Please watch your step

The original have 2 part but since they are short, I just put them together.

The raw are from here :

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n1386go/

Please watch your step

Part 1

“The train are coming. Please step back behind the yellow line and wait. Please watch your step before you board the train”

An announcement was echoing at the platform, and soon the train arrived. The door opens and men and women of all ages come down to the platform. There were few passenger, probably because it’s a daytime.

When I was about to board the train after making sure that there were no more passengers getting out of the train, the announcement that had just been heard suddenly passed through my mind.

“Please watch your step”

It’s an announcement I hear every day, but once it’s on my mind, I can’t help but feels uneasy. The gap between the platform and the train strangely makes me feels anxious. Even though it’s a gap that even a toddler can step over it easily.

A cold sweat start to flowing down from my forehead, and my breathing becomes erratic. In addition, I can feel my heart beating faster. As I looking down at the gap for a moment, a pair of high school students ride past me with annoyed looks on their faces.

I exhaled a lot, bracing myself, walk past the gap and got into the train.

I looked around the car and quickly sat down in an empty seat. My Y-shirt was sticking with sweat and makes me felt uncomfortable. Even though the air conditioner is working inside the train, I can’t stop sweating. I took out my handkerchief and slowly start to wiping the sweat.

Why am I scared like that? Just a gap that size. It’s not dangerous to dodge and I have seen it many times in my daily life. No, in fact there is no danger at all.

Then that is probably the cause.

An unpleasant memory start to filling my mind. A sour taste start to rise from the back of my throat. However, I quickly swallowed and shook my head vigorously to force them off.

……… I don’t remember.

Close your eyes and breathe slowly.

I gradually stop sweating and I began to feels calmer. Then, I heard the voice of a high school student sitting in front of me in an odd tone.

“… I’ll definitely fall, because you’re pulling my leg.”

“!”

Startled, I open my eyes.

I locked eyes with the high school student in front of me. Because I suddenly open my eyes I ended up scaring him.

“… I don’t like it here. Hey. Let’s go.”

The two left their seats without trying to hide their discomfort.

You are thinking too much. You are thinking too much. Forget it. Just forget it.

I repeat that word in my head as if to coaxing myself. I close my eyes again and take a deep breath.

As I sweated, my heart beat become lower, and my breathing became calmer again. As I finally calming down, my eyelids gradually became heavier. My body feels awfully heavy. The swaying of the train feels pleasant and lulled me to sleep. I let myself fall asleep.

Part 2

“Please watch your step”

I heard the announcement. It looks like we’ve arrived at the next station. I slowly lifted my heavy eyelids.

Then I realized there was something black with oval shape under my feet, it’s about 30 cm in size. There was no such thing a while ago.

Is this a … hole?

That’s it. This is a hole. It’s so deep that I can’t see the bottom.

Something grew out of that hole. It slowly extends straight up from the hole. I thought it was a white branch, but it looks different. It was an ivory-colored human arm. It looks pale and unhealthy, like the arm of a bloodless corpse.

The arms bent from the elbows, as if it had lost the strength when it stretched out. As soon as the creepy hand touched the floor, it started to move toward me, crawling on the ground with tremendous speed. Before I could even react, the hand already grabbed my ankle tightly. Chills running down my spine. I tried desperately to shake it off, but the hand holding my ankle firmly with a vice-like grip and does not let go.

I remember this situation.

The hands are clinging to something.

Yes, it’s not trying to drag me into the hole. The hand is desperately clinging to something, to not fall to the hole. And the thing it grab just happened to be my ankle.

It doesn’t want to want die. It have a strong obsession to live.

…… Why do I know that? Why do I understand it’s feelings?

Because that is ………

“Ahhhhhh!”

I was screaming. As if to drown out the words that will follow.

I suddenly realized that I am still on the train. It seems that I was asleep. It looks like I am screaming for real, not just in the dreams, and the passengers around me looked at me as if they were looking at something strange. The stare hurt me, but I didn’t move from my seat.

Looking out from the train window, it seems that the train already passing three stations. There are still 4 stations left before my stop. After looking around, I decided to lightly loosened my tie. The sweaty shirt clinging to my body makes me feels uncomfortable. I take out the handkerchief, take another deep breath while wiping the sweat off my shirt to regain my composure.

It was a very vivid dream. I can still feels the pressure on my ankle.

I shuddered just thinking about it.

“Are you okay?”

An old man sitting next to me called out.

“……I’m fine”

I replied and turned my head to the old man. Then I noticed that there was a folded newspaper on the old man’s lap. The headline of the small article written there immediately catch my attention.

“A fatal accident on the Nanbu Tohoku Line at night”

Noticing his line of sight, the old man start talking to him.

“You know this incident? It’s on a station nearby. It’s a terrible story. A man fell between the platform and the train. It said that he was trapped.”

I can feel my heart beating faster and faster.

“That’s why he grabbed the leg of someone who was close to him.

The old man makes a gesture to grasp something tightly. Seeing that made me want to throw up.

Like a ripple, I can feel the blood rushing from my head. Slowly I feels a cold sensation spreading on my back.

My ankle is hot. It’s as if someone is grabbing me.

“Then, what do you think that person did?”

I know where this goes. Don’t tell me.

But I can’t speak. Something hard and heavy crawls up from my stomach to the throat, covering my throat.

“That person just kicked the poor guy in the face and ran away. They never found out who that person”

I am now sweating profusely.

“… Did the guy survive?”

“It seems that he died. At that time there is not many passenger, and so nobody calls a cop. Moreover, the person who escaped is unknown, and the station attendant started the train without noticing there is someone trapped. It is just unavoidable “

My heart is beating fast. I can’t stop sweating. It’s getting hard to breathe.

“I’m thinking that the responsibility falls on the railway company, but I wonder if the person who escaped help the guy then maybe he won’t die. But it seems that there was also a problem with the person who fell. That’s right. It seems that he was drunk and staggering at the platform. Well, he had it coming. See, as they said in the announcement, please watch your step”

The old man finished his story in a cheerful tone and he even make a joke at the end. Then he noticed my expression.

“Are you okay? You look pale”

But I can no longer hear the old man’s word.

“Please watch your step”

It looks like we’ve arrived at the next station. I don’t even know where the train is stopping. But I couldn’t stand to be on the train anymore. As soon as I heard the announcement, I got off from the train and run like the wind.

“Please watch your step”

That’s it. This announcement was playing at that time as well. It never leaves my ears. Or the frantic look at that drunk’s face. Or the pain in my ankle.

I tried to forget it many times. I covered my ears, closed my eyes, and wiped my feet. But it never disappeared. It never leave me. Is it possible to say that the man’s obsession with life has been transformed into a merciless grudge against me?

“Please watch your step”

I heard the announcement again.

“Customers, please watch your step”

Even the driver who take me home gives me that word.

“Hey! Watch your step!”

And the old man who leans out of his car and screams at me.

Why everyone say that?

Do you know everything?

………… Are you all blaming me?

I’m not a bad person!

That man just fell and died on his own.

I am upset!

It is not my fault!

“Please watch your step”

I no longer knew if it was an announcement or a word someone said.

As soon as I heard the words again, my head became blank.

My ears are ringing. It is so loud.

Huh?

Suddenly my eye sight become low.

Oh no.

I fell into the gap between the train and the platform and got trapped.

……That’s it. I have to call for help.

Like that drunkard.

“Ahhhh!”

I heard someone screaming.

That scream brought me back to my senses.

Oh no!

It’s dangerous!

I desperately struggled to catch something.

Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!

I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!

Then, I felt something in my struggling hand.

It’s a human foot.

I grabbed that leg like crazy.

I am saved!

I look up at the grabbed foot. I tried to ask for help.

I saw a women face, which is full of fear.

Ah, I see. That is how my face looks like at that time.

I already know what the women are going to do.

The rational part that stay on the corner of my head was calmly analyzing the situation.

I felt a shock on my face. The back of my nose is stiff.

As expected, she kicked me in the face as hard as she could.

It hurts when you get kicked by a heel.

I couldn’t bear the impact of the kick, so I let go of my hand. At the same time, I felt a strong blow on my lower body, and a tremendous intense pain that follow. However the pain only last for a moment.

Suddenly my body felt lighter.

What happen?

Am I floating in the air?

There was a splashing sound, like a bag full of liquid slamming into the ground.

I saw a red everywhere, then my vision gradually turning black.

A word drifted through my head as my consciousness fading away. It was neither a comforting word that can released me from guilt, nor were they a word of resentment against the woman who kicked me in the face. It was just a word that have following me all the time.

 “………… Watch your step”

“… Please watch your step”

The train seems to have arrived at the opposite platform.

THE END