Forum Thread

tw// general creepiness, ghost story, post-breakup

If you have any serious triggers or are a sensitive reader/below 13, please skip the story, or at least read the notes at the bottom where the spoiler tws can be found.

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Childhood friends Keiki and Niwa ended up dating once- and then they split. Keiki left to pursue a career as a model, and Niwa stayed behind. Keiki returns and proposes that as a final testament to their friendship and their once love, they have a final picnic on the hill of their youth.

or//

Keiki tells Niwa a story about a girl left behind. And Niwa relates to it… until he doesn't.

Final Word Count: 1466

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The Legend of Hag Hill

Niwa had never liked cliches.

He was overlooking the small town of Riverbend, and running it through his brain. It was, as the name put it, cradled by a bend in the river- encircling the small town in a circle. That was only incomplete by a singular spot. The one Niwa sat on now, Harrison’s Hill.

It was the one green spot. Everywhere else, autumn leaves stained the town with scarlet and ginger, the rotting stench a constant in the air, one whiff away from your nostrils. Scent and sight, two senses which collided in the-

“You’re being crazy again, aren’t you, Niwa?”

“For the last time, it’s creative.” Niwa turned and saw Keiki Meyumi for the first time in five years. Everything about them was the same, from the wide smile and the elaborate pink outfits. But- “You cut your hair.”

“Yep!” they chirped, taking a seat next to Niwa. “It’s the new thing for models. “Short hair. Waves are out.”

“I liked it.”

“Not like you got much say in fashion, Niwaface.” Keiki chuckled. Something sad settled in Niwa’s stomach. “Don’t look so gloomy, ‘mato! I didn’t mean it!” They wrapped their arms around him.

He let them settle. His ribs entwined with Keiki’s grasp- the perfect match. Pieced together, a house with a family. A village with a population. A hill that was bustling with children playing some stupid game. It was all perfect- unlike the empty solitude below him.

The dead town. Like everyone in it had vanished.

“October 16th,” Niwa mumbled. “How uncliche.”

“For a horror story?” Keiki asked, amused. “Today isn’t a tragedy, Niwa. It’s the end to one.” Their hand brushed through Niwa’s hair.

“Harrison’s Hill, too,” Niwa noted. “Not the right setting.”

Keiki pulled back at that. “That reminds me- did you bring the basket?”

Niwa swung it up, then let it fall back to his hip.

Keiki grinned. “Great. Let’s have our spooky October picnic on the weirdest night of the fall.”

The two settled out and began taking out the arrangements. Silverware came first. Niwa watched each shining, silver piece be placed onto the earth. Full of grass and different life. Bugs clambered over them, like a corpse had been planted into the ground- then scurried off, disinterested, as it was only the product of human product. Only the product of a place far off, nothing that a small human town set in a valley could dream of touching.

Keiki was watching him intensely. That short, slicked brown hair. Pristine, carved face. Piercing green eyes that stared into your very soul.

Niwa’s palms sweated. Does your flesh feel metallic?

“A night like this needs a scary story.”

Like Frankenstein? Niwa couldn’t help but wonder. False flesh, false person- you loved that story once, when your hair was loose and your cheeks were spotted. Now you’re not the doctor, bringing the corpse to life, but the splatter of guts that humanity can marvel at.

But all he said was, “Oh?”

“Did you ever hear the Legend of Hag Hill?”

Niwa couldn’t help but laugh. “Can’t even use ‘Harrison’ huh? Not much chance of being scary, if we’re-”

“Did you, though?”

That shut him up. “So, is it like- an actual story? Not one you’ve made up?”

“Yep. A real one.” Keiki smiled.

“So one of those.” Niwa settled in to listen.

“Once upon a time, a girl was born to the small town of Creek’s Bend.”

“Not even subtle,” Niwa noted.

Keiki continued on, ignoring him. “She was a farmer’s girl- not a penny to her name. But as pretty as any princess who could stroll through the town. Blonde hair and blue eyes. Piercing blue eyes- the prettiest you’d ever seen. Like a cat’s.”

“Ah, a fairy tale. What century does this one fall in?”

“Her beauty was well known. And she attracted the attention of a prince. Handsome as could be, he swore to make her his bride. And she, flattered, accepted. His skill with the pen flattered her, and each poem made her heart flutter.”

We both loved writing, Niwa thought. Keiki could write short stories.

Each and every one had pierced right to his heart. He supposed that was Keiki’s aim, with the story. Play on my old feelings for you. Cold, Keiki.

But he settled in to listen. He wanted to know how this story ended. If it was intended to parallel theirs… If Niwa was the girl left behind...

Do they still want me?

“But when the villagers heard of the marriage, they were enraged. Her father refused to let her go. They were to have her whisked away- but the prince urged her to stay. He wanted to win the love of the villagers. He wanted to stay in the town. Perhaps he thought she wanted to stay- but by her countless pleads, he had to know otherwise.”

Keiki didn’t want to stay. Where was this story going?

“There was a story in the town. Up on the top of the hill, by the cliff- there was an old witch’s house. Just at the edge of the woods, cradled by the tip of the rock, just short of plummetting downward.”

Niwa glanced over there, half expecting to see the old shack. But it was, as it’d been his whole life, empty. He and Keiki had played over there, once. They’d had their first date just a few metres from where they now sat.

He’d know there was no such thing as a witch’s house.

“She climbed up, leaving her lover behind. He plead with her to stay down. But she kept going, and going. And she reached the top. There, the witch waited for her.”

Keiki paused. “These sandwiches are good. Did you make them yourself?”

Niwa jerked back to attention. “A-Ah-! No, I didn’t. It was my sister.”

She wanted us to make up, he thought but didn't add. He'd thought it was stupid too. At the time, anyway.

“I see.” Keiki shrugged. “Well, I’ll send her my compliments.”

“I can do that.” He didn't need Keiki to take a message. He'd be going right home after, anyway. Keiki knew that.

“Anyway,” Keiki continued. “The girl climbed up to the top of the hill. And the witch stood there, smiling at her. ‘I’ve been expecting you,’ she said. ‘Come, we shall meet in our house.’

“And as the girl followed her, she noted that the witch had really known when she was coming. She even called her by name- and each rickety step pressed down grass which sprang right back up again. The path wasn’t followed much.”

“What a weird thing to notice,” Niwa mumbled. “I don’t think many people would…” he trailed off. He and Keiki probably would.

“And the two made their way into the house. And she told the girl a way for her to have her lover back forever.”

“So she got a magic potion?” Niwa asked. “Did it screw her over? Or did she and her lover elope, leaving the whole world behind?”

One would be a shorter ending. The other more satisfying.

“The witch told her one thing. ‘Hag’s Hill’, tomorrow. This spot.”

“Just that?” Niwa asked in disbelief. Maybe the girl isn’t me after all. I wouldn’t go to a shady meeting with a witch. Keiki knows I'm not stupid even if they don’t remember me well-

“And she went. And brought her lover with her.” Keiki tilted their head.

Niwa felt sick all of a sudden. “How’d she get her lover to come?”

“With a note.”

A sticky note left on his door, detailing "Harrison's Hill, 8PM -Keiki".

“I think I should go home.”

“You haven’t heard the rest of the story.”

“I don’t think I should stay out much longer, my sister-”

“And the girl,” Keiki continued, ignoring Niwa. “She came to the hill the next day. And the witch’s house was gone. She asked her lover- and he’d never heard of the witch before. When he’d told her the legend, himself, after a night in town.”

Niwa jerked to his feet, and stumbled back. The rocks bit into his bare heels. He wished for his shoes.

Keiki stood up.

“And as she stared at the empty spot where the witch’s house was- she understood, exactly what the witch wanted.”

“Keiki, I never left you. You left for the city. Remember? Don't you remember?” Niwa backed up. His step dislodged pebbles, and sent them clattering down the cliff.

“She got her lover to stand on the spot where the witch had stood. And smiling, she thrust a knife into her lover’s chest. And gave a push.”

Blood splattered at the crest of Harrison’s Hill. Blue eyes glowed ominously in the dark. Shiny and catlike, those of a girl who was once a princess. Niwa choked and stumbled and stared into those eyes and-

Finished the end of the story.

“And she swore that she would save true love. Which she believed, could only be found unto death. The greatest poetry of all.”

And sealing it with a kiss, Keiki Meyumi and Niwa Atsushi tumbled over the cliff.

Love in death was always better than love forgotten.


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