SWEET WHISPERS BEHIND A STALL

Sweet Whispers behind a Stall was a mix of two tales. It was originally a sequel to the Ember Smell of Winter and when that failed, it would have been a story about a boy meeting his crush’s doppelganger. The first lines may have been, “Alek was in love with Bridget.”

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That, too, failed.

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What was left was an image of a boy entering a haunted toilet stall in some abandoned town. Apparently, a sweet voice was heard from behind the stall. Whether this was a ghost, or another character was not revealed because yet again, the story shifted gears.

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Soon, the town transformed into a forest called Akatarawa. The toilet stall was part of a deserted hotel. The boy became an avid mountain hiker. As for the girl, well, her name and its origin paved the way for the story to be a personal favourite.