12th Mystery: Kashan, Kashan
(TN: Clang x2)
Chapter 1: Late-night hospital
The summer nights are damp.
“It’s so dark…”
Sato, a nurse working at a general hospital, was patrolling the hospital with a flashlight in hand.
She peered into each and every hospital room to make sure there were no patients who had stayed up late. The patients were faithful to the lights-out time, sleeping with their breathing sound and regular.
It was the patrol’s job to make sure that no patients were feeling unwell, and that no suspicious people had infiltrated the hospital. Hospitals at night were scary, but it was a job that had to be done.
She walked forward, shining her flashlight down the dark corridor,
“The only thing left is…”
Sato shines her flashlight on the stairs leading to the basement.
She’s looked around every floor above ground. All that’s left is the basement.
This is the basement floor of the hospital, where various rumors fly among the nurses. It’s well known among nurses and patients that “ghosts appear” or “the dead wander about.”
Sato doesn’t believe in ghosts and the like, and would snort and scoff at the things the nurses report to her with pale faces. But now that she’s experiencing it herself, she can’t laugh.
“I’m sure the basement floor is…”
Sato tries to remember what is in the basement.
She’s sure there was a mortuary in the basement as well as storage rooms and other things.
This is the room where patients who have died at the hospital are laid to rest. It’s a classic room where ghosts are said to often appear in scary stories, and children often come in curiously to peek inside. Every time this happens, Sato or other nurses would pick them up, but to be honest, they didn’t want to patrol it.
Patrol duties wouldn’t be complete unless the basement floor was patrolled as well.
“Okay…”
To motivate herself, Sato slapped her cheek and picked up her flashlight again.
Going down the dimly lit stairs lit dimly by fluorescent lights, Sato headed for the basement floor.
Unexpectedly, the stairs were filled with a chilly atmosphere. It was a coldness that you don’t feel during the day. She grabbed the cold banister, and the cold metal felt through the thin skin of her palms.
Ton, ton.
Ton ton ton.
Her footsteps echoed loudly as she went down the stairs.
Wanting to finish her patrol duties quickly, Sato went down the stairs and finally arrived at the basement floor in question.
She opened the closed door and found it was not locked. The heavy door slid open easily.
Gyiiii~…….
The sound of hinges creaking reached his ears.
“The lights are on…”
Perhaps they forgot to turn the lights off because no one comes on that floor. Once she’s done with his patrol, she has to turn off the lights on the basement floor.
Sato turned off the flashlight and looked around the basement floor through the gap in the door.
The artificial light of fluorescent lights fell on the hallway, adding to the eerie atmosphere. Forcing herself to swallow the rising fear, Sato made her way around the basement floor, which was said to be haunted.
Peta, peta.
Peta, peta.
She heard the sound of her own footsteps walking down the hallway in nurse sandals.
“There are no ghosts, there are no ghosts, there are no ghosts… there are no ghosts at all.”
Telling herself that there were no ghosts, Sato went to check if there was anyone in the storeroom. She could see equipment needed for tests and piles of cardboard, all covered in dust.
Looking around the storeroom, the only thing left was the mortuary. — the mortuary in question, on the basement floor where the dead are said to roam.
Certainly, no one is using it right now. She’s never heard of anyone using it.
“Um…”
Following the signs to the mortuary, she walks down the corridor and, for some reason, comes to a hallway where the lights are out. The lights are on everywhere else, so why is it out here?
Sato has no choice but to turn on her flashlight and shine it down the hallway.
At the end of the hallway is the mortuary, an unusually large door. It feels like a ghost might jump out at any moment.
“Let’s get this done quickly…”
Sato hurries over to the mortuary and puts her hand on the door.
Kashan, kashan.
At that moment, she hears the sound of something falling.
The sound came from the other side of the closed mortuary.
Sato’s heart leaps into her chest. Is there someone up ahead?
“Huh?”
With great effort, Sato put forward the hand that she pulled back and opened the door of the morgue.
“Is anyone there?”
She opened the door and called into the dimly lit room.
There was no one there.
The room had a linoleum floor and the lights were dim. There were no patients or nurses using the room, let alone a doctor.
For some reason, there was a shining silver scalpel lying on the floor.
“A scalpel?”
Why would a scalpel end up in a place like this?
Sato steps inside the mortuary and picks up the scalpel from the floor.
It is a brand new scalpel with no signs of use. Thinking that someone might have brought the scalpel in as a murder weapon, she shines her flashlight all over the mortuary.
Kashan, kashan.
She heard it again.
This time a silver scalpel had landed behind Sato.
Sato doesn’t usually carry scalpels with her, and she’s not a magician. There couldn’t have been any other scalpel like the one she picked up.
“Is someone there……?”
What Sato saw when she turned around while clutching the flashlight was.
“――――KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
A scream like tearing silk echoed through the morgue.
The next day, Sato retired from her job at the general hospital.
The scene from that time, the “kashan, kashan” sound of the scalpel falling into the morgue, still rings in her ears.
