Christopher Golden - A Winter of Ghosts

Last spring, they had stopped anancient demon called Kyuketsuki from entering into the modern world. In theprocess they had learned that some of the spirits and gods and demons that hadonce been worshipped in Japan still existed, weak and nearly extinguishedbecause most people did not believe in them anymore. They were kept from vanishingentirely by legends and songs and plays, but most did not have the strength tomanifest in the real world anymore.

The combination of Akane'smurder and Sakura's grief over her death, and an act of pure happenstance — or fate, if such a thing was to be believed — had been enough to stir thedemon Kyuketsuki. Kara and her friends had stopped the demon and driven it fromthe world, but not before it had cursed them.

Little remains in the worldnow of the darkness of ancient days. . but what there is will come to you,and to this place. All the evil of the ages will plague you, until my thirstfor vengeance is sated.

Kara shuddered at the memory,the words burned into her mind. There might not be many supernatural evils lefton Earth, but Kyuketsuki had marked them all for death. For months, nothing hadgone wrong. Nothing strange had occurred. And then students had begun todisappear. A new demon, the Hannya, had possessed Miss Aritomo and nearlykilled them all.

They had destroyed the Hannya,but not before it had confirmed that the curse had drawn it to them. If therewere other ancient evils still strong enough to manifest in Japan, they mightappear at any time.

Kara and her friends knew this,but they still had lives to lead.

"So what was it that youwanted to talk to us about?" Sakura asked as Kara set their cups in frontof them and went to get the teapot.

"Well," Kara said,excitement dispelling the shadows from her mind. "My dad and I areplanning to go home for a visit at the end of winter term, before the newschool year starts."

"You're going to be gonethe whole time?" Miho asked, her disappointment obvious.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "You'renot listening. It's great news! That means they're coming back for next year!"

Miho's mouth dropped open andthen she clapped her hands like a little girl. "I wasn't thinking. That isgreat. That's wonderful!"

"Hey, I couldn't pass upthe chance to be seniors with you two," Kara said as she poured their tea."But there's more. I talked to my father about it, and he agreed. If youcan get your families to pay for plane tickets, you can come with us."

This resulted in an eruption ofbabble, some of it so fast that Kara could not translate, as the girlsspeculated on whether or not their parents would let them go, and if they wouldbe willing to pay for airfare. Sakura felt fairly certain she would be able togo, but Miho seemed less sure. Still, they started making plans about all ofthe things they would do and see if their parents could be persuaded.

The shadows had been driven backfor all of them, at least for a while.

The house Kara shared with herfather was just up the street from Monju-no-Chie school. There were times whenit still felt awkward to her, being the only gaijin girl — the onlywestern student, period — at the school, but she loved the foreignness ofthe whole experience, the challenge and constant stream of new culturalinformation that came with each day. Like any school, there were teachers thatshe liked better than others, there were mean girls and jocks and cliques, andthere was gossip galore. But she enjoyed her classes and her calligraphy club,and she had made the best friends of her life.

Kara would not have wanted tostay in Japan forever but, as much as she missed her friends back home, when ithad come time to discuss staying another year she had not hesitated a moment. Shewanted to graduate with Sakura and Miho. Her father wanted to see where hisrelationship with Miss Aritomo would lead, and Kara wondered as well.

And then there was Hachiro.

Growing up, she had had crusheson any number of boys, and once or twice she had thought she had fallen inlove. Now, though, something was growing inside of her that made her think thatthose other times had been just her wishing to be in love. Maybe thereal thing was something entirely different, not just the space between akitten and a cat but between a cat and a Bengal tiger.

She tried not to think about it.Over the past few months, the idea of love had started to frighten her almostas much as Kyuketsuki's curse. All she knew was that, just as her father wantedto see where things would go with Miss Aritomo, she was curious to discoverwhat the future had in store for her and Hachiro. And she couldn't wait to tellhim she would be back for her senior year.

For a long time, they had done akind of dance, hesitant to open their hearts fully when they knew that shemight be returning to America in the spring. After their encounter with theHannya, knowing that life was too short for such hesitations, they had becomecloser than ever, but the question of the future remained.

Now she hurried down the streettoward the school, hoping that his parents had already left, though that seemedunlikely. If they were gone, Hachiro would have called her by now. She slippedher cell phone out of her pocket and double-checked — with her hat on andthe thickness of her new winter coat, perhaps she hadn't heard the ring tone — but there'd been no calls.

She crossed the street to thearch at the edge of the school property, but immediately veered off of the paththat would have led to the front door. With the short winter day's lightalready dimming toward late afternoon darkness, she passed beneath the shadowof the school building, its architecture still so reminiscent of some ancientfortress out of feudal Japan.

A cold wind blew off the baybehind her, whipping around the corner of the school, but now she put thebuilding between herself and the bay and the wind dropped to almost nothing. Thelast of the day's sunlight glowed gold through the trees to the west. Her newboots crunched in a patch of snow left over from the last storm, though most ofit had melted away from the low-lying areas for now.

Sakura and Miho had only visitedfor a couple of hours. They had rushed right over to visit her upon theirarrival, and had to get back to prepare for the next day's resumption ofclasses. Plus, they wanted to eat dinner in the dormitory's dining hall withthe rest of the boarding students.

Kara had hung around at homeuntil her father had come back, about two-thirty in the afternoon, and they haddiscussed their own dinner plans. But then Kara had finally gotten a text fromHachiro telling her that he was back on campus. Her father had recognized thelook on her face immediately and told her to go, but to be back by six o'clock.

She walked across the quad tothe dormitory, noting the cars in the lot to the right of the building. Someparents were only just now dropping their children off, and several studentswere walking up from the parking lot. A guy she vaguely recognized used his keyto unlock the dorm's front door and Kara picked up her pace to catch it beforeit closed again.

Hachiro's parents couldn'tpossibly still be here. He hadn't brought anything but a suitcase home, sodropping him off should only have taken a few minutes. But he hadn't calledyet. She told herself he was just putting his things away, but a part of herfelt hurt by this. Miho and Sakura had rushed over to see her first thing, notbothering even to unpack, but Hachiro seemed in no rush. Had he had secondthoughts during the holidays? Had he met someone in those two short weeks?

She told herself she was beingfoolish, but still quickened her pace up the stairs and down the hall to hisroom. After hours, girls weren't allowed in the boys' halls, but for now thecorridors were busy with friends getting reacquainted, laughing and gossipingand trading small New Year's gifts. She and Hachiro had agreed on no gifts atthe holidays. People tended to put too much weight on such things, interpretingany gift as if it defined the relationship, and she didn't want that kind ofpressure for either of them. Now she regretted it a little. A sign of hisaffection would be nice.