Death’s Shadow

Fuyuki woke slowly, his brain forcing him grudgingly into consciousness. He waited, still as a rabbit, while his eyes adjusted. The lantern in the hall cast faint light into the room through the paper door, casting the room in a soft tan hue without really providing much in the way of illumination. The client beside him snored softly, one thick, meaty arm holding Fuyuki against the futon.

He heard bells. They were distant at first, so faint that he thought it was just ringing in his ears, but getting closer. They chimed softly in a regular pattern, low enough that they would have been inaudible during peak business hours but growing louder with each passing second. The light flickered, dropping the room into darkness for a moment. A new shadow appeared when the light returned, moving at a steady pace past the screen. The sound of the bells moved with it. The shadow was roughly human shaped, taller than normal with blurred edges, like the person, whoever it was, was just a shadow and nothing more. There were no footfalls – neither the heavy thud of their clients, the shuffling gait of the owner, or the soft steps of the maids.

The sound of the bells had woken him, he was certain, but the strangeness of this man was what had kept him from dismissing the sound and slipping back into sleep. Whoever this man was, his very demeanor screamed ‘outsider’.