lock gave way with a splinter of wood. The door swung inward and Hachiro didn’t hesitate. He burst into the house, and Kara followed.
Her father and Miss Aritomo were standing at the bottom of the steps. It looked like they had been about to go up, belatedly responding to the scream from the attic. Rob Harper had a heavy lamp in his hand, apparently to use as a weapon, and Miss Aritomo held a long kitchen knife. They both looked startled, and if Kara had not seen the Hannya slipping into the art teacher with her own eyes, she would never have thought that Miss Aritomo was anything but terrified at that moment.
At the sight of her and Hachiro in the masks, Miss Aritomo screamed. Kara’s father came toward them, wielding the lamp.
“Dad, wait!” Kara said.
“Kara?” he muttered, too confused to be angry yet.
“Get away from her, Harper-sensei!” Hachiro barked, sliding away from Kara, watching Miss Aritomo closely.
Maybe the Hannya’s not here, Kara thought. That could be, right? It’s not in her now.
“Hachiro, it might be in the attic. That’s why Mai was screaming.”
“Mai? What is Mai doing in my attic?” Miss Aritomo asked. “What is going on here? Why are you wearing those masks? You have a lot of explaining to do!”
Sakura and Ren appeared from a hall that led toward the back of the house. They moved slowly into the living room, fanning out so that the four students had Miss Aritomo surrounded, with the stairs to the second story her only route of escape. They had also donned their masks, and clutched iron bells in their fists.
“Shut up, demon!” Sakura snarled at Miss Aritomo.
“No, Sakura,” Ren said, staring at their teacher. “Look at her. I don’t think she knows it’s in her.”
Kara thought he was right. The expression on Miss Aritomo’s face made it clear-she really didn’t know. Somehow the Hannya had gotten into her and used her body as a host. Perhaps it influenced her from within, but she had no idea she had been possessed. When it left her body to prowl the world, it somehow lulled the teacher into unconsciousness, as Kara had seen with her own eyes.
Her father put the lamp down on a small table and stared at his daughter. He spoke in low, measured tones. She had never seen him so furious. “Kara, you’ve gone much too far now. This is… it’s too much. It’s going to change everything.”
Guilt and doubt surged up in her and she started to flush, averting her eyes. For several seconds, she almost crumbled under his gaze. What could she do? Call it off and apologize? Run from the house?
No.
“I know what I saw, Dad. This is real. We’ve been to Yamato-sensei. He believes us. He’s talking to the police right now. But if you won’t believe your own daughter-if you really think I’d take it this far on some crazy whim-all you have to do is go up to the attic and find out what Mai was screaming about.”
He hesitated, obviously confused, and Kara knew she’d finally gotten through to him. Her father turned to look at Miss Aritomo, but even as he did, the art teacher’s eyelids fluttered and she began to collapse. He caught Miss Aritomo before she could fall, but she lay limp in his arms, arms akimbo, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The kitchen knife she’d been holding fell from her hand and skittered across the wood floor.
“Yuuka?” her father said, alarmed. He knelt down, laying her gently on the floor, still cradling her head and upper body. “Yuuka, what’s wrong? Wake up!”
He twisted to look at Kara. “Call an ambulance.”
“They’re not going to be able to help,” Hachiro said.
“Please, Harper-sensei,” Sakura began. “Get away from her.”
He glared at her, then at Kara.
“Move back, Dad,” she said. “You don’t understand.”
“Call an ambulance, goddammit!” he snapped, then turned back to Miss Aritomo. He slapped her lightly on the cheek. “Yuuka. Yuuka!”
With a scowl of frustration, he cradled her head with one hand while, with the other, he fished out his own cell phone.
“Dad!” Kara shouted. “Get back!”
For Miss Aritomo’s head had lolled back in his grasp. Her mouth opened wide and a darkness formed deep in her throat. Yellow eyes peered from the inside of her distended lips, and then the serpent slid out, all rippling shadows and hateful glare. It hissed, the sound filling the room until it seemed to come from every corner and from beneath every piece of furniture.
Rob Harper must have heard the noise, for he turned to look. At the sight of the Hannya emerging from its host, the woman with whom he was falling in love, he dropped his cell phone with a clatter on the floor, and yanked his hand away from Miss Aritomo. Her skull thunked down and he tried to scramble away, but too late.
The serpent darted toward him, fangs sinking into his wrist.
“Dad!” Kara cried once more.
Her father tried to stand, but already the demon’s venom began to slow him. It blossomed from horned snake to horned demon, growing in an eyeblink into the hideous visage that hung on the wall in Miss Aritomo’s classroom. But this was no mask. The Hannya wrapped its arms around Kara’s father and hauled him upward until his feet were dangling several inches above the floor.
Its tongue flickered out in a long hiss and its flesh shifted again, becoming a snake-eyed woman of exotic beauty. The Hannya whispered a hiss into Rob Harper’s ear and, staring over his shoulder from behind, grinned at Kara with the twin glint of two sharp teeth.
“Remember, later,” the demon said, in a quiet, almost dainty voice, “that he didn’t have to die. Know that I killed him because you interfered.”
Miho could still feel the effects of the Hannya’s venom. Her bones were stiff and her muscles ached and her head felt stuffed with cotton. But she was alive, and thanks to Mai-of all people-she thought she might get to stay that way. When the girl had first come through the attic door and seen the ruin of flesh and bone that had once been Daisuke, of course Mai had screamed. Miho whispering to her from the shadows only startled her into screaming louder.
But when Mai saw Wakana, she had begun to calm down, and to think. Miho had moved to block both girls’ view of Daisuke’s corpse as Mai fussed over the bruises and cuts that Wakana had acquired in the attic. Wakana had not told Miho much-she was so disoriented and weak herself-but it seemed she had hurt herself trying to force her way out of the attic, and that more than once the Hannya had bitten her, filling her blood with that paralyzing venom.
For several minutes, Wakana and Mai had embraced there in the attic, with the door yawning wide just beyond them. Miho tried to be as respectful as she could, to give them that time. It was obvious that they both had cared deeply for Daisuke, and grief shook them both as they wept quietly in each other’s arms. But then she could not wait any longer.
“We need to get out of here,” Miho said. “While the house is empty, before it-before she comes back.”
Mai kept her eyes shut and squeezed Wakana to her tightly. With a deep breath, she released her. Wakana swayed to one side, barely able to remain standing, so Mai steadied her, then turned toward Miho and nodded.
“I just want to… to say good-bye to Daisuke,” Mai said.
Miho had shaken her head. “No you don’t. Not now.”
“She’s right,” Wakana said. “Daisuke isn’t here anymore. We’ll remember him properly when all of this is done.”
Reluctantly, Mai relented. She put an arm around Wakana and helped the girl toward the door. Miho had gone ahead of them. Even as she put her foot on the landing, there came a crash from far below, on the first floor.
“What was that?” Wakana asked, eyes wide.
Miho and Mai exchanged a glance. “The front door?” Miho said.
“I think so. Your friends are all coming to help us. It must be them,” Mai replied. “But if they’re willing to break in like that-”
“The Hannya must be coming,” Miho finished. “Either that or it’s already here.”
Wakana whimpered, sagging, forcing Mai to bear even more of her weight.
“She should wait here,” Miho said. “If we have to defend ourselves-”
