"Kagome, stay outside while Papa works," Higurashi Hiroki patiently told his five-year-old daughter. The little girl held onto his chilled hand with a grip as strong as zip ties. The sun had drifted behind a plump rain cloud, making the man shudder into his coat. He had tried to get his little girl into her Hello Kitty winter coat, but she was willful, saying that she had to show off her pretty new dress. Now she was glaring at him with a little girl's concern.
"Papa, don't go in there. It's scary. You'll get hurt, Papa!" Kagome sniffled, peering up at her father with gleaming brown irises. She added a dash more to her pouting routine, twisting his heart into a knot. Hiroki bit his lip, seeing the outline of his wife in the girl before him. They both knew how to push his buttons while sweetly puppeteering him into doing what they desired. Hiroki couldn't count how many tea parties little Kagome lured him into. He could taste the English Breakfast tea now, dancing along his taste buds. The man shook his head and bent down to Kagome's eye level. She blinked, let go of his left hand, and fisted her purple dress in both hands.
"Papa has to go inside the mansion, Pumpkin. You know that's his job. He needs to appraise, er, look at the property and report back to his company. That's how Papa works." Hiroki passed a hand along the back of his skull, ruffling the light black hair at the nape of his neck. To tell the truth, he didn't really want to go in, either. The mansion was massive and had been abandoned for the past thirty years. The wood porch landing sat lazily in front of them. It was solid and well built, but there were signs of foundational rot. Not as much as he would expect from a place that no one had visited in years. Not even vandals. The large maple trees that spread along the property had been stripped of their leaves thanks to a frigid Fall. If Hiroki let his imagination run, the trees were bent hands thrust from the dried earth like some demented, dead forest. And don't even mention the mansion itself or the rumors that clouded the vast structure in the sinews of mystery. Hiroki shook his head. Of course he had to go and spook himself. He needed to set an example for Kagome.
"Papa wishes Mama or Grandpa could have picked you up from kindergarten today," Hiroki sighed.
"But they're at the hospital." Kagome grinned and raised her hands like she won a particularly difficult game show. She then blinked and sobered. "Grandpa is going to be okay, right Papa?"
"He will. A little fall at the front stairs won't get rid of that old man that easily." Hiroki chuckled and then stood up. He couldn't put this off any longer. The man grabbed a purple pen from his breast pocket and pulled out the notepad from his loose jeans pocket. He flipped to the page labeled 'Haunted Mansion.' He'd have to mark that out for his official report. "Okay. Be a good girl and play with your GameBoy. I'll be back soon." Hiroki kissed Kagome on the top of her fluffy head, walked up to the front entrance to the gaping maw of the mansion, and entered. He didn't look back.
Kagome whimpered when she saw the mansion eat her Papa. To keep her mind off her Papa being in the stomach of a monstrous beast, she grabbed her puffy pink winter coat, put it on to stave off the biting cold, and took out her thick GameBoy. With numb fingers, she turned on the device and the familiar trills of Pokémon Red greeted her ears. The girl happily collected a few Pidgies with the help of Squirtle until she could no longer ignore the feeling of dread trickling down her spine vertebrae after vertebrae. Her breathed clouded the screen, and it wasn't due to the cold. The girl dropped her expensive toy.
"Papa," Kagome moaned. Something was wrong. She just knew it. Exactly like those other times. Kagome couldn't explain it, and whenever she properly attempted to tell her parents what she felt, they equated her tales as imaginings from a vivid fiver-year-old's imagination. Kagome saw things. Lots of things. And right now, she could see a decapitated head rolling into where her Papa had just entered.
The head must have belonged to a handsome man at one point. His almond gray eyes were sharp and engaging, framing a strong nose and luscious, full lips. His black hair was pulled into a top knot with a white strip of cloth. But now, he was just a head with a meaty stump of a neck. When Kagome would look back at this moment of time, she would think about how many times it took for the poor man to be separated from his body. Twenty, maybe thirty chops with a blunt knife or axe? The sloppy slash marks left shreds of flesh hanging from the head, and as he rolled, a slimy trail of blood marked his passage.
"Oh!" Kagome almost yelped. She slapped her hands over her mouth and shook her head vigorously. She learned early on that letting the things know that she knew of their presence meant they would come after her, she would react, and then the grown ups would chastise. The girl took a deep breath and gripped her tiny fingers. That was it. If the Rolling Head Man was here, then that meant there were others, and her Papa was in trouble. Kagome would have to save him.
Trembling, the girl followed the wet trail of blood up to the entrance and into the mansion. Tears creased her eyes, and she forced herself to clear the wetness away. Kagome knew she would have to be a brave girl to save Papa. Besides, she had a strict no crying rule. The head kept rolling along in front of her. Crinkle, slap, brrrr. Crinkle, slap, brrrr. From hair, to the stump, to flesh. As soon as the girl crossed the threshold, she felt trapped. The mansion wanted her. It sniffed at her aura like a salivating cat batting at a mouse. Yet Kagome couldn't hesitate. The blood trail was already drying to black, clotted chunks that soon became dust blown away by an ethereal wind. The girl flipped off her purple buckled shoes, she was still polite after all, and followed the rolling, rotting head.
Papa told her that this mansion had been abandoned for thirty years. He refused to tell her about why people were scared of the mansion, but she had an idea. Kindergarteners were just as much gossips as their parents. According to her friend Ami, a really rich man used to live here. He wasn't very nice, and was mean to his servants. Still, people came to him because he had money and power. One night, he threw a massive get-together to celebrate something. Ami didn't know that part. She only told Kagome about how the next night, everyone who came to the party died. And they all died in different ways Ami couldn't even begin to say.
And now Kagome was in the mansion where that all happened.
Wearily, Kagome observed where she was gingerly walking. She was down the hallway that faced the inner courtyard. Everything was bare and cleared of all colors except Gary and black. Along the walls were molding paintings and a few portraits. The faces within the frames were marked out as if a toddler took a black marker and scrubbed away. Crinkle, slap, brrrr. A chill from the outside slipped around Kagome like and noose, and her attention returned to where she was going. The rolling head had stopped. She almost toppled over the thing, staggered, and regained her balance. That's when the head, on the stalk of its ruined neck, slowly turned around. Tuuuuuuuuuuurned. Kagome lifted her hand to her face, biting the meat of her palm. She wouldn't react. She would not react. She had to save Papa! Tuuuuuuuuuurned, until the head faced her. He blinked. The right eye, and then the left. His gaze focused, starting at Kagome's tiny feet covered with ivory tights, up her legs, torso, and then her widening eyes.
The head opened its mouth.
A thick roach with scrambling legs scuttled out of the mouth cavity, plopping to the floor and scrambling away. Kagome's heart twisted, but she stayed. The head wanted something, and for some reason, she felt like he was trying to help. She just knew.
"Huuuuuuu," the head tried. His jaw gaped a seething hole of decay, the word garbled and yet at last understood. "Huuuuuuurrrrryyyy." The head's gray eyes darted to indicate behind him. What was behind him?
"A room," Kagome whispered.
"Yoooouuur," the head gasped for non existent breathe, "Paaaaaapaaaaaaa!" It screeched, the pitch so intense it would have quickened the heart of any stoic non-believer of ghosts.
Kagome needed nothing further. She gave the head a short bow, and without hesitation, ran into the room behind the creature. The floor boards squelched underfoot, but she ignored the soft texture. Ahead in the darkened, square room was her Papa. He had dropped his pad of paper and pen, transfixed on a spot of cracked ebony wood in the furthest corner of the room's ceiling. He looked so small in his button down white shirt and baggy jeans. His hazel normally vibrant hazel eyes were blank and empty.
"PAPA!" Kagome wailed. Her father either didn't listen to his daughter's pleas or couldn't hear her at all. Kagome thought, took off her pink Hello Kitty coat, and threw the item as hard as she could. She knew, even with her five-year-old's strength, that coat should have hit him. He was close enough. But the coat fell limply to the ground at his feet six inches away like it hit a brick wall. Kagome gulped and tried to move closer, only to yelp in pain. She glared down at her foot. The severed head had sunk its nasty teeth into the flesh of her heel. The terrible head was trying to keep her away from…Kagome whipped her head around. The thing in the ceiling! "PAPA! PAPAAA!"
Hiroki stared at the darkening spot in the ceiling, his mouth open in hypnotized shock. The spot increased, eating at the still glossy wood and spreading down the wall in streaks. No. Not streaks. Long, wavy black hair sprouting from the wall, twisted and knotted. A twitching head emerged next. A long, segmented arm with its mottled white skin barley hanging onto the bone. Another arm just as ugly.
"PAPA! PAPA! PAPA!"
A torso emerged, caved in with a rib cage cracked and filled with sludge dripping onto the floor below. A pelvis. Too long legs. The things slipped from the the ebony spot like it was birthed from Hell itself. It hung onto the wall like a demented spider accompanied by a harsh clicking. The creature twisted its head around and around as if its tendons and muscles had long ago slithered away. With a creaking bellow, the creature crawled down the wall, twitching and creaking as if in the throws of a seizure. It scuttled its descent to the mushy floor and crab crawled over to Hiroki's feet.
Kagome kicked the biting head from her heel, wincing as its teeth left a bloody mark on her tights, and dashed over to her father even though it was already far too late. The thing had pulled its nasty body up to her father's torso, and Papa was doing nothing. Nothing at all! With unnatural speed, the creature moved up again, this time face to face with Higurashi Hiroki. Kagome could see the thing much better now. Two black holes for eyes. Slits for a nose. Spiders spilling from every opening. The girl screamed when the creature let its jaw fall open, its black tongue slopping to the floor, and like a snake, covered Papa's mouth with its own.
"NOOO!" Kagome moved again, but a softly glowing hand blocked her. Startled, Kagome couldn't help but look up. A man. A very handsome one with series golden eyes and long, braided silver hair stood before her. The man wasn't paying attention to her as he watched Papa's plight. He looked wrong in a smart business suit, or maybe the suit just marred his beautiful features. A strangled cry regained Kagome's attention. Her Papa!
"Do not look. Turn back," The glowing man said in a low, calculated voice. His words were cold, chilling Kagome to her core. He was as dead as the spider creature.
"But Papa," Kagome wailed.
"You will die, too, if you stay. That thing before us should not be fed. Your father was a fool to trespass."
"Was!?" Kagome yelled. "He is NOT a fool. He DIDN'T tres, trespass!" She tried to look beyond the beautiful man's glowing shoulder, but couldn't see a thing. But…but she could still hear everything. Crunching. Slurping. Gagging. She was going to be sick.
"Come." The ghost moved away from the scene, finally allowing the girl a full glimpse of him before he forcibly turned the girl around. She dug in her heels as her mouth went dry from the brief sight of him.
"No!"
The almost beautiful ghost simply picked her up in too solid arms. The head down below began to roll away. Kagome wriggled and thrashed with every bit of energy she could muster, and still she couldn't escape. In her tantrum, she accidentally threw herself over the almost beautiful ghost's shoulder and saw Papa's fate. The spider creature's mouth was unhinged with its jaw touching the floor. In the thing's mouth were Papa's still legs and feet covered by black socks. No struggle. Silent, and alone. The thing closed rotting lips around Papa's feet and swallowed with an audible gulp.
Kagome forgot about her rule to never cry.
Welcome to Akatsuki Mansion
