Chapter Three
Was I gonna be a fool and run after them or was I just going to continue looking for Masumi? I wanted to chase them down and question them but what if they didn't know anything was my only problem. I turned right to go down the steps that led to the fireplace room instead of the hallway. The floorboards creaked under my weight as I descended the stairs. I held onto my flashlight and walked cautiously to the entrance door. My hand touched the cool metal and I felt something. I felt so much fear run through me that I started to quiver.
Images of hung twins filled my head and screams of terror rained around me. Blood-washed walls and an ocean of people, bodies, lying face-down surrounded me. I heard the high pitched laughter of a woman echo throughout my head. Her pale face was shadowed with insanity and traces of sorrow but her wild smile was pure evil. Her shoulders shook with her laughter, the terrified faces of her victims remained in a permanent scream, frozen with death. Something had me attached to this house. Something wanted me to stay here, but I couldn't. I wouldn't. I gripped the doorknob and pulled hard. It budged only a little and I pulled harder. It felt as if someone was holding the door from the other side.
I only pulled because I wanted to get out of this house. I finally got the door open wide enough to where I could slip through and I left. The doors slammed shut behind me and I looked around. Nothing changed about this village from that night to this day and nothing probably ever will. I took steps left towards the main road with my flashlight in hand and my bag strapped to my back. I'd only brung a few old notebooks to record what I found, in case I didn't get back to my town, some old news clippings from the newspapers about Masumi and a picture of us, as a good luck charm. I'd already written some stuff in my red notebook about the house I was just in.
I made my way past the big abandoned house and I saw a smaller road to the right. I debated on whether to turn or keep straight. I shone the light in front of me. There was an entrance to another house, a bigger one than the one I'd just exited. I became skeptical about whether I wanted to explore a house that size alone. I took the turn and walked down the road alongside the bigger house instead of going straight. An overhead bridge was in the middle of the two biggest houses in the village. I stepped down the stone steps and I heard someone behind me. "Masumi?" I flashed the light up and around but found no traces of where the sound had come from. I continued down the steps to see a big double-door ahead. Two garden lanterns about my height burned with a dim light on either side of the door. The flames looked as tired as I suddenly felt.
"I wonder where this leads to..." I pushed the doors and they moved. I pushed harder and beyond them was a misty lake; an old wooden bridge was the only way across. I made my way across the steamy waters, eyeing my surroundings. It felt so cold as I neared the middle of the bridge. Something told me to look to my right and I did so. A thick patch of fog settled on the still waters of the lake. It seemed to move faster across the water than the rest of the fog. I stepped up and my foot broke through a small hole in the old bridge. "Damn..." The old wood bit into my ankle through the leather of my boot.
I gripped the railing and pulled but something pulled against me. The grip was icy cold around my ankle. It couldn't have been the water… "It's so cold." I closed my eyes as I pulled and wished I hadn't.
Arms, ghostly, white arms reached toward me but I ran. I ran across the bridge and something blocked my way. A woman in a white blood-stained kimono blocked my path. Her eyes were turned towards the wooden planks of the railing, overlooking the water then a smile curved her lips and she glanced at me. "There's no escape..." Her evil cackle echoed across the water. I turned back the way I came only to be snatched by the arms of Malice. Icy water filled my lungs from trying to scream and the freezing temperature of it was enough to paralyze my muscles. I reached towards the surface, reaching for a way out...but there was no way...
I gasped as if I were struggling for air and pulled my foot from the hole. I picked up my flashlight and something caught my attention out in the lake. A floating figure drifted in the water, inching towards my way. "I-it's so cold..." She whimpered. Her words chattering from her dead mouth. I turned behind me and saw the drowned woman floating above me. I yelped and she disappeared into the lake moments after. I didn't wait for her next appearance.
I reached the opposite side of the bridge and came in front of big gate doors symbolized with a big red butterfly. I pushed the doors and shut them behind me. The mist had bled through the ground walls and into this yard. A giant mansion was hidden behind the mist. It was a beautiful, but haunting sight and bigger than the ones in the village. Maybe whoever owned this mansion was the chief of the village?
The flashlight's beam was carried by the droplets in the fog and I had a better view of what was in the yard. An old peony tree was at the far right, fenced in with a few garden lanterns and grass. The gravel in the yard was dotted with small blood-red blossoms and patches of brown-green grass. I looked closer at the gravel and it was small white and peach river stones, a luxury I suppose. I walked towards the entrance doors and looked back. The yard was dark and only slivers of silver light shone through the thick gray clouds in the sky. I was driven by my determination and bravery, or what I had left of it, and the love for Masumi to go into this haunted village in search of him. I was called insane, stupid, and blind, but if we happened to both get out alive, I'd prove them wrong; I'd show them that what I did was worth it. The doors and what was beyond it pulled at my curiosity like it was on a thread. I undid the latch on the door and stepped through. I was prepared, mentally, for what was ahead.