Inori was trying to teach Chiori how to properly hold and fire a bow. They'd been at it all week with little progress and frankly Chiori was starting to believe she just wasn't cut out for it. Huffing in irritation, she rearranged her stance with the bow and arrow Inori had lent her for the afternoon.

"Okay, okay, not so stiff, lower your shoulders a bit."

Her hands shook as she drew the arrow back as far as she could and she let the arrow fly only to watch it veer off to the side. It pierced the earth with a thump and Inori sighed behind her as Chiori stomped her foot in frustration.

"Here," Inori said, smiling slightly. She grabbed Chiori's limbs and re-positioned them, pushing her feet closer together.

"Just breathe," Inori whispered. There was a pause as they stared at the target. A light breeze played with the fabric of their clothes briefly before dying down. The arrow released with a resounding twang and both girls watched with baited breath as it sailed through the air. It was the cleanest shot Chiori had made all evening and when it hit the target just a little outside the center, they cheered.

Inori was a bit more enthusiastic and Chiori gave the other girl an odd look as she clapped excitedly. "What?" said Inori sheepishly, "The fact that you even managed to hit it at all is great." Chiori sighed and let her arms relax while Inori laughed and took the bow from her hands. "It's not like you do this often."

Inori moved to go gather the arrows on and around the target, twirling one between her fingers in contemplation. "C'mon, let's get these together and then go grab something to eat."

Inori sounded ecstatic at the thought of food and Chiori sighed again before glancing off towards the woods surrounding the property. It took her a moment or two, but eventually she noticed something shifting behind the trees.

It was like looking at an old photograph. The world around them seem to tilt violently on its axis and Chiori felt as if she were being smothered with a wet blanket. There was a figure standing behind one of the trees and she could just barely make out its pale hand as it reached out to dig its nails into tough bark. The jerky movements of the arm echoed with the sound of shifting bones and a head of dark hair lulled on its shoulders, partially obscured by the tree trunk.

"I. See. You."

Inori was still talking, but Chiori had lost the ability to hear anything else besides the voice speaking to her from the edge of the woods. The words sounded distorted and she could only watch transfixed as the limb reaching around the tree scrambled at the bark. It tensed with black veins standing visible against marble-white flesh. Its cracked and broken nails dug violently into the bark, tearing a few from the cuticles in the process.

Sap that reminded Chiori of rivulets of blood began to ooze sluggishly from the punctures in the bark and a noise began to filter through the air. It slowly built in intensity until it was almost unbearable yet still Chiori couldn't tear her eyes away. As the fingers began to slowly claw into the bark she realized that the noise she was hearing was actually a scream.

"I see you!"

It was the deafening scream of a woman in agony.

"Chiori!"

Chiori gasped and pulled away from the hands grasping her shoulders. Panting breathlessly, she scanned the woods for the figure behind the tree. It appeared to be gone, but that did not stop the sweat from beading along her brow or the shake in her clammy hands.

Inori looked Chiori over with concern and resisted the urge to reach out and comfort her because she looked as if she might bolt at the slightest provocation. "Chiori," Inori called, very gently placing her hands on Chiori's shoulders. "I'm right here, everything's fine."

Inori gently applied pressure to Chiori's shoulder in order to help ground her and slowly her friend seemed to come back to herself.

Eventually Chiori's breathing evened out, but she never took her eyes off the woods. She felt as if she were losing her mind, but she knew she'd seem something and felt like it was still watching them.

Inori looked to the woods, but found nothing amiss. Her frown deepened and she looked to Chiori in confusion "Was there something there?" she inquired cautiously. Her hands itched to draw her bow, but she wouldn't dare move from Chiori's side until she was sure that her friend was okay. "It was probably nothing," Inori reasoned, trying to be comforting.

"O-or maybe it was a ghost." She meant it as a joke, but it didn't sound all that funny to either of them.

It couldn't have been a ghost anyway, Chiori reasoned, I don't see ghosts. She wasn't like Ichigo or Karin. Besides, Ichigo had told her once that spirits looked like regular people. This was...something else...something very, very wrong. The thought of it turned Chiori's blood to ice. Perhaps I am losing my mind, Chiori thought humorlessly. She wasn't sure which was worse.

Don't be such a scardy-cat, Chiori scolded herself. If it really came down to it, she could talk to someone later. Hell, perhaps she was more like her siblings than she thought and if that were the case, maybe Grandma Mei would know something about what she'd seen. Chiori let Inori lead her away from the woods and resigned herself to the fact that she would likely not be sleeping at all that night.

Later into the night, Inori's grandmother went around the building making sure that all of the candles were out while Chiori and Inori returned to their room. They got ready for bed in silence and sat on their futons, fiddling with Chiori's mp3 in hopes that they'd find something to distract themselves from the tension in the air. Eventually, the silence became too much and Inori asked the question she'd been holding in ever since they'd returned to their room for the night.

"What did you see, Chiori?"

Chiori stiffened immediately. She had a black hair-tie twisted around her index finger and she set it down before reaching out to drag her messenger bag over to her side. With the book in her hands, she began to sketch frantically. Inori hovered over Chiori's shoulder as she drew and her eyes widened as the picture became more detailed. "What the hell...?" Inori mumbled, gently taking the sketchbook from Chiori's lap in order to get a better look. Chiori let her take it and stared blankly down at her lap.

The drawing was a close-up of the arm digging its cracked nails into the bark. The sap leaking from the tree looked like blood and the rest of the figure was obscured by the tree trunk while a few wispy locks of black hair blew in a nonexistent breeze.

"That is absolutely terrifying." Inori looked to Chiori with wide eyes. "This is what you saw?" Chiori nodded her head in return, positive that the figure in that image was what she'd seen. Something was out there in the woods, watching them, waiting. The forest was no longer beautiful to her like it had been when she'd first arrived. Now it seemed oppressive and endlessly dark, pressing in on them from all sides.

The floorboards creaked loudly outside of their room and they both went rigid in dread. They didn't even breathe as their hearts pounded wildly in their chests. The light from the candles in their room had long since gone dim, but they hadn't even noticed until that very moment. The silence stretched on and Inori got up to move towards the shoji.

Chiori's hand shot out and took hold of her wrist in an effort to stop her leaving, but Inori turned back to reassure her. It didn't work. Chiori looked terrified and she pleaded with her eyes.

Inori swallowed against the dryness in her mouth and steeled herself. "Maybe it's just Grandma?" she ventured, gently pulling her wrist away from Chiori's hand. She grasped Chiori's sweaty palm instead and attempted to smile, but Chiori's expression told her it didn't look convincing at all.

The door needed to be opened and their fears put to rest if either of them were going to get any sleep. With a shared look, both Chiori and Inori decided that they would open the door together.

Inori helped Chiori get up and together they made their way to the door. They pulled it open and found nothing. The hallway was empty. Still, it was much colder in the hall than in their room and they were unable to see all the way to the other end despite the moonlight that filtered through the rice paper.

They shivered again and Inori remembered well enough to grab a new candle to light their way before stepping out into the hall. "Grandma?" Inori whispered.

There was no reply besides a gentle creak in the floorboards and what sounded like the shifting of fabric. Chiori tightened her grip on Inori's hand and together and they proceeded slowly down the hall. It felt like an eternity before they reached the other end.

There didn't appear to be anything or anyone out in the halls and they both began to feel like they could breathe a little easier. However, it seemed that their moment of ease would be short-lived. The candle went out and plunged them into darkness. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust but in that time a particularly loud creak in the floorboards tore through the air.

There was something at the end of the hall. A figure in dirty white cloth shifted into existence and turned the blood in their veins to ice. The back train of its robes dragged along the floor as it went, rasping audibly against the hardwood floors.

It sounded as if its footfalls were amplified somehow, echoing in their ears with every step and it twitched in a painful fashion, bones rolling visibly beneath its skin. One of its hands reached out to tear long gouges into the rice paper as it continued down the hall away from them.

The figure moaned as if it was in pain and the noise pained their eardrums, grating on them relentlessly. Despite the grotesque nature of what they were witnessing they just couldn't look away. Their heads pounded as the cry took on a shrill pitch and turned into a scream. The hallway began to twist and cracks formed in the floorboards, reaching towards them like slender fingers.

Despite how slowly the destruction approached them, Chiori and Inori still could not will their feet to move an inch. It took another shrill cry from the creature and a sickening pop from its neck to break them out of their trance. Its head turned sharply over its own shoulder and the flesh twisted nearly to its breaking point along with it.

With milky, bloodshot eyes, it looked directly at them.

Inori was the first to move as she tightened her hold on Chiori's hand and yanked the other girl around the corner back the way they'd come. A scream tore through the air and footsteps shot after them, thumping against the hardwood. The hallways appeared washed out and a grey bleed in the colors slowly ate away at the walls and floor around them.

Nails scrambled noisily against every surface. They felt like they were being watched even as they ran and a bone-deep terror settling low in their bellies. Their legs felt like jelly, but the sheer horror of what they could hear charging after them kept their legs from buckling. As they got closer to their room the halls looked like they were returning to normal. However, they didn't let it comfort them. The girls kept their speed and didn't glance back again until they'd reached the door to their rooms.

Inori hurled both herself and Chiori inside and shut the shoji it so hard it rattled on its tracks. Something made the door rattle again from the outside and Inori scuttled away from it on her back, reaching blindly for Chiori's wrist. Terrified, they gripped hands and watched the shoji rattling on its hinges, flinching harshly at every noise until eventually it ceased altogether. Whatever had been chasing them obviously couldn't get through.

"W-What the hell was that?" Inori hissed. Her breathing was ragged and her eyes were damp with unshed tears. Chiori could not even begin to answer. Whatever it may have been, there was no doubt in either of their minds that they would not be leaving the room until the sun crested over the trees.

Inori was baffled and terrified. She had practically grown up on the property and so had her mother and her grandmother before her, but she had never seen anything like what she'd just witnessed. Her family dealt in the supernatural, but Inori had always figured that it was all just old superstition. She wasn't sure what to think anymore.

Chiori shivered and curled in on herself, dry-heaving over the tatami. Inori scrambled to light every candle in the room before returning to her friend's side. She hushed Chiori with a soothing hand placed upon her back, rubbing circled into the other girl's skin as she eyed the room around them.

Inori took a moment to pull a red hairband from Chiori's wrist and bind the girl's long hair back for her. Sometime later, they heard the sound of quickened footsteps followed by the faint glow of a lantern before the shoji slid open rather abruptly, both girls flinching in response.

They were relieved to see Grandma Mei despite how livid she looked with her hair and sleep clothes rumpled. "What did I tell you?" she grumbled, sliding the shoji closed behind her with a jerk of her arm. She came to stand at Chiori's other side. "Grandma," Inori began cautiously, eyes still glued to the doors,

"We-, I-," Her voice wavered dangerously and the old woman narrowed her gaze in return, scrutinizing them both. She did not answer readily and Inori shook her head before bending to try and help Chiori up off her knees.

That morning, Chiori and Inori sat quietly at the table while Inori's grandmother set out breakfast. The old woman didn't speak a word as she worked while the two girls slowly sipped tea from their cups.

Inori noted that Chiori's hands shook whenever she lifted her cup to her lips. Neither of them had gotten much sleep the night before despite the fact that Inori's grandmother spent the rest of the night in the room with them at their request. They were just lucky it wasn't a school night this time.

Inori fiddled with one of the baubles in her hair as Grandma Mei settled down at the table with her smoked fish, rice, and her own cup of tea. The old woman eyed the two girls across from her at her table. "I apologize," she began softly in her raspy voice. "I did not anticipate such activity. It has been many years."

Inori's eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms below her bust-line. "Alright," she sighed, growing impatient, her knee bouncing under the table so badly that Chiori was forced to reach out and grab her arm to get her to stop. She was making Chiori even more nervous than she already was.

Grandma Mei's lips thinned out into a harsh line such an expression made the dips and planes of her face stand out more starkly. It was then that the girls noticed how tense and tired the old woman looked. Inori reached out to play with the frayed edges of the tablecloth.

"Usually, I am able to suppress its presence, though most people cannot even sense it to begin with..." The old woman's expression morphed into a scowl. "However, it would appear that the two of you are beginning to become more... aware of the things around you." "What?" Inori snorted, "Are you saying we're psychic or something?" Chiori gave Inori a sharp look and finally noticed the fear in her friend's eyes.

Inori was just as shaken as her but she just hid it better. Suddenly all of the ghost stories Inori had told at previous sleepovers seemed much more terrifying and the reason Inori's grandmother had never wanted Chiori's family to visit close to dark let alone spend the night started to make more sense.

Grandma Mei waved Inori's question away with a dry laugh. "Oh please, child." She scoffed, "Psychics are in a completely different category." She ate a bit of her fish and took a sip of her tea with a wary sigh.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry that the two of you were frightened so. Neither of you had ever displayed any type of skill. I assumed that the forces here would not respond to you. Apparently I was wrong."

Her smile was apologetic and the girls glanced at each other simultaneously. "Perhaps it would be best if you both returned home today." Chiori did not look particularly thrilled. It was true that she was more than ready to leave, but at the same time she did not want to be alone.

Her father would not be home for a few more days and she was sure her sisters were away with him. On top of that her brother hadn't been spending a lot more time away from home and she did not want to feel like a burden clinging to him.

Both Inori and her grandmother frowned at Chiori while she wasn't paying attention and glanced at each other. They nodded as if having unanimously decided something without Chiori's knowledge. "You don't have to leave right away," Mei amended.

"Inori could stay with you as long as you make sure it's okay with your father first." Chiori's eyes widened and she smiled before nodding her head in acceptance. Seemingly in higher spirits, she ate a bit of her breakfast.

Grandma Mei gave both girls a small smile and the tension in the room seemed to die down. Neither of the young girls actually had much of an appetite, but they remained at the table with Grandma Mei until she was finished because at that moment it was where they felt the safest.

Later in the evening, the girls came to Inori's grandmother with questions. Inori had her practice bow slung over her shoulder. The older woman paused in her reading and looked towards the two girls with one silver brow arched in question. She had a dainty pair of silver reading glasses perched on the bridge of her nose.

"What is it, children?" Both of the girls stepped into the room and slid the shoji doors closed before settling on the floor as comfortably as possible. "We want to know more about all of it," said Inori, fiddling with the bow in her lap, "The lands, the spirits, everything." The old woman coughed faintly and placed her book to the side. She removed her glasses and massaged the bridge of her nose with a sigh.

"You keep seeing her out of the corners of your eyes, yes?" Mei peered at both Chiori and Inori with keen eyes. The girls looked particularly startled and Grandma Mei chuckled faintly in a manner that implied wariness more than actual humor.

"These grounds are very, very, old." She seemed to stare off to the side in deep thought before clearing her throat. "For years I have added charms and wards throughout the compound to keep that thing quiet, but it is not always enough. Unfortunately, it is not the only one roaming these halls. There are others.

Many strange and dark entities bound here by something I have yet to discover and I am no longer as young as I used to be." Her lips twitched minutely. "I am also sure that there are other places around the world suffering from a similar effect and I have tried for many years to find the source of it here, but I fear I will never live to see that day." She noticed slowly worsening looks of terror she was receiving from the girls and chuckled fondly.

"People like the two of you and your brother, Chiori, are special. You can see spirits and they are drawn to that power. In some cases, they can attach themselves to a person and use them as a means to manifest themselves. It gives them the leverage they need to get inside of your head, your dreams, to either send you and others a message or torment you. It's why you must both be much more careful from now on."

Inori shuddered before mumbled something that sounded a lot like 'too late' under her breath and her grandmother directed a narrowed gaze at her before continuing. "It is with a heavy heart that I inform you both that humans are not the only monsters in this world that you must be wary of and though these spirits were once human just like you, they do not behave as such any longer."

Inori and Chiori seemed to ponder on this for a moment before nodding. Inori's frown deepened. "But wait, what about the temple?" said Inori. "There has to be more."

Grandma Mei sighed tiredly and gained a faraway look in her eyes. "This temple was built hundreds of years ago upon these grounds by our ancestors." She pursed her lips before continuing. "Though some of the buildings have been remodeled and new buildings added over the years, much is still the same. This place was the site of battles, sacrifices, and murders in the names of old gods.

People suffered here." The girls listened quietly at the old woman told them what she knew. "That creature...that thing...is a leftover, a ghost from a time of great bloodshed, anger, and terror." The air seemed to grow chilly as Mei continued to speak. She gripped the arm of her chair with one gnarled hand until the knuckles turned white.

"She was probably once just like any of us, a young girl with hopes and dreams. But her death was truly traumatic and she lingers here as a wraith, spreading her anger and hatred to anyone that she can reach. She wanders the halls in a weakened state because of the wards, but it seems that your visit here has made her restless."

Mei shook her head with a deep frown twisting her lips. "I can hear her even now, scratching at the walls from somewhere deep within the bowels of this place. It would be best if the both of you left today. I'm very sorry girls, but there will be no more sleepovers here for either or you."

After that frightening revelation the girls went to gather their things. They still had a good amount of daylight, but their anxiety would not leave them. They were jumping at shadows and Chiori did her best not to look about the compound as they said their goodbyes.

The girls descended the steep steps in a hurry, but they were careful not to trip and send themselves to an early grave. Inori even managed to crack a joke about falling, but realized that it was in poor taste.

As they approached the large red torii that marked the end of the property, Chiori experienced an odd sensation. It felt like someone had taken a finger and ran it up along her spine. Goose pimples broke out all along her flesh and she jumped before turning sharply to see if someone was behind her.

"What's wrong Chiori?" Inori had paused not far ahead. She cocked her head to the side in question and watched Chiori look about the stairs. There didn't appear to be anything there, but they both knew looks could be deceiving. Inori grew even more nervous and grabbed Chiori's hand with the intent to get out of the area as quickly as possible.

They made their way to the station without any trouble and were relieved to be able to sit down for a while. Their moods lightened considerable from their time on the train and they were so engrossed in drawing random objects in Chiori's sketchbook with their eyes closed that they almost missed their stop.

Inori was the first to notice and she hurried off the train with Chiori's wrist clasped tightly in her hand before the doors could close on them.

"Damn, I'm hungry," Inori groaned as they walked along the mostly empty sidewalk. Chiori shook her head and glanced at Inori. The girl continued to whine until Inori managed to placate her with the promise of 's eyes lit up at the prospect of food and she grinned impishly, slinging her arm around Chiori's shoulder.

"Oh, you spoil me!" she sang and laughed outright when Chiori agreed with her. They eventually reached Chiori's house and found it to be emptier than they were hoping it to be. "Wow," Inori mumbled, "Aren't you glad you brought me along?" Chiori sighed before finding a sticky notepad to leave for everyone explaining that she was home early with Inori. She stuck it to the front of the fridge before pulling it open in order to find a snack.

They took their food with them upstairs and settled on Chiori's bed before pulling the thick book containing history on the Yuzuhara temple from Inori's backpack. Grandma Mei had spent years collecting information and was kind enough to let them borrow it, granted that they returned it in its original condition Chiori heard Inori swallow loudly and she peered at the girl only to see all the crumbs sticking to her chin and mouth.

She scowled darkly at the sight of the mess. "Alright, alright," grumbled Inori upon noticing the look. She pulled back to wipe her mouth with a napkin before returning to Chiori's side. Inori watched silently as Chiori opened the book and began to read. According to the book the Yuzuhara temple grounds and much of the surrounding area had been the site of several unexplained disappearance over the years.

Inori had heard stories, but after what she'd seen it really made her wonder. She also knew that the temple had been remodeled at some point after damage from a storm and that there were buildings that no longer stood anymore. There were also said to be old tunnels deep underground that extended all the way out into the surrounding towns. Some of them were supposed to have been closed up long ago, but who was to really say.

"There are records that recount the discovery of the corpse of a young woman within the inner shrine. All of her limbs were said to have been broken in multiple places..." There was a sudden spark of recollection and the image of the apparition from before flashed in both their minds. They saw it standing at the end of the hall, bones popping gruesomely as it moved. No doubt they were twisted and broken.

The room grew cold and the girls looked to each other with wide horrified eyes before a sudden jingle from Inori's cellphone made them both flinch. Inori climbed off the bed and fished around in her bag for the cellphone. Eventually, she found it. The screen on the front glowing faintly before she flipped it open to take a look at her text messages.

"...My Mom's coming home in a few days."

(A/N)

Chapters 3 and 4 were initially combined, but I decided to break them into two. I thought that might make for an easier read and help make up for my long-ass delays. Also, Credit to my BETA reader Kyoru-Sonamy Fan for editing this chapter and to And-The-Sky-Is-Grey for putting up with me through the other three.