This happened during summer vacation when I was in seventh grade.

Normally, my parents, my older sister, and I would spend a few days at my relatives' place out in the countryside. But that year, my sister got into a traffic accident, so my mother stayed behind to take care of her, leaving just my father and me to make the trip. Shortly after arriving at my relatives' house and making brief greetings, I felt an urge to be on my own—partly owing to my rebellious teenage phase. Not wanting to hang around my father and relatives, I went for a walk around the neighborhood by myself until dinner.

Since I had been coming there every year since elementary school, I knew the area fairly well. But being back in the countryside reminded me of something the adults always told us kids: "Under no circumstances should children ever go to Shrine A."

Shrine A had been there for a very long time, but I had never been to it once. Years ago, when I asked my father why, he would only say, "It's a place you aren't allowed to go until you're an adult." Curiosity gnawed at me, and I desperately wanted to check it out. But I was too scared to go alone. Just as I was wondering what to do, B-ko came up to me and asked, "What're you up to?"

B-ko lived near my relatives' house. Since we were close in age, she was the friend I always played with whenever I visited. When I brought up Shrine A, she suggested we gather some other kids from the neighborhood and test our courage.

So at eleven o'clock that night, while the adults were busy drinking, we snuck out quietly and headed to the meeting spot B-ko had set. There, we met up with C-o and D-o—whom I had met a few times before—along with D-o's younger sister, E-ko. It turned out everyone had always wanted to visit Shrine A at least once, which is why they agreed to join.

Shrine A was located in the mountains, about a twenty-minute walk from the hamlet where my relatives and B-ko lived. None of us had ever been given the exact location—we'd all been told, "You're just kids, so you can't go." But if you lived in the area, you could guess its general location. To avoid getting caught by the adults, we decided we would just take a quick look at Shrine A and head right back. We set off under the cover of darkness.

On the way there, I felt a mix of excitement and a creeping sense of fear. But I figured with this many people, no ghosts would show up. In fact, I thought the reason the adults kept Shrine A a secret was simply because it was deep in the mountains, and it was dangerous for kids to go by themselves.

But when we finally arrived at what seemed to be Shrine A, seeing its desolate atmosphere and the filth-stained torii gate made me regret coming. There was an unmistakable, unnerving presence in the air. I wanted to turn back, but B-ko and C-o kept walking straight ahead. Not wanting to be left behind, I had no choice but to follow.

Shrine A was tiny. Passing through the torii gate, there was a small shrine box just six feet ahead. B-ko let out a disappointed voice, "Huh? Is this it?" C-o said, "That's not scary at all," while D-o urged, "Let's go back," and E-ko chimed in, "Our moms are gonna be so mad." I was about to agree with D-o and E-ko when, before anyone could stop him, C-o opened the doors to the shrine box. He peered inside, let out a sharp screech, grabbed his throat, and collapsed onto the ground, rolling wildly from side to side. Completely bewildered by what was happening, I listened as C-o groaned uncontrollably—"Uhh, uhhh"—and began clawing violently at his own throat with both hands until it bled.

Frozen in shock by the horrifying sight, the rest of us couldn't move. Then E-ko shouted, "I'll go get Grandpa!" and sprinted back down the path we had just come from. D-o said it was dangerous and ran after E-ko to accompany her. B-ko and I stayed behind, pinning C-o's hands down to keep him from tearing his throat apart any further. C-o was two years younger than me and had a thin build, so I thought two girls could easily hold him down, but his strength was terrifyingly abnormal, and he kept thrashing us off.

After what felt like tens of minutes, the hurried sound of footsteps echoed through the night. D-o, E-ko, and their grandfather, Mr. F, came running up to us. The moment Mr. F laid eyes on C-o, he screamed:

"Nodagami-sama!"

He barked an order to D-o: "You, run to the mayor's house and bring Obaa here!" Then he turned to the rest of us and said, "E-ko, [Name], B-ko, it's dangerous for you here. Get home right now. Obaa is coming, so it'll be alright." He ordered us to return to our respective homes. I was worried about C-o, but the terror of being in that place overwhelmed everything else, so we did as Mr. F said and went home.

By the time I made it back to my relatives' house, word had already spread. My father scolded me fiercely: "I told you over and over not to go there!" Crying with regret, I blamed myself, thinking C-o ended up like that because I had wanted to go. But my relatives comforted me, saying, "We never properly explained things to you either. C-o was bitten by Nodagami-sama, but Obaa is here now, so he'll be okay."

When I asked what Nodagami-sama was, they told me it was written in kanji as "Throat Biter." The origin of Nodagami-sama went back to a parent and child who had been marginalized in the village long ago and eventually died of starvation when they ran out of food. As the child drew their last breath, they cried out, "I'll bite their throats! I'll make it so they can never eat anything again! I'll make them suffer the exact same pain!" Whether it became a curse or not, village children soon began clawing their own throats, vomiting blood, and dying one after another. A traveling ritualist eventually purified the spirit and sealed the parent and child's remains inside the shrine box at Shrine A.

Ever since then, rumors circulated warning children to stay away from Shrine A. But once before, a child had opened the shrine box just like C-o, breaking the seal and dying after tearing at their throat. Many adults had opened it before and remained completely unharmed for some reason, leading everyone to realize that the curse only targeted children. Thus, bringing children near Shrine A became a strict taboo. The woman called Obaa was a direct descendant of the ritualist who first sealed Nodagami-sama, and it was her family's duty to quell the curse whenever an emergency arose.

It sounded like an unbelievable story, but having seen C-o's condition with my own eyes, I had no choice but to believe it. My father and relatives assured me that Obaa would take care of everything, but I was too unnerved to sleep, and morning soon came. Hearing a gentle knock at the front door, I opened it, thinking it might be the Obaa I had heard about. Sure enough, she was standing there. She simply said, "We made it in time for C-o. You mustn't go there anymore. Never open it while you're still a child," and then walked away.

My father had apparently called my mother, and it was decided I would return home that very day. Ever since that night—perhaps out of caution until I grew up—whenever I visited the countryside, I would only stay for half a day before returning home right away with my mother or father. B-ko, D-o, and E-ko were all severely reprimanded for going to Shrine A on their own, and adults began patrolling the surrounding area to keep other kids away. C-o was hospitalized for a while, but he recovered completely, without even a single scar left on his throat.

Shrine A and its shrine box are still standing in that exact spot, but even after becoming an adult, I have never approached them again since that day. It wasn't a dream—it really happened. Even now, the memory remains burned into my mind.