You Are Next

A family of four was staying at a country inn. Late one night the mother found her daughter murdered in a toilet. Her face had been knifed so many times it was almost unrecognizable; and her tongue was missing.

The toilet cubicle had one latticed window measuring 30cm wide and 10cm high and also a small ventilator, but these were too small for anyone to get in from outside. The door was locked.
Who killed the girl, and how? The police proceeded to question the couple who ran the inn and their only son, and any suspicious persons seen around the area, but what with the perplexing problem of the locked cubicle, it was thought that the case would remain forever unsolved.

Then the son of the inn owners one day turned up at the police station accompanied by his parents. The parents said; “We couldn't talk to you frankly before because we were worried about the neighbours’ prying eyes… But something dreadful has happened and we would like to tell you.”
The parents continued: “Our son likes filming people secretly although we have always reprimanded him for the distasteful hobby. It turned out that he was there at the time of the murder. He was filming the toilet cubicle from the space above the ceiling when the small window opened and something entered, holding a.…well, I think you’d better see the rest for yourself.”
The son, when questioned about the video tape, suddenly lost control of his mind, apparently through reliving the horrifying experience of that night.
Did the tape contain something so terrible that it would drive a man to madness? The sight of the deranged man deeply affected the police officers and they dreaded watching the video even as one of them pressed the play button.

The tape began with the girl squatting over the Japanese-style toilet(*). When she finished and stood up, suddenly a tiny figure – appearing as an old woman measuring about 15 to 20cm – jumped in noiselessly from the window, bearing a glass shard in her hand. Before the girl had time to scream, her throat was slit, followed by vicious attacks on her face and then her entire body. When the girl expired, the old woman cut out the tongue and a section of the scalp from the dead body, and looking up at the ceiling, she uttered; “You are next.” After that the old woman disappeared through the window which she came from - carrying away both the bloody tongue and the scalp with her.
Many police officers who watched this threw up, cried or loosened their bladder on the spot out of sheer terror. The case in the end was not solved, but it is said the police station still retains the video tape.
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* Unlike the western-style toilet, the traditional Japanese toilet has its opening on the floor, over which you squat down.