Her shadow?
No.Not Hayami’s shadow.
Then whose?
Kuchisake-Onna?
It was making its way towards Hayami.If this is Kuchisake-Onna, then what is her purpose other than to put the fear of God into me?
I should tell Hayami what I believe is happening here, but I doubt she’ll believe me, and she has enough going on without worrying about ghosts.Iwilltell her, but not until I have the full picture, and I won’t have that until I’ve finished reading Junko’s journal.
Hayami picks up her phone.“I’m setting an alarm for four hours.Then we’ll swap.”She places her phone on the bedside table before settling back onto the pillow.
I don’t like the idea of being asleep at night.But she’s right.There’s no way I can stay awake for a whole eight hours.But can I trust her to keep watch?
Yes, of course I can.It’s the other thing I can’t trust.
Kuchisake-Onna.
The shadow had been about to devour Hayami.It had been about to slink into her body and take over the controls, just like I’ve seen on several occasions now, and I won’t allow it.If I leave Hayami awake and vulnerable, it could do anything to her, make her do anything, and I can’t take that risk.
I’m sure now that this is what stalks the walls of this house.Kuchisake-Onna.It’s what Kevin’s father saw the night he was leaving the house.Did Noa see it too?Did she experience Kuchisake-Onna, and that’s what caused her to miscarry her child?Did she die of fright, of heartbreak that she’d lost her baby?
The only thing I do know is that nothing seems to happen during the day, only at night.
“I’ll sleep when the sun rises,” I tell Hayami.“That’s non-negotiable.”I settle on the small sofa in the corner of the room, sit back, and rest my ankle on my knee.
She throws me a stern look, one I’ve seen countless times before as she’s geared herself up to argue with me, but then her shoulders drop along with her arms, and tiredness washes over her face.
“You drive a hard bargain,” she says before turning off the small lamp and closing her eyes.
There’s a gap in the curtains where I’d been checking on the snow.A purple glow slithers into the room, casting enough light for me to see Hayami’s face.Herface.Not the contortion of that thing.Not the face of Kuchisake-Onna.Just Hayami’s beautiful face.
I can still feel her arms around me after I shot the shadow, felt her heart beating against my chest as she clung to me as if her life depended on it.And I’d held her like she was mine.And the minute she let go, I felt bereft.
Hayami is right.Sleep deprivation is playing tricks with me, addling my brain into thinking things that aren’t true, and I don’t mean the ghost.I’m referring to the fact that I keep imagining that Hayami could be mine.That she might feel an ounce of what I feel for her, and that she might fall into my arms willingly.
What I wouldn’t give to crawl under the covers and hold her, feel her skin against my own, let my hands claim what I believe to be mine, let my tongue take what it wants, and watch her unravel.
It will never be.
How could she ever feel that way about someone like me?Someone who wears my scars like armour and whose history is etched on my body like graffiti?She could never want me.
Shewillnever want me.
I need to stop thinking like this, imagining things that’ll never be, and concentrate on the very real problem of what is happening in this house.So, I pick up Junko’s journal and pull up the torch on my phone, aiming it at the open pages.
Day Eight
Since hearing Kevin’s story of what happened the night his dad dropped off the late delivery, I should feel more afraid of the house and what it hides.
I should be scared.
But instead, I’m curious.
How can a folklore, a legend from my home country, be here with me on Hellion Ridge?For that is what I have always believed Kuchisake-Onna to be: a legend, a myth, a story.Not dissimilar to the bogeyman or Bloody Mary.They’re just stories invented to scare people.
Is that what this is?A scary story?And how would that explain what Kevin’s father saw?He wouldn’t know anything about Kuchisake-Onna, so he couldn’t have had any preconceived ideas that might influence his thinking.And if he didn’t see Kuchisake-Onna, then who or what did he see?Because a grown man doesn’t return home the way Kevin described when nothing has happened.
