The Night Parade (5 page)

No sound disturbed the deadly silence of the temple but the whisper of her footsteps on the floor. The wooden beams groaned beneath her. Saki kept her head down, away from the eyes of the statues on the altars.

Her knees hit something hard, and she dropped her phone with a gasp, breath too short to scream. The pale light disappeared before Saki knew that her hand was empty.

She fell to her knees, feeling for the smooth plastic case until her fingers brushed the metal charm. The suffocating darkness pressed against her chest. She tried to swallow, but her mouth had gone bone dry. Another gust of wind raged down the mountain and shook the wooden walls.

A window over the altar burst open. The moon, heavy and round, filled the temple with silver light. The bell gleamed, and Saki stuffed the phone in her pocket as she summoned the courage to stand. Only a few seconds more. She took the bell in one hand and gave it a single, solid shake.

The chime rang through the air. The breeze through the window brought an earthy smell, like her grandfather's temple robes.

Then the wind blew harder. It rustled the trees, picking up speed until it was howling through the walls and the floorboards. Saki pushed the bell back onto the altar as her hair whipped across her face. Behind her, screams pierced the air, and the front door flew open with a clatter.

The village kids had their backs turned as they ran back to the gates and stumbled over the walls. They disappeared, no bigger than ants scrambling down the mountain road.

A shadow passed over the moon, bathing the room in darkness once more. A deep, ominous weight settled over Saki's heart. A voice in the back of her mind repeated the words
death curse
,
death curse
.

The wind began to push the doors closed again. Saki took off like a rabbit, tumbling down the stairs and sprinting along the path through the gravestones. The temple moaned behind her as the wind cut through the trees and tried to push her back.

A bright light flashed on the road. It bobbed up and down in the dark, the wandering soul of some ancient spirit. Saki shrieked and swerved, tripping over a headstone and scattering the offerings across the path.

“Who's there? You think you little punks are funny, do ya? I oughta—” The angry words stopped short. “Saki?”

Saki shielded her eyes from the flashlight and squinted through her fingers until she made out her father's face. She began to pick herself up off the gravel path, but her father reached down and hauled her up. Saki yelped.

“Ow! That hurts!”

“You tell me exactly what you're doing out here, young lady.”

“Me? What are
you
doing here?”

“Finding my daughter desecrating a graveyard.” Saki's father swept his flashlight over the scattered offerings. His grip on her arm tightened, and the rough sounds of his country accent slipped into his words. “Come on, back to the house. I'm calling your mother.”

“No!” Saki dug her heels into the gravel path, but her father pulled her along. “I wasn't doing anything, I swear!”

“You swear? You already lied to your mother once tonight. Are you gonna start lying to me too?”

Saki winced, her cheeks flushed with shame. “I'm sorry…”

“Who were those kids with you? The ones that took off down the hill.”

Saki bit down on her tongue as her father marched her across the road to Grandma's house. The car was parked to the side, her father's keys in the ignition and the doors wide open. “It wasn't my idea! I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen…”

“If one more excuse comes outta your mouth…” He stopped in front of the door and stared down at her. “The names, Saki. Tell me their names.”

Saki's eyes darted from his harsh gaze. She blinked back tears and tried to keep her voice from breaking. “I don't remember,” she lied.

Her father gave her a dark look and hauled her up the steps. “Sit down.” He pulled a phone from his pocket and punched the keys with a deep frown. “Eri? Yes, I found your wallet… No, it's not that. It's Saki. She was up here in the graveyard.” He paused for the reply, watching Saki with a hard, unwavering stare. “Messing around with some local kids. They made a mess of the offerings and broke into the temple… No, I heard them ringing the bell… I don't know; she keeps lying to me.”

“I said I was sorry…” Saki shrank from her father's gaze. The trees surrounding the house whispered through the night.

Out in the darkness, two pinpricks of light blinked at her like glowing eyes. Saki stiffened again and bolted upright. “There! There's something out there! It's coming to get me!”

Her father swore and lowered the phone. “There's nothing coming for you except a grounding if you don't pipe down.” Back to the receiver, he said, “She's either worked herself up or she's doing a good job of faking it… Yeah, I'll stay up here. Don't tell Mom anything about it yet. The stress isn't good for her condition.”

Saki tore her eyes away from shifting leaves. “Condition?”

Her father ignored the question and finished his conversation with her mother. “Take your time. Yeah, see you soon.”

Saki glanced once more at the trees from her perch on the stairs. “What's the matter with Grandma?”

“Her heart's weak. Since your grandfather died, she's had to do everything on her own, and it's been getting worse.”

Saki's panic began to settle, replaced with a creeping dread. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“Because your grandmother didn't want you kids to know. She wanted you to come and have good memories here, not tiptoe around because you felt bad for her.” Saki's father eyed her up and down, the disappointment written all over his face. “But maybe a little guilt might do you good.”

They passed the few seconds in silence. Her father readjusted his flashlight and turned back to the graveyard. “I'm going to clean up that mess you made. Stay here. You move so much as a centimeter and I'll know.”

Saki braced herself on the wooden steps to stand. He wasn't going to leave her alone here, was he? “I can help. I swear, it was an accident.”

“You've done more than enough already. Sit down and wait for your mother.” The light of his flashlight bobbed up and down in the dark until it disappeared behind the headstones and the low walls around the graveyard.

Saki sat with her knees to her chest in the circle of light by the door. The moon hung heavy in the sky, watching and waiting. Saki shivered in the sticky summer heat, and the wind through the leaves whispered in her ears.

“There's no such thing as curses,” she said to the darkness. She put her hands to her head to block out the sound. “There's no such thing as curses…”

The rest of the family didn't take long to arrive. Saki apologized with every other word, but nothing would move her father. He stood over her shoulder as she told the story to Grandma, but the look in her grandmother's eyes was worse than any of her father's scathing words. Her mother had also wanted the names, but Saki kept her mouth shut. She'd gotten in enough trouble; she didn't want to be a target for Yuko and the village kids too.

The argument went back and forth until Grandma put a hand to her chest. She declared she was tired and that the rest would sort itself out in the morning. After the yelling finished and she was banished to the back room with Jun's gloating laughter, Saki stared at the ceiling until she drifted into a shallow sleep.

In the dead of night, she woke to three cold fingers on her neck.

Saki blinked in the darkness. The sliding door was open to the forest. The fingers pressed against her jugular, and bright, thundering panic surged through her body.

The fingers curled down toward her throat.

She tried to open her mouth to scream, but her jaw was locked shut. Her hands groped for her phone under the futon. Before she reached it, she touched her grandfather's worn-out charm. The three fingers retracted, leaving her skin cold and bloodless.

“Oh good, you're awake.” She heard her brother's voice.

Saki flipped around. Lying on her back, she stared up into a pair of eyes.

It was not her brother.

It knelt next to her on the tatami floor, knees brushing the edge of her pillow. Her brother's futon was empty, and the blankets were flung around the room. It may have been Jun's body kneeling there, but whatever stared back at her was not her brother.

The clouds shifted, and light fell through the open door, burning moon-blue on everything it touched. Her not-brother's eyes reflected the light like a will-o'-the-wisp.

“I thought you might sleep through it.” The creature smiled. Her brother's teeth seemed sharper than usual.

Saki touched her hand to her jaw. It unlocked. Her voice was little more than a whisper. “Sleep through what?”

It leaned over. She stared into its will-o'-the-wisp eyes.

“The Night Parade, of course.”

With a single movement, it was standing by the crack in the door. The forest stretched on into the night.

“Get up, get up! We're late already.”

Saki scrambled to her knees. She pulled a blanket around her shoulders and clutched her phone to her chest.

“W-what have you done to my brother?”

It rolled her brother's eyes around the room and licked his teeth. “Impressive, isn't it?” It opened its arms and looked down at the body it had taken. “Of course, beautiful maidens are traditional, but we must work with what we have, no?”

Saki eyed the backpack in the corner. It was heavy enough to swing in a pinch. “If you touch me, I'll scream.”

The creature with her brother's body became very serious. “Oh no, that won't do any good. They won't hear you anyway. This is your burden, little one.” It barked out laughter, eyes wide open, reflecting the moon.

“This is crazy. Jun, if you're playing a joke, it isn't funny. I'm telling—”

“Why do you refuse to believe what you observe to be true?” it asked. “I don't know what sort of game you're playing at, girl. You invited me here.”

Saki blinked. “What?”

It dropped on her brother's knee beside her. “Don't you remember? On hallowed ground, you put your hands to the summoning table. You called out our names. You rang the bell. So we came to you, as we must. Well,
I
came to you.”

“You're Kokkuri-san?”

“No and yes. I am the first of three. The others will be along later.”

“Others?”

“Oh yes. I'm always the first, whether I like it or not. The third you will like very much. Everyone likes him. But the second…” It covered her brother's mouth as a malevolent glee twinkled in its eyes. “Oh my. I daresay you will not like him at all. Very…scary.” It curled and uncurled her brother's fingers.

“No,” Saki said. “No. No, no, no,
no
.” She pulled the blanket over her head and rolled into a ball on the floor. “This is crazy. This is insane. This is not happening. I am asleep and having a dream. When I wake up, it will be over.”

The creature sighed. “Very well. If that is your final decision…”

Saki waited underneath the blanket. The wind whistled through the cracks of the old house, but after more than five minutes, she heard no sounds of the stranger anywhere. Bit by bit, she peeled back the blanket and peeked over the top.

Her brother slept soundly on a mess of tousled blankets. His face squished against his pillow as he drooled a bit down the side. His eyes were closed and didn't shine at all in the moonlight. Saki wrapped her blanket around her shoulders as she rose to shut the open door.

On the wooden walkway in full moonlight sat a fox with four tails.

Her fur was the color of rusty gold, and each of the silver tips on her tails swayed in a different rhythm. In her eyes was that same will-o'-the-wisp glow. Her black lips curled, but she did not open her mouth.

“Is this better? Seeing my true face?” she asked. “Though I miss having thumbs…”

Saki dropped the blanket down to the floor. A pressure built in her chest until she remembered she needed to breathe. The next lungful of air felt like her first.

“You…you're a…” Her own voice sounded foreign. She pinched herself, hard. The pain certainly felt real. “This is really happening.”

The fox flicked all of her tails at once. “Of course. That's what I was trying to tell you. Are we ready to begin now? We'll have to move quickly.”

“Wait, stop.” Saki held up a hand and retreated back toward the wall. “I still don't understand. I'm sorry if I called you without meaning to, but we were just playing a game. It wasn't serious. I don't want to go to any parade. I don't want to go anywhere. I'm already in a ton of trouble.”

The fox stared at her with burning eyes. “Oh yes, you're in quite a bit of trouble, I'd say. A death curse looms over this house. I see it hiding in your shadow even now.”

Saki turned. There was nothing behind her but blankets. “Those guys, they moved the pencil on their own. It wasn't…” Her voice broke, betraying her.
Death curse
. She'd heard it before, but she didn't want to believe it. “You're…you're lying to me.”

“Am I?” the fox asked. Her tails billowed around her, and she raised a dainty paw. “How very silly of me to go to all of this trouble then. Do you think I enjoy this, girl? I'm here because I am bound by contract, nothing more.”

“What kind of curse is it?” Saki shivered. “If you really knew, you'd be more specific.”

“We see what we see, but there are those who can see more. They can even combat such afflictions. Of course, to find them, you'll have to go through the Parade…”

Saki bent down to gather the blanket. “No way. It's the middle of the night. I'm not going out in the woods. It's dangerous.”

“More dangerous than staying in this house, waiting for whatever curse that follows you to catch up? That story never ends well. Or do you think you're the first human to walk with us?”

Saki looked to the woods beyond the door. Tinkling music drifted through the air between the towering trees, unlike anything she had ever heard before. The forest was awake with sounds, alive and eager. It called to her, drawing her closer to the door. One look, just one. If anything seemed off, she could slip back inside and shut all the doors.

The fox turned and hopped to the ground. “Follow me. There are many things that can be found during the Night Parade, even the power to lift the darkest of curses.”

Saki crept across the room as goose bumps rose on her skin. She set one foot onto the walkway. The moment her other foot touched the wood outside, the door to the house slammed shut. Saki turned back and pulled, but the door wouldn't budge.

“It's locked! There isn't even a lock on this door.” Saki eyed the fox. “You did something.”

“Come now.” The fox stepped toward the forest with a chuckle in her voice. “It's a long way to the shrine.”

Saki crossed her arms and didn't budge from the walkway. “I don't have any shoes.” She nodded her head to the dusty earth below. “And I am not going barefoot. Forget it. My shoes are inside, so you're going to have to unlock the—”

The fox stopped and turned her head back toward Saki. “Use that pair underneath you.”

On the dirt below the walkway, where nothing had been before, sat a pair of wooden geta.

“Where did you—?”

“Put them on and hurry up. There's no time to waste.” The fox bounded away from the house without a second look back.

“Where are you going?”

The fox kept moving, and Saki shifted from one bare foot to the other. The door was still shut tight, and without the fox's otherworldly glow, the dark shapes of the trees closed in overhead.

“W-wait for me! I'm coming!” Saki slipped her feet over the unpolished wood of the geta. The straps, which at first seemed like simple pieces of black fabric, were made of shadows. Saki could see her skin through them, and when she walked through the darkness to catch up with the fox, the straps disappeared until she stepped again into the moonlight.

“Hold on! We're going the wrong way!” Saki called to the fox as she caught up. For a forest creature, the fox didn't seem to know her way around very well.

The fox stopped and peered up at Saki. “Which way do you want to go?”

“If you want to go to the shrine, you'll have to take the road up the hill. Over there.” She pointed left.

The fox laughed with a voice that sounded like a bark. “That way? Oh no. The way we're going is much more reliable.”

“But we'll be walking into the forest any second now. I'm a human, you know. I can't just go running off between the trees. We have to go up a road.”

“That seems like quite a disadvantage to your species… But if you like, I'll take you on the Pilgrim's Road.” The fox entered the edge of the forest and disappeared behind a tree. “Come on, follow along. Don't you see the way all lit up?”

Saki edged around the same tree and brushed a branch away from her face. Suddenly, she knew where she'd seen the path before. It was the same one that had appeared through the trees when she'd first looked out the door of Grandma's house. Saki stared down the path and blinked. This time, the path stayed put.

A round red lantern hung from the farthest tree. The path was too narrow to walk together, so Saki trailed behind the fox's four tails. She raised her eyebrows as she glanced around.

“Is this supposed to be a road?”

“Patience, patience. Save your breath for the climb,” said the fox as they passed beneath the first lantern.

“So what is this ‘Night Parade,' exactly?” Saki asked.

“The Night Parade is the biggest celebration of the year,” the fox explained. “Spirits travel from far and near to pay homage at the shrine on the mountaintop. At least, that's the idea…”

The lanterns they passed glowed with an odd light, far steadier than a candle flame but without the metallic glow of electricity. Saki brushed her hand on the trees as they walked but felt no cords or wires. Each lantern was painted like a daruma doll: a fat little man with a thin, inked beard. Their right eyes were filled in with black circles, but their left eyes remained white. All of Saki's questions about spirit business faded away under the lanterns' glow.

“Who put up all of these lights?” She touched the delicate paper of the body. The warmth spread around on both sides.

“Oh, many people. There aren't as many as there used to be though. It's such a shame.” The fox sighed. “You'll just have to watch your step.”

Saki didn't always understand her answers, but at least the fox didn't seem to mind the questions. “Why do some of the lanterns only have one eye?”

“Because those are the ones yet to be fulfilled. They're wishes, you see. They light our path, but they have to be pure. So many aren't anymore. Do you recognize any of them?”

Saki thought for a moment. “Last year, I wished for a new bag for school. There's a brand that all my friends—”

The fox interrupted her. “Oh no, a silly thing like that won't be here.”

Saki frowned, but she didn't have time to dwell on the insult. Up ahead, the outline of a small wooden stall appeared.

The fox licked her chops. “Wonderful, simply wonderful. I was craving a bite. Weren't you?”

A yellow lantern hung near the entrance of the miniature noodle shop. A blue-and-white half curtain fluttered underneath the shop's name, which was written in scrolling, old-style characters that Saki couldn't read properly.

“Let's go in,” urged the fox. “This is my favorite shop.”

Saki stuck her hands in her pockets. The metal charm on her phone made a noise against her fingers. “I don't usually sleep with my wallet.”

“My treat then. If you hope to make it through the night, you'll need your strength.” With the brush of one soft tail against Saki's leg, the fox darted underneath the curtain.

The little shop hardly seemed big enough for an animal, let alone a fox and a human girl. Saki bent down, pushed the curtain away from her face, and took a tentative step inside.

The shop was ten times bigger inside than out. The fox sat on a stool at the empty counter and nodded at Saki to take the neighboring seat.

“This place is huge!” Saki leaned over the counter. “It looked so much smaller in the dark.”

“Many places are different once one looks inside,” the fox said.

Savory smells danced on the air and tickled Saki's nose. As she inhaled more of the delicious aroma, her mouth watered and her stomach let loose a growl. The fox laughed her barklike laugh.