Ghost Stories From Japan Episode 52 : My friend who was dragged into the mirror

This is a story I experienced at my third grade joint camp.

The elementary school I attended had a summer camp in July of the third grade.

The camp was not a full-scale camp with tents, but rather we rented a few bungalows and stayed there for two nights.

There, we would cook rice in a pot, make curry, barbecue, and enjoy ourselves.

The bungalow where I stayed had a large mirror for some reason.

Strangely enough, only the bungalow we were staying in had a mirror, not the other bungalows where our friends were staying.

On the first day, dinner was over, and it was time for bed, and everyone decided to rest in their bungalows.

However, I woke up in the middle of the night, and needed to go to the bathroom.

The bathroom was outside, so when I came back after leaving the bungalow, I felt someone's eyes on me.

I wondered if someone was awake, but I looked and saw that none of my friends were awake.

I wondered if it was my imagination... and just as I was about to go back to sleep, I realized something weird.

I felt their eyes on me from the mirror.

Fearfully, I looked in the mirror, and what I saw was a woman I did not know reflected there.

She was not in the room, but her reflection was in the mirror.

I screamed in terror.

Then, everyone who had been sleeping woke up, and asked, "what's wrong?", and I said, "there was a woman in the mirror !"

We all looked in the mirror and around the room, but there was no sign of the woman, and we all agreed that I must have been sleepwalking and had mistakenly seen her.

However, I could not sleep at all.

The next morning, I told my teacher about last night.

Of course, my teacher didn't believe me, and ignored me.

And at the end of the second day, I selfishly said that I did not want to sleep near the mirror, and that I wanted to sleep at the farthest place from it, and everyone agreed.

How long had it been since we had slept ?

We all jumped out of bed at the sound of classmate Rika, who was sleeping closest to the mirror.

We looked over to see what was going on, and there was an unbelievable scene unfolding.

The woman I had seen in the mirror last night had grabbed Rika by the legs, and was dragging her into the mirror.

No one could move for a moment because of the unexpected event.

However, when the boys heard Rika's screams again, they tried to pull her away.

But they were powerless, and she quickly went to the other side of the mirror.

We were shaking and crying, frozen far from the mirror, unable to move from fear.

Some of the boys ran and went to call the teacher.

The teacher and the boys came back, and they asked, "where is Rika ?"

So we pointed to the mirror.

In the mirror, we saw the image of Rika crying, and a woman smiling eerily beside her.

In a semi-panic, we hurried away.

The teacher led us to the bus, and sent us on our way.

I later heard that the remaining teachers and the campground management had a discussion.

What was the big mirror that was only in one bungalow ?

And who was the woman in the mirror, and was there any way to rescue Rika who had been dragged into the mirror ?

However, no matter how many times they asked, the caretaker only replied that he had never seen a mirror for a figurehead, and had never heard of such a story before.

The mirror had disappeared without a trace when the adults returned to the bungalow again.

Eventually, Rika was reported missing during a camp orientation, and the police were sent out to investigate.

But 20 years later, she still has not been found.

It was in the newspapers at the time, and I think the teachers were held responsible, and also there was the sudden change of homeroom teachers.

What was that mirror and the woman in it...?