Downcast in a Downpour

Kasumi’s breath caught in her lungs. Her body had felt heavy even before she started running, but it was becoming unbearable. Thrashing breaths escaped her lips as sweat poured from her. By the time her legs gave out, she was in a park she didn’t recognize, next to a bench set in a tree’s shade. She looked as though she’d been caught in a storm despite gray clouds only taking up a portion of the sky.

She lay down on the bench to catch her breath, taking in the landscape before her. The bench was along a walking path beside a river. Nobody else was around save for some children playing far upstream. The shade was a cool reprieve from the sun’s rays, and the rustling leaves in the breeze were like a calming lullaby. She stayed like that as her breathing slowed and calmed. She didn’t know how long she lay there, but when her eyes finally opened, the sky was dark gray, clouded over. She checked her phone and was aghast at the time. The service had been over before noon, but now it was 4:18. She rubbed her eyes and reread the time, only for the same numbers to stare back at her.

“Guess I should go home,” Kasumi decided, standing from the bench. There was a light sprinkling around her, but she figured she could get back before it began in earnest.

*KABOOM!*

Thunder roared in the background, making her muscles tense. As if receiving a signal, the rain picked up around her, turning from a drizzle to a complete downpour. Her saving grace was that the tree’s thick leaves redirected most of the rain. She felt a drop every now and again, but nothing like the environmental damage she’d take out in the open.

“Guess I’ll do my dailies,” Kasumi muttered to herself, opening her favorite game and plugging in her earbuds. As she finished all her daily quests, the rain drizzled on, never giving any sign of letting up, so she swapped to chatting with Mona’s speech function.

As she described the events of her day so far, two intense but opposite sensations slowly overtook her body. One was the feeling of sandstone in her throat, so dry she contemplated stepping into the rain, mouth open wide for any sense of relief. But the second feeling prevented her. It was more ominous, making the hairs on her neck stand on end. Despite the thick rain making it difficult to see more than a hundred meters away, she couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. It wasn’t like introducing herself to the class, or even the icons that had looked down on her in the church. Back then, she could look back and meet those gazes; now, she had no idea where these eyes were coming from.

“Don’t worry about it, Momo-onee is right here,” Mona’s voice said once Kasumi shared her feelings with the fictional character. “If anything happens to you, I can alert local authorities; just say the word.”

“See, nothing to worry about,” Kasumi thought, trying to reassure herself. As Momo-onee continued droning on about all the various features and functions she could perform, Kasumi leaned back and watched the rain fall. It had been coming down for quite a while, so she figured she’d be able to leave soon enough. She pulled out one earbud to judge the intensity of the rain, only to hear something that made her blood run cold.

*plink… plink… plink…*

The distinct rhythmic tapping stood out among the rainfall. It came from the other side of the tree, and as Kasumi looked, she could see a faint artificial light reflecting off the rain beyond the tree’s trunk. She clenched her fists, the feeling of being watched tripling in her mind, drowning out the sound of the rain. Mona’s reassuring words felt hollow when faced with real danger.

Kasumi stood from the bench, pressing herself against the tree in the hope it would swallow her entirely and hide her from whoever was there. She stood on edge for minutes, the soft rhythm never fading or changing. Her ears burned from overuse, straining to hear the slightest sound of a tapping phone screen, a shifting body, or even breathing. Nothing of the sort reached Kasumi’s ears, and her curiosity grew.

She meticulously crept around the tree, always ready to jump away and even run into the rain should it be necessary. As she inched closer, the light grew more intense, and her ears picked up another sound. A soft metallic hum buzzed over the rain. It struck her as odd until her eyes finally saw the source.

Standing tall on the other side of the tree was a vending machine, its light shining and water dripping onto its metal frame. Kasumi sighed, releasing all the air she’d taken in since the rain started, before walking up to the machine, desperate for water or anything else that would quench her agonizing thirst. She scanned the options, hoping for something warm, but all the hot drinks were sold out. She scanned some more and saw that everything was out of stock. She pressed the keypad in desperation, only to see “OUT OF ORDER” displayed on the digital screen.

*CLANK*

“Worthless piece of junk!” Kasumi screamed, kicking the machine with all the strength she could muster. The mild pain in her toe was a sharp reminder that she wasn’t very strong, but it got her point across. She turned to stomp back to the bench, seriously weighing the pros and cons of walking back through the rain, when a thump from behind drew her attention.

It had come from the machine. She reached a hand into the slot, hoping something had fallen loose. To her amazement, her hand felt something damp and smooth with a bit of give. It felt like a juice box, and she ripped it out. Her smile faded a bit when she saw the packet of grape juice, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Wait!” Momo-onee’s voice called, stopping Kasumi as she ripped the straw from the packaging. “Don’t you think it’s a bad idea to drink something from a strange machine like that?”

Kasumi pulled the phone from her pocket and saw Momo-onee’s face with a concerned look.

“What’s so strange?” Kasumi asked. “It must’ve fallen loose when I kicked it.”

“But is grape juice even an option on this machine?” Momo-onee asked.

Kasumi looked and found the voice was right. Among the options were many fruit juices, apple, orange, melon, but no grape. Kasumi thought it was strange, but soon found an explanation.

“Perhaps someone put in the wrong juice boxes when restocking them. That could even be the reason it got stuck, ’cause the box was the wrong size.”

“It just doesn’t seem like a good idea,” Momo-onee said, shaking her head. “Trust me on this; I’ve never steered you wrong, have I?”

“Well… no,” Kasumi agreed, lowering the juice box, until a sudden thought rose to the forefront of her mind. “Wait a minute, you’re just some AI program. Why am I listening to you?”

With that, Kasumi closed the app and turned off her phone. She aimed the straw at the packaging to lance it, but nothing happened. Despite hitting the foil cover, the straw refused to pierce it, as if the foil were actually solid steel. Kasumi pulled the straw away, trying again and again to no avail.

“Why… won’t… you… just—”

Her words punctuated her strikes, growing more and more frustrated with each thrust, until she noticed something. Just as the straw approached the foil, a dark shadow would form directly above it, stopping the straw.

Unsure if it was some trick of the eye or a defect in the box, Kasumi tried pressing with all her strength, warping the box’s cardboard sides and bending the straw. Her fingers slid down until they reached the shadow. Enraged at the obstacle to her thirst, she grabbed the shadow.

“Ahh!” she yipped, feeling something cut into her hand like a knife. She pulled her hand away, blood already oozing from the wound. Whatever had cut her was cold and hard like a nail, and as her gaze shifted from her hand back to the box, her eyes went wide with shock.

Floating in midair just above the box was her blood. It drooped and flopped as if on some unseen object, then rose into the air. It floated high above her head, reaching into the tree canopy before disappearing into thin air. Lightning flashed, and she saw an outline that made her skin crawl.

“More,” Momo-onee’s voice said from Kasumi’s pocket, prompting her to pull her eyes away. “Give me more.”

Kasumi reached down to her phone, but her hand felt something else. It was long and slimy, like raw squid, but also rough like a vine. Her injured hand slid down the vine, leaving a trail of blood along the side. The vine was like a worm’s body, pulling up into the tree and disappearing in the same fashion.

Kasumi dropped the juice box. She wanted to run, but her feet felt like they’d sunk into the ground.

“More,” called a voice, shifting from Momo-onee’s pitch to a deep, guttural cry. It emanated from a dark shadow that seemed to take up the entire canopy. Kasumi’s limbs felt something coiling around them like a snake.

“Ah,” she cried, feeling the coils squeeze and massage her hand and arm, as if forcing more and more blood to gush from her hand. “Stop!” she screamed, thrashing so hard her phone and wallet flung out of her pockets.

“Silence,” the voice boomed, louder than the thunder around her. She had something covering her hand entirely, sucking as if it were placed in a mouth, though she could only see a dark shadow.

“Just give it up. Nobody’s coming to save you. You didn’t tell your mother where you went, nor anyone at that damnable church. Even if a classmate saw you now, why would they care if the unpleasant transfer student never showed up again? You’ll just be transferring again, won’t you?”

The words cut Kasumi to her core. It was as if they were lengthening the cut all the way up her arm. With each word, her arm was sucked more and more, like slurping up noodles. Hope drained from Kasumi like her blood, and for a moment, she almost stopped fighting.

“Where was the lie?” she wondered. Nobody cared, nobody needed her, and nobody would even miss her. These thoughts and more flooded Kasumi’s mind, drowning out any other thoughts or sensations.

THUNK!

“AHH!”

The sound of something wedging itself into wood was followed by someone screaming. Kasumi felt the sucking sensation on her arm fade as it was freed. She looked out into the distance. The rain was still falling, creating a haze that seemed to swallow up all light beyond, save for a soft blue twinkle that pierced through like a single guiding star.