“Oh, I’m perfectly fine now. I knew I could trust you to help. Now that you’re here, everything’s going to be just fine. We can finally be free.”
Shadows lingered on the outskirts of the mist. I was expecting to find Sayumi here, not Yasu, and the confusion was evident on my face.
“What are you talking about?”
He took a step forward, and then another. He was in bad shape, pulling his left leg behind him with a slight limp. Blood stained his shirt and leaves stuck out of his messy hair. He wiped at a wound on his cheek, freshly cut and bleeding, and wiped it clean on his shirt.
“I mean-” he stopped in front of me and pointed to the right “-that we’ve been waiting for you.”
I followed the direction he pointed in and my heart froze. A graveyard, old and untended. Full of moss-ridden, unmarked and toppled headstones, vines growing unbidden through them. So, it was true. The graveyard was real. Hidden behind it and to the left was the remains of a small temple, in even worse condition than the shrine, and to the right of that, a tree. It was one of the largest trees I’d ever laid eyes upon, so wide it would take three adults with their arms outstretched to reach around it. Branches poked out of the mist, and the longer I looked at it, the clearer it became. Now that it knew I was aware of it, it was like it stepped forth, large and imposing and proud, and made its grand entrance.
“We’ve been waiting so long.” Yasu’s voice choked, and then I saw them. Bodies hanging from the massive tree, like the skeletons that led me to the shrine. Like the girl Sayumi found and cut down. So many bodies, in various states of decay. I covered my mouth without thinking and took a step back. Yasu followed, pressing closer.
“S-She promised us,” he said. “She said we would be free. She would set us free.”
The necklace in my pocket throbbed. One body in particular hung from the lowest branch, swaying in the non-existent breeze. The necklace seemed to tug, like it wanted to jump free of my pocket and return to its owner. Even though I had only seen her in a photo, there was no mistaking it. Keiko was hanging from the tree, and by the looks of her, she had been there a while.
“Oh my god…”
“That’s what she said.”
Yasu’s voice brought me back. His eyes flashed like crazy and the blood trickling down his cheek reached his lips. He wiped it away again, smearing blood across his face.
“What?”
“She said she would let us go. She would let us return, both of us. Keiko and I. Together. We could go back if we brought her fresh blood.”
“I don’t… I’m not…”
The shrine behind him buzzed with energy, and not all of it good. But the pull went beyond that, to the temple and the graveyard itself. The very area hummed with a haze of… excitement? No. Anticipation. The ground itself threatened to shake and tear free, unleashing its untold energy to claim what it long wanted.
Fresh blood.
“Who told you?” I asked. I took another step back, but too far and I would end up in the river. I needed to keep Yasu at a safe distance while I assessed the situation. He was crazed, and that made him unpredictable. I had to keep him as calm as possible for as long as possible.
“I think you know,” he said. “You’ve seen her too, haven’t you? She… she won’t leave me alone.” He smacked the side of his head a few times, his eyes closed in pain.
“The shrine maiden?”
He nodded, his eyes telling a silent story. A story of pain, of loss… of fear.
“Did she draw Keiko here?”
He shook and nodded his head. “No. Yes. Maybe. I dunno. Does it matter?” His voice broke as he screamed. “Keiko likes hiking, and she… and she…” Yasu scratched the side of his head furiously, drawing blood “…she could always see things I couldn’t, you know? Like you.”
I blinked and took another small step back. Not enough for him to notice I was retreating, not enough to cause him any further alarm. “Like me?”
“You can see ghosts, can’t you?” He straightened up, rising to full height for the first time. “That’s why I hired you, after all.”
“You wanted me to find Keiko…”
He grinned and nodded. “Yes. Well, no. I mean, I already knew where Keiko was. Of course I did. We came here together, after all. It was Keiko’s idea. She wanted to go hiking in the infamous Kurohana Forest. She’d heard stories from her friends that it was full of spirits and she wanted to see for herself.” He turned to look at her hanging from the tree. “She just wanted to see with her own two eyes…”
“Yasu… Yasu, listen to me carefully.” He turned back, his eyes glossy with tears. “When did you and Keiko first come here?” If I kept him talking, I could control the situation. For now, I needed him calm and cooperative. He was clearly unwell.
“I… I dunno. Time seems really funny here, don’t you think? Haven’t you noticed that? It’s like day out there is night, and five minutes is five hours. How long? Four weeks? Five? Or was it less? I dunno…”
Four weeks. Yasu came to me less than a week earlier to find Keiko. She’d been dead for close to a month before that? Then that meant…
“It was supposed to be a brief hike. A nice, short walk. She wanted to have a look around and confirm for herself whether the rumours that the forest was haunted were true. I’ve never seen a ghost before so I agreed.”
“What happened to her, Yasu?” I had to keep him talking. My eyes flickered over to the tree and I jumped. Keiko’s eyes were open. She was watching me.
“I turned around, just for a second—it wasn’t like I ran off or anything—but I turned around and next thing I knew, she was gone. It was just a second!” He was nearly crying. “I ran, and I ran, and I screamed out for her, but nothing. She was gone. Vanished into thin air. I had no idea where I was. I ran all day. Or all night, I dunno. But right when I was about to give up I tripped and fell into the river. I scrambled out on my hands and knees and when I looked up, I saw her. My beautiful Keiko…” He turned to look at the tree again. “Why would she do that? Why? We were so happy together.”
I took another step back while his gaze was elsewhere. “I don’t think it was Keiko’s fault, Yasu. It’s this forest. The energy here… the spirits… they’re not good.”
He turned back to me and grinned that feral grin again. “I know.” Only a few more steps to the river. I didn’t know what my plan was once I reached the river, or even where I could go, but the waves coming off the shrine, the temple, the graveyard, and the tree all screamed danger. Not to mention the crazed man before me.
“She wanted Keiko. That’s why she called her here. That… that bitc—” He closed his lips and forced himself to shut up. He covered his mouth, looking around in case someone heard him. He shook his head, stood up straight and started again. “The shrine maiden called her here, but in the end, Keiko wasn’t strong enough. It was all for nothing. She took her from me, and for what? She wasn’t strong enough, she said. But there were others who were. If I… if I brought them to her, do you see? I needed to get you here. Once I heard about you, what you can do, I knew that you were the one. She would be happy with you. Then she’d give Keiko back. We could go home. We could get married and live happily ever after, like she always dreamed of.”
Another step back. I was just three steps away from backing into the river. I would need to make a decision, and fast.
“What do you mean, she wasn’t powerful enough?”
He shrugged. “Why don’t you ask her? I’m sure she’ll be here soon enough. I’ve kept up my end of the bargain, now she has to keep up hers.”
He was rapidly running out of patience, which meant I was running out of time.
“Where’s Sayumi? Did she call her here too?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Who?”
“Sayumi. Ms Matsuda. The boss of Matsuda Tea and Sweets. How else did you find me?”
He shook his head in confusion. “I have no idea who that is.”
If he
had nothing to do with Sayumi, then where was she?
“I think this has gone on long enough, don’t you? And please, stop backing towards the river. You’re making me nervous.” He tilted his head and smiled. “You didn’t think I didn’t notice, did you?”
“Yasu, you don’t have to do this. We can leave, the two of us, together. We can take Keiko back. Give her a proper burial so she’s not trapped here like the rest of them. We can free her, just like you said.”
He shook his head. “There’s no freeing the spirits trapped here. You of all people must know that. No-one can free them but the shrine maiden, and she won’t free Keiko until I give her something better in return.” He pulled out a rope he had been hiding behind his back. It was fashioned into a noose. “And that something is you.”
26
I took a step back and slipped, landing hard on the icy bank of the river. Yasu took the opportunity to lunge and sling the noose around my neck. I kicked and struggled, splashing freezing water over the both of us, but even in his emaciated and exhausted state he was too strong. The shadowy figures in the distance closed in, sensing that another soul was soon to join them. Yasu yanked, and the rope tightened around my neck. I gasped and grabbed for it, kicking and sliding on the icy ground.
“It’s better if you don’t struggle, trust me,” Yasu said over the sounds of my kicking and choking. “It’s painful, I know, but it’ll all be over soon.”
He dragged me past the shrine and through the graveyard towards the giant tree. Keiko’s feet dangled above me and I struggled even harder. Dots swam before my eyes and my throat rasped. The icicles coating the ground made it difficult to get a solid grip, and my feet slid everywhere despite my best efforts.
Yasu was going to kill me. The shadows crowded around, the mist growing darker by the second. This was the show they were waiting for. Another to join their ghostly ranks, an eternity of loneliness that constantly hungered for more. They knew I could see them. They knew I would be joining them soon.
“Y-Yasu, no!” I managed to groan before he threw the rope over the lowest branch of the tree. He yanked, pulling down harder and harder, and soon my feet were dangling in the air. Keiko swung beside me in silence, two peas in a pod. She was like me, Yasu said. The shrine maiden called her here, and now she was stuck forever. Nobody deserved that, but as the black dots swimming before my eyes grew larger, I realised there were more important things to focus on. Like not dying.
“It’s easier if you stop struggling.” Yasu threw all his weight behind yanking the rope down, pulling me higher and higher. I couldn’t reach the ground even if I wanted to, but at the same time, Yasu was exhausted. Something he mentioned earlier struck a chord with me; time seemed to work differently inside the forest. The first time I came here I noticed that as well. It felt like I walked its depths for close to an hour, yet when I arrived back at the station, the clock said only ten minutes had passed. If that was true, and Yasu left a message on the store phone last night saying he was heading to Kurohana Forest, how long had he really been here? Had one night for us been several nights for him? Without food, without warmth, without shelter against the biting cold? No wonder he looked like death.
“Y-Yasu…” My fingers grasped at the rope around my neck, scratching and fumbling for any sort of leverage. Several nails were bleeding, and the smell of blood (‘fresh blood’ as Yasu so succinctly put it) was attracting more shadows by the minute. The mist remained dense, and the darkness grew even darker as more spirits joined the gathering. A live show. Exactly what they’d been waiting for all this time.
“Shh,” he said. “Shh. You can see them, can’t you?”
I couldn’t answer, nor even nod in agreement. He looked around, on his knees and pulling down on the rope as hard as he could against my bodyweight.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to answer. I already know. I can’t see them. Maybe that’s weird to you, I dunno, but I can sense them. They’re watching us, aren’t they?” He laughed, followed by a hoarse cough. The rope jiggled, and I descended a few centimetres before he caught himself and yanked even harder. “Sorry about that. It’ll all be over soon, don’t worry. Your sacrifice won’t be in vain. We’ll say our thanks to you on the anniversary of your death each year. The anniversary of our freedom.”
My eyes darted to Keiko, long dead beside me. Nobody was getting freed from here, and if I didn’t do something, I would soon be joining her.
Something chimed in the distance and the forest fell quiet. The shadows froze, like all conversation between them suddenly ceased, and Yasu’s ears pricked up.
“Do you hear that?” He looked up at me and a grin spread across his face. His eyes grew wide and he nodded. “Yes, yes, see! I told you! She promised! I told her I would bring you here! She’s come, finally, she’s come!”
The wind chimes grew louder, almost deafening. My hands, clawing at the rope wrapped tight around my neck, desperately wanted to cover my ears from the racket, but I was forced to endure it. Death was coming, in more ways than one. My fingers felt clumsy. They grasped, but it was more like a feeble attempt at brushing. My head pounded, and the chimes reverberated loudly in my ears. Yasu stood up, dropping me a few centimetres, and was saying something inaudible to a figure only he could see.
I was losing consciousness. One arm fell limp. The mist spread and withdrew, and the wind chimes faded into the background. A figure stepped forward, the icy ground beneath her feet undisturbed as she floated across it. She looked up at me and smiled. A smile I knew all too well. A smile that haunted my nightmares.
The shrine maiden.
Dirt stained the bottom of her red pants and appeared to grow up her legs like veins. The sleeves of her white top were torn, and the red threads woven through the outside of them dangled to the ground. The darkness extended up throughout her top, through her neck and up to her cheeks. It wasn’t dirt staining her; it was darkness. It was evil.
“See, I told you I would bring you someone even more powerful!” Yasu said, immediately dropping to a bow before her. My vision pulsed in and out. Sickness rose inside me and there was a loud ringing in my ears. It was impossible to tell whether it was the wind chimes or not, but the shrine maiden didn’t even stop to glance at Yasu. She floated through the graveyard, the tombstones seeming to flee from her arrival, not a single one getting in her way as she proceeded closer to us. Her attention was focused entirely on myself; she didn’t seem to notice that Yasu was there at all.
“Y-You promised you’d free Keiko,” he said, looking up. He yanked on the rope once more for good measure. “Take her, she’s yours. Just give me Keiko back.”
He dropped his head in a bow once more. This was my last chance. Once the shrine maiden got her hands on me, it was all over, well and truly for good. The energy emanating off her was like nothing I’d ever experienced before; not even the storefront after dark. If the combined energy of the storefront was a magnitude four, the maiden in front of me was off the charts. The darkness that had tainted her spirit was overwhelming, growing stronger with each life the forest took.
She didn’t care one iota for Yasu. He was a means to an end, and she never had any intention of ‘freeing’ Keiko. She wouldn’t stop, either. Not with me, nor the person after me, nor the person after that. She would continue to consume souls, turning the forest into a spiritual black hole from which none could escape. In life she was a shrine maiden, the cleanest and most pure of all. In death she was tainted, a growing darkness that consumed all in her sight. What had happened to turn her into such a beast?
I kicked. I kicked with the last ounce of energy I had, willing to accept that it might be the last thing I ever did. My foot connected with Yasu’s face and he screamed. It wasn’t enough to knock him out, but he was exhausted and it was enough to get him to drop the rope. I hit the ground and adrenaline took over. I fumbled for the rope around my neck and threw it off.
The shrine maiden turned to me and screamed.
&nb
sp; 27
I covered my ears and ran. My feet slipped on the icy ground and I tripped over several tombstones, but I pushed myself to get out of there as fast as possible. The shriek filled the forest, but that wasn’t the thing that worried me most. On the outskirts of the mist lurked nothing but emptiness. Silence.
The shadows were gone.
If not even the shadows wanted to stick around, something told me that I didn’t want to be there either.
Yasu got to his feet behind me, screaming and cursing. I turned back, slipping on the ground beneath me. He threw the rope down and started pointing and yelling. At me or the shrine maiden, I couldn’t tell, but his finger waved in the air as his face contorted with rage.
“You promised! You said to bring her, and I did!” He stomped and slid, landing hard on his backside. “You promised!” He flailed on top of the ice, his voice hoarse.
The shrieking stopped, and he got back to his feet. I uncovered my ears. The shrine maiden was nowhere to be seen, but that only upset Yasu even further.
“Fine! I’ll just do it myself!”
Yasu pulled a knife from his pocket and flicked it open. He pointed it at me and narrowed his eyes. The grin vanished from his face. Now only rage remained. Rage at the loss of his girlfriend. Rage at being lied to. Rage at the forest that had trapped him and forced him to do its bidding. He wasn’t a bad guy, I thought while he waved a knife at my face from beneath the hanging tree. He was forced into a situation beyond his control and would do whatever it took to help the one he loved. If nothing else, I understood him perfectly. It did nothing to assuage the situation, however, and I scrambled back to my feet.
“I never wanted this!” His voice cracked. “Do you really think that I wanted to bring them here? I didn’t kill any of them! It wasn’t me! There’s no blood on my hands, I’m innocent!” His eyes darted around the forest as he pleaded his case.
I backed up, tripping on a tombstone. It knocked the air out of me and I scrambled back to my feet, not daring to take my eyes off the angry man in front of me. “It’s okay, Yasu. I understand. Really, I do.” I held my hands out in front of me, trying to calm him down. Silence hung over the graveyard, and a quick glance around confirmed the spirits were still missing. Suddenly I felt very alone, and it left me disconcerted. Whoever would have thought that I’d come to think of them as company? They were trapped just as much as Keiko, or the other man’s daughter, or even Sayumi or Yasu. But unlike Sayumi or Yasu, they couldn‘t leave. Jealousy was a powerful motivator for those unable to move on. They might be gone for now, but they would return, and soon. I had to act fast.
Jukai (The Torihada Files Book 2) Page 11