we did the 100 ghost stories ritual and someone just... disappeared

okay so this happened in like 3rd or 4th grade. someone was like "let's do hyakumonogatari" and that's how it started.

for context: it's this japanese thing where you light 100 candles and a group takes turns telling 100 scary stories. you blow out one candle after each story, and supposedly when the last candle goes out after the 100th story, something weird happens. like actually paranormal weird.

but obviously we couldn't each come up with 10 horror stories from scratch (we're kids lol), so we had 10 people prepare 10 stories each. i remember frantically searching for scary stuff to contribute. honestly half the stories were basically the same but whatever.

we couldn't actually get 100 candles so we just grabbed like 20, lit them, blew them out, relit them. repeat. we snuck into the PE storage closet because it was the only place we wouldn't get caught, and it was CRAMPED.

so we're doing this, stories keep going, hitting 70, 80... it's getting dark outside since we started after school. finally the last person finishes story number 100 and blows out the final candle.

...moment of silence. the atmosphere is PEAK horror. and then... nothing happens.

someone goes "okay so that was bullshit" and suddenly everyone's chill again. i was lowkey disappointed but like, makes sense. we cheated the whole ritual anyway — duplicate stories, not even a real 100 candles, so whatever.

we were actually happy with how it went though? like the tension was genuinely fun. so we all file out of the storage room.

and then i'm the last one out. i close the door, turn around, and something makes me count heads.

1, 2, 3... 7, 8...

me = 9 people.

wait.

we came in with 10.

at first i thought i miscounted because everyone's walking. so i yell "HEY GUYS STOP FOR A SEC" and they all freeze and look back.

i count again silently.

...still 9.

i'm like "wait, who left already?" and the person at the front goes "what? nobody left. why?"

i literally didn't know how to explain it so i just said "we... we came in with 10 people. right now there's 9 of us."

everyone starts counting. and you can see it hit them all at once. their faces just CHANGE.

and then the chorus: "wait... who's missing?"

and that's the thing. one person was GONE. but nobody could remember who it was. not a single person.

someone was like "it's late, let's just go home" and we all just... left. didn't talk about it. walked home in silence.

next day at school there's an empty desk. just sitting there. empty.

i got this weird feeling like someone *had* been there. but the teacher didn't mention it. nobody did. we checked the attendance sheet — nobody was marked absent.

it got blurry after that. like did someone actually disappear or did we imagine the whole thing? 10+ years later and i can barely remember doing the ritual at all.

but i know for a FACT we started with 10 kids.

and nobody remembers who the 10th person was.

i probably never will.

that kid's just... gone. like they never existed. and everyone forgot them at the exact same time.