“If you want me to.”
“Fuck, there’s no way I’m going to be able to go back to sleep.”I sigh, trying to shuffle under the covers.
“Here, let me help.”He stands and makes his way over to the bed.I shuffle up when it becomes clear he’s going to climb in next to me.
The frame creaks as he sits.
“Close your eyes,” he tells me, and I do.Then I feel his fingers stroke the side of my face.“My mother used to stroke my face when I couldn’t sleep.She also used to sing to me, but I won’t make you endure my singing voice.But it never failed to get me to sleep.”
I’m shocked at how soft his touch is, how gentle his fingers are for someone so large, so brutal.There’s a tingling between my legs, and there’s no fucking way I’m sleeping now as the touch of his hand smooths over my skin, igniting all sorts of fires within me.
It isn’t the first time his hands have been upon me, but they’ve never been this careful, this light.It’s like being stroked with a feather—the delicacy, the intimacy.It makes me want to grab him and kiss him.
Instead, I just lie here and let him stroke me, let him touch me, because this is what I’ve wanted all along.To be touched.To be caressed.To be wanted.
And I drift into a blissful sleep.The house, its ghosts, all of it forgotten.
FORTY
FENRIR
PRESENT
It doesn’t takeher long to fall asleep.I’m not surprised; I’d be out for the count in no time when my mother used to stroke my face this way when I was little.It used to frustrate me, as I’d fight to stay awake just to feel her fingertips glide over my skin.My body would relax, and I’d feel safe.But it was like hypnosis.No sooner did she begin, I’d be asleep, like she was casting a spell over me.I always wondered if this gift was acquired when you had kids or whether it was passed down through generations.I guess I’ll never know.
The fluttering of Hayami’s eyelids has stopped.Her breathing is soft and even, and her face looks peaceful.Even though she’s asleep, I continue to stroke her face.
She hadn’t put up a fight when I suggested this technique.She just let me.I wonder if Junko had a way of settling Hayami when she was younger.For some reason, I doubt it.
I’d only just put the journal down when I heard the noise downstairs.It was so loud that I felt the house shake.Hayami had woken instantly, and this time, I knew it wasn’t just my sleep-deprived brain or the influence of what I’d just read that was messing with me.
She heard it too.
And while the scene in the kitchen was so fucking bizarre, all I could think about was Kuchisake-Onna—the mutilated woman—and Junko’s journal entry.
One thing’s for sure: I’m going to have to tell Hayami what’s going on.Before tonight, she thought this was all in my head, a product of no sleep, but there was no way I could explain what happened in the kitchen.It was why I checked the cameras, to prove to her that I hadn’t moved from her bedroom.Her logical thought process was thatIhad done it.ThatIhad wandered from her room in a sleepless fog and set up the scene.
But right now, I continue to stroke her face because I don’t know when or if I’ll ever get the opportunity to touch her like this again.And I must stay awake.The night is too dangerous, too precarious for me to drift off.And what better way to keep my vigil than right here next to Hayami watching her sleep?
The hours of darkness creep by unnoticed as I’m lost in her.Time slips by until the moon finally disappears and the grey sky returns, a shift in the light through the small gap in the curtains.
Morning has arrived.
It’s safe.
Sheis safe.
Only now do I allow my eyes to close, let sleep take me as I lie curled up next to Hayami.
FORTY-ONE
HAYAMI
PRESENT
Three,four, five, maybe?I don’t recall how many times I wake, but when I do, all I can feel is the heat from Fenrir’s body, the feel of his arm draped over my side, and the safety that encompasses me as I float in between sleep and wakefulness.
It’s morning.A dull glow seeps through the gap in the curtains, but I’m so tired, so relaxed that I don’t ever want to move from here.I don’t ever want his arm to leave me, so I stay within his reach.
