Yu-rei Children

            The redhead was aware of his teeth chattering. He was cold and the summery temperature he’d become used to over his stay in Yokohama had given way to a cold, fall-like chill in only a matter of hours. He kept Nanako tucked behind him, keeping his eyes fixed on the pair that was identical to his own. Benjamin was walking around them slowly and Adrian carefully inched in a small circle, unwilling to let Benjamin any access to the girl. She had become unresponsive and she only allowed her eyes to be seen above her arms that covered the rest of her face. She was bleeding but Adrian wasn’t immediately concerned about it. She was already dead, after all.

            Benjamin appeared in no hurry whatsoever. He only continued walking at a leisurely pace, circling the two. The blood that dripped from his eye seemed forgotten by him. If he was in pain he didn’t show it. Adrian knew that it wasn’t really Benjamin before them. “B-Benji… no… who are you?” Adrian asked.

            “Yukari.”

            “Yukari?”

            “The last victim” she hissed, walking faster while keeping her eyes on him. “The one they never found. The one no one cared to find.” She stopped abruptly and Adrian did as well.

            “Someone killed you…” Adrian muttered. It wasn’t a question, more of a statement.

            “I’m not strong enough on my own” she said, sorrowfully, lowering her head and wrapping her thin arms about herself. “I was angry but I wasn’t supernatural. I was nothing more than an image. I couldn’t do anything for years. But finally someone saw me. And I took my chance.”

            Adrian had begun to back up slowly and she didn’t appear to notice. He wanted to bolt but he didn’t want to abandon Benjamin either. He was torn. He didn’t know what to do. “You’re our mother...”

            Yukari frowned slightly but she raised her head at the sound of someone approaching. Adrian looked as well and it was the same man who had walked by them before. Like before, the man seemed unaware of any of them, shuffling at a quick pace with a look of desperation on his face. Yukari’s mouth quirked into a smile. “Time to get this started…” In a blink she was suddenly standing in front of Adrian and he staggered over in surprise. She reached down, grabbing Nanako from him. Adrian reached for her but too late.

            “What are you doing with her?!” Adrian demanded, getting to his feet. However, his expression changed to one of fear when he looked at the little girl’s uncovered face. Like the woman who had been there before, Nanako’s mouth had been slashed from ear to ear and was bleeding. Any more words died in his throat and he could only stare as Yukari pulled her to her side.

            “I’m sending her back” Yukari said, simply. “You’ll see…”

            “N-Niisan…” Nanako begged, staring back at him. “Please… help…”

            Yukari seemed convinced that Adrian would do no such thing and she drew in a shuddering breath as her middle opened up in a void of black. Nanako began to struggle again but it was a useless attempt. Black, hair-like tendrils immerged from the void, wrapping themselves around Nanako and pulling her in. Adrian watched with widened eyes, completely frozen. Nanako’s scream echoed and faded away as she disappeared into the void. The tendrils continued to creep out, curling around Yukari in a huge black mass. They moved along the trees and ground, wrapped around everything in sight and slid towards him. They completely consumed Benjamin’s body and only then did Adrian snap from his trance.

            “W-wait!” he cried, running forward, jumping into the fray. He fought and kicked at the black vines as they slid along his body. They brushed along his face, moving like a sea as he tried to fight against the flow. He reached an arm into the blackness, feeling around blindly until his fingers brushed against a hand. Surging with hope, Adrian grasped the hand and began pulling backwards. Emerging from the writhing black tendrils was a white arm.

            “Benji!” Adrian screamed, fighting his way out of the mass and finding his feet on solid ground again. He began backing up, pulling at the arm with all his might. “Benjamin…” he grunted, squeezing his eyes shut and leaning back, grabbing onto the arm with his other hand. “I’m not going to…” he felt his feet scraping against the ground and moving forward again. “…let go!”

            The force became too much and he felt the arm slip from his grasp. The redhead fell over from the effort, landing on his back a few feet away. He sat up quickly, watching Benjamin’s arm vanish into the blackness again. Tears burned his eyes as he hurried forward on his knees, extending his arm again. The black mass was retreating from him and it began to vanish slowly, becoming transparent and fading away. When it had, the garden became silent and Adrian sat back on his knees, staring forward. A sob hitched in his chest and the boy trembled, standing up shakily. He felt weakened and unwilling to stand and he slid to the ground again.

            “Benji… BENJAMIN!!!” He tilted his head back and screamed it in panic and sorrow before he collapsed onto the ground, sobbing.

            --

            Benjamin raised his head with a sharp jerk, feeling himself start into consciousness. He was bewildered and he looked around quickly at his surroundings. He was sitting in a chair facing a desk with a large window behind it. He moved to sit up properly, looking around again and looking behind him. It was an office. Just an office. It was painted a warm orange and the walls were adorned with a few sparse, framed paintings. The only furniture was the oak desk, the chair behind it and a chair sitting before it, the one he was occupying. The rest of the room was empty. Benjamin stood from the chair, his shoes sinking slightly into the white carpeted floor.

            He was frightened at where he was and why. He couldn’t remember anything that could explain his whereabouts. But there was no one in the room with him. He walked around the chair, hurrying to the door. As he pressed his hand to the knob, he started, noticing two men standing on either side of the door. Their eyes were facing forward, their expressions glacial. They didn’t appear to notice Benjamin but he cried out in surprise, stumbling back and away from the door.

            As he turned back towards the desk, he was equally surprised to find a man sitting at the desk, his hands folded against his mouth and his gaze locked downwards. No one seemed to notice Benjamin at all. He hurried back towards the door and opened it, jumping back in surprise as he nearly collided with a woman. What was more bizarre was that the woman could have been a mirror image of himself. Jerking his head back and forth, Benjamin hurried away from her as she stepped into the office and he backed into the corner.

            The woman walked into the office wearing a neutral expression on her face. The man at the desk raised his eyes to focus on her. He looked slightly disgusted with her as he was clearly scowling behind his hands. The woman stood in the middle of the room, looking back at him. “I’m sorry but… I can’t see you anymore, Dr. Oshiro” she said. “What you did was unprofessional… I can’t continue to see a therapist this way.”

            “Mmm.” The man was presumably named Oshiro. He narrowed his eyes slightly. Then he lowered his hands from his face and sat up straight. “We’re so close to a breakthrough, Ms. Nakamura. I believe I can cure you of your agoraphobia within a year. If you’d just give me a chance…” He coughed a bit, appearing embarrassed. “I know I might seem a little old but… please give me a chance. I know it’s not professional but I’ve never felt this way about anyone before!” His voice rose with emotion.

            “I can’t…” the woman answered, shaking her head. “I’m not comfortable with this.” She turned to leave and the color drained from her face as her gaze rested on the two men that stood by the door. Oshiro stood up and pushed back his chair.

            “Reconsider…”

            “Wh-what is this?” she whipped her head around to look at him. The men advanced on her, each grabbing one of her arms. She tried to scream but a cloth was placed over her mouth and nose. It left a burning sensation in her mouth and throat and she closed her eyes, going limp and blacking out. The men let go of her and her body crumpled to the floor. She lay on her side, unmoving.

            Benjamin became alarmed and he rushed from his corner to where she fell. He knelt next to her, reaching to place a hand on her shoulder. He was shocked when his hand passed through. Dr. Oshiro strode out from behind the desk, his hands clasped behind his back. He stood over the woman’s form. “I don’t usually do this” he mumbled. “But… if I can’t have you…”

            --

            Adrian rolled onto his back, feeling the cold, icy earth pressing through his clothes and into his skin. He could no longer feel the prickle of the cold, it was just numbness. He didn’t doubt that he’d contracted a disease and would probably die. No, maybe that was too much to hope for.

            “Where do the souls of yu-rei children go…?” he asked, his eyes staring up into the fog. He heard shuffling footsteps and finally Sekitan was peering down at him.

            “Get up.”

            “I don’t want to, thanks…”

            Sekitan nudged his foot against Adrian’s shoulder but the redhead didn’t react to it. He looked slightly frustrated and reached down, trying to pull Adrian into a sitting position. Adrian was limp and of little help, but it was clear he was being that way on purpose. Sekitan eventually let go of him and his head thunked onto the ground once more.

            “You’re just going to lie here?” Sekitan demanded, continuing to stare down at him.

            “It’s better than standing” Adrian mumbled.

            “Where’s your brother?”

            “Gone… I don’t know where… he took Nanako too… and that man…”

            Sekitan sighed and turned away from Adrian, walking around the area and trying to figure out what to do. He could see there was only one set of footprints in the mud besides his and Adrian’s. It smelt a little like blood but it was faint and there was no sign of any. He surveyed the area carefully and finally Adrian pushed himself up to look at him.

            “Where’s Natsumi?”

            “I was worried about her coming here… I convinced her to stay behind.”

            “Mm.”

            “Benjamin’s in another world right now, isn’t he?” Sekitan’s green eyes moved from the surroundings to Adrian’s face. The redhead lowered his gaze and shadowed his eyes behind overgrown red bangs.

            “I don’t know… I don’t know where he’s gone…”

            “And you’re just sitting around?” there was a hint of disgust in the other male’s voice and it caused Adrian to bristle.

            “What do you want me to do?!”

            “People can go mad in that place…” Sekitan said coolly. “Normal people…”

            Adrian rose on shaking, uncertain legs. “Can you take me there?”

            “I can…”

            “I’ll go by myself. I have to save Benjamin if I can. But he’s so far gone… his body is being used by someone else now.” The redhead shuddered at the thought and drew in a shaking breath.

            --

            Benjamin felt dizzy and he leaned back, pressing against a wall. His eyelids fluttered, struggling to stay open. He shifted, trying to stand properly but he staggered and nearly fell over. He didn’t remember passing out. He was no longer in the office but in a place all around more terrifying. The small, white room that he’d spent three years in. His place in the psychiatric ward in the hospital. His parents had left him there.

            He stared down at himself. He was wearing his usual clothes rather than the hospital gown. Maybe it was a dream or a hallucination. That had to be it. That was all it could be.

            “I’m better now” Benjamin said out loud, unsure of who he was mentioning it to. His answer came in the form of a gasp and he noticed a small body curled up on the bed. It only took him a few moments to realize it was himself sitting there. His younger self inched back on the bed, watching him fearfully.

            “Not you… not again…” she whispered.

            Benjamin took a shaky step towards the bed and stumbled flailing for the support of the wall again. “…How can you… but… what is this?”

            “No!” the younger self grabbed her head and pressed her face into his drawn up knees. “I don’t want to see you anymore! Leave me alone!” She began to rock fearfully. “Go away… go away… go away…”

            “I’m not going to hurt you…”

            “Medicine’s not working… no… no…”

            “Please Benj- …Tora. I won’t hurt you, I promise!” Benjamin moved and held onto the foot of the bed to keep himself balanced. Tora raised her eyes to look at him and then screamed and flung herself down.

            “NO!”

            “Listen to me!” Benjamin grabbed for her arm.

            “DON’T TOUCH ME! PLEASE, SOMEONE HELP!”

            Benjamin withdrew, completely floored. He turned at the sound of the door unlocking and moved to the corner of the room. A nurse entered and she was oblivious to his presence. Instead she hurried to the small girl on the bed that had begun to thrash around violently. The nurse tried to talk over her screams.

            “It’s okay, Tora! Calm down!” She looked over her shoulder to the open door and called for help. A few other medical staff hurried in and they strapped the flailing limbs to the bed and forced a needle into the girl’s arm. Within a few minutes of the drug being administered, Tora’s screams slowed and died entirely. She fell limp against the bed, her eyes open but glazed and calm. Her bounds were undone and the nurses left her alone again, muttering about how much worse she was getting.

            The door closed and Benjamin hurried towards it. He wanted to get out; he didn’t want to be there. But the door had no handle on the inside. He beat against it with his fists, peering through the tiny window and into the hallway.

            “Why are you always here…?”

            Benjamin turned sharply, staring at the girl who was now the picture of calm. She lay with her limbs splayed out like they were immobile. Her head was limp and propped up on a pillow. Only her eyelids moved to blink every so often. Everything else was still. Benjamin swallowed a forming lump in his throat and inched towards the bed.

            “I… I’m you…. You’ll… become me one day…”

            “I don’t want to be you…” Tora whispered with little defiance in her voice. “I’m not you… I’m myself. I’m me.”

            “Fine… fine…” Benjamin sat on the edge of the bed, sighing. His memories of that place were cloudy, as were his memories of his childhood before arriving there. It was the drugs he’d taken that had done it. He hadn’t remembered the room being so small. He’d thought there was a window to outside. Maybe he’d been wrong about that. It wasn’t a stimulating environment. Only the bright ceiling lights and the bed were in the room. All other luxuries had been removed. There were no sheets on the bed.

            “I keep remembering things…” Tora continued, staring at him. “A room. A dark room… and pain… a window…”

            As she explained the things, Benjamin had a clear image of the place in his head. A dank basement with chains hanging from the ceiling. He had been chained there. He’d been humiliated and hurt.

            “And a man…”

            Even before Tora said it, Benjamin was picturing the man’s face in his head. He felt a shudder pass through him. “Dr. Oshiro…”

            “He was mean to me…”

            “But it never happened” Benjamin insisted, looking to her. “None of these things happened! The doctors said so! They’re all fabricated memories!”

            “The medicine… it helps me forget… it’s getting fainter…”

            “The woman…”

            “What was her name?”

            “Yukari…” Benjamin felt his throat tighten. “Yukari… my mother…? No… not my mother… me. I’m… Yukari.”

            “Revenge…”

            “Yes…” His lips curled into a smile and he rose from the bed. “Yes.”

            --

            He was awake again without realizing he’d ever fallen unconscious, sitting sprawled upright with Sekitan kneeling next to him with as much concern as he would allow showing on his face. Adrian was aware of Sekitan’s hand on his shoulder and he shrugged it away with discomfort. Although he vaguely wondered why Sekitan was there with him, his first concern was his brother and Nanako. Adrian looked around, searching for any sign of the two. There was nothing. Only the rain fell just outside the balcony area and the cooled air caused goosebumps to break onto his skin. That was all he felt. Not the unmistakable feeling of Benjamin when he was near.

            “Where’s… where’s Benjamin?” Adrian rasped. “Sekitan?”

            The young man sighed, green eyes flickering off to the side. “Long gone…”

            “And why are you here?” Adrian pushed himself up, having to nudge the other away from him to allow the room to do so. When he rose to his feet he was overcome with dizziness and he tipped back, fumbling against the wall to balance himself.

            “We… we didn’t feel right, just turning you out like that…” He obviously struggled with what could be seen as a shot at an apology. Adrian wasn’t interested.

            “We?”

            “Sekitan and me both” Natsumi said quietly, making her presence known by moving into his field of vision. The Japanese girl was nothing but a hunched up shape, leaning against a pillar and sitting on the edge of the balcony while the rain fell behind her and the light sky against her form made her appear dark. She kept her head bowed.

            “Natsumi…” Adrian’s voice was wary but soft. He couldn’t meet her gaze but his voice gave away his sincerity. “I really didn’t want you to come… We’ve only made things worse for you. You were right to throw us out anyways…”

            “No… I was wrong” She raised her tear-streaked face to him. “I care about both of you, you know. I was just… upset.” She hopped off the edge and walked over to them. “I know it’s not the real Benjamin who did all those things… we’ve got to help him.”

            Adrian sighed but smiled slightly. “Alright…”

            --

            The little girl tried to dig her heels into the soil as she was pulled along through the wooded area of Sankeien. The garden’s usual beauty was overshadowed by the strange fog that had drifted into the area. It had settled over the entire city and had become quite thick in most places. The vibrant city colors had become dull and washed out. Even the Cosmic Clock couldn’t be seen through the wall of fog.

            Nanako screamed and cried, being pulled along still even as she struggled. Benjamin led the way, not looking back at her, simply pushing forward. He was ignorant of the girl’s screams. He seemed unaware of the environment. He just walked briskly and no amount of struggling from the girl could get her free. He halted in the middle of the path, looking in every direction. Only then did he seem to recognize the girl’s soft crying.

            “There are lots of people… who have died here” Benjamin whispered, his eyes flicking back and forth. The girl looked around as well.

            “W-why are we here?” Nanako whimpered. “Why me?”

            “Hmm…” Benjamin looked to her, his eyes a more intense shade of yellow than they usually were. “There’s someone coming. Shhh…” He yanked her behind him and waited. Nanako cried silently while fearfully peering out from around his form. From the fog, a woman appeared. Her steps were jerky and her body made cracking noises when she moved. Nanako’s eyes grew as wide as dinner plates.

            “No… no… no…” she whimpered. “Wh-who is that?”

            “I think you know…” Benjamin hissed.

            Realization dawned on the girl as the strange woman lurched towards them and stood a short distance away. The sky ripped open with thunder and rain began to fall again. In her hand, resting against her cloaked side was a pair of what appeared to be rusted garden shears. No… Nanako squinted and realized that it wasn’t rust she was seeing. It was dried blood.

            Among the three, only Benjamin got wet. His hair became limp and glossy, plastered to his cheekbones, his back, and his shoulders. The locks broke out in many tiny, wet strands. They looked like black netting clinging to white skin. He held tight to Nanako’s wrist still, even when the girl had begun to scream murder again. She couldn’t wretch away from him and what was worse, she couldn’t vanish. It was like she was real again, a real girl. But she knew better. She couldn’t feel things. She couldn’t feel the tight grip on her wrist; she only knew that she was unable to pull away.

            That woman. The woman was taller than Benjamin, taller than anyone in Japan, certainly. Her eyes turned down to the girl. Her face was partially obscured by a white mask. A flu mask. Her hair was long and black but it remained dry, despite the rain.

            “You know who this is, don’t you?” Benjamin whispered, looking down at the girl as well. “You know this woman, don’t you? You can remember her…”

            “I don’t want to! No!”

            The woman said nothing, only silently raised the shears and snipped them once. Nanako’s legs trembled and she finally collapsed to her knees on the damp earth. Only then did Benjamin release her arm. He took a step back, as if stepping out of the picture, and the woman spoke through the mask covering her nose and mouth.

            “I remember you. I remember when we met. You were walking home in the dark all alone…” Her voice rolled smoothly but it was mocking and cruel as well. “Little girl, spare me a moment, won’t you?”

            --

            The three headed back towards Natsumi’s house, hurrying in a cluster down the streets that had become slick with rain and ridden with mist and fog. They ignored the worried mutters of people they happened to pass. People who were fretting about the weather. The fog was so thick that the city seemed at a standstill. The three couldn’t see more than two feet in front of them at any given time and had to rely on the landmarks as they materialized before them to find their way.

            The fog seemed to be coming from the gardens and as they approached the entrance to them, it was as though the fog was its own living thing, pouring out like liquid and into the streets. The fog too seemed oddly cool and as it moved towards them it moistened their faces with cold droplets. Natsumi didn’t possess whatever it was that Sekitan and Adrian did. The two males had never looked so serious before. She knew it was a thing they could sense that she could not and so she didn’t ask about it.

            Adrian’s face was twisted in a pained expression of worry and confusion. A look of utter hopelessness and fear. A look of being lost. As he stood before the mist shrouded path, he could feel an almost unbearable evil creeping into his pores. All at once he screamed short and sharp, furiously rubbing at his arms, trying to banish the feeling that had settled under his skin. Sekitan and Natsumi turned their gazes to him as the redhead began to claw at his face. Natsumi’s eyes widened with alarm and Sekitan moved in, grabbing the boy’s wrists and holding them down while he fought him.

            “Let me go!” Adrian cried, his voice rising with the fear. He twisted in the other male’s grasp but found that Sekitan was stronger than he was. Although just barely. The dark-skinned boy was flung back and forth as Adrian fought him but he continued to hang on. The redhead started backing away from the path and Sekitan dug his heels into the soil, which was wet and only gave way into mud beneath his feet.

            The bright green eyes of Sekitan flickered to the girl nearby. Natsumi was wringing her hands again, appearing particularly distressed. But when her gaze met his, she caught the meaning in his glance and went to aid him by looping her arms against Adrian’s waist and pressing tight against his chest. “Adrian, calm down!” Natsumi shouted over his protests, squeezing her eyes shut.

            “Let GO!” he screamed, becoming feral-like. He twisted and fought the two who could barely contain him but they held tightly until he finally collapsed in the mud, bringing both down with him. He panted harshly, his breath flowing past his lips in translucent puffs. Sekitan stood up and Natsumi reluctantly rose as well. They stood, Natsumi at his legs and Sekitan at his head, bracing for another wave of panic to sweep over him. But there was none. Eventually his harsh breathing died down and he simply lay on the ground, becoming calm and almost lulled.

            “You two…” Adrian mumbled, his voice an octave above a whisper. “You can’t feel it like… I can… it’s… it's such hatred and I feel like… like it’s eating away at me.”

            Sekitan stooped down to crouch before Adrian on his knees, tilting his head down so that he may have a better chance of looking at him. “It’s the hatred of a woman who died here… she wants her revenge. Your mother…”

            “Mother…?” Adrian asked, slowly raising himself into a sitting position on the ground. He was ignorant of the mud that now caked his clothing. “Mother’s a yu-rei…”

            “But she’s different…” Sekitan mused, still looking at him. “She was asleep for years… she’s in Benjamin’s body.”

            “Benjamin…”

            “There’s no difference between the two” Sekitan’s voice rose with urgency and he stood, helping Adrian to his feet as well. “She won’t rest, she won’t stop. But she’s different from other yu-rei because she’s mortal, Adrian.”

            The redhead shook his head quickly. “I’m not going to kill her. What would happen to Benjamin if I did?”

            “She won’t go back to sleep now! You have to do something!”

            “Wh-who’s that?!” Natsumi cried, jumping back and pointing towards a person approaching them. Sekitan and Adrian looked as well. It was a man, although one none of them recognized. He was middle-aged, perhaps slightly older, with graying hair and worn features. His body was transparent and as he walked past them, he seemed unaware of their presence. He vanished into the fog and it was although arms had opened to take him in.

            Adrian wordlessly turned to look towards the fog. “I’m afraid… of what I’ll find in there…” The redhead drew in a sharp breath and he broke into a sprint, running and vanishing into the fog. Natsumi made to follow him but found herself thrown back. Her back connected with Sekitan’s chest and he fell back from the impact.

            Natsumi pushed herself up, staring at the fog in confusion. The boy behind her slid his arms beneath hers and helped her up. As she stood on her feet, she continued to stare. “Why couldn’t I... why couldn’t I get through?” She turned and looked up at him.

            “It’s not… you she wants…” Sekitan mumbled. “We might not be able… to do anything else now…” And his shoulders slumped slightly.

            “Oh…”

            --

            Nanako was crying and wiping at her eyes with her arms as Kuchisake-onna circled her, almost like the little girl was prey. Benjamin remained far off from them, seeming detached. The mask was lying on the ground and the woman kicked it aside. She grinned her wide, deformed mouth, each tooth visible through the slashed skin. “How about now?” she asked, looking to Nanako. The girl couldn’t stop crying and she turned her head away.

            “She killed you back then…” Benjamin murmured, resting his back against a tree and folding his arms over his chest. He appeared mildly amused by the scene. “You were one of Kuchisake-onna’s child victims” He raised one hand slowly. “So why don’t you show us what you’re like really?”

            Nanako turned her head to look at him, her eyes wide and red with the tears. “No… No, please!” Her hands flew to her face and she tried to hide behind her arms. She screamed again as blood spilt onto the ground from behind her arms.

            Adrian raced down the path, now deserted. What was usually full of people was now barren. He wondered if they’d left so quickly or if they had simply disappeared. Through the fog, the redhead’s eyes lit up as he noticed three figures ahead of him, grayish and murky, but still real. “Benjamin!” he cried. However, he slid to a stop when things became clearer. A woman he’d never seen before. Nanako hiding her face and sobbing. And Benjamin, looking eerily calm. No one paid him any mind.

            He cautiously stepped in closer, going to where Benjamin was standing. “Benjamin, what’s going on here?” he asked, turning to look at him.

            “Benjamin?” he whispered, turning to look at Adrian. The redhead staggered back, his mouth falling open. Benjamin appeared to be injured. His long hair hung over one side of his face but through the slight openings between locks of black, Adrian glimpsed blood running down his cheek from his hidden eye.

            “Wh-what’s happening? How did you hurt yourself?” Adrian asked, pulling courage into his voice even when he didn’t feel like it.

            “Why don’t you ask her?” Benjamin pointed a finger towards Nanako and Adrian’s gaze followed to rest on the little girl. He hurried towards her, setting a hand on her shoulder.

            “Nana? What happened? What did they do?” he asked, trying to get the girl to look at him. She only kept her face hidden, continuing to cry softly. Adrian pulled his hand back from her to find he had blood on his fingers. He felt fear rising once again and he rubbed his fingers together. He looked to the woman standing nearby, looked at her deformed face.

            “That girl just remembered how she died” Benjamin informed him, stepping back from the tree and tucking his arms behind him. “That woman there killed her some years ago. Have you heard the stories?”

            “What are you talking about?” Adrian asked.

            “But you know… maybe it’s time I sent her away…” Benjamin continued, grinning cruelly. “She’s just an idiot girl and now even her mother isn’t here for her.”

            “S-send her where?!” Adrian put his arms protectively around Nanako, glaring at his brother who was slowly advancing on them. He looked back to find the woman had vanished. Still holding Nanako, he began to inch backwards. “Benji… come on… you have to snap out of this!”

            “Snap out of what?” Benjamin questioned. He laughed in a strange way. “I’m finally clear headed for the first time!”

            “No you’re not! You’re… you’re not the real Benjamin! You’re someone else!”

            “You’re right. I’m not Benjamin… Heheh…” He moved in an almost hypnotic way but his limbs cracked as he did. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. You’re the only person in the world who cared about me. And you didn’t even know who I was!”

            “Stop talking crap!”

            “I was so miserable. I didn’t have the strength to be anything more than a vision flitting around in the gardens…” He circled them. “And then one day… you came along…”

            “Don’t worry, Nanako… I won’t let anything happen to you” Adrian assured the girl, turning to look down at her. “Don’t be scared.”

            --

            A strange fog had begun to descend over the cityscape when Shinji Oshiro opened his front door and set out to work. At nearly sixty-five years old, he was beginning to think about retirement, for he had begun to feel the knowing ache within his bones, signaling his old age, the need for rest after a life of working. He looked forward to it, if he could look forward to little else. It was raining when he approached the crowded street and he opened his umbrella, checking his watch, and deciding that walking was the better option in the rush hour.

            He strode out at a brisk pace, moving among the crowd of younger people. Teens on their way to school, uptight business people with briefcases and suits, mothers holding their little children’s hands lest they become lost in the crowd. He smiled at each of them, nodded politely, some of them he recognized from his daily pilgrimage to the clinic. Life was slow moving these days. His youthful energy had gone, as had his bloodlust. His games were over. He was interested in nothing more than living normally. As normally as he could. Even these days, police officers or reporters… sometimes they stopped by, following up on what had been finished long ago. Believing they could do their own detective work.

            Oshiro was a professional man, police didn’t scare him. He’d been a prime suspect in the case for years but no one could ever find a shred of evidence to link him to it. Anyways, he wasn’t nearly as bad as the other two, who he occasionally met so they could unload their guilt on him. He’d only killed one of the nine. The last one. The one they couldn’t seem to uncover. He was a little curious, himself, as to why her body wasn’t turning up.

            Twenty five years ago, Oshiro was already an experienced psychiatrist in the clinic and he was trusted by all his patients. They discussed their greatest fears with him and he kept their secrets. That was his great joy, to help them, to listen to them when no one else would. His work had begun to affect his marriage and they were moving through a separation. He would be happy to divorce her too.

            When he entered his office that morning, coffee in hand, he noticed a patient hunched over in the chair near his desk. Slowing his walk, Oshiro spared a glance at his watch. Over twenty minutes early. The first appointment wasn’t until ten, yet there they were, sitting in the chair, facing away from him, waiting. He cleared his throat, ready to remind them that he wasn’t due to see them yet. At the sound of his throat clearing, the head whipped around and a woman’s wide-eyed face peered over the top of the chair at him. Whatever he wanted to say had become lost.

            Women were well and good but he found most of them to be troublesome and he simply didn’t take an interest in most. Women seemed to be simpler minded, unable to fully grasp the importance of his work. They cared only about material things, their looks and marriage. Oshiro’s interest was rarely piqued by any woman, save for his soon to be ex wife, although that had been years ago. Even more so was the fact that he wasn’t usually floored by appearances alone. But this woman, sitting in the chair, not saying a word, had captivated him in a strange way. She looked a great deal younger than him, perhaps only in her early twenties. He struggled to maintain his usual confidant air. He’d seen women more beautiful than her, after all.

            “Good morning” he greeted when he knew she wasn’t going to explain herself. He walked past her and to his desk, taking a whiff of her scent with him. He sat in his chair. “How are you? You know… you’re not due here for another twenty minutes.”

            The woman looked mildly surprised and she chewed her lip, lowering her doe-eyed gaze to her lap. “Is that so…? I must have forgotten it…” She stood to leave but Oshiro stopped her.

            “As long as you’re here…” She peered at him curiously. “You may as well stay. Would you like anything? A drink?”

            “No thank you” She appeared relieved as she sat back down in the chair.

            “Hmm…” The doctor studied his list. “Nakamura, is it?”

            “Y-yes… Nakamura Yukari.”

            “Afraid of the outdoors…” he mumbled, more to himself. He was taking down her stats in his head. Born April 15^th, twenty three years old…

            “I know it must seem silly to you” the woman whispered, looking towards the window. “But I hate being outside… I’m so afraid of it… It keeps me locked in my sister’s house. I can’t go out and make money… I can’t do anything.”

            “Oh. Not at all. I’ve dealt with cases like this before. A phobia like this one always has a deeper rooted cause. Learning what it is and confronting it can help you to recover.”

            “I really don’t know what it could be…”

            --

            Taking his seat in the office, Oshiro pondered over Yukari, as much as he didn’t like to think of her so many years later. Oshiro had never been forceful or sadistic, he’d been very normal. But the woman had unknowingly awakened an unusual lust inside himself. Even after their first meeting, he realized he wanted her. Surely, with such a strong feeling, she felt something for him too. He was wrong.

            His confession of what he believed was love, only a few weeks into their appointments, was met with unease from the timid woman. She turned him down, stating groundless reasons that he’d heard before. “I’m not ready for a relationship, it’s not professional, I don’t feel that way…” Things like that. He tried to humbly bow out of it, reply that he understood, that it was foolish. She agreed to keep seeing him. He insisted they were close to a breakthrough. But inside he was angry that she’d turned him down. The one woman he wanted in the entire world had turned him down. The next appointment day, Yukari entered the office and was grabbed from behind. She was quickly drugged and taken into a car where she was driven away from him. Oshiro watched from the window but he couldn’t come along with them. He had other patients to see.

            The woman wouldn’t leave his mind, even so. He took a trip to the house hidden away in the gardens to see her. He descended the rotting stairs into the musty basement and the two men turned in surprise when they saw him. They quickly greeted him warmly, as they would a good friend.

            “Let me talk to her…”

            The woman’s head rose slightly, recognizing his voice. Her eyes were large and red. She was tied into a chair and had various burns and cuts on her body. She struggled slightly. He moved to crouch near her. He whispered in her ear. “I can take you out of here if you just agree to give me a chance…”

            “Yes! I will! I’ll do anything!” she cried. Oshiro stood back, frowning.

            “You don’t mean it” he whispered. “You’re just desperate…” What did he expect, though? She’d say anything to get out of there. She’d do anything. He didn’t want her that way. He turned and left, feeling disgusted by her lack of sincerity. He could hear her screams at his back, she fought in the chair to get away.

            “Come back! Please! I’ll do anything! I don’t want to die!”

            --

            Oshiro didn’t regret his choice. The bitch had it coming. She was too smug. She ripped out his heart. He hadn’t been rude to her. He hadn’t been forceful with her. He was only trying to help her and she turned him down. She’d deserved the pain. He glanced out the window at the rain and mist. His window had a view of the front street by the clinic. And there she was, standing under the window, looking up at him. He nearly fainted dead away.

            Inside he leaned in closer, his breath fogging up the glass slightly. She turned, walking off slowly, but her eyes beckoned to him. Oshiro didn’t think about how she’d found him, nor how she was alive. He only thought, for a moment, that she was ready and she wanted to be with him. When he hurried down the steps and outside, the crowds had vanished completely. The streets were devoid of cars or people. Only Yukari was walking, vanishing into the fog. And he gave chase.

            --

            He finally noticed the shape of Benjamin, darting out into the street and slipping into the crowd. Adrian followed him across the road but once he’d reached the curb on the other side, there was no more sign of him. Sighing, the redhead looked in every direction before opting to go left. He headed down the sidewalk in a hurry, trying to seamlessly weave through the clusters of people with little avail.

            The sky, scarcely seen above the tallest office buildings, had begun to cloud over again and the air held the faint scent of rain. Within perhaps an hour, Adrian was discouraged as he trekked on through the city. His frantic sort of sprint had slowed to a shuffling walk. He kept his head bowed, lest he catch the eye of anyone staring at him. Within a few more minutes, Adrian ducked into an alleyway. Even in there he couldn’t find privacy. There were flower shops and tiny restaurants even between the buildings. Worlds within worlds. Parking himself on the only available slab of concrete wall, he fumbled through his pockets for his cigarettes and lit one. Taking a drag, he immediately felt better for it.

            Adrian exhaled and the smoke billowed from his nostrils. With a clearer head, he tried to figure out what his options were. Their father was on his way but he wouldn’t know where to find them. Perhaps he could wait for a call from him. He touched the rectangular-shaped bulge of his cellphone in his jacket pocket. An urgent tug on his arm caused his hand to withdraw from it. He looked down, noticing a little girl standing next to him. It was Nanako, standing with her head bowed but her stark white hand gripping his jacket still. Glancing around, he was certain no one was paying any attention to him. He crouched down to the little girl’s level but was unable to see her eyes.

            “Nana?” Adrian whispered, his eyes briefly darting around. There was no where to go where he could speak to the girl privately. “What’s the matter? Aren’t you supposed to be with your mother?” He tilted his head down, trying to see her face but it was hidden from view by her bangs. She didn’t say anything but retained her hold on his jacket. Adrian’s concerned expression dissolved into something more stoic. “Did something happen?”

            --

            The wall of clouds broke and for the first time in eighteen years, Andrew was looking down upon the island that the plane was gradually moving closer to. It vanished as the wing tilted upwards and he got a view instead of the white sky. The man pressed back into his chair. He’d tried to contact his children again but to no avail. They could’ve been anywhere in the vast metropolis of Yokohama. He was beginning to feel as though they were no closer to him now than when he’d been in their hometown.

            He wrung his hands together, daring to pull his eyes away from the window. It was the only way to avoid the clenching feeling in the pit of his stomach. He’d failed them. He’d been too busy with his research. He’d failed Adrian for not being there for him and treating him like a child. He’d failed Benjamin for not addressing his needs and letting his deteriorating condition go ignored. He recalled a visit to the hospital, years earlier.

“Mr. Felton…” the doctor began, folding his hands on the desk before him. Andrew sat across from him, tipping forward anxiously. “Your daughter’s condition is still a mystery to us. There is nothing that we can find that is abnormal in her brain, in her head at all.”

            They had been expecting a tumour, perhaps. There was no explanation to soothe the man’s dire need to know. His perfectly-behaved, quiet, thoughtful little girl… she was certainly the last person who could snap like that. He tried to visit as frequently as possible. He didn’t want to forget that he had another child. But Adrian had become a handful. He’d begun to act out in school, affiliate himself with a bad crowd and steal his parents’ money, cigarettes and any alcohol he could find. He was always at odds with Charlotte when she was home and when Andrew was in the house, they were always fighting as well.

            Milani had begun to seek praise from her parents. She churned out amazing grades and projects in an attempt to impress them. She cooked meals when they were too exhausted with their son to be bothered. She offered to do extra chores, to take some of the load off of them. Andrew thought of his children with a sense of sickness and he shook his head. He was disgusted with his parenting skills. And so, because of the changes, Andrew’s visits to the hospital became rare. Even after the first year, Tora had become so violent and disturbed that she seemed unable to recognize her father.

            “However,”

            Andrew jerked and the chair skidded back across the floor perhaps half an inch. He’d been caught up in his own self-pity and thoughts of his breaking family life. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I guess I am relieved to know it isn’t a tumour but… could it be anything else?”

            “There are disturbed thoughts in Tora’s brain. She often speaks about fear of dying and being tortured… Is there perhaps… any sort of trauma that she went through at a young age?” The doctor’s tone implied he was venturing into delicate territory as the topic of abuse came up. Andrew wasn’t an abusive parent but he was a defeated one. Instead of reacting defensively, he slumped back.

            “Buried memories?” the redhead asked, not daring to believe it. He lowered his gaze, considering it. Andrew had never laid a hand on his children. Although his patience sometimes wore thin, he’d never struck either of the twins or Milani. Charlotte wouldn’t have either. The woman loved Tora and Adrian like they were her own children. She would sooner cut her own hand off then hurt them. Abuse at school, then?

            Adrian and Tora were so close that they seemed to outright refuse the social contact of others. They were either teased or shunned at school, he was aware of that. Had their classmates done more than just tease? It didn’t fit. There would have been evidence. Bruises, cuts, fear of going back to class. Anything. But there was nothing like that.

            “I can’t imagine…” Andrew answered weakly. “She was always… a little sullen. But… she never seemed like she was abused… no… she wasn’t abused. I would have known.”

            “She talks about being chained up in a basement” the doctor’s voice rose sharply, sounding almost disgusted by it. “She’s drawn pictures…”

            “No…”

            The doctor shuffled a few pieces of paper out onto the desk, spread out for Andrew to see. He recoiled at the depictions of torture done in a child’s scrawl. “Why would she make up such an elaborate lie?”

            “I don’t know… I swear… I was good to her…”

            “I’m sorry, Mr. Felton. I want to believe it isn’t true but she describes everything quite clearly when she isn’t having one of her fits. It’s part of my job to investigate instances like these. I’ll have to consult social services… please understand…”

            He was finally being punished for his bad parenting. The man seemed to crumble in his chair.

--

            By the time they reached the apartment building, Adrian running as the girl tugged him urgently forward; the ambulance was already packing away. A small crowd of onlookers had gathered nearby, curiously craning their necks to see the body being taken away. Adrian skidded to a stop when Nanako did. The girl let go of his jacket, a sob escaping her throat. She pointed towards the ambulance as it retreated down the road.

            Adrian understood. “Your mother died…?”

            “Y-yes…”

            The redhead’s face fell and he looked to the girl, sympathetically. “I’m sorry, Nanako… I really am…” He pulled the girl close into his side and she pressed tight against him, sniffling and gripping his jacket once more. The curious bystanders were ushered away by police and it became a forgotten occurrence. Only Adrian remained where he was, stroking the top of Nanako’s head as she cried. How real she felt. She didn’t have warmth but her hair felt smooth and glossy against his padded fingertips. He’d never known ghosts to be like her. Ghosts in Japan seemed different than where he was from. He could’ve sworn the girl beside him was real. She was only an invisible girl.

            The rain came, as the state of the sky had warned for hours. It was a sudden torrential downpour upon the city, quite unexpectedly appearing and causing people who were walking to run for cover or lift their bags over their heads. Adrian remained standing where he was. His hair quickly became wet and limp, as did his clothes. When he looked down at the girl, she was untouched by the water but peering up at him with worry. He shuffled to stand under the canopy over the front entrance of the apartment.

            “It’ll stop soon…” he whispered, keeping his eyes to the rain. He continued to stroke the girl’s head.

            “What should I do? I… I only wanted to stay with her!”

            “Nanako,” Adrian stilled his hand. “Let’s go into the apartment.” He opened the front door and stepped inside and the girl followed him although she appeared confused by the suggestion. They headed to one of the uppermost floors of the building. Nanako led the way, becoming eager as she moved down the outdoor deck area where the front doors were located. She stopped at the one on the end and waited for Adrian to reach her. When she did she stepped through the solid door and vanished.

            Adrian hesitated, lingering near the door and awkwardly trying to peer inside. “Nana let me in, will you?”

            The girl’s head appeared through the door and she smiled slightly. “Come on in. You can, you know. Just go through.”

            “I… I can’t do that!” Adrian protested, drawing back. “I’m not a... a ghost!”

            “But you are!” the girl insisted. “You’re both! Now come!” She pulled her head back through the door. Adrian sighed, looking around, awkwardly. Wondering if anyone had seen him talking to a door. Apparently he was safe. He frowned, staring at the solid door. Sighing deeply, he wondered how ghost-like he really was. If his mother was a yu-rei, it seemed perfectly normal. He’d done some unusual things in the past. Setting his hand on the door, he tried to think of passing through it. He furrowed his brows and grit his teeth, trying to focus. “Come on… come on… I’ve seen Benji do it, for fucksakes!”

            After a few moments, Adrian let his hand drop to his side. He scowled at the door, huffing slightly. “Well I can’t!”

    The lock clicked and Nanako pushed it open from the inside. Adrian stepped into the modest apartment. He wasn't sure what he hoped to find there but he moved into the living room area, noting the blinds were drawn and it was somewhat dark inside. "Mama moved here a few years back when her big house was too hard to take care of anymore..." the girl murmured, resting a hand on the arm of the couch she was standing near.

    "She wasn't married?" Adrian found himself shuffling through papers on the coffee table.

    "No... not even when I was alive... my dad died when I was little, I don't remember him much."

    The redhead nodded absently, holding a framed photograph in his hands. It depicted Nanako's mother at a much younger age with the little girl when she was alive. "She still thought about you a lot..." He continued to sift through papers and eventually his curious searching brought him into the woman's bedroom and to the closet. Kneeling on the floor, he pulled out a box from the back of the closet and slid it over to him. Nanako stood behind him, unsure of what he was doing.

    Inside the box, there were more photos of Nanako when she was alive, including pictures of her at younger ages. He smiled at the photos, continuing to dig until he came to what looked like a newspaper clipping at the bottom of the pile. He picked it out, squinting at the writing but not being able to read it.

    "You don't remember how you died, right...?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at the girl. She frowned and shook her head.

    "Just that I wanted to stay afterwards... and that it hurt mama a lot..."

    The two eventually left the apartment and Adrian closed the door behind him, allowing Nanako to lock it behind them. He studied the little girl's forlorn expression again and sighed. He knew she wanted only to be with her mother and by refusing to go into the next life, she would likely spend eternity without her mother now. "Nanako... if there was a way for me to take you to her, I would. But I can't..."

            “Can’t what?”

            Adrian whipped his head around and sprung back, seeing Benjamin standing close to him. “D-don’t sneak up on me!” he complained, stumbling over his feet. “Wait a second… Benjamin, what are you doing here?”

            “You should have stayed with Natsumi and Sekitan… and then dad would come and take you home” he mumbled, dejectedly.

            “While you… what? Stay here?” Adrian asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

            “I don’t belong in this world… you’re a human that can do yu-rei things… and I’m…” Benjamin clutched the fabric on the chest of his own shirt. “A yu-rei… that can do human things…”

            Adrian’s shoulders slumped and he sighed. “Benji, what are you talking about? I’m not thrilled that our mom was some kind of… thing either… but that makes us half and half.”

            “No… Adrian… you don’t get it” Benjamin shook his head slowly. “Things are coming back to me now. Being here, in Japan… I’m remembering things that… that I was supposed to forget… I’m starting to know… who I really am…”

            Adrian was vaguely aware that Nanako was standing behind him, peering out at Benjamin from around his waist. “What do you mean?” Adrian asked, staring at him. “You’re YOU, Benjamin… you’re not anyone else!”

            “I’m NOT!” Benjamin cried, shrilly. “Not at all! Don’t you see?! I’m HER!”

            “Who? Who Benjamin?”

            “I’m… Yu…Yu…” He shook his head again, taking a step closer to his brother. Nanako moved out of the way and Adrian’s back bumped against the door. The redhead tried to protest the compromising position but Benjamin didn’t let him. He slapped his hands on the door on either side of Adrian’s head and smashed his lips against his brother’s. Although Adrian usually liked being kissed, he felt certain urgency in this one and when Benjamin pulled back, Adrian stared at him with worried eyes.

            “Yu…? What does Yu mean?”

            “I can’t say it… Not now… I… I just want to be me… but… Adrian…” He reached for him, his hand pausing before it could touch his face. He curled his fingers into his palm, as if deciding against it. “I remember everything about who I was before.”

            He turned away from Adrian and looked at the little girl standing nearby. With a swift movement, Benjamin grabbed onto Nanako’s wrist. The girl cried in surprise as she was yanked forward and she struggled to pull away. “Stop it! Stop!” she twisted in pain. “Niisan! Niisan, help!”

            “Benjamin, what the hell are you doing?!” Adrian demanded, making a move to stop him. Benjamin raised a hand and Adrian found himself pinned against the wall again, this time by a force he couldn’t see. He squirmed and tried to break free with little avail. “Benjamin! Stop it!”

            “You have to stay where it’s safe, Adrian. I’m going somewhere that you can’t follow me…” He began slowly walking down the stairs while Nanako was dragged beside him, screaming and trying to pull away.

            “Benjamin! Stop! STOP!”

            “Heeeeelp! Niisan!”

            Adrian watched as they vanished from sight, disappearing down the stairs. He could hear Nanako’s screams echoing. Finally the holds seemed to vanish and Adrian slid to the floor. He fell onto his side, feeling as though every ounce of strength had been drained from him. His eyelids flittered closed and he drew a shuddering breath before the darkness clawed at his vision and blackened out.     

            Adrian’s cooking ability wasn’t his strongest aspect. He was going stir crazy in the house by himself, worrying about Natsumi, Sekitan and Benjamin. So he tried to occupy himself by attempting to cook something that resembled breakfast while he waited for them. His stomach simply wouldn’t let him put it off a moment longer.

            The redhead stood by the frying pan, prodding away at the eggs with a spatula. “I really have no idea…” he sighed, referring to his lack of life skills. He was grateful to be living with Natsumi, who happened to cook just fine. But things were likely about to change. His eyes turned to the little girl sitting at the table, watching him in earnest. Her brows were furrowed in a troubled expression and her bottom lip was quivering slightly. Alarmed, the teen wondered if she was about to cry. “What’s the matter, Nana?” he asked.

            “I haven’t seen my mom in a long time… I’m worried about how she’s doing…” The girl fidgeted terribly in the chair, glancing down and letting her worry consume her.

            Perhaps a few days was a long time to a spirit that was attached to a single person to be away from them. He turned back to the frying food. He’d grown somewhat fond of her even if she was a little bit frightening to have around. “You don’t have to stay here with me, you know”

            The girl raised her eyes in bewilderment. “Niisan…?”

            “Well I mean…” Adrian faltered, looking at the eggs so intensely he nearly strained his eyes. He didn’t want to upset the girl. “Your mom must be so old now… she might not have a lot of time left. So you should stay with her and not me.”

            “But you’re lonely…” she mumbled, pouting a bit. There was no edge to her voice. She knew where she wanted to be. Still she hesitated, curling her fingers into her palms on the table top and continuing to stare at the back of Adrian’s head. Adrian did his best to ignore her, prodding at the food with a spatula and causing it to hiss.

            Hanging her head, Nanako pushed back from the table and stepped onto the floor. “Are you mad at me…?”

            “No… but what are you going to do when she dies?”

            The girl froze up, her eyes going wide. “I… I don’t…” she faltered and then began to tremble with anger. “That won’t be for a long time yet!” She vanished from the kitchen. Sighing, Adrian scraped the eggs off the frying pan and onto a plate, making a face at their runny quality. He didn’t know what would happen to the little girl once her mother died. Nothing, he supposed. She’d continue to exist, aimlessly drifting in and out of reality forever. He wondered, in passing, how she’d died. Maybe she didn’t even know.

Slumping into what had become his designated chair he poked at the food with his fork and wrinkled his nose. He wasn’t sure he dared eat it but what choice did he have? He needed someone to cook for him. Closing his eyes, he forced a forkful into his mouth and moments later was bent over the sink, cupping running water into his hand and putting it in his mouth. He heard a door sliding open behind him and he turned, surprised to see Benjamin standing there. He was leaning against the wall, hugging his arms around his middle as though he were in pain.

            Adrian turned the water off, moving slowly towards his twin. Day after day he looked as though his health was deteriorating and Adrian barely spoke of it. Adrian had grown increasingly worried for him. “You don’t look so good…” was all he could say. He set a hand on his twin’s shoulder and it was shrugged off immediately as Benjamin scooted away from him.

            “M’ fine…” Benjamin tried to straighten his back and appear normal but the pain caused him to double over again. Shuddering, he dropped to his knees. Adrian sunk with him.

            “Benjamin, what’s happened? Where does it hurt?” He tried to pry Benjamin’s arms away so he could check for any injuries but Benjamin whined and tried to squirm away from him again.

            “Quit it…”

            “But you’re hurt”

            “I’m just fine, I told you that”

            “You’re obviously not”

            “St…stop… stop it…” Adrian forced Benjamin’s arms up and his shirt, convinced his ribs were injured. In the light of day with his mind clear, Adrian froze up at the sight of his ribs jutting out so far. Each line was visible under his pale, almost grey skin. But there was nothing apparently wrong with him. Adrian’s eyes softened slightly, almost in pity.

            “Benji, you’re sick…”

            “I feel fine.”

            “You’re a liar…”

            Benjamin tore away from Adrian and pulled his shirt down, getting to his feet and hurrying away. Adrian stared after him, rising slowly to his full height. “Why should I take care of a body I don’t like?” Benjamin huffed, fixing his hair.

            “Hmmm…” Adrian replied, tapping his chin. “Because you’ll die?”

            “I don’t care if I die”

            “Well I do!” Adrian snapped. “So if you can’t look after yourself for you, at least do it for me! What am I supposed to do if you die?”

            Benjamin’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know…”

            “You don’t think about other people, Benjamin. What about mom and dad and Milani?”

            “How are we supposed to hide it from them? We can’t… we can’t all live together anymore…”

            “Hide what?”

            “Hide US!” Benjamin snapped.

            “We’ll worry about it later… please, just lie down or something. You look like you’re going to faint…” He looked at Benjamin pleadingly and finally the other twin’s defenses fell slightly, as they usually did in his presence.

            “Alright… fine.”

            Adrian smiled and looped and arm about Benjamin’s tiny waist, leading him into their bedroom. Benjamin lay on the bed with a weary sigh and only then did he let on that he was exhausted. He didn’t understand why he was so drained, however. Adrian sat next to him for a moment, smoothing the black strands of hair back from his face. “Where did you disappear to?” the redhead whispered.

            “I don’t know… the hospital… I think…”

            “And Natsumi?” Adrian’s voice rose in earnest.

            “She’s okay now… I took her curse away from her.” Benjamin sighed, closing his eyes.

            “You can do that?”

            “I guess so…” Benjamin opened his dull eyes again, looking at Adrian. “Adrian… I keep remembering strange things. I keep seeing things I don’t want to see…”

            “Like what?”

            “I see…”

            “Benjamin!” Both twins looked over at the door as Natsumi opened it, standing out of breath before them. “What did… what did you do?”

            “Natsumi… you’re okay” Adrian got to his feet, going over to Natsumi and hugging her. It seemed a little forced, but still genuine and the girl relaxed slightly in his hold. Benjamin turned his head away from them.

            “I don’t know what I did…” he mumbled. “But I’m sorry…”

            “Sorry!” Sekitan cried breathlessly, although he’d been running all the way there. He lurched into the room, glaring at Benjamin who shrank back slightly before Adrian moved and stood in front of him. The redhead straightened and threw back his shoulders, trying to appear taller and larger but Sekitan was both of those without trying. Benjamin hid behind Adrian’s shoulder.

            “Back off!” Adrian warned.

            “Everyone in that hospital is gone!” Sekitan accused, pointing a finger at the smaller twin who was trying to hide. “Did you kill them all, Benjamin? You killed Natsumi’s grandmother, you killed those kids in your hometown and you’ll keep killing as long as you live! You have no control over yourself!” Sekitan took a step closer, still pointing at Benjamin and Adrian snarled, smacking his hand away.

            “Stop it, Sekitan!” The redhead ignored the audible gasp in the background as Natsumi leaned against the wall to support her trembling knees.

            Benjamin’s eyes shifted back and forth between Natsumi in the background and Sekitan closer to him. “I… but I… I don’t remember doing it… I… I didn’t want to hurt anyone!”

            Sekitan stood back, scowling. “That won’t bring any of those people back now will it?”

            “Sekitan, I’m warning you…” Adrian whispered. “You’re a human now; I’m stronger than you…”

            “Benjamin! Did you kill her?!” Natsumi cried from the corner of the room. Benjamin turned to look at her, his eyes widened to the circumference of dinner plates. The small, trembling girl had begun to weep silently and she spoke in a thick voice. “You killed obaasan…? What had she done? She was all I had and you… Why did you do it?”

            “I… I…” Benjamin faltered, lowering his eyes to the floor.

            “You don’t answer that, Benjamin” Adrian hissed, glancing at his twin from the corner of his fiery yellow eye. “He won’t answer because it’s not true! Natsumi, she was old, she was sick! He didn’t kill her! He only killed those other people because… because they were going to kill him!”

            “No, I…” Benjamin’s brows furrowed. All sets of eyes moved to look at him. Natsumi’s saddened and shocked eyes, Sekitan’s hard, angry eyes. And then Adrian’s confused gaze that seemed as frightened as it was pleading. The redhead shook his head slowly, his eyes not leaving his brother’s stare.

            “Don’t say it…” Adrian whispered, his voice ending in a slight squeak. “Benji… don’t say…”

            “No. I did kill her. I… I remember doing it… In the hospital, that night… I came into the room and I killed her… I… I held her neck until she stopped breathing…” He held out his hands and curled his fingers into his palms. He ignored Natsumi’s choked scream. Slowly he began to back away towards the wall. Adrian turned to fully look at him, his face twisted in despair.

            “Benjamin…”

            “Monster!” Natsumi shrieked, sitting on her knees with her fists held tight against her chest. “You monster!”

            Benjamin slowly began to back up from them. He looked away from Adrian’s face and sunk into the wall, vanishing in a black sea of hair-like tendrils. When he was gone, Adrian only paused briefly before he turned to leave. Sekitan grabbed his arm as he reached the door and the redhead wretched his arm away, glaring at the offending man. Sekitan’s eyes were the only thing that remained sufficiently ‘inhuman’ about him. They were alight with a vibrant green that simply wasn’t known to grace any human’s features. Adrian wanted to stare him down but found himself breaking the steely gaze prematurely.

            “Where are you going?” Sekitan asked, his voice stern but considerably less angry than it had been a moment ago.

            “I’m going with Benjamin” Adrian replied as if the answer was an obvious one. He looked to Natsumi, crouched on the floor, hugging herself and crying with her head lowered. He looked apologetic as he nibbled his bottom lip. “He’s all I have in this place and if you don’t want him with you than I can’t be with you either…”

            “You don’t know…”

            “He’s my brother, I can’t abandon him” He left the house without room for any further arguments and strode away to find Benjamin.

            --

They found solace again in each other’s embrace and intertwined bodies and in the early morning, Benjamin detangled himself from his brother, embarrassed. Pulling on a black t-shirt and a pair of jeans, he stumbled from the bedroom and into the hall. His bare feet smacked across the wooden floor and he froze, believing he’d made too much of a racket. However, he was just as quick to relax. No one else besides himself and Adrian were in the house. Well, no one alive, for there was always Nanako, the little girl who lingered in the shadows and cried bitterly at night.

            Benjamin fidgeted with the waist of his jeans, finding that they were sliding down his razor sharp hipbones. Holding them up, he strode through the halls and pushed open the front door, needing air to clear his head. He stopped dead when he nearly tripped over Sekitan, who was sitting with his back to him and slouching quite badly. Sekitan’s hearing was excellent and so Benjamin froze in place, waiting for a response. There was none.

            “Sekitan…?” He crept around the sagging body, moving to crouch next to him on the open engawa and he realized that the man was asleep. Even so, he should have been alert to Benjamin’s presence. Becoming slightly alarmed, Benjamin shook Sekitan’s shoulder, and for a moment there was very little response in him. Then the twin had to leap away from a swatting hand. Green eyes opened slowly and Sekitan groaned, sitting up and feeling his spine crack. He looked to Benjamin and only his eyes were alight and awake. The rest of him seemed deflated.

            “I’m… sorry, Sekitan…” Benjamin whispered, drawing his hand towards himself. “I thought maybe there was something wrong with you…”

            “I was asleep” he grouched, shifting so that his legs hung off the edge of the wooden flooring and his hands were behind him to support the angle he was sitting at.

            “I guess you were… but you didn’t seem to hear me or notice me…”

            “That’s because I’m losing it”

            “Eh? Losing what?”

            “I’m turning into a human...”

            “Why?” Benjamin questioned, looking the man over and deciding it was true.

            “I don’t know…” He was quite subdued. “But that’s the reason why… Natsumi’s in the hospital… probably dying.” He curled in on himself again, shaking slightly. His voice became thick. “I didn’t want… I shouldn’t have kept her alive when she was supposed to die… now I can’t keep doing it and she’s suffering but…” He looked out into the morning air. His breath, as well as Benjamin’s was coming out in wispy puffs. “I wanted to be human. For her…”

            Benjamin sighed. “Sekitan… well, no... That’s not a human’s name, is it?”

            “I don’t know how to reverse what’s been done” Sekitan murmured. “I… I think I must love her. What should I do?”

            Benjamin tried to picture himself in the situation. He pictured Adrian in the hospital, gravely ill. It wrenched his heart to think of. “You have to go to her… you have to… tell her.” Even as the words came out of his mouth he knew they sounded awkward and it was strange to hear his own voice saying it.  

            “What will it change?” But Sekitan was rising to his feet slowly. “She’s alive now but I can feel her slipping away… and it’s like that part of me…” He pressed a hand to his chest. “Is also dying. If she dies… I’ll never be able to go back to what I was. I’ll be human forever. And then I’ll die… too…”

            --

            Benjamin moved back into the bedroom, slowly sliding the door closed. He moved silently across the floor but as he looked up from his feet, he noticed Adrian was awake and looking at him. The redhead drew out a long breath. “Natsumi… is she…?”

            “Not yet…”

            “She’s such a nice girl…” Adrian mumbled. “She hasn’t done anything wrong. I was starting to feel like… her and Sekitan… were friends”

            “I know.” Benjamin slid into their makeshift bed next to him and he actually pulled him close. At first, Adrian froze up, not believing that Benjamin was initiating any sort of physical contact, let alone a comforting gesture. But he began to relax as he felt the other’s long fingers stroke through his hair.

            “Benji…?”

            “Natsumi is… our friend, isn’t she?”

            The redhead paused and then nodded. “Her and Sekitan. It feels weird without them… and… heh, we’ve only known them a little while.”

            “I never really thought I’d worry about them so much” Benjamin sighed, rustling Adrian’s hair as he did. “It’s strange.”

            Adrian seemed to be chasing after a thought that he couldn’t pin down. “She’s like… Milani! She reminds me a lot of Milani!”

            “Milani?” The name almost seemed foreign on Benjamin’s tongue. It took him a moment to picture the young girl with her round face, bright brown eyes and dark wavy hair. He’d thought of his family so little since they’d come there; he’d almost begun to believe they didn’t exist. Andrew and Charlotte’s faces filtered through his mind next and as they did there was a familiar, warm feeling within his chest as well as an ache. He missed them. Suddenly he wanted to see them again.

            “How could I have forgotten them?” Benjamin whispered. He curled his fingers towards his hand, clenching fistfuls of Adrian’s hair.

            “A lot has been going on, no one’s blaming you for that” Adrian replied.

            “It feels like they were in another life… oh God, they must be so worried about us… I never did call them, did I?”

            “Call them now” Adrian sat up and Benjamin sat up with him.

            “I… I can’t… I…”

            “Alright. I’ll do it. Maybe… it’s about time to go home.” The redhead sat cross legged and dialed the number on the cell phone. He held the phone to his ear, listening to it ring. It clicked as it was answered and Benjamin couldn’t help but lean forward in earnest, straining to listen.

            “Hi dad… It’s me” Adrian mumbled. Benjamin could hear quite a commotion on the other side of the line. “Yes… yes, we’re fine. We’re in Yokohama. Dad… can you… come and get us? We’re out of money…” Despite his attempts to keep his voice steady, Benjamin could hear the emotion in it slowly rising. “I missed you too, dad” Adrian whispered.

            --

            Natsumi’s came out of a long, heavy dream to see Sekitan sitting by her bedside. Her throat felt as though it were closed and constricted. She made to speak but at the time, any words she tried to say were jumbled and lost. She struggled to sit up and found she couldn’t but her arm lifted and slowly hovered in the air. She felt Sekitan’s warm hand grasp it.

            “Seki…” she rasped, coughing slightly immediately after she did. Her condition had gone up and down throughout the night and it was poor at the moment. She’d been monitored constantly and even Sekitan was only allowed a few minutes alone with her.

            “Don’t talk” he replied, quickly trying to silence her. “I only have a few minutes to be here. So just listen…”

            The girl looked worn and nearly dead already. Even her eyes were dull and cloudy as they regarded him in confusion. He exhaled in a shaking, shuddering sigh. He’d never wanted before. As an immortal, he’d never felt the need for anything. Unlike a human, he’d never felt incomplete and he’d never felt that he needed to change. Perhaps his immortality had truly ended the day he’d encountered Natsumi the first time. Because he’d wanted her to live. It had been a feeling unfamiliar and even scary to him. Now he wanted even more and he felt pain with his emptiness.

            “Natsumi…” he stroked her hand, trying to calm her. “I love you. And I… I think that this is my fault. You’re like this because I’m becoming human. I don’t know how to stop it. I don’t know how to turn it back…”

            The girl stared at him. The corners of her mouth turned up in the slightest ghost of a smile, but it was tainted with dried blood on her lips. Sekitan continued to cling to her hand, sliding to his knees on the floor and resting his head against the side of the mattress. His shoulders trembled and he squeezed his eyes shut, unable to keep himself from crying. He didn’t want to, but it came to him without warning and he’d been unable to contain it, like a bursting dam.

            Natsumi weakly squeezed Sekitan’s hand, trying to make him feel better. She didn’t entirely know what was going on. She felt as though she was slipping in and out of reality and she couldn’t bring her thoughts into one focus. She dizzily realized she was about to die and for some reason, it didn’t bother her in the slightest.

            A sinister feeling came into the room and Sekitan’s skin prickled slightly. It was like a rush of cold air and he had the feeling that it was something dead. Panicking, he raised his head from the mattress and looked at Natsumi. The girl was still alive, laying still and taking sharp breaths. Sekitan turned his eyes to the doorway where Benjamin stood. His spine was bending slightly and his hair hung over his face. Sekitan scrambled to his feet, hurrying to stand in front of Natsumi’s bed. He regarded Benjamin with hardened eyes and distrust. There was something entirely different about him. As though he were a different person.

            “What… are you going to do?” Sekitan growled, spreading his arms out. Natsumi turned her head, trying to see around Sekitan’s form to the figure in the doorway. Her eyes widened slightly as she did.

            “B-Benjamin…?”

            Sekitan grew tenser. “No. It’s not Benjamin. It’s something else.”

            Benjamin’s form remained looming in the doorway. The fluorescent lights began to buzz and flicker on and off rapidly. Wincing, the man took a step backwards, setting one palm on Natsumi’s leg. The girl coughed violently as she struggled to sit up in her bed. “S-Seki…Sekitan!” She was staring at the walls. The corners of them had seemingly begun to bleed and blood was streaming down them and pooling on the floor. Sekitan glanced over his shoulder, crying out in surprise at it.

            Natsumi gripped the blankets in her hands, pulling them up to her mouth. She began to cough again and this time she wrapped her pale arms around her middle to try and stifle the pain in her ribs. In a blink, Benjamin was suddenly standing next to Natsumi’s bed and the girl didn’t even have the breath to utter a gasp. Sekitan moved to swipe at Benjamin but within the second, he found himself instead pinned against the far wall, feeling as though there were a hand slowly closing its digits around his neck even when there was nothing.

            Sekitan began to snarl in an animalistic way and he struggled furiously. His nails grew longer, as did his face. His eyes grew wild with rage and his teeth began to grow into fangs. Natsumi watched, terrified, before her attention turned to Benjamin. He was leaning over her, his face deathly pale and his yellow eyes standing out in his sulken eye sockets. The girl trembled in her bed, pressing herself into the mattress and wanting to disappear. From where he was watching, Sekitan continued to try and fight it, screaming for Natsumi as he did and not wanting to believe his struggle was hopeless.

            Benjamin’s face was without expression and his eyes were fairly wide. He reached out towards her and his hand passed over her head without touching her. “Your curse is now mine…” Black matter rose from Natsumi’s body and she groaned in mild pain, arching up slightly as it was pulled from her body and into Benjamin’s hand. Benjamin looked towards Sekitan against the wall. He wasn’t struggling but his breathing was heavy and he regarded him with wide eyes. “As is yours…” He opened his palm towards Sekitan and black mass rose out of his body as well. Both Natsumi and Sekitan lost consciousness as it happened.

--

            The hospital was deserted. A window had been left open and a soft breeze blew into the building. Abandoned stretchers congested in the hallways. The lights had gone out. Natsumi finally stirred in her bed, waking with a sudden start. She was sprawled across her bed in a rather unnatural sleeping position, indicating her sleep may have been a restless one. Confused and feeling a world better than she had earlier that day, she sat up with the blankets bunched around her waist.

            Her eyes turned to the far wall where she noticed Sekitan’s collapsed form. The girl flung the blankets off herself and leapt off the bed. Her bare feet smacked against the floor as she went over to him in a hurry, kneeling next to him and supporting his head. “Sekitan? Sekitan!”

            The man mouthed a faint groan and his eyes opened slightly. As he focused on Natsumi’s worried face he started, straightening quickly so that she let go of him in surprise. “N-Natsumi!” he cried, staring at her. Before she could speak he moved closer to her, putting a hand on either side of her face. “You’re alright…”

            Blinking at him she smiled a little, allowing a sigh to slip past her lips. “Yeah… I guess I am… and you’re human.”

            “Yeah… I am…” He pressed his forehead against hers and smiled as well.

            “I’m so glad…”

            “It’s a little bit strange…”

            “By the way, Sekitan… I love you too.”

            He relaxed a little. “Well… that’s good!”

            They stood up and Natsumi was surprised to find her strength had returned to her. They noticed the door to the room wide open and Sekitan inched cautiously towards it, expecting something to be amiss. As he peered out the door and into the hall, he frowned. He stepped out of the room and Natsumi warily trailed after him. They both looked around curiously. “There’s no one around… and it’s so quiet” the girl whispered. “Benjamin went somewhere too… did he do this?”

            “That thing wasn’t Benjamin” Sekitan answered, his voice falling flat.

            “Well they looked just like him…”

            “Benjamin’s sharing his body with someone else…” They hurried through the empty and dead silent halls. “Someone full of hate.”

            “A yu-rei?”

            “Benjamin is her yu-rei form…”

            --

            Three elderly men met for lunch that afternoon and they chose a restaurant in the gardens as their meeting area. One of them wondered if it was wise to be there. There had been a lot of publicity surrounding the area since it had been discovered as a dumping ground for the serial killings of a few decades ago. The other two weren’t bothered.

            They sat, the three of them, studying their menus and making light conversation. Although the three rarely interacted anymore, they met on a yearly basis in order to confirm their secret they shared. One that they dared not speak of and would each happily take to their grave. They didn’t talk about it. Not directly. It was mentioned in passing, vaguely.

            “Did you hear about it in the news?”

            “You haven’t told anyone, have you?”

            The likes of that. And then Oshiro, the oldest of them happened to make a comment as he sipped his tea. “They never did dig up Yukari…” There was silence all around the table and the other two men stared at him before squirming in discomfort and nodding in forced agreement.

            The morning had a sort of gray-blue hue to it, Adrian thought. Only the end of the cigarette wasn’t blueish, but rather a fiery orange that glowed, seeming out of place with the rest of the world. He puffed a smoke ring and it drifted into the warming, heavy air. His head hurt, a vague hangover settling in. But it wasn’t yet bright enough to cause too much pain, nor was it loud. On the contrary, the entire park seemed dead silent. Even the songs of the morning birds couldn’t be heard. It was peaceful, nice…

            The redhead drew in a long breath, anything to clear his mind of the jumbled, murky memories of the night. He breathed smoke through his nostrils and as he did, movement in the corner of his eye caused him to turn his head. Benjamin was sitting up in the grass, looking disoriented and confused. He stared around before he raised his eyes to see Adrian standing nearby. He frowned.

            “I thought you quit” he said, wrinkling his nose.

            “Mm…” Adrian threw it to the grass and ground it under his shoe.

            “I’m sure everyone will love to see cigarette butts all over the ground around here.”

            “Oh, would you relax?” Adrian groaned, rubbing his head. “You nag like mom and dad sometimes…”

            Benjamin stood up, pulling a jacket about his shoulders, which he realized was Adrian’s. His clothes were wrinkled, streaked with dirt in places and had been hastily pulled on. He shivered, despite this. “I don’t feel good.”

            “You’re just hung over. It’ll pass.”

            Benjamin stood next to him, chewing his lip. “Last night, did we…?”

            “What? Fuck?”

            The word sounded so crude and Benjamin winced at it slightly. “Uh… well…”

            “Yeah. That’s what happens when you drink too much like that.”

            The smaller twin couldn’t help but feel there was a lot more to it than that but he only hung his head and managed a small nod. “I guess so… how… disgusting…”

            Adrian raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t like it?”

            Benjamin hugged his arms around his thin body. “That’s not the issue… we… we aren’t like that, are we?”

            The redhead grinned. “I think you know.”

            Benjamin wasn’t entirely sure of what to think, nor did he really want to think on it too much. What had happened between them seemed unreal but wonderful and he wanted to banish such thoughts from his mind as quickly as they faded in. He wanted to shake his head until those dark, attractive images of Adrian overtop of him were gone. He wanted to stand under the shower and wash it all away.

            He was angry suddenly at Adrian’s all-knowing smirk. Was he happy about this? Was he not torn up inside over it too? No. Benjamin didn’t know what Adrian was thinking, nor had he been able to read him for quite some time. His twin brother’s motives and thoughts were entirely a mystery to him, as was much of his teenage years and how they were spent. Benjamin knew ten-year-old Adrian, with his boundless energy and imagination. The Adrian standing before him now was a veritable stranger. It scared him.

            “We should go back to the house now” Adrian said gently, extending his hand towards Benjamin. His smile had softened into something genuine. Benjamin stared down at the calloused hand and withdrew from it.

            “Adrian… what happens now?” he whispered, raising his eyes to his brother’s face. “I mean…”

            The smile faltered slightly but Adrian’s hand remained outstretched. “Well… I guess that depends on what you want, Benji…” He shoved it into his pocket. “You know… how I feel about you… I don’t know why I should feel that way about my own twin brother but I do…” He coughed in embarrassment. “I know you feel the same.”

            “This is too strange…” Benjamin mumbled, his face reddening. He shook his head slowly, laughing dryly. The two of them headed back down the path towards the house but when they reached it, Nanako was standing on the front porch.

            Both of them slowed their walk to a stop, staring at her. The girl rung the corner of her faded red dress in her hands and she paced across the deck. Her eyes looked up towards them and she brightened slightly. “Oh! Niisan!” she called, running down the steps and towards him. The girl propelled herself into Adrian’s stomach and he stumbled as she buried her face there.

            “Nana… what’s going on?” the redhead asked, concern lacing his voice.

            The girl looked up at him. “It’s the lady in the house, Natsumi-san… she’s not feeling very good at all…”

            --

            Saying she didn’t feel well was an understatement. Natsumi, lying on her bed, whiter than the sheets that covered her, felt like she was dying, quite simply. She was only vaguely aware of Sekitan talking to her worriedly and she lolled her head to one side to look at him. He was still a person, rather than a dog, which she found odd because he usually had trouble holding the form that was unnatural to him. She felt a tickle in her throat and she coughed, heaving her shoulders. It was violent and she arched her top half up slightly, coughing into her hand. When she was through, blood was smeared across her palm.

            She stared at the bright red on her hand and sucked in a gasp. She stared at Sekitan, who was leaning close to her now, his expression frightened. She felt warmth running from her eyes and she reached up to dab at what she believed were tears. In fact, her eyes had begun to run blood. Sekitan laid a hand upon her shoulder. “Natsumi… come on, we’re taking you to the doctor right now.” His voice was flat and left no room for arguments. Natsumi’s nature was to refuse but when she tried to speak, her throat was dry and sticky from the blood and all she could produce was a hoarse sound.

            At the top of the stairs, Sekitan emerged from the bedroom, carrying Natsumi. He paused when he saw the twins standing at the bottom with the ghostly little girl. Nanako ducked behind Adrian, afraid to look. Adrian himself was shocked by how quickly Natsumi had deteriorated. Her skin was glistening with sweat and had taken on a grayish hue, with her blue veins clearly visible in many parts of her body. He hurried down the stairs, two at a time and stood, agitated, before them.

            “What’s the matter with her?” he demanded of them. “What’s happening? She’s dying!” She couldn’t be dying, Sekitan had tried to prevent her from dying, but he found he had no control over her state and her life was slipping away in his arms. “What do we do?!”

            Benjamin was at a loss, looking on, confused and afraid. Adrian took charge then. “We need to get out of here and out in the open where an ambulance can get us” Adrian went to the phone, taking it and hesitating as Sekitan left the house. Benjamin went up to him, waiting impatiently.

            “What’s wrong?”

            “I don’t know how to speak Japanese!” Adrian cried, his voice rising in his anxiety. Benjamin grabbed the phone from him, dialing a number hurriedly and holding it to his ear. Adrian stood still, watching.

            A woman answered, a woman for the ambulance, and for a few moments, Benjamin only breathed harshly into the phone, his eyes darting back and forth. His heart thudded inside his ribcage and then a sudden eruption of words spilled from his mouth. He spoke hurriedly, in fluent Japanese and Adrian could only gape in the background until the sound of the ambulance sirens rang in the distance.

            --

            Sekitan bent over the sink, splashing cold water onto his face and staring at his reflection. He rubbed his thumb across his gleaming forehead, staring into his bright green eyes, tinged with fatigue and worry. He wasn’t family and so he’d been confined to the waiting area. Pressing his palms into the marble counter, he stared at himself with anger. “She shouldn’t be dying…” he whispered. “I decide, don’t I? She shouldn’t be DYING!” He pulled back from the mirror and slammed his fist into it, breaking it into shards. He withdrew his hand quickly, wincing in pain as blood seeped from the cuts he’d created. Blood. It dribbled down his wrist and arm, dropping into little red spots on the clean, white floor.

            Dark blood. Warm blood. He drew his injured hand into his mouth. The taste was coppery on his tongue. He felt his stomach twist and growl in hunger and his uninjured hand moved down to run his palm across it. Hunger. Pain. In his hand and in his belly the pain flared up, foreign to him. He felt water leaking from his eyes. He looked at his cracked reflection in bewilderment. Tears.

            Extending his fingers out to the mirror, Sekitan touched the pads of them to the glass. He could see his jumbled, fragmented reflection. His eyes were glistening with moisture and they were wide. He ran his fingers down the glass, shaking a few pieces loose and causing them to fall into the sink. Human.

            “It can’t be…” Sekitan whispered. But it was. Somehow, without him realizing it, his body had began to become human. He no longer had difficulty holding his human form, he bled, he felt pain and he cried. He was floored by it. “How…”

            --

            Natsumi groaned, feeling like her entire body was slowly burning inside. Her bleary and reddened eyes scanned her surroundings and she fought to sit up enough to see. “So I’m here again…” she whispered before she coughed violently. Her body was damp with cold sweat and she was shaking inside. She knew she was much more than just hung over. Still, she felt a little better than before. She felt more aware.

            --

            They’d been sent home, the three of them, but as they walked back under the lamplight, Sekitan’s walk had slowed to almost a crawl and the twins had trotted off far ahead of him before Adrian turned his head, giving the dark man a quizzical glance. He stopped walked and Benjamin stopped as well, turning his head to look. “Sekitan…” Adrian began with his voice uncertain. He took a step towards him, where he’d stood under the lamplight in the night, his eyes shadowed. “Come on, she’s going to be fine.”

            “Did she look fine to you?” Sekitan asked, bitterness in his tone.

            “She’s being taken care of, and we have to stay out of everyone’s hair and wait for news. There’s nothing more that can be done.” Adrian had difficulty with empathy and already his tone expressed his slight annoyance at Sekitan.

            “I’m not… going back to the house tonight…” He turned, beginning to walk in the opposite direction. Confused, Adrian and Benjamin watched him go. They didn’t know where he was planning to disappear to, but neither had any intention of stopping him. They continued to walk together by themselves.

             Benjamin pulled on the corners of his leather jacket; the one Natsumi had bought him. He looked to Adrian. “Maybe it’s time to call mom and dad…”

            Adrian stiffened but continued walking. “Maybe…” They returned to the house, feeling somewhat defeated.

--

            Natsumi’s vision fizzled on and off and when she surfaced from her daze, she was sitting on the living room couch, leaning against someone. Her eyelids fluttered open and she shifted, causing whoever was next to her to move away. Swiveling her head around, she blinked at the person and saw it was Sekitan, human Sekitan of course, sitting next to her, looking back at her in confusion. She stared at his eyes, at how ridiculously green they were and her mouth hung open slightly.

            “What time is it…?” she slurred.

            “2-ish…”

            “Ah…” She got up from her spot next to him and staggered around for a moment, trying to find her balance. When he noticed her tilting, he got up and held her shoulders to keep her upright. Natsumi tilted her head back, smiling lopsidedly at him in thanks. “How long was I out?”

            “An hour, maybe. You’re still pissed.”

            She waved it off. “Nooo I’m not.”

            “You can barely stand up” he replied, cocking an eyebrow. He let go of her and she swayed dangerously.

            “Okay!” she giggled. “A little! A little! But…” She looked around, quizzically, not finishing her own sentence. “Where are the twins?”

            Sekitan frowned slightly and surveyed the room. The two of them had just seemingly slipped away, unnoticed. He was decidedly indifferent as to where they were. They had likely passed out somewhere anyways, although hopefully not face-down in vomit. “They must have fallen asleep somewhere” he replied. Adrian in particular had proven to be a very loud drunk and if he was awake, they would’ve heard him.

            “Oh…”

            --

            The twins were not far off from Sekitan and Natsumi. They’d decided, after Natsumi had fallen asleep against Sekitan, that they needed romantic privacy and made themselves scarce. They cheerily headed away from the house and down the empty paths. “Hey, you said when we’re eighteen we can call the house…” Benjamin mumbled, taking his cell phone from his pocket and flipping it open.

            “What? Right now?” Adrian asked. He watched as his brother dialed the number and held the phone to his ear. The redhead grabbed it, throwing it away into the bush, much to the shock of his twin.

            “Hey!”

            “You wanna talk to them when you’re plastered?”

            “I’m not as plastered as you! But then, there’s nothing new about that…” Benjamin went to look for his cell phone and Adrian watched his back, growing angry with the comment. He shoved Benjamin down and the bushes and flowers stirred as he did.

            “Benjamin’s being all superior again!” Adrian said, glaring. Benjamin knelt on the ground, turning to look at him, his face smeared with dirt and glared back.

            “Don’t push me…”

            “Or what?” Adrian asked, putting his hands on his hips. “Will you attack me, all ninety pounds of you?”

            “Shut up!” Benjamin stood up quickly but the drinking made him feel as though the world was tilting slowly. He found himself falling back down. Adrian stood over him, laughing.

            “Benji… you really are wasted…” he said, smiling.

            Benjamin lay on the ground, dazed. Adrian turned from him with a laugh, but staggered over and whirled around. He tumbled downwards, falling onto Benjamin as his twin was struggling to get up again. Both of them collapsed into a heap against the ground, their forms hidden in the foliage.

            --

            Natsumi fumbled with her fingers, locked together in her lap. Her gaze was resting on the floor and not on the man sitting next to her. A few strands of hair fell over her face and she sighed in annoyance, tucking them behind one ear. She jiggled one knee. “Sekitan… did my parents… did they suffer?”

            He knew he couldn’t lie to her about it and he rested his arms on the back of the couch. “Your mother died… instantly…”

            “And my father…?” He said nothing to that. “I don’t care if I live or die; you know that, don’t you?” The girl looked at him. “You have no reason to be staying here with me, Sekitan. You’re not even human… so why?”

            His green eyes flitted in the opposite direction and he chewed at his lip. “I just have this feeling…”

            “A feeling?” She glared at him, grabbing hold of his face and forcing him to look at her. “Living with obaasan, I’ve come to appreciate that one should die when it’s their time to die! My time to die was eleven years ago!”

            “And I know for letting you live like this…” Sekitan mumbled. “You stand a chance at becoming a yu-rei, yourself.”

            She stared at him and then pulled back her hand, slapping him. The man reeled back, shocked and in slight pain from it. “What am I to you?!” she demanded. “Was it funny to let me live in pain like this?! Unable to… to die!”

            “It’s not like that at all, Cirrus!” he protested.

            “You shut up, that’s not my name!”

            “I’m sorry that it happened. I’m sorry that you’re immortal now, I… I just saw you the first time and I couldn’t do it!”

            “Why not?!”

            Sekitan stood up from the couch, towering over her. “Because, you stupid girl! I lo-…” He trailed off, noticing Natsumi swaying again. He reached out and she fell against him, passing out. Sekitan looked down at her, concerned, but the look on her face was one of peaceful sleep. He sighed, picking her up. “You drink too much…” He started up the stairs towards her room.

            --

            “Poor Sekitan, we left him alone with crazy Natsumi” Benjamin mumbled. The twins sat side by side in the dark, Adrian leaning against a tree trunk. The redhead stared at Benjamin and then sputtered out in laughter.

            “Dork. Don’t you know that Sekitan loves her?” He grinned.

            Benjamin blinked his wide eyes before shaking his head in disbelief. “No… I… are you sure? I really had no idea…” He blushed, glancing down. “I’m not really tuned in to people like you are, Adrian.” He absently plucked out a few blades of grass from under him.

            “You just don’t try.”

            “Either way…” He shrugged. “I don’t really care about other people…”

            Adrian snorted. “I noticed.”

            The ebony-haired twin sat up a little, feeling the need to explain himself. “But… I try! It’s just like… some hard-wired dislike of the general population…” He shrugged. “I can’t explain it.”

            Adrian hummed to himself, letting his eyes close and his head fall against the tree. He listened to the sound of crickets and the more distant sounds of traffic on the streets. “Mm… it’s almost summertime…”

            “Yeah…”

            “Mom’s dead, you know…”

            Benjamin whipped his head around to stare at Adrian. “Wh-what?! Mom’s dead?! Oh my God! H-how did… but Milani and Dad and…”

            “Calm down, I meant our REAL mom…”

            “Oh. Yeah… I guess she is.”

            “Sekitan says she’s a yu-rei… Does that make us yu-rei too? Yu-rei offspring?” Adrian laughed loudly up into the sky. “That’s funny…”

            “But it explains a lot…” Benjamin frowned, looking troubled and hugging himself. “That’s why…” He could see the faces of the last one, begging for mercy. He was crawling backwards, away from Benjamin’s looming form. His eyes were wide and his limbs were bloodied and horribly mangled.

            “Please… please don’t… Don’t kill me!”

            “You killed me…” Benjamin descended onto him, grabbing hold of his jaw and forcing it open until he’d ripped his head into two pieces. A splatter of blood sprayed up, hitting his cheek. Benjamin grinned and stood, his clothes bloodied. And then his balance failed him and he fell onto his back where he lay for a good while, eventually coming to and looking up at the sky.

            Adrian looked over at Benjamin. “Are you cold?” he asked. “You’re shaking…”

            “No… I was just remembering… how I killed those people.”

            --

            “There.” Sekitan laid Natsumi’s limp body onto her bed and smoothed her damp hair from her forehead. He laughed a bit to himself. “She’ll hate to see what she did to her hair in the morning…” He fingered at the now fuchsia strands. He stood back from her, turning to leave. “Well, goodnight, I guess…”

            “Seki…tan…” He stopped, turning to look at her again. She was still asleep, her eyes were closed, but her arm was extended outwards. “Sekitan… I want to… to die…” Her eyelashes were sticky with tears. The man turned from her again, hurrying out of the room and closing the door.

            --

            “I thought you couldn’t remember…”

            “I just… I just did now…” Benjamin shuddered, miserably. “How disgusting…”

            “It’s okay…” Adrian inched towards him. “Benji…”

            “Benji?” Benjamin looked at him. Adrian was awfully close to him. He turned away, blushing. “Adrian, maybe we’ve given them enough alone time… we should get back…”

            “Not now…” Adrian leaned in towards him and Benjamin could smell the alcohol on his breath. “Can’t you see…?” He reached towards Benjamin, brushing a bit of his hair from his eyes where it always seemed to hang. “Don’t you get it, you idiot?”

            “Get what?” Benjamin asked, confused. “A-Adrian… quit it, you’re being weird.”

            “You don’t remember what I said to you that night?”

            “I… I don’t…”

            “I said that I loved you, Benjamin. I love you… more than a brother, you know…?”

            Benjamin’s breath hitched in his throat as he felt Adrian’s fingers carefully pull down the collar of his shirt. He leaned in, pressing his mouth into Benjamin’s pale neck. Benjamin’s breath came out in a short whoosh. He closed his eyes, shaking. “We’re drunk…”

            “So…?”

            “It’s wrong… it’s so… wrong…”

            “You’re not moving away…” Adrian covered his face in kisses. “I want to see your body…”

            “I… I don’t know…”

            “Do you love me?”

            “Y-yes…” He whispered feeling his shirt slip over his head, along with his under-shirt. “But…”

            “Do you trust me?” He felt Adrian’s lips and hands over his chest, over those horrid lumps that he wished he could just hack off sometimes. But he never thought it could feel so good to be touched there.

            “Yes…”

            “And so let’s…”

            “Yes… yes!”

            --

            Pursing her lips together, Natsumi trailed her finger down the newsprint, squinting at the potential job offers listed. She created a clear smudge down the page from the mixture of oil and pressure and she sat back, her concentration momentarily broken as she wiped her blackened fingertip onto her jeans. She heard footsteps heading down the stairs and she could identify it by sound as Adrian. When the redhead walked into the kitchen where she was sitting, the girl sipped her orange juice, once again preoccupied with the paper and bid him good morning without looking up.

            “I bought bagels” she said, pointing to the counter where the plastic bag sat, already left open. She reached over the paper and took half a bagel off her plate, biting into it. Adrian sat at the table in the chair across from her, pouring himself a glass of orange juice as well. He took a sip and made a face.

            “Too pulpy…” he said under his breath. He set the glass back down and sat on his knees in the chair, leaning over the paper with interest, although he couldn’t read the print, save for some of the numbers. “Any good stories in there?”

            “It’s the Want Ads” Natsumi replied, cupping her face in both hands and pushing her bangs back as she fought to concentrate. A few had been circled in red ink but nothing appeared too promising.

            “I want to get a job too” Adrian said. “A real job, not these English lessons. At least a job guarantees some steady money.”

            “How are the lessons going, by the way?” Natsumi asked, although her tone seemed to say she wasn’t really interested.

            Adrian didn’t pick up on her tone and shrugged, taking another sip of the orange juice, although he tried in vain to strain the pulp through his lips. “Fine, I guess.” He waited for the girl to say more but she didn’t. “Hey, I was thinking… maybe we could go back to ghost hunting, you know?”

            She finally did look up. “I wonder if we’d ever get the same recognition as obaasan. She was well known; those are big shoes to fill.” She momentarily looked depressed, at the mention of her dead grandmother.

            “But really, what are any of us good at?” Adrian continued, standing up and pressing his hands against the table. “Me and Benjamin and Sekitan… why… there’d never be a ghost that would give us the slip!”

            “I dunno…” Natsumi faltered. “It seems good but... what’s your method?”

            “Method?”

            “Well, yeah. To exorcise ghosts, you have to have a method. Obaasan was pretty unique in her abilities. She could open a gateway into the next life.” She smirked, narrowing her violet eyes. “I don’t suppose you can do that, Adrian?”

            “No… I guess not… but I’m sure I could learn!”

            “Don’t worry about it right now” She sat back in her chair. “We’re going shopping today. I’m going to buy you and Benjamin some presents.”

            “What for?”

            “Because it’s May 20^th, silly!”

            “How’d you know it was…” Adrian watched as Natsumi took out his wallet, smiling at his driver’s license.

            “I can’t read English as well as I can speak it but… there it is, May 20^th!”

            Adrian uselessly reached for the wallet. “Where did you get that?” he asked, swiping for it.

            “Your pants. You think they wash themselves?”

            “Natsumi!” Adrian managed to grab the wallet back. “You don’t have to buy us anything, really. We know you’re strapped for cash, and anyways, we never make a big deal about our birthday.”

            “It’ll be your first birthday away from home” Natsumi answered, frowning. “Without your family and old friends… I have to make it as nice as possible! And don’t try to argue!” She stood up. “Get dressed, we’re going dooowntooown!”

            --

            When they disembarked the bus, the three teens strode across the street towards the mall. Natsumi was in high spirits, and it had seemed like a long time since she had been. Even though the twins had been reluctant to allow her to do this, they felt that making her happy was most important. They followed along behind her as she strode into the building with several levels and they gaped in awe at their surroundings. Neither had been inside a mall with such a large interior.

            As was anything in Yokohama, the mall floor of marble white was crawling with a sea of people. Pale faces and dark hair, blurry expressions, all of them bobbing in waves, scattered and clustered. It was overwhelming and dizzying for the twins who, naturally, spent most of their lives in a sleeper community. Natsumi studied their expressions before she linked one arm with each and charged forward.

            --

            Adrian had recalled his shopping trips with a certain girl in the past and they were nothing like this. Natsumi was bursting with energy, leading the two unskilled shoppers (or girl-handlers for that matter) around. They took escalators, climbed floor after floor, scouring the entire mall top and bottom. Natsumi was looking for something for she hardly stopped to browse for any reason. Finally the three arrived at a clothing store where white, featureless mannequins posed in the large window. Natsumi shifted closer to the display, pointing to one in the centre and pulling Benjamin over by his sleeve.

            “Look, Benjamin!” she exclaimed, tapping the glass. “That one there!” The middle mannequin was wearing jeans and a rather fitted leather jacket. It was the jacket she was pointing to and Benjamin reluctantly took a closer look. The fabric seemed to gleam under the lighting and silver zippers and buckles adorned it. He glanced, in slight embarrassment, at his own, worn and oversized leather jacket. It had been his father’s at the time he was a teenager but it was near falling apart now, with holes and wear.

            “What about it?” Benjamin asked.

            “Adrian, wouldn’t it look nice on your brother?” Natsumi asked, turning her eyes to the redhead standing furthest from the display.

            Adrian’s shoulders stiffened and he raised his eyes to the mannequin, his mind momentarily filling in Benjamin in its place. “Sure.”

            “Well there you go, Benjamin. Consider it your birthday gift from me!” She pressed her hands into his back and pushed him into the store with Benjamin protesting the entire way.

            “No! No, you can’t! It would cost way too much! I couldn’t! Natsumi!” He looked over his shoulder. “Adrian! Adrian, stop heeeer!”

            Adrian only smiled and shrugged. “Have fun.” As the two vanished into the store, Adrian took a seat on a bench nearby. He figured he wouldn’t be appreciated in the girl’s changing room with them. As he sat back, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and spotted Nanako shyly sitting next to him, swinging her legs. His expression changed to mild annoyance. “I told you to stay at home.”

            “I couldn’t. I’m scared of that big dog…”

            “Did he say anything to you?”

            “Not really.”

            “Well then, you should just…”

            Nanako’s body went rigid suddenly and she thrust her arm out, pointing. “Th-there she is!” She leapt off the bench, hurrying off down the white, gleaming floor. Adrian got up, alarmed.

            “Wait a second! Nanako!” He went after her.

            The little girl pushed her way through the crowds, her eyes wide and beginning to tear. “Mama! Mama!” She ran towards an old, withered looking woman with silver-white hair and tired eyes and latched onto her waist. “Mama, I’ve missed you!”

            Although the woman shook slightly from the impact of being hugged so forcefully, her confused expression told Adrian as he approached, that she could not see the girl claiming to be her daughter. He stopped short of her, unsure if Nanako was indeed related to her. Adrian’s shoulders slumped and he watched on. “But… she’s so old…” he whispered.

            --

            Benjamin stood in the long mirror, blushing and turning around. He rather liked the jacket on himself. Natsumi banged on the change room door, eager to see. He opened it and shyly stepped out. The girl grinned and nodded. “It looks great on you, Benjamin.”

            He tugged on the ends of it, glancing down. “You think so…?”

            “Yep! Please let me buy it for you. It’s not just a birthday present, you know.” She looked at him seriously. “It’s also thanking you for helping me through these past few weeks… I don’t know what I would’ve done without you, Adrian and Sekitan.”

            “I… still don’t know if I can accept” Benjamin answered. “You know you don’t need to buy us presents to thank us…”

            “Aw, just let me? It’ll make me feel better.”

            Within a few minutes, the two exited the store, Benjamin carrying a bag on one arm. However, as they approached the spot where Adrian had been sitting, Natsumi fumed a little. “He’s not here… where’d he go?”

            Benjamin looked around, trying to locate the flaming head of hair when his eyes instead caught sight of two men walking side by side. They were speaking in Japanese to one another, they were older, with graying hair, and they were simply minding their own business. But Benjamin swayed slightly, unable to take his eyes off of them. He felt something rip through his head and he gasped, grabbing it with his hands.

            --

            There was the hollow, echoing sound of chains, chains and labored breath as the three figures descended the mildew-covered staircase into the cold basement. They stood in a perfect row once they reached the bottom floor, standing near a figure chained to the wall and fighting profusely. She began to sob in the darkness, her hair falling across her face.

            The three men regarded her with shadowed faces. They didn’t speak and didn’t touch her, only stared on at her. She trembled in fear. Her eyes darted around, searching for a way out, willing it all to be a dream.

            --

            “Are you okay, Benjamin?” Natsumi was looking at him in concern and Benjamin found himself lying across the bench with the girl sitting on the edge. Her face was distorted into a look of concern. He struggled to sit up but his shaking body made it difficult.

            “Nn… I’m okay… I’m fine…” He held a hand to his head. He was prone to fainting, that was surely what had happened. He hadn’t felt it coming on at all, though. He knew that wasn’t it but he pushed the thought away. “Those men…”

            “What men?”

            Benjamin looked past Natsumi in one direction and found they were gone. He looked over his shoulder, his eyes scanning the crowds. But he’d lost them. The two men had vanished. Had they ever truly been there? Shaking his head in confusion, Benjamin looked back at Natsumi and forced a smile. “Just a fainting spell, that’s all.”

            “Fainting spell? Maybe we should get you something to eat then, once I track down Adrian…” She stood up. “Stay right there, I’ll find him.”

            --

            The old woman’s eyes turned to Adrian’s approaching form. She stared on at him in confusion. “S-sorry, m’am” Adrian apologized, taking hold of Nanako’s arm.

            The woman shook her head slightly, mumbling something in Japanese. She hurried away. Nanako reached out towards her, pulling on Adrian’s grasp. “Let me go! Let me go, please!” she cried. Her fingers spread out, clawing at the air. “Nii-san, I miss her so much!”

            “Nanako!” Adrian said harshly, grabbing her other arm and forcing her to face him. “Listen to me!”

            The girl continued to cry, writhing and twisting in his grip even as he held her fast. “No! I have to… I have to be with her!”

            “She can’t see you, Nanako!”

            “I just want her to come back! I want her to take care of me again! I’m… I’m so lonely…” Her fighting slowed, eventually stopping completely. Adrian pulled her in towards himself and hugged her. She sniffled against his shoulder. “Nii-san… what should I do…?”

            “I need to know when and how you died, Nanako.”

            “There you are.”

            Adrian started and looked to one side where Natsumi was standing. He stood up slowly, regarding her in apology. “Sorry, I…”

            “Benjamin’s fainted. So let’s get him something to eat, okay?” She smiled a little. “And then I’ll get you a present too. Happy Birthday, Adrian…”

            --

            Sekitan heard the sounds of Natsumi and the twins coming home much later in the day than he’d expected. The dog looked up from his ‘place’ under the kitchen table and he got up, stretching and approaching them with his tail swaying back and forth. As the three teens staggered in, the dog was aware, not just by how they were acting, but also how they smelt, that they were intoxicated.

            “What a good idea it was of you to get some drinks for me!” Adrian said, holding a bottle that was covered by a paper bag. Natsumi too appeared to be drunk. Benjamin, although his face was flushed and his eyes were glazed, didn’t appear as giddy as the other two.

            Sekitan retreated slightly at the acrid smell in his nose and he whimpered a little. “You’ve been drinking?”

            “For the twin’s birthday! I asked what Adrian wanted and he said drinksss!” Natsumi answered. “Come on, Sekitan! Turn into a man and join us!”

            The dog looked reluctant. His eyes shifted back and forth. “Drink… but...” He looked to Benjamin, as if for guidance.

            “Just a little won’t hurt you, Sekitan” he answered, smiling.

            “I guess…”

            And surely it wouldn’t.

            --   

            Adrian was suspicious when he ate at the table for lunch. He seated himself on the floor with his twin, Natsumi and Sekitan in his canine form (who was quite able to sit at the table) and he mumbled an ‘it looks good’. He awkwardly held the foreign utensils in his unskilled hands, taking thinly sliced pieces of fish, vegetables and rice to set on his plate. Benjamin had caught onto using chopsticks quickly, but he usually caught on to everything while Adrian struggled. Natsumi had silverware that she was more than happy to let Adrian use but he insisted on immersing himself in Japanese customs in any way he could.

            “You know…” Natsumi said, staring at the redhead across the table who shifted awkwardly on the floor seat and struggled with his chopsticks. “Obaasan was pretty into the old ways. It’s not really like this anymore. Everybody’s all ‘Westernized’.”

            Benjamin chewed quietly, his eyes on Adrian who was, and not too discretely, slipping some of his food away into a plate in his lap. He continuously looked at Natsumi who was cheerfully talking, sometimes waving her chopsticks around in the air to emphasize something. Sekitan sat beside her, for the most part with his head in a bowl that Natsumi had retrieved for him. There wasn’t a doggy dish in existence that would fit his big head.

            Adrian suddenly cut Natsumi off to ask her a strange question. “Natsumi, can yu-rei be children?”

            Natsumi’s chirping ceased and her expression became puzzled as she glanced upwards, thoughtfully. “Um... I suppose so…” She fidgeted. “What obaasan told me was that yu-rei are usually people who die when they’re filled with rage. I don’t know if children can feel such a strong rage but…” She peered at him. “Why do you ask?”

            Sekitan raised his head suddenly, ears perked forward and eyes alight. His long, pink tongue licked the end of his nose. “Zashiki-warashi, not a yu-rei.”

            Adrian raised an eyebrow. “’Cuse me?”

            “Child ghosts” Natsumi explained after recognizing the term. “Did you meet one? Because if you met an actual yu-rei, you’d probably not be here right now.”

            Benjamin lowered his eyes to the table. “Yu-rei kill people, do they?”

            “Yep. Pretty much… I mean, not all of them, but most” Natsumi replied, shrugging. “Like kuchisake-onna!” She shuddered, although she smiled and rubbed her arms. “Oooh, that legend used to scare me so much when I was a kid!”

            “What is it?” Benjamin asked, looking at her.

            “The woman, kuchisake-onna, appears beautiful to people who pass her on the street,” Natsumi had lowered her voice to suppress her giddiness at telling the story, much like a camper telling a ghost story. “She wears a mask to cover all her face except her eyes…” She picked up her napkin, covering her nose and mouth with it. “She asks you if she’s beautiful and if you say yes, she…” Natsumi ripped the napkin away, grinning. “Reveals her entire face, deformed!”

            Sekitan made a sound like a sigh and Adrian rolled his eyes, sitting back. “Lame.”

            Benjamin sipped at his tea, trying to appear nonchalant. “And then?”

            “And then she kills you!” Natsumi replied, throwing her hands up like it was obvious. “The only way to not be killed by her is not to answer her question or give her an ambiguous answer. Or so they say.”

            “Then that’s why…” Benjamin whispered to himself, under his breath. He nibbled at his food and said nothing more.

            --

            “Where did you come from?” Adrian sat down on his makeshift bed next to the distraught looking girl. “I don’t know if you want anything to eat but…” He set the plate in her lap that he’d smuggled from lunch.

            The girl looked down at it, her eyes welling with tears. “Can you help me…?”

            Adrian shifted, sitting back. “How long has it been since you… last saw your mother?”

            “A… a few weeks ago” the girl answered, sniffling and eating slowly. “But she stopped talking to me…” the girl seemed to crumple inwards. She held her sides, pulling her knees up and lowering her head until they almost touched. “…She’s so old now…”

            Adrian watched her from the corner of his eye but could do little in his own mind, to help her. He felt awkward as she made miserable, whimpering noises. She wiped her eyes, her nose and eyes had become red and runny. “Do you really think… I’m dead?”

            He glanced at her, at her round, pale face contorted into a look of misery and helplessness. When he didn’t reply, she glanced down again. “I didn’t even know…”

            “How old are you?”

            “Eight… I think… Oh, I don’t know!” she held her head, digging her fingers into her scalp. “I don’t know!”

            The door to the bedroom slid open slowly and Adrian raised his eyes, looking at Natsumi’s confused face poking into the room. She frowned. “Adrian… who are you talking to?” Her eyes fell on the plate, sitting on the mattress next to him.

            The plate suddenly rose on its own and was flung across the room, smashing into the opposite wall. Natsumi jumped back, startled. Adrian’s eyes went wide and he shifted awkwardly. “I’ll… pay for that.”

            Natsumi’s violet eyes searched the room, the darkest corners, the ceiling, the floor. But Adrian was alone there. She gripped the side of the doorframe, leaning for support. “…There’s… someone in here…?” She was unnerved that she couldn’t see them. “Adrian?”

            The redhead nodded slowly, his expression serious. “A child…”

            “I… I wish I could see them…” Natsumi took a step into the room. “I’m the last one alive in my family and I didn’t even inherit their gift…” Her eyes fell on the mattress where there was a spot next to Adrian that was slightly pressed down, as if an invisible person was sitting there. And then she suddenly grew fearful, turning and running.  

--

The house was silent, almost dead when Sekitan raised his sleepy head, blinking owlishly under the lantern light of the porch and wondering when he’d fallen asleep. He slept outside, generally, as he was too big to maneuver very well within the house. He didn’t mind, though. He was happy enough to be on guard. The dog’s previous thoughts of the twins had begun to diminish. Although there was not a doubt in his mind of what they were, neither Benjamin nor Adrian seemed entirely threatening or dangerous. They treated Natsumi like a good friend. They laughed and talked with her, they helped her around the house.

They were human, as they were mortal, prone to injury, death even. But they were yu-rei because they possessed yu-rei abilities, and yu-rei rage, albeit it was hidden from even them. Sekitan was beginning to consider leaving. He had no need to remain with mortals such as them, especially human mortals, who were mysterious to him. He didn’t truly understand their whimsical emotions or the things that made them happy. He understood none of it. And for that, he was frustrated.

His ears perked up at the sound of the door behind him sliding open. He turned, seeing a white hand reaching out from the darkness within the house. Benjamin sleepily slid through the small opening, closing it again behind him and padding over to the dog. He stooped down, looping an arm about his thin legs and sat. He was ignorant of Sekitan’s questioning green eyes and the dog mused that perhaps he wasn’t entirely awake.

To Sekitan, who had the displeasure of encountering many ghosts in his existence, Benjamin was a carbon copy of any yu-rei. His skin was so pale it had a grayish hue. His hair grew longer than normal human hair, falling well past his waist. His discolored eyes were lined with dark smudges. He was a yu-rei, most certainly. And he was more so than his brother. Perhaps it was simply because he was female, which a yu-rei more often tended to be.

“Can you not sleep?” Sekitan asked, easing himself up into a sitting position. Benjamin turned his head towards the dog but his hair covered his face.

“No… not really. I don’t ever sleep very well…” His voice was light, nearly a whisper and more feminine sounding than he usually made it, although it was probably because he wasn’t conscious enough to make it so. His eyes turned to the dark outlines of the paths and gardens.

“Why not?”

“Because… I always have… these dreams”

“Dreams?” Sekitan asked, feeling slightly envious. He didn’t dream.

“Yes… there are these… people. I don’t know… they’re chasing me. And I just know that I have to get away from them. I don’t know why, but I feel afraid. But I fall…”

“And then?”

“I wake up.”

“Do you feel angry when you think about them?” Sekitan pressed, still looking at him.

“Sometimes… I get angry that I’m so helpless to do anything… I think if I were to meet those people, I’d kill them.”

“Oh.” Sekitan turned to look back out into the night, somewhat uncomfortable by the conversation.

Benjamin lowered his head, sighing wistfully. “I don’t know if I can share a room with him…”

“With who?”

“I didn’t feel like this when I was a kid…” Benjamin’s voice had grown even quieter. “But when I came back I… I just… I loved him…” Sekitan said nothing, listening still. He was aware that if Benjamin were more awake, he’d never reveal such things to him. Sekitan knew very little about love and it was a thing he’d always been confused by. It was an entirely human trait.

“But I… can’t!” Benjamin held his head as if in pain. “I can’t, I-I shouldn’t! It’s sick, I’m sick! I don’t want this to continue! It hurts too much!”

“Love hurts…?” Sekitan asked before he could stop the question.

“When you’re in love with someone you can’t… you’re not supposed to have…” Benjamin looked at him again, his eyes large and watery. A tear escaped and slid down his cheek. “What else would you feel?”

Sekitan’s ears flattened against his skull.

“And I wish things could be different” Benjamin continued, sniffling. “I wish that… that I wasn’t like this. I wish it wasn’t wrong! No, I wish that we were different people!”

Sekitan looked downwards. “Yes…”

“I wish that I was someone else, and then maybe I could… maybe we could… I wish I was in some other body!”

A shudder passed through the dog next to him and all he could say was, “Yes, I know…”

“You care about them, you want them near you all the time, but you just can’t do it! Because it’s wrong!”

Sekitan whined slightly, pawing at Benjamin’s arm. “Is that what love is?”

“Y-yes… at least, for me” Benjamin pulled back from him, sniffling. He pressed his palm into one eye, furiously wiping at the tears.

“Then… I know”

--

            Natsumi was alarmed to see Adrian when he returned to the house, the black dog at his side. The girl approached them, regarding them with worried eyes. “A-Adrian… you’re bleeding!” she cried. “Did something happen? Did you get attacked?! Mugged?!”

            “Ah, simmer down…” Adrian sighed, pushing past her. “Your dog bit me.”

            “You did, Sekitan?” The girl’s violet eyes, seeming forever reddened and tired those few recent weeks, turned to the beast lower to the ground. But she hardly had the energy or the patience for such conflicts and she knelt down, sighing. “Please don’t bite people, Sekitan…” She pet the top of the dog’s head and he whined in the way that troubled dogs do.

            “Sorry… I’m sorry, Adrian” He looked over Natsumi’s shoulder but Adrian was already heading down the hallway, fuming. Natsumi stood up, hurrying after the redhead and leaving the dog to sit by the door, brooding. He sniffed around the entrance room and padded around the house where he could fit. Finally, he nosed open the sliding front door and stepped out onto the porch. He slid down onto his belly, dangling his front paws over the ledge and resting his chin in them.

            “Wait a second, Adrian!” Natsumi cried, grabbing for his elusive hand. “Can’t we please just…”

            “We’re intruding now…” Adrian looked over at her, his face half shadowed in the darkness of the hall. The glint of his eyes were intense. “Maybe we should leave…”

            “No!” The girl latched onto his waist, pressing her head against his back. “Don’t leave, please!” She sounded so frightened of the idea and it was rather unnerving for Adrian. From what he’d learned about Natsumi in the month that he’d been staying there, she seemed fairly calm, put together, confident. More grown-up than he was. And yet her façade was shattered with obaasan’s death. They were, quite literally, teenagers living without adults and it was a thing that had never troubled Adrian so much before.

            “I might not know much about you, Adrian… but I want to know.” Her voice was muffled against his clothing. “And even if we haven’t been together very long, well… I’ve come to like having you and Benjamin around… The three of you… are all I have right now so please, please stay.”

            “Okay…” He heard her quiet sobs and he turned around, smiling. “Okay, Natsumi. We’ll stay. I’m sorry…” He had to stoop down a little in order to be level with her face. “Come on, don’t cry…”

            “I’m not” she said, thickly, even as her arms reached up to wipe at her eyes. “I feel so stupid…”

            --

            “Don’t go out alone…” Benjamin rolled onto his back as he lay on the sleeping bag. “Huh…” He heard the door slide open and he glanced up to see Adrian walking in and closing the door behind him. The room was quite dark and it was obvious by the way Adrian was shuffling across the floor, that he couldn’t see a thing. “Adrian, there’s a backpack right in front of you that you might want to…”

            There was a thud on the floor and Adrian lay sprawled out, groaning a little. Benjamin got up and went over to him. “You could turn on a light.”

            “I thought you were sleeping” Adrian replied, sitting up and rubbing his smarting nose in embarrassment. “I don’t suppose you know what next Tuesday is.”

            “Next Tuesday…?” Benjamin frowned, glancing upwards and looking thoughtful. “The date is… May 20^th… MAY 20^th?!”

            “That’s right.”

            “Oh no, I didn’t get you anything!” Benjamin said, hanging his head.

            Adrian rolled his eyes. “I didn’t get you anything either. We’ve been stuck here pretty much since obaasan died.”

            “Wonder what mom and dad will be doing…”

            They both lapsed into silence, thinking about it and Adrian was the first to shake off the feeling of guilt and go to his sleeping bag. “We’re out of their hair. It’s a good thing. They’re probably secretly happy.”

            “They are not” Benjamin sighed. “It’s going to be our eighteenth birthday and they won’t even know where we are or if we’re even okay.” He wriggled into his own sleeping bag. “What’s the harm in calling them at least…?”

            “We’ll wait until the 20^th to call. Because then we’re adults and they can’t make us come back.”

            Benjamin stared at him from across the room, although he was lying down and he appeared relaxed. “You never want to go back…?”

            “Do we have a choice?” Adrian asked.

            “You do. I keep telling you that you don’t have to stay with me.”

            Adrian sighed, knowing he was venturing into bad territory. “I would if I could… if I didn’t feel… so completely fucked up when you’re not around.”

            Benjamin rolled over to face the wall and his silence seemed to speak volumes. Adrian stared at Benjamin’s back, stared at the bumps of his spine, of his jutting shoulder blades… He stared at his long hair, cascading down his back like a stream of oil, all gloss and smooth. And he felt anger in the pit of his stomach, bitter, vile anger that bubbled slowly at first. The sort of anger and disgust that he’d felt for his twin when he was on his medication, when he took their parents’ side, when he behaved just in spite of him.

            “I want to talk about this” Adrian said, firmly.

            “I don’t know what this is.”

            “You do know!” The redhead glared at him, although Benjamin couldn’t see it. “And I’d leave it alone if I wasn’t so sure that you not only know about it but feel the same WAY about it.”

            Adrian had demonstrated in the past that he was an avid arguer and could fight with another for hours if he wanted to. Benjamin’s response to his outbursts was to retreat into silence, hoping he’d run out of steam. So he curled up, let his hair fall over his face, and tried to force himself out of the reality he’d found himself in. For a while, it seemed to work and behind his closed lids, Benjamin could pretend he was in his own bedroom.

            He heard Adrian’s annoyed sigh from the other side of the room and the rustle of sleeping bag as he lay himself down with deliberate violence. Benjamin sighed, relieved that there wouldn’t be a fight tonight. Or anything else for that matter. He let himself fall into sleep like a stone falling into a well.

            --

            Natsumi, in her rumpled pajamas, wandered down the stairs to sleepily prepare breakfast for herself when she happened to glance at the paper doorway in the kitchen that led outside to the porch. She could make out, among the warm, yellow spots of sun and darker shades of leaves that danced back and forth in the breeze, a hunched over figure. She slid the door open to see the dog still sitting outside, as if on guard, his green eyes watching the early risers that passed by the house seen only through a barrier of foliage.

            Natsumi stooped down, sitting next to him and her hand idly ran down his shoulder to pet him. The dog turned his head to look at her. “I really am sorry about last night, Cirrus…” He did sound truly apologetic, unlike before. “I don’t mean to be so vicious I just don’t like those two much…”

            “You don’t have to bite them…”

            “Well, no. I guess not.” He showed his teeth, perhaps a grin. “I’ll be good.”

            “You’d better be good!” Natsumi scolded, shaking her finger at him. “Or I’ll send you to doggie training classes!”

            Sekitan glanced upwards, sighing. “Oh please. I don’t need training.”

            “Maybe I’ll get you a muzzle” Natsumi teased. “Although, it would be hard to find one that would fit you. You look like you’d eat other dogs, even big ones.”

            “I never much cared for the taste of dog…”

            Natsumi stared at him, at first unsure of whether he was serious or not.

            “It’s a joke.”

            “Oh…” The girl sat back, smiling and using her arms to support herself. “Sekitan, are you staying with me because you care about me?”

            “I’m staying with you because you’re accident prone and you’ll face the chances of death on a regular basis.”

            “If you’re prolonging my life unnaturally isn’t that… well… against nature?”

            “If you die now, your family line stops here.”

            Natsumi stared at him before blowing up a few strands of hair from her eyes. “Oh, Sekitan… you sound like an old person. As if I care about family lines and the like anyways. Death is something that just happens and right now…” She smiled up to the clear patch of blue sky above the trees. “I have nothing to live for… nothing at all…”

            --

            “Natsumi’s feeling better…”

            “Yeah…”

            “We’ll plan that trip for tomorrow, then” Adrian reached for his denim jacket at the front door closet before deciding he didn’t need it. Benjamin stood in the front room, his head lowered and his arms at his sides, held tightly there.

            “Oh, Adrian!” Natsumi called, poking her head around the corner. Both twins turned to look at the girl. “Are you going somewhere?”

            “Just out for some air” Adrian replied, smiling. “It’s good to see you’re feeling better.”

            “Don’t go too far, huh?” Natsumi said. “I’ve been meaning to show you both around the city more but well…”

            “Ah, we understand, Natsumi!” Benjamin said, quickly.

            “I don’t want you to get lost, Adrian” the Japanese girl continued. “I’m making lunch, you know.” Her tone had taken on a certain tone that reminded Adrian of Charlotte, speaking to him when he was younger.

            “Don’t wander off, lunch will be ready shortly” The woman stood in the open doorway with her hands on her hips, little Milani clutching to her apron as Adrian and Tora hurried off into the backyard, newly damp with rain in order to find frogs and the like. “And for goodness sake, Tora, don’t get your new dress muddy!”

            “Natsumi,” Adrian found himself saying as he opened the door. “You’d make a good mother.”

            Benjamin and Natsumi stared at one another before the girl blushed slightly as Adrian left. Huffing, the girl turned away from the door. “Really! What a thing to say! Help me with lunch, Benjamin? I assume you’re more useful in the kitchen than Sekitan.”

            “Sure.”

            --

            There were children playing in a sandbox a few metres away, giggling and crouching in a circle, overturning the contents of their pail and patting it down. From a bench, two mothers were conversing while one of them rolled a stroller back and forth over the grass to calm a wailing infant. From her place on the swing set, the girl watched with interest and longing.

            Her feet could only just reach the ground and she took a moment to take in her worn, faded red dress and scuffed, buckled shoes. Once, her dress had been a vibrant shade of red. Her shoes had been polished black leather. The ribbon in her hair had once been tied in a neat bow. It wasn’t that way anymore. She didn’t know how to buckle her shoes and so the buckles were undone and worn. When she fell and tore her dress, she couldn’t fix it. She couldn’t tie her ribbon properly so the ends were rumpled and would flow freely behind her.

            Her eyes, amber in color, watched as the children got up at their mother’s calling and went to hug her around the waist. Her stomach clenched and she reached up, wiping at her smudged, dirty face. She missed her own mother more than anything and she wondered why she’d stopped caring about her numerous times.

            --

            Adrian sat in the swing, gripping the slightly rusted chains in his hand. He kept his feet on the ground, pushing himself slowly back and forth. He heard the creak of the swing beside him, moving slowly, but he didn’t realize there wasn’t a breeze to blow it. As such, he continued to look out at nothing, only mildly interested in the world around him. His mind wandered around different things. He swung a little harder.

            ‘I’m not a demon… am I…? Mother… what are you? Are you what they call a yu-rei? Are you even alive?’

            He turned his head slowly to one side, considering going somewhere else when his eyes suddenly fell onto the form of a small, crumpled girl next to him. Because he hadn’t seen her before and hadn’t heard her approach, he couldn’t help but let out a loud gasp. The girl, with short black hair, pale skin and a faded red dress, jolted and turned her eyes towards him. They stared at each other for a long time, as if surprised to see one another, as if neither had noticed the other prior to that moment.

            “…A girl…” Adrian breathed. He couldn’t pull his gaze away from the girl’s eyes. They were the same color as his and Benjamin’s. He shifted around to face her and leaned in, studying her. The girl, in turn, drew back slightly. “You’re just a little kid!” he said before laughing a bit. “That’s horrible…”

            The girl understood him, despite being Japanese, but couldn’t understand what was horrible about being young. She was elated, in any case, because someone had finally noticed her and was talking to her. It had been so long.

            “What’s… wrong with that?” her voice had been long unused and came out harsh and dry sounding.

            “Well…” Adrian turned the swing around and around, twisting the chains together. “You’re dead.”

            The girl stared at him some more and then got up from the swing, furiously shaking her head. “No! You’re a liar!” She ran off and Adrian took his feet off the ground.

            “Hey, wait!” However, he couldn’t get out of the swing, as it had begun to spin around. Once it had stopped, he got off, dizzily looked around, and spotted her charging away. He gave chase, earning confused looks from everyone else in the park. “Wait a minute, kid!”

            As he ran, he could see her heading for the busy street and he stretched his hand towards her. “Stop! STOP!”

            The girl stopped in the middle of the street, turning to look at him and then a car sped towards her and hit her, causing Adrian to skid to a stop. He stared as the car drove on and her body lay in the street. He ran again towards her, kneeling next to her and scooping her up. He raced back across the street and onto the grass where he set her down, panicking and checking for blood or injuries. There was none.

            “Mmm…” The girl’s eyes fluttered open and she stared up at him leaning over her. She gasped and sat up, knocking her forehead against his and he fell back, crying out in pain. “What are you doing?!” she demanded.

            “You got hit by a car!” Adrian replied, rubbing his sore head. “You shouldn’t run out into the road like that, someone will see you and freak out!”

            “Everyone just ignores me…” the girl replied, lowering her gaze to the ground.

            “Then I guess they can’t see you…”

            “Why wouldn’t they see me?! YOU can see me!”

            “That’s different! You really are dead!”

            “How can I be dead…?” the girl asked, confusion sweeping over her features. She put her hands to her chest. “I don’t remember ever dying!”

            “It’s sad…” he sighed again, standing up. “I have to go.”

            “You’re just going to leave me here?!”

            “You can come if you want, I guess…” he turned, walking off. The girl hesitated, before following him and grabbing onto his hand.

            “What’s your name?”

            “Adrian.”

            “My name is Nanako!” She frowned a little. “I’m so lonely… can you help me find my mama? I got lost from her.”

            “I guess…”

            They walked together back to the gardens, although to anyone looking, it was Adrian walking by himself, talking to himself.

            --

The weather suited the mood in the house. The sky seemed perpetually cloudy for weeks on end and when it did rain, it was strong, windy and torrential. Natsumi had stopped attending school and she was granted leave until further notice, although she spoke of never returning. It seemed logical enough. There was very little money left for her and so going to school took time away from earning money. Benjamin and Adrian began to follow up on their original plan of teaching private English lessons. And no one spoke of yu-rei.

            There was a small bridge in the gardens that was built over a pond, filled with speckled koi fish. It had become Adrian and Benjamin’s place to go, and they found themselves escaping to it more and more. They took bread down with them and would tear it apart in tiny pieces to feed to the fish, who attacked it with vigor. The two didn’t usually speak even when they were alone. Nothing past the briefest of exchanges, casual and without depth. There was something unspoken between them, something they both knew of but didn’t dare bring up. Their bond had been broken and it was now a fragile thing, not nearly as strong and as powerful as it had once been.

            Adrian flicked a piece of bread into the water and quickly a fish gulped it up, creating a smacking sound on the water before it disappeared into the murky depths again. His reflection was dark and it trembled for a few moments before it stilled enough to be recognizable as his shape.

            “Natsumi’s going to turn into a shut-in…” Adrian mumbled, leaning against the wooden support railing.

            “Mm.”

            “It’s been a few weeks… let’s take her out somewhere and try to cheer her up.”

            Benjamin glanced at Adrian. “We could… I guess.”

            “Shopping or something. Girls like to shop, don’t they?”

            “Don’t ask me…”

            Adrian sighed, frustrated. “Sometimes talking to you is like talking to a wall.”

            Benjamin tossed the crust of the bread onto the surface and several fish ate it all at once. All he could say was, “Sorry” in a voice devoid of apologies.

            “You have to stop moping…” Adrian continued and he dared put a hand on Benjamin’s shoulder, although he quickly regretted it when he felt the sinew of muscle tighten under his fingers.

            “People die because of me…”

            “You mean obaasan?” Adrian asked. “She was old, you know. She was too weak.”

            “She could’ve gotten better if it wasn’t for me…”

            “Maybe, maybe not” Adrian was horrible at offering comfort and he knew it when Benjamin shrugged him away and turned, walking across the bridge with hollow footsteps. Adrian straightened, watching Benjamin’s retreating figure. “Where are you going?”

            “Just to walk…” Benjamin replied, gruffly.

            Adrian watched Benjamin leave, huffing and heading in the opposite direction. “Fine.” He went back to the house and walked in, hearing the quiet sounds of a television from the living room. He poked his head in, frowning at the scene of Natsumi, in disarray, sitting on the couch with the remote in her hand. He took a seat next to her and her form sunk slightly as he sat.

            “Nat, we should go quickly to the grocery store and get some food. You know? We’re almost out of… well, everything.” He set his hands on his knees, looking at her in earnest. “Natsumi?”

            “I… guess so…” she mumbled, sighing, although her voice was empty. “I guess you can’t go alone…” Still, the girl made no move to stand up.

            Adrian sighed. He knew he was being insensitive.

            “I’ll go with you. She obviously doesn’t want to.”

            Adrian turned his head quizzically towards the voice he’d heard and stared at a looming figure in the doorway. He fell off the couch and gripped the coffee table, staring at the person. “Natsumi, there’s a strange man in the house!”

            “It’s okay…” the girl replied, her mouth quirking into a tired smile, although still the first one in weeks. “I let him come in…”

            The dark-skinned, tall male wasn’t Japanese, which in a way, was refreshing from the monogamy. But still, he was tall and compared to Adrian, quite bulky. It had been a long time since Adrian had seen someone taller and sturdier than himself, and Adrian’s figure tended to be on the willowy side.

            “Y-you know this guy? This scary guy?” Adrian squeaked, his head whipping around to look at Natsumi.

            The male stepped in from the doorway and his form didn’t look quite so fearful when he didn’t have bright light behind him. His hair was a dark, blueish color, messy and almost chin length. His eyes were a startling shade of green but as Adrian squinted at him, he realized the other was roughly his own age. “Yes, that’s right” the man opposite of Adrian responded. “I’m an old friend of Natsumi’s. I’ve known her since she was six.” And it was true enough, even if the ‘friend’ aspect was a little strained.

            Adrian scrambled to his feet, trying not to let his unease show. “Ahem. Well! That’s fine, then! I’m Adrian. Adrian Felton.”

            “I know who you are” the other replied, sighing. “Although I don’t suppose you know my name. It’s Sekitan.”

--

The convenience store was empty that night, save for Adrian and Sekitan wandering the aisles. Adrian examined the food critically, only putting very specific things into the bag on his shoulder. He peered at Sekitan, a few steps ahead of him, holding a cup of instant ramen and looking at it. “Do we need any of this?”

“Yeah, put it in!” Adrian said, hurrying over and holding out the bag. Sekitan tossed it in and Adrian grinned. “Instant food, the only thing I know how to make! Can you cook, Sekitan?”

“I guess I could always learn…” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Natsumi never really mentioned you…” Adrian said, tracing his fingers over the canned foods, as if looking hard enough would allow him to read the labels. “But then, she doesn’t seem to have a lot of friends… I’ve never heard her talk about anyone.” He closed his fingers around a can and took it out, turning it over and blowing a thin layer of dust off the top.

“I don’t usually do stuff like this” Sekitan muttered, shrugging awkwardly. “I don’t usually… care.”

Adrian regarded him with a strange look before he sighed, turning and swinging the bag beside him. “I think we’ve got everything… let’s pay and get out of here, the guy at the counter is giving me the worst look. Oh, I don’t suppose you can speak Japanese?”  

--

The sounds of traffic below him seemed deafening as Benjamin strode over the concrete bridge that had been built over the highway. The headlights swam in a sea of dark and the more Benjamin watched them, the further up he seemed to be. The night air was a pleasant room temperature and the breezes were warm, rustling his jacket and ebony hair, tied back in a ponytail. He rested his arms on the top of the bridge and set his chin on his arms.

            “I don’t know if I want this…” he said out loud, his voice lost in the air.

            “Thinking about jumping?”

            Benjamin looked over, seeing a woman standing a few feet away. He raised his head in alarm, waving his hands in front of him. “No! Well…” His eyes glanced down over the edge of the bridge. “Not seriously, anyways…”

            “It wouldn’t be a nice way to go…” the woman said, nodding. As Benjamin peered at her in the darkness, he noticed she was wearing a long, red jacket, had slightly wavy black hair and was wearing a flu mask over her face. He regarded her with slight suspicion but then glanced back to the traffic below them.

            “You speak my language…”

            “I speak a language that anyone can understand” she replied. She stood next to him, resting her arms against the concrete and gazing downwards. Benjamin turned his eyes slowly to her, although he tried to hide his peering gaze from beneath his curtain of black hair. The woman turned, meeting his eyes and the boy was taken aback. He blushed and glanced away quickly.

            “Your eyes…”

            “Are the same as yours?” the woman finished. “I know.”

            For a fleeting moment, Benjamin contemplated as to whether he should know this woman. Whether he’d somehow encountered a relative. She gave off an aura that he tried to dismiss. It was the aura of a spirit, a ghost, whatever they were called. The same aura he’d felt any time he encountered a creature not of this world. But she seemed so normal…

            “Are… are you a… yu-rei…?” he finally asked, daring to look at her again.

            “Don’t know. All I do know is that I’m the same as you. Tell me something… do you think I’m beautiful?”

            “I… I have to go” Benjamin turned and hurried off.

            --

            The two figures strode under the street lights, taking their time returning home. “It’s pretty much crap, going back to the house now…” Adrian was saying. “Obaasan’s dead. Natsumi and Benjamin are all shook up over it. I guess I must be the biggest jerk but… well… she seemed to have lived a long, fulfilling life. She brought up Natsumi well, she left behind a legacy… she didn’t die… in pain.”

            The glint of Sekitan’s green eyes could be seen under the shadow cast by his bangs. “You won’t know until you truly lose someone…”

            Adrian laughed a bit. “Stupid me, I take it all into stride. Even death doesn’t scare me anymore.”

            Their twin footsteps suddenly turned to just one as Adrian walked on ahead with Sekitan standing behind. After a moment, the redhead turned, looking quizzically over his shoulder. “Hey, what’s up…?” The boy adjacent to him seemed to be doubled over in pain. Alarm rose in Adrian as he hurried back over to him. “H-hey!”

            Sekitan groaned, clutching his chest. “Uhn… I can’t keep this form any longer…” he whispered through gritted teeth. Adrian stood back as the other’s shape began to morph and change, eventually becoming a hunched over and quite large, black dog.

            “Whoa…” Adrian took a step backwards. “Gah, I’m allergic to dogs!” His hands flew to his face. “I’ll break out in hives if your dander touches me!”

            “Relax, I’m not a real dog…”

            “You look like one to me.”

            “I’m a hellhound, it’s different.”

            “Oh… Does… Natsumi know about this?”

            “Of course she does!” he snapped. He stood on his four legs and trotted past Adrian. The confused boy followed after him.

            “I knew you weren’t a normal person but… geez!”

            “You seem to be taking it well…”

            “I’ve seen a lot of weird things in my life already.”

            “You only need to look in a mirror.”

            “Pardon?”

            Sekitan turned, snarling at him suddenly, his black fur bristling and his fangs showing. “I know what you really are. You can’t fool me.”

            “I don’t know what you mean…”

            “You’re a demon! You’re not a real person either! And if you DARE try and hurt Natsumi…”

            “Hey, hey!” Adrian cried, waving his hands over his face. “Just wait a minute! I’m not a demon, I’m just a normal guy!”

            “You know that’s not true…” Sekitan narrowed his green eyes. “You… you and your twin! After he killed some people, you both came here! Who’s to say it won’t happen again!”

            Adrian stared at him. “You know about… all of that…?”

            “You’re both demons, but what’s worse, your human father bred with a demon to create you!”

            Andrew turned from the window, shaking his head and chuckling to himself. He turned slowly, his face hidden by shadows. “Your mother… I’ve told you, I don’t know anything about her. I didn’t even know her name… but sometimes I thought… she was something else. I got this feeling that she wasn’t quite… human.” He shook his head. “What am I saying?”

            Adrian felt a sharp screaming pain in his head and he cried out, digging his fingers into his scalp and doubling over, holding his head. His knees hit the pavement and he groaned in pain while Sekitan stood near him, watching with erect ears. The dog’s face was placid, unmoved. “Have I hurt your feelings?” he asked, almost mockingly.

            Adrian’s hair hung over his face as his noises became less human, lower. Sekitan tilted his head to one side. “Have I made you angry?” Adrian’s form trembled and black seemed to bleed from his roots, spilling over the rest of his head and turning his hair black. “What will you do? You’ll be just like her, letting your anger control you…”

            Adrian raised his head, his eyes wide and peering through his fingers. “Her…?” He shut his eyes, crying out as if in pain at which point Sekitan charged at him, opening his jaws and sinking his teeth into Adrian’s shoulder. Adrian slid back onto the ground, beads of blood slowly airborne. His back thudded against the earth and he coughed, before sitting up as Sekitan sat back from him, grabbing his injured shoulder.

            “What did you do that for!? You JERK!” He winced, taking off his jean jacket and rolling up his t-shirt sleeve to inspect the wound. Several tiny, perfect teeth marks. “You bit through the fabric… and it’s bleeding! Aw, man…”

            “Oh, relax. I didn’t hurt you that bad…”

            “Why did you bite me?” He frowned, rubbing his arm.

            “Demons attack when provoked.”

            --

            The humidity was almost unbearable when Natsumi stepped outside at the end of the day. It was foggy when she headed out but the sunlight still tried to penetrate the layer, causing slants of light to filter through. All in all, the balmy weather, Natsumi took as a bad omen. She adjusted the shoulder strap on her bag, starting off. She wanted to go to the hospital directly and make sure obaasan was alright, despite the dire need to study for the upcoming exams.

            She ignored the clusters of students, heading out together. Natsumi didn’t really have friends at school but she was sometimes teased by the others. She kept her head bowed as she passed them and strode faster, not exactly running, but not walking at a normal pace either.

            In the streets of Yokohama, the crowds had thinned out. The faces still outside were reddened and gleaming with perspiration. Natsumi too began to feel it, the scratchy heat that quickly settled under her clothes and made her uniform itchy and uncomfortable. Before long, her pace had slowed down to almost a crawl and she wondered, dazed, as to whether she’d even reach the hospital without getting heatstroke.

            “I hope you looked after her…” she mumbled, ambling along. Benjamin had assured her he’d stay with her all day if he could, seeing as he couldn’t pass his time at school. She smiled to herself at the thought of the thin, dark-haired boy sitting next to her grandmother’s bedside. “He really is nice…” The twins had only been staying with them a few days and she found she knew very little about them.

            She knew Benjamin only as quieter, gentler and more easily rattled. Adrian was more laid back, confident and talkative. She didn’t know much else about them, really. She knew they were from somewhere in North America. She knew they had Japanese in them, but neither could speak a word of it.

            “Maybe they’re fugitives…” she said out loud, grinning as she did. She didn’t know how close she was to the truth.

            She passed a playground surrounded by a chain link fence and stooped down, sitting on the curb to take a break. The sun had vanished behind a cloud for the moment and it made the fog look colder and much thicker. She realized, with slight unease, that she couldn’t see much further ahead of her than a few feet in any direction. As such, she couldn’t see the traffic, only hear it, and she could only hear the clinks of chains and children’s laughter from the playground.

            Natsumi slipped off her shoe when she was sure no one was looking, and emptied out a few stones that had been digging into the bottom of her feet. She sighed, putting it back on, and suddenly caught sight of a bit of red beside her. She turned her head fully, catching sight of a long, red jacket and a pale woman wearing it. She yelped, pulling back in surprise.

            The woman was young, not much older than Natsumi herself, but she was quite pretty with long, slightly wavy black hair, ivory skin and bright eyes adorned with thick, dark lashes. She wore the long jacket, a pair of tight-fitting black pants and high black boots. When she turned to look at Natsumi, the girl realized she was wearing a surgeon’s mask over her mouth and nose.

            “S-sorry” Natsumi said, standing up and bowing repeatedly. She didn’t know why she was sorry because the woman had clearly snuck up on her, but she apologized any ways.

            The woman nodded absently. “I scared you, huh?” She looked around herself. “A big black dog chased me down here…”

            Natsumi’s eyes widened. “A… a big black dog?! Do you know where he is now?!”

            The woman regarded her strangely. “It’s a vicious dog…” she pointed into the fog. “Down that way. He’s huge so he’s hard to miss but the fog will slow you down…”

            “Thanks!” Natsumi charged off into the fog to find him and the woman stood alone. She smiled beneath her mask, slowly pulling it down slightly to reveal her deformed mouth to no one. Then she vanished.

            --

            “Sekitan!” Natsumi called, running along the sidewalks. “Sekitaaan!” She heard the click of nails approaching her and whirled around, seeing the black dog sitting down behind her, cocking his head to one side and panting.

            “It’s hot today…” he complained, his pink tongue lolling out of his mouth.

            “You’re here again!” she cried, dropping to her knees and throwing her arms around his wide shoulders. His tail thumped against the ground.

            “Cirrus, I don’t want to leave you alone with those yurei in your house.”

            The girl loosened her grip slightly. “What yurei?”

            “The two called Adrian and Benjamin…” he said, wrinkling his muzzle into a slight snarl. “I can see them for what they really are.”

            “You’re completely off!” Natsumi said, laughing. “They’re both harmless guys, not like yurei at all!”

            “Even so…”

            “Even so…?”

            “I’m going to look after you!”

            Natsumi stood up, putting her hands on her hips. “I don’t need that kind of help!” she said, huffing. “I’m not a baby, you know. I’ll be eighteen pretty soon! And anyways, obaasan’s there too.”

            “She won’t be there for long…” he stopped, flattening his ears against his skull and glancing away. Natsumi felt horror settling into her.

            “D-did something happen to obaasan?” she asked, her voice becoming shrill. “Is she okay?!”

            The dog lowered his green-eyed gaze to the ground. “No… she has almost left this world…”

            Natsumi’s hands flew to her face and she looked mortified. Desperation and panic settled onto her and she paced back and forth, breathing quickly. “S-Sekitan… you’ll help her, won’t you?” She stared at him. “You’ll make her better! Like you helped me!”

            “I can’t…”

            “Why not?!”

            “The woman is over a hundred years old… I couldn’t extend her life even if I wanted to.”

            Tears sprung into Natsumi’s eyes and she turned, running off while choking back a sob. Sekitan’s ears shot up and he stood. “Cirrus!” But she was gone as a wall of fog closed around her.

            --

            “I don’t know… if I did the right thing…” Benjamin whispered, his form small in the waiting room chair. He rubbed his arms, miserably looking on while obaasan was tended to in her room. “Someone else is going to die because of me…”

            Adrian sat in the chair next to Benjamin but for once, he didn’t have anything to say. Natsumi burst in at that moment, panting and frantic looking. “Where is she!? What happened!? How?!”

            Both twins raised their eyes to her, dejectedly. Benjamin glanced away first, chewing his lip. Adrian sighed, standing up and walking over to Natsumi. “It’s not… looking so good…”

            The girl turned swiftly, a few tears shaking loose from her eyes. “I have to see her!”

            Adrian grabbed onto her wrist. “You can’t. They’re doing all they can for her.”

            “Let me go!” she cried, trying to twist away from him. But during her struggle she finally sunk to the floor and crumbled there, sobbing. Adrian let go of her arm and crouched down next to her, hugging her and trying to comfort her in some way. Benjamin stared from his place across the room and he sighed.

            They waited into the night, slumped in their chairs, the only ones in the room. Natsumi had fallen into a fitful sleep against Adrian’s shoulder, her expression troubled, rather than peaceful. Adrian too was almost asleep. Benjamin was awake and one of the nurses offered him a coffee, which he took. If the two were asleep, he’d stay up and wait for news. He sipped the hot liquid and it warmed his insides briefly. But there was still a cold, heavy feeling in his chest that he couldn’t shake.

            --

            Obaasan had refused to be monitored and quickly banished the doctors from her room. She wanted to die in peace, without seeing the faces of others around her. She didn’t want to say goodbye to Natsumi, it would be too hard. She lay back in her bed, sighing. She wanted to pass on in her sleep, as she’d heard some people do. She was weak and she could feel her life slipping away. Still, she was happy. She’d lived long, given her last remaining kin a chance to live normally. She’d done her bit.

            She noticed blurry movement out of the corner of her eye and she sat up slightly, coughing as she did. The door slowly closed and a figure stood on the inside of the room, slouched over slightly, blurry while the rest of the room was fairly clear. “My cursed old eyes…” she grumbled. “I can’t see nearly as well as I used to… who’s there?”

            There was no answer from the person, nor did they move from where they stood.

            “I suppose you’ve come for me?” she asked, craning her neck. “Although I don’t think you should use that body…”

            The thing’s head raised slightly.

            “I know who you are…” The figure began to slowly shuffle towards her. “You’re the ninth, aren’t you?” The figure stood beside her bed, leaning over her. “Do it quickly…”

            --

            “Ms. Tanaka…” came the nurse’s voice as the girl drowsily blinked herself out of sleep. The woman stood before them, hanging her head. “Your grandmother has… passed away. In her sleep.”

            Two of them couldn’t understand the words, only the tone they were spoken in. Natsumi sat between them and hugged herself, crying. “Why does everyone die…” Her hands fisted her hair. “Why does everyone die?!”

            --

            The funeral was held at the house. Incense was lit and a slew of people had shown up. They knelt together on the floor, comforting one another as best they could. Adrian and Benjamin remained separate from all of them, sitting together, clad in black. They gazed up at the arrangement for obaasan. Her picture sat in the middle, although she was somewhat younger in the photo.

            “What should we do now…” Benjamin sighed. The two of them took a seat outside on the front porch. “Maybe we shouldn’t stay here anymore.”

            “We can’t let Natsumi live all alone” Adrian answered. “We have to do what we can for her…”

            “Poor obaasan!” Benjamin wailed suddenly. “I… I should’ve refused to do that! But I had to see you again, Adrian!”

            “It’s my fault too…” the redhead sighed, dejectedly. He stood up and hopped off the deck. “I’m going for a walk…”

            “I’ll come” Benjamin said, getting down as well. The two strode alongside each other, but the air was heavy with their silence. From above, cherry blossom petals fell from the trees and littered the paths and the gleaming surface of the ponds.  

 --

She was a woman of nervous disposition, and she feebly clung to her younger sister's arm as she was led outside for the first time in over two years. Yukari Nakamura had severe agrophobia, although it was a condition oft dismissed by her less than supportive parents, who had taken it as an act of rebellion against marriage. As such, Yukari was taking up residence in her sister, Tomoe's house, until further notice. 

Yukari felt foolish. Her sister had, in the past, turned to her when she was in need. As an older sister, Yukari still felt that responsibility to her sister. She hated being so needy, she hated being afraid... even worse, she hated leaning on her family when she was nearly 24 and just about past her ideal marrying age, as coined by her mother. 

The two ambled down the street, linked together closely. Yukari latched onto her sister's sweater, her knuckles bleached white. Her feet all but dragged inch by inch on the ground. They recieved stares from some people, but in Yokohama, nothing was so very unusual. Eventually they stopped to rest at a bench, placed beside a bus stop. Seated, Yukari gripped the bench instead, her breath coming out in short, shallow gasps through clenched teeth. Her face had paled and her eyes were widened and flickered back and forth. 

Tomoe placed a hand to her forehead, sitting back and extending her legs out in front of her. "Maybe we should take a bus the rest of the way..." she said, regarding her sister and trying to sound sympathetic. Really, she tried. She had recently married the man of her dreams, they lived together quite happily. And then Yukari fell into their lives. Her sister, suddenly and inexplicably afraid of the outdoors, paranoid and unhealthy had moved in. She was jobless, friendless and worst of all, she didn't even have a man in her life. Tomoe had signed a death warrant, that she had to live with the frightened and edgy woman for the rest of her days. 

She didn't ever let on that she felt that way. She often felt guilty for being angry with Yukari. It wasn't her fault. She had it worse. Yukari would never impose on anyone unless she had to and it was likely driving her mad to have to do so. 

"The bus...?" Yukari squeaked. Her eyes darted around and suddenly she curled in on herself, clutching her sides. "I- I can't do this, sis... take me home... please..."

"Stop it" Tomoe said, sternly. "You're a grown woman and these fears are unfounded. 

"I know..." she moaned. "You think I don't know..."

"There's nothing to be afraid of out here... nothing at all." 

"No..."

Tomoe sighed, trying to be empathetic towards the woman's plight. They sat together on the bench, although Yukari was visibly tense, and teetering on the edges of a full-blown meltdown. Finally she buried her face in her hands. "I don't want to be like this!" she sobbed. "I don't want to live with you when you and Hiro are just married and trying for a family!"

"It's alright... you stay as long as you need" Tomoe soothed, reaching out and rubbing her sister's back. 

"Mom and dad have basically disowned me..." Yukari continued. "They're embarassed to know me."

"They call all the time and ask how you are" Tomoe asserted. "They care, they're just... concerned."

"I don't like this doctor..." Yukari continued, sinking deeper into despair. "He doesn't help me." 

"Dr. Oshiro? But he's doing his best. You have to go and see him again." 

"Let me do it alone." 

--

So Tomoe, after enduring the bus ride into the city with Yukari, waited outside the clinic, sipping a coffee and trying not to act as though she were in a hurry. She didn't understand Yukari's dislike of the doctor. He was a very professional man and any time Tomoe spoke with him, he seemed to have an air of comfort and reassurance. He'd made her believe that Yukari would recover, that her fears were only temporary... Dr. Oshiro was a good man. Tomoe was certain of that much. 

Watching the nervous Yukari go through the doors, Tomoe's only desire was that the woman would leave her alone. In passing thought, she hadn't time to take it back. And she never saw Yukari again.

--

She was old now and she prided herself on her independence. Hiro had left her years ago and she hadn't remarried or even dated seriously. There was no point. Tomoe was happy to live alone with the occasional visits from her children and grandchildren. An unscheduled visit perplexed her that morning. "One moment, please!" she called from the interior of her house. She hurried along to the front door, peering through the hole and gasping. She quickly unlocked the door and opened it, facing a police officer. 

"I apologize for the short notice..." the man said, bowing. "Ms. Nakamura, I take it?" 

"Yes..." For she'd taken back her old name after the divorce. "How can I help you?"

"It's about your sister."

"O-oh... Yukari?" Her voice faultered slightly. "Do you... have news?"

"A lead... maybe. That's all. I don't mean to upset you, Ms. Nakamura but we think she may have been the ninth victim of the serial killings in Sankeien..."

Yes, Tomoe knew of those murders. They were unsolved but the entire gardens had been turned over, looking for bodies. They'd found eight women buried there. "You... think so?"

"I'll explain everything..."

--

            He felt as though he’d been dropped out of reality. He struggled to focus his mind but the more he tried to recall the faces and memories lingering before him, the further away they got. He had a sensation in the pit of his stomach, like falling. He didn’t know if he was moving or not. He was too dazed to know if he was actually moving his limbs around, although in his head, they were flailing frantically.

            With a start, he was suddenly gasping, his eyes flying open as he clawed at the darkness around him. It seemed to swirl around him, in tendrils. Like hair. A coil of black hair curled around his arm, he could see it as well as feel it. Crying out, he reached over with his other hand, desperately trying to rip it away. He pulled away tangles and tangles of hair but it seemed impossible to get rid of.

            “Someone help!” Adrian cried, his voice hoarse and almost completely gone. His free hand slid around his neck and he had the sensation of choking. He coughed and finally reached into his gaping mouth, feeling sick as his fingers closed around a tangle of hair. He coughed again, pulling it out. It was like a tangled rope of black hair and he pulled it from his throat. It seemed to stretch on forever and Adrian continued to pull at it until finally, he felt a heavy bulge rise up his throat. He coughed for a final time and the thing came out in his hand. Wrapped in the hair was a bloodied, underdeveloped fetus, cold and dead.

            He screamed, his hand shaking and throwing it away. Another coil of hair wrung itself around Adrian’s middle and he tried to pull it away. “Stop it!” He felt one snake around his neck and another wrapped around his other arm. His thrashing became more restrained. “No! Stop! STOP!” It continued to move around him, eventually encasing his entire body. He couldn’t move or speak and only his eyes were seen as they darted back and forth, wide and fearful.

            --

            His body jerked and he awoke, feeling rain against his skin. His eyes widened and he sat up with a jolt. He was sitting bolted upright, on the ground. His hands clawed at himself and his clothes and he was relieved to find that he was free of the hair. He stood up slowly, finding that he was standing in the middle of a gravel path and after looking around quickly, he realized he was in Sankeien. Natsumi and Obaasan’s house couldn’t have been very far and although he wasn’t entirely sure of which way he was going, he headed down the trail, hurrying to get there.

            Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a white thing flapping and he turned, skidding to a halt. Taped to a tree was a slip of paper and it moved violently in the wind. It was damp and it had begun to come undone. Adrian took a step towards it and reached out, pulling it off the tree and staring at it. There was Japanese print on it that he couldn’t understand but he recognized it as a missing person sign. In black and white, right in the centre, was a picture of a young woman.

            Adrian squinted at the grainy image and then looked over his shoulder. All the trees around him had pieces of paper attached to their trunks. After inspecting them, he realized they were all of different women.

            --

            Natsumi initially refused to go to school that morning but Benjamin urged her out the door. The girl lingered on the path leading away from their house as Benjamin stood in the front doorway. “You’ll come get me if anything happens, won’t you?” her voice pleaded to him.

            “Yeah… now go, or you’ll be late!”

            The girl hurried off and away and Benjamin retreated back into the house. He crossed the living room, pressing at his eyes with his palms, slumping onto the couch with a miserable sigh. He sniffled slightly, furiously rubbing at his eyes in any way he could, trying not to let on that there was anything wrong, despite the fact that he was alone in the house. He was so worried about Adrian, in some other world, wandering aimlessly. But there was little he could do until obaasan was feeling better and would be able to retrieve him.

            --

            His sneakers crunched up the gravel pathway that snaked through the gardens but in the place of obaasan’s house, there was an entirely different house. It was a fairly old looking house, painted white and blue around the windows although the paint had begun to peel and the wood panels were beginning to rot. Adrian approached it slowly, circling it. He didn’t know what to make of it.

            “This can’t be the right place…” he finally said, shoulders slumping as he sighed. He looked around, annoyed that he’d lost his way. A fog had rolled in along with the rain and he was soaking wet and miserably cold. He awkwardly surveyed the house again. Surely it was abandoned. Rubbing his arms, he stepped under the roof that jutted out over the front porch. He was obviously disoriented, or so he thought, if he didn’t know where the house was.

            “All this fog…” he said out loud, leaning against the wooden railing that almost completely circled the porch. However, he soon thought better of it, feeling the rotting wood starting to give way beneath his weight. He peered into one of the windows, finding it foggy and dirty. But still, he was able to make out the interior of the empty house. He squinted at the back wall, pressing his forehead against the window. “What is that…”

            He tried the door but it was locked. Still, he felt the need to go inside.

            --

            Benjamin hated elevators, for whatever reason, not that he’d ever had any bad experiences in one. He recalled, though, when his sister, Milani was just born, the family had yet to move out of the apartment. He leaned against the smooth, cool elevator wall. It seemed to be made of steel and he could see his blurry reflection in it. As he looked downwards, he could see two four year olds in the reflection as well.

            “And sometimes the doors close and you get stuck inside… forever!”

            “Stop it!”

            “Tora’s a chicken! Buck, buck! ‘Fraidy cat.”

            Benjamin’s lips quirked into a slight smile, despite being pressed into the corner of the elevator. He really was scared… Finally the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. He stepped out but held his hand over the door to keep it open as a nurse wheeled in some supplies. She smiled and nodded at him, whispering ‘arigato’ on her way in. He wandered down the pristine hospital hallways that gleamed under the fluorescent lights and smelt of bleach. He found obaasan’s room, a room she insisted on having private, and she paid the extra for it. He knocked gently on the door and opened it slowly.

            The woman was lying in her bed, surprisingly more frail looking than Benjamin had expected. She was looking directly at the door and when Benjamin came in, she smiled wearily. “I’m so glad you came today, Benjamin…” she whispered. “I think I may have signed my death warrant…”

            The boy sat next to her bedside on a stool that had been left there and chided her for saying such things. “It’s just exhaustion, obaasan. You’ll be better very soon…”

            “Benjamin…” she sighed. “I’m not Natsumi’s grandmother, you know…” She regarded his confused expression and smiled. “I’m more like her great, great grandmother, I’d say… Our family is probably the unluckiest in Yokohama. Most of our relatives die prematurely. And very soon I will join them…”

            “H-how old are you?” Benjamin cried, sitting back a little.

            “I don’t even know anymore… I’ve been kept alive for much longer than a human body is intended to be alive for… once I separate with the doorway, I’ll likely die.”

            Benjamin was floored, to say the least, upon hearing the news. He then shook his head, quickly. “No… you can’t die right now! I won’t do this!” He got up, the stood tipping and falling over onto the floor. He turned to leave but her voice halted him.

            “You’re sharing your life with another, Benjamin. She’s zapping your strength and using you as an outlet for her vengeance.” Obaasan sat up slightly, staring at Benjamin’s back. “You ran away because you hurt people… but it won’t stop.”

            “You know… about all that…”

            “It wasn’t your fault...”

            Benjamin whirled around, shaking his head quickly. “No! It’s me! I’m the monster!”

            “Benjamin,”

            “I’m just… sick! Sick!” He turned around again, placing his hand on the doorknob.

            “Don’t you want to see your brother again?” obaasan asked from her bed. “I’m too weak to bring him back now… if I die before I can transfer the doorway, he won’t be able to come back and evil things will escape…”

            With a heavy sigh, Benjamin went back to her. “I… I don’t want you to die…”

            “I’m old; I’ve lived a long life. If I die, it will be alright with me.”

            “But… Natsumi…”

            “She’s a strong girl; she can take care of herself now. And she has someone to watch over her… I haven’t time for goodbyes… please. Let’s do this now…”

            --

            Adrian made short work of the door, which, like the rest of the house, had weakened and rotted over time. It fell easily and lay at the front of the house, off its hinges. The redhead stepped into the damp, musty air of the house. The smell of mildew, rainwater and rot reached his nose but it smelt to him, not much worse than a basement. The house was without furniture as he wandered into what was likely the living room at one time. But on the white walls, there was a very prominent rust-colored splatter.

            He reached out, touching his hand to it while a shudder passed through him. Blood? Probably. It was from some time ago. He continued on down the hallways, trailing his fingertips along the walls as he did. There was a tinge of something that seemed to light his nerves on fire as he touched the house and he was confused as to what it meant.

            The bedrooms were empty and beside them was an old bathroom. Peering into the darkness of it, for it didn’t have a window, he could make out where a toilet had been, but had since been uprooted. The bathtub was still there and he could make out dark smears on the chipped tiles above it. Smears, like finger smears. Blood smears.

            --

            “Can you really do this, obaasan?” Benjamin asked, kneeling next to the bedside, holding her cold, wrinkled hand within his. “Do you have the strength?” His amber eyes glistened as he regarded her, both with respect and worry.

            “There’s no time left… I have to have the strength.” She placed one of her hands over top of his. “All the knowledge I have of it will be passed to you. You’ll know what to do.”

            “Okay,” he sucked in a breath through his teeth and held it, closing his eyes.

            --

            Adrian opened the last door in the house and found that there were stairs leading down into the darkened cellar. The feeling that had initially pulled him in now seemed to urge him down the stairs and he walked slowly, refusing to look at the smears on the wall leading down as he did. He didn’t look at the patches of it on the stairs either. He entered the basement and the cool air caused goosebumps to break out over his skin.

            The basement was much different. Right in the centre of it was what looked to Adrian, like a dentist’s chair. He warily approached it. It had buckles on the arm rests, on the headrest and down where the legs would be. Restraints. There was blood on the chair too and it glistened, dark red and freshly shed. He reached out, almost about to touch it, but withdrew his hand again. He looked around him. As his eyes had begun to adjust, he found other things.

            There were chains hanging from the wall with cuffs on the ends of them. There appeared to be a muzzle. There were hooks and ropes. The entire basement looked as though it belonged to a bondage fetishist but the blood present on the walls and on the devices, some of which he couldn’t even name, told a different story. It was a torture chamber.

            --

            Benjamin jolted and automatically tried to pull away from the old woman’s grip. He couldn’t. Somehow, she was holding onto him tightly, holding him still. He could see the energy snaking up his arm and he watched in painful fascination as it pulsed through him like an electric shock. His form began to crumble at the pain and he bit his lip down until it bled to keep from crying out.

            --

            Adrian turned back around and he could see someone standing in the shadows. He jumped in surprise and took a nervous step back, although he wasn’t sure if he should be afraid or not. He squinted as they slowly raised their arm to him and his stomach flopped when he realized there was only a bloodied stub where the hand was supposed to be.

            --

            Obaasan’s body went limp and Benjamin finally pulled his hand away, staggering backwards and crouching on the floor. He hugged his middle, panting harshly and whimpering. It was like a knife ripping through his organs and the more he thought of it, the more he felt that was exactly happening. He rocked a few times, trying to ease the pain, but there was no avail and finally it became even worse and he curled up on the floor, screaming.

            --

            “Wh-what happened to you?” he finally asked, his voice hoarse. They took a step towards him and dread crept over him. “No! Don’t come near me!” He backed into the dentist chair, causing the buckles to clink together. “Stop it!” The person ignored him, walking in a swaying, dreamy sort of way, hunched over and in shadow.

            --

            Benjamin extended his arm as it plunged into darkness like water. He could feel his body burning and he closed his eyes to it. Still, he reached and finally he broke through the barrier.

            Adrian heard what sounded like a shatter coming from above him and looked upwards, although the other person seemed to be oblivious to him and kept coming. It was a hole in space, and reaching through was a white arm and hand, outstretched. There was a halo of white light around it. Adrian knew it was alright. Giving the person one last, fearful glance, he took hold of the hand, shutting his eyes.

            --

            Adrian felt light and warmth and suddenly he was sprawled out on a cool, tile floor, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of him. He lay on his back, his chest rising and falling with each harsh breath. He suddenly felt thin arms around him, pulling his head and shoulders upwards slightly. His head rested in Benjamin’s lap and the relieved face peered down over him, moving so that their foreheads were touching.

            “Adrian…” he whispered, stroking the other’s bangs from his face. “I was so…”

            Still stunned and confused, Adrian just stared back at him and looked shocked when Benjamin began to cry. “Hey… it’s alright. Don’t cry…” He cupped the side of Benjamin’s face in his hand, smiling at him. “Benji…”

            --

            Benjamin rolled around in his bed, as he usually did at night. The dreams he kept having scared him. Dreams of having his fingers cut off, one by one, having his eyes poked at with needles, being strapped to a chair. He could feel the pain in his sleep and he groaned, finally waking himself up in his usual cold sweat and lack of breath. He pressed a hand to his damp throat, feeling the fluttering pulse beneath the pads of his fingers. Sighing, he slid out of the large bed and moved across the bedroom floor silently. He opened the door and peered into the hallway. He couldn’t see a thing but he had an idea of where the kitchen was. All he needed was a glass of water to quench his parched throat.

            He stepped out into the hall, his arms out in front of him, groping blindly. One hand brushed against the textured wallpaper and he moved to press against it and followed it along. He paused at the top of the stairs, noting a light from the kitchen was in partial view. He eased down each step with the greatest of care until he reached the kitchen. Obaasan was seated at the table when he got there and he was rather surprised. She looked so strange with her silvery hair, usually tied up in a bun, now flowing free and long down her back. “Uh, obaasan! I… I couldn’t sleep, you know!” He lowered his head, blushing, feeling as though he’d caught her being indecent because the woman, usually looking so put together, now looked worn and ragged.

            “Yes… the nightmares…” she mumbled, nodding slowly

            “You know about them?”

            “You do seem to indicate that you have them” she replied, sipping at her tea. “Do they occur a lot?”

            Benjamin took a seat at the table. “They’ve gotten a lot worse and more graphic since I came to Japan” he admitted. He looked at his hand, stretched in front of him. “Like a long torture session…” He lowered his arm slowly, peering at the woman who didn’t meet his gaze. She was staring down into the tea at her blurry reflection. “Um…”

            “Don’t worry, Benjamin. I’ll take care of the girl. There are traditional methods of exorcising…”

            “Like in that movie?” he offered. He saw the faintest of smiles on her face but it vanished just as quickly.

            “Fox goblins are mischievous but they aren’t dangerous, exactly. Which is why I’m taking my time about it. There are many ways to banish spirits, you know… and they aren’t usually very difficult to get rid of, these ones. More like catching a cold. A nuisance, but easy to get rid of.” She glanced at Benjamin. “Understand?”

            “I… I guess, obaasan…” he mumbled, shrugging.

            “I told you about yu-rei… they’re evil things, Benjamin…”

            “You said earlier that yu-rei would be attracted to me and my brother. Why?”

            “Because you can see them, for one. Even when they don’t want to be seen…” She reverted her eyes back to her cup. “And there are other reasons… Benjamin, for some spirits, I have to resort to more drastic measures.”

            “Why are you telling me all of this?”

            The woman laughed but it was cut short by a coughing fit. When she’d composed herself again, she smiled. “Benjamin, I’m old. I don’t let on to Natsumi of how old I am. My time in this world is almost over but Natsumi doesn’t have the gift that has been passed through the family.”

            “The ability to contact the dead…” Benjamin mumbled, nodding.

            “Because of that, and the fact that my son died long ago, I can’t pass this burden onto her… If I were to die without doing so, then things from the spiritual world could pass freely into our world…”

            “I see…”

            “Benjamin, there is a doorway between the worlds. There is only one that I know of, but there are certainly others around as well.” She placed a hand over her chest. “I am one such doorway. Through me, spirits can travel in and out of the worlds.”

            Benjamin fell backwards slightly, in sheer surprise. “You’re a doorway? You mean like… through you…”

            “You could travel to the spiritual world…” she finished, nodding. “There’s not enough time to explain it all, Benjamin. I’ll get right to the point. I want you to take the doorway from me.”

            “M-me?!”

            --

            Adrian finally decided he’d had enough and grabbed hold of Benjamin’s shoulders, forcing him back. “Who are you?”

            “This is our house now…” Benjamin said, lowering his voice in warning. “You can all just get out…”

            “You’re pretty low, disguising yourself as my brother!” He socked the Benjamin imposter in the nose and he fell back off of the bed with a thud. Adrian pushed himself up into a higher sitting position, scowling and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. The top of Benjamin’s head could be seen at the foot of the bed as he got up from the floor, swaying.

            “If you knew I wasn’t him…” He set his chin on the edge of the mattress and clawed at the sheets with his outstretched arms. “Why didn’t you push me away sooner?” When Adrian said nothing, the imposter narrowed his eyes into slits. “Because you’re so desperate.”

            “I’m not!” Adrian kicked at the face peering at him but missed.

            “You a-are!” Benjamin sang, standing up slowly. He swayed back and forth, his arms dangling limply at his sides. Then he stopped, tilting his head slowly to one side. “You’re sick...”

            “I don’t have to take that from a stupid fox!”

            “But you are… anyone can see that… you’re feeling like this for your brother.”

            “Shut up!” He got off the bed, storming towards the figure, who clapped excitedly.

            “Oh, I got him angry!” He backed up and melted through the door. Adrian stood, stunned for a moment, then glowered and flung the door open, stepping out into the hall.

            “Get back here!” But the hallway was empty and silent and he whipped his head back and forth, breathing heavily. He heard a sudden creak and jumped, facing in the direction it had come from. Natsumi’s door opened slowly and the girl poked her head out, looking at him.

            “Adrian, did they come and bother you too?”

            “Yes…”

            Natsumi stepped fully into the hall, frowning and tucking her hands behind her back. “One of them disguised himself as someone I know…”

            A piercing scream rang out from down the hall and both of them jerked their heads in the direction of it. “It’s Hitomi” Natsumi said and they hurried to the door at the end of the hall, pushing it open and entering the girl’s bedroom. The girl was sitting upright in her bed with the sheets pulled up over her mouth and nose. The entire room was infested with foxes. They swung from the ceiling fan, jumped on the mattress, primped themselves in the mirror. Adrian stared around with his mouth agape and Natsumi shifted closer to him.

            “There are a lot of them…” she whispered. Although she couldn’t see the foxes directly, she could see the objects they were picking up, their weight sinking into the mattress and the noises they made.

            The girl in the bed squirmed and cried, ignorant of Natsumi and Adrian’s presence. It was then that obaasan and Benjamin hurried into the room.

            “This is worse than I thought…” the old woman muttered. Adrian and Natsumi looked at her in surprise. She slapped her palms together twice and spread them apart, facing the room. “I’m going to open a doorway…”

            Natsumi grabbed hold of Adrian around the waist and tugged him backwards, forcefully. Adrian staggered over against the wall. “We have to stand back!” Natsumi instructed. “Or we could…”

            Benjamin stepped out into the hallway, his eyes on obaasan’s back. However, he heard a shuffle down the hall and turned to look at it. The girl’s mother was hurrying towards him, tying up her housecoat as she did. She began to speak in Japanese but Benjamin figured she was demanding to know what was going on and he blocked her from entering the room. “Just hold on a second, miss” he said, unable to take his eyes off of the doorway.

Adrian watched, with Natsumi clinging to him, as the foxes began to shift inward, towards the woman, although they struggled to get away. Slowly, one by one, the foxes skidded towards her and seemed to melt away into her body. Natsumi hid her face from it but Adrian watched on in fascination. As a fox yowled and rushed by him, it reached out, grabbing the corner of his shirt, clawing at it before it was pulled into the doorway with the others. He wrestled out of Natsumi’s grip and the girl was too distracted to notice. He walked closer, slowly, feeling the slight pull towards obaasan. Was she taking the foxes into herself?

“O-obaasan…” Adrian said, almost fearfully. His feet slid across the floor. He was too close. “What is…” He reached out towards her and watched as the tips of his fingers morphed and stretched, reaching into her. His eyes went wide and he tried to pull backwards but found he couldn’t. His feet were suddenly off the floor and he was falling forwards, flailing and being pulled into the void.

--

The girl was crying as her mother comforted her in the bed. Obaasan had fallen to her knees and was clutching at her chest. She cupped a hand over her mouth as blood spurted from her lips. Natsumi knelt next to her, rubbing her back. Benjamin remained in the doorway.

“What just… happened… Where’s Adrian?!”

“He… got too close to the doorway…” the old woman rasped, glancing over her shoulder at Benjamin. “He’s in the other world… l-let me rest a moment and I’ll bring him back…”

“Obaasan…” Natsumi said, speaking worriedly. “You’re getting too old to be doing this…”

Benjamin hurried towards the two, kneeling on the other side of obaasan. “A-are you okay?”

“I’ll be… fine…” she panted. But then she slid to the floor and out of consciousness with Natsumi screaming for her.

--

Benjamin sat, hunched over in a chair pushed against a wall next to a vending machine. He had his fingers linked together and his clasped hands hung between his legs, nearly touching the floor. He could hear Natsumi speaking in Japanese with the doctor before she approached him and set a hand on his shoulder. Slowly, Benjamin raised his head and the glint of amber eyes could be seen through his veil of hair.

The girl’s eyes were red and she was chewing her lip and trying to hide her face, smudged with tears. “The doctor says she’ll have to spend the night here… and she’s not awake yet…” The girl dropped down and hugged Benjamin. “I’m so worried! About both of them! If obaasan’s not awake, she can’t bring back your brother either!”

“We should go home…” Benjamin said, peering over the top of her shoulder. “And we’ll come back tomorrow.”

Natsumi sniffled loudly, letting go of him and glancing behind her. “But… I’m scared to leave her…”

“You’ll be a wreck tomorrow” Benjamin answered, standing up and helping her up as well. “Come on…” And he left no room for arguments as he ushered her out of the waiting room and through the lobby, outside.  

The kitchen was the picture of mayhem that morning. Long, black tendrils of hair moved in every which way, snaking around any food item available. It then drew the things inwards, shoving them into the ravenous mouth that had sprouted on the back of Benjamin’s head. Benjamin himself sat in a seat at the kitchen table, his eyes cast downwards, sniffling. Adrian and Natsumi covered in the corner of the room, clinging to each other, fearfully. Only obaasan seemed calm and collected in the situation.

            “Yes, no doubt about it. You’ve turned yourself into a futakuchi-onna” She pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head in disapproval. “I’ve not seen this in years.” She glanced at Natsumi. “Not since your father was a small boy.”

            Benjamin had, up to that point, tried to remain calm as he could. His fingers dug into his palms and they rested on the tabletop. Just behind him, there was chaos as things were continuously lifted into the air by his hair. He stared up at obaasan with pleading eyes. “There’s a way to get rid of this, right?” he asked. “Right? Right?” His voice had gone high and anxious and he sat up in his chair, leaning in.

            “Well…” the little old woman tipped her chair backwards slightly, folding her arms over her chest. “The cause is a fairly easy one. You haven’t been eating enough, Benjamin. And so a second mouth has grown to feed your body.”

            “Wh-what?!” He looked crestfallen and his head fell against the table. “But…”

            “I suggest you start eating normally, and fast” obaasan continued, wiggling a bony finger. “Or you’ll likely never get back to normal.”

            Benjamin scraped his fingernails against his scalp as he held his head. “If I eat too much… I’ll get hips and breasts…”

            “That seems like a fair trade off” obaasan answered. “Do you really need to decide?” Sighing, the woman got up from the chair, getting behind Benjamin. The long hair fought with her, wrapping itself around her arms but she managed to get past it. Benjamin continued to hold his head, burying his face in the table, whimpering. Obaasan raised her hand and pinched between her fingers was a needle that glinted in the slant of orange sunlight.

            Natsumi and Adrian inched further back but peered on, morbidly curious. The old woman plucked one long strand of hair from Benjamin’s head and threaded it through the eye of the needle easily. She began to stitch the gaping mouth shut. “If you don’t heal yourself…” she grunted, moving out of the way of a lashing whip of hair, “it’ll come back.” She soon finished and the violent tendrils of hair stopped moving, returning to their normal length. She placed her hand on Benjamin’s shoulder, squeezing it gently and he raised his reddened eyes, staring at her.

            “It’s alright now” she said, smiling. She stood back from him, addressing Adrian as well. “The two of you have a unique connection to the spiritual world. I’m sure you’ve realized that by now. By staying with me, we will eventually find your mother.”

            --

            The four of them rode along on a bus later that morning. Benjamin continuously touched the back of his head, worriedly. Natsumi was sitting next to him, listening to headphones with her eyes closed and bobbing her head slowly to the sound that could be heard by everyone else as well as herself. Adrian sat next to her, tapping his knees with his fingers. Obaasan sat last, mostly looking pale and shouting to the driver to slow down and not turn so hard. Not that Adrian or Benjamin understood the raspy Japanese words.

            “Here we are…”obaasan said, getting off the bus with Natsumi helping her. “Oh, thank you, mago…” She took out a tissue, dabbing her forehead. “What’s the hurry on buses, these days, I ask you?” She gestured out towards a neighborhood, looking rather like a suburb in the middle of the city. She began walking down the cul de sac and the three teenagers hurried after her.

            “Twins!” she said, sharply. Adrian and Benjamin jumped nervously and responded with ‘Yes, obaasan!’ as though she was a drill sergeant. “Natsumi cannot see what we see, so expect to witness some unusual things in this house. The family has called me to exorcise the spirits there, that is my job.”

            Adrian raised an eyebrow. “Exorcise? Obaasan, be serious…”

            “She is serious, Adrian!” Natsumi asserted, glaring at him. “You can’t mock my grandma’s good, honest work!”

            “It’s alright to be skeptical” obaasan answered, smiling. “Oh, here it is… hmm…” she studied the address on paper in her hand. “Yes, right here.”

            Adrian and Benjamin craned their necks to take in the entire Victorian styled mansion before them, and surprised registered on their faces at the same time. Sitting along the roof of the house and playing quite unconcerned in the yard, were foxes. Foxes that strode around on their hind legs, foxes that played jump rope. Foxes that shielded their eyes with their paws and pointed down at the visitors on the street, chattering to each other.

            “You… see foxes, right?” Adrian asked, looking at Benjamin.

            “I do… are we both insane?”

            “Come along, children. We must meet the owners of this fine establishment.”

            Adrian and Benjamin nervously followed behind obaasan with Natsumi wandering behind them, oblivious. Obaasan knocked on the door and after a moment, a woman opened it. She smiled and bowed and obaasan returned the bow. They talked back and forth in Japanese before they were invited in.

            The twins stared up at the interior of the house and couldn’t help but gape, even as Natsumi shoved them. “Don’t be so rude!” she scolded.

            “Look at this place!” Adrian cried, ignoring her. “Holy shit! It’s HUGE!” And it was. An old fashioned house, it had a large winding staircase almost immediately after they came into the house. The walls were painted dark greens and purples and paintings adorned each one. The ceiling extended to a great height and a chandelier hung from it.

            “You’re both idiots!” Natsumi sighed. Obaasan followed the woman that had let them in but paused, glancing at the three.

“Please take a look around. Someone in this house is the host for these spirits.”

“Yes m’am!”

Natsumi went off with her grandmother into the kitchen while Adrian and Benjamin stood at the bottom of the winding staircase. They peered up into the shadowy top floor it led to but they could see little else and were thus uneasy. Benjamin felt a shove against his back and he stumbled up a step before turning and glaring.

“You first!” Adrian said, smiling.

“Fine.” He looked back up the stairs, chewing his lip. He set his hand on the polished, ornate hand railing and began to walk up the steps. Adrian waited a few steps before following after him. They reached the dark, top floor and crept along the long, expensive looking carpet. The hallway stretched far along and it was clear that the family was wealthy.

Adrian occasionally peeked into doors as he opened them. One in particular, at the end of the hallway, was bad. As he opened it, several foxes scurried out and both he and Benjamin jumped in surprise, moving out of the way as they raced down the hall and turned a corner. “Why would they have fox ghosts?” Benjamin asked, awkwardly letting go of Adrian’s arm that he’d clung to automatically.

The two carefully slid through the opening between the door and the wall, inching into the room and finding it well lit, unlike the others they’d happened to look in. It was a bedroom of white, pristine furniture and walls. The muffled sounds of a music box could be heard but the room was empty, at least upon first glance. Standing in the centre, both twins were gripped with an urge to remain still for fear of disturbing the white, delicate room they’d found themselves in. On the bed, several white teddy bears of various sizes were lined up along the pillows. On the walls, there hung a few framed photographs.

“It’s a kid’s room…?” Adrian asked, unmoving from his spot, only allowing himself to pivot around to take in the entire space.

“Not sure… can you hear that?” They both listened to the melody that wafted through the walls, muffled but still very much a part of the room, like a heartbeat. Finally, Benjamin’s searching eyes fell on the closet door and he stepped towards it, sliding it open. Several narrow-faced, almond-eyed foxes gazed out at them from the closet, squinting against the light. And seemingly buried among them, was a girl, although she was surprisingly older than her room might have suggested.

She had her knees drawn up to her chest and she ignored the presence of the foxes, instead looking through half-lidded eyes at the music box. Her eyes flickered up as her peace was disturbed and she reacted with fearful eyes and a scream. Benjamin staggered backwards, bumping against Adrian’s chest as the girl stood up, nearly their own age, and began accusing them in Japanese.

Unsure of what to make of the hysterical girl, the two finally opted to escape, shoving over each other and hurrying out into the hall. The girl stood in the doorway, her small form somehow menacing and continued to shout at them until they’d scrambled away and back down the stairs, nearly tripping in their hurry.

Stumbling into the kitchen where Natsumi, Obaasan and the hostess where seated, they received slightly annoyed looks from the three women. The hostess poured tea for obaasan and Natsumi and quietly inquired about the two tall, strange boys that had burst into her kitchen. Obaasan spoke casually of them and the hostess looked back at the twins with a different expression.

“Come; have some tea with us, won’t you?” Obaasan said in English to the two teenagers. “You obviously found something?”

“Foxes!” Adrian stammered, pointing in the direction of the stairs. “Little, creepy foxes!”

“Foxes, you say?” obaasan asked. “And who is the host for them?”

Adrian paused in his rambling to give her a blank look but Benjamin caught on. “The girl upstairs. Her room is full of them.”

The old woman turned to the hostess, speaking in Japanese to her and the two briefly exchanged words while Adrian and Benjamin took their seats at the table. It was a fairly big table, anyway. Obaasan then translated for them. “The girl is Hitomi and her mother says she’s recently begun to act very strange. She’s been playing childish pranks, locking herself in her closet and fretting about whether her face is too long. The mother’s call to us was prompted after she experienced other phenomena in the house. Dishes breaking on their own… doors slamming, chairs moving…”

“It’s weird that… foxes would come and do that” Adrian mumbled. “So, can they really not see them? But you saw them, didn’t you, obaasan?”

The woman smiled, sipping her tea. “My sight isn’t what it used to be, I’m afraid. I can see just fine in our world but the spiritual world has become harder to contact in my old age. That’s why I have the two of you. It sounds to me like fox goblins.” She explained it in Japanese to the woman and she gasped, covering her mouth with her hands and sputtering out Japanese words in a frightened tone.

--

The evening fell on Yokohama and Obaasan, Natsumi, Adrian and Benjamin were offered to spend the night at the house. There were plenty of spare bedrooms and obaasan reluctantly accepted the offer after the hostess insisted. The four of them sat together in Obaasan’s room with the lights out, having only a few scantily placed candles to light up the room. The shadows were deep and endlessly stirring and Benjamin found himself uneasy the more he watched them. There was something menacing about moving shadows. He sat on the floor against the bed, hugging his knees and he didn’t dare voice his unease out loud.

“I’ve never dealt with them personally” obaasan was saying, almost gravely, as she sat on the floor with the three teenagers. “I’ve heard in our lore, that a woman was once possessed by foxes but in order to cure her, they had to do very drastic things that ended up killing her.”

Natsumi was clad in her pajamas and she listened intently. Although she knew she’d never possess her family’s gift, she always tried to be helpful. “We can’t do that then, can we?” she asked, frowning. “As weird as the girl is, we can’t kill her.”

“I can banish spirits back to their own worlds, but I can’t guarantee that they’ll stay there when another door opens for them.” The old woman’s shadowed face turned to Adrian and Benjamin. “Listen, there are spirits that are not entirely deceased and they simply exist, gripped in a controlling and terrible rage. We call them yu-rei.”

“Natsumi told me about those” Adrian piped up.

“I took you to this place because I didn’t believe it was a yu-rei that was here. Yu-rei are dangerous creatures. People that come in contact with them sometimes disappear.”

“That’s all fine and good, obaasan” Adrian said, stifling a yawn. “But why should we care about these yu-rei things?”

“You should care…” obaasan said, looking from him to Benjamin. “Because yu-rei will be attracted to both of you. You might encounter people that will look normal, but only you will be able to see… Yu-rei kill people and when you meet one, your life is in danger. For that reason, neither of you should go out alone.”

“Alright, already” Adrian sighed, shrugging. “We won’t go out alone, then.” He stood up, apparently not taking the warnings very seriously. He stretched his arms over his head, causing a sliver of stomach to become visible for a moment. “I’m going to bed.”

He turned, walking off and they sat in silence until the door clicked shut. Benjamin gave obaasan an apologetic look. “He’s not doubting you, he just…”

“It’s alright. You should go to bed too.”

--

There was a weight against his chest and Adrian was jolted from his sleep. One wrist lay across his eyes and he lifted it slightly, groaning in annoyance. “Uh… what? What?” His eyes grew wider as he saw none other than Benjamin leaning over him, his long hair hanging slightly over his pale, narrow face.

Adrian sat up in the bed but he was annoyed at being disturbed. “What is it?” he asked, running a hand through his red locks. “Hey… I thought I locked the door…” Benjamin sat back a little, staring down at the sheets and fumbling his hands together in his lap. Adrian growled and sighed. “Okay, I’m awake. What is it?”

“Adrian…” Benjamin said, his voice almost a whisper. “Adrian… I… I… I want you…”

The redhead stumbled back a little in shock. “Uh… come again?”

Benjamin stared at him, desperate. “Please, Adrian! I need you right now… I… I just want you to…” His pale skin, glowing silver in the moonlight, darkened in a blush. He suddenly reached out, grabbing hold of Adrian’s t-shirt and pulling them together, mashing their mouths together in a kiss.

Adrian’s body went rigid and for a moment, he remained perfectly still, almost afraid that Benjamin would disappear if he so much as moved a finger. However, when he eventually gathered up the nerve to put his arms around the other, he found that Benjamin was warm and real. Still, his mind was moving faster than he realized. Benjamin had made it clear many times before, that he had no interest in doing those sort of things. So why now? Adrian banished his questioning thoughts, happily losing himself in the moment.

--

Natsumi heard her door open and close and she’d been awake, lying in her bed. She heard the sound of muffled footsteps crossing the room and she sprung up, eyes wide, blankets pulled up to her chin as if they could protect her. However, her expression changed to confusion and she lowered the blankets with a shrug. Standing across the room from her was a tall, dark figure. Taller than most Japanese people. She could hardly believe her eyes.

            “S-Sekitan?! What are you doing here?!”

            The man took a few cautious steps towards her. “I wanted to see you…”

            Natsumi blushed heavily at the strange desire in his voice. “…You did?”

            “Yes.” He sat on the edge of her bed. “Cirrus, you’re so beautiful, you know…” He lowered his eyes to the floor.

            “I can’t believe a dog is telling me this.”

            “I’m human…” he whispered. He scooted up the bed towards her and the normally shy girl didn’t back away. “For you…”

            “Is that… so…” She was losing herself within the bright, green orbs that were his eyes. They were indeed human eyes. She felt his hand cup the side of her face and his thumb trailed over her cheek.

            “Come with me, Cirrus. And I’ll show you your parents again.”

            “Really?” she asked, setting a hand atop of his. “Would you really do that…?”

            “Anything for you.”

            --

            Charlotte Felton awoke with a start, to the rumble of thunder outside her window. The white, translucent curtains blew outwards and the room smelt of rain. Getting out of her bed, the woman hurried across the carpeted floor to close the window that she’d left open. She grunted as rain damped her nightgown and she pulled on the window. For a moment, it was stuck, but it eventually slammed closed and the room became silent. Charlotte sighed, glancing back towards the bed and seeing that Andrew’s place was empty. Not a complete surprise.

            Slipping on her housecoat and slippers, Charlotte left the room and wandered down the stairs to the main floor of their house. The house was dark and quiet, save for the light pattering of rain against the windows and the occasional boom of thunder. She moved into the living room, rubbing her arms. The rainwater soaking her nightgown had left a chill in her skin. There was a single line of light beneath a closed door, Andrew’s study, where he retreated to mark papers and occasionally muse over problems. She was sure the latter was the reason tonight.

            “Andy?” she called, knocking lightly on the door as she approached it. “Do you know what time it is?” She’d attempted to sound stern but her voice faltered. She jiggled the brass knob, finding it unlocked, and let herself in. Her immediate view was of the disarray of the study as well as the oak desk that Andrew sat at. He was slumped over in his chair with his back facing her, his arms and his head resting on the desk. Charlotte approached him slowly, resting a hand on his shoulder.

            In even the few days that the twins had been away, Andrew looked as though he’d aged ten years to his wife. Naturally there was a sense of gloom within the house and Andrew had been exhausted, worrying about them. Charlotte was worried too but with Milani and Andrew so miserable, she’d taken it upon herself to run the household as best she could. They were safe, she knew, they were both intelligent and resourceful kids. But if they’d gone together, she wondered if they had managed to get along.

            Almost since Benjamin had officially returned from the hospital, Adrian had taken a disliking to him. But it was more than that. He wasn’t indifferent to Benjamin, he actually wanted to fight with him. He’d wait around for Benjamin and taunt him, trying to get him to react. Benjamin’s medication allowed very little room for emotional outbursts and so it was generally a fruitless effort.

            --

            Charlotte recalled, four years ago, when she and her husband were called to sit down and discuss Tora’s condition. They sat in chairs beside each other and the doctor was across from them at a desk in a white, bland little office. The entire hospital was bland, in Charlotte’s opinion. She shuddered at the miserable cries of children, concealed within its walls, forgotten by their families. Or perhaps left there out of desperation. And Tora was among them.

            “We’ve finally made a breakthrough” the doctor was saying. When he’d begun talking, Charlotte hadn’t registered it simply because it was formalities and summaries. But the word ‘breakthrough’ caught her attention and she squeezed her husband’s hand in earnest. Dr. Scottell, was he? She didn’t quite recall even though he’d been there from the beginning.

            “A breakthrough?” Andrew asked. His voice reflected a professional, withdrawn tone that he’d come to use on these daily visits.

            “As you know, we’ve been trying a veritable cocktail of medications…” The doctor maintained eye contact, except when he was rummaging around his files to wave another piece of paper in their faces. “None of which have yielded much results… but there’s a new drug on the market, very new. And… we put her on it, experimentally.”

            Charlotte gaped before turning to look at Andrew. He didn’t look back at her, only ahead, but she could see the shame behind his eyes. He’d approved of this without consulting her. Turned their daughter into a guinea pig. He hadn’t even discussed it with her after the fact.

            “Her condition has improved a great deal, since” the doctor continued. “Her moods have been maintained, she no longer has violent outbursts and she doesn’t have hallucinations anymore. With your permission, I’d like to continue administering the drug to her in pill form.”

            “Anything to make her better…” Andrew said quickly, earning another quizzical look from Charlotte.

            “Uh, I have some concerns” the woman piped up.

            “Of course, Mrs. Felton. It’s only natural that you would” He smiled in a fake, overly friendly, professional way. “It is a new drug but it has been approved and it certainly isn’t to be used lightly. However, in Tora’s case, we felt it necessary.”

            “Yes, I understand that, but…”

            “There are some mild side effects, certainly. Some memory loss, dry throat… loss of appetite… but I feel it is a great improvement from her previous state.”

            --

            The door was opened to the room Tora occupied and Charlotte stepped in, uneasily. She paused, glancing at Andrew, who lingered in the hall. “You go ahead…” he mumbled. “I’m going to talk to Dr. Scottell some more.” And he hurried away.

            Charlotte closed the door behind her. The room was more furnished than her last visit. There was a small desk in the corner, as well as the bed. The bed had been changed to remove the restraints. Tora sat at the desk, pencil crayons sprawled around her, coloring. Charlotte edged in carefully, afraid of an outburst, afraid that Tora would attack as she usually did and repeat ‘Don’t kill me, don’t kill me’ as she clung to her mother with an iron grip. It was reminiscent of their last visit together, several months ago.

            “T-Tora…?” she ventured, unsure of why the girl hadn’t yet realized she was in the room.

            The scratching of lead against paper ceased and Tora looked up at her. “Hello.”

            “Hello, love… how are you… feeling?” She gingerly stood next to Tora’s desk.

            “I’m feeling fine.”

            “That’s good… what are you drawing?” She leaned over to see the paper and Tora looked up at her, blinking. The paper was simply a scribble of colored circles.

            “Just drawing…” she mumbled. “Mom, I want to go home now, if that’s alright…”

            “Yes…” Charlotte swallowed as tears gathered in her eyes. “Yes… and… you’ll be home soon…” She knelt down and hugged Tora. “You can see Milani and Adrian again too. Do you miss them, honey?”

            “They never came to visit me.” There wasn’t any hurt in her voice as she said it.

            “A-Adrian came to visit you that one time… remember?”

            Tora frowned, trying to recall it before she smiled and shook her head. “No, I think you’re lying to me. No one visited me, not you or dad. Ever.” Charlotte let go of her and stood up and the girl resumed coloring.

            --

            “Andy… wake up…” Charlotte gently shook her husband awake where he’d fallen asleep in his desk. He jolted before sitting up and he blinked at her sleepily. “Uh… Charlotte?”

            “You feel asleep in your study again…” She slid her arms around him and kissed the side of his face. “Come to bed, will you?”

            “Uhn… sure.” He stood up and they walked back together.

            --

            Charlotte was making breakfast in the kitchen when a fuming thirteen year old walked in and took his seat at the table. She studied Adrian’s face, knowing there was something wrong, but he’d never discussed things that bothered him, at least not recently. So she pulled a smile. “Good morning!” she sang. “I’m making French toast, is that alright with you?”

            “Mmyeah…” he mumbled, dejectedly. Charlotte went back to making said breakfast, sighing to herself as she did.

            “Anything the matter?” she ventured, expecting Adrian to snap at her.

            “Uh… yeah a little bit…”

            “What is it?”

            “Well… I told someone I uh…” his face reddened. “liked them, you know? And they told me to screw off, basically.”

            “Language please. But who was it?” he’d piqued her interest. “A girl from school?”

            “Uh… uh… yeah…”

            “Well, Adrian…” she was elated to be able to actually act like a mother for once but hid it well. “Your father might tell you to pursue but I have other advice. You might not like it, though.” His honey-colored eyes widened expectantly. “I’d say you forget about her, just don’t bother with her, and try not to think about it. You can’t make someone like you.”

            “But I see her everyday…”

            “Just don’t let her get to you. She obviously can’t see how wonderful you are.” Now she was venturing into cheesy territory but Adrian smiled to her surprise.

            “Just ignore her, huh…? Yeah, you know, I deserve better!”

            “You do! But uh, if you are dating, your father will flip out to learn that.”

            “Heheh… yeah…”

            Benjamin walked into the room, mumbling a sleepy ‘good morning’ as he did and took a seat at the table with Adrian. Charlotte heard Adrian’s chair push back from the table and scrape the floor. “On second thought, I’m not too hungry…” And he left the kitchen quickly.

            --

            “I’m sure they’re safe…” Charlotte whispered, stroking Andrew’s mop of red hair, although it had begun to fleck with grey recently.

            “Hmm… I wonder if it was me… maybe they ran away because of me…” he mumbled. He closed his eyes with the intent of sleeping.

            “Don’t say that…” But she too wasn’t as good of a parent as she could’ve been.

            --

            Adrian leaned in towards the mirror, frowning and running a comb once through the long, dark red locks. “Hmmm…” He squinted at his own reflection. A shape passed by the door in the mirror and he straightened, blinking and turning around. He poked his head from the bathroom and into the hall. In the shadows, a long-haired figure was walking away in an awkward shuffle. The redhead stepped out into the hall.

            “What’s wrong with you?” he called, unable to completely mask the concern in his voice.

            Benjamin stopped walking. “It’s cold…” he mumbled. “Really… cold…”

            “Cold?” he walked towards him. “It’s warm in this house, what are you talking about?” He reached around the veil of black hair and cupped his hand over his brother’s forehead. There was a pause and then Adrian withdrew his hand. “You’re really warm… are you not feeling well?”

            “Not really…”

            “It’s kind of late… come on, you should get into bed.”

            “I wanted a glass of water…” he mumbled, although he turned in the other direction and headed for the bedroom.

            “I’ll get it for you” Adrian answered, leaving him in the doorway. “You go lie down, got it?” He rushed down the hall to the kitchen. He crossed the living room to get to the kitchen and Natsumi was sitting on the couch, watching a game show on TV. Almond-shaped, violet eyes raised from the screen as Adrian passed in front of it.

            “Adrian?”

            “Huh?”

            She sat up straighter on the couch. “My grandmother… did she say anything to you tonight?”

            He shrugged. “Just that she was going to take us somewhere with her tomorrow… I figure we should do as she says because we owe her for letting us stay here.” The corners of his mouth twitched in the beginnings of a frown. “You’re okay with it, aren’t you?”

            She didn’t answer the question. Instead, she looked at her lap and fidgeted. “Be careful with her, you two… what she does for work… it’s dangerous, disturbing stuff.”

            “Is that so?” He didn’t appear concerned by it in the least.

            She sat back against the cushions, chewing her lip thoughtfully. “Do you know what a yu-rei is?” Her eyes followed him as he wandered into the kitchen to get a glass.

            “Yu-rei? Hm… that’s some Japanese word, isn’t it? Do you really think I’d know that?” He turned on the kitchen faucet, filling the glass. “What is it?”

            “A yu-rei is a dead person’s rage.”

            Adrian padded back across the room. “Sounds yucky.”

            “That’s what you’d be dealing with if you go with my grandma!” she cried. “The spirits of those that wrongfully died!”

            “That’s nothing new to us…”

            “Why did the two of you come to Japan on your own like this?”

            “Because we want to find our birth mother…” He tried to keep his voice neutral on it but he hurried away in any case, so as to avoid any further pressing questions. Natsumi watched him as he vanished down the hall, wrinkling her brow.

            “If that’s the case, you’ll find her soon enough…”

            Adrian walked back down the hallway, keeping his eyes on his shadow that loomed on ahead of him, moving across the floor. “Strange girl…” He slid the bedroom door on one side of the hall open and stepped into the dark room. His eyes fell on the form lying on the floor on the foam mattress that was laid out for him. He stood with the glass in his hand, listening to the raspy breathing coming from Benjamin.

            The redhead lowered himself down to get closer to Benjamin’s level and he nudged him gently with his elbow. “I got you the water, if you still want it…”

            Benjamin’s eyes opened to two tiny golden slits and he regarded Adrian with a weary smile. With some effort, he managed to move into a sitting position and took the water, downing it slowly. He handed it back and slumped against the mattress with a sigh. “Thanks.”

            Adrian’s touched the other’s clammy forehead once again and he winced. “Benjamin, you need to take better care of yourself. You don’t eat properly and you don’t get enough sleep either…”

            “You sound like mom…” Benjamin groaned. “That’s not what I need.”

            “What you need” Adrian sat by his head and leaned over him. “Is to rest… and… bundle up for godsakes!” He tucked the corners of the blanket under the mattress. “I’m going to get another blanket.” He got up and went to do so and Benjamin watched him, too tired to protest to it.

            Natsumi was climbing the stairs when she noticed Adrian hurry past them on the lower floor. She stared at him, quizzically. “Anything wrong?”

            Adrian stood by the hall closet, opening it and searching for additional blankets. “Ah, my brother’s sick again.”

            “He gets sick a lot?” She stood next to him.

            “All the damn time, it seems.”

            She frowned as Adrian took some blankets from the closet. “Maybe I should wake obaasan…”

            “Don’t bother. She’s done so much for us already” he mumbled, turning from the closet and walking back down the hallway with Natsumi following him, wringing her hands. “She’s old and she’s suddenly living with three teenagers.” He sighed, shaking his head slightly. “Our only payment to her is that we help us with her work… whatever it is.”

            He went back into the bedroom but Natsumi lingered in the doorway, as if afraid of crossing the threshold. “Um… I’ll get a cold cloth and a hot water bottle!” She hurried away.

            Adrian piled the blankets on top of Benjamin even as he weakly protested. “No… no I’m okay, see?”

            “Shut up and sleep.”

            “I can’t sleep, my head is hurting…”

            “Here, Benjamin!” Natsumi padded into the room, her arms full of various things. The feverish boy stared at her in surprise before flopping back down in defeat.

            “I get fevers all the time; it’s not a big deal.”

            Natsumi pushed Adrian out of the way, taking out a thermometer and sticking it into Benjamin’s mouth. “Hold that under your tongue until it beeps.”

            Adrian sat at a distance, a little annoyed at being shoved away. Still, Benjamin’s frequent illnesses had really started almost immediately after his return from the hospital and during that time, he had been in no mood to take care of him. Charlotte had always been the one to fuss over him, sometimes with Milani as her ‘errand girl’, eager to help however she could. Adrian had always watched on, trying to act as though he didn’t care. He really had no idea how to care for the sick and figured Natsumi could do it better. It was a woman thing, after all.

            “Don’t you dare try and sit up” Natsumi said. She plucked the thermometer from Benjamin’s mouth. “Gosh, you really are burning up…”

            “My head hurts…” he moaned, grabbing for it.

            “I brought aspirin… here, take some.” She dropped two pills into his hand and he dry swallowed them easily. The pained expression began to relax and he eventually dropped off into sleep, leaving the girl and the boy to sigh in unison. Natsumi stood slowly, smiling in a way that Adrian found, curiously reminded him of a mother. His eyes followed her.

            “I try to get him to eat better… it’s because he doesn’t eat” Adrian grumbled. “He gets sick all the time and he’s too weak to fight it off.”

            “He doesn’t eat…” Natsumi frowned. “Why?”

            “Well… I guess he doesn’t feel the need to take care of a body that he hates…”

            “We’ll have to get him to eat more” Natsumi said, almost to herself. She nodded. “We’ll force it down, if we have to! He’s so skinny and pale!”

            “Good luck…” Adrian sighed. He crawled over to his own bed but pushed the mattress a little closer to Benjamin’s for good measure. As he got into bed, he heard the miserable cries of his brother, likely in sleep.

            “Ow… ow... OW!” Benjamin cried, gripping his head.

            The blankets over Adrian were discarded and he slid over to Benjamin, frowning and biting his lip. “Benji…?”

            “My head fucking… hurts…” he whispered. “Like it’s splitting open…”

            “Move over.” Adrian slid into the sleeping bag next to him and it allowed very little room for either of them. Adrian was aware of the heat rising off of Benjamin, how unnatural it felt. Still, Benjamin was shivering and so he slid his arms around him and drew him close. “Just sleep. I’m here, okay?”

            “Mmkay…”

            “You really do need to look after yourself” Adrian whispered. He dared to touch Benjamin’s hair, to stroke it back from the other’s clammy forehead. “You get sick way too much…”

            “Yeah…”

            “It worries me, you know. You idiot…”

            “Whatever…” He pressed his nose into Adrian’s neck, becoming tired again. “God, I’m just so… cold.”

            Adrian rubbed the other’s back, gently. He could feel the protruding shoulder blades, the bumps of a spine. They stuck out far too much, in his opinion. But he said nothing about it.        

            --

            Natsumi crept into the room in the early morning, out of concern for Benjamin. Still clad in her pajamas, she moved across the floor to the lump in the sleeping bag. Adrian was sleeping across from them in his own sleeping bag, though he’d kicked it off in the night and was half sprawled across the floor, snoring loudly. She chuckled at him before kneeling next to Benjamin. “Sorry, Benjamin… Are you feeling any better?” she asked. She pressed her hand to the covers that hid him from her. “I just want to feel if you’re still warm, okay?” She peeled back the covers carefully. Benjamin was lying, facing away from her, his long hair out in every direction on the pillow. He continued to sleep. But Natsumi found herself staring at rows of sharp teeth. A mouth opened up with a shrill wail, like that of a child.

            The sound roused Adrian from his sleep and he awoke with a violent jerk, sitting up and drowsily rubbing his head. He heard Natsumi’s scream and he turned to see the girl inching away from Benjamin’s form, whimpering with wide eyes. Adrian went over to her and she pointed with a trembling finger.

            “He’s… he’s…”

            Adrian turned, looking. He lost his footing and hit the floor with a thud. “Wh-what…?”

            On the back of Benjamin’s head, he’d sprouted a wide, gaping mouth.

             --

            It was a good drop from the roof to the ground, that she could be sure of. She paused at the edge, leaning over for the umpteenth time to make sure. Yes, the fall would definitely kill her if she jumped. And she kept thinking about jumping as she paced. Natsumi was skipping classes but it was hardly a concern of hers. The sunny day had given way to an impending storm. The dark clouds had gathered in an archway into the heavens, the wind had picked up considerably, and the humidity left a hot, sticky feeling on her skin. Lightning quivered in the distance above the rooftops and she admired it, wondering if it would strike her down before she leapt.

            Simply acting as though she were going to jump wasn’t enough; she was beginning to realize that. She’d so badly wanted to see him again, if just for a moment. To ask him a single question. Why. It wasn’t such an unreasonable request that the black dog make a final appearance. Surely he knew she was up there. Surely he knew what she wanted.

            Again she looked over the edge, this time one foot was placed in front of her and only her heel stayed on the roof. If she died, maybe she could go back and visit her grandmother, who was in touch to the spiritual world. She couldn’t imagine how the woman would mourn if she’d died. She’d already lost her son in a car accident, along with her beloved daughter-in-law.

            “Obaasan,” she called into the wind as it violently whipped at her uniform and hair. “Did you ever imagine you’d outlive us all?” She spun on her heels and flung herself backwards, into the sky, arms spread out. For a moment, the air rushed past her. Her body fell like it was a weight being pulled towards the earth faster than she’d ever expected. In a few seconds it was over as her body shattered on the ground. Blood splattered across the pavement.

            She lay on her back as blood spurted from her mouth and trickled down the side of her chin. Her head was facing one side and as she stared out of her clouded eyes, she could see the black creature sitting nearby with narrowed, green eyes. He was hunched over, his ears flattened against his skull and he regarded her.

            “Why did you do that?” he asked, speaking calmly. The girl on the pavement didn’t move or speak. The air finally broke and rain began to fall, quickly progressing into a cold downpour. He padded over to her, leaning and sniffing her hair, already soaked with blood and rain. “Were you expecting me to save you?”

            Her body jerked suddenly and the clarity returned to her eyes. Every bone in her body that had been broken was suddenly ground back into place and she cried out in the pain of it, curling into the fetal position. “Wha… what happened… to me?” she squeaked, raising her eyes to look at him. She was surprised when a jacket was set over her shoulders. “But I thought you were…”

            The tall stooping figure of a person was kneeling next to her. His mop of dark hair gave off a blueish tint and it was already hanging limp and wet over his eyes. “I can’t keep doing these favors for you, Cirrus…” he sighed, sliding his hands under her body once she was wrapped in the jacket. He picked up the bewildered girl. “Does it hurt much?”

            “A bit of an ache but… otherwise no… Did… did I jump from the roof after all?”

            “Did you want to see me that badly?” He turned and began walking, carrying her while both of them continued to be rained on.

            “I wanted to ask you why you saved me that one time…”

            “You shouldn’t worry about things like that, Cirrus.”

            “Why do you call me that?”

            He smirked a little, leaving the schoolyard. “Well… I guess it’s my nickname for you. The way you seemed to fly when you jumped reminded me of a cloud.”

            “Oh… do you have a name?”

            “No… You can decide one for me.”

            “Well… when you’re a dog, you’re black like coal” she tittered nervously. “You’re pretty dark right now. Maybe… Sekitan?”

            He smiled and nodded. “Sure.”

            “I had no idea you could turn into a person…”

            “Your home is along this way, isn’t it?”

            --

             Reaching Sankeien and finding the modest little house there, Sekitan set the girl down at the front steps and turned to go. Natsumi watched him in shock before she reached out and grabbed him by his soaked shirt. “Wh-where are you going?”

            “I can’t come with you” he said, laughing a bit.

            “I guess not… obaasan doesn’t like strange boys in her house…” Her hand dropped to her side and she looked rather crestfallen as rain water dripped off her chin like tears. A saddened smile appeared on her face. “But tell me something before you go, will you?”

            He returned the grim smile. “Why did I save you the first time? And than again? I can’t say I know why, myself… maybe when I figure it out; I’ll come see you again.” He strode down the pathway leading from the house and the girl watched him until he was out of sight. She sighed deeply, frowning and turning to go into the house.

            “I’m home…” she mumbled, dejectedly. “Obaasan…?” After a quick survey of the house, she decided the old woman wasn’t in and it was better that way. She was home early and she was soaking wet. A scolding was likely in order. The girl dragged her feet up the stairs. She’d change and then make some tea, maybe. A chill had settled over her body.

            As she opened her bedroom door, she heard the sound of the TV and wondered if she’d somehow left it on. It seemed unusual. As she entered the room, she froze and stared on with widened eyes. “What the…”

            There was a strange boy in her room, standing by her shelf, studying her romance manga collection. He glanced up at her as she stood there and grinned. “Hiya!”

            “What are you doing in my bedroom?!” she asked, glaring. “Who let you in here?!”

            “Your grandma did…” he answered with a shrug, plucking one of the novels off the shelf and flipping through it. “She invited us in and we all had tea. She said ‘make yourselves at home, I’m going to buy some ginger’ and so we did.”

            The girl stared at him for a moment longer and then nodded as realization hit her. “You’re Benjamin’s brother?”

            “Yep. Hey, it’s good you can speak English. Your grandma speaks it too. What are the chances? We’ve had a hard time here for far, no one speaks a word of English and neither of us knows any Japanese!”

            “It’s strange that obaasan let you in like that…” Natsumi mumbled. “She definitely didn’t like your brother when she met him the other day…”

            “Yes but my amazing personality won her over. Benjamin isn’t really a social butterfly.”

            “Is that so…? Well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to change if I may.”

            “Go right ahead.”

            “Um, but you’ll have to leave.”

            “Ah, yeah okay.”

            As Natsumi closed the door to her bedroom once he’d gone into the hall, she couldn’t help but wonder why her grandmother had agreed to let them into the house. Natsumi didn’t possess any of her grandmother’s sensory talents but she knew enough about it. Her grandmother could sense auras around every person and she could determine whether someone was good or bad from them. It was likely she’d sensed such an aura from Benjamin. So it was odd that she’d invited him back along with his brother and even left them alone in the house.

            The girl paused, glancing at herself in the mirror on her way to the closet. She consciously fixed her hair. She looked rather gross with her hair all plastered down, her clothes all rumpled… He got to see her like that. She smirked. “Cirrus, huh…?”

            --

            “Ah yes, well, I was indeed won over by these two boy’s charm!” Obaasan was saying as the four of them sat around the dinner table. She reached over, ruffling Benjamin’s hair, which he endured. “I judged too quickly, I’m afraid.” She sent an apologetic look to the guests.

            Benjamin nervously shrugged it off. “It’s alright, obaasan, really!”

            Natsumi wasn’t buying it as she watched the exchange between the two teenagers and the old woman. She ate quietly at her end of the table, picking at her food and trying to figure it out. Even if she’d made a mistake about someone, obaasan was a stubborn woman and wouldn’t go back on anything. And so as she studied the three, she wondered what it was about those two that had her grandmother acting so odd.

            “So then, where are you two staying?” the old woman suddenly chirped, an odd glint in her eye. Natsumi glanced up, raising an eyebrow.

            “Oh… just… around” Benjamin mumbled. Then he jumped as a ‘thunk’ was heard under the table and he winced.

            “We’re not staying anywhere!” Adrian announced, smiling.

            “Even so, we’ll find somewhere to go!” Benjamin said between gritted teeth. There was another loud ‘thunk’ under the table and Adrian jumped and yelped in pain.

            “We have plenty of room here…” the old woman said, smiling cheerfully. “Yokohama’s such a large city. And it’s not always the safest place…”

            “You’d really let us stay here?!” Adrian asked, leaning over the table and staring at her with wide, dewy eyes.

            “Of course!”

            “That’s really nice of you but I don’t think we should impose like that…” Benjamin said, cautiously.

            Thunk.

            “We can’t turn down her generous offer!”

            Thunk.

            “I insist” Obaasan interrupted. Adrian nodded with enthusiasm while Benjamin sighed. He glanced to the side at Natsumi who was smiling at him. He returned the smile awkwardly.

            --

            “Obaasan!” Natsumi said sternly, opening the front door to see the woman’s back sitting on the front porch and smoking. She padded over towards her. “Why did you let them stay? I thought they were yurei.”

            “They are… but they’re yurei children. And I doubt they know it, themselves.”

            “You shouldn’t take advantage of them, obaasan” Natsumi mumbled, frowning.

            “Tomorrow is your day off of school, is it not? The three of you are going to come with me to a client’s house. In my old age, mago, I can’t always sense things the way I used to. I think that they will be a great help to me in my line of work.”

            “Ah, you’re impossible!” she threw her hands up, sighing.

            “Did you have an encounter with death again…?” The woman glanced over her shoulder at her granddaughter, concern shining in her eyes. “Natsumi, you have to be grateful for being alive.”

            “I am!” she said, defensively. “I… am…”

            --