A Watchful Eye

The Bells

The church bells rang, their noise echoed through the village. Today was the day of the Ushis' funeral. Of course due to the heat, nobody came. The kichu-fuda took place right after the Ushis' were announced dead. Their grand kids and very close friends of the old couple wore black clothes from head to toe. All of the mourners gathered together to weep and attempt to cope.

The rest of those in the village who weren't as close with the Ushi family offered their condolences and walked away. As for my family, the Ushis' have been our neighbours since I was a little girl, they always shared their food and took care of me like an extra daughter, therefore their death made me feel terrible. 

I offered my condolences and gave the koden, (a gift of money to help with finances for the funeral and to honor the Ushis'.). As I walked home that day, that certain moment stuck to my brain like a parasite, no matter how hard I tried to let go of it. At first, I thought I'd get over it, but their eyeless heads stayed in my brain like a core memory. I began to sob, thinking it would help me cope with everything. Yet the more I cried, the more their limp faces carved themselves into my mind.

That night, I cried myself to sleep. I was traumatised, my stomach was in a tight knot. I woke up the next morning, still vaguely remembering everything that went down last night. I put my head down on my pillow and put myself back to sleep in hopes of forgetting it all. My dreams were normal, but this one stood out. It was me, my bare body walking on a pitch black path that only went up, it was concerning but I didn't think much of it.

I woke up again, it was now 3pm. I looked out my window and to my surprise the sky was completely cloudy and it was raining! I ran outside and began jumping around, I had forgotten what rain looked like considering I haven't seen it for many months. Suddenly, I stopped jumping and looked around me. Where was everyone? 

I looked into my friend Sayu's house to see that it was completely empty, not a single person in there. I resided to looking at the front road, and there everyone was. But for some reason, they were in a clump once again. I couldn't see anyone's facial expressions from here so I was a bit worried to walk over there considering what happened last week.

I got closer to the crowd, some held their mouth shut and others looked terrified. My stomach dropped. Was this really happening for the second time in a single month? I pushed my way into the crowd, and what confronted me..

Was absolutely terrifying.