Summary
There is a story about The Girl Under the Bed, the ghost of a woman who was betrayed by her friend. After having her boyfriend stolen by her and being abandoned, she committed suicide. Since then she searches for those who have hurt her by hiding beneath the many beds she comes by.
She kills girls with no discrimination...
Suddenly the girls are startled after Maria gets called by her mother. Seeing the time they prepare to leave when Yukina cracks a joke and begins thinking about how much fun she had. She met her friends back when middle school began, and since then they have been inseparable. Every day they hang out together and just lose all track of time.
It's then an adorable charm catches her eye and she asks Maria where it came from. Maria apologetically explains that she had tickets to go to the theme park Screaming Land, but she only had three so she couldn't invite her too. Yukina is disappointed but she understands, asking them to invite her next time. Maria agrees and heads off to say goodbye to their other friends while Yukina remains in the room. Suddenly, she gets an idea and decides to play a small prank on Maria for not being invited and she crawls beneath her bed.
Maria returns chatting on her phone with Rina -one of their friends- and settles down on her bed. As Yukina mentally prepares herself for her prank, she is sidetracked upon hearing her name.
"Wouldn't it be bad if Yukina realized she was being rejected?"
Shocked by these words, Yukina listens as Maria laughs and mockingly points out her faults; not only is she not funny like she thinks she is, but she can't read the mood at all. In fact, she hasn't even realized that they only befriended her because they sat near when school started. It's then she's called for dinner and Maria takes off, leaving the heartbroken Yukina beneath the bed. She silently weeps before crawling out and hurriedly runs out of the room, down the stairs, and out the front door- leaving Maria and her mother to wonder what all the noise was.
Still shaken, Yukina struggles to concentrate the following day at school and she begins to feel worse when the girls approach her to work on their group assignment. They notice her strange behavior but she says nothing, keeping to herself while they chat about how much fun they had the other day. They decide to hold another scary story telling session and this gives Yukina a great idea, so she asks to join them. The girls hesitate and point out how far she lives from Maria's place, but she insists it will be fine.
Days pass until the girls reunite at Maria's again and get right into their scary stories. However, they soon quit and begin chatting about boys until Yukina cries out in fright. She pulls out a large wad of tangled black hair from beneath the bed, alarming the girls when they quickly realize it looks nothing like Maria's hair.
Maria remains uneasy as everyone decides to get going later, and they leave until Yukina recalls having left something behind and returns to fetch it from her bedroom. She runs back and after making sure the coast is clear, she takes out some red paint and writes TRAITOR on Maria's blanket. After finishing, she screams to alert the girls and takes off after watching as Maria is nearly reduced to hysterics and the others attempt to comfort her.
However... Yukina isn't satisfied yet. They really hurt her feelings, so they deserve more punishment. But seeing how much of a wreck Maria has become has made her feel a little better the following day at school. The girls continue to try to comfort her as she explains barely sleeping due to what happened. Yukina shows no remorse until Maria recalls that her parents will be away for a couple of days, and she asks her friends to stay with her until they return. The others are too busy though, leaving Yukina to volunteer. Maria gratefully accepts.
That evening Yukina is seated and Maria heads into the nearby room to get them drinks. But still feeling upset, she observes the charm from before and pulls a hammer out of her backpack. But before she can smash it, Maria storms into the room with her friends; not even the least bit surprised as she reveals being suspicious of her lately, due to finding the wad of hair and the mess in her bedroom. She tells Yukina off for being such a jerk and asks if she has a head problem to get that angry over being excluded, then she tosses her outside and cruelly states that if anyone is a traitor it's her because she was never their friend. With one last mocking laugh, she and her friends slam the door on Yukina.
Abandoned and further broken, Yukina begins her descent into an agonizing revenge.
The following day she ignores the girls when they attempt to rub their plans in her face by pointing out how "that annoying person" won't be there, and once school ends she hurriedly rushes to Maria's home to find her mother there. Due to her not knowing what happened, she allows Yukina into their home after she explains her desire to set up a surprise for Maria in her bedroom.
She will see to it that Maria suffers for the pain she has caused her...
Yukina hides beneath Maria's bed once again. But as the hours pass, she notices that oddly she has yet to show up. She begins to fall asleep until realizing how long she's been under there and decides to leave; but before she can someone steps into the room. Someone wearing a flowing, tattered dress with dark colored nails...
Right away Yukina realizes this can't be Maria, or her mother, and she begins to worry. She remains silent as the figure approaches the bed and stands there, then perch themselves onto it. As their long, flowing black messy hair drapes over the bed, Yukina panics further.
It's then Maria arrives home.
Suddenly, Yukina sees that the strange figure has vanished. She hurriedly gets out from under the bed, refusing to stay there any longer and she thrusts open the door and runs down the stairs and out the front door. She ignores the confused Maria, who yells out to her as she disappears out of sight.
Yukina runs straight for home and up to her bedroom, taking shelter beneath her blankets as she wonders if what she saw was real or merely a hallucination. She reasons that it had to have been and decides to go to bed until hearing loud, creaking sounds beneath her bed. Frightened, she forces herself to look and finds nothing there. Her mother calls for her to remind her of dinner, and just as Yukina sits up she is horrified to find a sharp blade stabbing apart her stuffed animal she was clutching seconds ago...
She turns to find the ghostly Woman Under the Bed, who announces that she has just found the traitor...
Tropes:
- Asshole Victim: If you think Yukina deserved the Karmic Twist Ending, otherwise it's a case of Yank the Dog's Chain.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Maria looks sweet and acts friendly around Yukina, until she leaves. Then she starts making fun of her.
- Deadly Prank: Not the typical way. Yukina's pranks never hurt anybody but the chapter ends with her being confronted by the Woman Under the Bed.
- Disproportionate Retribution
- Driven to Suicide: The woman who became the titular ghost killed herself.
- Karma Houdini: Despite Maria's cruelty and deception nothing happens to her.
- Nightmare Face: The Woman Under the Bed!
- With Friends Like These...: This is pretty much the central theme. There's Maria, who doesn't want to tell Yukina that she isn't actually their friend and would rather string her along and exclude her thinking she would leave them alone sooner or later. She only revealed the truth after getting fed up with Yukina's pranks.
- The same could also apply to Yukina in the eyes of the other girls, because she never confronted them with what she heard. To them it looked like she was acting unreasonably.
- The woman who became the titular ghost had her boyfriend stolen by her friend, then they both abandoned her.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Woman Under the Bed looks for traitors, but she is said to attack or kill anybody whose bed she finds herself under.
