My Modern Kaidan

Chapter 16

Her hand is cold and strong as it wraps around my wrist, yanking me up and out of the hole. Fear seems to have zapped any strength I might have had to fight. She pulls me to my feet and we come face to face, a familiar face, features I've just seen. The girl from the article. The drowned girl.

The woman pulls me close to her, gripping both my arms with her hands. She examines my face. "You remind me of my own daughter. She no longer speaks to me." She brushes the side of my face with her hand. "Did you know you come from a family of murderers, hachitori-chan?"

I shake my head. "You survived the accident?"

She laughs, throwing her head back as sharp, high pitch screeches leave her throat. "You are only recognizing what's left of my sister. Did you know she was your father's original muse?"

I wrench my wrist around, trying to catch her off guard, but she only strengthens her grip as she continues to reminisce. "Everyone liked Sachi, including your father. But, I don't think she ever really noticed Hideo-kun."

She strops and pouts at me, looking like a decayed teenage girl.

"They were fighting over a boy. Your aunt said she just wanted to talk to Sachi, to go for a drive." She sighs. "I think my sister was very scared, locked into the seat belt your father rigged as the car sunk into the water." I can feel her pulling me now, towards one side of the garden. I try to dig my heels into the dirt but I can only stumble forward. "How scared she must have been as she began to drown. And then, for your father to draw inspiration from her death."

We are standing in front of the fountain now. I glance down at my own reflection, eyes like plates. "I am your father's number one fan. Every interview, every story, every book. If I could, I would make all his stories come true. The Miyako girl was easy to bribe. To have her disappear for a bit was easy. The authorities paid close attention to your father, what he has been writing about this entire time. The deaths of innocent girls. Maybe there would be some kind of justice for Sachi. Demo, it only seemed to add to your father's popularity. So I spared the other girl. She reminded me a bit of Sachi herself."

Her face becomes blank, the lines erasing from her skin to become a pale, expressionless mask. Her eyes glaze over as she stares at me, past me, almost the way a dead body would. The seconds tick by in my head. For a moment, I almost feel sorry for her.

Her eyes refocus on me, as if she knows it. She smiles. "I can still make one part of the story come true, ne?" She strokes my cheek lightly, then grips the back of my head and plunges it into the water.