who that girl was… Could you try figuring it out? If I know her name and nationality, I might be able to find something online, you know?”

Senpai’s question had me at a loss. All of the photographs I’d found thus far shared almost the exact same layout. There were minor deviations between each photo, but the overall image didn’t change. There was a girl in the center. The shots were extremely zoomed in; close-ups of her face or the upper portion of her body consumed the majority of the frame.

When a background was visible, it was usually just a boring, gray, concrete wall. A nondescript environment that only vaguely evoked speculation that she could be in a hospital, prison, or research institution.

No one other than the girl ever appeared in the photographs, and she didn’t do anything to offer insight regarding her personality. She was either daydreaming, staring at me, or sleeping. They were simple photos akin to the ones used for passports and resumes. Without the sleuthing skills of a great detective, I had no hope of discerning her identity.

“Hmm… Okay, I guess her identity is just one of the things we’ll have to start looking into. I’ll give you my full support, so don’t worry. Let’s make the most of your miraculous encounter with the occult in this cut-and-dry modern world we live in! Let’s give it our all, partner! Put ’er there!”

Showing absolutely no signs of calming down, Senpai forced me into a handshake and began swinging our arms up and down. Admittedly, it was probably rare to encounter such a bizarre phenomenon in the 21st Century, a time when science flourished. I bet senpai didn’t want to let this chance (if you could call it that) slip her by.

Although Senpai was a weirdo who made it no secret she was only doing this to sate her own curiosity, it felt kind of nice getting the whole thing off my chest. Keeping it to myself was starting to wear me down.

“All right! With that settled, let’s start our investigation with a few tests.” Senpai began carefully checking the book, still in her hands, one page at a time.

“Hmmm… It doesn’t look like any pictures are stashed in this one.” Senpai took her time, examining it carefully. “The cover is intentionally designed so that you can’t remove it, which makes sense, since it’s a library book. I don’t see anywhere a photo could be hiding.” She proceeded to hand it to me and continued, “So next, I want you to try. Unless you’re a top-notch magician, it really will be a supernatural phenomenon if you pull one of those photos out of this book. Oh, I’m so excited!”

I held the book Senpai had just confirmed as photo-free. As she said, it was physically impossible for a photograph to slip from its pages—unless of course, Senpai was feeling mischievous and had decided to play a stupid trick on me by slipping a photo in right before handing it over. I’d never spoken to her before now; I didn’t exactly trust her a hundred percent. On the other hand, that meant there was no reason for her to tease or deceive me.

Honestly, I’d never get anywhere if I kept on doubting every little thing.

Feeling a little nervous, I popped open the book and briskly thumbed through the pages.

“Well? Well? Is it there? Where’s the photo? Actually, hold up! I wanna document this! I’m gonna record it on my smart phone, so gimme a sec! This is so cool! I hope I get to witness the big moment…!” Senpai was so excited she was practically vibrating—it was downright annoying, but I was too preoccupied with my own issues to pay her any heed.

As I casually flipped through the pages, like I would any other book…I found it.

The photo appeared, tucked into the fold right down the center of the spine.

Cold chills ran down my back.

“Huh? No way! Are you kidding me?”

Senpai got her phone out of her pocket, but filming proved a bigger challenge. The phone slipped right out of her hands. She flailed after it, eyes wide in amazement. I was struck speechless. Just like always, a photo had appeared in the book I was holding. It was flipped backwards, so I instinctively touched the photo to turn it around. The photo was of none other than…

“L-Lemme see! I wanna see! C’mon, ███!” Senpai cried, her piercing voice growing suddenly distant.

As the sound of her cries faded, a lukewarm sensation slowly engulfed my entire body. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before, like I was being cupped inside a giant hand.

My gaze fell upon the image imprinted on the small, standard-sized photo.

The mysterious “Girl in the Photos” looked back up at me, wearing a faintly troubled smile.