Stranger Things Have Happened

I was screaming inside. Anger started to distort my face to the point it hurt. This was not normal. It was strange.

Leo was standing at the side of the temple, staring at us without moving, a dark gaze and wide grin spreading across his face. He wasn’t here to make friends, and his pitiful clothes only showed he wasn’t here to laugh – he was here to commit something terrible.

His short black hair was messy and dirty, and so were his round glasses, which were no longer see-through. He wore a half-unbuttoned, completely wrinkled shirt, only half tucked into his pants, which looked just as bad, riddled with holes and splattered with mud.

My eyes were blazing with rage and I wanted to let it all out. But he didn’t do anything. He just stared at us, constantly, his eyes mostly locked on Atsuko, who collapsed to her knees, crying harder while gripping firmly onto my leg.

A strange feeling made me shiver all over, running along every nerve in my body. It wasn’t fear. It was the feeling that something was out of place.  

“Why is he here!? What was the point of telling me to find him if he’s here to meet us!?” I thought, fists clenched, brain working at full speed to understand this dangerous situation.

Singing voices and footsteps moving rhythmically came closer to us quickly. Priestesses and some kind of festival dancers came to dance in front of us, filling the distance between Leo and me that had been empty a second before, slowly hiding him from my eyes.

Something was strange about them.

Their songs were in an unknown language, as if they were reciting some kind of ancient prayer or incantation. But the strangest thing was their faces. They were terrifying, every one of them. Their eyes were rolled back, their mouths wide open and laughing, teeth bared.

Nobody around seemed to care, as if I were the only one who noticed what was happening and how strange their behavior was. It was as if they were deliberately blocking our view to allow Leo to act.

They didn’t seem harmful and didn’t try to attack us. They seemed possessed, but I couldn’t be sure. I couldn’t yell or it would alert everyone, create panic, and then I would truly lose sight of Leo.

I couldn’t move. With Atsuko clinging to my leg, I couldn't push my way through the crowd to chase him.

“What should I do!? I can’t let him escape!” Panic began to replace anger.

Despite the noise and my inability to hear anything clearly, I could feel the vibration of my phone ringing in my pocket. I grabbed it instinctively without taking my gaze away off my target. I would find a way to deal with him.

I answered without looking at the name on the screen. A voice I thought I wouldn’t hear again came out of it.

“Ryota… I found it! I found something! Meet me quickly at my place before it’s too late.” Hayate’s voice said, full of joy. It was easy to imagine him smiling and unable to stay still.

“Hayate… that’s not the moment! Leo is here! Leo… I have to…” I said, not really paying attention to his words, ragged breaths of rage escaping me.

“Wait! Leo!? How is that possible!? He should be at the psychiatric-”

I pulled the phone away from my ear as the crowd cleared just enough for me to see Leo’s eyes widen at the sight of my phone. He started running away behind the temple.

I hung up. I began to take a step but was quickly reminded that I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t go after him. Atsuko wouldn’t let go of my leg. She was curled up on herself, her body trembling, but her grip unyielding.

I was not alone anymore. She was here with me in this moment. I was no longer free in my movements and thoughts. She was the one keeping me from going after that suspect, that horrible man I hated from the deepest parts of my heart.

“I… I can’t go. I have to be here with her, to protect her. It’s my most important duty, and I promised myself not to let anything happen to her anymore! If only there were another way…” I stared at her intently, my determination renewed.

I crouched down, picked her up, and carried her so we could move more easily. I began to run in the opposite direction of the temple. It was the wisest decision to make. First her safety, then Leo. He couldn’t have gone far at the speed he was running.

“I can catch up on him, he won’t escape! After that I’ll beat him up and ask him why everything happened… maybe I’ll be able to call Hayate back after everything...”

Not a single person reacted to seeing me running with my wife in my arms, completely panicked. Everyone just went about their business. But this wasn’t the time for me to focus on that. I looked around for a place to hide Atsuko before running back to the temple.

Yet, before my eyes, small balls of light appeared, and my arms felt lighter even though Atsuko was still in them. That made me stop instantly. I knew what that meant.

Every death, every cry, every vision of horror I had witnessed was, hopefully, never as gory as it could have been. There was blood, there were tears, there was a dying or dead body, but that body never stayed. It vanished as soon as death struck or was about to. Atsuko’s body always turned into small balls of light that floated up to the sky, making her disappear completely until the next time.

It was happening again. I panicked completely as her body disappeared in my arms. Trying to gather the escaping lights was no help. Acting in desperation was no help either.

“Why…? Was it the shock of seeing Leo that made her so stressed she had a heart attack…?” Tears began to flow as I could only watch, powerless. I collapsed to my knees, staring at all these lights, anger turning to sadness, rage to pain.

But these lights weren’t flying skyward. They were flying toward the temple, and quickly on top of that.

Seized by a surge of surprise and despair, I ran.

I followed them, stumbling over stones on the road. But I didn’t care.

The temple, which had been deserted, was now full of people gathering around the altar. It was chaos, but the lights were heading there. I had to get through.

I forced my way through the crowd, pushing everyone around me. I didn’t care if I hurt someone, even children. At least they wouldn’t fall from great heights.

My thoughts weren’t clear and only the words “I have to save her!” echoed endlessly in my mind.

As I made my way to just a few meters from the altar, I caught sight of her. She looked the same, no visible change. She was kneeling in front of the altar, her body trembling, and tears seemed to be falling to the ground beneath her.

Some people around were talking loudly, some were praying, others were just pushing each other to get closer to the altar. But none of them cared about the crying woman at their feet, and she didn’t move or say a word to get their attention. I was the only one desperate about the situation. My heart ached so much, my face surely showed it. I needed to get to her.

She turned her head and backed up, but was blocked by other people, preventing her from going any further. A hand was slowly approaching her face. She was terrified. She tried to scream, but no voice came out, only the sound of her sobs.

I moved closer and saw that it was Leo’s hand. He had come back, as if he knew this would happen. Anger rose in me once again as I pushed people even more violently, trying to swim through this human sea.

“Don’t you dare touch a single hair on her head, Leo! Fuck you! I’m gonna kill you!” I shouted with everything I had, letting out every ounce of anger I had pent up inside me. 

Everyone around me fell silent and stared at me, as if they had just snapped back to their senses at that very moment.

I heard Leo click his tongue before looking at me in disappointment.

He ran away, once again. He disappeared behind the temple, once again. But this time, I wasn’t determined to go after him.

I rushed to Atsuko. I didn’t care that everyone was staring at us or whispering behind our backs.

I hugged her, calming my anger and soothing her sobs. Her body slowly stopped trembling.

“Don’t worry, my love. He’s gone. He won’t do anything to you, I promise I’ll make him pay for this and for everything he’s done before. Stay calm and stay safe. Be sure that everything will be over soon. Everything. Even things you can’t imagine in your dreams.” I whispered, trying to quiet her cries and give her some confidence.

She seemed traumatized, but at least she listened to me. She hugged me tighter, her nails digging into my skin as she held onto me. I could see and feel how scared she was.

We had broken the jovial atmosphere of the festival. No one dared to start the festivities again. Their eyes were all fixed on us as if we were demons.

The sound of a pair of geta echoed, people slowly stepping aside to make way for a priestess who was walking toward us. She was wearing a simple white yukata that matched a little too well with her pale face.

When she reached us, she crouched to be at our level and reached inside her yukata to pull out a red talisman. She held it out for Atsuko to take, which she did with trembling hands. We were both confused by the situation and by the priestess’ wide smile.

“Mister, you take a talisman only for yourself and not even for your wife? That's rather ungrateful of you, isn't it? At least I'm here to fix the mistakes of bad husbands. Next time, try not to insult someone and interrupt the festivities.” She whispered calmly, her face showing no anger.

The priestess stood up and clapped her hands, dancing and singing at the same time. Everyone followed her with their eyes for a few minutes before she stopped. The atmosphere had became festive once again just like that, people charmed and dancing again, talking as they had before, going back to the stalls, living their lives normally.

I clenched my fist and felt something strange inside it. I opened my hand and saw a talisman. It hadn’t been there before, and I had never taken one from a priestess. Yet, there it was.

“How strange…”

I looked to Atsuko, who seemed mesmerized by the lights and dances around her.

“She must be trying to think of something else… I shouldn’t disturb her any more than this.”

During all those events, she hadn’t spoken once. It was as if her mouth were sealed, opening only to let her cries escape.

I ran my hand through her hair. She pressed her cheek into my palm as I kissed her forehead softly.

“Stranger things have happened here, stranger than most of the things I’ve already seen in my life.”