The Kojima Family Haunting (2)

Henry stepped away from the living room, moving towards the hallway. When he peeked out into the connecting hall, a rancid stench assaulted his senses.

“Damn.” The white-haired investigator flinched before reflexively covering up his nose with a handkerchief. “Smells like something died in here. Like a lot of something died in here. Was it always this nasty?”

“There was a bad smell earlier,” Mari added. “But not to this extent. I thought it was just mold or wood rot.”

Reaching into his pocket, Henry pulled out a paper cutout shaped like a person.

“Ajna Focus,” he commanded, and the paper cutout shot to life, levitating into the air, and following the residual energy. Ajna Focus was a basic exorcist skill that allowed the user to track changes in aberrant energies.

The paper doll flew down the hallway, tracing a snaking path on the floor and walls before gliding up the stairs and out of view. Whatever had passed through was able to vault the walls and scale the ceiling.

“It’s turned into a full-blown infestation now. Don’t let your guard down,” he reminded, raising up a thrice-blessed brass vajra adorned with esoteric symbols. It was his weapon of choice for anomaly hunting.

“Of course, captain.” Mari brandished her weapons in both hands. She held up two Bureau-issued handguns with thrice-blessed bullets.

Infestations happen when a Cursed Spirit takes up residence in a particular location. It can be an abandoned schoolhouse, a dilapidated factory, an eerie tunnel, or even an urban household such as this one. When that happens, the Curse becomes extremely territorial, luring humans in before hunting and devouring them. Infestations also have the added side effect of generating immense amounts of cursed energy, luring latent anomalies from far and wide, and even spawning more Curses from the accumulation of miasma.

As such, infestations are often a high priority mission for investigators. Elimination or neutralization of the Anomaly is the tried and tested way to lift an infestation, but such a feat is often easier said than done.

Conventional weapons such as guns and knives are ineffective against Cursed Spirits. Weapons with great firepower like grenades and bombs may be able to stagger or slow one down, but not enough to kill them. Only thrice-blessed weapons called regalia, sanctified in the heart of a Soul Forge were powerful enough to harm and kill them. Such were the vajra in his hand and the bullets in the handguns.

Even then, killing an anomaly meant destroying its core or neutralizing it for capture.

They don’t pay me enough for this.

The smell of rot and death turned stronger, filling the air with a nauseating odor that threatened to make Henry gag. Mari reflexively covered her nose with the back of her hand, holding back a gasp.

“Are you alright, Mari?”

“I’ll be fine. Thanks for asking. I think I’m going to need a shower after this.”

Henry and Mari followed the paper doll up the steps where it opened up into the second-floor hallway. Immediately they realized something was amiss.

There was no light in the upstairs area. Not a sliver of sunlight nor the dull illumination of a light bulb. It was palpable darkness.

“Fox Fire,” Henry beckoned, summoning another paper doll that glowed brightly. Even then, it could only illuminate up to three feet in front of it.

“This darkness… is unnatural,” he whispered. The white-haired exorcist flicked his wrist forward, sending the illuminating doll towards the Ajna doll that had moved further down the hall.

The two watched curiously as the two paper dolls merged before continuing deeper down the hallway. The dolls moved a few feet forward before stopping near the end where … something stood tall and defiantly in the shadows.

It stood at the end of the hall, sizing them up with dark eyes. From where it lurked, the two investigators could only vaguely make out details of its appearance. The anomaly was easily as tall as the ceiling. Abnormally long limbs with irregular joints dispersed unevenly among both arms and legs, loose flesh pulled taut over its face and appendages, and a wry smile showcasing the putrid void within its mouth.

“Crooked Man.”
The words escaped from Henry’s lips.

“Are you sure?” Mari glared into the darkness. “That’s really a Crooked Man?”

“No doubt about it.”

“Isn’t that like, really bad?”

“The worst,” Henry gritted his teeth.

You have no idea.

During his early days as an investigator, the team he joined was sent on a mission to neutralize a Crooked Man. Everything went horribly wrong and the anomaly slaughtered the entire team, leaving Henry as the sole survivor. He was lucky then, thanks immensely to the Talisman of Recall he had clutched so tightly in the moment.

“Don’t make any sudden moves,” Henry whispered, remaining calm. Though every conscious fiber within him screamed at him to run away.

“It probably attached itself to the kid while he was playing in a park or walking home from school, and then it followed him here. It likes tormenting its victims, feeding off their suffering before going in for the killing blow. Probably the only reason the kid’s still breathing.”

It was malevolent as it was horrible, a disfigured sadist in a skin suit. Among the higher-tiered Curses, it was up there among the more dangerous variants. A single Crooked Man could wipe out a whole team of investigators if they weren’t prepared.

“Should we neutralize it here?” Mari stepped forward, aiming her pistols at the figure in the dark.

“No wait,” Henry yanked her back before she could do anything foolish. “Don’t do anything we’ll both regret! We’re not prepared to take on something like that.”

“If we don’t do something now, the kid will die!” Mari jerked her head towards him, a slow-burning anger raging in her expression.

“Listen to me. If you take a shot at that thing, all of us are going to die. Do you understand?!” Henry raised his voice, taking Mari aback. Slowly, the indignation in her eyes died down and she nodded in understanding

“Good, now slowly walk back down the stairs. Let’s go back to the living room and-“

The Crooked Man was gone.
They had only taken their eyes off it for a moment. In that short span of time, it managed to destroy the two paper wards and meld back into the shadows.

There was silence as the two stared transfixed into the darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of the entity or find any clues to its whereabouts.

“Where did it-“

Mari screamed as large gaunt hand with long pale fingers emerged from above. It clasped itself over her head and yanked her violently into the darkness.

“MARI!”

Bloodcurdling shrieks reverberated through the whole house, intermixed with gruesome snarling and gunshots. Henry watched in horror as the flashes of light from Mari’s handgun briefly illuminated the confined space. Each intermittent flash revealed nightmarish scenes, a macabre tangle of limbs and flesh ripping into the junior exorcist’s body. Every burst of light only served to sear the horrific image of the mutilation into Henry’s retinas.

Henry stood there in stunned silence before mustering the resolve, raising his vajra to his chest and aiming it at the darkness.

Damn it.

His hand was shaking.

I... I’m scared?

In that same moment, a severed limb was flung forward, slamming against the adjacent wall with an audible squelch. Everything went silent. No more shrieks. No more gunshots.

His mind raced, heart beating profusely.
He knew he was next.

THE BOY… MINE… UNFORGIVABLE

The Crooked Man was right in front of him, though he could not see it. It breathed onto his face a sickly stench; the sonorous odor of halitosis mixed with the metallic taste of blood.

Hah… hah… hah…

The thing had shifted into hunting mode.
It wasn’t playing games anymore.

If he died here, then Karen and the kid were next. He had to act fast.

“Barrier,” he intoned. The vajra in his hand crackled with electricity before forming a wall of light between him and the Crooked Man. As soon as it formed fully, Henry jumped into action.

He dove down the stairs with great haste, falling at one point and hitting the ground hard. The Crooked Man shrieked and slammed against the barrier of light. Henry stood firm, ignoring the pain shooting up his leg. He raced towards the living room just as the Crooked Man shattered the shield.

I have to… make it... where is my… talisman?

Everyone gasped as he stumbled into the living room. Mari looked over him with a face full of worry. His white clothes and albino hair were stained with deepening splotches of blood.

“Henry, you’re bleeding. Where’s Mari?” Karen demanded.

“Not my blood. Mari’s dead. We’re leaving!”

Without hesitating, he grabbed Karen’s arm and activated a talisman in his hand. Then he scooped up the kid and bounded towards the parents.

THUD THUD
CRASH

The Crooked Man shrieked as it thundered into the living room. Its pale, crimson-stained skin quivered loosely with each step. Its deep sunken eyes burned a hole in Henry’s back.

Then it smiled.
A bone-chilling grin plastered unnaturally on a stretched face of disheveled hair and wrinkles. Haru screamed as he beheld the monster’s gruesome countenance.

The Crooked Man stood up to its full height, its limbs stretched over the width of the living room. Its legs extended out with all unnatural joints, making its entire torso bend egregiously along the shape of the ceiling.

MINE… HE IS MINE

Empty eye sockets fixed themselves on the boy.

YOU … ARE MINE

The anomaly lunged, shifting its full weight forward; It cackled maniacally as bony hands stretched out to grab at the boy, only to find an empty space where Haru had been.

“Trickster,” Karen declared, smiling wryly despite the panic. “Wrong kid, ugly.”

The cat yokai’s illusion dissipated, and the Crooked Man growled at the deception. Spit and mucus seeped out of every orifice as it lunged once again at the group, now intent on finishing them off.

We’re not going to make it.

In the fraction of a second before the Crooked Man could reach them, a curtain of light beamed forth from the talisman in henry’s hand, encasing the group in a warm glow.

Henry opened his eyes to find a familiar office scene.
They were safe.