Anything But a Ghost is the fourth chapter of New Voices in the Dark.
Plot[]
Shigeru is driving in the dark when he comes across a confused young woman who appears to be bleeding heavily. He rushes her to hospital but the doctors discover the blood is not hers. She is taken away by the police, who question Shigeru, but he can't answer.
A few days later, the girl comes to Shigeru's house to thank him for saving her. She tells him her name is Misaki and she had been working on a student film with her friends, but got separated from them. Shigeru begins an affair with Misaki even though he is already married and his wife is pregnant.
One day, Misaki tells him that she has always had the ability to see ghosts; beginning with her mother, who died in childbirth, but appeared as a ghost to breastfeed Misaki and thus endowed her with psychic powers. She claims that ghosts follow Shigeru too. Shigeru wakes late and sees Misaki bleeding heavily onto the pillows. However, he's more concerned with rushing home to his wife Yuina, making lame excuses when she asks him where he was. Shigeru tries to break off his affair with Misaki but she tells Yuina. Yuina commits suicide, killing her unborn baby along with her.
Misaki continues to pursue Shigeru, telling him she stays with him because she needs to eat ghosts to stay alive. She tells him that Yuina and their baby have now joined the ghosts surrounding him. Misaki catches and eats something which, although invisible, makes crunching and flesh-tearing sounds and sprays blood all over her. Shigeru hears Yuina screaming and realizes that Misaki really does eat ghosts - this is where the blood comes from.
Misaki continues to prey on the ghosts that surround Shigeru. He becomes homeless, loses his job, and ends up living on the streets; where he becomes terminally ill. Misaki visits him in hospital every day, waiting for his ghost to appear.