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Hinako, for the longest time, has had a... Morbid fascination with death. It started from a foggy, blood-stained memory of returning from a holiday with her family, where the events are muddy in her mind but fresh all the same. With her fascination came a longing—one she dares not to speak of. Any incidents where people in the town of Oceanside are found dead were common enough that the world simply kept spinning, today being an example. A man’s bloodless body is found near the train tracks, and nobody bats an eye. Nobody mourned the dead in this quaint, seaside town, unless it was someone personal (and even then, it happened behind closed doors), something the tawny blonde had to learn the hard way.
Still, Oceanside was ripe with people, even though whatever haunted this town needed constant feeding. It marked nighttime as a particularly dangerous place—as though it was some magnet for all things unsavoury—and as such, it was known amongst locals to never stay outside when the sun has set; such hushed words were only spoken to each other, never to the unknowing tourists. If the sane and the sober weren’t going to die, then those who don’t know (or those not in the right frame of mind) were going to have to pick up the mantle. A disgusting practice Hinako found herself loathing the other citizens of Oceanside for, except for one person.
“Hinako! Hurry up, it’s getting late!”
Miko was like a beacon of hope in the engulfing darkness that threatened to swallow up their town. Her red hair even resembled the sunset to the right of them, a beautiful sight the two refused to look at without the safety of being indoors. Her friend was selfless, kinder than any other person in Oceanside, and Hinako couldn’t help but feel frustrated at how she was prioritising her safety over her own.
“You need to get home too, Miko… I can walk by myself. I’m fine.” The blonde was a few steps behind, hand running across the cold steel beam railing as she walked, the odd stumble in her step.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” she replies, having turned around to moonwalk for a second—just to look at how far Hinako was. She stops after realising the distance, waving her hands in the air like Hinako couldn’t see her whilst the sun set, her voice louder when she speaks. “But you’ve always been so accident prone, I feel I have to walk with you.”
Hinako’s brows pull together, her lips twitching downward with a slight disgusted grimace. “I don’t need to have my hand held. I’ve lived here as long as you have. I can walk home by myself.”
“Yes, but--”
“Miko, stop.” Cutting through her words, Hinako’s abrasiveness made her golden eyes widen. “Sorry,” she sighs, clutching the strap of her shoulder bag. She didn’t mean to snap like that. “I know you like to look after me, but I’m allowed to worry just as much as you. My house isn’t that far away; I’ll walk there myself. I just want you to get home safely.”
Her friend pauses, and her hand touches the beaded bracelet on her wrist. “Okay.” She murmurs, before smiling brightly. “I’ll go, but you have to call me if something goes wrong, okay?”
Hinako thought that—if something were to go wrong—she realistically should call either of her aunts, but that wouldn’t do much since she was so far away. Instead, she sighs once more and looks down at her feet. “I will. Sorry again for snapping at you.”
“No, no, I get ya.” She waves it off like it was nothing, trotting over to Hinako with that broad grin, patting her on the back. “I do sometimes go overboard.” She doesn’t budge until Hinako raises her head to smile back at her. “You surprised me though. I don’t remember the last time you got mad at me!” Miko laughs it off, but there’s a slight pain hidden away in her gold eyes. Hinako caught it, and her brown eyes fall back to the grey ground in guilt.
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine, I mean it. Don’t worry about it!” Miko gives her a second pat on the back, this time with more of a push, enough for Hinako to stumble forward. “Now c’mon! Gotta get home before it’s pitch black and all the ghoulies come out.”
An exhale of a laugh leaves her nose, “ghoulies?” Hinako turns her head to see her friend leaving and offers her a wave. “See you tomorrow, Miko.”
“See ya, Hinako!” The wave is returned, and Hinako watches as her friend disappear behind a building when she crosses the street.
The silence is louder than anything.
Even though it was such a brief moment, she still felt guilty. Nothing harsh was said, only a second of rudeness, but Miko was the only one in this town who gave her a chance. It felt wrong to be mean when she was looking out for her. Trying to bury it in her subconscious to not think about, Hinako glances around at the empty street, the only light coming from the orange sky as the sun bled out on the horizon. Not a single soul was around the suburbs she found herself in, her only company now the rows of houses to her left and the beach to her right with the overlapping waves swallowing the gold sand. Disregarding the unspoken rules of this town, her walk slows to a crawl, and she pauses to watch the sunset over the railing.
Regardless of how not a single bird sang their songs, or how there wasn’t another living person around, the sight was admittedly wonderful. If Miko still stuck around and wasn’t so insistent on getting her indoors, perhaps she would’ve mentioned something similar to how good it was to admire the world, even during these eerily quiet times. Maybe it could’ve helped her mental health, if she wasn’t thinking of such depressing things.
Most notably, her family would’ve loved to watch this. The ocean looked like it was glittering in the light, the sound of the waves overlapping one another resulting in a hushed lullaby of wondrous sound. She listened, eyes fluttering to a close in an act either stupid or careless, or some mix of the two.
Hinako decided it was carelessness, as when she heard feet shuffling against sand, she opens to see a silhouette on the beach.
Sleek, long black hair twirled in the breeze like a mesmeric dance, whoever it was faced the ocean ahead, leaving no face for Hinako to linger on. Her mouth hangs open, wondering if she should call out, before they turn their head over their shoulder—presumably having gotten the idea they were being stared at—and the two make eye contact.
She didn’t look like she was from any town or city nearby; Hinako assumed she must be a stranger to her hometown’s streets—having wistfully stared off into the ocean like that, or perhaps she was as careless as the blonde. The sunlight illuminated their black hair, streaks of light slipping through like a curtain, but not enough for her to see the face in the dim lighting. All Hinako knows is that she was not only caught staring but now was being stared back.
“Excuse me!” The words tumble out of her mouth with a loudness Hinako is unfamiliar with, leaving her with a gasp and a hand over her lips. The figure doesn’t move for a second, although they tilt their head and go to step towards her. Hinako freezes.
As they come closer to the lamplight under her, their face comes into view. Pallid, unblemished skin more like an empty canvas than flesh, with eyes as blue as the water they watched. She’s taller than Hinako and smiles warmly at her as though she saw an old friend, not a stranger.
“Is there something the matter?” She says, the colour of her white dress warming under the light. The woman leans against the railing, arms folded over it, craning her head forward and looking to the side to watch Hinako, the smile never leaving her lips.
“It’s—the town—it’s not safe for you to be alone at night.”
“Is it? I had no idea.” She rolls her head from one shoulder to the next, seemingly unbothered by this information. “But, if you know it’s dangerous, why are you alone?”
The woman’s voice is strangely captivating, familiar. Not seductive, but confident with a tone and expression Hinako struggled to break away from. The blue depths that were her irises looked as endless as the ocean, and she finds it strange that she has to swallow the truth of her question before spilling everything to this stranger, like she was some close friend akin to Miko.
“I was on my way home. I just wanted to say it’s best for you to stay indoors, before it gets too dark.”
“I see.” She responds casually, tilting her head to the side. Those sea-coloured eyes flutter close with long, black lashes as the woman listens to the crashing waves behind them. “Do you like the ocean?” She asks.
It was like a spell had come over her, one leaving her unable to walk away. This woman, despite the darkness and danger slowly encroaching them both, was able to give a sense of… Calmness.
“I don’t,” she answers, plain and simple. “It’s cold.”
“Really now? You stare at it rather longingly.”
Hinako curls her lip inward, and sucks in a breath, clutching the straps of her shoulder bag. She was not about to tell this stranger the real reason why she stares out into the ocean so long—but her relaxing voice drew her in like some sort of trap.
“What’s your name?” She asks, just to avoid the previous question. The woman smiles, opens her eyes, and holds out her hand over the railing.
“Shiori.” She answers. “Shiori Oumi. And you?”
“Hinako.” Was it bad to tell this odd person her real name? Probably. She wasn’t thinking well.
“Come, Hinako. Dance with me along the shore.”
It’s not safe to be around Oceanside at night. Something butchered residents, something left people behind like shrivelled husks, something swallowed up every drop of sanguine blood.
Still, Hinako took her hand, and with strength she wasn’t sure one person could have—she pulls her to climb over the railing—and drags her feet to the water.
It was like she was a lost lamb, and Shiori was the guiding farmer. She held her hands and danced gracefully, her dress swinging to the movement of her waist, and Hinako was mindless and empty in her movements. Swaying to no beat, Shiori smiles and laughs—hauntingly. It echoed in her ears, louder than the splashes of their shoes on the water. Hinako is still, more an observer than a dancer.
Shiori makes Hinako want to say things she would never say to a single soul. She withdraws the urge to call this stranger beautiful, and she steps closer, like a moth to a flame. Shiori holds her grin and pulls her further in, her dancing drawing her away from the stairs to the beach and closer to the middle of the shoreline.
“Do you not dance?” The question makes Hinako’s eyes go wide, and she stammers before awkwardly trying to mimic Shiori, shuffling feet and swaying hips. It doesn’t work. She looks off, and so she goes still.
“No,” she finally admits, voice loud over the roaring waves. The sun sinks further into the sea, and the sky bleeds in its colour to compensate. Shiori’s black hair stands out in the array of orange and yellow above her, and she must clench her fists to avoid reaching out to touch the shiny strands. “But you do. Wonderfully.”
“Thank you,” she answers with another spellbinding laugh, “may I ask another question? Are you curious, Hinako, to see what’s in the darkness?”
What makes Hinako freeze isn’t the question alone, instead, it’s how Shiori comes to a complete stop—and stares directly into her brown eyes—searching for the answer before it’s even spoken aloud. Curiosity is a restless passion she couldn’t ignore, but what lies beyond the darkness was something Hinako was more than curious about.
“I am.” She answers, breathless. Shiori’s brows furrow downward for a second, as if the answer wounded her, and she slid her hands further up her arms to hold her shoulders. Not an unwelcome touch, but Hinako is nevertheless tense as the taller woman leans ever so slightly closer.
“I can show you what lies beyond the darkness.” She whispers, voice hot against her ear. “But why are you so uncaring for the danger?” When the two meet one another’s eyes again, Hinako nearly lets everything out at once.
Shiori’s gaze is powerful. It wills her, encourages her like some hypnotism—to expose all her ugly thoughts and feelings—just for her to hear. She looked like she already knew by the lonely smile atop her lips, as if she understood by a mere glance what it was like to be Hinako Yaotose.
The blonde couldn’t help but recoil at that. Shiori, this stranger, seeing into her very depths? She was not that simple, or easy to understand,
“I need to go home—“
“Don’t you want to know what’s in the dark?”
She wants to. God, does she want to.
Despite the sound of the seaside, it’s like the world goes silent. There is only the mysterious stranger on the beach, with her pitch-black hair and ocean eyes, that threatened to drown her in them if she stared too long.
“Show me,” she says, and Shiori pulls her close.
Her breath is warm against her neck, their chests close enough to feel Hinako’s pounding heartbeat, and Shiori’s nothingness.
Before she has time to react, pain shoots through her nerves like an electrical current in water, jagged and sharp. Teeth plunge into her skin, tearing into it like tissue paper, desperate and hungry.
The pieces of the puzzle click together in her mind for the brief moments of consciousness she was clinging onto. There’s a physical weakness that leaves her legs trembling as Shiori steals the life from her body, devouring hastily—enough that Hinako nearly stumbles to the sand below.
Her vision starts to blur as her tongue rolls across her raw, red flesh for any growing rivers of blood. Falling into her arms, Shiori refuses to halt her feast, although she does catch her and bites a second time. Scrunched up skin tears under her fangs, she bleeds just to be consumed and knowing that death loomed over her made Hinako’s head spin like she’s on a carousel; there was a thrill to it. With heavy breathing harsh enough that her lungs scrape against her ribs for air, she closes her eyes and finds disgusting comfort in the pain. Shiori’s lips dipped in the warm, fresh blood, her tongue savouring her taste, teeth scratching and digging for more.
Hinako’s mind goes blank. She can only listen to the faint yell in the distance, the sound of Shiori’s consumption in her ears and she can feel the strong grip of her clawed fingers scrunching up her blonde hair and the blood trickling down her neck. She’s pulled herself away from her drinking finally, a throbbing ache rippling through her skin like an itch under flesh. There’s a whisper against her ear, and then—
Her eyes shoot open, and she throws herself upright in bed. She gasps for oxygen, swallowing down mouthful after mouthful whilst her lungs burned. Her heart chanted to a rapid pulse, pounding against her ribcage—she’s alive.
Questions flood her mind like a rising ocean, and her left hand reaches for her throat, searching for open wounds, but finds nothing except for red pin prick marks, and she yanks her curtain open with her right hand.
Sunlight graced her skin and made her eyes squint to adjust to the sudden brightness. It’s early morning, on a Saturday. It’s all proof she lived and continued to live—albeit with a significant headache that made her want to withdraw the curtains again—and a nausea that wracked through her body and curled up in her stomach like a festering bug.
Her breath comes out in heavy gasps. Her mind is dizzy, hazy, but the sight of blue eyes is fresh, like an imprint—or a mark—that is forever embedded into her. Her mind pulls itself apart, unsure how to feel. It hurt, it stung, it felt like being stabbed by two surgical needles, she felt the blood get pulled out of her body—but it wasn’t—did it feel nice?
She shakes her head and pulls at her hair in frustrated growls. It only felt nice because she was dying. To be drained and left behind like every other husk in the morgue, to finally get her wish, but it was cruelly snatched from her. Rampant death marked Oceanside like a plague, and Hinako wasn’t good enough to add to the pile of bodies left behind?
She felt like utter shit and not just from surviving her near-death experience, but because her body ached with a numb weakness so strong it was painful. She ran her hands over the fabric of her clothes, finally becoming aware of the sweat clinging to it, and she looks around the room for any sign of life other than her. She had taken off her cardigan and bag at some point, abandoning it by her bed, and slept in her floral-patterned shirt and black skirt, but ultimately—nobody was in her room but her. The buzz from her phone on the bedside table is enough for the woman to snap out of her thoughts, and with an audible groan, she sluggishly swipes her hand over to it to see who it was.
Miko.
She squints and grimaces from the bright light of her phone and holds it away from herself as she begrudgingly goes over the text. She’s saying they both walked home together. Miko had apparently bought some medicine for her and was coming over, since ‘you looked so dizzy, I was worried!’
Hinako stares silently at the screen for a few seconds, mouth agape. Her head still pulses whilst she forces herself out of bed to get ready for the visitor, her mind elsewhere, body on autopilot as she first brushed her teeth in the bathroom. It was hard to remember most of last night; a dark cloud having obscured most of it in her mind. Some events felt like a dream, others hurt too much not to be real. She spits into the sink, before looking up at her reflection in the mirror.
Her blonde hair was messy from the sleep and salty sea air. Despite her slumber, her eyes held heavy, grey bags under them, and as she tilts her head to the side—she spots the two bite marks engraved into her flesh—fresh, but no longer bleeding, only red and slightly itchy as her fingers run over the dents. She only remembers the pain in her throat, and the sight of blue eyes. Hinako would rather not see Miko right now with the utter state she was in, but since she was already on her way… She might as well deal with it. Miko never really took ‘no’ for an answer when it came to looking after someone.
Splashing cold water onto her face, the shock of the icy water wakes her system.
When Miko arrived, an unmarked, plastic shopping bag in hand, she cheered and waved up to Hinako’s bedroom window, which was above the front door. She waved back to show she’ll be down in a second, but unfortunately, her friend’s cheerful demeanour was destroyed upon seeing her face to face.
“Hey, Hinaaa—oh God, what happened to you?” Instead, she became an instant worrywart, like some overbearing mother. “I went ahead and bought some ice cream because you seemed really bad last night, but you’ve…” She goes ahead and presses her hand against Hinako’s forehead, brushing her fringe out of her way. “Yeah, it feels like you’ve gotten worse.”
“I’m not really hungry for ice cream.” The blonde mutters, stepping to the side to allow Miko to enter. “You can come in, by the way.”
“I know, yeah.” She trots in after her friend, closing the door and going to take off her sandals, “so—about last night—what happened to you?”
Hinako wished she asked this question and was also upstairs in her bedroom for it. If she was going to have an awkward conversation with Miko, she at least wanted to be in the comforts of her bed for it, where she could at least be at ease with her sickness instead of slouching and sniffling everywhere. She thought about how to answer and admit she couldn’t remember (in the least worrying way) whilst she turns her head to the right, looking at her deathly-ill reflection in the mirror, before jumping at the sound of Miko’s cry.
“Woah, hang on, what’s that?” She drops her bag, leaping at the chance to grab Hinako’s sweating face, and her golden eyes stare down at the marks on her neck. “How’d you get those? Don’t tell me—“
“You’re asking me what happened last night?” She passes her a glance, narrowing her eyes. “You said I looked dizzy. You know what happened.”
Miko pauses. She looks hesitant, squirming under her scrutiny, before awkwardly picking the bag up at her feet. “Can we talk about this in a minute? I wanna put the ice cream away first, I don’t want it to melt.”
Before long, the duo is upstairs in Hinako’s bedroom, and she leans over her bed to crack open the window; the sound of seagulls and the ocean waves filling the silence between them. Her lungs appreciate the fresh air, but the migraine festering in the back of her head hated the bright sunlight. Miko’s watching the family photo at the edge of her bed, where the happy faces of the Yaotose family stare back—a time long since gone.
The redhead twirls the beads in her bracelet, reminding herself of her own promise she made to the Yaotose. “So, last night…” She starts, sitting by Hinako at the edge of her bed. The duvet is soft like a cloud, and in a less tense scenario, she could imagine herself lying down and talking aimlessly with her. “I got a bad feeling. You know how I get.” Her friend nods her head in understanding, although she stops to rub her eyes and sniffle. “I know you didn’t want me to, but I turned around to come back for you—it’s just—I just kept thinking something awful was going to happen.”
When she looks into Hinako’s eyes, she realises where the reluctant silence came from. Whatever happened to her, she was willing for it. A sense of unease built in Miko’s stomach, and she has to look down at her hands in her lap for it to dwell. “I don’t know what you were doing at the beach by yourself at the time, but…”
“I think I saw someone.” Hinako spits it out, the assumption only from the blue eyes in her memory, and Miko’s eyes go wide. She perks up to look at her, bewildered but not in disbelief.
Then, her eyes relax, and her shoulders slouch, the realisation hitting her.
“I think so too. That’s how you got those marks, didn’t you?” She nods her head to Hinako’s throat, where her friend’s hand covers the bruised skin. “But I didn’t see anyone. I only saw you in the dark, and you were in some daze. Still standing, but swaying. That’s when I decided to take you home, in case if any more of those vampires show up.” Miko’s hands still fidget with her bracelet, and her lips are a thin line, like she’s trying not to frown. “Safety in numbers, and all that.”
Hinako couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Their quaint town of Oceanside, which had hot, sunny days even during autumn, had a vampire problem? It made sense with all these killings in the dark, how the bodies are left exsanguinated, but to hear it out loud felt like a children’s story. Everyone knows something lurked around at night, but for it to be the supernatural?
The conversation reminded her of a short talk with a neighbour last year. She was an elderly woman with a pet dog half the size of her, and she explained it was to guard her home from those very monsters. The woman had told Hinako it was something more, something dead but alive, something that looked like humans—but she had brushed it off as a scary story.
Of course it would be vampires. The thought made sense as she becomes aware of her bite marks again, bringing a hand up to itch it.
“Don’t worry,” Miko bumped into her shoulder, forcing a smile for her friend. Hinako knew she was probably disappointed in herself for not sticking by her side, but it wasn’t like Hinako herself had asked her to stay. “I’ll protect you from any bloodsuckers!”
Hinako had no idea how Miko, a human with zero fighting ability, intended to keep her safe, so she sucks her lips inward and tenses her muscles, before leaning into Miko and giving her a hug. “You don’t have to do that. You don’t have to watch over me.” She sighs, relaxing somewhat when her friend wraps her arms around her in return. “You don’t have to feel bad for not protecting me, either.”
“Sorry,” she whispers with the same pained smile. “You got yourself hurt, though. I feel like I let you down—let myself down.”
“You haven’t. I’m alive still, see?” Hinako pulls away from the hug and extends her arms out to show that—aside from the marks on her neck and whatever sickness she had—she was fully fine. Her voice, however, still rang with disappointment that neither of them spoke of. “Although now I think about it… It’s probably bad we hugged since I’m not doing too well.” It felt even more of a bad idea in hindsight, recalling all the times when Miko called off school for being poorly.
Miko sputters into a small laugh. “Yeah, but don’t worry. I’ve had the cold thousands of times, one more time isn’t gonna kill me.” The sentence is enough for Hinako to exhale her laugh with a half-hearted grin, which was a small victory itself.
“So… Werewolves, vampires, ghosts—they’re all real?” Hinako asks.
Miko tilts her head in thought, “just vampires, I think. They’ve haunted Oceanside for years.”
“How’d you know that?”
“C’mon, Hinako. I think it’s just another secret Oceanside buries,” Miko forces an amused smile, as though her knowledge was commonplace, “the people that are found, they’re—lacking a single drop of blood. Not ordinary human would do that so many times for so long, people have always known it was something.” While it was true people believed it was something monstrous that lurked, the fact that it was vampires specifically is what’s got Hinako’s in surprise.
Before Miko left, she had insisted on Hinako taking the medicine before leaving. She waved her goodbye from her bedroom window, and watched her walk down the street, before her brown eyes move over to the beach on the horizon. She could barely focus on the sight outside, with waves sparkling in the sun and the crowds of people, but her mind began to wander to last night, picking up the pieces. Through the fog in her memory, she could see the bright blue eyes in the dark, but the rest of their face was a mystery.
Hinako wished she hadn’t forgotten who did it. Why leave her alive, but nobody else?