The Onryo

Girl At The Window

Paul sat outside the cabin. It was cold. The constant wind over the plains made it colder. The sun was going down. Paul had met Keyote on Dead Tree Hill, back in September. A lot of weird things had happened since that time. Keyote was a girl that seemed to attract trouble. She was in her own way a lot of trouble. She was also troubled herself.

Key was strong, she had survived six years of human trafficking. Key had emotional problems, nightmares, and recently she had been showing out. Key seemed angry with her adopted Mother, she defied her whenever she could. This in turn got her in trouble with her sister Kiona, and her Aunt Sophia or Crow as most people called her.

All of that wasn't the real problem. Paul was seventeen. She was fifteen. Paul supposed that shouldn't be a factor. There was only two years difference between them. No, the problem was that in another month Paul would be an adult. Key would still be a child in the eyes of the law. She also swore a vow of chastity until she was at least eighteen. Paul wondered if he could wait two years.

If he did wait, he had never been with a girl before, and the opposite wasn't true. What had happen to Key on the street should never have happened. It made Paul angry when he thought about it. It hurt Paul every time Key confided a nightmare, some of those nightmares were actually memories. But, to anyone who heard about those real events they seemed like something out of a nightmare.

Key had told Paul how she had seen her dead Mother. How she had been caught by the murderer and raped in her own bed when she was eight years old. Key had told him how they had raped a child in front of her, killing the child, just to punish her. Those were the major events that had scarred her and caused her nightmares. Some of the things had Paul want to throw up.

Despite the fact that none of it was her fault. Key felt guilt for what happened to her. She had been forced to do some sick things. Key knew she had been given no choice, she did what she had to, or she wouldn't have survived. All the same there was that guilt. Paul had no special balm or magic to heal that terrible guilt she felt for something she was forced to do.

That was why he was standing in the cold, on the front porch of the cabin. Letting the biting wind cut through him. Watching the sun go down between the mountains that formed the valley where Paul lived with his Uncle Jack.

He was wondering if they could continue this way. Paul was in love with Key, but they couldn't make love. He enjoyed Key's bright, independent spirit, but it was darkened by the terrible things that happened to her. Paul didn't want to lose his friendship with Key, but he wasn't sure if they could ever really go any further than being friends due to what happened to her.

Key had told him that her therapist said that even when Key was ready to have sex, she might not be able to. Could he wait two years to find out that she couldn't even have sex with him? Maybe, if he could arrange it, it might be better if they just stayed friends. Only, he was afraid that if he tried to do that he'd lose her as a friend as well. Not to mention that Uncle Jack, Sophia, Kiona, and Mei might hate him for breaking up with her. Paul's sister was also Key's friend, although Lilly, his younger sister was not fond of her.

Paul saw someone in the distance. Who ever it was, she was dressed in white. Paul imagined it was a she. "Key! Is that you?" Paul called to the figure. It ran into the darkness. It's long wild hair flowing behind her.

"Uncle Jack!" Paul yelled into the cabin. "Someone is sneaking around out here."

"Who the hell would be way out here in the middle of nowhere." Jack said. "Stay near the cabin, until I can get my boots on and a coat."