"Excuse me?" Alice turned around and looked at the child standing there, holding a lantern in her hand. She had an outfit Alice couldn't quite explain, something like a ceremonial dress and her hair was tied with a red ribbon. Her eyes were glowing yellow in the darkness of the night, making Alice shit her pants. "Are you talking to me?"
"There's no one else here besides you ma'am." The child responded calmly. "Your familiar is waiting for you. Mind coming inside?" She pointed to the gate.
"My what?"
"We will explain it all ma'am. It's dangerous for you out there, during night time. Please follow me." The little girl entered the gate and got lost inside the fog.
Oh hell no. Alice turned around and started running as fast as she could. Okay, she was in the woods, the moonlight was barely ligthing up her way. If I can find a highway , she thought, I can manage to make my way back.
It was cold outside, she only had her pyjamas and didn't even have shoes. Things on the floor stuck to her feet as she ran. She had no idea how long she ran for, her lungs were crying for air. In the distance, she saw some sort of light in the foggy weather.
"Yes!" She exclaimed to herself and walked towars the light, only to end up right in front of the fucking gate, and the light was coming from the little girl's lantern.
"Ma'am, please don't run away. Come with me." The girl said.
"I'm not going anywhere with you! I ran to the opposite direction, why am I here again?!"
"Well, with that logic, why are you here in the first place?"
Alice looked at the girl dumbfounded. "Why do you want me to come inside?" She asked finally, trying to reclaim her calm and finding some answers.
"Your familiar is waiting to meet you, the mighty snake spirit of the spirit world."
"I dont know any snakes or snake spirits, just show me the way out of here, please?"
"But you do know. You saved their life. Look at your wrist." The girl calmly said, walking towards Alice, who stood in front of the weird sign.
Alice looked at her wrist and almost lost her shit, there was a red bracelet glowing in her skin, almost like a tattoo, wrapping around her skin like some cursed shackle.
"What is this?" She yelped, trying to scrape off the bracelet off her skin to no avail.
"It's a mark of favor from the snake spirit." The little girl explained. "You can't get rid of it, the only way to remove it is if the spirit itself removes it."
"You're telling me this thing is stuck on my skin?" Alice barely managed to breathe. "Take it off, now."
"You'll have to come with me and talk to the spirit yourself."
"Like hell I would talk to your fucking snake or something spirit! Show me the way out of here, now!" Alice yelled, and the tattoo on her wrist shone like ember gold.
With a gasp, she opened her eyes in her bed. There was dirt in her feet and a faint, red tattoo shone on her wrist still.
-
"I didn't know you got a tattoo?" Lysa looked at her weirdly.
Alice opened her mouth and closed it again, once again looking at the impossible mark on her skin. "It's temporary." She mumbled. "Thought it'd look cool."
"If you say so." Lysa shrugged and went on to talk about her daily concerns. Alice couldn't really listen to her, at first, she was sure she hallucinated everything or had a very, very vivid nightmare. But the mark on her wrist said otherwise.
She couldn't explain what on earth was going on, but if she tried to explain it to someone she was going to look like a lunatic. Snake spirit or whatever that is, even though she never believed in spirits or gods or whatever, Alice just needed to find a way to get rid of it herself.
She did quite a research at the library. "Youkai huh?" She mumbled to herself, reading some documents translated from Japanese.
A yōkai (妖怪) is a supernatural creature, spirit, monster, or strange being from Japanese folklore. The word can mean something like "mysterious apparition" or "strange spirit."
Well that would explain the little girl with glowing eyes and the mysterious gate behind her. Oh, and the sign that literally said "Spirit world. Humans do not enter."
What would a damn youkai want from her though? The bracelet around her wrist was faded now, and for a second Alice thought it might disappear on its own completely.
So she went to her part time job at the bar. It was a weekday, not much crowd, she skillfully prepared some drinks and went out to take the trash. It was dark in the alley. It smelled like cigarette smoke and rotten trash as she went to the bins, scrunching her nose.
The street light was flickering. "Couldn't have ask for a better horror setting." She thought to herself.
Then she heard them.
"Miss, are you here alone?" A sticky, disgusting voice of a drunken man.
"I'm not." She responded, not looking his way and putting out her trash. For some reason, the tattoo around her wrist was scratching.
"You hear me?" He said, followed by a giggle. "What's a pretty little thing like you doing out here?"
"Well of course I hear you, you are talking to me." Alice rolled her eyes and motioned towards the back door of the bar.
"Wait a second there." Something grabbed her wrist and she felt the cold, sticky feeling of fingers around her. She immediately freed her wrist from his hold and walked back a step.
"What do you want?" Alice asked.
"Just want to have some fun, you look like you have a tasty soul." The man answered. He didn't look drunk anymore, and there was an evil look in his eyes. Alice felt her sweat run cold. Everything inside her mind screamed danger.
The man was now standing between her and the door, and the light was still flickering. "I bet you are a virgin." The man said. "I love virgin girls the most."
"Stay away from me." Alice raised her voice.
The man motioned towards her and Alice managed to evade him, almost making it to the door, only to be pulled back from her uniform and held into his embrace. She felt something lick her neck, a tongue, but when she looked to her left in fright, all she saw was a impossibly long tongue with a slit in the middle.
"What the fuck?!" Alice fought with all her might, but the mans embrace was so strong.
"Don't fight little girl. It'll be over quick."
"Get off me!" Alice managed to free her arm and punch the mans groin with her fist, and stumbled away from him as he groaned in pain.
"You bitch!" She heard, but the voice wasn't human anymore, neither was the thing standing in front of her.
He had a third arm bent over in an impossible angle, a tongue that was dripping out of his mouth, covered in saliva, and his eyes were like a creatures. "What are you?" Alice said in shock.
"Your new nightmare." The man laughed an eery laugh and his third arm shot towards Alice. She screamed and tried to escape but was soon caught in his embrace again and they tumbled to the floor. He got rid of her uniform quickly, leaving her with her inner shirt and short-boxers.
"Get the fuck away!" Alice tried to kick, to bite, to scratch, but his skin was made of a weird texture, almost like sticky plastic, and she couldn't grab onto him at all.
"Help!" She screamed and closed her eyes. It was dark at first, then redness started to flood her vision. She opened her eyes, only to find the redness was coming from her wrist.
"What?" The creature took a step back, leaving Alice on the floor. The creature hissed and stumbled backwards, its long tongue twitching violently. The disgusting confidence on its face vanished completely.
"No..." It croaked. "That mark..."
Alice scrambled backwards on the wet concrete, breathing hard. Her wrist burned like someone had pressed hot metal against her skin. The glowing red mark spread further up her arm, thin lines curling around her skin like veins of ember.
"What is happening?" Alice whispered in horror.
The alley suddenly became silent.
Even the flickering streetlight stopped buzzing.
Then something slithered.
The sound echoed slowly through the alley behind them. Slow. Heavy. Scales dragging against concrete.
The creature froze. Alice could actually see fear appear in its twisted eyes.
"No no no-" it muttered, taking another step back. "Why would something like that be here?"
Alice turned her head slowly.
At first she only saw darkness. Then two blue eyes opened within it.
Something massive moved between the shadows.
The red serpent slowly emerged into the alley, its scales glowing faintly beneath the dim streetlight. Its body coiled across the concrete with unnatural grace, far too large for the narrow alley. Alice's breath caught in her throat as its head lifted high above them.
The creature immediately dropped to its knees.
"Great spirit," it rasped shakily. "I didn't know she belonged to you."
Belonged?
Alice almost choked. "Excuse me?!"
The serpent ignored her completely. Its glowing eyes remained fixed on the creature in front of it. The air itself felt heavy now, suffocating.
"You touched what is mine."
The voice echoed everywhere at once. Not spoken aloud, but inside their heads. Calm. Cold. Ancient.
Alice felt every hair on her body stand up.
The creature trembled violently. "I-I was mistaken-"
The serpent moved.
Fast.
One second it stood several feet away, and the next its massive jaws had wrapped around the creature's third arm. Crunch.
The scream that followed barely sounded human.
Alice flinched so hard she hit the wall behind her.
The creature desperately tried to crawl away while black blood poured across the concrete. "Please! Please spare me!"
The serpent's eyes narrowed slightly.
"You reek of filth."
Its tail slammed against the alley floor hard enough to crack the pavement. The creature let out one final shriek before its body suddenly dissolved into thick black sludge, melting into the ground itself.
Then there was silence.
Alice stared at the puddle in complete disbelief.
"...What the fuck."
The giant serpent slowly turned its head toward her now.
Alice immediately pressed herself harder against the wall. "Okay listen. Before you say anything, I don't want any trouble okay."
The serpent simply stared at her.
Then its massive body began to shrink.
Scales folded into darkness, crimson light fading smaller and smaller until a familiar red snake landed lightly onto the concrete in front of her. The same one from school.
Alice looked at it for a long moment.
The snake looked back.
Oh.
Everything suddenly fell into place. "It's you." Alice mumbled.