Hammer

The video rental place down the street was having a sale, so I decided to grab something to watch later. As I was going through the bins, I found a VHS tape that didn’t have any case. The only sign that anything was actually on the video was a white sticker with the word “Hammer” scrawled across it in black ink. I had no way of telling what the movie was about, but since it was only 100 yen, I decided to buy it anyway.

When I got home later that evening, I was dying to know what the video was. I put it in the VCR, and it began playing immediately.

It was night, and somebody was running down a nondescript road somewhere. The point of view was that of whoever was running, and for a few minutes the only thing on the screen was the camera’s bouncing as it made its way down the road.

“Pft, even 100 yen is too much for this shit…” I mumbled and opened my laptop. I left the video running in the background as I started messing around online. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the camera was still bobbing along, and whoever was holding it seemed to be getting tired. I could hear them panting heavily, but they continued running at the same speed.

I looked up when the panting became too strong to ignore. Something felt very wrong about images on the screen.

“Wait.. I think I know this street!” I closed the screen of my laptop and set it on the couch next to me. If the video took place in an area I knew, it might be fun just to watch it for that. The cameraman eventually turned a corner onto a residential street.

“Huh? What? That’s the street I live on…” The video stopped for a few seconds and seemed to freeze on the front of an apartment complex. When it began playing again, the cameraman was standing in front of somebody’s door. The camera panned to the name plate next to the door. It was a name I was very familiar with. After that, he panned to the bicycle I rode home, which was next to the door.

“That’s my apartment!” I cried out when a loud BANG! came from my front door.

I looked back at the screen and saw that the cameraman was pounding on the door with a hammer. With every beat on the video, I heard the sound even louder coming from my door. It was perfectly synchronized. I watched the hammer and shook every time the sound reached my ears.

I was too scared to move, but I could see the door from where I was sitting. My eyes found their way to the door, which was now shaking violently and had a small hole in it from whatever was out there. I could have sworn I saw the bloodshot eyes of a madman peering at me through that hole.

I tore my eyes away from the door and looked back at the TV screen. While there were wood splinters obstructing part of the camera’s field of view, I could clearly see myself sitting on my couch. I let out a scream and jumped backwards, bumping into the wall behind me. While I was pushing myself away from the TV and the door, I must have pressed a button on the VCR remote because the video suddenly stopped.

Silence. I couldn’t hear anything except my own heartbeat and frantic breathing. The pounding on my door had stopped at the same time the video stopped playing.

I slowly made my way to the door and opened it. Nobody was there. I went to my neighbor’s to tell them about it, but they looked at me like I was crazy. I reluctantly went back to my apartment only to see that the door that had been there just moments before was gone. My neighbor, who was outside watching me to make sure I was alright, suggested that it was all a dream. I nodded my head and went inside.

I sat down in front of the VCR and pushed the eject button. The video was still in there and still had the word “Hammer” written across the front. I could see that the tape wasn’t rewound to the beginning and knew for sure that it hadn’t been a dream.

I quickly returned to the video rental shop with the tape and gave it back to the owner.

“You want a refund?” he asked me.

“No, I don’t need it!” I ran out of the store and went to my friend’s place.

I swore that I would never watch a video tape again after that.