Forest of Rope

Chapter 26

It was a miserable day for sightseeing.

From what could be made out of the weather forecasts, the entire Kanto region seemed to have disassociated itself from the rest of the globe, cocooning into a misshapen bubble of frost and dense cloud.

'Un-be-lie-va-ble...' Alexis muttered flatly, staring aggressively at the other side of the revolving door.

Tokyo resembled a prelude to an apocalypse. A gray, barren wilderness shrouded in fog.

'I guess we brought the shitty weather with us,' Riley suggested lamely, failing to make light of the situation.

'How are we supposed to hike in this?'

He had no answers. All he could do was recite Alexis's plan in his head and hope for the best.

Check out at 10:45.

Catch train to Shibuya.

Join tour.

Buy camping gear.

Leave tour at Kofu.

Train to Kawaguchiko.

Taxi to parking lot.

Enter Aokigahara Forest.

This was where her plan consistently ran out of steam and died, no matter how many times she concocted it. Alexis never elaborated on what exactly she wanted to do once they got there or how long they would stay.

'I just want an adventure,' she'd answer vaguely whenever he bothered to ask, shrugging her shoulders. 'One more adventure.'

They checked out at quarter to eleven on the dot, departing into the smokescreen with their giant rucksacks in tow.

The conditions outside felt disturbingly unreal.

Every street looked incomplete and leading to nowhere, every building an apparition half-concealed in mist. Even the noise of the city had become strangely warped. The invisible bustle of commuters came as muffled across near-empty streets and the crying screech of vehicular activity rang shrilly from elsewhere and nowhere tangible.

'This is looking pretty bad,' Riley called ahead, looking up uncertainly at the nonexistent sky. 'Are you sure this is a good idea?'

Alexis pressed on unresponsively, maintaining a hurried pace.

'You still wanna go?'

Again, no immediate reply.

Only the pattering echo of their unsynchronised footsteps.

The displaced ambience of the veiled city.

The thudding drum of his own heart.

'What choice do we have?' she eventually murmured without looking back.

'Um...'

'God damn it Riley, keep up. We're gonna miss our train.'

*

'Welcome to the Hermes international calling service. Please dial the area code of the number you wish to call: now.'

The steel buttons of the payphone were worn and finicky. Some numbers took a long time to register while one or two, Riley suspected, didn't work at all.

'The number you have dialled is not recognised. Please try again.'

'Fuck...'

He persevered, punching the buttons aggressively with the flat end of his index finger. The opaque planes of glass rattled around him.