Red Water [Modern Hyakumonogatari: Kowai Hanashi 21/99]

Red Water  (赤い水)

By Nishiurawa in "Modern Hyakumonogatari: Kowai Hanashi"

   In many regions of Japan it is customary to use salt to cleanse oneself after coming home from a funeral.
   However, in Kouda's house, they take a handful of salt in each hand and wash them until it has completely dissolved. This has been an unwritten rule for the girls in her family, and her mother has had them do this ever since they were little.

   This is something that happened on the way home from school when she was a teenager.
   She was riding her bike home like usual and saw a crowd of people around an intersection. The surrounding buildings were being illuminated by flashing red emergency lights.
   (What happened here?)
   She tried to get closer and it looked to be a traffic accident.
   Tracks from blood-soaked tires snaked across the intersection.
   A torn up backpack sat on the road and pieces of flesh and long hair lay scattered on the side.
   She could easily assume it was the person who had been hit.
   (Oh my god... I've seen something horrible.)
   She got back on her bike and hurried home.

   When she got home, she told her grandmother about what she had just seen.
   While listening to the story, her mother's face quickly grew pale.
   "This is not good. You must wash your hands immediately."
   With a stern face, her mother took her to the kitchen even though she was in the middle of changing her clothes.
   Her mother took a very old jar out from underneath the sink. It was full of brownish salt. She took some in her hand and piled it onto Kouda's palms.
   "Now, wash your hands."
   She put her hands into the water flowing from the faucet.
   As soon as it touched the water, the salt instantly became a deep red and soon her hands looked like they were covered with blood.
   (No way! Why did it turn red?)
   Red water spilled between her fingers like drops of blood.
   (Please melt soon, please melt soon...)
   She desperately rubbed the salt together in her hands.
   After a while, the water became clearer and clearer until it was completely transparent again and the salt in her hands had been washed away.
   She opened her hands and inspected her palms.
   "It looks like you narrowly escaped a deadly haunting. Please be more careful from now on."
   Her mother said this with a sigh and went back to her room.

   "For generations, the women in our family have experienced premature deaths. I think I know why."
   Even now, when something happens she washes her hands with salt.