EYES IN THE ROOTS

The morning news glowed cold and blue on a giant screen in downtown Osaka, bathing the crowd below in sterile light.

“...The bodies were discovered near the Aokigahara riverbank at approximately 5:30 this morning,” said the reporter, perfectly calm in tone, perfectly shaken in eyes. “Authorities suspect a link to the urban legend known as ‘The Faceless Girl.’”

The footage cut to a forest crime scene.

Another victim, another tree.

A branch rammed through the chest the same pattern as before, precise and cruel.

A man in the street dropped his briefcase.

A mother covered her child’s eyes.

Fear had stopped being a whisper. It was now part of the weather.

Commander Sato’s Office 8:00 A.M.

Smoke rolled lazily through the air. Commander Isao Sato stirred his coffee, the metal spoon tapping against porcelain in slow rhythm. The TV on his wall replayed the same report on mute.

His black cat jumped onto the desk, brushing against stacks of unsolved case files labeled The Faceless Girl.

He scratched its head absently, staring at the silent screen.

“Tanaka…” he murmured, voice low and bitter.

“You’re cracking, aren’t you? If you fall… you’ll drag us all into hell with you.”

The cat purred. The spoon clinked. The coffee steamed like smoke from a slow-burning fire.

Special Paranormal Unit HQ 9:17 A.M.

“EVERYONE! CONFERENCE ROOM! NOW!” Kei Tanaka’s shout cracked like thunder.

The detectives shuffled in half-dressed, half-awake, half-dead.

“Where’s Makio?” he snapped.

“Sir,” said Aiko softly, “Detective Yamazaki… quit. He said he couldn’t take it anymore.”

Tanaka’s hand trembled. He stared at his phone. Six unanswered messages.

Then he slammed it into the wall shattering it, rage spilling out like electricity.

“MY JOB IS ON THE LINE!” he roared. “WE’RE GOING TO THAT DAMN JUNGLE! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU! BECAUSE IF I GO DOWN, I’M TAKING EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU WITH ME!”

Aokigahara Jungle 9:00 P.M.

Mist draped over the trees like a funeral shroud. The detectives spread out, questioning locals, jotting useless notes.

“She has no face.”

“You hear a click before you die.”

“The trees move when she walks.”

By the time they regrouped, only exhaustion remained.

And Tanaka was missing.

Deeper in the Jungle

Tanaka’s flashlight beam sliced through the dark, trembling in his grip.

“YOU HEAR ME?!” he screamed. “FACELESS BITCH! COME OUT!”

His echo vanished into the endless black. Then something beneath his boot pulsed.

He looked down.

And froze.

The soil wasn’t soil anymore. It moved.

He took a step back and saw it: a single, enormous human eye staring from the dirt. Then another. And another. Within seconds, hundreds of eyes opened all around him, sprouting like blossoms from the ground bloodshot, oozing, blinking wetly.

The air filled with the sound of moist blinking. A sick rhythm like dozens of lips smacking underwater.

Tanaka stumbled, falling to his knees. The earth was soft, gelatinous, warm. His hands sank into it, and when he pulled them free, clear, viscous fluid clung to his fingers like mucus. The ground wasn’t dirt anymore. It was flesh.

The eyes twitched in unison rolling, dilating, contracting.

And each one… looked at him.

Every single one.

The pressure of their stare made his chest tighten. He could feel them seeing him, burrowing into his skin, peeling away his sanity layer by layer.

He gagged, bile rising, as one of the eyes beneath his palm burst open with a soft pop, spraying warm liquid onto his wrist. It smelled faintly of iron and rot.

“Wh-what the hell WHAT IS THIS?!” he shouted.

Then the air shifted. The forest exhaled.

And she appeared.

The Faceless Girl.

She stood barefoot among the pulsating eyes, her long black hair flowing unnaturally in a wind that didn’t exist. Where her face should’ve been only smooth, pale skin, gleaming faintly like porcelain under the moonlight.

She took a step forward.

The ground reacted.

From the soil, a new eye pushed upward beneath her foot straining the skin of the earth like a blister before bursting open with a slick, wet sound. A milky tear rolled from it, merging into the puddles around her toes.

She took another step. Another eye swelled and popped.

With each footfall came a fresh wave of that hideous sound squelch, stretch, burst a symphony of decay and creation.

Tanaka could barely breathe. The smell was suffocating metallic, sour, ancient.

“GET BACK!” he screamed, yanking his gun from its holster. His voice cracked into a terrified whimper.

“I’LL KILL YOU!”

He pulled the trigger.

Click.

He pulled again.

Click. Click. Click.

The gun was jammed, oozing the same translucent muck that coated the ground.

She stopped walking.

Though faceless, her presence watched him a silent, infinite stare from something that didn’t need eyes to see and she lower her one finger.

Tanaka stumbled backward, panting, trembling so hard his flashlight rolled from his grip and died in the mud.

The sound of the eyes around him grew louder soft blinks and liquid squelches merging into one sick heartbeat.

His breath hitched. His knees buckled.

Then

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Tanaka’s scream ripped through the forest. Birds took flight, animals scattered and then, silence.

Pure, deaf, perfect silence.

Sorry guys for late post i have been pretty depressed lately from i will be more active from now on guys .