Chapter 20: Terror
The story began.
On the screen was a young boy who had just moved into a new apartment.
The narration, in that flat tone without any inflection, told of how the boy discovered talismans pasted all over his home, and how a neighbor in the opposite apartment was staring over here in a creepy way.
“…What a weird neighbor.” Tanaka muttered subconsciously; he had already forgotten to drink.
And subconsciously, he realized that the apartment in this story seemed to be the very common type in Tokyo Metropolis. Or rather, even Tanaka himself, having come from out of town to live in Tokyo Metropolis, was now renting the same type of apartment.
“Gulp.” So Tanaka subconsciously swallowed, feeling a bit curious about this story.
Thus, including him, all the customers at the bar counter turned to look at the television.
They looked at this program.
The plot continued.
The boy looked through the window and saw the woman across the way with a full head of black hair, a pale face, dull eyes, and movements full of eeriness.
The atmosphere in the diner grew increasingly solemn.
Akemi unconsciously hugged her arms tightly; she also lived in a single apartment, and she actually knew nothing about what kind of person her neighbor was.
When the story reached the point where the boy had called the police and had the woman arrested, only to discover his own home full of talismans.
Even under the table were talismans.
The climax arrived.
The boy finally lost his temper hysterically and began tearing off the talismans.
But in the process of tearing them off, the boy finally noticed that something extra seemed to be around him. Yet he didn’t dare lift his head; he kept tearing at the talismans, but he was already in utter despair.
Then, amid murmurs of despair, darkness fell instantly.
The end!
“Ah!”
Akemi let out a suppressed low cry, her body shuddering violently, like the sharp crack of a gavel, striking heavily on everyone’s heart in the late-night diner.
Dead silence.
A more complete dead silence than ever before.
The air seemed to freeze; only the low hum of the refrigerator compressor and a few heavy, suppressed breaths could be heard.
The drunkenness on Tanaka’s face had long vanished without a trace, replaced by a deathly pallor. His hand gripping the beer bottle had knuckles whitening from the force, and a layer of fine cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
Akemi’s face looked even worse than Tanaka’s; she bit her lower lip tightly, her eyes filled with terror and lingering fear. She didn’t even dare turn to look at the shop door, afraid that a talisman might be pasted on the small window outside.
That university student kept wiping the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, his eyes under his glasses flickering with uncalmed shock.
Even the usually steady Xiang Shuishang felt a chill on his back. He subconsciously touched his arm, finding it covered in icy cold goosebumps.
This animation…
No gore, no sudden ghost screams, not even much motion.
But those few simple images and that eerie narration created a bone-deep, inescapable sense of terror.
Because it was too close to life.
Apartment, neighbor, talisman, wall… these were the most common elements in daily life. Precisely because they were common, when combined with the unknown and the eerie, the fear they brought was infinitely amplified.
“Gulp.”
After an unknown time, Tanaka finally swallowed with difficulty, breaking the suffocating silence. His voice was dry and hoarse, with a slight tremor:
“This… this damn… what the hell is this…”
He no longer had any of his previous arrogance and disdain, only a weakness like surviving a disaster.
“Too… too scary…” Akemi said in an almost inaudible voice: “Now… I kind of don’t dare go home… The woman across from my place doesn’t go out much either…”
Her words made everyone’s hearts tighten again.
“Its terror isn’t visual; it’s psychological.” The university student adjusted his glasses and analyzed in a scholarly tone that couldn’t hide his own fear: “It makes you, after watching, unable to stop thinking: what if… what if this happened to me? That sense of immersion is the scariest.”
Exactly!
Everyone nodded deeply in agreement.
Their minds were now full of that room covered in talismans and the ghostly shadows hanging upside down from the ceiling. This image would likely become their nightmare tonight and for several nights to come.
“Boss… what’s this animation called?” the university student asked in a trembling voice.
Xiang Shuishang’s gaze fell on the TV screen. As the final producer list flashed by, he clearly saw those three characters.
“《An Shizhi》.” He answered softly.
《An Shizhi》…
These three words, like a brand, were deeply etched into everyone’s heart present.
Tanaka silently set down the wine bottle, no longer in the mood to drink. He stood up, pulled a few bills from his wallet and placed them on the bar counter, saying hoarsely: “Boss, check please.”
“I… I’m leaving too.” Akemi hurriedly stood up, as if staying one more second would have her swallowed by the darkness.
The customers paid and left one by one, footsteps hurried, all wanting to get back home quickly and lock the doors and windows tight.
But would they really dare to look under the table? Really dare to carefully check their own ceilings?
No one knew.
Soon, only Xiang Shuishang remained in the late-night diner.
He silently cleared the bowl and chopsticks, but his mind uncontrollably replayed those images from earlier over and over.
He looked up at the clock on the wall.
12:25 a.m.
“Hmm, what a… rather frightening story.” Xiang Shuishang leaned against the doorframe and lit a cigarette, gently puffing on it.
As the hot, spicy smoke filled his lungs, he couldn’t help but think of some scenes from this animation short film.
He subconsciously turned to look outside.
Not far away, beyond the alley, were those residential buildings and the shorter three- or four-story apartment houses.
Looking at those pitch-black windows, his heart felt some palpitations.
He subconsciously didn’t dare keep observing.
He just withdrew his gaze.
“Hm!?”
Suddenly, Xiang Shuishang saw the corner of his own late-night diner; his face changed slightly, even his eye twitching. Because there, in that corner, there was actually a talisman pasted on the wall.
Perhaps due to its age, the talisman was somewhat yellowed. At the edge of the lighting, in the dim corner, it was now strikingly obvious.
Xiang Shuishang’s hand holding the cigarette trembled slightly.
His mouth felt somewhat bitter.
He remembered this seemed to be one he had gotten from a temple over ten years ago to suppress evil spirits. He had long forgotten about it, but now, suddenly seeing it, he remembered, and felt something off inside, his back chilling.
“Boss, one tamagoyaki! Add two cheeses!” At that moment, the door curtain was lifted, and a regular customer stumbled in drunk.
“Oh… hi! Please wait a moment.” Xiang Shuishang snapped back, a hint of awkward smile on his scarred face.
He realized he had been scared.
He shook his head vigorously.
“It’s just an animated film.” He couldn’t help but mutter.
But a premonition suddenly arose in his heart.
Starting tomorrow—no, perhaps starting tonight—in Tokyo’s countless sleepless late nights, the name 《An Shizhi》 would quietly spread from people’s mouths like a terrifying urban legend.
This urban themes horror animation, fitting Tokyo Metropolis’s environments, plus some horror ghost stories heard before.
It seemed… a bit stimulating just thinking about it!
