Chapter 40
FORTY
FENRIR
PRESENT
It doesn’t take her long to fall asleep.
I’m not surprised; I’d be out for the count in no time when my mother used to stroke my face this way when I was little.
It used to frustrate me, as I’d fight to stay awake just to feel her fingertips glide over my skin.
My body would relax, and I’d feel safe. But it was like hypnosis.
No sooner did she begin, I’d be asleep, like she was casting a spell over me.
I always wondered if this gift was acquired when you had kids or whether it was passed down through generations. I guess I’ll never know.
The fluttering of Hayami’s eyelids has stopped. Her breathing is soft and even, and her face looks peaceful. Even though she’s asleep, I continue to stroke her face.
She hadn’t put up a fight when I suggested this technique. She just let me. I wonder if Junko had a way of settling Hayami when she was younger. For some reason, I doubt it.
I’d only just put the journal down when I heard the noise downstairs. It was so loud that I felt the house shake. Hayami had woken instantly, and this time, I knew it wasn’t just my sleep-deprived brain or the influence of what I’d just read that was messing with me.
She heard it too.
And while the scene in the kitchen was so fucking bizarre, all I could think about was Kuchisake-Onna—the mutilated woman—and Junko’s journal entry.
One thing’s for sure: I’m going to have to tell Hayami what’s going on.
Before tonight, she thought this was all in my head, a product of no sleep, but there was no way I could explain what happened in the kitchen.
It was why I checked the cameras, to prove to her that I hadn’t moved from her bedroom.
Her logical thought process was that I had done it.
That I had wandered from her room in a sleepless fog and set up the scene.
But right now, I continue to stroke her face because I don’t know when or if I’ll ever get the opportunity to touch her like this again.
And I must stay awake. The night is too dangerous, too precarious for me to drift off.
And what better way to keep my vigil than right here next to Hayami watching her sleep?
The hours of darkness creep by unnoticed as I’m lost in her. Time slips by until the moon finally disappears and the grey sky returns, a shift in the light through the small gap in the curtains.
Morning has arrived.
It’s safe.
She is safe.
Only now do I allow my eyes to close, let sleep take me as I lie curled up next to Hayami.