It is evening over Japan as layers of light and dark grey clouds cover the sky. Out in the mountainous countryside and along a section of highway walks an American named Axel Sawyer. He is twenty-three years old, Caucasian, and very tall with fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. He wears a long-sleeved grey denim western shirt with snap buttons, a digital wristwatch, blue jeans belted snugly around his waist, and dark blue sneakers. He is carrying a green knapsack on his back.
He has been here for three days, but it is two since he began his hike; already he is along a more isolated stretch of the nation. Long before coming to Japan, he had been planning to hike around the country, and that meant learning the language and lettering.
It was during those past two days and nights the sky was clear and he was even able to sleep outside at one point. And now that possibility looms before him once again, even if those clouds threaten rain as Axel frowns up at them. Despite having rain gear in his knapsack.
Alongside the highway runs a chain-linked fence with barbed wire atop it that encloses forested land. Posted at intervals upon that fence are signs in Kanji.
WARNING. BIOHAZARD. DO NOT ENTER.
This makes him wonder uneasily about diseases.
He encounters a pair of closed gates upon that fence, secured with several steel bars running horizontally the full length of the gates from top to bottom. Beyond them is a paved road, cracked and pitted with tufts of grass and flowers growing up through it in various places as it leads off into the thick forest. Axel glances between that abandoned road and up at the sky, wondering if it is worth it.
A distant rumble of thunder forces his decision as he briskly walks toward that fence. He tucks his pant legs into his socks and begins climbing. Once near the top, he awkwardly removes his knapsack and manages to position it across the top upon the barbed wire, then slowly crawls over it. The pain of the metal upon his bare fingers from supporting his weight begins to increase.
Upon straddling the fence, his right side facing in, he reaches down the other side to firmly clasp the edge just underneath the barb wire. He takes a deep breath to psyche himself up and pushes himself up using only his right hand, increasing the pain more. He uses his left hand to lift his knapsack carefully so as not to snag it on the barbs so that it falls inside. He clasps the fence edge underneath with his left once again, though placing it inside the fence so as to take the weight off his right. He quickly repositions his right hand so that his wrist faces inside.
With both hands inside the fence and wrists facing inward, he lifts his left leg inside and finally lets his lower half drop so that he can climb down the fence. A punishing thing to do, since the pain in his fingers is now almost unbearable.
Axel's feet are finally near the ground and he lets go while pushing himself away to land. He sighs with relief through clenched teeth while staring at his fingers and flexing them.
He picks up his knapsack and runs up the road, wary of a vehicle driving by. The road soon climbs upward as is the norm for roads throughout Japan. Since the archipelago nation is more like a mountain range protruding up out of the Pacific rather than being merely mountainous islands.
Axel continues his trek down that road. The day grows increasingly late and the sunset comes, casting red and orange across the horizon through the layered clouds. The wind picks up, a cool one given this warm muggy evening, meaning that a thunderstorm is coming. Another rumble of thunder is heard, this one a little closer now.
He crests a hilltop and finds himself looking over a valley with a river running nearby. He can see a village in the distance. Figuring that it will be night time by the time he reaches that place, he removes his knapsack and searches inside it. He takes out a flashlight and puts his knapsack back on to continue walking.
The twilight gets increasingly darker and he has yet to reach the edge of that village. He looks up at the sky every now and again whenever a flash of sheet lighting is briefly seen, to be followed by a rumble of thunder. It soon becomes dark to the point that he has to turn on his flashlight.
It is fully night by the time he reaches the outskirts of the village. The heady smell of rain is now strong. He checks his watch to see that it is almost ten o'clock. Axel notices the lack of lights around the village. He walks upon a short bridge and notices a large building next to him. A blue ribbon of lightening suddenly appears as it seems to split the sky, casting a quick light over everything. Thunder roars loudly across the landscape a second later, echoing off the mountains. Within that brief brightness, he had seen that the building is a watermill.
Axel continues walking. He encounters cars with more rust than paint, and flat tires. More lightening reveals decrepit buildings, along with grass and other plants having grown long and wild. The village looks to have been abandoned for a long time. Axel experiences a ticklish tingling sensation in his palms, soles, and groin over what to expect.
He feels a drop of wetness against his cheek and is quick to look for a place to take shelter as he knows a torrential downpour is soon to come. He runs to the closest house, a small one, and tries the door. It opens, much to his surprise. Another flash of lightening, brighter than the previous one, brightens up the surroundings for an instance, and is immediately followed by another roar of thunder, louder than the previous as it sounds more like a boom and makes the place vibrate.
Inside, he shines his light around to see that the interior has the trappings one can expect to find in a house. Nothing looks out of place. It looks as if the occupants had only stepped out for a moment and will soon return. He wonders if there really was some disease that broke out, and hopes not to find any skeletons. A flash of lightening brightens the room for an instance and thunder booms in return, causing the house to vibrate once again.
Axel begins to explore the house as he sniffs the air. The lightening comes more frequently now, as does the painfully loud thunder that vibrates the place. While there is the smell of a building that has not been aired out in years, there is no stink associated with decaying flesh. He checks out the bedroom to find no bodies, just an unkempt bed mat with two pillows next to each other. He crouches to take a closer look at it and touches the blankets. Whoever slept here simply got up and did not make it. That did not seem right as the Japanese are usually fastidious.
Then it could only mean that they did not make their bed because they had no to time to do so.
Axel ponders over sleeping in it. He sniffs the sheets, then picks up a pillow to sniff, but neither of them stinks. He also thinks of the possibility of bugs and other invertebrates living in them. He shines his light around, but does not see anything crawling around.
He looks up to the sound of rain pattering on the roof outside and it quickly crescendoes into a downpour. Sun bright lightening continues to flash and painfully loud thunder continues to sound. Soon, the rain falls as a steady roar that dampens even the thunder. He feels glad to have made his decision to come here.
Axel heads back out into the living room and tries to look out through the window. The rain falls so heavily that it interferes with the window's transparency. He turns from the window, knowing the danger of lightening, and removes his knapsack. He sets it on a low-lying table and takes out of it an apple, curry bread, melon bread, and a bottle of water to set before himself.
He sits with crossed legs at the table and begins eating, all while the roar of the rain falling upon the house continues unabated, along with the flashes of lightening and muffled sounds of thunder.
One particularly bright flash makes him pause and take notice as it seemed to be brighter than expected. In that instance, he jumps at what he thought was an explosion as the walls and roof vibrate intensely. The roar of the explosion dies away, making Axel conclude that the lightening must have struck something nearby.
He continues eating, hoping that this house does not get struck.
Upon finishing, he decides to brush his teeth and gets out his dental floss, toothbrush, and toothpaste. Afterwards, he goes to the door and opens it to be greeted by rain falling like water out of a showerhead as it bounces from the now soaked ground and pavement, of which he spits onto.
Axel closes the door and returns to that bedroom. He stares down at it and holds his flashlight between his lip-covered teeth as he bends down to take hold of the mattress. He drags it out into the living room. There, he moves his knapsack onto another table, a smaller one, and places the bed mat where his knapsack had been. He next shakes the blanket to rid it of possible bugs, along with the pillow, and lays them back upon the bed mat.
Axel removes his sneakers and sets them on top of his knapsack. He lies upon the bed mat and covers up. The musty smell of the blanket and pillow makes him wince a bit. He lies there, his imagination running overtime. Could this place be haunted? No, that can't be right. There's supposed to be no such thing as ghosts.
In spite of the flashes of lighting and booms of thunder, the steady monotonous roar of the rainfall has a soothing effect and weariness settles over him . . .
Axel awakens to quietness, and to the memory of a dream about a silhouetted woman standing over him. He opens his eyes to see the room dimly lit by twilight. He gets up and groans as he sits there for a moment to clear his head. He stands and goes over to his knapsack to take a trail mix bar out of it and finishes off the rest of his water.
He steps out and sees that it is indeed dawn, though foggy. The air is still and damp and smells of fresh clean laundry, due to the lightening releasing nitrogen from the atmosphere. Multiple high pitched creaking resonating sounds fill the air of which he identifies as belonging to cicadas. A surreal feeling overcomes him.
Axel takes a moment to empty his bladder and wonders about those biohazard warning signs from yesterday. If that was the case, then he should at the very least be sick. He wonders what the lightening had struck last night, then wonders just what did happen for this place to be abandoned.
And why . . . this place seems familiar somehow.
Upon finishing, he begins walking toward the direction of the river with the decision to fill his water bottle. He encounters a large building with one section that is two stories tall. The building engages his curiosity and he walks up to it. He steps on something round and cylindrical and looks to see that he had tread upon a piece of rusted metal. He picks it up to examine, and discovers that it is a spent bullet casing.
Axel looks at that building and notices some spots on a section of wall. He walks up to it and fingers one of those holes, then sticks the casing into one of them and sees that it is a perfect fit.
Now bewildered over what had happened, he decides to look around inside the place and tries the door. He is surprised to find that it too is not locked, even though he had been expecting it to be. He enters to find the interior still darkened, so he removes his knapsack and takes out his flashlight once again. He shines his light around to see that it is an office building.
He walks throughout the entire place, in the process discovering that all of their doors are still open. One of those rooms is a classroom, due to its decorum. He is casual in his search as he only merely glances into each of the rooms for a second or two before moving onto another. This place also still has its trappings. As if the people working here will soon show up for work. In spite of those bullet holes outside, he finds no sign of violence inside.
After finishing with the last room, he returns to that classroom. This village must have had only a small number of children, as there are sixteen desks, each of them paired up. Its students would have ranged from prepubescent to late teens. Books are in pouches on the sides of their respective desks.
Axel stares at the blank clean chalkboard. There is a piece of chalk and an eraser on its shelf. He smirks as a mischievous mood overcomes him and picks up that chalk, then looks at his watch momentarily while shining a light on it. He prints in English letters.
Axel Sawyer was here on Sunday, June 21, 2015.
Once back outside, the dawn is brighter. He walks toward where that river is supposed to be, going down what is its main street. As he walks along, he gets the feeling of being stared at and turns to look around. There is no one. He notices through the fog a building at the top of a flight of stairs. He blinks at the sight of movement, only to see nothing moving around.
With his curiosity engaged, Axel walks toward that place. After climbing up the stone stairs, he is before a shrine and goes up to it and inside to check out the interior. He finds nothing of interest as it looks to have been cleaned out, so he leaves.
Axel notices another house nearby and decides to check that one out as well. He enters it to find that it also looks as if its occupants will soon return. He checks the drawers and finds a dark wooden box. He opens it to find it filled with pictures and takes them out for a look. They are of children, five girls and one boy with two of the girls prepubescent and the rest teenaged. They are smiling and goofing off for the camera. Some of them single and some of them paired up, or more.
All of them are of the same children. One of the prepubescent girls has long straight hair cropped into a bang at her eyebrows, while the other prepubescent girl has short teased hair. Two girls are identical twins, one with her hair done up in a ponytail and the other with her hair hanging down. There is another girl with a bob haircut and wears a white dress with a white puffy hat. Then there is the boy as well.
Axel looks through those pictures some more and puts them back where he found them, then leaves.
As he heads back toward the shrine, he notices another building behind it further in the back with its large double doors mostly covered in black paint. He walks up to the building and upon reaching its steps, he sees that the black paint is actually charring. He notices something on the plank flooring in front of him and examines them. The objects are a large lock and the door handles, both broken and melted. He looks up at the double doors of thick wooden planks with the understanding that this is where the lightening struck last night.
Axel walks up to the doors and touches them, wondering if he can open them since the handles had been blasted off. He slips his fingers into the crevice between the two doors and pulls outward, making the doors part and swing slowly outward as its hinges creak loudly. With the opening now wider, he fits his fingers fully in and pulls them open and next repositions his hands so that he can push them wide, making them swing wide open on their creaking hinges so that they end up thumping against the walls.
He stands at the threshold. There are windows up above near the ceiling to let in more light, but the interior is still very dim, though not enough to force him to use his flashlight.
Axel inhales deeply then exhales, and walks in. The atmosphere becomes oppressive. The further he walks in, the more oppressive it seems to become. There is a statue in the back, head and shoulders taller than himself, and understands that it is an idol. There are other things in this place. Things of a gruesome nature. A rack with a triple row of spiked metal rods, complete with shackles. A casket that is opened to reveal spikes inside. A cage in the form of a man. Blades, saws, and other oddities line the shelves to either side of him. All these implements look like they were used to inflict pain or kill, making him wonder if this had once been a torture chamber.
He stops before the idol. In that gloom, he can see details such as its form being that of a stately woman holding up what might have been her right hand, since there was no hand to begin with. Its face looks stern and its eyes blank. It seems to glare down at him, as if about to demand what he is doing in here.
Movement to one side causes him to dart a look and jump at the presence of someone standing in the corner in the darkness. He immediately thinks a ninja. The person does not move and instead remains in shadow, becoming a silhouette. Judging by their form, the person is female as he can see long hair and a dress.
"Ah, h-hello there," he said nervously in Japanese. "I-I was just getting out of a storm last night. What is this village called?"
The woman is silent, making no movement. Then tilts her head.
"Handsome foreigner," the woman said in a soft deep voice. "Why did you leave your country?"
"Ah . . . well," as Axel struggles for an answer that doesn't seem to make much sense to him, "I was just . . . interested in seeing what was here."
"And does not your country have its own mysteries hidden within it as well?" The woman asked.
Axel struggles for an appropriate answer as he ponders that odd question.
"Have you grown weary of the mysteries hidden within your country?" The woman continued enigmatically. "How is that so when it is far bigger than Japan?"
"I . . . I'm afraid I don't understand, lady."
"No, you don't. It is sad when one who has not seen all of the mysteries their country has to offer becomes familiar with them; for in familiarity does one find contempt. Tell me, handsome stranger in a strange land. Is your soul so empty that you have to leave your vast country in order to fill it in a much smaller one?"
"Lady, I still don't understand," Axel sneered with confusion.
"Of course you don't," she answered in a condescending tone.
"Wha-What are?" Axel shakes his head firmly and glares back. "What is wrong with looking for adventure? We humans have an intrinsic desire to seek it in one form or another. Is that so wrong?"
"It is when it will lead them into situations where they may be scarred with regret. But," as she tilts her head to the other side, "if it is adventure you crave, I can slake your craving."
"Slake my craving?" Axel echoed her wryly. "How're you gonna do that?"
"Are you sure you won't regret it?" The woman asked as she straightens her head.
"I don't see how I can if you don't tell me how you're going to, slake my craving," Axel asked as he spoke those last three words sarcastically.
"Are you sure you won't regret it?" The woman repeated.
Axel sighs deeply with frustration over her weird way of speaking. He concludes that if she is going to be a weirdo, then he will humor her.
"No, I won't regret it," he stated firmly.
"So you have chosen," the woman answered. "And so you shall have."
Axel is immediately plunged into darkness as the doors shut deceptively fast with a thundering slam. His eyes shut on a reflex from the sudden appearance of light. He opens them to see that he is no longer within that building but within a large cavern with prison cells and lit by light bulbs above.
Confusion overwhelms him and a blast of light fills his vision as pain overwhelms him.