Family on Repeat

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👻🎃 Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you have lots of fun⭐⭐⭐🎵🌈

(Translated and arranged by Saya)

This happened last week to my little brother, who is 9 years old. 

That day after school, my little brother decided to pop back home before going out to play with his friends in the nearby playground. 

He played hide-and-seek with his friends, and before long the sun began to set; then at one point he saw his whole family -- dad, mum and me -- come to the playground to take him home. 

This was unusual and my little brother was so happy that he stopped playing the hide-and-seek although the game was still going on, and said goodbye to his friends and went home with us. 

After he arrived home, I came to his room and helped him with his homework. That was unusual too. 

I looked so cheerful and stayed by his side the whole time he did his homework, and we talked happily together about the latest video games.  

Then came the dinner time, and mum called us from the dining room on the first floor.   

Our rooms are on the second floor, so we yelled back that we were coming and went downstairs. 

It wasn't an anniversary or anything, but somehow mum had prepared a feast for us, and there was even Hamburg steaks*1 on the table which was his favourite dish. 

My brother gobbled up his Hamburg steak in no time; and dad (who was never talkative) noticed that and asked him "do you want the half of my steak too?" in a caring manner.

Soon it was the time for his favourite anime show, and he switched the TV on, but it only showed snowstorm, and it was the same state with all other channels. 

Then all of a sudden, mum snatched the remote away from his hand, and turned off the TV. 

She was smiling cheerfully as she did it, so he felt that was a little creepy. 

After the dinner, mum said to him, "I have bought a cake for you."

Dad said, "let us have a bath together." 

I said, " I have a new video game." 

Everyone was in good mood and smiling at him. 

But us being so nice caused my brother to want to do something mischievous. 

He decided to tell us that he would go to the restroom, and then not go back to the dining room. 

Our restroom *2 has a door which is designed in such a way that if you locked it, it rendered the doornob immoveable too.

So if you locked the door while it was still open and then closed it, you could lock it without someone being inside the restroom. 

When we first moved into our house, my brother would often use this mechanism of the door to play a trick on us, and we would frequently end up prying the door open using a 10-yen coin.

So his plan was to lock the door using the same method, and then hide in the small basement storage room accessible from the floor of a washroom*3 on the opposite of the restroom. 

And he thought he would jump out of the basement when we came to search for him.

At least that was what he said was happening in the house.

I said that was only what he said was happening, because none of it was happening in the reality as I knew it. 

My brother went actually missing after he said goodbye to his friends in the playground. 

According to his friends, in the middle of playing the hide-and-seek, my brother suddenly shouted, "I am going home," and walked away from them. 

They didn't see anyone come to pick him up. 

But he never came home, although the night was creeping in, and we heard nothing from him either. 

We reported him missing to the police, and called out to him from loudspeakers in the town.

Dad made calls to my brother's friends, and it was the first time I saw him lose his composure. Mum was in total agony, crying inconsolably.

I myself went to the playground and searched in and around it, asking anyone I met for any information about his whereabouts . Honestly, I feared that we had lost him forever. 

Around the same time, while my brother was hiding in the basement, he heard the announcement from the loudspeaker that we were searching for him. 

As he sat there confused, suddenly the door to the dining room was banged open, and he saw the three of us walk out of it, in an orderly manner, towards the restroom. And he heard us say just like before: 

"I have bought a cake for you."

"Let us have a bath together." 

"I have a new video game." 

We uttered those words in the exact same tone of voice as before.

At this point, my brother realised something was seriously wrong, and he decided to stay where he was and continued to observe us from there. 

Then we again said:

"I have bought a cake for you."

"Let us have a bath together." 

"I have a new video game." 

And we began turning the doorknob so fast and banging the door so furiously as if we intended to break it. We made such terrifyingly loud noises that my brother was convinced that he would be murdered on sight if he was ever found by us. 

Just as he thought that, the door to the restroom was broken open, and an eerie silence followed. 

And then:

"I have bought a cake for you."

"Let us have a bath together." 

"I have a new video game."  

The three of us -- or what looked like us --- started going up the stairs,

chanting the same phrases as before. 

As soon as they had gone upstairs, my brother jumped out of the basement and ran out the front door on barefoot.

He ran away at full speed and without looking at where he was heading; but somehow when he realised he was back in the playground. 

The police car was still parked there, and the police officers were searching around the place. My brother saw them and ran up to them, crying. 

The police informed us of it straightaway, and because I was also looking for him nearby, I went to fetch him. Thus we were reunited.

The story I told you just now was a summary of the story that my brother told the police officers, but of course they didn't believe any of it, so in the end they concluded that my brother temporarily left home of his own volition. 

However, ever since then, whenever my brother comes home, he immediately checks all the channels on TV with a dead serious face. When I see him doing that, I can't help but think he was telling them the truth. 

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Note:

*1  Hamburg steak --- A popular dish in Japan. See Amazing Japanese Hamburg Steaks 

*2   Our restroom --- In Japanese houses, the toilet often isn't found in the bathroom but it gets a room of its own. Japanese people tend to think it's unclean to have the toilet in the bathroom.

*3  Washroom -- 洗面所 (sen-men-jo) in the original Japanese text. It's a place where one brushes teeth, washes one's face, or takes off one's clothes before taking a shower or a bath.

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Here are more stories about creepy family 😆💜:

Homecoming

The Truth about My Family's Odd Behaviour

Three Parallel Lines

A Voice from Upstairs

Unknown Phone Call

The Day My Brother Became Different

Late Night Snack