Come by Night

Chapter Twelve - The Storm Breaks

I'm not hungry. I don't feel the heat anymore. I have chills. I must not look well, because when I begged to lay down yesterday evening, Natsumi told me to stay there and not get her sick.

I remember thinking, 'How am I to go to my love if I'm like this?' Then I passed out. I awoke this morning feeling a little better, but bereft. He did not visit me last night. I did not dream at all. I fear fretfully for my demon lover. What if something happened to him? What if he's dead?

I hear Natsumi groan. "Oh, Yoshiro. My head..."

What is wrong with her head? Curious, I force myself to sit up. I hear my brother come inside the house. "Hey Natsumi, wait until you hear this!"

"Not so loud! It hurts."

"A kid died in the woods! Wasn't watching where he was going and fell into one of those trenches. His friend left him and got drunk, speaking nonsense about ghosts and demons. The poor fellow's leg was badly broken and... they found him this morning."

"Who cares, Yoshiro? My head hurts."

"What is wrong with you women lately? Someone died, Natsumi!"

"Shut up, Yoshiro."

I listen to them from my small room. I lay back down quickly when my brother comes to look in on me. I pretend to be asleep so I won't have to speak with him. He passes by and I sigh in relief. I hear thunder in the far distance. I find the sound comforting. I always loved the rain. I can smell it on a sudden breeze that makes my bamboo wind chimes clatter.

I feel restless. The walls are tight. I want to scream. I can't stand it! I hated this house as a child and I despise it now more than ever. Natsumi has ruined the few good childhood memories I had of this place. Why do I stay? Even death would be preferable than toiling under that evil woman day after day. But why should I die when the solution is clear?

When I hear Yoshiro go out front, I sneak out back. It is dark out here for day and the heavy air smells of rain. I know storms are dangerous, but I love them. They fill me with excitement. What I feel right now is frightened and exhilarated! My foot dangles out over the grass like a thousand times before. Then I do it. I simply step off the engawa and walk into the woods.

Thunder rolls overhead. I feel a chill in the air. The heat is breaking. I just have to make it to Isamu's home. It's this way, I think. It was so dark that night and I was focused on him, not where I was going. I try to remember the path, but in reality I run aimlessly through the brush as lightning flashes overhead.

I've been told to stay out of this haunted forest since I was a little girl. It's dangerous with thick trees and sudden dips, holes in the earth that swallow a person. These woods are full of yōkai, they say. People get lost, turned about, and some simply vanish. It always felt spooky to me and I imagined monsters lurked in here. I never went in, not even on a dare. Now I am brazenly running toward the demon who has claimed my soul.

The sky cracks and rain comes pouring down in torrents that soak me to the bone. I keep going. I have to find him! Cold and shivering, I see a structure in the distance. Isamu! I run, sliding in the mud. My hair falls from its bindings, hanging lank and wet over my shoulders. When I get there, I see it isn't his home at all. It's that old shrine that was abandoned when a better one was built downriver to be more accessible to the town that paid for it.

Lightning forks down nearby, turning the world white. I crouch and clap my hands over my ears. The thunder is deafening. My cry of fear is lost in its fury. The shrine might be a haunted ruin, but I need shelter. Ghosts and demons or not, I go inside.

It is still and dark, the rain hammering on the roof. I push aside a torn shoji screen door. I seem to be alone, but I feel him. He stands in the shadows, one with them. There is no mistaking those eyes. I know too well their searing gleam. "Isamu."

He steps out of the darkness exactly as I see him in my dreams. A blue flame springs to life above his shoulder, the dancing light illuminating us. I suppose I should be terrified. I've been warned about creatures like this. Isamu lives up to the reputation. He's beautiful and evil, there's no denying it. I feel his miasma, as black as the kimono he wears today. So why do I feel more strongly about him than ever?

"Isamu. You're alive! I was worried." I sag in relief. He catches me and I look up at him. I touch his hair, his face, his finely furred ear. His tail wraps around my back like a third arm. I smile, filled with wonder at his otherworldliness. "I like you better this way."

He smiles down at me adoringly. My words reach him in a way no one else's have. There is so much tenderness in his ill-favored eyes. I smell his wild scent all around me. The energy surrounding him changes, and I no longer shiver from the cold. My body trembles for him.

"Please, Isamu!" I grab his kimono tight, pulling his face to mine. "I need you."