I groan when Okiku is finished. “I really, really hate it when they end letters like that.” But I understand now. The writings in those mysterious parchments, the lingering ghost brides and their hate—even Yukiko Uchiyama’s mad wall graffiti.
There’s another muted thump and then a strangled noise that sounds like “shit” that comes from inside one of the closets. I rise to my feet, Okiku staring quizzically at me. I should probably exercise more caution, but I’m pretty sure Japanese ghosts don’t swear in English.
My steps are confident as I cross the room and slide open the door where I heard the sound. The instant I do, I’m received with the most ungodly shriek, and I can’t resist responding with a surprised holler of my own.
It’s Stephen Riley. The man gazing wild-eyed at me is a far cry from the well-groomed, self-assured cohost of Ghost Haunts. His beard’s scraggly, and his hair’s unkempt. Unless the camera really does put on ten pounds, he’s lost a considerable amount of weight, and the rags he’s wearing could barely be called a shirt and pants. He looks like he’s been picked up, kicked around, and then thrown down a flight of stairs, but at least he doesn’t look dead, a feature most of the village inhabitants share.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I hold up my hands as he scrambles away, arms raised in a futile attempt to ward off harm. “I’m Kagura’s friend, okay? Are you listening to me?” He freezes, staring at me like I’m a mirage. “We’re here to get you out, so don’t flip out or anything. We’re going to—”
A hand taps me on the shoulder, and I swear if I had jumped any higher, my head would have put a hole through the roof.
“What is going on in here?” Kagura sounds crabby, a clear indication that she hasn’t found any new passageways. She gives Okiku a respectful nod and peers past me. Her eyes widen when she takes in Riley. “Stephen-san?”
“Kagura!” The man is nearly beside himself as he stumbles out of the small room, clinging to her hand like she is a flotation device. “I thought I was a goner!” he gasps out.
“Stephen-san, I am glad you’re all right.” Have I mentioned that Kagura is the queen of understatements? “What happened? I came back to find most of you gone, and Garrick and Henry…” Her voice shakes slightly.
“Garrick got impatient. He wanted to find out what was going on, so he removed the ofuda you placed on the door. I tried to talk him out of it, but by then that…that girl came inside, and we all started running. Garrick…Garrick didn’t make it?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know. I only found Henry’s body.”
Stephen’s shoulders slump. Me, I’m just fervently glad I didn’t break into the Konno house where the ghost hunters first sought shelter. I don’t want to know what condition Henry’s body was left in.
“Who are you?” Stephen asks, staring at me. “How the hell did you get here?”
“The same way you did,” I say lightly, not wanting to frighten the poor man further. “Kagura, we need to go back to the Oimikado residence. We can bring Mr. Riley up to speed along the way.”
“Why?”
“Because I know how to get into the shrine.”
Chapter Sixteen
The Pit
The Oimikado residence is the place where I found the list of brides’ names and first encountered the old man, though he’s nowhere to be seen. Kagura is a little skeptical about him, even when I show her the journal he kindly pointed out to me.
“It could be a trap,” she says.
“Trap or not, it’s not like we’ve got some other route out, right? He’s telling us how to get into the shrine, and that’s what we want to do anyway.” I think Kagura would feel a lot better if we’d tracked down Yukiko Uchiyama first, but we haven’t seen her lovely, grotesquely drawn face since she tried clawing my back off.
Stephen Riley is understandably reluctant to be pulled from his dark, musty closet only to traipse through some dark, musty caves, so we decide to bring him to the Oimikado house, where his fellow crew member is waiting. He brightens when I tell him I found Alan George, glad that someone else has survived, though the latter’s not in the best shape.
It takes some time for Stephen to get the circulation back into his legs after crouching and hiding for so long, but despite his weakened state, he can walk on his own after a few false starts. Much to my relief, he doesn’t seem to notice Okiku, even when she’s practically standing next to him. I didn’t expect him to. He’s not a ghost hunter; he just plays one on television. Surprisingly, he’s retained the holy stakes that Kagura gave him. If he doubted their value before, he seems ready to use them now, especially after what’s happened to his crew.