Chapter 10: I know your name now
Wakana doesn't eat the sandwich. Being hungry is better than reliving the chicken's death. She has to visit the victims' apartments too. She doesn't want to throw up if she sees something that she shouldn't see.
It's been 18 years. The emotions should have faded by now, right? She's hoping for the best-case scenario.
In the car, the two are silent. Wakana is gazing out of the window. Sei keeps stealing glances of her. He saw her doing the same when they were in school. Even during the police training, she often looked at him. But she never approached him again. He was the one who told her to stay away from him.
He was surprised when she also wrote that she wanted to become a police officer. He won't admit but he was pleased to see her during the training. That was the end of it.
It's not that he's interested in her. Looking at her now, he wonders if she really became a police officer to follow him.
***
Minami Sei reveals his ID to the owner. "We are here to look at apartment number 512."
"Again?" The owner gives him the key. Once in a few years, some cop would come and check out the apartment. They haven't found the phantom artist. He must be dead already since it's been a long time. "The building is going to be broken down soon because of that one apartment."
"When is it going to be broken down?" Minami Sei asks him.
"Next week." The owner sighs. "Apartment number 512 is supposed to be haunted. The neighbors can't sleep because they hear screams at night. It would have been done 10 years ago if my father didn't oppose it. Nobody died in that apartment. I wonder why it is haunted though."
Minami Sei smiles and takes away the key. He only needs to see it once with his eyes. 8 out of the 12 apartments have been remodeled or broken down in the last 18 years.
Wakana is standing in front of the apartment with a complicated expression on her face. She can feel it. There's something horrendous up there. She can hear the faint sounds of screaming. The sound is inhuman and loud as if the person is screaming right now. It doesn't sound like a memory.
There are worse things than ghosts in the world. She would like to avoid those things.
"Let's go." Sei signals her to follow him. She frowns. Should she follow? The reason why she has not been able to do a good job is that she always dislikes going to the crime scene. That sort of affected her performance.
"Are you not coming?" Sei narrows his eyes on her. "You are a detective. Act like one."
She should just resign. Feeling dissatisfied, she still follows him. What's the worse thing that can happen? She's not going to the cemetery.
Suddenly, she stops climbing. She would like to see that ghost again. Sometimes, she wonders if he had already crossed over.
Minami Sei climbs down and grabs her wrist. "We don't have all day."
He drags her along with him. As they get closer to the apartment, she begins to sense the vibrations in the air. The corridor is getting darker. It's quiet. She can't hear the screams. That's strange. He stops in front of the apartment and inserts the key.
As he twists the key in the hole, she hears a dark whisper. 'Here she finally comes, the untouched flower waiting to be unfolded.'
She exhales sharply when the door opens to the darkness inside the apartment. Minami Sei steps inside and clicks on the flashlight app in his phone. He presses the light switch a few times. He resumes using the light from his phone screen.
There is only one window in the apartment. The crime happened in the living room. The walls have been repainted multiple times. It happened around 18 years ago. There were no eyewitnesses. He's sure that they can't find a piece of new evidence. What he wants to know is how the culprit left the apartment when the door and the window were locked from inside.
Wakana stares at the man standing at the center of the room. Clothed in a black robe, the man's head is almost touching the ceiling. His arms are thin and long as a stick, touching the floor. It is slightly hunched over, watching her with a lecherous neon green eyes. He flicks his tongue in her direction, grossing her out. She steps backward until her back touches the wall.
Sei looks at her. She is white as the paper, sweating. Why did she become a cop if she can't even do this? The apartment is clean. There's no speck of blood. Then, what's she afraid of?
Sei frowns at her. "Wakana, are you not coming inside?"
'Wakana.' The man licks his lips. 'I know your name now.'
She shakes her head. "I am good here."
Seeing her slightly trembling, he doesn't force her this time. He goes to the bedroom to check it out.
'Come to me.' The man calls out for her. 'Wakana, I promise you the pleasure that you will never be able to forget.'
How many women fell for that trap? What did they see? Nobody in their right mind would go inside. The thing is certainly trapped inside the apartment. He can't come out to get her.
The phantom artist is not a human and he still exists.
Minami Sei comes out of the room, oblivious to the phantom artist's presence in the apartment. He closes the door. As he twists the key in the hole again, Wakana hears a promise.
'Wakana, when I am freed, I will come for you.'
She exhales sharply. This thing won't be freed, right? It cannot be freed. It's been here for 18 years.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone