It was past midnight when Ryo first heard the sound.
“Tek… Tek… Tek…”
The sound was faint at first, almost indistinguishable from the faint rustle of leaves in the cold wind that funneled between the narrow alleys of his neighborhood. He slowed his walk, his breath forming small, white clouds in the winter air. The pavement glistened from a light drizzle earlier that evening, reflecting the dim, orange glow of an aging streetlamp.
“Tek… Tek…”
It came again, sharper this time like something hard scraping against concrete. A deliberate sound. Slow. Measured.
Ryo frowned and turned his head, scanning the street behind him. Empty. Only the faint hum of the power lines overhead and the occasional creak of a loose sign in the wind. He shook his head and continued, quickening his pace.
The lamp above him flickered once, twice then dimmed, casting the street into long, jagged shadows. That’s when the sound grew louder.
“Tek… Tek… Tek…”
The rhythm echoed unnaturally, as though the street itself was amplifying it. Ryo turned again. She was there.
At first, his mind refused to process what he was seeing — the thing crawling toward him didn’t fit into any logic he knew. Pale, almost translucent skin stretched over a frame that seemed too thin, too frail to move. Her black hair hung in wet, tangled strands, sticking to her face and neck. Her body ended in ragged, torn flesh at the waist — she had no legs. Just a torso and arms, dragging herself forward on broken, dirt-caked nails that screeched faintly each time they met the ground.
Her head tilted upward slowly, and he saw her face — or at least, part of it. One bloodshot eye stared at him with a glassy, unblinking intensity. The other was hidden beneath the matted curtain of hair.
“Tek… Tek… Tek…”
Every movement brought her closer. Her elbows scraped the wet ground, her fingers clawing forward with an unnatural strength.
Ryo froze. His heart pounded so violently that he thought she might hear it. Every instinct screamed at him to run, but his legs locked.
Then she spoke.
“Where… are… my legs?”
The voice was wet. Choking. As if she was trying to talk through lungs filled with water or blood. The sound burrowed into his skull, making his vision swim for a moment.
He knew that voice. Not personally, but from the countless stories whispered by classmates, friends, and drunken strangers who swore they’d seen her. They all said the same thing — she was Tek-Tek, the ghost of a young woman who’d fallen onto train tracks years ago and been cut in half by an oncoming train. Now she wandered the streets after midnight, dragging herself forward, hunting those unfortunate enough to cross her path.
Ryo’s mind raced. He remembered the rules: if she asked about her legs, you couldn’t just run — she’d chase you, and she was faster than anyone on foot. If you lied, she’d kill you where you stood. Only the truth could save you. But what was the truth? With his throat dry and his voice trembling, Ryo forced the words out.
“The… train took them.”
Silence. The wind stopped. Even the faint hum of the streetlights seemed to die away. Her single visible eye widened, and then her mouth split into an unnatural grin. Her teeth were jagged, blackened, some broken down to the root.
“Liar.”
The word slithered from her throat like something venomous. Before he could move, she lunged. Her hands slammed against the pavement, propelling her body toward him with terrifying speed. In her grip, Ryo saw it — a long, rusted scythe, its curved blade slick with something dark.
He threw himself to the side just as the blade sliced the air where his stomach had been. The metallic clang of steel against asphalt rang in his ears. Ryo didn’t think. He ran. His sneakers slapped the wet pavement, echoing through the narrow street. His breath came in ragged bursts. Behind him, the sound followed.
“Tek-Tek-Tek-Tek-Tek!”
It was faster now, almost like the beat of a predator’s sprint. He rounded a corner, nearly slipping, and darted into an alley. The shadows here were thicker, and the air smelled of rust and damp garbage. He pressed himself against the wall, willing his breath to quiet. The scraping sound slowed.
“Tek… Tek…”
Closer. Ryo risked a glance toward the alley entrance but saw nothing. Just darkness. Then a wet strand of hair slid into view around the corner. Panic surged through him, and he bolted again, bursting out the other side of the alley into an open street. His mind grasped for safety — a convenience store, a late-night taxi, anything — but the streets were deserted.
He spotted the faint glow of a vending machine up ahead and sprinted toward it. Beside it stood an old payphone, one of the few still left in the city. His fingers shook as he fumbled for his phone, only to see the screen glitching — static, lines, numbers flickering nonsensically.
Behind him, the laughter started. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t even entirely human. It was a breathy, broken giggle that rose and fell unnaturally, echoing from every direction. Ryo’s eyes darted around. No sign of her until he looked down. She was crawling from beneath a parked car, her head tilted at an impossible angle, that one bloodshot eye locked on him. He turned and ran again, legs burning, lungs on fire.
The city around him seemed to warp — streets he knew suddenly twisted into unfamiliar routes, the buildings leaning closer as though to watch. He could still hear her, right behind him, the scraping now frantic, inhumanly fast.
“Tek-Tek-Tek-Tek-Tek!”
Ryo’s vision blurred. He didn’t know how long he’d been running when he finally saw the dim lights of the station ahead. Maybe if he reached it, if he got inside, she couldn’t follow. Few moments away from the station, a group of people started getting out the station and heading towards him. With the group approaching, the sound of scraping began to fade away. Ryo fell at the feet of people and almost passed out. Out of breath but safe at last.
TEK TEK
The Teke Teke is a Japanese urban legend about a young woman who died after being hit by a train, becoming a vengeful spirit. She is described as a woman with no lower body, who travels on her hands, making a "teke teke" sound as she moves, and is known for attacking and dismembering her victims, mimicking her own tragic fate
