Summary:

A bewitched youkai, in the form of a beautiful woman, sings a sinister song that enchants and lures men to their icy death in the blizzards of the forest. A young boy, innocent and full of life, plays for the first time in the snow with his friends and is seduced by the youkai's enigmatic melody. He wanders off, disappears for hours and, when he is found, he is sleeping in a hollow log, with no sign of hypothermia, but with a fragmented and confused memory of what happened.

"The mysterious figure approached me, its fingers touched my cold face. The caress was icy but welcoming, a confusing paradox. I got lost, I let myself be seduced and now I don't want to go back. I seemed to have found my soul mate, my lost half. Since then, such memories have tormented my being."

Years later, Reita is a young adult, a university student in Tokyo, but plagued by recurring nightmares about his strange experience in the snowy forest of his childhood. Driven by these memories and an inexplicable inner restlessness, he decides to return to that haunted place at Christmas time in search of answers and the truth. Is it his dreams or a bitter and treacherous forgotten memory that awaits him in that forest?

Hello, how are you?

This short story was started for a challenge, but it didn't come out in time.

As it's set in the snow and at Christmas time, and the song is based on the month of December, I'm here posting a songfic as a Christmas short story.

Link to the song in the story, the band is AFI - Music from the album December underground.

www/youtube/com/watch?v=ZAvOiEeAnSY

I hope you like it, it's a genre and a shipp totally different from what I've written before. Happy reading.

Chapter 1 - My Dream

"Calm down. come now, cold resides with me.

I flee to, I flee to december underground.

As you exhale, i breathe in and sink into the water underground

And I'll grow pale without you."

Another night I woke up scared from these nightmares that have been frequent since I moved to Tokyo, and always when December approaches. Every night is like this, I no longer have a peaceful sleep. Always the same dream, and I no longer know if it was real one day or just a product of my imagination.

"Warn your warmth to turn away

Here, it's December

Everyday."

I am lost in the snow, walking without knowing how to get back home, following a person in the frozen forest who is wearing a large black hooded cloak. At some point, I see myself fallen on the ground. The snow and wind are getting stronger and denser. Then the figure stops walking and comes toward me. I am scared and freezing; I can't see its entire face, only its lips, but a feeling in my chest says that I already know them.

"Press your lips to the sculptures

And surely you'll stay (love like winter)

For of sugar and ice... I am made."

Slowly, the mysterious figure approaches me and its hand touches my face. It is cold as snow, but its touch warms me. I no longer feel cold, I am lost, and I don't know if I want to go back now that he is close to me, as if I had found my soulmate.

"It's in the blood, it's in the blood

I met my love before I was born

He wanted love. I taste of blood

He bit my lip, and drank my war

From years before

She exhales vanilla lace

I barely dreamt her yesterday (yesterday)."

I try to fix my gaze on the mysterious figure; I notice its lips moving, and its melodious voice, like a siren's, comes out, but the tone is accusatory: "It seems you're somewhere far away... you said we would be together forever..." Then he turns away, turning his back and leaving. I touch his shoulder in an attempt to understand the meaning of those words.

"Read the lines in the mirror through

The lipstick trace (Por siempre)

She said, 'It seems you're somewhere, far away,'

to his face."

The wind starts to get more intense, creating a snowstorm around him. He turns again, now taking off the hood, but I don't see his face. I only feel the wind being directed towards me, pushing me towards the frozen lake. As the ice is thin, it breaks when I am thrown into it, and I sink entirely.

"Love like winter... Oh... Oh...

Love like winter... winter... 3... 4..."

The sensation of drowning and not being able to return to the surface is what makes me wake up screaming, scaring my college roommate in the middle of the night.

Our room has two beds with a dresser separating them, which are pushed against the side walls. Kai got up from his bed and rested his head on one of his arms, pulling the blanket that was falling. With a sleepy yet concerned look, he asked what had happened.

— Another nightmare, Reita-kun?

— Gomen, Kai-kun, did I wake you up again?

— Yes… with you screaming and falling out of bed, it's hard to sleep.

— I didn't realize I fell, I was trying not to drown…

— Reita-kun, you should see a therapist and tell them what's happening. These nightmares are getting worse.

— So they can tell me I'm stressed because of college, that it's all in my mind, and give me some sleeping pills and send me away to rest.

— It's not like that. We need to know why you're having these nightmares. When they become so realistic that they wake you up, something is wrong...

— Kai-kun, I wish I could understand why they've become more frequent since we came to Tokyo.

— The strangest part is that it's always the same dream. Sometimes I think it's a forgotten memory from the day you got lost in the snow-covered forest as a child.

— Maybe? But you told me that the search team found me huddled in a tree trunk hole to protect myself from the cold.

— Exactly, what intrigued them was that despite the cold, when they rescued you, your body was warm as if you had been protected by an adult.

— No one could explain how I survived the snowstorm. I only remember Grandma's story about the Snow Lady, called that because before people were found frozen, a melody was heard as if attracting them into the forest.

— I remember, yes, it scared me a lot, a kind of snow Youkai. You disappeared for hours, could it have been her who protected you?

— I can't say, but in the dream, the figure is sad and disappointed, and the voice sounded like a siren... before, it was just a melody, today I heard a sentence.

— Really? Can you remember what the person or figure said? It might be a clue...

— It was strange, as if they were charging me for a deal or pact. He said, "It seems you're somewhere far away... you said we would be together forever..."

— Reita-san, that message is sinister. Your mind is really strange. Could it be that you made a pact with the snow being, and now they want you to fulfill your part of the deal...

— Kai-san, now you've stretched the dream theory too far because you said I was alone in the snow. Better go back to sleep, or you'll be sleepy in class.

— I'll try to sleep a bit more, but think about it, it could be an explanation for the dreams.

— Or just another theory that I'm losing my mind...

—.—.—.—.

Since I can remember, from when I was just a child, Kai has been my friend. His house was near mine. We went to school together until high school.

Kai has always had a knack for cooking, so he enrolled in the local college's Gastronomy course. As I've always enjoyed admiring buildings and constructions, I used to play with wooden blocks when I was little. I managed to get into Architecture in Tokyo, but I was afraid to go to such a big city, as I had never left our small hometown.

Kai then managed to transfer to a college in Tokyo so that I wouldn't be alone there. So, we share the same room in the student dorm. We've been living here for three years now, with only one year left to graduate.

Every year-end holiday, we go back home to see our families and celebrate Christmas, New Year's, and see the snow at Grandma's house in the countryside.

Since the first time we saw the snow, I've had these dreams that now seem to be calling me back to the forest.

—.—.—.—.

Everything happened one weekend when I was around 13 years old. My parents took me and my 10-year-old brother Ruki to Grandma's house. She lived in the countryside near a forest, and snow was forecasted, but we didn't know when it would fall.

So, we went to visit her. I invited my best friend Kai, who was 14, and his 12-year-old brother Aoi. We were all excited because this would be the first time we would see snow.

After lunch, we went to play in the forest in the afternoon. We explored all the surroundings of the house and reached the lake nearby. My grandmother warned us to be careful around it and not to get too close because it was deep, and there were reports of people drowning in it when it froze with the snow.

Before it got dark, we returned home for a family dinner. My grandmother was a great cook, and Kai loved watching her prepare the food. But before entering the house, I heard a melody coming from the forest. When I looked to see where the sound was coming from, I saw the figure of a person with a long dark hooded cloak wandering among the trees.

I called the boys to see, but they had already gone inside. The sound was so enchanting that it made me want to follow it.

Before I could think about following the melody and the mysterious person, my grandmother grabbed my arm, asking me to come inside as it was already dark and dangerous to stay outside.

I asked her if she had seen that person and heard that music because I was very interested in it. I noticed a worried look on her face as she nodded. She came inside, locked everything, and said that after dinner she would tell us about the stories of that region.

With my curiosity piqued, I told the boys what I had seen and that we would have a story session after dinner.

—.—.—.—.

After dinner, we sat on the rug in the living room near the fireplace, waiting for my grandmother and my parents to join us. My grandmother sat in her unique armchair near the fireplace and pulled a blanket to cover her knees, turning to those pairs of eyes waiting for her story.

"In this forest, when it snows, according to the folklore I heard when I was your age, a youkai takes the form of a beautiful woman who sings to attract men during snowstorms. They end up lost and dying, frozen by the snow."

"Grandma, that melody I heard outside, was it that youkai?"

"I believe so, Akira. That's why I warned you to stay away from the lake and come inside before it gets dark; it's very dangerous."

"Do you know why she does that? Every legend has a story to be told."

"Kai, I remember my mother telling me that a long time ago, during the imperial Japan era, a woman was the consort of a general of the emperor's guard. There was a war, and the army was ambushed near the frozen lake. They couldn't recover the bodies. She loved him very much and was inconsolable for not being able to at least bury his body."

"That's a sad story, Grandma."

"Yes, Ruki. But she didn't accept her lover's death and sought out a wizard to bring him back. As you know, these spells don't always turn out as expected."

"What went wrong with her request?"

"It went wrong because the general couldn't be revived without his original body, and when the spell was cast, his soul moved on to the next reincarnation. It didn't turn out as she wanted because there's no way to know where and in what time he would be reborn."

"I believe she didn't accept being a widow and thought she should move on with her life."

"No, she continued searching for a way to bring him back to that life and ended up resorting to black magic, resulting in this curse of searching for her soulmate by attracting men as a youkai."

"That's probably why she sings; she's still looking for her lover, and it seems she hasn't found him yet."

"Yes, Aoi, the fate of this youkai is to continue wandering until her soulmate is reborn. That's why I don't want you to play near the lake and come home before it gets dark."

"It's a very sad and lonely quest, as well as scary, because those who follow the music might be her lover, but end up freezing to death for not being the one she's looking for."

We went to sleep that night with fear of that tale. Grandma knew how to tell a story and make it even scarier. We were four boys exploring the forest, which made us targets of the youkai and her search.

We played peacefully in the following days, always returning home before it got dark. But it seemed that only I heard the distant melody. Fear was stronger; I ran inside even before my friends.

It was on Christmas Eve when it started to snow. It was late afternoon and getting dark. We saw the snow through the window. Our wish to see snow was coming true, and we begged to go outside. With fear of the snow youkai, we asked the adults to come with us. The joy of seeing and touching the snow left us all enchanted, spinning around and looking at the sky.

The snowflakes began to intensify, gathering on the ground, and the boys scooped up small balls of snow with their hands, starting a snowball fight under the supervision of my parents, who appreciated the natural phenomenon.

Running away from the snowballs, I distanced myself a bit from the others to gather more snow and counterattack. Then I heard the melody very clearly and close to me. I even tried to ignore it, looking for the boys, but I only managed to wave at Kai with a snowball. The music got louder and louder, and I remember nothing more.

According to Kai, who came in my direction, I disappeared in the snow, and everyone searched for me for hours. They even called the police and firefighters for help in the search.

Only near dawn did they find me huddled in a hollow tree trunk. According to my friend, my body seemed warm instead of cold and hypothermic due to the snowstorm that night.

When Grandma saw me, she hugged me so tightly I almost suffocated, with so many tears, even though I said I was fine. She said she was happy that the snow youkai had returned me alive, and her prayers were answered.

I didn't understand anything at that time; I was just happy to be back home with my family.

Now, ten years after that incident, I'm almost believing Kai's theory that it was the snow youkai who saved me that day. Remembering the tale, perhaps I am the soulmate the youkai is looking for. Since I was a child, she protected me and was waiting for me to become an adult.

Only by returning to the cabin in the forest will I know if my nightmares are the product of a forgotten memory.

—.—.—.—.

With the Christmas holiday approaching, we packed our bags to only return when school started again the following year. We took the first flight home, eager to arrive. I missed my brother Ruki, my parents, and my grandmother, who was now living in the city due to her advanced age. My father didn't want her to stay alone in the cabin in the forest. In our last conversation, she said she didn't like the apartment and wanted to return to her home.

The Christmas gathering was held at Kai's parents' house. Grandma and Kai's parents prepared the appetizers and main courses for the dinner, while the dessert was made by the future chef Kai.

Our families had always gathered for year-end holidays and birthdays since we were children. Now that everyone was in college, the get-togethers were only during holidays. Ruki also went to college, majoring in fashion design. The little guy has a knack for designing and creating haute couture outfits.

The surprise was Aoi, who pursued a career in music. He is a great guitarist. Due to his father's insistence, he started law school to become a lawyer but switched to business administration, eventually dropping out to work on projects with a rock band.

After dinner, when everyone said their goodbyes, we went to my parents' apartment to rest. I sat with Grandma in the living room and told her about my dreams and what I should do about them.

Her response was different from what I expected. She looked at me seriously and, holding my hands, said she knew this day would come and that I needed to return to the cabin in the forest.

"What do you mean? What does obasan* know?"

"Dear Akira, since the day you disappeared in the snow, I knew your destiny was to meet the snow youkai again."

"Seriously? Kai also thinks the nightmares are a memory of that day."

"He's not wrong. No one has ever survived the youkai's melody. You came back safe and sound. What happened is in your mind."

"Does obasan* believe in the legend? That she protected me as a child because I might be the soulmate she's been searching for?"

"As strange as it seems, after that day, I always heard the melody near the house throughout the years. There were no more reports of people disappearing or freezing in the forest."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Would you have believed it if you weren't having these dreams?"

"Maybe not, because it's a regional legend, a story to scare children."

"The cabin is closed now since I'm not there anymore, and the snow has returned. Be careful; the youkai must be angry and upset because no one lives there anymore, and she'll be looking for you."

"In the dream, I remember hearing a voice saying that I went far away and didn't keep my promise."

"See how everything fits? A scared and lost child made a promise to the youkai; that's why you were found that day. Now you're an adult and must go back to discover what that agreement was."

"You're right. I'll go back there tomorrow alone. It's better not to involve my friends in this quest. It could be dangerous."

"I asked your father to transfer the cabin to your name. I don't know how much time I have left, and you'll have a place to live when you finish college or if you make another decision."

"Arigatô, obasan*, for worrying about me this way. But what about Ruki? Wouldn't he want a part of this inheritance?"

"Your brother isn't interested in a house in the middle of the forest. When he finishes college, I'll set up a studio for him in the city."

"It seems you've thought of everything for your grandchildren. Ruki never liked going into the wilderness. His thing is the glamour of the big city."

With a loving hug and a beautiful smile, my grandmother said goodnight and went to bed. I stayed in the living room for a while, contemplating what I would do the next day, how to face my future destiny with the snow youkai.

—.—.—.—.

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