Mina's Mission

Mina was led away from the main shrine and towards a second, much smaller building further away. The path there had clearly been abandoned for years, and was in worse condition than the rest of the shrine. The layers of dense snow didn’t make the walk any easier.

“Dear, won’t you tell me what happened? I don’t understand.” Mina asked, clutching her hands lightly to try to warm them. The shrine maiden paid her no mind, keeping as cool as the snow around them while she led Mina away from the shrine. “I thought I would be helping you with an important duty. Tomiko, my niece, she said I was the only one you could call on.”

“I cannot say another word.” The shrine maiden grimaced. Upon reaching the building, she spoke with her back to Mina. “I’ve given you your instructions. I’ve told you all you are permitted to know.”

The shrine maiden slid open the doors, revealing a dark and dusty room. She gestured for Mina to go inside, waiting beside the door with her head slightly bowed. As Mina passed her, she noticed the maiden’s eyes shifting constantly back and forth between different areas of the dark room.

Mina stopped right inside the doorway, giving her back to the darkness, hoping to get some kind of decent explanation. Demini’s wicked face appeared over the shrine maiden’s shoulder, a twisted grin darkening his features.

“... What’s going to happen to me?”

The maiden’s face gave way, seeming almost angry. Or was she sad? With scrunched eyebrows, and a pained frown, it wasn’t easy for Mina to tell. Her hands tightened on the wooden door, nearly splintering it. “Remember, keep the talisman on its forehead.” She urged.

The door slid shut on Demini’s laughter, taking the majority of the light away with it. A lock clicked, followed by more shuffling outside. Mina tried to slide the door open, her frozen fingers struggling to obey, but no use.

Mina, locked in with no idea of what’s going on, wondered: What did I get myself into? What did Tomiko want me to do here?

Mina thought about facing whatever it was waiting for her in the dark, but she paused before taking the first step. She still had her shoes on. She didn’t take them off outside, the shrine maiden didn’t tell her to. Was there a genkan up ahead? Some sort of step where she could take her shoes off from? Mina shuffled carefully, waiting to hit her ankles or shins against a ledge. Nothing.

That’s not right. This was sacred land, right? She can’t be here with her shoes.

Mina took off her thick winter boots, shuffling blindly to set them down against the door. Thinking for a second, Mina took her coat off too. She had to be respectful.

Much colder, Mina walked into the darkness.

The floorboards creaked under her uncertain weight. Mina’s eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, the few dim lamps along the walls of the room doing very little to brighten the place. The only clearly-identifiable piece of furniture she could find was a wooden closet right by the door. She opened it, finding a few strangely splintered broken brooms, and only one still in good condition.

Mina stepped cautiously, her right hand tracing along the walls to guide her with the broom clutched in her left. Her mind created a million different scenarios to run through. Could this be a trial? A test of her determination? A new way of assimilating shrine maidens into the temple? She won’t know until she tries.

Mina continued more bravely.

To her surprise, there was nothing waiting for her at the end of the long room, nor were there any doors for her to open. What now?

A giggle echoed in the dark. Mina flinched, losing her footing, and tripping to the floor.

Landing on a cold, sticky puddle, Mina could feel something cling to her skirt, weighing down the already dense fabric. Strange. What is that? At least she had the mop on hand.

She tried mopping up the puddle, but with no water, she wasn’t doing more than just spreading it around and getting the mop head all sticky. Maybe she could find a bucket and a tap somewhere?

Mina placed her hand on the right wall once more to make it back to the front of the room. Her hand brushed a piece of paper. The lamp above her head flickered out, making it hard to see the paper’s path as it unlodged itself and slowly floated to the ground. Mina crouched to try and find it, running her hands against the dusty wood.

There, a small rectangular sliver of paper, light as a feather, taunted her. She took it.

The light flickered on, stronger than it had been before, lighting up a doorway into a dark room.

“That can’t be right…” Mina whispered, not believing her own two eyes. She stood, peering inside the new room. Pitch black, it made the main room seem bright by comparison.

Mina tried to find anything the paper could have slid off from, but it was too dark to make much sense of it. She stepped inside and searched the walls for possible lights, finding only a single pull string. She clicked it on.

There was someone in there. Someone large, towering tall and wide, high above Mina’s head even when hunched over. Someone who was tied up and surrounded by talismans from every country in the world. Crosses, plates with engravings of letters she could not read, charms, rosaries, seals of all shapes and kinds.

Someone.

Something.

Not human.

It gruffed, the grating noise echoing in the empty room. It brought Mina’s attention to its head, where its forehead lay empty.

“Keep the talisman on its forehead.” Demini’s voice teased.

Oh no.

Mina fought the urge to flee, inching closer to the thing instead. She stuck out the talisman with a trembling hand to stick it back on. The head was too far, still. To get closer, she had to cozy up to it, warming herself with the uncomfortable heat radiating out of its body. Mina swallowed the lump in her throat. Even this close, she still had to step up on her tip toes to reach it.

The forehead was unbearably hot. She stepped back, hoping this was the end of it. The talisman stayed on for two seconds before it drifted to the floor. Mina grabbed it, sticking it on with more force, only for it to float away.

What could she do to secure it?

Patting down her sides, Mina checked her skirt pockets. There were some wet-wipes, hand-warmers and her phone, but nothing useful. She patted herself once more, in case she missed anything, but accidentally touched the dirty part of her skirt. Right, she ruined it in that puddle… Could this work? Mina dabbed the talisman on the stickiness, unsure of what it was. Mina stuck the talisman once more.

It stayed on. Yes!

Satisfied and emboldened, Mina backed out of the room, broom in hand. She continued her search for anything to help her clean.

Although, try as she might, there was no bucket to be found. How was she supposed to clean without any water? Was this the real test?

Mina searched the room once more, this time following the left wall. Or, could that have been the left wall? It was confusing in the dark. Mina lost her sense of direction after she fell. She was sure the monster’s room was on the other side of the room, but it was right ahead.

She poked her head in, finding the talisman on the floor once more, this time with a broken string of rosaries strewn about. Mina stuck it back, more annoyed than scared, and left once more.

Mina walked the length of the room, once, twice, but there was no sign of neither her coat nor boots anywhere. Every time she passed by the room, it had the paper talisman on the ground with an increasing number of other talismans surrounding it.

After the third loop, Mina gave up her search for cleaning supplies. This was impossible, she wasn’t suited to be a shrine maiden after all. Mina entered the dark room to try and replace the talisman.

It was empty.

The light above flickered. Footsteps echoed behind her. Mina startled, but when she turned to look, there was nothing. Was she going crazy?

Mina entered the room, finding papers littering the ground, a cold breeze stirring them about. Wait, a breeze?

There, in the corner, a breeze came through, strong enough to move these talismans around. Mina walked over to it. Pulling back a loose wooden board, a blinding light finally eased the darkness.

Now that she can see, a sticky, red-tainted talisman floated against the wind towards her. Mina picked it up, reading what prayer was written.

It… it was a ward against evil…

Mina looked up, two glowing red eyes were locked on her from within the darkness. In the distance, strings snapped. The ground shook. Mina didn’t take her eyes off the monster.

There wasn’t one hellish creature locked in here-

Another set of red glowing eyes appeared in the darkness.

- there were two.