Chapter 53: Professional Manipulation
In the Westside District, a sudden downpour began.
Emma was taking photos at home when she heard strange, faint noises.
Following the sound, she found it coming from the bathroom pipes, from the new tenant's room downstairs.
Downstairs,
Tomie had grown from a head into a nine-year-old girl, and Yamamoto was feeding her caviar.
Smack!
The caviar spilled onto the floor.
Tomie, with her delicate, porcelain-like face, glanced coldly at Yamamoto with confident and arrogant eyes.
The beauty mark at the corner of her eye, like an ink spot on a snow lotus, added a touch of dark charm to her flawless whiteness.
Yamamoto collapsed, clutching his head and screaming, "Tomie, what do you want?"
"Waaah!" Tomie didn't answer, but instead cried pitifully.
The situation instantly reversed.
Yamamoto panicked. He immediately knelt on the ground, grasped Tomie's hand, and repeatedly apologized and begged for forgiveness. He chose to submit.
Inside a bistro on the street outside, there were only a few customers left. Emma's current boyfriend, Kevin Harris, was dining with a pretty girl.
This girl was Emma's best friend, Sarah.
"Kevin, when are you going to tell Emma about us?"
Sarah picked up a glass of red wine, took a sip, and asked with a mixture of shame and anticipation.
"Sarah, I'm not ready yet. Let's not discuss this now."
Kevin reached out his right hand and stroked Sarah's fair face across the table.
Sarah didn't say anything more. After all, she had betrayed her best friend, and she already felt guilty. So the two of them became affectionate again.
Unaware of what was going on at the restaurant, Emma took sleeping pills and went to bed early, but had a nightmare.
She dreamed that the water in the fish tank was stained red with blood.
A stack of photos floated to the surface of the water. The photos were the ones she had taken of Tomie's monstrous double-headed face years ago.
Ring ring ring!
A jarring phone call woke Emma from her nightmare.
Sweating profusely, Emma picked up the phone, only to hear a strange woman's sobbing on the other end.
"Is that Jennifer?"
Emma asked tentatively, assuming Jennifer was calling to confide in her after a recent breakup.
There was no answer. The call ended a few seconds later.
Downstairs from Emma's bedroom, Tomie, with a strange smile, put down the phone; it was she who had called.
Kevin returned home two hours later, and Emma told him about the strange phone call.
However, Kevin was preoccupied with dealing with his relationships with the two women and didn't pay any attention to the phone call.
After washing up, Emma pulled Kevin aside and took an artistic photo together.
She planned to use it as a photography assignment and, incidentally, to mark her territory.
Marcus also arrived at the Westside Police Station.
The officer on duty, seeing the detective's badge on Marcus's belt, greeted him politely.
Marcus learned that Detective Harper was still in the records room organizing cases, so he went to find him.
"Detective Harper, my name is Detective Moretti, from the Maple Grove precinct. I'm currently investigating the Tomie case and hope we can cooperate."
"Hey! Detective, it's an honor to work with you." Harper extended his hand respectfully.
He had been investigating the Tomie case for several months, filled with curiosity about this series of unsolved cases—a curiosity that went beyond the scope of normal police work.
"Detective Moretti, these are all the files I've collected related to Tomie."
Harper placed a thick stack of files on the table in front of Marcus.
Marcus sat down beside him and began examining the files compiled by Detective Harper.
The cases here were much more numerous.
One file stated:
The name Tomie first appeared during the late 1800s.
To be precise, this name appeared in the late 19th century, and since then, women named Tomie have consistently appeared.
Until the last two years, they have emerged in large numbers, like a virus.
Dismemberment cases, dismemberment cases, dismemberment cases.
Marcus flipped through more than a dozen cases, all of which were related to Tomie. These cases were always accompanied by a large number of suspects going insane and mysteriously disappearing.
Case 017 also records that in a place called Waterfall Creek, the entire town's residents mysteriously jumped into the river and committed suicide.
At the time, someone from a neighboring town reported seeing a large group of women in the street who all looked exactly alike, and according to them, they were all named Tomie.
However, when the police arrived, the officers returned with no information.
It wasn't until the department sensed something was wrong and sent a second team that they discovered the town was deserted; everyone, including the first batch of officers, had mysteriously vanished.
Marcus, upon reading this, felt that the world might soon be in serious trouble because of Tomie.
Meanwhile,
Yamamoto, a tenant living on the first floor of an apartment building on Westside Street, was in his bedroom, beside Tomie.
After Tomie finished her phone call with Emma, she said a few words to him, and he ran out under the cover of night.
Tomie had instructed him to kill Emma Mitchell upstairs.
He went to the second-floor hallway with a knife, just as his landlord, Mr. Hansen, came out.
"Mr. Yamamoto, are you in some trouble?"
Landlord Hansen scrutinized Yamamoto with a serious expression. He had long sensed something was off about the young man.
However, he had already collected the rent and had no proof, so he couldn't just kick him out without cause.
"No, no!"
"I...I just came out for some fresh air. It just rained, and it's so stuffy."
Yamamoto, feeling guilty, was startled, and his nervousness made him temporarily forget his mission.
"Go back to your room; it's getting cold outside." Hansen stood still, staring intently at Yamamoto.
It seemed he wouldn't leave unless Yamamoto did.
Under this gaze, Yamamoto guiltily returned to his room on the first floor.
Tomie was waiting in the bedroom. Seeing Yamamoto's disheveled state, she was furious.
She knew Yamamoto had definitely failed in his mission.
Tomie opened her lips, as red as rose petals, and said in a sarcastic tone,
"It's best if we don't stay together!"
Hearing this, Yamamoto knelt on the ground, weeping uncontrollably. He wailed and lunged at Tomie, trying to embrace her.
Tomie grabbed the nail polish remover from the table and splashed it fiercely into Yamamoto's eyes.
"Ahhh!"
Yamamoto screamed, writhing in agony on the ground, covering his eyes and rolling around, tears streaming down his face.
"Hahahaha, hahahahahaha!"
Tomie let out a wild laugh.
After a moment,
her laughter slowly subsided as she looked at Yamamoto, who lay on the ground like a corpse.
"I'm sorry!"
Tomie sat down in a chair, slowly bending down, and said softly in a gentle, flowing voice.
"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"
She grabbed Yamamoto's arm, helping him to sit up on the ground, her expression full of apology.
"You're getting worse and worse being with me, I can't just stand by and do nothing!"
Tomie sat in the chair, lowered her head, and wrapped her fair, delicate arms around Yamamoto's disheveled head. Looking down at him, she gently kissed his dry lips.
Yamamoto, as if he'd been given a shot of adrenaline, instantly regained his energy. He knelt on the ground, hugging Tomie's waist, pleading anxiously,
"Please don't leave me...please don't leave me!"
"Tomie, please don't look at me with such sorrowful eyes!"
Yamamoto looked into Tomie's eyes, his heart filled with guilt and heartache.
He felt it was all his fault, because he had been cowardly and hadn't killed Emma Mitchell, causing Tomie such grief. He was guilty.
He grabbed Tomie's clothes, crying out in anguish,
"I'll do anything for you, don't leave me."
"Then...go die!" Tomie gently stroked Yamamoto's head with her right hand, speaking softly.
(End of Chapter)
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