"I didn't originally intend to create a story inspired by what I thought my sister had done, but writing became therapeutic for me. I still loved my sister, but I was tortured over what had happened. And my part in it."
My dad's story has managed to zap all the anger out of me, and now I just feel bad for him. "Dad, it's not your fault." I remembered Auntie's blank stare in the day that followed her unexpected visit, one that conveniently got cut short when she was called back to work sooner than expected. "Has Auntie read it?" I ask.
He shrugs. "She never says. And I have never asked her." He turns his attention back to the vial, holding it up to his eye.
"To be honest, I don't know why I've kept this all this time. I suppose I wish I had done things differently. But who knows what that would have changed. Five years later I met your mother, and then we had you, so. . ."
"Maybe everything happens for a reason?" I say. "That makes me feel really good considering. . ."
"Sou desu ne," he says. "If anything good came out of this whole situation, it was you, Mai-chan."
I reach forward and hug him, for everything that's already happened, and for finally trusting me with the truth.
When I get back to my room, I know there's only one thing to do next.
I have to tell Kenji how I feel before it's too late.
As I pull on my sweater, out of the corner of my eye I catch a form outside my window. My first thought is Sachi, but the more I stare the more I realize the reality is even worse. The figure standing out on the street doesn't disappear when we meet eyes. It's a real person.
"Miyako!"
YOU ARE READING
My Modern Kaidan: Meibatsu
ParanormalMoving on is hard. Especially now that Amaya knows her family's dirty little secret, that her manga artist father Hideo Ego's horror creations are more fact than fiction. Now she can't seem to shake the nightmares. Or the ghost of a certain murder...
