Tales of Crow- The Complete series Box Set

by Chris Ward

  She turned to the other two men. ‘You’d better head back to the bus,’ she said. ‘I’ll be along with Mr. Waribe in a few minutes. Tell the others not to come after us.’

  Obediently, as she had hoped, they nodded and headed back up the path. Inside the cave, Naotoshi’s phone’s flashlight was no longer visible. Jennie started to step over the tape, intending to follow him inside and convince him to come out, but it was a waste of time. Trying to reason with him would only make him more determined to cause trouble.

  Instead, she squatted down and picked up a reasonably sized pebble, hefting it in her hand. She had played second base for her school softball team and could throw as well as any man. She cocked her arm and flung the stone into the darkness.

  She had no intention of hitting Naotoshi. His flickering light had gone towards the left so she threw to the right, the stone rattling away into the darkness, causing a rippling series of echoes to bulge outwards from the cave entrance.

  Inside, she heard Naotoshi scream, but it was quickly drowned out by the beating of hundreds of disturbed wings.

  The bats poured out of the cave in a rush, a fluid wave of fluttering black. In a moment they were gone, disappearing into the trees, the canopy seeming to vibrate with their passage. As the noise died down, Jennie waited for Naotoshi’s terrified screams and adjusted her expression accordingly, so that the first thing he saw when he came rushing out would be her worried face.

  Only the chirping of insects in the trees disturbed the newfound silence. Jennie’s heart began to race, worrying that Naotoshi had fallen and injured himself. She had only wanted to scare him out of the cave so she could get him back on the bus.

  ‘Oh god, you poor bastard,’ came a sudden echoing voice, making Jennie jump. ‘Don’t worry, I’m bringing you out, son.’

  ‘Mr. Waribe! Are you all right?’

  ‘Nothing wrong with me, girl. Those accursed bats knocked my glasses off, but such things are a blessing. I might never have found this poor soul if I hadn’t been scrabbling around in the dirt for them.’

  He appeared out of the dark, bent over, facing away. He was dragging something towards the cave entrance. His clothing was wet and his trousers had split at the back, something that Jennie thought with horror might make her laugh. She clamped a hand over her mouth to stop it betraying her.

  ‘Lad was wearing furs,’ Naotoshi grunted. ‘Only the heavens know how long he’s been down there. Poor bastard, is all I can say.’

  He stood up and turned around, the sun through the trees catching him in its gaze. Jennie gasped. Naotoshi was soaked, but not with water. Grimy, partly congealed blood from whatever fresh corpse he had dragged out of the cave had covered him from head to foot. His glasses, now returned to the bridge of his nose, were almost entirely obscured, and his hair had found itself a new form of gel. He looked like an old man trying to rock it with the kids on Halloween. As she stared at him she wondered whether she should politely inquire why the bats hadn’t eaten all the blood.

  ‘That poor soul,’ he grunted, stepping aside so she could get a look at the corpse lying on the ground behind him. ‘He must have crawled in there to escape the cold and those bastards tore him apart.’ He clenched a fist. ‘But by heaven, I’ll see to it that he gets a proper burial.’

  She took a couple of steps forward. Behind her she heard irate voices as other customers, keen to continue their journey, came looking for the reason for the holdup.

  ‘Oh my word…’

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Holy god!’

  The gasps from the other customers overtook her, rising in pitch as some of the ladies began to scream. As Naotoshi stood beside her, hands on hips and breathing hard, Jennie stared at the thing lying on the ground. A rising tingle of horror climbed its way up her legs and across her back.

  It wasn’t a person dressed in furs like Naotoshi had thought. It was a grey wolf, its throat and abdomen crudely ripped open, as if a blind man had got after it with a rusty hacksaw.

  Blood was still oozing out onto the ground. Whatever had killed it had done it recently. As Naotoshi stood in front of Jennie, bloody and justified, she flapped her hands at the other customers.

  ‘I think we need to get out of this forest and back to the bus,’ she said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. ‘Right now.’

  3

  Jun makes plans

  There was no way for Jun to know if one of the birds he was watching wheeling and diving was responsible for Professor Crow’s live-stream screensaver, but he felt certain it was the same species. It had taken him some time to bring up the courage to come here to find out, but he had made it at last. He felt like an agent of justice and an utter idiot at the same time.

  There was so much wrong with Jun’s plan that if he stopped for a moment to think about it he might just give up and get on the next plane back to Japan. He had based his hunt for Crow on Internet hearsay and a loose association with a rare species of bird. It was his only solid lead though, and if there was even a small chance that he was right he had to take it. For seven years all he had seen when he closed his eyes was Akane’s face. If the man responsible for her death was near, Jun had no choice but to try and find him.

  Someone knocked on the door. Jun lowered the binoculars and turned around.

  ‘Jun, are you in there?’

  ‘Just a minute.’

  He went to the door and opened it to find Karin Kobayashi standing outside, her beautiful, ageless face turned up towards him. The former pop starlet was Ken’s wife now, and while Jun was glad they had found happiness, he had never managed to shake a sense of resentment every time he saw them together; after all, Karin had survived. Akane had died and Jun lived a life of waking purgatory.

  ‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘Are you all right? You look like you haven’t slept at all.’

  ‘I got a couple of hours,’ he lied. ‘It’s difficult after a show. The buzz and all that. I drank some coffee and looked at the stars.’

  She smiled. ‘You’ll get some sleep on the bus later, I’m sure. Do you have a show tonight? Ken did tell me, but….’ She shrugged. ‘I get lost with all the Romanian names.’

  ‘I set up alerts on my computer,’ Jun said, giving her a smile in return. ‘Tonight is a day off. We have a small show in a town called Heigel tomorrow night. Then it’s back to Bucharest.’

  ‘Heigel?’

  He pointed out of the window at the Carpathian Mountains, now collecting morning sunlight which glimmered off the highest peaks, still covered with snow. ‘See the tallest one in the middle? It’s in the valley just in front of that.’

  Karin raised an eyebrow. ‘Ooh, great. I bet the bus ride is a stomach churner.’

  ‘Are you coming?’

  She nodded. ‘I’m looking forward to it.’ She paused, gazing at Jun, a sad smile on her face. She started to lift a hand as if to touch him, then dropped it to her side. ‘You remind me of him, you know,’ she said.

  Jun nodded. ‘Thanks.’

  O-Remo. With the pain he felt it was often easy to overlook that Karin had lost someone too.

  ‘Hey, Uncle Jun.’

  He looked down as an arm snaked around Karin’s leg and a little girl’s face appeared, pretty eyes looking up at him. Karin’s looks had once been the envy of teenage girls everywhere, while Ken was a rugged sort of handsome. Their daughter, Nozomi, had got the best of both worlds, Karin’s eyes and cheekbones, Ken’s nose and jaw. She had just turned seven, but with Karin’s contacts, talent scouts had already been enquiring. Karin, keen for her daughter to avoid the same world that had chewed her up and then spat her back out into the bloody snow on a mountain top, had resisted so far. But as the offers for modelling and child acting jobs got larger, there was only so long she could hold out.

  ‘Hi, Nozomi,’ he said, patting the little girl on the head.

  ‘Are you coming down for breakfast?’

  ‘Sure,’ he said, stifling a yawn. ‘I
’ll just get ready.’

  Karin patted him on the arm. ‘We’ll meet you down there.’

  He closed the door as they left and went to take a shower. He was never sure how he felt about Karin and Nozomi coming along with the band and their entourage. He had tried to talk Ken out of letting them join this part of the tour, insisting they meet the band in Bucharest, but Ken had refused, and they had argued for the first time Jun could remember. Nozomi, having been home-schooled on the road for a year, would start going to a public elementary school next spring. The road was Ken’s lifeblood, and he wanted his family with him, but when they got to the next town Jun wanted as few people around as possible.

  Heigel was little more than a village tucked away in the foothills of the Carpathians, hidden among Romania’s vast virgin forests. Looming over it as a symbol of past glories was a 14th century castle, abandoned for many years but now restored, privately owned, and open to tourists.

  According to the Internet, its ancient towers and battlements were home to roosting Black Romanian Eagles, but it was something else that had piqued Jun’s interest.

  Heigel was in the heart of the old region of Transylvania, and while Jun wasn’t stupid enough to believe that vampires really existed, he had seen plenty in his short life to know that meddling humans could create abominations far worse than any storybook horror.

  The Internet, as always, was a hive of rumours. Jun believed nothing and everything at the same time, and the nothing was saying that a spate of vampire-related deaths had recently occurred in the woods around the town.

  Dogs, some cattle, one or two wolves, all with their throats and abdomens ripped open. It might have been the work of some rabid bear, but Jun wasn’t so sure. When their tour rode into town, he planned to check out the castle, to see what other birds might be roosting.

  Before he went downstairs for breakfast he decided to have one last look on the Internet. The forums were quiet, with the same long, ongoing threads about the vampire-related deaths, but no new information. Almost in frustration, he clicked on a local news website, translated it into Japanese, and stared in shock at the headline.

  An old woman had been found dead, with her neck ripped open.

  Jun’s hands were shaking as he read through the report. There was little information, only that the woman had been old and had been found by a pair of hikers early this morning. The news had only just broken, so hadn’t had time to filter through to the forums and speculation sites.

  It could mean nothing, or it could be everything.

  He quickly scanned another couple of sites but there was no further information, so he packed up his laptop and headed downstairs for breakfast, a tingling of anticipation accompanying every step.

  Ken was sitting at a table with Karin and Nozomi when Jun appeared in the entrance to the breakfast room. He waved Jun over and the young man sat down as a waitress came over and put a tray of toast and cornflakes in front of him.

  ‘Glad you could join us,’ he said as Jun started to eat. ‘Good news and bad news, I’m afraid, depending on how you look at it.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  He smiled. ‘Well, we get an extra day off. Tomorrow night’s show has been cancelled.’

  Jun looked up, a slice of toast paused halfway to his mouth. ‘What? You’re joking, right?’

  ‘I just got a call from the tour manager. That Heigel show? Your choice, wasn’t it?’

  Jun gave a careful nod. ‘Yeah … why?’

  ‘The venue called up and cancelled it. Blamed some local drama. Apparently we’d only sold thirteen tickets so it’s no great loss.’

  Jun pushed his plate away. ‘We can’t cancel.’

  ‘Why not? You can’t tell me you were looking forward to that bus journey. The roads are awful in these parts. Apparently there are more potholes than tarmac.’

  Jun glanced from Ken to Karin and back again. Between them, Nozomi was diligently cutting a circle of salami into strips.

  ‘What is it, Jun?’ Karin said.

  Jun gave them a shy grimace. ‘I don’t want to sound like a nerd, but you know I’ve never been one for going out after shows.’

  Ken shrugged. ‘That’s cool. No one’s forcing you.’

  ‘Well, I’ve, um, turned into a bit of a history buff. On the Internet and stuff. I don’t think there’s a history documentary I haven’t watched on YouTube.’

  Ken nodded slowly. It didn’t add up, but if Jun wanted to be cagey, that was up to him. ‘Okay….’

  ‘And in Heigel there’s a famous castle. I really wanted to take a look at it. I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to slip a smaller show in between a couple of the others. We could treat it as a live rehearsal.’

  Karin coughed. ‘A castle?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘This wouldn’t have anything to do with vampires, would it? We’re in part of Transylvania, after all.’

  ‘I thought it might inspire my songwriting.’

  Ken pouted. ‘Well, can’t argue with that. Perhaps we should all go after all and work on some music together. Perhaps the castle takes overnight guests.’

  ‘No!’

  Ken glanced at Karin. She also looked surprised at the intensity of Jun’s refusal. ‘Why not?’

  Jun fidgeted in his seat. ‘It might be better if I go alone. You’re right, Heigel was probably a mistake. Bucharest will be much more interesting.’

  Years ago, Ken had spent a lot of time hanging out in gloomy ruined places he hoped would inspire some cool riffs on his guitar. They usually didn’t. Only his guitar ever seemed to inspire him, but he just shrugged. ‘Okay, if that’s what you want. We can meet you in Bucharest on Tuesday.’

  ‘Okay.’

  Jun stood up, pushing his plate away. The food was almost untouched.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘I’ll head off now. No time like the present.’

  ‘Aren’t you going to eat something?’ Karin said.

  ‘I’m not hungry.’

  As Jun turned and headed for the door that led up to their rooms, Nozomi looked up at Karin and said, ‘Can I eat Jun’s toast, Mummy?’

  4

  Hotels are for heroes

  As Naotoshi Waribe entered the breakfast hall, several of the other tour customers began to clap and cheer. A few even stood up, and the old man waited by the door for a few seconds, nodding proudly and taking in the sight like a veteran returned from war. Jennie, refusing to join in with the camaraderie, stayed in her chair and tried not to roll her eyes.

  ‘It was nothing,’ he said. ‘Nothing at all. Just doing what anyone would have done for such a noble creature. Shocking way to go, really it was.’

  Several of the other guests in the hotel breakfast hall who weren’t Japanese and couldn’t understand Naotoshi’s proclamations, just watched with amusement.

  ‘I hear the newspaper is on its way,’ one of the old ladies said, a woman in her sixties called Mayuko Harada. She gave him a deep bow like he was a crown prince as he took a seat that had been saved for him at the head of the table. As the other guests sat back down, he looked down at Jennie, sitting at the opposite end, and gave her a condescending smirk.

  It was going to be a good day, Jennie thought. They’d been at breakfast just over five minutes and so far only three of the guests had complained. She’d only fielded two complaints about the rooms too; one that the central heating was too hot and another that the décor was too gaudy. She considered herself lucky.

  Things were about to get a lot worse, though. One of the receptionists had confided in her that Heigel Castle was currently closed to visits due to renovations. Since it was the main reason they had come to this quiet little village, it was sure to cause trouble.

  For now, though, all she had to do was contend with Naotoshi Waribe’s newfound celebrity status.

  The crazy old bastard had insisted on carrying the bloody, mutilated corpse without assistance all the way back to the coffee shop, as if lettin
g anyone help—although offers had been few and far between despite his boisterous protestations—would steal away some of his limelight. He had lugged the dead wolf flopping and dripping over his shoulders until he finally dumped it onto the nearest of the picnic tables at the back of the shop. The owner had come running out of the doors screaming like a wild animal, then gone running back inside screaming like a little girl, after one look at a gore-covered Naotoshi.

  It had taken three cups of liquor-laced coffee and a long talk with the bus driver to convince the owner that Naotoshi was one of the old folk who had recently been drinking his warm bottles of beer, rather than some abomination out of the forest.

  The police were called. When they failed to show up after thirty minutes, the coffee shop owner called a local farmer who lived half a mile down the road. The man turned up with a friend who was apparently the chief of police, but was on a day off. He made yet another phone call, and a few minutes later yet another man showed up, a forest ranger by the name of Ludvic. He confirmed that it was in fact a grey wolf, common in the area.

  ‘This is the third this month,’ he told the assembled crowd in heavily-accented English, which now included a busload of French tourists that had stopped on their way back in the other direction, heading towards Bucharest. ‘All had their throats ripped out and their bodies torn open like rotten bags of sacking.’

  Jennie translated for her group, toning down the details. ‘It was killed by another animal,’ she said.

  ‘We don’t know what killed it,’ Ludvic continued, ‘but it was big, and dangerous. You see it, you run. Or you’ll be next.’

  ‘There’s nothing to be alarmed about,’ Jennie translated. ‘Whatever killed it has probably long gone.’

  ‘However,’ Ludvic continued, putting a hand into a satchel slung over his shoulder and pulling out a wad of flyers, ‘we’ll be running daily forest treks in search of whatever savage caused this and the other deaths.’