The door opened slowly as Seiki Kayako stepped in out of the warm Tokyo sun. She slipped off her shoes by the door and took a few careful steps inside. It was quiet inside…odd. Takeo and Toshio were usually playing together in a room when she came home from her classes at the local college.
After a few glances around, she walked into the living room to drop off her purse, and was met with a room in shambles, toys and paper cups and magazines everywhere. She gave a sigh; she would straighten it up later. Right now, she wanted to relax, she had been out all day.
She stopped for a moment in the doorway of the living room and glanced down at the floor absently. Peter… she couldn't feel the way she did about him anymore. It wasn't fair to Takeo, and it wasn't fair to her, either. She was happy with her husband, after all. This silly infatuation had to stop!
"…I will need a new diary," she said as a finalization of this new outlook.
She took a step forward and nearly fell. She had stepped on Toshio's cat.
"Mar-chan!" she scolded the black feline. "You silly thing, I nearly fell! I could have broken my neck…"
The cat regarded his master's mother with a strange air. Its almond green eyes were locked on Kayako, as if it knew something she didn't.
Kayako shifted uneasily under Mar's gaze.
"I'll feed you in a little bit," she said. "After I come downstairs."
She started up the stairs and stopped, looking back at Mar, who was still watching her.
"…Strange cat," she said, continuing up the stairs.
She opened the door to the master bedroom and smiled. Takeo was up here.
"Takeo-ku…"
He was holding her diary.
Takeo was chewing his hand as his eyes manically scanned the diary, reading each time she had written the name Peter. He turned around and his eyes locked on his young wife.
"….Ta…takeo-kun… I can explain," Kayako stammered as she backed away.
Takeo wouldn't have it. No wife should cheat on their husband. No way this dishonor would go unpunished…. He advanced on her, trying to grab her as her diary fell to the floor.
Kayako fled, trying to run for the stairs, but tripped and fell at the top of the stairs. Was it Mar again?? The cat was nowhere in sight. She couldn't stand, her ankle throbbed in pain. She looked over her shoulder, Takeo was going mad!
He threw himself at the walls, screaming inaudibly in rage at whatever he had thought his wife had done. Finally, he cocked his head sharply, cracking his neck and advanced again.
Kayako struggled to get away, crawling down the stairs as fast as she could, while her insane husband walked after her with an almost casual air. She knew what was wrong… She hadn't told him about her crush on the foreign teacher, nor her decision to stop loving him.
She scrambled to the front door and felt Takeo grab her by the hair and pull her back to him. She let out a scream in pain as he squeezed her face in his strong hands and held her still.
Kayako strained to look up at Takeo, to beg, to cry, to plead him to stop, but her widened eyes saw something else, something far more important.
Toshio.
Her little son crouched by the banisher, holding the bars like a prisoner would in a cell, and watching this all happening.
Kayako tried to call out to him, but Takeo twisted her head with ease, snapping her neck.
Toshio's eyes widened, what was happening?
Takeo looked up and saw the witness to this crime. Dropping his wife's limp body, he started up the stairs after him.
Kayako, paralyzed and dying, could only watch her son try to flee from his father. Mar walked over to her and sat by her head, watching everything like a disinterested spectator, as Takeo dragged Toshio into the bathroom. Mar ran after his master, and Kayako saw the house go black.