Kiyoshi saw it before it even happened. September 23rd, 1956, when the man first appeared in his dream.
The room was dark and he could hear nothing but the heaving of his frightened chest in the ghastly night. Finding himself pinned on his bed like a worthless piece of paper, tied in dread and terror. He could feel the eyes that watch him from the corner of his room. A disgusting presence filled with grudges and malice.
A staunched smell starts to fill the room. The smell of oil and rotten flesh. It was so bad that Kiyoshi could hardly breathe, finding the idea of filling his lungs with air onerous.
He thought he heard someone breathing very shallowly. The sound of a person drowning — syncopated with the rushing beats of his heart. Kiyoshi rolled his eyes around the dimmed room, and there, stood stolidly in the corner, a spindly figure of a man.
He could not see his face but he could tell it is a man by its posture. Kiyoshi could feel his chest beating louder and faster each time, so quickly he was afraid it'll burst out of his chest. The figure didn't move, it remained there and stare only at him with his white menacing gaze.
Kiyoshi lost all the strength in his body, and he was stoned. Meant to die in a grip of his piercing gaze. Kiyoshi knew he was doing something to him with only his mind. Sucking his oxygen and gripping his heart, until he's gasping for air. He closed his eyes and prays to wake up soon. Leaving a dream as just a dream. Like how a fallen leaf let go from its twig and crushed on the ground under people's feet and flew away with the dust, like the memory of yesterday's nightmare.
Kiyoshi really wishes it was just a leaf on a twig that wilt over time. But no, that nightmare was followed by another nightmare of the same figure watching him in the darkness. And another night, followed by more nights until it becomes occasional. Each night, the figure's position is changing. First, it was just on the corner, next night, in his closet, the very next night, on his foot. Kiyoshi was convinced the shadowy figure is moving closer each time towards him.
He was scared of what it might do or what it was capable to do. Furthermore, he's scared of how it looks. Those eyes that blaze with flame — they weren't enough to break him into sanity. But the whole image of the monster — it was something Kiyoshi never wants to see.
Sometimes, it's better not to witness the appearance of our fears. To not have a knowledge of what it is. Some things are better off uncovered.
It's better to pretend you're not scared when you actually don't know what you're afraid of.
However, Kiyoshi knew his fear and it was wrapped around him like a disgusting malevolent snake. Suffocating him with thoughts that raced around his head.
He saw his face. His grotesque appearance, filled with holes. Peering from them like tiny spying eyes, were the white heads of writhing revolting worms. They were restlessly shifting from one hole to the other across his rotten flesh. Slowly, his mouth slits into a painfully wide grin. And filthy laughter slips his tongue. A horrible sound tainted Kiyoshi's brain.
The nightmare left him sleepless for several nights. He was afraid that when he closed his eyes, he will see the man again.
****
"Kiyoshi, you didn't sleep again, did you? You look horrible with those eye bags like wasp nests under your eyes," Hanako said as she prepares his coffee. Kiyoshi didn't speak a word. It was as if he didn't hear her at all. He stares only impassively at the wall. There were red lines of veins in his sclera and his eyes look like they would shut anytime soon.
"It's not healthy, you know," she added, placing the hot mug of brown coffee in front of him. The lad ignored her words. He didn't move a bit and proceeded to muse at the space like a dead statue. The image of the hideous dream flashed in his vision and Kiyoshi knew that if he ever blink his eyes, it will become real. The man with holes all over his body, he's waiting for him and will get him in his fingers if he falls.
Hanako is worried for her brother. He hadn't slept for three days straight and she was afraid he'll get sick if he continued doing it.
"Is it that nightmare again, hm?" Kiyoshi lifts his gaze toward his sister, who has a dead look of worry written all over her face—and his head fell to his hands. He could feel tears springing up behind his eyes but he was determined that he wouldn't allow them to appear. He is a man and he wouldn't cry over a nightmare like a pathetic child. At least, not in front of his sister or any other person. It would be such a shame to draw a tear over a childish dream.
"He keeps following me and there's nothing in this world that could make him disappear. I wish I could... I wish I could escape from his world — but I am stuck there. In the dark bleak room rigid under his leash," Kiyoshi said, gritting through his teeth. Each word fought against the tears that threaten to break through the brim of his well.
Hanako placed her hand on top of his shoulder and she could feel him shivering under her touch. Feeling great empathy toward her poor brother, she watched her heart as it broke into tiny pieces in front of her. She wants to help her brother, but how can she chase away the monster that lives only in his mind?
"I'm sorry, Kiyoshi-kun, I wish I can do something to make it disappear."
YOU ARE READING
EPHIALTES
Short Story"Please tell me, sister, it was not me who's ugly. It was the curse that made me ugly." Kiyoshi Sakurada was plagued by a nightmare. A monster had come to him every night in his dream and watched him as he was rigid under his gaze. Until one day, wh...
