What a Man Encounters on a Midnight Road: “Last to Be Left Behind After 5 Minutes,” A Short Horror Story Collection
A girl with pigtails in a bright red dress.
Mr. A lurched forward, slamming his head into the seat of the driver’s compartment.
“What the hell—”
As he sat up, Mr. A saw it. In the high beams of the taxi’s headlights, there was a little girl crouching under a tree by the side of the road.
The girl had braided hair and wore a bright red dress. She appeared to be about seven years old. Mr. A instinctively checked his watch. It was nearly 1:00 AM. At this time, in such a place, it was highly unusual for such a small girl to be alone and crying. Thinking something must have happened, Mr. A reached for the taxi door to rush over to her. But—
“Don’t go!”
The driver shouted in anger, and Mr. A instinctively pulled his hand back.
“Wha—what do you mean? A little girl like that, crying out here at this time of night? This is serious!”
Mr. A protested.
However, the driver only shook his head, his face pale.
“You can’t go. Don’t you dare go, sir…That child is not of this world.”
A chill ran through Mr. A, and the blood drained from his face.
“I told you, right? It appears here. That… that’s what it is.”
The driver pointed tremblingly at the girl. Seeing the fear in his face, Mr. A tried to calm himself. Upon reflection, it made sense. It was far more likely that the girl wasn’t in danger from an incident, but from something else entirely. The driver was right—she was most likely not of this world. Probably. Most likely.
But—
“Ah, ku-wabara, ku-wabara. I shouldn’t have looked, I shouldn’t have seen it. Damn it, damn it. This is exactly why I hate this road…”
The driver muttered to himself as he fiddled with the gear shift. A soft clink followed, and the taxi slowly began to move again.
They passed by the girl.
In that moment, Mr. A saw it.
The girl was looking at him, with a pleading gaze.
Without thinking, Mr. A’s body moved on its own. He opened the taxi door without hesitation and ran toward the girl.
He knew he was doing something foolish, something dangerous. He was aware of the risk. But even if that girl turned out to be some kind of monster, and even if he were to suffer terribly like a character in a cheap horror movie…
—He could not, would not, abandon a crying child.
There was no way he could ever do that.
Excerpt from “The Crying Little Girl” by Senane, from the compilation Left Behind in the Last 5 Minutes edited by Nashishi, published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha.
Why couldn’t Mr. A bring himself to abandon the girl? The reason will be revealed in the next part. And what shocking conclusion awaited Mr. A?
