Winter - Chapter 13

Chapter 10 "There's no hope," said Haru, who was having even more difficulty keeping up with his wife due to his mounting injuries. "We can't escape and there's nothing we can do to stop her. Just leave me here to die. Save yourself." "I won't give up," said Miyuki. "There's no more time," said Haru. "She's going to show up any minute." Miyuki hadn't heard her husband as her attention was focused squarely on something else. It was hard to see from that distance, but Miyuki was sure she saw something up ahead. Without urging Haru to follow, Miyuki continued on her way.

"Wait for me," said Haru. Miyuki began tearing at a bush up against the side of a mountain. "What are you doing?" asked Haru. After a while Miyuki had cleared away enough of the bush to show that there was an entrance to a cave hiding behind it. Miyuki and Haru entered the cave and took out their cell phones, using them to light the way as they ventured further inside. "T don't think she'll find us in here," said Haru. The deeper the two explored, the colder the cave became. To make matters worse, as the two continued, they found strange symbols drawn in blood on the walls.

"What are these?" asked Haru. "Miyuki-chan, we shouldn't be in here." Miyuki paid her husband no attention and continued leading the way. When the two came to a dead end they found a makeshift home away from home. A pile of hay served as a bed with a tattered blanket and pillow that had been worn badly by time laid neatly on top of it. "Natsuko," said Miyuki. There was a small table and chair off to the side and on the table was a book. Miyuki wasted no time in retrieving it and reading.

As she had been expecting, the handwriting matched what she had seen in the journal she had found in Natsuko's home. I found a book in a cave during one of my walks. It looked to be thousands of years old. The language, it was nothing I had ever seen before. But, for some reason, I could read every word that was in it. It's like the book had been left there just for me. I've written my name in blood in the book just as it told me to. Now I am bound to the book and it is bound to me. The book speaks of a master who has promised his followers power if they give him what he wants.

I want this power and I'll do whatever it takes to get it. I want to teach that village a Jesson for mistreating me. They treat me like an outsider. Why? Because I don't take part in their stupid activities or engage them in conversation? Just because I like to keep to myself, why should that make them treat me like I'm different? "What kind of book is that?" asked Haru. "It's Natsuko's journal," replied Miyuki. "But you already found her journal." "T did," said Miyuki. "She must have kept another one." I waited for the night of the full moon.