by Tristan Vick
“Wait…” Kevin said squinting at the ornate building. “Isn’t that the shrine where you…”
“Yes, this was where I found you and Kana.”
“Wow,” Kevin said in complete bewilderment. He never would have imagined it was so close to the village.
“I sometimes come here to get away from things,” she said.
“It’s nice,” Kevin said, admiring the ornate woodwork of the building.
The monk’s living quarters were attached to the main building by a small wooden bridge about ten feet long, and Saeko guided Kevin up a small set of stair and to the main living area. They left their shoes outside the sliding doors and then went inside. Once inside, Saeko led him straight to her bedroom.
“Do you live here?” Kevin asked.
“Basically,” she answered, lighting some candles. “I just have a hard time being around everyone all the time. I come here to be alone.” She turned and looked at him with eyes full of longing.
“It’s…peaceful,” Kevin said admiring the traditional Japanese tatami floor and the sliding rice paper walls which closed off her room from the rest of the house. “What should we do now?”
Saeko laughed. “Are you serious?”
“Well, I guess we could…”
Before Kevin could finish his sentence, Saeko hopped up onto her toes and kissed him. The glow from the candlelight was just enough to let them see each other without much trouble. Brushing her hair back, Saeko bit her bottom lip and then slipped off her clothes in front of him.
“Are you sure we should be doing this? I mean…”
“Shut up,” she said. She grabbed Kevin and kissed him long and hard. With her bare breasts pressed firmly into his chest, she could feel his heart pounding inside his chest as their tongues danced a hot, sticky tango. Taking his hand, she forced his fingers between her legs and then pushed them inside of her. She wanted him to know how ready she was—ready for him to join with her once again, like in the good old days.
Saeko lay back onto her bed and motioned for Kevin to climb onto her. He climbed on, his knees straddling her thighs, and unfastened his belt. First, he kissed her petite breasts, and then moved his way to her neck. Her hands were all over him, peeling layer after layer of clothes off, and then, when they were both naked and staring at each other as though it were the first time, she took him firmly in her hands and guided him inside of her.
A reserve of sexual energy stored from months of pent-up longing fueled their passion. Kevin thrust his hips and Saeko let out a glee-filled chirp from the pleasure and pain of his forceful penetration.
“Just don’t come inside me,” Saeko warned him.
“Why not?” Kevin asked, taken aback by her sudden concern. “Are you worried about getting pregnant?”
“No, it’s not that. I’m…I’m infected,” Saeko informed him. “I don’t want to risk infecting you too.”
It was hard for her to admit it. She had always suspected that she was a carrier but she only found out recently when she watched a mosquito suckle from her arm only to keel over dead. Then, to test her theory, she found a snake in the woods and antagonized it until it struck her with a venomous bite, but it too died instantly.
That same day, she came home to discover a rat trapped in the mousetrap she had left out at her home, and when she had pulled it out of the trap it too had bit her on the hand. An hour later it died. She then understood the nature of the curse, and she found the answer to why nearly all the animals had disappeared. Unlike humans, once infected they didn’t come back to life. The virus simply boiled away their brains in an instant and then they were dead. Permanently.
If she infected Kevin with the disease, she’d never be able to forgive herself. Because he would come back again, but he would no longer be Kevin.
“If you want to stop,” she added, “I’ll totally understand.”
Kevin stopped for a moment then looked straight into her eyes and, without saying a word, he bent down and kissed her on the lips.
Staring into his eyes, they moved together so fluidly, so in sync, Saeko couldn’t help but feel it was as though things were right with the world again. It was as if they were once again living the dream at the end of the world.
56
Bent and Broken
Aokigahara Village, Near Mount Fuji, Japan
Pacing back and forth in the middle of the night, Kana was fuming with rage from when Kevin finally returned with Saeko from God knows where. When she questioned him about it, all he admitted to was a lame story about how they went for an evening walk and talked. Somehow she doubted that was all they did.
Unable to let it go, Kana waited for Kevin to fall asleep next to her and then got out of bed and put her jacket on over her nightgown. She slipped on her boots and then slipped out the door and headed outside to take a midnight stroll. She’d walk till dawn if that’s was it took to calm her nerves.
Kana rushed passed a group of passed-out drunks sitting around a bon fire on her way out of the village. What she didn’t notice was Saeko sitting amid a group of slumbering men watching the flames die down.
Saeko looked up from her laminar induced trance just in time to see a lone figure sneaking out of the gates. Seeing that it was Kana, Saeko decided to shadow her and see what she was up to.
As she followed her, Saeko kept her distance and remained out of sight. It wouldn’t do her any good to have a confrontation right here. Better to wait and see what she was up to. Whatever it was, Saeko had the sneaking suspicion it had to do with Kevin and her spending time together. She couldn’t help but wonder how much Kana knew. Did she know about her and Kevin’s fling? Had she found out about them somehow?
What began as an evening stroll turned into an evening hike up the side of Mount Fuji. But Kana’s mind was still poisoned with the jealous thoughts of Kevin’s betrayal with the treacherous zombie-slut, Saeko. The undead whore just couldn’t keep her cock-trap shut, it seemed.
Kana stopped, looked up at the moon, and screamed as loud as her lungs could bear. She didn’t care if the zombies heard her; let them come. Let them tear her apart. Nothing mattered any more. Kevin was lost to her. The zombie-cunt had poisoned him with her lasciviousness and perfect body.
It took nearly the entire journey to the top of the mountain for Saeko to think of something delicate to say that wouldn’t make her sound like a boyfriend-thieving whore, but nothing came to mind. Hell, she wasn’t even sorry for what she’d done.
As they approached the top, the sun was just about to come up over the horizon. Saeko stood atop the cusp of the volcano’s rim and watched Kana climb down toward the safety railing that lined the wall of the crater.
Once Kana arrived at the railing, she peered over the edge of the scientific observation platform that gazed straight down into the boiling pit laden with recent lava fissures.
Strangely enough, Mount Fuji seemed to have grown even more active ever since the outbreak. If was as if it knew the world was ending and it was, for all intents and purposes, merely playing its part.
Kana felt like the slighted wife to a cheating libertine. She knew Kevin was still young, immature, and hadn’t sewn all his oats yet. But still, his betrayal cut her deep. And her heart bled.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this, she thought to herself. The world was supposed to be different somehow. It was supposed to be safer, saner now. But now, somehow, my past has caught up to me. Is this all I have to look forward to now? Broken dreams and a sea of never-ending sadness?
With tears streaming out of her eyes and rolling steadily down her cheeks, Kana climbed up onto the railing of the observation deck and looked down into the boiling pool of sulfur water bubbling with the warm glow of a recent lava outburst.
Hot orange pools of magma mingled with the boiling water and sent up scalding steam that billowed toward the sky. Beneath the liquid veneer pulsed the glowing veins of more fissures threatening to break through the skin of the earth and consume everythi
ng and everyone on it.
Kana assumed that a heavy enough object could break through the crust and fall into the boiling lava below. At two thousand degrees, she wouldn’t even feel the burns. She’d just melt away to nothing, and that would be the end of it. The end to all her pain and sorrows. The end to her troubles.
“Wait!” Saeko called out. She desperately wanted to talk. If only just to set the record straight between them.
Kana stopped with one leg already over the other side of the last safety railing. Balancing on the railing, she looked back at Saeko. “Why did you follow me here?”
“We need to talk.”
“What is there to talk about? He loves you! It’s always been you.”
“That’s not true,” Saeko shot back. “He loves you just as much as he loves me, and you know it.”
“Don’t try to sugarcoat it. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. Every goddamn day he looks at you like you are the love of his life, and here I am, pregnant and bloated as a cow, and all for what? To be his failsafe?”
Kana climbed up over the edge and held onto the railing with both hands. She leaned back and looked down into the fiery hot pit below her. If she couldn’t have at least one small happiness in this life, if she couldn’t have him, she’d rather not raise a bastard child in a fallen world.
She could picture it now. When her child grew up and asked about his father, she’d tell him he fell in love with an undead girl and ran off with her and abandoned them. The shame of it was just too much to take. Ending her life here and now would solve all their problems.
“This isn’t the way!” Saeko screamed.
“Really? And how would you know?”
“Trust me,” Saeko said. Little did Kana realize but she spoke from experience. Not that it would have mattered any if she had known, Kana was simply too upset to heed her words. “You’ll only crush him if you do this. He’ll be devastated.”
“Oh,” Kana sneered, “you think that I actually care about how he feels at this point? Get your head out of your ass, you impertinent little slut. He cheated on me with you. With you! A zombie-whore!”
“For fuck’s sake, Kana! He loves both of us. Why can’t you just accept that?”
“What?!” Kana asked, disgusted, as if the very idea was repulsive to her. “You want me to share him with you? Are you out of your goddamned mind? How can I make this any clearer to you? He doesn’t love me! He fucked me because I was convenient. But it’s as clear as day that he still loves you. He has always loved you.”
Saeko was done trying to be nice. Her eyelids lowered and her somber gaze fell back into its rightful place. “You’re acting as if this is a competition. It’s not. He loves us both. Isn’t that enough?”
“Not for me,” Kana replied. “And the fact remains, I’ll never have all of his heart or all of his love. Not as long as you are around.”
Saeko had never much liked this emotional cow of a woman. She felt Kana was manipulative and too much of a drama queen. Still, Saeko had settled on the fact that she’d be forced to share Kevin’s affections for this stupid woman for quite some time. Why couldn’t Kana do the same?
“You want to know the truth?” Kana said between clenched teeth, pressed tight from the emotional strain of battling her personal demons. “The truth is he only cares for me because I carry his child. If I hadn’t gotten pregnant he’d simply have broken up with me and gone back to you. I’m the one stuck being miserable here, so don’t try to tell me about how much he still cares about me. We both know that ship has sailed.”
“You’re wrong!” a third voice rang out. Both women startled at the unexpected intrusion and quickly looked over to see Kevin standing at the crest of the crater’s edge above them. Looking down with tears in his eyes, he said, “I do love you, Kana. It’s not a lie.”
Kana leaned back, her arms fully extended, as she prepared to do a backward swan dive into the volcano’s hungry mouth.
“No!” Kevin screamed. His voice cracked as he fought back the tears. “Please, don’t! I beg you!”
Kana’s eyes widened, and she looked back at them with a smile filled with contempt as her eyes burned with green flames. “You’ll be happy together.”
“KANA!” Kevin’s voice rattled. Skidding upon loose gravel, he clambered down the hill and raced down the dirt path toward the observation deck.
As soon as his eyes met hers, she smiled at him with a warmth that relayed all the pleasant memories and pleasurable times they had shared together. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and then she threw herself backward into the mouth of the orange glowing volcano.
57
Bitter Goodbyes
Aokigahara Village, Near Mount Fuji, Japan
Skidding to a stop, Kevin slammed into the railing of the observation platform that looked out over the precipice of the active volcano’s smoldering crater.
“NOOO!!!” Kevin cried out. He stretched his hand toward Kana, and the tips of their fingers brushed up against each other, but then her fingers suddenly slipped away again. He was too late.
Having smashed into the metal bars of the railing so hard he was sure he’d cracked a couple of ribs, Kevin looked out over the ledge and watched Kana’s face gazing back up at him as she fell away from him. She smiled up at him as her hair fanned out from the heat rising from the crater’s vent, giving her the appearance of floating on the surface of water. In that brief moment, time seemed to slow to a crawl.
Then Kevin blinked and, in the very next instant, time regained its normal pace and Kana’s body smashed into the crust of the volcanic pit.
Kana let out a terrible, agony filled, bloodcurdling scream as the magma burned her flesh and bone away like rice paper—along with Kevin’s unborn child inside her. Soon Kana’s shrieking ceased and she was swallowed up by the hot orange magma. Then ash and orange embers floated up on the steam and danced about Kevin’s head in small flurries.
“Nooo,” he said again, his voice sounding defeated.
Kevin slumped down on the railing. The flurry of the glowing embers of ash looked like fireflies to him, and some of them even landed on his skin. The dance lasted for but a moment, as if it were Kana saying her final goodbye, and then the glowing embers cooled and disappeared into the brisk morning air.
Kevin let go of the railing and sank all the way to his knees. Breaking into uncontrollable sobs, he wrapped his arms around himself and hugged his chest. His sobs seemed to shake the entire mountain and he wrenched his hair and rocked back and forth on his knees, not wanting to accept it.
Saeko stood a couple meters away, stunned. She didn’t know what to say. She searched her feelings to find something that might help make Kevin feel comforted, but she couldn’t find anything worth saying. Even the words I love you would ring hollow at a time like this. “Kevin, I—”
“Just leave me alone,” he snapped.
Saeko was about to tell him that she still loved him, that she’d do anything for him, and that she’d stay by his side and help him get through this. She wanted to tell him everything she felt and more, but the words just wouldn’t come. She fought hard to say something, anything. But, again, she couldn’t find the words.
Saeko began to cry. Every time she tried to speak she hit a brick wall. Why was it so hard for her? The harder she tried the more difficult it seemed. More tears streamed out of the corners of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. Was she really this cold inside? What the hell is wrong with me, she wondered.
“Oi! Over here!” a voice shouted. “I’ve found them!”
Mr. Tamagawa came up over the ridge with an entire search party. The men hurried down to where Kevin was hunched over, sobbing into the palms of both his hands. Putting his hand on Kevin’s shoulder, Tamagawa said in his sagely voice, “Come on, son. There’s nothing more you can do here. The time for grieving will come.”
Kevin slowly rose up on to his feet, then turned toward Mr. Tamagawa and said, “You were right. One of us did get burned.�
� With that he turned and headed back up the trail that would take him down the mountain and to the village.
Saeko reached out her hand to touch his arm as he passed by, but he pulled away from her, avoiding her touch as if she were plagued, and kept going.
She waited for all of them to leave her, until she was the last one standing at the heart of the volcano. She looked down at the orange impact hole that Kana left in the magma. Saeko thought this must have been Kana’s plan all along. She not only destroyed Kevin’s heart but, in the process, she’d effectively destroyed any chances Saeko ever had with him again too.
Saeko turned and made her way back toward the village. When she came to the top of the ridge of the mountain she stopped to watch the others winding their way back down the trail. Just before entering a grove of trees, the last person in the search party turned and looked up at her. It was Mr. Tamagawa.
Just then, for whatever reason, Saeko remembered something he had told her once after they had first arrived at Aokigahara village.
“In Japan,” he’d said to her, “there is the belief that everything has its time. Everything runs its course. Love, life, and all the rest of it. This is best symbolized in the seasons, and in the coming and going of the cherry tree blossoms. The spring of our lives is where we fall in love, make families, grow old and hopefully grow a bit wiser too. It’s important to enjoy the life we’ve been given—because one is all we ever get.
“But, as seems to be the rule, all good things must come to an end. And by week’s end the petals of the cherry tree blossoms begin to fade and fall away. By the end of the second week, they’re all gone. Vanished in the blink of an eye. But for that brief instance, it was spring, and it was here where we witnessed the intense beauty it held. A beauty so powerful that it can only be glimpsed in the passing.”