Creepy

May 2006, Totsukawa, Japan

“Let’s go this way – maybe we’ll see something,” Lauren said, as she veered suddenly right onto a dark little road up the mountainside. “Maybe some tanukis – I’ve seen them here before.”

“Or a monkey?” Katie said hopefully.

“Mmmm, I don’t think they come out at night,” Lauren answered. The little car rounded a curve, and everyone strained their eyes as the beams of the headlights illuminated the curve and the forest on either side. “I’m always afraid to go up here by myself,” said Lauren, “but I know there’s a good view of the village, and the animals come out on warm nights like this.”

“Why are you afraid to go up here by yourself?” Hayden asked.

“Well, I mean, you never know what could happen. My car could break down or I could get a flat, and then I’d be stuck and have to figure out what to do.”

“You should learn how to change your tires,” Hayden commented.

“I know…,” she paused. “Besides, it’s a little creepy.”

“Creepy? It’s not scary. What could possibly happen? You’re safer here than in the city.”

“I know, but when you’re out here in the dark alone, you don’t think like that. It’s scary. You can’t see anything. Besides, it’s not much fun if no one’s with you.”

“Do you have a flashlight?” Katie asked in sudden alarm.

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Good.” She settled back in her seat.

The car had reached the cusp of the mountain, engine whirring. The road began winding around in descent.

“Look!” Katie cried. A hare bounded out in front of the headlights. “A bunny.” They all felt rewarded for witnessing the rabbit. Probably no one else was going to see that rabbit tonight.

“I know there’s a view coming up around here somewhere…,” Lauren said. She stopped the car abruptly and turned off the engine and lights. Everything was suddenly black, so that Katie couldn’t even see Lauren in the driver’s seat next to her.

“Why’d we stop here?” Katie said uncertainly.

“I thought maybe we could see the village from here,” Lauren said and hopped out. Hayden followed suit without a word.

“But there’s trees all along here,” Katie said, as she opened the door a crack.

“Geez, I can’t see a thing,” Lauren called.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Katie urged. “There’s no view here.”

As she and Hayden climbed back in the car, Lauren said, “Wow, that was crazy. I had no idea it would be so completely pitch black when I turned off the car.”

“There’s no stars out,” Katie observed. “It started clouding up late this afternoon….”

A silence descended upon them. The invasion of the dark into their bubble had unsettled them with an uneasy watchfulness. Lauren started the car and pulled out around the next bend.

Lauren gasped. Something was running along the side of the headlights, just in shadow. Before anyone could get a better look, it turned and dashed into the forest.

“What was that?”

“A rabbit, maybe….”

“No, I don’t think it was. Did you see its fur? It was much too dark for a rabbit. It must’ve been something else.”

“Well, there’s only a handful of mammals in Japan, and I can’t think of what else it could be,” Lauren declared.

They sat in silence again, staring at the blackness out the side windows. They wheeled around another bend.

“Hey!” Lauren pointed with quick, sharp, excited thrusts as another animal scurried across the road, heading up a trail. “I think it’s a monkey!”

“A monkey?! Really??” They all watched as the forest swallowed the animal.

“No! It’s a tanuki.”

“That’s no tanuki – look at its tail.”

“Looks like a tanuki tail to me.”

“It’s too long. And not bushy enough.”

“Well, it looks like the tanuki tails I’ve seen. I don’t think it was a monkey.”

“Maybe it wasn’t a monkey,” Lauren consented.

As they rounded another bend, the trees to the left opened up, and the village lights were spread out across the valley below them.

“Wow….” Katie breathed. “There’s the view.”

They all turned their attention to the left, as the village lights blinked on and off as they passed openings in the trees. Katie glanced forward as they rounded the next bend.

“Oh! Someone hit an animal,” she said, staring ahead at what appeared to be a lump of roadkill illuminated by their headlights. “What is it?”

Lauren slowed the car as they approached it, the headlight beams glaring, spotlighting the thing. Sympathy, then horror, grew as they drew closer. “That’s…not an animal.” Lauren stopped the car right in front of it, letting the engine idle. They sat, shocked and uncertain, gaping at the lump. It was about the size of a small cat, maybe, but it was wrapped in a blanket. Some dark liquid oozed from the middle, leaving a dark streak as it drained downhill.

“Oh my god,” said Katie. “Do you think it’s a pet?”

“Maybe someone threw it out – tried to kill it.”

The blanket around the thing signified some sort of eerie human intervention in this wild, solitary place. They sat silent again, not wanting to leave it but afraid of what they might find.

“Okay,” Lauren said, growing impatient. “Who’s going to get out and see what it is. I’m not…. Hayden, I vote for you. You’re the one who likes to be creepy.”

“Yeah, I vote for Hayden, too,” Katie piped in.

Hayden cleared his throat. “Okay.” He stepped out of the car and approached cautiously, craning his neck forward. He bent over, reaching his hand out gingerly. Suddenly, Hayden screamed, the thing in his hand. He held it up as he turned around – a floppy, wet brown cushion – a grin across his face. He returned to the car, and they drove down to the main road, hearts racing.