Stay focused.
Get Hayami.
Get the fuck out of here.
Making my way to the rear of the house, I wish I had my phone turned on so I could use the torch, as a thick blanket of darkness covers the interior with such menace that I can’t help but wonder if it’s natural or is being pumped out like a smoke machine.
“Hayami?”The change in my voice isn’t lost on me, the way her name sounds like a question.I reach the downstairs toilet, which I presume is the one she chose to use, with it being the closest, but all I find is the door wide open, the bathroom empty, no running water from the cistern, and no residue in the basin from her having just washed her hands.
Shit.
What the fuck has happened to her?Where could she have gone?
Stop it.
She’ll be upstairs.
She’ll have gone to use the bathroom there for reasons best known to herself.
Despite the darkness, I pick up my pace and jog through the house and up the stairs.
As I stalk the long hallway, I shove open doors to spare rooms, the large bathroom, and my room until I reach the master bedroom.The door is already open.The icy chill of a breeze brushes over my face as if trying to warn me of what’s to come.
“Hayami!”I call, shoving the door open.The room is drenched in darkness that climbs the walls, hovers in plain sight, and clings to my skin.
But the darkness isn’t all I see.
I’d been convinced the draft was supernatural—an icy introduction to the malevolent spirit that roams this house—but I was wrong.The breeze is real, pouring in from the open balcony doors.
Hayami stands with one leg over the railing, her hands gripping either side of the ornate stone façade, her hair whipping in the wind, the darkness buzzing around her as if ready to swallow her whole.
And I freeze.
I don’t want to scare her into falling, and I’m not entirely sure who this is.
“Hayami?”I say her name gently and put out my arm as if to pull her back, using the force of my hand alone.
“Stay back,” she tells me.Her voice.Hayami.She isn’t being possessed.I can tell by the way her head moves, the way her eyes pin me down.This is Hayami.MyHayami.She isn’t crying, but I can tell she has been.Her eyes are glassy, and her cheeks are stained.
Holding both hands up to show her I’m no threat, I take a slow step towards her.“What are you doing out there?”I ask, hoping to distract her from the step I’ve just taken.
“I said stay back!”she insists.
I stop, keep my hands up where she can see them.
“Okay.But just tell me what you’re doing.”My gut churns.
“You know what I’m doing, and don’t you dare try to talk me out of it.”She’s spluttering, anger mixed with fresh tears.
I thought we were over this—the desire to take her own life.I thought I’d given her something to live for.But I think we both know that’s a lie.
“Okay,” I say with as much conviction as I can muster whilst she dangles on the edge of a thirty-foot drop.But I’ve got her attention, and now she stares at me, probably trying to work out my game plan, just as I’m also trying to figure it out.
“You’re not going to try and stop me?”Her eyes narrow, her grip on the balcony flimsy at best.
“No, but I’m going to ask you to tell me why.I need to know why this is the only option.”I lower my arms, hoping it will make her think I’m staying put.
Her head tips to the side, her gaze fixed on me before she inhales.
