The Warning

Note: I'm not the authour of this story. I've translated it from original Japanese into English. Please do NOT copy and paste it somewhere else on the web without my permission. Thank you very much.

Just after I started high school, mother went missing.
Father told me that mother had been having an affair for sometime.
"She's abandoned both of us and left," said father.
Looking at his sad face made me determined that I would remain being a faithful and loving daugther for him.
But since mother's disappearance, strange things started happening in the house.
The whole house seemed to be enveloped in a chilly atmosphere.
A door would suddenly open without anyone touching it, and things on the shelves would fall of their own accord.
That made me think, "maybe mother is already dead after all?"

I examined mother's shoes left in the entryway, and my suspicion turned to certainity.
If she had left, one pair of shoes should have gone missing.
But all of her shoes were still there. Then father must have killed mother in the house.

Why? What for? I felt a gnawing urge to ask him but I couldn't.
If mother is dead and then father gets arrested, I will be all on my own.
Father truly loved mother. If mother was the one who betrayed, she was to be blamed for what happened to her.
I'm just going to pretend nothing has happened. I decided.

But the strange occurrences did not stop.
One day I was lying in bed half awake and half asleep, when I heard the sound of footsteps walking around in the house.
Pitter-patter pitter-patter...
It was not father.
The sound was getting closer.
 Pitter-patter pitter-patter...
"Go away. Please go away!"
Even as I prayed, the foot steps reached my room and came in.
I felt lukewarm breath on my cheeks
I opened my eyes a crack and saw mother's face leaning over me, looking all vicious and menacing.
Then she said into my ears:
"Ge...eeet  O...oo...oouut."

I can't stay in this house any longer. I thought, but I could not think up of any excuses that might persuade father to move house. Strangely, it seemed I was the only one who was able to feel the ghost's presence. Father felt nothing at all.
Ever since mother disappeared, father changed his job and started working from home so that he could look after me better. He did most of the house chores too. After seeing his love and devotion to me, I could not bring myself to ask him,"'you killed mother, didn't you?"

So, I passed many more days pretending nothing was happening.
One evening I was sitting at a coffee table when I felt something bit into my toe. It was excruciatingly painful.
I looked down to see what it was that caused the pain, and I saw mother there.
Mother was lying underneath the table.

Father, who was cooking in the kitchen, sensed something was wrong and said, "are you alright, Mami (my name)?" But I just answered to him, "nothing. I just remembered I had some homework to do."
"The dinner is nearly ready. Why don't you come over here and do it on the kitchen table?"
I responded obediently to his words and opened my school bag.
And for the first time I noticed a note, folded in four, lying at the bottom of the bag.
I opened the note and saw some words scribbled in mother's handwriting:
"Mami, hurry and run away, your father is insane."

Mother had been trying to warn me all along.

Comments

blackrealm said…
love of mother, going trough the power of dead
this story rather than scary its really sad.... ='(
IRISH said…
i'm not really sure but this is my take on the story:

her father turned crazy and thought of himself as his wife...that's why he killed his wife and quit his job and started doing the chores in the house...because HE THOUGHT HE WAS HIS WIFE!

lol, pardon my english...it's not really my first language ^_^"
ryuu said…
hmm..maybe mami's mother had an affair and that made her father insane or the stress of his work.
i hope that her mother's warnings worked out fine and that she is safe.
ryuu said…
oops mami wouldn't be able to write this story if she wasn't okay.=P
Dethyl said…
I think I heard this story from one of my Japanese teachers. We had a very interesting discussion.

1. The mother may or may not be dead. No body has been found, do we really know how many pairs of shoes a lady really owns?

2. Even if the father is insane and did kill the mother in a jealous fit. Both of the parents love Mami and try to warn her or take steps to look after her as the only parent left.

Wth no body of the mother found and the father's claim that she has left the family. There are only suspicions and no way to tell the truth.

So my teacher finally asked us,"In this kind of situation, would you trust your father's or mother's words, given that you know for certain that both of them love you very much in their own way?"
♡Princess♡ said…
I think maybe Mami's mother had intended to run away and take Mami with her but the father found out and in rage murdered the mother. That's why the note was in Mami's bag and the father had said her mother had an affair and left (when in reality her mother was planning to leave)

That's just my guess...(`・ω・´)

I kind of think both of Mami's parents are insane, yet obviously they love Mami very much.
Unknown said…
A very interesting story. It makes me wonder... Mami's father has not shown any signs of insanity (yet), so perhaps the mother was (is?) the insane one? She could have suffered from paranoia leading her to believe that her husband was insane. Certainly her ghost has been acting a bit loopy. What kind of ghosts bite toes? o.O Besides mouse ghosts...
Unknown said…
The things a mother would do for their children is something, even after they die they still watch out for them, I hope Mami's okay. > O < But man, this story is really something. o.o
Steeple said…
Sorry to be the Unfunny, but it always makes me sad when people use "insane" as shorthand to mean "violent". =( Crazy people are more likely to be victims of violence... I don't blame you, Saya, for faithfully translating the story. More of a general sadness.

Going back to the story, I guessed the ending before I read it. I thought it was really sweet of the mother, to look after her child, even in death.... I love stories like this.
@HN3 & Time Waits: Thank you for your comment!

It looks like it's only me who find this story spooky..

@Irish: So you mean father thought he was the wife of the household and killed the mother who was in his way? Is that right? that sounds like a new interpretation!
Don't be sorry for your English, it's fine! ;)

@ryuu: Yes they are both possible!

@Dethyl: You are very informed, as always. I know the stuff your teacher told you about. Is your teacher Japanese? Interesting.

@Princess & Tani another good interpretations! Thank you dear.

@Nanmi: Yes I too think Mami is now in danger for her father is likely to kill her next!

@Steeple: my interpretation of this story is that father really did go insane because he apparently killed his wife for no reason at all, and he is now bent on murdering his daughter.
However I understand your concern.
Glad you liked the story!



Unknown said…
yeah thats the moment where i'd say i'd go to the grocery store for a quick bit and then leg it.
Eris said…
I think it actually makes sense. The only person she has left is her father, which means that she would probably be an orphan if he left, a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone. She also promised to love him and be faithful, and if it turns out her mom didn't die, telling someone would just mean that she didn't trust her father. Oh, and plenty of people feel that they need to protect someone from harm, even if that person killed someone. Add the fact that her father has only been kind to her, and that makes her reaction not only understandable, but very likely.