Beyond, With a Yokai

Chapter 1: Who Are You?

Her heart leapt.
That tiny sliver of hope surged in her chest.
She gathered everything she had left and lunged toward it—

But he threw her.

Hard.

Yesenia winced, bracing for impact.

She expected cold tile.
Expected pain.

Instead... she landed on something soft.

Grass?

Eyes flying open, Yesenia found herself outside.
In front of her cabin.

The night air was still.
Only the faint rustle of leaves disturbed the silence.

She blinked, breathless, struggling to make sense of what had just happened.

"What the hell...?" she whispered, pushing herself to her feet.

She looked down at her hands, her arms, her legs—expecting bruises, cuts, something.
But there was nothing.
She was completely unharmed.

It's just a dream, she told herself. I'm dreaming. I just need to wake up.

She took a deep breath and pinched her arm.
Nothing changed.

Frantically, Yesenia looked around.

Everything looked familiar—and wrong.
Off.

The darkness was thicker than before.
The single lamppost barely lit the edge of the camp.
Hadn't there been more lights before? Where were they all?

A sudden crash made her flinch.

Something heavy launched from a second-story window and hit the ground with a deep, sickening thud—just inches from her feet.

Yesenia let out a sharp scream and stumbled back, her heart exploding in her chest.

Yesenia squinted into the dark and saw the outline of... a dog?

It twitched, like it was just now coming to.
A sharp stab of dread hit her chest—Was it still alive?

She took a step forward, about to check, when a voice behind her rang out:

"Don't move. Not unless you want to die."

Yesenia snapped her head up.

There he was—the guy from the bathroom, now framed in the pale yellow halo of the lamplight.
He was walking toward her, slow and lazy, like he knew she had nowhere left to run.

"What's going on?!" she gasped, voice cracking into a shout.

Her hands trembled.
Breath came in short, sharp bursts.
Her eyes darted from the dog to the stranger.
Who was he? What had he done to that creature? Was she next?

"What did you do to it?" she asked, instinctively taking a step back.

The guy let out an annoyed sigh.

"That idiot's just playing dead. He's fine. For now."
He crossed his arms, scowling.
"And I, by the way, just saved your pathetic little soul. A thank-you wouldn't kill you."

Yesenia stood frozen, fear turning her muscles to stone.
She didn't know what to believe—his words, or her own eyes.

Then came a sound that sliced through the silence:

A raspy, unnatural laugh.

A chill ran down her spine, raising goosebumps across her skin.

Slowly, with mounting dread, she turned her gaze back to the dog...