Chapter Text
It was just for one night, just one.
No one have to know. No, no one will ever know.
I stealthily creep towards the door.
Looking around, I saw no one. I closed my eyes and listened carefully, still nothing. The halls are empty with no soul insight, no stirring from anyone in the house. Everyone's fast asleep, as I should be.
Every other night I've already been dozing off, much earlier than everyone else. But not tonight, not now.
The steady beating of my heart - thump thump, is the only sound I hear, alongside the soft pitter-patter of my footsteps.
Perfect. This is perfect, it's like some unknown force is helping me with my goal.
As I reached the front door, I looked back at the hallway and listened carefully again. Still nothing.
I slowly turn the knob.
Creeeak
I stopped, as does my breath. I look around again. Still nothing.
Damn this door.
I continue turning the knob... slowly... carefully.
Click
Yes!
Suddenly, I heard someone shifting in bed. I froze in my track, thinking what my mother will do if she saw me trying to sneak out in the middle of the night.
I hold my breath as I opened the door as quietly as I can, my breath stucked in my throat as the view outside slowly filled my vision.
I can't believe this, I'm actually doing it.
Just for tonight, I reminded myself.
I went outside, closing the front door with another soft click.
I'm out!
I'm out and no one knows!
Giddiness starts to filled my heart and I would have laugh out loud if not for my fear of being found out.
The full moon shines brightly above me, above the trees that surround the house that my mother is so proud of, above the garden that my sisters love so much, above the rice paddies that my father works so hard, above the corn field that I hate because of how creepy it looks.
The full moon shines above everything that I've known all my life.
Just for tonight.
I closed my eyes and listened. I can hear the soft rustling of the wind, the gentle chime of the bell on our porch, and the sounds of the cicadas. If I focus hard enough, I can hear the rustling of the curtains in our window, the relaxed breathing of my sleeping family, the flap of wings of different insect frolicking in the garden, and beyond that, the croaking of the frogs and the quiet splashes of water flowing in the river.
Eyes forward with a determined nod, I jogged slowly towards the road, leaving our house, passing through the garden, passing through the trees, passing through the corn field, passing through the rice paddies, and into the river.
My heart is hammering in my chest as I solely focused my eyes ahead.
Caution from my father suddenly rang in my head; don't go out when it's night, demons lurks in the darkness and will eat you alive.
Father always warned us about demons that comes when night falls, and I clung to his every word. My father is an honest man, he works hard in the field to provide for us and always makes sure that we're all well and safe. And if he said the there's a human-eating demon hiding in the shadows waiting for us to stray in the darkness, then it must be true. It's one of the reason why I always slept early.
My surrounding is shrouded in darkness, making everything seems more ominous than usual, the shifting of the shadows in my peripheral vision makes me think that something is moving in the dark. The cold wind blowing through me as if to whisper some dark harsh secrets is not helping at all with my wild imagination.
I would have gone back by now due to fright yet the moonlight illuminates my path as if encouraging me to go forward, to not stop.
Just for tonight, I'll swallow my fear and brave the night and not for once stop my jog.
I stopped when I reached the river. The water is dark, to my utter dismay. For some reason, I expected the water to sparkle and shine beautifully while reflecting the moonlight and stars in the sky like in the movies.
Beyond the river, there'sm a path between the tall bamboo grass leading to a clearing full of wild flowers where the moonlight shines directly above.
I have been there, once. When I wandered alone and got lost, it's daytime though. Now, with the dark and menacing shadows I don’t know if I can go there. Just thinking about passing through the bamboo in total darkness is making my skin crawl with terror. Not to mention, how am I suppose to cross the river in total darkness?
Maybe I should go back.
Just as I was about to turn my back, I saw something twinkled between the long grass around the river. It's floating around like some tiny fire.
What is it?
Then suddenly, another twinkle makes itself known from the grass. And another one, and another, and another. The lone twinkle becomes two, and then three, and four, five, six... Until I can't count them anymore with how many they are.
So pretty.
Their soft light illuminating the dark surrounding and are reflecting beautifully in the water. It's as if they are emulating the stars, making the darkness around us their own night sky.
Maybe they're fireflies.
Big and pretty fireflies.
With their soft light, I can faintly see the makeshift bridge, the protuding stones in the river. And the path between the bamboo. With their floating lights, it doesn't really looked scary anymore, it actually looked kinda magical. Like in the books.
Pretty fireflies, are you helping me too?
I gently descended and carefully jumped from one rock to another, until I reached the other side of the river. The end of my pants are dripping wet and so is my footwear, it squirted the water out noisily everytime I stepped on it.
With the faint light from the fireflies, I continued towards the clearing. I made sure my eyes are trained forward, so if there really are something hiding between the bamboos then I won’t see it.
My mind drifted to where I first heard the story that piqued my curiousity, I heard it from my big sister, Kanae.
The four of us is sitting outside in the garden, basking in the sun and eating peaches. She said that every one hundred years, during the first blue moon, you'll see a figure dancing in the middle of flower field beyond the river that bleeds red.
Big sister Shinobu just laugh at how silly it sounds. "What sane person waits for a hundred years, in the first blue moon specifically, just to dance in the middle of a flower field?" she said and continued reading her book, finding it more intriguing than the old tale.
Kanao wasn't really listening in the first place and just continued braiding my long golden hair, as I also braid flowers into a crown.
It's not really that special nor does it sounds truly mysterious, it sound as boring and plain as old tale without basis can get. But still, the tale already holds some of my attention. It's not because I know a river that looks red due to the iron on the land nor been in a clearing full of flowers beyond said river once when I got lost. No, definitely not.
Big sister Kanae continue whimsically undeterred by our responses or lack of it, "Some said this year's actually the hundred and next week in the blue moon, which is the first for this year by the way, the figure will dance once again."
"Just who is this figure, Big sister?" I asked, fingers still dedicately weaving flower crowns.
"That's the thing, no one knows! Isn't it mysterious?"
"For you, maybe. You love this kind of stuff. Come on, I heard Mother calling us for lunch." dusting her skirt as she stand up, Big sister Shinobu closed her book and wait for all of us to follow suit.
I finished braiding the flower crowns, just as Kanao finished with my hair.
I put the flower crowns to my sisters heads, as we all set off towards the house.
Next week, huh.
And what do you know, here I am.
In the flower field.
And no figure insight.
I don’t know what I'm expecting, to be honest. Logically speaking, no one should really be here. I mean, isn't it good that there's no ghost here? I was just really curious about it and I won’t be able to sleep peacefully if I don't visit the place just for tonight. My curiosity will eat me alive.
I got to admit, the flowers are really pretty beneath the moonlight, though. I sat gingerly, making sure not to squash any poor flowers. I already went a lot just to get here, might as well enjoy the place.
With nothing better to do, I picked some flowers and started making flowers crowns from it. How did I find this place again?
Oh right, the butterflies.
I was already crying a lot that time and panicked so bad, I didn't know which way is left and which way is right anymore.
But then, I suddenly saw these really pretty swarm of butterflies flying around and they seem to be all leading somewhere.
Intrigued, I followed them and next thing I knew... Pretty flowers everywhere. I hate to admit it because I take pride in the beauty of our home garden, but this place is SLIGHTLY more pretty than ours.
Twinkling light enters my vision, and for the moment I panicked thinking some demons are out here trying to get my stupid butt, before I calmed down and remembered the fireflies from before.
The soft lights from before starts to filter through the flower field, gently floating in the air, dancing to the beat of their own waltz.
Just like the the butterflies.
One firefly strays close to me. I reached out my point finger, like how Kanao did when a butterfly decided to land on her, and waited for it to land.
It didn't.
It just stay close, hovering around me, until it bumps into my nose.
Warm.
It flew away, instead of doing its own thing, it joined into other firefly. The two fireflies suddenly became one.
Wait- WHAT?
I squinted my eyes to focus, maybe my eyesights failing. But, I saw it again. One firefly combining with the other.
Some horrific question pops into my stupid mind.
Are they even fireflies?
Panic starts to spread into my being as I watched the firefl-no, the lights, fused with one another, turning into a large glob of light.
I think this is the high time that I should run.
Dashing towards the path that leads to the river with all the momentum that I have without actually tripping and breaking my neck is quite a feat that would make my late Gramps proud.
I sprinted like my life depend on it, which is very much true, without even looking back to whatever is happening behind my back.
"Zen?"