The Girl from the Well

“What’s wrong?”


“No, it’s nothing…” Callie says and tries to smile again, but soon enough feels herself drifting back to sleep.

? ? ?

The local police conduct a brief search inside Chinsei shrine. My fight with Chiyo had triggered a landslide, and it is the easiest explanation for them to accept. The bodies of the mikos yield no further clues, and while Kagura and Saya are held and questioned briefly, they are soon released due to a lack of evidence, their testimonies corroborated. As in my time, many of the people in these parts are of a superstitious nature, particularly in areas around Osorezan and Yagen Valley where things occur that sometimes cannot be explained, and the general attitude even among many of the authorities is that the less they meddle in the affairs of the supernatural, the better.

Callie spends the next six days being treated at the hospital and is released just in time to attend the funeral rites of Machika Fukushima and Amaya Kaede, both of whom have been cremated and their ashes strewn to the four winds outside the temple, as they had once done for Yoko Taneda.

“I do not know what will become of the shrine,” Kagura tells Callie sadly as they stand by the shrine’s small well one morning. The Chinsei Shrine has been cleaned and most of its roof rebuilt, though a few rooms remain closed off. The display case that houses many of its dolls has been fixed, and it stands again as it once had. Chinsei has survived Chiyo’s onslaught, though a sad, strange emptiness lingers.

Already the Bodai Temple at Osorezan and the small Yagen Onsen resorts are preparing to close for most of October, opening only when spring arrives and the snow thaws. “Chinsei will need to go through many purification rituals before we can continue. And without Obaasan and Amaya-chan, there will only be Saya and me, and we are not skilled enough to carry out the exorcisms that Obaasan had accomplished.”

“Where will you stay in the meantime?” Callie asks.

“Saya has family in Honshu, and I have an aunt who’s invited me to stay with her in Kyoto. We both plan to do as many purification rituals as we are able to until we leave in October, after the Obon Festival. We will burn the rest of the possessed dolls, and we will continue the rituals again when spring arrives. For now, we shall spend the rest of this winter healing and mourning”—Kagura smiles sadly—“and then going on. It is what Machika-obaasan would have wanted.”

Callie looks back at the shrine. Though they will not be allowed inside until after most of the purification rituals are done, it no longer feels threatening to her.

“Tarquin is also something of a miracle,” Kagura admits. “I was relieved when he woke up from the ritual unharmed. When a spirit of such malignancy vacates a body, it leaves behind negative energy that can serve as a beacon to other less powerful but still dangerous demons. It would have been necessary to cleanse his body, for his spiritual energy would have been weak.

“But I was surprised by how strong his energy was upon waking.” She laughs softly. “In older times he would have been a fine onmyji the likes of the legendary Abe no Seimei, especially as he has kept the demons in his body at bay for all these years, far more than any of us ever could have, even Chiyo. With the proper training, he could have made an exceptional Buddhist priest.”

“Well, that’s nice of her to say,” Tarquin says, when Callie tells him. They are standing by the shrine’s well, looking down into the darkness, though they see nothing. “I think I’d look pretty good in a robe and those really big hats, too.”

They say nothing for a while, waiting by the well and continuing to peer down at its depths, looking for something that still does not appear.