New Years. I put a small legless chair under the kotatsu and kicked back to read a book.

  I rearranged my legs while turning the pages. As I did I felt something touch my foot, despite the fact I was sitting there alone.

  It was probably just my dog crawling under there again. I kicked at him and then I felt something grab onto my leg.

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  It grabbed on and pulled me.

  Holding on to the back of the chair I was pulled down so hard that I was lying down looking up at the roof. It kept pulling me down further under the kotatsu, right up to my stomach.

  While letting out a scream I crawled out from the kotatsu, grabbed a nearby rice cracker tin lid and lifted the blanket.

  But there was nothing there.