The following short story is connected to my debut book, Endless is the Night. It was originally a chapter in that novel but I decided to not include it and to save it for a standalone instead. You can only find this story here! There are NO SPOILERS for the book here. This is also a standalone story in its own right and you DO NOT need to read the book to understand it.
Hope you enjoy :)
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Fireflies
Chisako Hide leaned on the windowsill. Her bony elbows dug into the wood a bit and made her wince at the pain—she was sure they’d be all red and sore afterwards—but the sight was worth it.
Little green lights were dancing in the dark. The summer air was scorching and damp. The wind blew and cooled off the sweat gathering around her forehead. And the fireflies were twirling and spinning and gathering, just outside her home.
They were like emerald stars. Great fires in the sky, swirling around the void of space. Bringing a bit of magic to this boring village.
“Hotaru! Come look!” she shouted behind her.
“I’m busy,” came her brother’s reply.
He was hitting something against his teeth. The dull tapping made Chisako want to gag. He was probably studying for his exams and missing all of this! That man’s priorities aren’t right.
Chisako climbed down from the window, jumped off from the chair she used to get up there, gave one last look at her fireflies—because they were truly hers and no one else’s—and ran into the kitchen.
She was right. Hotaru was sitting at the kitchen table, coke-bottle glasses steaming up in the humidity, hunched over a big boring book of nonsense.
She stole a glance and saw a math equation that made as much sense to her as an Egyptian hieroglyphic.
Disgusting math.
But Egypt is cool, I guess.
The tapping? He was striking the pencil tip against his teeth.
What a weird-o. He’ll probably crack them open if he doesn’t stop.
She giggled at the thought. Hotaru with gaps in his mouth—not unlike her—and the rest of his teeth colored gray by the dull pencil.
She grabbed his arm and tugged. “Come on, they’ll all be gone soon!”
He jerked his arm away from her. “Can’t. Busy. Go. Away. Now.”
She pouted.
He ignored her.
“Fiiine,” she sighed. Twirled barefoot in her pink dress, imagining that she was a firefly off to meet her friends. She bounced into the counter by the sink, shook the rice in the bamboo container, almost knocking it to the ground. Chisako removed the lid and dipped her hand into the rice and took a bite. The grains stuck to her cheeks as she chewed them.
Hotaru clicked his tongue. “That’s gross. Use a spoon.”
She puffed out her rice-covered cheeks and opened her eyes wide in response. Pulled her earlobes and danced with her knees above her waist. Just like she thought a monkey would dance.
Hotaru finally let out a laugh. “You’re ridiculous.”
Chisako smiled. Satisfied that she got through to him. But as soon as he gave her eye contact, he put those magnified eyes back on the books.
Chisako swallowed her rice. Sighed and walked over to the kitchen window. The fireflies were gone. Now just a blanket of deep night. There was one light. From the window of the Maede family who lived on the other side of that hedge that ran along the street. No way to walk directly to their place though, the hedge was too thick, they’d have to go around the long way to reach them. Sudden loneliness washed over her.
“Hotaru, when were Mom and Dad coming home?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I asked you a question, dummy.”
“What? Oh, they said they’d be back soon. Don’t worry about it.”
Chisako looked at the ticking clock. Her Mom got it a few years ago from the city. It was shaped like a cat and had bulging eyes above the twelve. It was supposed to be cute, but she always found it scary. Like those eyes were watching her at night when she came to get a glass of water. She knew if those eyes ever moved, even so much as a tiny blink, she’d just die there on the spot.
With a furrowed brow, Chisako deciphered the clock's hands.
“That was,” she counted silently, but mouthed the words, anyway. “Two hours ago!”
Hotaru put his pencil down on the book. Grunted. “Chisako, you’re just being…” He was looking at the clock now, too. “Can’t be. That’s way too long. The Saito house is just down the street.”
For the first time in her life, she saw something behind those fogged up glasses that unnerved her. It might have been fear in her brother’s eyes.
“I’m scared. You’re scaring me. Stop it,” she said.
Hotaru slid off the chair. His feet didn’t touch the ground while he sat in it, but at least he could dangle his legs. Chisako couldn’t even do that. He closed the book. An action seemingly so final, so serious to Chisako, that it was like the end of the world. If fireflies couldn’t rouse him from his studies, what could?
Hotaru picked up the phone attached to the wall. Swiveled the dial over some numbers. With each slide back into place, the dial reminded her of a chain being pulled, ratcheted up into some dark corner of a dark garage.
Hotaru tapped his foot on the floor just like he tapped that dirty pencil. Sweat ran down his face. Though that could have just been because of the heat.
His face dropped. Went white. He hung up the phone.
“No answer. There’s…not even a tone.”
If Chisako had been scared before, she was terrified now. She didn’t know what “no tone” meant. It was the tone of her brother’s voice that scared her. It sounded so small, so fragile, so fluttering.
She felt an urge to cry. But no, that’s not what big girls did. Mom said as much, and Mom was always right. Even Dad agreed on that one. She had seen Hotaru cry before. Like the night before they moved out from Tokyo to come live in this dusty corner of the world. Hotaru bawled his eyes out then. Not Chisako, no, she was a big girl. She was up for the challenge. And it wasn’t so bad out here in the village. Sure, nothing but trees and mountains all around. But the people were nice. Monkeys came by and stole Dad’s pumpkins—and that was funny. And they even had fireflies out here. Tokyo didn’t have those, now did they? No sir, they did not.
So no, she wouldn’t cry. Just like that night. She was up for the challenge.
“What do we do?” She asked. Trying to sound older—bigger—than she actually was.
He stared at the floor without responding for a moment. Then cleared his throat. “Umm. It’s probably nothing. They just got caught by Mrs. Saito. You know how she likes to talk.”
“I don’t believe you. You don’t believe you.”
“I could…I could walk over and see what’s keeping them so long?”
Chisako wanted Mom and Dad as much as a fish wants water—something Dad always said to her, which, for some reason, made her sad just then. But she couldn’t bear to be alone in the house at night. Not even for one second.
“No! don’t leave me here.”
“You want to come with me?”
Absolutely not.
But she wouldn’t have to answer that.
Tapping. Rapping. A clink and a clank. From somewhere outside, from beyond their driveway, somewhere down the dark street and off to the left. It sounded like someone hitting a car with a hammer.
Yeah, not going out there, buddy. No sir, no way. That’s a worse idea than doing Egyptian math problems.
“Hotaru, what is that?”
Clink clink clink.
“It’s just somebody working. Don’t worry about it.”
But she could tell he was lying again. He didn’t believe that, did he?
The light out in the dark, the Maede family’s kitchen window light, went out. It was late. Not too weird, was it? But then came the clanking sound. From over by the now extinguished light. It sounded like giant robots were boxing each other.
Then came the screams.
A man and a woman shrieking.
It was the Maede family. Husband and wife. Both in their sixties. Chisako liked them. Always smiled at her while she rode her bicycle by their garden. Gave her lollipops, even though Mom said she shouldn’t eat sugary things like that.
But now they were crying. And shouting. Something large crashed to the ground. Chisako held her brother’s hand. His was clammy and sticky with sweat. Despite the heavy heat, his hands were ice.
The kitchen light flickered.
Chisako screamed and buried her head into Hotaru’s shirt.
“It’s okay,” he said as he pat her head. “Dad will be home soon and he’ll make it stop.”
She didn’t believe that and knew he didn’t either. All she wanted to do was burrow herself deep into Hotaru’s shirt. get lost in it. Find some safe place far from the flickering lights and the deathly silence that now seemed to creep out from the Maede home.
But no. This was not the time to cower and wish for better times. Nor was this the time to fight. One thing clinging to her brother’s shirt taught her in that moment was: this was the time to hide.
Chisako snapped to. She tugged at his shirt. “Come on, let’s hide!” she squealed out.
Hotaru stood there as if frozen to that spot. “Hide? From what?”
His voice sounded miles away. His pasty face grew even whiter. He didn’t want to know what Chisako knew then, did he? Didn’t want to know that they were in danger and needed to move. And move now.
Chisako grabbed some of his skin just above his elbow and twisted it.
Red returned to his cheeks. “Hey! What are you doing?“
She didn’t answer him. Instead, pulled with all her might at his shirt, and he followed. Just as they left the kitchen, she saw it out the window. At first, she thought it was one of her fireflies. But the color was off. It was silver. Like two floating stars.
Like two eyes in the darkness.
Looking in.
“Shh,” Chisako whispered.
Hotaru had whimpered until she chastised him.
The two of them lay on the floor in the basement. Looking up through gaps at the kitchen above. It wasn’t an actual basement, not so much. It was more of a storage closet built into the floor.
Mom kept dried fermented daikon radish and eggplant down here in milky white jars. They couldn’t really cover themselves with the jars, but did their best to stack some up by the door to act as a shield should someone open it.
Since they came down here, they hadn’t heard any more sounds. No more screaming. No more clanking. But the kitchen lights went out a few minutes ago.
So they lay there in the darkness. At least it was cooler down in the storage than it was up there. But Chisako couldn’t help but think about all the creepie crawlies down here. Once, while she was helping Mom wash the dishes and Dad smoked at the table—Hotaru was probably doing his homework, wasn’t he?—she saw a centipede with a bright red angry head skittered across the floor. Mom screamed. Dad swore and tried to swat it with a newspaper. But it escaped. Right through a gap in the floor and down into this very cellar. She shivered at the thought.
But that would have been better, to face the many legged freak, than to wait in silence for the lights to come back on and for Mom and Dad to come back home.
They still held hands despite how sweaty they had become.
Clink clink clink.
The metallic sound was back. It was close. Maybe not right above them, but it was inside the house. She hadn’t even heard a door open, but that didn’t matter.
It was here.
Floorboards creaked. The horrid cat clock ticked away. Dust fell from the floor above and landed on their faces. Chisako felt an uncontrollable urge to sneeze. Sucked in breath to do just that. Hotaru’s hand flew to her face and smothered the sneeze away.
Clink clink clink.
The floorboard directly above them groaned. Through the gaps, she saw a large shadow walk over their hiding spot. Each footfall was soft. Like it was on its tiptoes. But it wasn’t all dark, was it? She saw two silver lights about where the head should be. They were like tiny flashlights. They lit up the cabinets under the sink. The sink itself. Moved over to the table. The silver light spilled down through the gaps and landed on Chisako’s face. It must not have seen her because the shadow kept on walking. But as it went, clear as day, she heard the clink clink clink coming from it. Like it was holding a metal bell and was striking it with a chisel. Soon it left the kitchen and went out into the hall.
The steps on the staircase whined as it tiptoed upstairs.
Hotaru leaned in close to her ear. “We have to leave now. They might find us down here. We can run for help.”
“What if there are more of them outside?”
She heard him gulp down his own spit. He didn’t answer her. Instead, he sat up and pushed open the hatch. Climbed out. Offered his hand to her and pulled her up. The ceiling creaked and the clink sound traveled above the living room; it was in their parents’ room.
It, yes, it has to be an it. A monster. Something evil and nasty and it’s come to get us.
They crept to the kitchen door, finding it already opened. They snuck out of the house, all the while the clanking continued upstairs.
They crouched as they walked.
Too late, Chisako remembered her parent’s bedroom window, looked out at the very spot they were now running down.
She stole a glance back and screamed.
There, hanging on the outside wall of their home, out their parent’s window it had silently opened, was a person.
But it wasn’t. Not really.
It wore clothes like a person. A housewife’s white apron hung loose from its neck. Blue trousers and a pink shirt under the apron.
But that was about it, really.
It had no feet. Not human feet, anyway.
Two spikes where feet should be. Digging into the house’s wood. Like a praying mantis’ feet. Its arms were curved like rice harvesting blades. With little serrated teeth on the underside.
And that face.
Chisako knew, should she live through this, that she would never forget that face. It twitched side to side. Just like a bug’s. Two silver eyes burned in the center. Dozens of black eyes surrounded the lights. Two claw things protruded out of its mouth.
Opening and closing.
Clink clink clink.
The siblings bolted. They were barefoot but didn’t give a damn. Hotaru yanked at Chisako’s arm as he sprinted down the dirt road. Pulling her along like a can attached to the back of a car. The kind they do when people get married.
They didn’t look back. But they heard the buzzing. The fluttering. Like big wings in the sky.
They passed by the Saito home on their left. All the lights were out. The front door lay in pieces scattered across the yard. A dark wetness, like fresh paint, from the entrance down into the garden. It was too dark to see the color, but Chisako knew what it was.
A sob tried to escape her throat and tears tries to wrench themselves from her eyes but she held it all back. She knew if she let them come, she would melt then and there.
Mom. Dad. Were they inside when it happened?
They kept on running.
The buzzing kept on following them from somewhere she couldn’t see.
Along with the clink clink clink.
She imagined what they were used for. Those claw things on its face. They looked wet and red when she saw them, didn’t they? She nearly started crying again.
They turned right on the road and came out to the rest of the village. There were at least a dozen other houses in front of them, the entire community. The moon shone brightly overhead. A single red star burned like an actual fire in the sky. It… pulsed.
Only one home down below had their lights on. The rest were dark. She saw people in front of that home. Lots of them. They were yelling and holding big sticks and thwacking them at something in the dark. Some even had torches in their hands.
“Come on!” Hotaru yelled as pulled her arm even harder.
They ran down the main street. Passed the homes. Passed the bloody doorways and the shattered windows.
The voices grew louder.
She recognized them but didn’t know their names. The old man with a Santa beard who sold vegetables out of his living room. The handsome highschool boy who played baseball. Her friend Akari’s mother. But she didn’t hear her parents.
They turned a corner and saw the house with the lights on. It was two blocks away.
Santa Beard saw them and yelled. “Hurry! get over here now!”
She saw a man with a pitchfork stab something that rushed out of a dark alley. It grabbed the man’s neck and pulled him into the darkness. Then came his screaming.
One block away.
Clink clink clink.
Chisako looked up to her left and saw her there. The bug lady. Perched on the eaves of a home. Twitching its head from side to side. Its silver eyes landing on their faces erratically.
It leapt from the roof. And dove towards the children.
Hotaru pushed Chisako forward. Throwing her ahead of the monster.
“Run!” he screamed at her.
As the thing landed on him.
Took him in its clawed arms.
Flew away.
With Hotaru screaming into the night.
Chisako lay there in the dirt. Tears pouring down her face and soaking her dress. She felt rough hands grab her shoulders, and she started kicking as he was lifted up.
She smacked the face of the man holding her. Through tear-blurred eyes she saw it was Santa beard. But there was no joy in his face. He held her close and ran back towards the house with the lights on.
The man passed two other men at the entrance and came inside. He passed Chisako off to a woman covered in blood. It was Akari’s mom. Her eyes were wide opened and bright white. She grabbed Chisako’s hands and pulled her in close.
People were yelling. She heard someone hitting something with a heavy wooden rod. Someone even had a gun, but it only went off twice.
Chisako stood there in the woman’s arms. Not really hearing anything. Not really caring anymore.
There were lots of people inside the house. Maybe fifteen or more. Running around. Hammering wood over the windows and even jamming metal bars over them. Most people had blood somewhere on them. Everyone looked scared. People were yelling by the phone. Two men pushed each other and one even tried punching the other until Santa Beard stepped between them.
Then everyone shut up.
The dishes on the shelves rattled. The lights swung from the ceiling. The vibration hit the house in a rhythm. Almost like… footsteps?
“Get inside!” someone by the door yelled. It was the cute baseball kid.
Three people ran inside, falling over themselves, as the boy held the door open for them.
Before the boy could close the door, a hand dove inside. A hand half the size of the boy himself. It folded over him like a gray blanket. Crushed him. Chisako even heard the snap of his bones. Even saw a red mist spray out from his face. The hand pulled the boy outside. A woman who had fallen on the floor as she raced in hurriedly shut the door.
“Cover the windows and the doors, all of them!” Santa Beard yelled out.
People swarmed and darted around the house.
Chisako stood there and let them all pass her by.
She did not see her parents here.
She did not see Akari.
She knew where Hotaru was now.
Clink clink clink.
The sob that had been fighting its way out of her finally won out. She cried. Sobbed. Fell to her knees shaking. Akari’s mom held onto her and also cried.
All that stopped with the pounding. Something heavy hit the kitchen window. But it was already covered with boards and metal rods. Three people stood near it with weapons, an axe, a butcher’s knife, and a stick.
More pounding on the roof.
From the front door.
Santa Beard and a younger woman held the door shut with their bodies.
Then it all stopped.
Like the sudden ending of a storm.
Hours passed. Chisako said nothing. Akari’s mom sat in a corner, looking at nothing.
There was no more pounding on the walls.
A few more screams from outside. Probably the people who couldn’t get to this house.
But they didn’t last very long.
She was happy—if she could ever use that word again—to not hear the metal sound.
Chisako sat by one window in the living room. None of the adults stopped her. She realized then; she was the only child there. Not that the village had many to begin with, maybe ten as far as she remembered, even so, she was the only one.
She looked out a gap in the window. Someone boarded up most of it with kitchen shelves. There was even a pillow stuffed into it. But this one gap remained.
She looked out into the forest that surrounded the village.
And she saw them. Like fireflies. Silver lights in the trees. Always in pairs. But they didn’t dance like her fireflies dance. They didn’t swirl and twirl and sing with their bodies. No, no, sir. These lights stayed absolutely still. Not blinking. No dance or joy at all in them.
Above the trees, she saw it move. A tall man. Walking back and forth like a shark. His eyes were searchlights, flooding the meadow between the village and the trees.
Chisako knew that a bigger town was on the other side of those trees. Inunaki had more people than here. Maybe they could come and help them? If someone could make it that far.
Don’t be dumb.
Some voice from inside her.
What do you mean?
That tall man, those not-fireflies, they came from the direction of Inunaki.
Oh, I guess you’re right.
This internal debate was silenced by an indistinct murmur from outside.
Several voices in tune with one another.
Chanting.
“What are they saying?” a woman asked.
“How the hell should I know?”
“Shut up. Listen.”
Chisako did. She heard.
“Come the red star. Come the next life. Come Amatsu-Mikaboshi.”
The chanting grew louder until it was just outside the home.
A knock at the door.
A polite, unforced, knock.
“May I come in?” A woman in a sweet voice asked. It reminded Chisako of falling snow.
A man with puffy sideburns went to unlock the door. Santa Beard put his hand out and stopped him. “Who are you?”
“Just a neighbor. My friends got a little excited tonight. I’d like to apologize.”
Sideburns put his hand out for the door, and Santa Beard slapped it away. “You did this? You brought these demons?”
The woman outside laughed. Chisako wanted to call it a pretty laugh. But there was something cold in it. Like an icy wind, even though it was a sunny day.
“Demons? No, no, no.” A tinkle of bells from the woman. “We offer you all eternal life. Those who wish to partake come out. We will not harm you. We will embrace you. Those who refuse. Well, you have seen what will happen, haven’t you?”
The adults started arguing. Sideburns said they should just do what she says, why should they all die? Akari’s mom stood up and went to the door. Slapped Sideburns. Said her if these things could take her daughter, she would rather die than listen to the woman.
Shoving. Yelling. It looked like half the people wanted to open the door while the other half fought to keep them from it.
Chisako slipped away from them. Moved towards the backdoor in the kitchen.
Sideburns took out a knife from under his shirt. Drove it into Santa Beard’s neck and pushed the man away from the door. Opened the door.
A woman clad in red and white robes, and a wide straw hat stood in the doorway. Her eyes glowed red. Sideburns bowed to her. The woman grabbed his throat with her hand. Lifted the man off the ground. Squeezed her right hand shut and tore his head off with the force. Laughing as she did it. A flood of the silver-eyed freaks entered the home. Grabbing people. Chisako unlocked the back door. A man with silver eyes stood there. But he must have been looking for an adult. His eyes were looking up. Chisako ducked under his legs and ran outside.
Behind her, she heard the house explode in screams. And the laughter of the woman with red eyes.
She raced across the meadow. The tall man’ wasn’t there anymore. She saw him standing over the house she ran from. She sprinted into the trees. Soon the sound of the screams faded. Because she had run far, or…. not worth thinking about.
She ran until she couldn’t breathe anymore. Bent over her knees and caught her breath. Looking around, nothing but the dark forest. Above her in the sky, the throbbing red star. She walked forward, not really knowing where she was going. She thought about trying for Inunaki, but she trusted that voice in her head, even if she sounded mean.
The air was cool. Crickets and even a cicada here and then chirped. A distant owl mocked her.
Clink clink clink.
No, no, no!
Chisako froze.
The sound came again, from slightly further away. Was it hunting her?
Then she saw it. Two silver lights floating in the dark, just ahead of her, between two trees.
“Chisako, you worry too much.”
That voice. Couldn’t be.
The silver lights came closer until Hotaru emerged from the shadows. His shirt was ripped down the center and hung in tatters. But there was no wound on his chest. He stumbled forward. But it wasn’t really him, was it?
His cheeks were sunken like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. His teeth… sharp. No glasses on his face. He walked as if his bones were jelly. Almost falling over with every step.
“No,” she said. Tears falling down her cheeks. Reflecting the silver light in her brother’s eyes.
“Come,” he said. “He is waiting. No more fear. No more sadness. Don’t you want that?”
“No. If going with you means no sadness, then I want the sadness instead!”
Hotaru creased his forehead. Snarled. Raced forward with surprising speed. And stopped. Chisako had tensed her whole body, waiting for the end. She opened her eyes and saw Hotaru standing there, not moving.
A stream of daylight separated them. The sun was just coming up over the mountains. Faded pink rays had crept into the forest.
Hotaru, in the darkness, smiled. “Just wait for tonight.” He turned and ran into the forest. His eyes bouncing in the dark like fireflies.
Chisako turned around and headed back for the village. There was no way she’d get anywhere out in the forest. With the coming sunlight, she had a feeling the things would be gone, too. She walked and soon came back to the village.
The sun bathed the valley in mournful light.
No tall man stalking the streets.
No silver lights.
No red star.
She carefully made her way back. Saw the blood in the streets. Saw bodies hanging out of windows. She walked inside one home. Akari’s. Tried the phone, but it was dead.
She held back the tears and the desire—no, the need—to curl up into a blanket and sleep the terror away. But Hotaru’s words, Wait for tonight.
She would have to disappoint him. She walked to the paved road that led out of town. Knowing it would take hours, maybe even a full day, to get out of the valley.
Better get walking then.
The sky was blue, and the sun was warm. The cicadas sang along the road. And the girl in the dirty pink dress walked barefoot out of the valley.