The hum of the fluorescent lights in the 24-hour internet cafe was a constant, a sterile counterpoint to the storm raging outside. Rain lashed against the windows, blurring the neon glow of the city. Inside, a handful of students huddled over their keyboards, the glow of the screens illuminating their pale faces. Lin, a university student with dark circles under her eyes was engrossed in an online forum, a thread dedicated to local urban legends. She’d always been fascinated by the macabre, the stories that whispered in the dark corners of the internet, the tales that made your skin crawl.
Tonight’s topic: The Teke Teke. It was a story whispered in hushed tones, a legend that had haunted the back alleys and subway stations of Tokyo for decades. The details varied but the core narrative remained the same.
A young woman, brutally severed in half by a speeding train, her vengeful spirit now roams the city, seeking retribution. She crawls on her hands, her torso dragging behind her, the scraping sound echoing through the night – *teke teke*, the onomatopoeia of her movement, hence her name.Lin scrolled through the forum, reading the latest contributions. Someone claimed to have seen her near Shibuya Crossing, her long, black hair obscuring her face, her eyes burning with malevolent intent. Another recounted a chilling encounter in a deserted subway station, the *teke teke* sound growing louder, closer, until the poster fled in terror. A third claimed to have found a grainy photo online, a distorted image of a figure crawling in the shadows, its lower half missing.Lin shivered, even though the cafe was warm. She’d heard these stories before, dismissed them as urban myths, but tonight, the rain, the isolation, the late hour, made them feel… different. More real.
Suddenly, the lights flickered, plunging the cafe into momentary darkness. A collective gasp rippled through the room. When the lights came back on, the hum of the computers seemed louder, more oppressive. Lin glanced around nervously. The cafe felt colder, the atmosphere charged with a strange tension.She returned to the forum, her fingers trembling slightly as she typed. “Anyone ever actually *seen* her?” she posted.Almost immediately, a reply appeared. “Don’t go looking for her,” it read. “She finds you.”Lin scoffed. Superstitious nonsense. But as she typed a reply, a strange sound drifted in from outside. A rhythmic scraping, a *teke teke* sound, faint at first, but growing steadily louder.Lin froze, her blood turning to ice. She looked up from the screen, her eyes wide with fear. The scraping sound was coming from the street outside, just beyond the cafe’s large glass windows.She could see nothing through the rain-streaked glass, but the *teke teke* sound was unmistakable. It was closer now, right outside the window. She could almost feel the presence of something… inhuman.She wanted to scream, to run, but she was paralyzed by fear. She stared at the window, her heart pounding in her chest. The scraping sound was directly outside now, just inches away.Suddenly, a figure moved in the shadows beyond the glass. Lin gasped, her breath catching in her throat. She couldn’t make out any details, just a dark, distorted shape moving against the backdrop of the rain.The *teke teke* sound stopped.Silence.Then, a single, blood-curdling *thump* echoed against the glass.Lin jumped back from the window, her chair scraping against the floor. She stared at the glass, expecting to see… something. But there was nothing. Just the rain, the darkness, and the reflection of her own terrified face.She let out a shaky breath, telling herself it was just her imagination, the power of suggestion amplified by the late hour and the creepy stories.But as she turned back to her computer, she noticed something on the glass. A dark smear, shaped like… a handprint. But it wasn’t a normal handprint. It was long and distorted, with only three fingers. And beneath it, scratched into the glass, were two words, written in what looked like blood.
*“You’re next.”*
krpoems23 