Kazaguruma Onna (風車女性)

 Call me M-san. This story is from when I was a third year high-school student.

I was drunk that night. I know I wasn't of age then, but the bartender thought I was cute. I was celebrating breaking up with my girlfriend, in other words I was crying in my cups. She had ghosted me. All I knew was that a boy I'd seen her with before came up to me and said, "Stay away from A-chan, she doesn't want to have anything to do with a nasty lesbian like you!"

People at the bar had gotten tired of my whining so the stools next to me were empty. But when I looked over an older woman had taken one of the empty stools. She was dressed in black, had long black hair and heavy glasses. I think she tutored some of the other students. She wasn't my type, but she listened to me with what appeared to be sympathy. I bet her students called her Onee-sama. After a while she said, "Do you want to see your girl tonight, have her welcome you with open arms?"

I nodded, "Sure, sure."

She smiled and reached into her pocket and handed me a key and slip of paper. "Here take this and go to this address. Use it at midnight, not before and not after. You must go in even if the room looks empty. If you look around, you will find her, and she will welcome you with open arms." The way she repeated the exact phrase "she will welcome you with open arms" was weird but I was too drunk at the time to notice.

I had in my hands an oddly shaped key, old looking, and slip of paper with an address. I recognized the address of a derelict love hotel. It wasn't the sort of key that is usually used at hotels, but I shrugged that off. If I hadn't been drunk, there is no way I would have gone. But as it was, I went. I didn't have time to sober up and think about it because it was almost midnight and I need to hurry to be there in time.

The place was fenced but I quickly found a place where a hole that had been cut to let in would-be lovers. The ground behind the fence was littered with fast food wrappers, beer cans, and an occasional condom. I found the door indicated without much trouble and check the time on my phone and waited the few minutes left till midnight. I was a little more sober but not enough to abandon my errand.

I opened the door as instructed. A dim light come in through a broken window faintly illuminating a room which smelled of mildew and piss. I stepped into the empty room, of course there was no one there. I curse myself for falling for a cruel joke. I was lucky no one had been waiting to mug me.

I threw the key onto a rotting futon and left the room. I had never been someone who believes creepy stores, but to my horror the moonlight showed that things had change outside the room. There was no longer a fence instead there was a path leading straight out to the road. The road ran between ruined unlit buildings. The bushes that grown outside the abandoned hotel had spread and grew right out into the road. The plants looked strange, so I inspected them closer. I had never seen plants like these before, not even in books. They were like strange tropical plant. The first one I examined had broad leaves like a skunk cabbage and out of the center came sprays with dark berries and light-colored flowers smelling faintly of lilacs. The next plant had leaves and a fruiting body like a pineapple, only the fruit was about 3-feet-long and shaped like a huge rose hip. This plant gave off an odor like an old rotting yam. The strangest thing was they seem to be whispering to me. Whispering unintelligible things; things you didn't want to know. I stayed as far away from them as possible after that. But the air still seemed to stir with silent whispering.

A noise drew my attention and I saw my girlfriend. A-chan was running down the road ahead of me. Without thinking I chased after her, calling her name. She either didn't hear me or choose not to respond. Instead, she darted up some stairs into a ruined apartment building. As I looked up, I saw hanging over the building a huge flower with hundreds of petals, each inscribed with writhing runes. The flower slowly spun like a windmill and changed shape, size, and position like a kaleidoscope. In the center of the flower was a face both enthralling and horrible. Its eyes were an incredible brilliant blue. The stem of the flower was a woman's body, nakedly seductive yet terrifyingly abhorrent, sinewy like a snake but human and alluring. All this was against the backdrop of a starless, deep azure sky.

I knew, I had to save A-chan from it, so I ran heedlessly up the stairs to the apartment. Once inside, I looked around for A-chan and saw her beyond the apartment's balcony. Hanging in the air. A-chan had never been more lovely and I was filled with an incredible feeling of joy at finding her again.

As if in a trance, I walked out to the balcony and reached up to her. My A-chan had come back to me. I felt light and the world seemed to become hazy. In my efforts to reach A-chan, I leaned against the balcony railing. The ancient, rotted metal gave way and I tumbled off the edge and crashed down. As I landed, I heard something snap, and a jolt of pain washed through me. But before, I passed out from the pain, I saw that windmill spinning above me, not A-chan.

When I came too, I was in the hospital. K-chan, A-chan's sister, was there. I'd never looked closely at her before, but I suddenly realized how cute she was. Her face was lovely, long black hair, perfect cheekbones, fresh soft lips, shy smile, and flawless complexion. If there was any defect in her looks it was her eyes, they slanted upwards. My eyes moved to her dress, a pastel print of leaves, a dress she filled out nicely. Well-formed but not overdone. On it she wore a broach shaped like a leaping fox. Its eyes were bright blue sapphire chips. Following my eyes, she said, "Like it? It's a charm. Here, I have one for you." She handed me a broach shaped like a prone fox, one sleepy eye made out a sapphire chip. "You will be safe from her as long as you wear it and you're my..." She stopped and laughed, a laugh that charmed me entirely. In that moment, I wondered why I had wasted tears on A-chan.