“This is set to happen sometime next issue, but we don’t know how or what triggers it. Until we get the new issue tomorrow afternoon we have no way of knowing, so you need to be careful.”
“Matt, there’s something el—” The doors bang open beside us before I can finish.
I glance around to see Sakura come barrelling out of the building. For a few seconds I’m sure she’s out here to yell at me about missing music club, but she runs past without seeming to notice me. She just stops at edge of the road and looks around like she’s expecting someone. Where’s she off to? I thought Haruka said she was panicking over her dwindling club.
Does that mean club’s cancelled today? I try to find the music room window from where we stand, maybe Haruka will give me a signal or something. The sun glints brightly off the glass, but I can just make out someone standing in the window looking down at us. Who is that? It doesn’t look like Haruka. The figure moves and my stomach flips.
Watching us from the window of the music room is a girl in a fox mask.
I’m off and running before I even realise it. I hear Matt jolt as I charge past him, but I don’t slow down. Haruka and Miki are still up there. I have to get there before anything happens. I won’t let what happened to Satomi happen to anyone else. This fox is going down.
I dash up the stairs, ignoring the burning in my sides, and come to a stop in front of the music room door. Something’s not right. Instead of the usual clatter of instruments being tuned over cheerful small talk, the corridor around me is deathly silent. The only sounds I can hear are my own frantic panting and the distant thud of Matt racing to catch up to me.
Taking a deep breath, I push open the door and prepare to throw myself at the fleeing fox girl. I dart my gaze around the room, but there’s no sign of the masked maniac. From my place at the door the room looks completely normal. At least until I see the bags scattered in front of the open guitar cases.
Wary of any surprise attacks, I make my way over to the bags. I don’t even need to look at the bags to know they belong to Haruka and Miki. Where are they?
I suck in a breath when my eyes catch on the small patch of red clinging to the corner of one of the bags. It could be jam, but somehow I doubt it. Scattered across the floor are several more drops of not-jam running back towards the door. I run my gaze along the path and feel my stomach convulse when I see where the drops lead.
Slumped against the wall—right next to the door—is a girl. If it weren’t for the pool of spreading crimson I’d think she was taking a nap. Feeling an avalanche of rocks rolling around inside my stomach, I force my legs to carry me closer.
Miki. Half her face is cover in red. Her pale features frozen in a look of shock and confusion. Rammed into her right eye, making it look like she is winking at me, is a long black and purple stick. A black and purple stick that I’d recognise anywhere. One of my drumsticks. Someone’s used my drumstick to kill Miki.
Staring down at the lifeless body of my friend—my eyes glued to the single drop of red staining one ball of her hairband—I grind my nails into my fist as a wave of anger boil up inside me. This fox can’t keep getting away with this. It can’t keep killing people for no reason. I’m going to find it and I’m going to kill it.
The door bangs and I look up to see Matt leaning against the frame gasping for air, when I look back Miki’s body is gone. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve got to stop this thing, Matt.” I say, biting down on my rage, still staring at the space where Miki was killed. Not even a drop of blood remains to tell people what happened to her.
“Are you okay?” The concern in his voice makes me feel like screaming.
“I. Am. Fine!” I slam my fist into the wall to stop myself from punching him. “The stupid fox was here. It killed Miki. I have no idea what it did to Haruka. And it made everything vanish again, so you probably don’t even believe me anyway.”
“Rin. I believe you,” Matt says, suddenly serious. “I want to take this thing down as much as you do, but you need to calm down. We can’t let it get to us.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket before I can open my mouth—to thank him or to yell at him, I don’t know which. Taking it out, I breathe a sigh of relief when I see it’s from Haruka. ‘See you soon.’ At least nothing’s happened to her. I click open the attached picture file and feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. I just stare as the phone goes tumbling from my fingers.
“What? What is it?” Matt snatches up my fallen phone. I see him flinch when he sees the picture being displayed. The picture of Haruka tied to a chair in the middle of a burnt and decrepit room. Over her shoulder I can see the cavernous maw of the closet waiting like a hungry beast. “Where is this place?”
“I know where it is.” I shake my head, knowing exactly why the kitsune wants us to go there. It wants to finish what it started all those years ago. “That’s the place I keep dreaming about. The place where all this started. That’s my old house.”
Chapter 25
“How do we get to the house?” Matt looks up at the map of all the stations running out of Tokyo.
“Ugh.” I clench my teeth and glare at the map. No matter where I look nothing looks familiar. Haruka’s life is in danger and I can’t remember the stupid address.
“Easy, Rin, I know this is putting you under a lot of pressure, but you need to calm down. If you can’t remember then we’ll think of something. Getting mad won’t help us right now.”
I take a deep breath and try to do as he suggests. There has to be a way to do this. Going to the cops is pointless, they wouldn’t believe us and I get the feeling the photo—along with any hope of finding Haruka—would just vanish if we tried to show it to anyone. I’ve already tried calling Grandfather but none of my calls got through. That leaves me with only one option. Something I’d rather not do out in the open like this. “I’ll be back.”
“Uh? Okay, I’ll be waiting for you here.” Matt gives me a brief, confused look before nodding and looking back at the map.
I look around for some place private and dart toward a nearby bathroom. Checking that the coast is clear, I open my mouth and shout. “Misa, get out here!”
The tiny girl appears through the wall in front of me and drops her gaze to the ground. “You can’t go back there, Rin. It’s not safe.”
“I have to.” I force Misa to look at me. “Haruka’s there. I need to get to her.”
“Can’t you just go for help?” she whines.
“From who? I don’t have time to muck about finding someone who’d believe me.” I shake my head. “If we don’t save her soon, Haruka is going to die. And it will be all your fault if you won’t help me.” She practically cringes as I scream the words. Why is she being so difficult?
One of the stall doors swings open behind me and I turn to see a small girl—probably around six or seven—just staring at me, mouth hanging open.
“What are you looking at?” I snap.
“Who are you talking to?” The girl moves her gaze around the empty bathroom.
“I’m talking to Hanako-san, the ghost of the toilet,” I say, drudging up some half-remembered Japanese myth I’d heard about. “Now, scram before she drags you to the underworld.”
The girl screams and runs out of the bathroom.
I turn back to Misa. “Now look what you made me do. That girl will probably have nightmares every time she steps into a public toilet. Tell me where the house is or I’ll go back to ignoring you, and this time I mean it.”
“That was mean.” Misa frowns.
“I don’t care. Now, are you going to cooperate?”
“Fine,” Misa huffs, stomping her feet.
I find Matt at the same place I left him. I give him a brief smile. “Come on. I know where we need to go.”
* * *
The taxi rumbles to a stop at the edge of a scraggly overgrown field. While Matt is busy paying the driver, I get out and look around. Beneath the setting sun, tall trees c
rowd in around us on all sides, no sign of civilisation anywhere in sight. It feels like the taxi driver is just abandoning us here, stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Two trains and a cab ride for this? No wonder the family moved to Nakano.
“So, is it out here?” I look down the road at the mass of fields and trees. The last house I saw on the ride up here was about five minutes ago, and since that had an old woman tending the flowers out front I doubt it’s the place we’re looking for. Misa’s bounding ahead of us confirms my question, but I still look to Matt for the answer.
“Yeah.” He points in the direction Misa went. “The driver said there should be a driveway about a couple of hundred metres down. Didn’t want to get any closer than this. He called it the yûrei yashiki.”
The ghost house.
“Why do you think he’d say that?” I start walking.
Matt shakes his head. “Don’t know, but I think that’s definitely the place we’ll find the kitsune.”
We start walking and after about five minutes of everything looking the goddamn same, Matt grabs my arm and shouts, “Look!”
“What?” I look where he’s pointing, and branching off from the main road near where we’re standing is a narrow overrun gravel road snaking off into the woods beneath low hanging boughs and overgrown bushes. I’m surprised Matt even saw it. The trail is so faint between all the crowded foliage.
Misa runs ahead, disappearing into the tall grass. I take a deep breath before pushing a branch out of my way and follow her. Jagged trees and brambles claw at my clothes and skin as if they’re urging me to turn back. This feels like the kind of place you’d expect to run into maniacs in hockey masks.
“So, do we actually have a plan once we get there or what?” Matt whispers in my ear.
I don’t turn back to acknowledge him, afraid that if I take my eyes off the path it’ll just evaporate out from under me. “I don’t know. But I don’t see what else we can do.”
“I know, I was just checking.”
Misa stops up ahead and waits. In the distance—through the scattered trees and branches—I can see a clearing with a tall, dark structure at its centre. In the failing light I can just make out the blackened exterior of the house.
“Over there.” I point in the direction of Misa—and the house.
The landscape gradually becomes more withered and menacing around us the closer we get. Dragging my feet on the steadily emerging gravel drive, I feel my heart pounding as the building comes into view. When we break through the last of the trees, I choke down a couple of deep breaths—trying to get my heart to stop trying to escape out my spine—as I take in what I’m seeing. Before me is an aged and blackened mansion that looks like it’s fallen into disarray with chunks of the curving Japanese roof caved in and windows caked black with dirt. Towering over us, it looks every bit the part of an ancient and menacing haunted house.
The worn gravel driveway twists away to a separate more modern—but equally decrepit looking—building that I assume was the garage as we cross the withered field towards the main building. Approaching the entrance, I try the doorknob. The door rattles in its frame but it doesn’t budge. It’s just my luck that the abandoned farmhouse we need to get into would be locked as well.
Peering through the cracked and grimy glass beside the door, I can only see darkness inside. I try and get a look at what’s blocking the door, twisting my head until I see the problem. Looped across the back of the doors is a thick set of rust-covered chains, old but sturdy, ensuring any unwanted trespassers stay out.
“What do you see?” Matt comes to a stop behind me.
“Nothing.” I push myself away from the window and face him. “The place is locked up tight. We’ll have to find another way in.”
I take a step back and look up at the rotted wooden walls of the two-storey building in front of us. Dark shadows creep towards us like icy hands as the last of the daylight begins to disappear behind the surrounding hills, and for a second I think I see something moving in one of the upper windows. An involuntary shiver jolts through me and I wrap my arms around my body, trying to snag some the warmth that is escaping me.
“Come on, let’s see what we can find while we still have the light.” Matt starts making his way around the building before I can say anything.
With Misa keeping a watchful eye in front of me, I start looking for a way in along the other side of the building. Forcing my feet to carry me around the house, I try and ignore the sensation that I’m being watched. Splitting up was probably a really bad decision, but we don’t have time to mince about. It took us long enough to get out here as it is. I just pray that we’re not already too late.
Darting my gaze around the area, not sure what I’m even looking for, I spot something lying in the dead grass along the side of the house. Looks like a pipe or something. Might be useful if we have to force our way in. Bending down, I start digging the rust-speckled piece of metal from the dirt.
“Rin! Over here! I think I’ve found us a way in!” Matt shouts from the other side of the building.
Snatching up the length of metal, I run in the direction of his voice. I tear around the building as fast as I can, trying not to admit how nervous being out here is making me, and almost slam into him. Stumbling, I manage to pull up short of sending us both flying. Misa skids in behind us, still on the lookout for potential danger.
“This section of wall looks pretty weak,” he says, pointing at the crumbling surface in front of us. “We just need something to break it with.”
“Here, try this.” I hold out the dirt-cover piece of metal.
“Rin, where’d you get that?”
I look down, and it finally clicks what I’m holding. It’s not a rod or a pipe. It’s a bat. A rusty, metal baseball bat. The image from the manga flashes across my mind. Me standing over a broken body in a murderous rage holding a bat. This bat. Crap.
“Let’s worry about that later.” He takes the bat from my hands and starts swinging it against the wall, sending chunks of wood flying in all directions.
When the bat’s done its job, Matt passes it back to me and grabs a hold of the remaining wood, pulling until there’s a gap big enough for us to squeeze through. I chuck the wicked thing away the instant he’s finished.
“Rin,” Misa calls out behind me. “Please. Don’t go in there. This is an evil place now.”
I spin around to see Misa still standing outside, not even attempting to follow me in. Looking down I can see why; scattered across the floor is the same gritty grey ash that Grandmother was using. I look back at her and wonder if this wasn’t a bad idea after all, but before I can do anything the house shakes and with a sound like mocking laughter part of the roof caves in dropping a warped and rotten beam across the hole, trapping us inside.
Probably should have seen this coming. One way or another we’re in it until the end now. I just hope we’re the ones that get to walk away once the smoke clears.
Chapter 26
I straighten up and look around the dark room I find myself in. Beyond the rapidly fading trickle of light creeping in through the remains of our improvised doorway is nothing but a mass of formless black blobs. The inky darkness presses in around us, making it feel like I’m being swallowed by some nightmarish, black leviathan. I have to remind myself to keep breathing in the face of this oppressive gloom. The air is thick with the stench of rot and decay, and faintly I can smell the smoke from the fire ten years gone.
A hazy bubble of light springs to life beside me as Matt turns on his phone’s flashlight. I grab my phone from my pocket and do the same. It doesn’t do much to ease the atmosphere of this place but it’s better than nothing. Sweeping my cone of light across the room reveals aged and festering tatami turning black with mould.
“No good. We’ll have to find some other way out.” Matt runs his light along the fallen beam, shining it up into the sunken room above us. “Let’s try and get out of here as soon as possible. Do you know where
Haruka is?”
“She should be in the room where we had the party, but I can’t remember where that is. I can’t remember anything about this house at all.” I frantically dart my gaze around the room, hoping something—anything—will trigger my memory. Even though it was over ten years ago, I should be able to remember something, but no matter how hard I try nothing comes.
“Okay, we’ll just have to check every room until we find her.” He starts making his way towards the door across the room.
“Yeah.”
The floor feels spongy and rotten beneath my feet like I’m walking on the skin of some great dead thing. Gaping holes where the wood below gave way lurk before me like starving mouths waiting for me to fall in. I repress a shudder and follow Matt, putting the empty decaying room behind me.
Making our way into the house, we pass room after room of empty uncheck rot. Large black scars scorch the walls like animals trying to escape. Some of the rooms still have furniture and relics that the family deemed not worth saving. The measly cones of light cast by our phones feel weak and feeble against the constant darkness pressing down on us. Shadows bend and sway around us as we move giving everything a menacing surreal quality.
Outside, the world has already gone dark and several times I think I see another light follow after us in the reflections of those grimy black windows. I stick close to Matt making sure it’s really him I’m following, shivering every time the phantom wind licks through from some unseen hole like some hideous monster breathing down my neck.
Inside our weak bubble of light the hallway seems to stretch on forever, snaking and bending endlessly. I’d swear the house wasn’t this big on the outside. It’ll take forever to check the whole place like this, but I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that if we split up now one of us will be found with an axe in the back of their head. Somewhere in this oversized house, Haruka is waiting for us. So is the kitsune.