The bloodcurdling scream woke, seemingly, the entire town. Once still and quiet, the night was now astir with confusion and fear. Daiki ran to his window to find people stumbling out of their homes, like they did that morning when Yūto went missing. Curiosity and excitement ignited his heart. 

“Come on, let's go!”, Daiki said, turning to his friends. 

“Are you crazy?? I’m literally shaking. Look!”, Botan yelled and held out his arm. 

“Stop being such a coward. Look, everyone’s going to check it out. Let’s go, Botan!”

“He’s right”, Takashi said seriously, “We should go find out what happened”. He zoomed past the others towards Daiki’s bedroom door and turned back, “You coming?”

Daiki’s eyes gleamed triumphantly, “Let’s go”.

The four of them ran into the street where people were scurrying about, moving in the direction of the scream. Daiki’s parents, Kaede and Junichiro were also among the crowd and upon seeing him run past them with his friends, Kaede reached an arm out in a futile attempt at grabbing and shoving the kids back inside the house. 

“Daiki get back here!”, she yelled but they dashed ahead. 

People were speculating as they moved past.

“Whose house was it?”, someone asked.

“I think it was the Fujisakis’ house”, said another.

Takashi and Daiki exchanged knowing looks as they heard the name. Of course, everyone knew everyone in this town, but this name was special. Daiki’s lips curled up in a perverse smile.

“Dude wasn’t that the name of your crush in middle school? Yua Fujisaki?”, he asked as they jostled through the crowd. Takashi swallowed hard and turned away, “I don’t remember, Daiki, just shut up and focus”. 

As they moved further towards their destination, the town began to look darker and darker. Streets that were earlier lit by lamp posts and house lights, were now beginning to be illuminated only by people’s flashlights. It seemed as if there was no electricity in this part of the town.

Soon, the four of them found themselves at the gate of the small white-walled house that they've seen on the live feed. Takashi picked up his fallen drone off the side of the road and began checking it for damages until Daiki dragged him towards the door, where everyone else was headed. As they walked in, a young woman with short hair around Daiki’s age sat in the middle of a candle-lit living room, gently held by two other women, supposedly her mother and sister. The young woman was whimpering and crying. Himari sat next to the three women, her eyes closed and her thumbs on the crying woman’s temples. 

“Fujisaki-san”, Himari said to her gently, “Fujisaki-san, you’re safe now. We’re here. You don’t have to cry. You can go back to sleep-”

“NO!!”, screamed Yua Fujisaki, “I-I can’t” 

People began to murmur. Himari leaned forward and slowly stroked the girl’s head.

“Fujisaki-san”, she said, “Why can’t you go to sleep?”

Yua lifted her teary face from her palms and glanced around at the crowd, still sobbing and whimpering. Then she looked at Himari, furrowing her eyebrows and breathing hard, her lips trembling from fear.

“I can’t go back to my room” she replied, stubbornly “There’s a monster in there”

“A monster??”, someone exclaimed, “What kind of monster??”

“I-I don’t know.. tall.. lanky.. it.. looked in.. through the window.. and..”, Yua paused, trying to remember. When she did her eyes grew wide. “I-It stood.. outside the window.. and.. it.. waved at me”

A loud and alarmed gasp rose from the townsfolk.

“W-was it a person?? O-or an evil spirit??”, asked another.

Himari looked sternly at the crowd and held her hand up in protest, “That’s enough, everyone. Fujisaki-san is scared and she needs to rest. We shouldn’t overwhelm her. May I ask why the whole town gathered here at such an hour?”

“W-we thought someone might be in danger”, someone replied. 

Himari’s eyes softened. She turned towards Yua again, “Fujisaki-san, I’m going to perform a chant on you. It’ll help you fall asleep and feel better.”

Daiki and his friends watched this ordeal from a corner of the entrance. As Himari began her ritual, Daiki noticed a shadow on the living room wall opposite a large window. Something moved swiftly towards the back of the house. Something large but agile. It wasn’t as if something came running and passed the window on its way, but rather, as if it was right there, watching through the window the whole time.

His heart began to race as he looked around to see if anyone else noticed. But no one did. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the ritual. 

“Did you see that?”, he whispered to Takashi.

“See what??”, Takashi whispered back.

Daiki glanced at Asa and Botan who glared at the ritual with their mouths half open. Frustrated, he ran outside, shoving a few people out of the way and stood on the narrow, dark space between the Fujisakis’ house and their neighbors'’. 

He hesitated for a second. 

There was no trace of whoever was there before and Daiki contemplated running all the way to the back of the house. The side of the house that led to the backyard was dark save for the crescent moon’s gleam barely pushing the shadows to the corners. He had never been a fearful person. Things rarely scared him; horror movies, upsetting people with pranks, doing daunting stunts. Botan spent their whole first semester calling Daiki a weird sociopath and he half believed it to be true. But at that moment, his heart was in his ears.  

“Daiki!!”, Takashi caught up with him, drone still in hand, and whispered loudly, “Where the hell are you going??”

But Daiki was too focused to hear him. After a second’s contemplation, he took off and sprinted towards the back of the house. 

“Get back here you moron!”, Takashi hissed and ran after him. 

Daiki’s heartbeat got louder. He heard sounds coming from the backyard as he ran towards it. When he finally turned the corner of the house and stood in full view of the rear garden, he froze. It was beautiful with a pond, a watermill, a few beech trees, and a grand garden swing, all illuminated dimly in the moonlight. In daylight it would have been a true sight for sore eyes. But the problem now was that there was plenty of room to hide. From every corner of the garden, trees, boulders, posts, and other details jumped out at him like mysterious figures. 

The thing that he was looking for could have been any one of them. 

Takashi soon followed Daiki into the backyard. “Whoa”, he said. Daiki searched the garden with his eyes and landed on a suspicious spot where the pond met the foot of a tree. Between the space where a rock had been placed at the rim of the pond and a giant beech tree stood swaying in the breeze, he could see someone squatting. He narrowed his eyes, inching just a tad closer to get a better look. The thing moved ever so faintly. That was how Daiki knew it wasn’t just another boulder or a bush. 

Seconds later, the figure expanded its limbs. Something that looked like arms separated from the silhouette of its body, slowly. It leaned forward as if trying to crawl towards Daiki, then hesitated.

“Dude”, Daiki whispered in a low voice, “Takashi, check this out”

Takashi, of course, hadn't noticed the creature but was beginning to feel increasingly uneasy. “No come onnn we gotta go”, he urged.

“Come on, just check this out”, Daiki whispered loudly. Takashi stared at Daiki in confusion for a second before moving on to look over Daiki’s shoulder at something behind him. For a moment he couldn’t comprehend it. But soon his eyes grew wide.

“D-Daiki we gotta go”, he took a step back, still fixating over Daiki’s shoulder.

“Wait”, Daiki reached his hand out towards his friend, but Takashi stumbled backwards and fell over.

“B-behind you”, he stuttered. 

Daiki narrowed his eyes and swallowed, slowly turning back. Over his shoulder, he could see the creature had crawled out of the spot next to the giant beech tree and was now standing tall. About ten feet high, it almost reached the roof of the house. Daiki could make out an unnaturally long and thin face looking down at them but it was too dark to see any features. The thing had no clothes on but his body looked gnarly and inhuman. He staggered awkwardly trying to hold his own height. The two boys looked on in speechless horror, as he brought an arm up and did a slow awkward wave. Just like Yua Fujisaki had said.

“He..lloo”, Daiki heard a faint but deep inhuman voice say, as the thing continued to wave slowly.

Too shocked to think fast, the two boys froze for a moment.

“He..lloooo”, the thing said again.

A violent breeze flowed into the garden and a bolt of lightning cracked, followed by thunder. But it didn’t do much to illuminate the creature’s face.

“Daiki!!! Takashi!!! Where are you guys??”, Asa and Botan’s voices echoed with the initial patter of rain, from the front of the house. The sky lit up every two seconds with bolts of lightning and the wind was getting stronger. In the distance Daiki could hear the townsfolk yelling and hurrying back into their houses. 

“Daiki, let's get outta here!”, Takashi desperately shouted at his friend, snapping him back into reality. He spun around to see Takashi struggling to get up from the muddy ground after his fall. 

“Oi Daiki!!! The hell did you run off to??”, Botan’s voice was getting louder. Asa’s followed closely. He looked down at Takashi again and pulled him up with all his energy.

“Can you run?”, he asked.

“You bet your ass I can”, Takashi replied. 

The two of them dashed out of there as fast as their legs could carry them. Their bodies moved on their own and Daiki only looked back for a second to see the creature still glaring with its arm up in a frozen wave. He..lloo, he could still hear the low voice in his head. Hello.

They kept running until they met Asa and Botan and practically jumped onto them.

“Where the hell were you??”, Asa lashed out, seeing the inexplicable panic on Daiki and Takashi’s faces.  

“Tell.. tell you later.. phew.. let’s go”, Daiki yelled, out of breath. 

They ran towards Daiki’s house before the heavy rainfall caught up with them. Kaede was waiting with Junichiro outside the gate, visible anger pouring out of her face. 

“GET INSIDE. NOW!!”, she flicked each of them on the forehead and shoved them into the house before bolting the door and going on a rant about how dangerous it is out there. Once she was done she ordered them upstairs into Daiki’s room. The four staggered up the steps, tired, confused, and scared. 

“Dude!”, Botan yelled as soon as Daiki closed the door of his bedroom, “What the hell-”

“Just shut up and listen”, Daiki began walking up and down with hands on his hips, trying to gather the right words.

Asa and Botan watched questioningly. Finally, he stopped, looked right at his friends, and took a deep breath, beginning to say something.

“So, back there at Fujisaki’s house-”

“Holy shit”, Takashi interrupted. 

“What??”, Daiki asked, visibly upset.

“The drone”

“The drone what??”

“I.. left the drone..”, he managed, almost inaudibly.

“Left the drone?? Left it where, Takashi??”, Daiki demanded.

Takashi looked back at him, concern and fear flooding his soaked face.

“I left it back there.. at Fujisaki’s backyard”