Demons Eyes

Chapter 67

The wolf smiled; a toothy, terrifying expression, and stood up. "Always," it growled in her ear as it walked past.

The wolf walked towards Noro and stated knowingly as it brushed by her on its way past, "Though that is not your question, but mine. What is it you wish of me?"

Undeterred, Noro turned to face the animal again.

"Answers," she stated, following it away from the gateway and into the mist, glancing behind them as a torii gate disappeared. "Why are you able to talk, and what are you doing to me?"

The wolf's ears flopped as it chuckled, its blood red eyes glinting merrily. "I have always been able to talk. Perhaps it is only now that you are listening. And I will never harm you. Whatever you are experiencing, I assure you, is not of my design."

A great wind picked up, and blew the fog away, revealing a small pond, with a weeping plum tree hanging over it in full bloom. As they walked along its edge, Noro could spy koi fish swimming in the crystal clear water.

Strangely, when Noro looked could only see her own image staring back at her. The beast at her side had no reflection.

"Sit,' the canine told her softly, and she sat down underneath the tree. It faced her solemnly.

"If it's not you that's causing my problems," the woman implored, "then what is?" She frowned, and tears came to her eyes as she spoke.

"When I look at Habiki, I feel sad, and when my mother hugs me, I begin to cry. I'm recalling things that have never happened, and remembering people that I've never met! I feel like I'm going mad."

Noro closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the tree with a thump, causing a rain of blooms to fall from the branches, some landing and floating on the water in circles of three.

"Perhaps it is not that you are going mad," came the answer calmly, "but that you are finally seeing through the charade."

"What? What charade?"

The canine stared at her, and everything became perfectly still. "This place does not exist."

"This world, and all its inhabitants, are nothing but illusions; a spell, set up to keep your soul trapped in the hall between realms."

Noro blinked, barely uttering a "what" before she laughed.

"That's stupid. My family is real. This world is real."

The canine growled a little then, and its eyes narrowed. It clearly didn't like when it couldn't get its way.

"So Is that what you believe," it snarled mockingly, its lip curling in disgust. "Tell me little one, do you really wish to live such a mundane life? Can you honestly see yourself as some human man's housewife, dutiful, meek, and insignificant? Would you really enjoy such an inconsequential life, and die without knowing what the world truly has to offer? Without knowing your own potential? Is that your deepest desire?"

Noro frowned.

"That is my lot in life," she retorted. "Just because I've accepted it doesn't mean that I'll enjoy it."

She crossed her arms defensively. "And even if I wanted to do all those things you said, my family is here. My mother, father, and Habiki. I can't leave them behind."

"And that will be your undoing."

Something in the beast's tone caught Noro's attention. It sounded solemn, and pitying. "What do you mean by that," she inquired worriedly. The beast looked at her.

"You will find out soon enough."

Before Noro could ask what that meant, the canine stood, and the pond and tree disappeared into a swirl of mist.