Another Episode S / 0 by Yukito Ayatsuji

Author:Yukito Ayatsuji [Ayatsuji, Yukito]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Horror
Publisher: Yen Press
Published: 2016-05-24T04:00:00+00:00

2

“When I came here last summer break, you remember I was sketching the building here in this spot? Not knowing it was your house. Sou found me and went to the lakeshore, where you were…”

Mei Misaki walked through the yard in the opposite direction from where the animals’ grave markers stood—eastward on a compass—into the shade of trees a fair distance from the house, then stopped.

“I brought the sketch I was working on that day.”

She turned back toward me. Then she lowered the bag from her back and pulled a sketchbook out of it. It was octavo sized with a faded olive cover.

“I forgot this at our vacation house last year. And never had a chance to come back and get it. If I hadn’t forgotten it, I would only have my new one—for this year—with me. So I guess that was a lucky break.”

What was she getting at?

Unable to guess her intentions, I stood there ineffectually.

A clammy breeze blew past us, rustling the leaves over Mei’s head. The sunlight dappling the ground through the leaves danced in time, making it look as if the girl herself were flickering subtly as she stood there.

The blue midsummer sky above was unmarred.

Standing outside the shade cast by the trees, the sun beat down mercilessly on me. As if the sun might burn me away as “impure,” since by rights I was a creature who had departed the world of the living and wandered the darkness of the underworld. The instant this thought occurred to me—

The bright afternoon scene changed in an instant.

It felt as if I’d suddenly been thrust into a bizarre world flipped like a film negative. I squeezed my eyes shut reflexively and weakly shook my head.

“Look, see?”

I heard Mei’s voice. She had opened the sketchbook and was showing it to me, beckoning me into the shade of the trees.

“This drawing. See?”

She had sketched it in pencil. She had drawn the mansion and its surrounding scenery from this vantage point in neat strokes. As well as several tiny windows nearly on a level with the ground…

“Ah. This is quite a good drawing.”

I said exactly what I was feeling, but when I spoke, she chuckled.

“Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Ghost.”

Then, her voice sharpening slightly, she asked, “Don’t you sense anything when you look at this picture?”

“Like what?”

“Compare this drawing with how the building looks from here right now. It’s not a photo, so it’s not a perfect representation, but even so…”

I took another look at the mansion.

Compared to the drawing, weeds had grown tall in front of the entire building, no doubt because nothing had been tended since spring, giving it a wild look. In some places, the wall of the first floor and the lower windows were hidden in the shadows cast by the tall grasses…

Which is about all that I noticed.

“Those windows on the bottom there, are they skylights for the basement?” Mei asked, pointing.

“Oh yes, they are.”

“I’d like to take a look at the basement eventually.”

“That’s fine,” I answered, then shook my head.

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