Sinister

~Chapter 16~

Airi’s phone vibrated on the table in front of her couch. She was sitting there, watching TV and eating some cookies. She hadn't slept anymore since last afternoon, after the very vivid experience she had. She spent the whole night thinking about what she could do to figure out what was happening to her and why, searching on the internet about the meanings of dreams and paranormal phenomena related to sleep. She wasn’t ready to accept Naito’s theory about “realistic, logical” explanations. Some things in life were also mysteries some hundred years ago and people considered them witchcraft. Maybe this whole situation was also something that humans have yet to understand and accept as proven scientific fact. He’s just too narrow-minded. If I don’t find the beginning of this mystery’s thread, he’s going to keep insisting on logical reasoning based on physics and psychiatry. I won’t let him have it so easily. After cleaning her hands from the crumbles, she picked up her phone to check who was messaging her. He was always hoping that it would be some old friend who was in the region and wanted to go out with her, or her classmates who had another project and wanted to go have drinks.

From: Naito

14:04 Hey, are you free?

It’s Naito, after all. Deep down I wasn’t expecting it to be anyone else.

14.10 Me: Hey… not right now, but what’s up?

14.12 Naito: I want to try something.

14.12 Me: Again?

14.18 Naito: Yes, as soon as possible.

14.19 Me: Naito, I need a break from sleeping..

14.23 Naito: You will not have to sleep. You just need to be there.

14.24 Me: If it’s like this.. Ok..

14.28 Naito: Want to meet at my house at 17.00?

14.29: Me: Sure..

14.30 Naito: Ok, see you then.

14.31 Me: ~(°ᴥ°)ノ

She didn’t want to accept it, but even this type of interaction made her happy. Any kind of social relationship with anybody would bring a smile to her face. She checked the time, grabbed the bag of cookies and kept watching TV while eating, but with a better mood this time.

After around an hour, she stood up to wash her hands and tidy up the house a little bit, in case there was a need to make another sleep session at her house. She should give a good example as an adult after all. She went to the kitchen to wash the dishes first, when she almost caught out of breath. The shadow was looking at her from outside the kitchen window, almost stuck on the glass. She leaned on the sink and tried to breathe calmly. Her legs were shaking from the shock. She looked at it tired and fed up. Just wait, and you’ll see. I’ll make you vanish from this world, and take you back from where you came.

At 16.50 Naito was making coffee and expected his doorbell to ring. At 16.59 he checked the clock on the watch. At 17.03 he was on the verge of sending Airi a message. At 17.08 she finally arrived.

“You’re late” was the first thing that he said to her.

“And you’re rude as always. Try to treat your guests better, would you?”

“I don’t receive guests.”

“And what am I then?”

“An exception.”

Airi shook her head almost mockingly. She had started to take his traits as a joke rather than an insult. He was looking very restless and somehow excited. He made another cup of tea for Airi, since the previous cup he made was almost cold. He was looking around him all the time and was smiling slightly for no reason.

When he brought the tea to Airi, it was obvious that he was trying to restrain his smile from appearing on his face.

“Can you see anything?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is there anything in the room that seems unfamiliar to you?”

“Uhm.. the almost hospital-like cleanness? The OCD tidiness? I don’t know.”

“That’s actually an acceptable answer.” Then he turned to his left and started talking to the air.

“Let’s start our experiment. You know her name and now you are aware of her physical body, but you have never connected these two. This is Airi, Kyuu-chan. Airi, this is my.. own “shadow”. You have already read and heard about it, but now you can also see it.”

Airi stretched her body to see behind Naito, looking very curious and surprised. Something was starting to manifest, floating next to his shoulder.

“This is the black sphere you see in your dreams? How..When did you..”

“Today. Since it was possible for you to make thoughts from your subconscious materialize, I was sure there was a way I could do it too. And this is the proof that I can.”

She stood up and approached Kyuu. The flying creature was also curious about her, but still behaved very constrained and scared. It was of course the first existence it was communicating with, that wasn’t a creation of Naito’s mind. It was a separate human in the real world.

“It’s such a .. mysterious creature..Is that a tail?” she tried to touch Kyuu’s tail which was floating behind it. It tried to avoid being touched and went behind Naito to protect itself.

“I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“I understand you are curious, but let’s just leave it as it is right now and get back on our plan.”

“Tsch. You’re a boomer. But I should have expected it, since Kyuu is a creation of your own subconscious, thus your own personality. It had to have a personality similar to yours, or at least with your peculiar traits.”

Kyuu-chan seemed to get upset with that was hearing and moved his tail nervy and mischievously.

“It’s” “not” “like” “that”

“What? What was that?! It can talk??”

“It uses sound waves from his environment and recreates them in order to communicate in the real world with me.”

“That’s so cool!”

Kyuu seemed to relax a little bit and started being more friendly but still shy.
“Let’s leave this at this point and start with the plan already. I want to check if Kyuu and the shadow can see each other. To achieve that, we have to bring both of them in the same space, meaning that both of them will be aware of the area. I don’t want to expose Kyuu to any potential dangers, so I would like to do that in the manga-cafe, since the shadow spends quite some time there, and not in any other personal spaces, like my house. I want my house to remain neutral and use it as a safe zone.”

“Ok, we could try that.”

“Since you also agree, let’s go.”
“Wait, you mean right now?”

“Yes, why?”
“I just arrived, and I haven’t even finished my tea yet.”

“Time is important; we will have time for tea later. You could have come in time if you wanted to enjoy it at your leisure.”

“You’re unbending, aren’t you?”

Naito raised his shoulders indifferently.

They went outside of the house and started walking in the direction of the manga-cafe. Airi hadn’t seen it leave the house with her, after seeing it stuck on her window. If the thing wasn’t at the manga-cafe, she would have to go back to her house to lure it with her. After some minutes, Kyuu-chan stopped floating next to Naito’s shoulder and stayed at the same spot some meters behind them.

“What’s wrong, Kyuu-chan?”

Kyuu was almost motionless, and its tail was very close to its body, like it was in a defensive state.

“It” “is” “here”

Naito looked at Kyuu-chan and then at Airi. Airi was looking in front of them, in the direction they were walking before they stopped. He looked at the same spot that Airi’s eyes were locked on. It was there. The shadow was looking at them with its limbs spread left and right, like it was ready to launch at them. Even without eyes, it felt like it was staring at them dreadfully. It was the first time Naito had felt threatened by it. Airi hadn’t moved at all, and was standing frozen in the same spot. Naito pushed her slightly with his elbow.

“Why...why is it looking at us like this…? It never stares like this…..” said panicked with her eyes still locked on the shadow.

Naito turned to face the shadow and observed it for some seconds.

“I think I know what’s going on.” He looked at Airi, having finally her attention on him and then behind him.

“It can see Kyuu-chan.”

Airi opened her eyes widely and turned to check on Kyuu-chan, being obviously tense and alarmed.

“Why…? We never referred to its name in front of the shadow.. There is no way that it knows its appearance - I didn’t know its appearance either. Why the hell can it see it?”

“Calm down. Let’s move to the bench over there and see what it will do.”

He grabbed Airi’s wrist and tried to make her walk some meters. Kyuu followed him, being still alarmed and very cautious of his actions, without taking its eyes from it.

The shadow moved along the building it was standing in front of, but didn’t cross the street to approach them.

“I think that it is not necessary to know its name or get an image of its appearance from your thoughts. Since they both come from the same “world”, they are the only entities inside the real world that don’t belong here.”

“I” “believe” “Naito” “is” “right”

“I” “see” “it”. “I” “also” “sense” “it”

“It” “dark” “and” “not” “friendly”

Naito and Airi were looking at Kyuu.

“I was kind of expecting something like this to happen. Don’t get alarmed. Panicking will lead to nothing.”

“What should we do now?” asked Airi, still concerned.

“We have to face it. We need to have the upper hand here, and act before it does.”

“Aren’t we provoking it like this???”
“If we don’t provoke it, it will provoke us. And when it does, it will be ready and we won’t. If we act fast and smart, it will not expect it, and will not have time to process everything. We need to make the first move, as soon as possible. Kyuu-chan, we have to find out to what extent you can interact with it. Be ready for anything that can happen. I am referring to you too, Airi.”

She shook her head to show she agrees.

“Let’s follow it.”

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere we can act freely, without making a fuss around us. Airi: go closer to the shadow and say that you are going under the bridge that connects Aka park and the market, on the Nishiyaka street. Then turn on your phone to check it on the map, and let it see the region. It will have data of the appearance of the area, as well as the name of it. I hope that is enough for it.

“I don’t feel very comfortable approaching it right now..” said Airi, completely scared.

“If it didn’t hurt you until all these times it was alone with you, and when you were defenseless, it won’t do it now. Just go, and I will have my eyes on you. Kyuu-chan, too.”

Although very distressed and nervous, Airi walked slowly towards the shadow. Naito thought that for one moment the shadow seemed to loosen a little bit as she was approaching it. Maybe it was in his imagination. She didn’t go very close, and started moving her lips. She was looking around for any people who could be passing by. She didn’t want others to take her for a crazy person. After some second, she turned her phone on and started typing. Then she held it away from her body, so that the screen could be visible to the shadow. It approached her slightly and clearly looked at the screen. Then it turned at Naito’s direction and changed its posture once again, looking awfully alert. Naito’s phone vibrated.

From: Airi

17.57 Airi: Please come take me from here. I cannot move.

Naito turned at Kyuu-chan and told it to remain there. Then he walked towards Airi with big steps and grabbed her arm. Airi didn’t turn around to face him, and walked backwards, so that she didn’t take her eyes off the shadow. The shadow was just looking at them, and started moving slowly behind the building from which it had appeared.

“You did well.” Naito tried to cheer her up.

“It’s been a long time since I felt so intimidated by it. I don’t know why it’s attitude changed so abruptly.”

“I don’t think its attitude towards you changed. It’s because of me and Kyuu-chan. It just doesn’t want us around you. Especially Kyuu-chan. Maybe it’s a threat to him. Kyuu-chan, did it try to communicate with you?”

“I” “didn’t” “sense” “communication” “means”

“If you notice anything about its behavior, tell me right away, even if it’s just a hunch. Ok?”

“Ok”

“Airi, can you stand?”

“I think I can. As long as it’s not around me..”

“It’s gone now. But we have to go find it again.”

Airi didn’t like the idea, but she didn’t have a chance. If the shadow started being more aggressive, it meant that their time was running low.

Naito started walking in the direction of the bridge. They had to walk through the park and descend to the lower level of the river underneath the bridge. The area was wide and empty. There was grass all around them, but no trace of other people. The river would flood when there was even the slightest of rain, so the area along it was designed to be overflow with water and then empty again. This was the reason why people didn’t choose this place for picnics, fishing or walking, especially during cold days, when the weather was unstable and could prove dangerous. It was the perfect spot.

They climbed down the stairs that led to the footing of the bridge and started scanning the area. The ground was muddy and slippery because of the random spring showers during the previous days.

“Do you see it?” asked Airi.

“No, not yet. Let’s wait a little bit longer. I may have trouble sensing you, since it’s the first time it comes here. You’ve been in the market already, right?”

“Yes, I walk through the market almost everyday. I just don’t cross the bridge. I think it can find its way easily.”

Kyuu was still quite nervous. It was floating jittery around Naito, and sometimes around Airi. At some point it stopped moving so vividly. Naito felt something piercing his chest. Instinctively, he turned his head facing the sky. The shadow was looking at them from the top of the bridge.

He pushed Airi slightly with his elbow.

“It’s above us. It’s looking at us.”

Airi jumped nervously next to Naito, almost side by side with him. The shadow started descending.

Kyuu-chan was behaving like a squirrel, all fidgety and restless.

The shadow kept descending but simultaneously moving to the front, creating a distance between them, until it reached the ground.

“We will try to find out if it can communicate with us. Airi, try talking to it. Ask it what it wants from you. Maybe Kyuu-chan is able to understand it if it tries to say something.”

Airi took a deep breath and stepped to the front.

“What do you want from me? Why do you torment me with these nightmares? Why do you keep killing my friends?”

They waited for a response.

“Nothing?” asked Naito. Kyuu turned left and right, mimicking the motion humans do with their head when they want to express denial without talking.

They waited, and waited.

Instead of a response, the shadow started being more active and started moving nervously. At some point it was advancing towards them. And it was increasing its speed dangerously. Airi started panicking. The shadow was charging towards them faster and faster. Naito grabbed Airi’s hand and brought her close to him, while the shadow rampaged towards and fell right on them, making them lose their breath. They started coughing and Airi fell on her knees. Naito tried to keep her standing up without losing his balance, but there was something else he was worried sick about. Kyuu-chan.

He turned his head behind him, and saw the shadow attacking Kyuu-chan, while the poor thing was trying helplessly to avoid it maneuvering around the shadow’s abrupt and

Naito’s breathing started accelerating and adrenaline was filling his veins. He threw Airi’s hand without even thinking about it and ran to Kyuu.

“Come to me Kyuu, quickly!”

Kyuu-chan tried to escape the shadow’s attacks but still couldn’t get closer to him. Naito was losing his temper. His instinct of protection towards Kyuu became stronger. Then it hit him.

He looked at his helpless black sphere, closed his eyes and put all his might to command it.

“Throw it away, Kyuu-chan!”

Then something that he had forgotten happened. Golden runes started forming around his upper body, spinning around and slowly accelerating. Kyuu-chan stopped moving and started emitting an intense black-purple light. The shadow kept rampaging around Kyuu, trying to dissolve it in the air. Kyuu’s eyes glowed and then the runes around Naito stopped instantly. A black ring started forming around the motionless sphere, and slowly grew wider and wider. Everything remained still for a millisecond. It was like time had stopped. Then Kyuu-chan made a sudden pulse, and a shock wave sent the shadow away with a huge blast. Naito and Airi fell on the ground, while Kyuu was still radiating this murky purple light. Naito tried to stand up and go closer to Kyuu. He saw him losing its glow and falling slowly on the ground. He rushed towards it and let it drop on his chest. It felt like it had no weight at all. Naito embraced it while the runes were still around him. This time, he could feel that Kyuu had a physical form. But while the runes started fading away, its body became this empty-not empty dark matter again.

Naito looked at it.

“Kyuu-chan, are you ok?”

It didn’t reply.

“Kyuu-chan?”

“I..” “...need...” “....some...” “...time”

“Ok, ok. I will not move. I am here.”

Airi stood up and ran towards them.

“Is it ok? What happened just now?”

“I don’t have time to explain right now. Later.”

They remained lying on the muddy grass, with Kyuu nested on Naito’s chest. The shadow had run off the moment it escaped the shock wave.

“I wonder if we have angered it…”