Emily’s Courage
Emily Brooks stood completely frozen.
What Sadako Yamamura had just said sounded absurd, yet Emily somehow believed every word.
In truth, ever since the first time she met Sadako, she had always felt that something about the mysterious young woman was wrong.
Samantha Quinn had always been mentally strong, so how could she have collapsed in terror simply from looking at Sadako during her audition?
On the Ring set, almost every actor who performed directly opposite Sadako became genuinely frightened, and some had even ended up in the hospital afterward.
Daniel Mercer himself had collapsed after filming Ryuji Takayama’s death scene because Sadako’s eye frightened him beyond anything ordinary acting should have been capable of.
Then there had been the wrap party at the Grand Meridian Hotel.
Sadako had single-handedly defeated several heavily built bodyguards, leaving them with shattered wrists and ankles as though their size and strength meant nothing.
Emily had forced herself to accept Atlas’s explanation at the time, but after watching Sadako float through the air inside Fuji-Q and instantly change her clothes without any visible equipment, all the strange details finally connected.
Supernatural beings really existed.
“Emily, about Sadako…” Atlas started, wondering how he could possibly explain everything without making the situation worse.
Emily surprised him by stepping forward and extending her hand toward Sadako.
“Hello, Sister Sadako,” she said carefully.
“Don’t worry.
I won’t tell anyone your secret.”
Sadako looked down at Emily’s offered hand.
Then her face began changing.
Her delicate features twisted into something grotesque while dark corpse-like marks spread across her pale hands.
Long fingers closed around Emily’s hand, and the icy temperature made her feel as though she had just grabbed the hand of someone pulled directly from a morgue.
Emily’s heart almost stopped.
Every instinct told her to scream and run.
Sadako’s distorted face was only inches away, and those dead-cold fingers felt completely unnatural around her hand.
Emily’s eyes immediately filled with fear, but instead of pulling away, she glanced toward Atlas standing beside her.
He was still there.
Emily knew Atlas wouldn’t allow Sadako to hurt her.
So she endured.
Atlas was surprised that Emily hadn’t screamed even once.
He could clearly see how frightened she was, yet despite the terror in her eyes, she forced herself to remain standing.
“Sadako, that’s enough.”
Sadako stared at Emily for another moment before releasing her hand.
Her face gradually returned to normal, and the corpse-like marks disappeared as though they had never existed.
“You’re brave,” Sadako said.
Emily blinked.
It was the first sincere compliment Sadako had given a human since becoming a ghost.
Very few people had managed to face her most horrifying appearance without immediately collapsing, screaming, or running away.
Atlas certainly hadn’t.
The first time he saw her true face, he had nearly yelled the apartment down.
“All right,” Atlas said, relieved that the confrontation hadn’t turned into another medical emergency.
“You two understand each other now.
The exit should be somewhere ahead, so let’s get out of here.”
Sadako’s gaze suddenly shifted downward.
She pointed toward Emily.
“Let her walk by herself.”
Atlas paused.
He looked at Sadako.
Then at Emily.
A strange realization slowly appeared in his mind.
Wait…
is she jealous?
Atlas almost laughed but wisely kept the thought to himself.
“She twisted her ankle earlier.
I’m only supporting her because walking hurts.”
Sadako’s expression changed slightly.
“Twisted ankle?”
Her eyes moved toward Emily’s foot.
Only then did she notice the faint swelling around the ankle.
Sadako became silent.
So she had misunderstood.
But why had Atlas helping another woman bothered her in the first place?
Sadako had increasingly noticed that her emotions were changing ever since she emerged from Atlas’s television and entered this world.
Things that should have meant nothing to her now occasionally caused irritation, curiosity, satisfaction, embarrassment, or other feelings she had almost forgotten.
She crouched beside Emily.
Before Emily could ask what she was doing, Sadako placed one hand gently over the swollen ankle.
A faint supernatural force passed through it.
“Done.”
Atlas blinked.
He had almost forgotten that Sadako possessed healing abilities.
Emily cautiously moved her ankle.
The pain was gone.
She rotated her foot again, then stared downward in disbelief.
Only moments ago, even putting weight on it had hurt, yet now there wasn’t the slightest discomfort.
“Sister Sadako…
thank you.”
Sadako gave a small indifferent nod.
The three continued through the remaining sections of the attraction and eventually reached the exit.
When they finally stepped outside, Atlas immediately noticed that the normally cheerful amusement-park area had become unusually crowded.
Employees were gathered everywhere.
Several frightened scare actors stood together talking rapidly.
Even the police had arrived.
A manager rushed toward Atlas the moment he spotted them, with two officers following close behind.
“Are you three okay?”
Atlas looked around in confusion.
“We’re fine.
What happened?”
The manager glanced nervously toward the haunted attraction.
“Good.
That’s good.”
Atlas immediately understood.
Then an evil idea entered his mind.
“Oh, by the way,” he said casually.
“Your performers are incredible.
There was one woman in white who could actually float.”
The manager’s face stiffened.
“You saw the woman in white?”
“Sure.”
“Did she…
do anything to you?”
Atlas shrugged.
“Nothing serious.
She floated over and told me she was going to take my life.”
The manager swallowed.
“And then?”
Atlas kept a perfectly straight face.
“I slapped her twice and told her to behave herself.”
Silence.
Emily covered her mouth.
Sadako stared at Atlas.
Then her fingers suddenly pinched the flesh at his waist.
Atlas nearly jumped.
“Ow—”
Sadako calmly released him.
On the way back, Daniel Mercer finally explained what had happened outside while Atlas, Emily, and Sadako had still been inside.
Around twenty minutes after they entered, employees had begun running out of the attraction one after another, many of them pale and genuinely terrified.
“One guy spoke English,” Daniel explained.
“I asked what happened, and he told me there was some woman in a white dress floating through the hospital.”
Daniel scratched his beard.
“Kind of funny, actually.
The ghost in our movie wears white and has long black hair too.”
Atlas remained silent.
Emily remained silent.
Sadako looked straight ahead.
Daniel suddenly lowered his voice.
“Do you think ghosts might actually exist?”
Atlas and Emily exchanged a quick glance.
Then both looked toward the genuine ghost walking beside them.
Atlas immediately shook his head.
“Of course not.”
Emily nodded rapidly.
“Definitely not.”
Daniel frowned.
“Then what happened in there?”
“Marketing,” Atlas answered without hesitation.
“Probably some publicity stunt.”
Daniel slowly nodded.
“That actually makes sense.”
Sadako glanced at Atlas as though wondering how humans could be this easy to fool.
The four eventually returned to their hotel.
Atlas and Daniel went to their room while Emily and Sadako stopped outside the room they were sharing.
Emily nervously searched through her bag for the key card.
Her hands were still slightly shaky, and no matter how much she searched, she couldn’t seem to find it.
Sadako waited for several seconds.
Then became impatient.
She simply walked through the closed door.
Emily froze.
A moment later, the door opened from inside.
Sadako stood there expressionlessly.
Emily swallowed.
If this had happened yesterday, she probably would have screamed loud enough to wake the entire floor.
Now that she knew Sadako’s true identity, all she could do was force herself to walk into the room.
During the previous nights, Sadako had behaved almost normally.
She had been quiet and strange, but Emily had never seen anything blatantly supernatural while they were alone together.
Tonight was different.
Sadako no longer bothered pretending.
She floated across the room instead of walking.
Emily sat on her bed and watched her drift from one side to the other with a complicated expression.
This was really happening.
The terrifying female ghost from Ring wasn’t created with makeup or special effects.
She was real.
Emily also couldn’t understand how Atlas had convinced a genuine vengeful spirit to appear in his movie, follow him around, and obey him so readily.
The relationship between those two suddenly seemed far more mysterious than she had originally imagined.
That night, Emily barely slept.
Because on the bed beside hers lay a real female ghost.
Every time Emily opened her eyes, she found herself checking whether Sadako was still there.
Unfortunately, she always was.
The following morning, Atlas looked at the dark circles beneath Emily’s eyes but decided not to ask too many questions.
The four headed to the airport and boarded their flight back to America.
Atlas had no intention of holding a major Japanese premiere.
Vance Studios had almost no reputation in the country, and neither Atlas nor most of the cast possessed enough name recognition there to attract reporters simply by appearing at a theater.
Holding an expensive premiere under those circumstances would achieve very little.
For now, promotion would depend almost entirely on the Japanese distributor.
What Atlas didn’t know was that earlier that morning, the company had already uploaded the Japanese trailer for Ring.
At first, hardly anyone noticed.
The video circulated among only a small number of horror fans.
Then something changed.
And the situation rapidly spiraled out of control.