Where Caterpillars Die | CreepCast

Hello. It's Mommy. I'm here. Come back to Mommy. Mommy needs you. Welcome back to Creepcast. Today, we're going to be reading a fine. This is Japanese, right? Like a Japanese horror story? I think so. Well, at least the text is Japanese horror. I don't think it's written in Japan. I think the subject is Japanese horror. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. But it's called Where the Caterpillars Die. And we were told this one's pretty fun. I mean, it's not a super long story, but I was told that it's a pretty fun one, so I'm excited to get into it. Also, we've read this author, right? Yeah, I believe it's a fun one because this is Michael Page. Michael Page, we read. I believe it was a Patreon story, but it was The Man Who Ate Ghosts. Oh! About the guy who has the ghost crawling out of his throat and stuff. Yeah, that was sick. That was a very fun story, and I liked the way it was written, and it was creepy and had this. It was one of those horror stories where when you get to the reveal, you're like, oh, this is so cool and terrible. So I appreciate getting to read him again. He has his own website or blog spot called Michael Page Blog. And he has a ton of short stories and novellas on there. Again, the one we're reading today is Where the Caterpillars Die, but he also has a few others that are highly rated. Hitchhiker's Haven, The Heart in the Cabinet, Angels Burned. So a lot of interesting stories. I said then that I want to check out this guy again, and I'm glad we're doing it again now. The name Angels Burned is so fucking sick. It sounds like a thrash metal album. It's pretty cool. I want to read that one. I do like. I always like when we come across these guys. This is at least what creepypasta.com says is that this was written in February 12th, 2021. I always like these kind of contemporary guys, too. It's always fun to see some of the newer stuff made. Yeah. There's the great divide between the old Creepypastas and the new stuff, and you can certainly tell how the new was inspired by the old. But I think a lot of the newer ones, at least on average, tend to be a bit stronger storytelling. I think because there's more competition in it. But like I said, I really liked Michael's other work, so I'm excited to check them out again. Do you think the. You said you think the newer work is stronger than the older work, or do you think the older work was stronger? On average. Just because. You said the competition's because the old ones or new ones? The new ones. So like the old ones, you have like Jeff the Killer and stuff like that, which sure, it's strong in a cultural sense, but I wouldn't call it a strong story. No, that's not to say old stories were devoid of good stuff, because that's when like Pen Pal was written. Boroska and all that stuff. Boroska and stuff like that. But like, you look at a lot of the newer ones, and that's when we get a lot of the longer. Feels like a more. Like the pieces that seem more. Like Marcus Klewer's stuff, stuff like that. Stuff that seems more adapted and sure of itself, versus the old just Creepypasta stories. Yeah, it definitely does feel like the new stuff. Either feels like people that grew up on it and have been writing since that time, and have like honed and refined their craft, you know? It definitely feels like a more realized stories, the more newer they are. And like we said, though. Not to say that there wasn't stuff like that back in the day, but it feels like there's more plentiful options now in like the 2020s or like late 20-teens or whatever. Yeah, I agree. But guys, if you are listening to this on audio platforms, consider giving us a nice rating over on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Or if you're on YouTube and you're taking a drive, maybe consider listening to our show there. We're a nice commuting podcast, I hear. That and sleep time. I don't know why people listen to this show before they go to sleep. I see that a lot. I don't know if you see it. Do you have any reels or anything like that? I think it's just because it's long, like long, long videos. I think it's a horrible idea to go to sleep to this show because there's periodic screaming. There's a lot of screaming. And loud sound effects. So I don't think that's conducive. It's your nice southern drawl that lullabies them. That's the real charm. It's like a little nighttime medicine. You know, you're sitting there and they listen to you talk. It's funny because people from around here will be like, where's your accent go? Why don't you have an accent? And then people who aren't from around here are like, why do you have such a strong accent? So, yeah, a bit of a day walker between two worlds. It's not. Yeah, you're blade. You're literally blade. Yeah. Well, the people that you're talking to are conjoined twins that live in the misty hills of the of the Appalachia. So, you know, right. You know, they're like, where's your accent? And I think that's I think that's OK. If you aren't registered. Oh, Uncle Curtis. I met him. Yeah, exactly. Hi, Uncle Curtis. Uncle and Uncle Curtis and Curtis. Yeah. Uncle and Auntie Curtis. Hello. And also, guys, we do have a patron. If you want some bonus episodes, we've been posting some stories there. We also I think by the time this came out, we watched the Ice Cream Man movie. I had a few too many drinks at the movie theater and got a little angry at the movie. It doesn't matter. That's you like extra content. Patreon. Patreon.com slash creepcast. Feel free to check it out. Otherwise, Isaiah, are you ready to dive in? I'm ready to get into it. Let's go where the caterpillars die. But Michael Page fears only as deep as the mind allows. It's my mother's favorite idiom. Growing up, she never hesitated to use it against my childish fits, whether it was upset about sleeping alone in my bed or trying to convince her there was an Oni in the closet. It was what she lived by, even as the cancerous. When the light in her eyes disappeared, it grew to loathe every syllable of that idiom, burning with a blistering hatred. I knew that I would never hear it spoken in her voice again. It became the cruel reminder of change, and yet without it, I wouldn't have survived the horror I'm about to share. It's funny, though, how something you've rejected for half your life can turn out to be the only thing holding you together. Was it? It's was it? It breeds. It was it breeds. It bleeds. Was that the one where it also started with the guy whose mom was dying of cancer, too? No, that's Marie on the moon. Marie on the moon. That whatever story starts this way, it always just fucking doesn't just rip your heart out. My God. I mean, it just opens with like and baseball bat. Like it does. Whatever tone you were going to bring in here, leave it at the door. It really does. It feels like the same. I know that people say, what do they say? If you want to make a villain, have them kill an animal or something like they say that. Yeah, yeah. Whatever, like writing. It feels this way, too, of like if you want to make an immediately sympathetic person, it's like make them like give them the heartbreak of having someone die from cancer. Because also I'm immediately brought in to like if they're about to do anything. I'm like, well, of course they would, you know, like the act of desperation or something, I guess, feels a lot more. To me, it's an easy move to establish someone as in dire straits, you know, emotional stuff like that. So it lends itself to putting people in. Desperate circumstances. Yeah. When I was 13, three months after mom's passing, my father told me I would be going to Akita to stay with my uncle during dad's marine exhibition in Hokkaido. I wanted to die. Not literally, of course, only about as much as I wanted to die in the dentist chair before the needle slid into my gums. This pain wasn't going to be a quick pinch. It's going to last for the next week. It wasn't seeing Uncle Horry I was dreading, though. It was my cousin. Soda. Dad's cell phone rang. Moshi Moshi. Yes. Pulling in now. Okay. A fair-sized, two-story home with a thatched roof came into view. It fit perfectly with the other picturesque houses in the secluded community straddled by deciduous forest. A slate path of stepping stones stretched to the front door where my uncle waited. A woman stood next to him. Probably the new girlfriend dad had mentioned. She was wearing a Nordic gray sweater. About time. Horry called to us as we pulled ourselves out of the car. Did she get lost or something? My father closed the car door. Maybe if someone knew the specifics of their address better. Learn to listen better. Horry jeered at my father, exaggerating a smile. Now, where's my Yuki? Hi, Uncle Horry. I grabbed my bag from the trunk and walked over. His arms wove around me in a tight hug, then gestured to the woman next to him. Yuki, this is Hina. Hita, Hina Otori. She nodded. She held her head at me and extended her hand. I smiled and shook it. Her black hair was very short and complimented her young features. It's nice to finally meet you. She said with an ivory white smile. I can change the view when I try. No, and I want you to know, I want you to know that was a legitimate try by me. That was an action. Okay, so I know it was, but subconsciously, you added a twinge of a Chinese accent in there. I can hear it. I'm sorry. I can hear the woman's voice. I was just trying to do a cute Japanese voice. It wasn't just. That one's fine, but the first time you're like, it's nice to finally meet you. Like there's just a little bit of a fortune cookie in there at the end of the sentence. That was not intended. That was a legitimate try, and I think that I was just, I didn't know. It was directionless. I'm sorry. Right. Right. Sure. Sure. It just conjured out of space. It just came down from the heavens. See, it's back again. It came back a little bit. The giggle didn't help. The giggle put me in a. That was, I could see the Agatia face paint rising up out of the void. It was fucked up. I just got done watching Memoirs of Agatia. Such a good movie. I don't know if you've ever seen it. Good movie. That's probably why I'm all fucked up by it. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's what it is. You'll be staying on the upper floor. Second door on the left. Soda's room will be right next to it. Go say hi to him. I wandered upstairs and found the guest room while my father caught up with his brother-in-law. Although my uncle and his ex-wife had separated months ago, the room still had Aunt Maggie's decor scheme. A tiny space full of bright, vivid colors and furniture that screamed dollhouse. Her special touch. I imagined an unblinking eye peering in around the flowery curtains that shuddered. The entire house would probably look like this at some point before the divorce finalized. So, hold on. Catching up with his brother-in-law. So, this guy's dad's. Sister was married to Horry. And then they separate and he's still hanging out with Horry and, like, taking his kid to stay at his house? Wait, sir. Are we. Hold on. Just so I'm following. You're saying that this wasn't his blood relative. This is the one that it was married into. Yeah, because it says my father caught up with his brother-in-law. Oh, yeah. So, Uncle Horry is his dad's brother-in-law. I don't think that's. Are you saying that's strange? Oh, no. I see the connection. Horry was the brother of the kid's mom that died. Correct. Not marriage. Okay. I was getting the connection there. So, that's why I think. I thought what was being implied is his uncle divorced his aunt, who is his dad's sister. And his dad's like, ah, who needs her? Who needs my sister? Do you want to take my kid for a week? You know, if you've been around for a while, I mean, you could still be like, oh, this is my uncle. Couldn't you? Or no? I think so. I mean, I've had like extended family members get divorced and stuff like that. And I may not see him as much, but I still think of them as like aunt and uncle and stuff like that. So. My buddy Joe. I could see it. My buddy Joe had this great story he would talk about where it would be his father passed away and then his stepmom that was married to obviously his dad who passed away, he like would still feel obliged to go talk to her. It's like every. Every Christmas he would still go over and like meet up with her, but it was just like really awkward. And it just put into perspective that thing of like, oh yeah, I mean like, I guess they're still considered your family depending on the amount of time, but it's always just like it is a, it's, it's a very odd delineation. Like at what point are you like, okay, I never have to see this person again. Or is it a thing where it's like, well, now I feel like I'm obligated to see this person every year of my life or something. Yeah. I think it's very case by case kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. I plopped my bag on the tatami floor mat. Inside one week, my thoughts groaned, it's just a week, right? The door beside mine was the restroom, which had a sign on the door, broken, use other downstairs. Next to that was most likely Soda's room. I stepped up to the door and stood there for a bit. I knew that it would be rude to not at least say hi to him, but I couldn't help hesitating. My cousin wasn't a rude or overbearing person, but his obsessions worried me. We were both going to be 14 this March, our birthdays precisely a week apart. The majority of my memories of growing up with him involved his eerie fascination with insects, family gatherings. He would often be outside interacting with any creepy crawly little thing he could catch, but Soda wasn't the kind of kid who enjoyed pulling off bugs, limbs, or pitting them against each other in a plastic container death match. He preferred to treat them as friends. He gave them names, voices. Different personalities. All he was missing were tiny clothes. I was all on board until the voices and different personalities. Then I'm clocked out. Yeah. Okay. Like, it's fine if you like insects or whatever, but if you have a caterpillar or a grasshopper in your hand and you're like, Hello there, little boy. I'm your friend. And then you hold up another one. Oh, he's cute. That's too much for me. Okay. I've had some insect friends. They're always weird, aren't they? Why is that? What is it about insect people that are so odd? Well, it's because typically you're feeding them other insects. So there's a weird, like, kind of structure. But I have a pet snake now. We feed it rats, like frozen mice. So, you know, I don't know. I don't approve of the snake. I know you don't. But when I was a kid, I used to catch praying manises, and I would keep them for a really long time in this big terrarium. I had. And then when I was in the third grade, we were for science. We were learning about insects. And I mentioned I had a pet praying manis, and the teacher was like, Oh, you should bring it to school. So I brought this praying manis to school, and this thing was huge. It was like ridiculously large for a praying manis. I mean, how big? If you had to compare it to something, how big is it? It was like, I would say nine to nine inches, probably. What? It was like eight or nine inches. It was like the biggest I've ever seen. It was. I remember the teacher being like, Oh, my God. Daddy gives it this toxic sludge. He says it's his grow grow juice. Maybe seven, but I want to say it's eight or nine inches. But I brought it into class in this big terrarium, and like at recess, we went out and caught bugs, and we would bring it in and feed it, and everyone would watch. And it was like a cool, cool class thing. Well, like over the weekend, we leave and we came back Monday. And it was dead. And I kept this thing for like months, and it was fine. And then the first week at school, it's dead. And I'm pretty sure what happened in hindsight is maybe like, you know, just sitting in a terrarium in a school. It got too cold or something over the weekend. But what in my head had happened is there was this guy who I had beef with. We'll call him John, who I thought. What? What? What? What? For whatever reason, John had killed the praying mantis to like, get at me somehow. That's fucking horrible. I remember. Were you just like a week later? No, I don't think I had any reason to believe he did. I think he just because like we were in this, me and this kid were in like weird competitive stuff with each other. Like you go to recess, you play basketball, whatever. And I was just like always kind of passively annoyed by him. It wasn't like a bully or anything. It was just kind of like we didn't like each other. I can't even remember what you were his bully inception of this one. I think what it was is like we would be at the cafeteria and stuff and like every story I had, he'd have one a little bit cooler, you know, like if I was like, oh, I found like a, I found a raccoon outside the house last night. I'd be like, I found three. I found two raccoons. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's what I think. That's what started it. This is what I'm the, my, the real competition I'm seeing in my head is that you guys were the people with giant trapper keepers sprinting dead sprinting to the lunch line to be first. You were those kids. Yeah. And I feel like it was, you beat him some days, he beat you some days and you would gloat in the line as you received like an extra hot roll at lunch or something. Yes. A million percent. But I remember while I had the pre-amazing class, he was like openly not interested because I had brought it. Yeah. Only the teacher would be like, oh, come, come see this. And he's like, that's lame. I see them all the time or whatever. Right. Yeah. I see insects with sword hands all the time. I'm fine. So when it was dead. For some reason in my head, I'm like, he did this. He killed this praying mantis. So we were at recess a couple of days later and he, he had like thrown something at me or done something. And I was like, you killed my bug. And he's like, what? You killed him. You killed it. I'm tired of your sins. I'm tired for your sins. What's funny. So like, I didn't see that. I didn't see that guy after the fourth grade. And then we met again in college and we were talking and I kind of brought it up. Like, I was like, I remember when we were like, oh no, not, not the bug thing, but like us being competitive or whatever. And he was like, yeah, what was our problem? Oh, I was really, I was really hoping he was still holding on the grudge. Yeah. That time that would be screaming. I mean, that would be fucked up. That has to happen too. I mean, maybe he did and he just didn't bring it up. The, uh, the thing was to go back to my original question or whatever. I think that the reason bug kids always freak me out is because I feel like they, I feel like they, they, they know too much about bugs, but also they always say something that makes you think they want to be more bug than man. I mean, I like there, there was a time I hung out with this kid and he would say stuff like if only I could be in a cocoon and I was like, why? And he was like very big on sleeping bags. And I feel like he like went through a cocoon phase. It was really fucking strange, but he's like, I wish I could be in a cocoon. And it's just, I always said that, but it's always some shit. Like that with bug people. I don't know, but I will say anytime someone has those cool, those cool cases and they display like moths or like butterflies or like anything like with like the little tacks in there, that shit's cool. I fucking love that stuff. The, uh, you reminded me about the bug kids wanting to be bugs. I remember one time, same, same class, third grade class is haunting. Yeah, there's yeah. - We were, I was a weird kid. They were, around thanksgiving and the teacher's like oh everyone named something you're thankful for and it gets to me and she's like what are you thankful for and what i think what i was trying to say was like i'm thankful that i have life as like oh boy i think i think the way my brain worked at the time is that everything that is alive on earth has the same level of consciousness right um which really makes you question the whole praying mantis thing and how i was cool with that but i remember the teacher was like what are you thankful for and what i meant to say was i'm thankful that of out of everything living i get to be a human but the way that came out is i'm not a grasshopper and she was like what and i'm like i'm not a grasshopper or a bug i'm thankful i'm not a grasshopper okay and every other person like they would we had this big whiteboard with like stuff we're thankful for every other person when they said what they were she would write it on the board i was the one student who she didn't write on the board that's not a bad answer though still i'm not a grasshopper i'm i'm fucking thankful i'm not a grasshopper i'm not a grasshopper because i'd be able to do a lot worse if i was what i could cause a lot of problems for a lot of people yeah a lot of people would be very afraid if i was a grasshopper isn't that right mrs wilson what why are you singling me out no reason no reason at all hey we have to we should cut this from the episode because it's still an active investigation no way while he collected insects i ran from them that was the gaping chasm that separated us i didn't doubt that his latest collection of new friends waited for me behind the scenes his door. I'll pop in, say hello, pop out, I thought. As I was about to knock, I heard a muffled conversation on the other side. Soda was already talking to someone. Just as I decided to say hello later, he said, come in. I did so and shut the door behind me. The inside was dark, very dark, save for the bright laptop screen outlining his seated body. A few streaks of sunlight peeking around the floral curtains. You can turn on the light, he said with distracted awareness. I'm sure, your majesty. Beside, flicking the light switch. After the darkness melted away, I saw the hanging scroll paintings and mounted pieces of calligraphy that covered his walls. As expected, several diagrams of different insects' anatomies joined them. A framed picture of Aunt Mackie sat on his desk. Situated on a table below his window was a miniature cherry blossom tree. With missing branches. Sharing the space next to it was a foreboding glass terrarium. Upon hearing my voice, he turned to look at me. "Oh, hey," he said quietly, rolling towards me on the chair's caster wheels. We gave each other a light, two-second hug, then he returned to his laptop and shut it off. "I saw you pull in. I wasn't sure when you'd come by." I shrugged. "You sound like you were already talking to someone." "Oh, that was just my mom." He replied in the same monotone. "She escapes me from her trip whenever she has time." "Where is she?" "Europe. She's touring France right now." "Oh." He suddenly cried with spontaneous eagerness, catching me off guard. "Do you want to meet someone?" "It's going to be a bug." "All right, of course, it is going to be a bug." "This kid does not end up in a fucking cocoon by the end of the story. I'm going to be so sad." "Yeah." "This kid's talking to bugs. He's a bug kid." I want to take a moment to thank today's sponsor, Brunt Workwear. And that's because Brunt Work boots are some of the most comfortable work boots that you'll wear. 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Thank you to Brunt for sponsoring the show. Their link will be in the description, and we are now back to the episode. I pulled this chair toward the window and ushered me to follow. He was no doubt referring to the glass container. "Pop in, pop out," my thoughts reminded me. "Pop in, pop out." At that moment, I wanted to tell him that I wasn't interested. But the words never reached my mouth. It didn't take much to hurt Soda. His feelings were like pieces of paper mache living in a world of knives. Instead, a measly "Sure" wafted out of me. I'd feel awful destroying that ray of excitement on his face within the first five minutes, as long as I didn't have to touch anything. There was no immediate problem. As I joined him at the window, pulsive images were already firing off in my head. A spider outweighing my hand with its hairy limbs, a mantis with those alien claws folded in prayer to thank the evil gods for giving it wings, horrible things like that. I looked down, peeked inside, and saw a horrible, enormous, nothing. The missing branches of the cherry blossom were planted in a patch of black soil. "Can you see her? Can you?" I finally did. Attached to one of the brittle stems was a worm-like thing, but no worm I'd ever seen before. This looked much worse. Its bloated, squishy skin was black and orange with a dark, pointy tail. Four spindles protruded from its backside like black, curling tendrils. Goosebumps puffed up my arms. "Fear is only as deep as the mind allows," the thoughts repeated reluctantly. "Her name is Kodami. She's a Brahmin caterpillar." Sota lowered his finger an inch from its chewing mandibles. "When she turns into a moth, she could have a wingspan of up to seven inches, just like Isaiah's praying mantis." What? Huh? How am I here? It is funny. I mean, like, not to keep throwing myself under the bus, but how much this sounds like music. Yeah, exactly. "When she turns into a moth, she could have a wingspan of up to seven inches." That sounds exactly like me. Also, have you ever seen a Brahmin caterpillar before? Nah, let me Google it real quick. You should look it up. Those things are weird. The moth looks fucking sick from it, though. Holy shit. Yeah, the moth is cool. Oh, yeah, look at that. Those are weird. Yeah, those, like, weird horn things coming off the front and back of it. Did they base the Pokemon off this guy? The Pokemon? Did they base the Pokemon? I don't know Pokemon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Caterpree. I'm pretty sure Caterpree is based off this dude. I don't think that. I think Caterpree just looks like a caterpillar. He has a little horn, though, and stuff. I don't know. I thought it was that. Yeah, but there's a green caterpillar with a horn. Hold on. Oh, I don't fucking know who gives a shit. Well, you're the one that mentioned Pokemon. I know. Well, that's what I'm saying. I'm already disinterested. I'm already disinterested in the thing I even brought up. Hornworms. That's it, hornworms. All right. Caterpree's a hornworm. Hornworm. When she turns into a moth, she can have a wingspan of up to seven inches. All right, don't do my voice. Don't do the mean impression for this character. How do you know it's a she? Not just dude. Okay. Or a holder. They don't bother. Okay. All right. This is defamation. This is slander. I just do. He shrugged. Want a holder? They don't buy it. No. No, I'm good. Someone went back to our first interaction when I did the horror movie thing with you like five years ago, and there's one part where you say that I'm a delight, and I go, "Oh my gosh, thank you." And someone clipped that and said, "Hunter has built his entire perception of Isaiah around that sentence." Not wrong. Not wrong. I said, promptly backing away. Just the thought of that thing's rippling, squishy mass touching my skin made me want to die again. I tried to think of anything I could say to change the subject. So, what do you think of Hina? A smile melted. Dark cloudiness replaced the enthusiastic look bit deeply into the skin of his bottom lip. It was clear I had accidentally struck a nerve. Before I had the chance to apologize, he answered me. I don't know. Mom isn't going to like her when she comes back, though. All right, so now you're making the impression of me even worse because I know it's an impression of me, but you're being even more intense about it. Come on. It's good. It works for the character. Also, it is creepy. Imagine being, you have to be around the insect kid, but then also he can't stomach the fact that his mom is dead. Yeah. No, no. This kid's mom got separated. She's just in Europe. That's right. Never mind. Yeah, yeah. Our protagonist's mom is dead. Yeah, my apologies. What I meant was he can't handle the fact that, like, he hasn't stomached that they're not together. They're not together anymore. Yeah. You know? And his stepmom's in the house now, and it's like, oh, my mom isn't going to like her when she comes back. I am curious to see how both of their, because it's two different iterations of a mom being gone. One literally physically deceased, and the other one is just, like, now not a part, basically not a part of his life anymore. Gone from the family. Yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting dynamic. I wonder how the bug thing ties in as well, because there's that whole, really, I think the only, well, bugs have come up before, like, the one with the golden house. But I remember in Forest of a Thousand Legs, it's like the Forest of Spiders was kind of representative of, like, the loss of his daughter and stuff like that. So I wonder if the bug thing ties into the mom thing. The only thing I can think of is some kind of metamorphosis. I mean, especially just with the caterpillar. Yeah, a cocooning of sorts. Yeah, I'm telling you, if this kid does not cocoon, I'm going to be so fucking sad. Maybe he gets cocooned. That's all I want. Do you remember that movie, Eight-Legged Freaks? Oh, yeah. I haven't seen it in forever, though. But I remember that. Oh, it's so good. The VHS cover was always, like, one that popped out. David Arquette screaming with, like, the big giant spider. Giant CGI spider in motion blur happening. Perfect. It's so good. I watched it recently, and it still holds up as a campy horror movie. It's so fun. But they've got that. I remember as a kid getting freaked out, because there's a scene with, like, the giant black widow. Thing where it's taken a bunch of people and wrapped them up into, like, these web cocoons. And you can see all the cocoons on the ground squirming. And she just comes over and, like, has this giant pincher mouth that she just impales them with and starts to suck them dry. Goddamn. I remember being seven being like, wow. Holy shit. That's how spiders are cool. Holy moly. See, you've PSYOPed me into doing the voice for myself. That's your natural talking. I don't want to hear it. Okay. All right. I wasn't sure what he meant by that. You mean after a trip, right? He looked right through me and tightened the left side of his face into a smirk. Yeah. After a trip. I finished unpacking and waved my father goodbye as he left for his new venture, leaving me to sulk over mine. I spent the rest of the day killing as much time as possible with the books and handheld games I brought. And that wasn't enough to sedate me. I'd wander around the tea garden in the backyard. I slept well that night and thankfully. Okay. Do you have the Google preview images or not? The banner ads. They're like, they're always loading. They never actually populate. Okay. So mine's loading. And it ended right after that. And I want you to see what this image was. And I thought it was part of the story. And I got so confused. Hold on. I've said it. Let me just send it to you directly. Let me see here. What the fuck? Is this just an ad for a guy selling his car? What the fuck is this? I think so. It fits perfectly with the story though. It makes it seem like an actual photo for the story, doesn't it? Yeah. Well, it says I've wandered around the tea garden in the backyard and I'm like, is he in the backyard? With the car? Is that what's in the backyard? He's like, hello. Also editor, be sure to put the photo. I love this guy. This guy's handsome. Look at him. He looks cool. I mean, he looks so happy. He's just hanging out by his car in the trees. He's so peaceful. Don't really expect a muscle car in a Japanese tea garden, but you know what? Who am I to judge? I slept well that night and thankfully did not wake up to an eye. Watching me sleep through the windows when morning came. I went to the kitchen and it was there standing over a purple kettle. Good morning, Yuki, she said, flashing the same ivory smile. Breakfast isn't ready. I'm afraid care for something long while you wait. Oh, thank you. Take a seat at the table. The aroma of dry roasted leaves. Grace, my nose. She poured some tea into a mug and placed it in front of me. Your uncle always likes a hot batch waiting for him when he wakes up. It's the only tea ever asked for. I blew on it, slurps them up and then gas hell yeah, I blew on it. Slurps them up and then gas. I was, I was hoping you would just let that, there's no way string. I blew on it, slurps them up and then poor choice of words. Surely I mean, there's a balance and then afterwards she says, burn yourself. That's what I'm trying to say. I'm trying to say. I'm trying to say. I'm trying to say. I'm trying to say. I don't know. I appreciate the subtle creamy nuttiness. It wasn't perfect, but it was close. For a moment, I felt happy. And the next moment, I felt sad. The next moment, I felt sad. God, I felt happy. That's called post-nut clarity, my friend. Welcome to the club, brother. Yeah, welcome to the club, brother. No, sorry. It's just my mom used to make her tea some of the way. It's a special touch. And who do you think showed her how? That'd be so creepy. Your uncle comes in doing that voice. Yeah. Uncle? My uncle said, strolling in while Hina preemptively handed him a cup, he smacked a quick kiss on her cheek. I thought it was about to say he slapped her butt, where it says he smacked a quick. It's like, this is crazy. Crazy vibes happening in this house. He smacked a quick kiss on her cheek. I blinked at him. But mom said she had a secret method. Well, she may have perfected it, but I'm the one who gave her the idea, mind you. I don't think ours will ever be as good as hers, though. His grin faded. Soda then walked in and poked his head into the fridge. Hey, kiddo. How'd you sleep? Hina asked. He didn't answer, smothered under his breath. Would you like a cup of-- No. No. He interrupted audaciously. Soda. Poor, he said, uncharacteristically stern. His son gave him a passing glance and returned to the studio. He looked at the stairs, leaving an invisible heaviness behind. Sorry about that, he told me, pressing and massaging his left temple. I took another sip of tea. Later that same day, Soda wanted to show me one of the nature trails near their house. If anything, I figured it would help the day pass a little faster. Hori's only condition was for us to be back before sunset, or else we'd go to sleep hungry. Luckily, the day still had plenty of its golden hours left, just in case. He made us take the tactical flashlight that he kept in the garage. We followed the neighborhood's gently sloping hill, which quickly led us to the park. Behind its empty playground was the trail entrance, a boardwalk that cut through the old-growth forest. A cold breeze sighed between the beech tree canopies. Soda whistled every time he heard it. The wooden path brought us to a bridge hovering over a small creek. The moss floating over the surface smelled like wet fertilizer, the kind our janitor used on the school lawn, only much more pungent. Before I had the chance to cross, Soda's hand clamped over my wrist. "I want to show you something cool." His eyes suddenly had that electric eagerness again. "What is it?" In one swift moment, he had leaped over the wooden railing and walked headfirst into the foliage. "Come on!" His voice swifted back at me. "Really?" It groaned angrily and sluggishly followed. "What else was I supposed to do?" My last follow made me nervous, but it appeared he was following the creek. Some gangly saplings crunched under my shoes. No matter how many times I tried to coax him back to the trail, all I'd get was one of his whistles harmonizing with the wind. We came across an abandoned railroad track. It was, for the most part, buried beneath a bed of weeds. Whatever route its ancient metal and wooden ties had once followed now belonged to the underbrush. A rusted rail spike was jettisoned. It was jutted from its iron harness like a snapped bone. "I thought maybe this was the cool thing my cousin wanted to show me until he saw Stepped over it and continued. The treetop thickets above us darkened the area. Less and less sunlight slipped through. Piles of dead leaves were everywhere, with the occasional bell-shaped mushroom poking out of them. The trees here were different too. Their bark was covered in sunken dead cankers. Slimy brown ooze leaked out of them like pus from a pop set. The visual made me cringe. I didn't like it here. It was cold. It was different. The air felt stale and damp. "Here," Soda said merrily, finally breaking the awful silence. A torii gate stood over us. The sort of gate you'd find leading to a Shinto shrine. Its large structure was held flimsily together with decaying wood. The horizontal crossbar connecting both pillars had a tablet caked in slime mold in its center. Impossible to read. It was honestly a miracle the gate was still standing. Beyond it was a set of rocky steps covered in fuzzy orange clusters that led up the hill in a disorganized mess. I found this place two months ago. Don't bother asking how I did. It just happened. It's where I met Kodami. You're Caterpillar? The amount of enthusiasm you get when you can make fun of my voice, the amount. To be fair, the bug child is very happy right now, so I'm leaning into it. Yeah. To be fair. Cause that's what I'm having. I haven't been to you. Fair. TBF. I asked. Witchy nodded. I clamped my nose shut to keep out the musty smell of wet socks and rotting cedar. Okay. You showed me. Can we head back now? Not yet. He answered and began hiking up the rocky steps towards the top of the hill. Losing my fo- You know, anytime I like a TikTok gets posted to me where I say something enthusiastically, all the comments are like, and that's because of Hurricane Helene and like other quotes from the show. That you've like honed in on me saying in a way or now because of the whole house tour thing. The new one is I love the back splash every video that's in the comments. I love that. That's the kind of thing. I love the back splash. Oh my God. I love that. It's good, man. You're an enthusiastic boy. No, no enemy of mine has ever resulted in hardship. No enemy of mine. No enemy of mine. No enemy of mine. That's what I'm talking about. Sona muttered. come to the sculpture lots and lots of them but none of them become moths they just die sooner later it's even funnier to imagine this voice coming from a japanese child named soda it sounds like a closeted appalachian youth pastor child i'm just imagining a big-lipped chinese boy with a little with a hair part of the middle and he like in my mind too he still has he has a hawaiian shirt on he's like bugs i love bugs you know that's a great clip out of context because out of context it just sounds like you're describing a chinese stereotype but if you watch the show you know it's me yeah no that all all of that's just trying to get me check it out yokey bugs i love big bugs i like small bugs too i mean i set myself up for it i told i mean what the fuck i have no one to be mad at myself so you know yeah this is just one of those take it on the chin did you burn yourself take it on the chin all right we can get back into it yeah yeah yeah i caught it i saw what the joke was sorry about that over explained it wasn't wrong the ground at the sculpture's feet was riddled with their dried deflated bodies kodami didn't want to be here she wanted to come home with me his eyes didn't scan the small corpses book of caterpillar never wants to fly someday there you go there's your connection between the mom stuff and all that yeah yep he sighed and then lifted his sleeve to itch his arm something was written on his skin before i could read it he tucked his sleeve back down turned to being smiled wildly it's getting dark we can head back now we made it home just before the peak of sunset you know it was cooking teppanyaki the cornerstone of our love said uncle hori unfortunately she didn't join us to eat any of it afterward which soda seemed cheerful about for the last few weeks hina had been experiencing spontaneous episodes of feeling unwell sometimes she felt better in minutes other times it took hours calling it now soka's gonna or soda's gonna use the caterpillars to her what was happening to the statue yeah they're just gonna like rip her apart unfortunate the yes it would be the food looked great but my appetite had shriveled up and crawled away i couldn't stop thinking about the woman horrible woman drowning in a living wriggling coat i tried to push the thought back useless that god-awful image wasn't going anywhere i mean it's hard not to think that the statue doesn't he doesn't just see his mom's mom in that statue yeah you know yeah i'd say so that's a good connection the worst version the worst version of his mom's here it probably makes him even sicker thinking about it that way and it's like i mean yeah it has like a paranormal effect to it as well like moving and wriggling and having all the dead corpses around it it's just it's the it's literal embodiment of death right there in front of him so i looked up japanese spiders because i was like what kind of spiders do they have in japan they have huntsman spiders there what well i know there's some yokai that are like spiders and stuff too or like mixed with like people yeah something yeah i know it's the woman's spider thing the hybrid yeah choro spiders oh these are like big or oh they have oh they have the things i hate so much classic that kid derailing story i just i just i just went to yahoo you know what i went to yahoo and i just yahooed the craziest thing did you know they have huntsman spiders over there and yokanaki all right you know what i walked into that one because i did the thing i did the meme and i'm not gonna oh my god they have so many cool spiders i can't again just yeah i guess yeah i guess later that night i dreamed that i was back there standing in the abandoned shrine the woman's grimy face and broken neck faced me her mouth started to move yuki a hushed voice saying where are you yuki the voice was cruelly familiar i gasped mom yes yuki she whispered and crooned i miss you i screamed around to her the ground squelched and clung to my souls like thick muddy pools the face staring at me was no longer the pain-infused face of the woman it was mom her neck wasn't broken and she was smiling i want to move yuki but my legs won't bend she said softly to me will you help me move again i wrap my arms around her cold metal skin yes please come on please please come back to me screamed unable to wipe the cascading tears her mouth elongated a flurry of brahmin caterpillars slithered out they engulfed her swallowing her body up into a twitching silhouette will you help me yuki i'll do anything just come back mommy will come back home but first you must let me in oh boy let me let me breathe again let me move again let me inside yes yes yes i'm blubbered thoughtlessly digging my hands into the mesh of larva and pulling out two meaty handfuls they struggled and jerked to my grip all at once i forced them into my mouth oh god they're flexible squishy bodies popped between my teeth their spindles cut into my gums and the roof of my mouth like a dentist's needles a bitter slimy flavors covered my tongue as i choked them down oh god yeah just the idea of them like popping and stabbing your gums i start have you ever have you ever eaten a bug before for anything i mean i just i'm gonna let it lie there i mean i just could could you say anything more i feel like i'm on my third grade playground again i didn't even i didn't even eat it for a bug thing it was for a youtube did you ever it was for a youtube thing and it was dried crickets it was dried crickets oh i have not but i i've seen actually in stores before i've seen flavored crickets before like i've actually seen like a chocolate flavored or like a like a like a barbecue dusted one crickets are you know they're popular man people like i did that one time for a spin the spin the wheel like challenge thing and it was like the punishment you had to eat the crickets dude oh you can feel the legs between your teeth i heard they're super super crunchy yeah yeah because there's all they're completely dried out so it's like it's like a cheese puff but cricket flavored it's so bad uh i startled myself awake looking wildly around for a few blurry seconds no shrine no caterpillars just cold sweat and a miserably tight bladder i climbed out of bed and walked next door the please use downstairs sign mocked me still not fully awake groggily stepped downstairs and crossed through the dining room to reach the west bathroom after relieving myself i washed my hands and headed back but this time i froze the lights were on kina was sitting on her knees at the dinner table oh god it had to have been two or three in the morning by then why is she up so early i passed by her tending to apologize if i had woken her up something wasn't right she was doubled over at the short table blowing out deep concentrated breaths the blue sleeves of her gin bae hung loosely from her wrist her neck was bent and her shoulders were hunched and locked stiff a black pool of sumi ink had been spilled on the table with a pungent sickly sweet odor she was dipping her fingers into it sloppily riding on her left arm competing the same characters again and again and it looks japanese here and it just says offering yeah that has to be that has to be what was on soda's arm too right yeah they're like offering themselves up to the spirit or like the thing that's possessing these caterpillars yeah well it almost seems like that the dream that uh our protagonist had it seemed like that was maybe after i i have a feeling he's probably going to be in the same boat as them like maybe they all seem like his that seemed like his commissioning like his first step over into the uh into giving himself towards it so yeah i'm sure he'll get to this point in a minute i lean towards her is everything all right she abruptly twisted toward me her sleepless eyes were bloodshot and rapidly rolling around in their sockets utterly independent of each other she croaks through a grimacing toothy smile well i've gotta head to bed thank you for uh yeah thank you for that hey so by the way in the morning hey uh could you just keep it down a bit you're waking up the house what do you do you come downstairs it's two in the morning allison's awake you're like what are you doing up and she looks at you and makes cicada noises she makes cicada noises everything perfect that's what i mentioned the i mentioned the kick is like a like a like you know an insectoid noise like that kind of thing and it's like accurate bloodshot eyes and she's looking at me yeah and she's not responding to what i'm saying right i okay so then i she probably her hair's probably i put her hair back you know i pat her head and i grab a cast iron skillet and i drive it into the side of her temple because there's no there's no there's no point and then i leave once again as always i leave and i i never look back yeah a rupee jamaica so so the kid you're you're just not even concerned you see you kill allison with a frying pan oh i'm i'm concerned there's a bug woman in my house trust me there's no i'm saying for the child for the child oh i'm concerned that there is potentially a future bug person oh oh the concern is that maybe you need to hit her with the frying pan too and see that's when i but i don't do it i i leave and i say well we'll let we'll let whoever stumbles upon this figure that out we'll let the police figure out this mess yeah we'll let the authorities because listen i mean that's just that that's their job right well it seems hunter murdered his wife after he found her awake in the middle of the night and heard a cicada outside yeah heard a cicada outside almost instantly attributed it to her being a bug and squashed her as it were again just want to get you to the point of like abandoning your family yeah yeah well i don't know i don't know what to do with it i don't know what to do with it i don't know what to do with it i don't know what to do with it i don't know what to do with it i'm already there i mean i could i don't think i could be any farther away i think i'm gone exactly the wall touched my spine before i realized i was backing up hina stood up and her neck slumped to the side and hung there she turned to me by swiveling like a chameleon's streaks of saliva slipping down her chin and slowly approached her legs seemed rigid she clumsily forced them to bend like a puppet learning how they work i pressed further against the wall wishing i could fade away into it my mind was saying run but my muscles rejected the order the static was taking control just scream my thoughts echoed wake someone up just scream wet fingers grabbed my wrist she leaned forward her musty breath smelled like old used up moth balls and pressed a finger against her lips she let go of me and trudged awkwardly to the front door where she disappeared into the night my trembling legs dropped me to the floor i'm not sure how long i sat there trying to take back control of my sporadic gasping and disabled motor functions once i was able to feel my legs again i rushed into hori's room nearly giving him a heart attack in the process uh what what's going on he jumped in a drowsy panic i told him what had happened showing my wrist smeared with black fingerprints he pulled himself up and wandered into the dining room the black pool of spilled ink was coagulating on the table hori reached into his pocket pulled out his phone and dialed a number into it from the front door camera the vibrating of a cell phone on the floor in a cell phone he picked it up and glanced at me concerned did did she take her car before i could answer he was already checking the garage the car was unmoved i heard him curse under his breath i'm gonna take a look around stay here in case she comes back all right i nodded to him and sat on the stairs while he got dressed and headed out with a flashlight he come back shortly after flustered and empty-handed she isn't anywhere close by let me make a quick call the call was to the police so uh another bear trap i'm laying out there his mom being gone uh maybe the caterpillars got her and the boy wasn't soda wasn't skyping earlier he was talking to the caterpillar oh i'm pro yeah probably that i mean yeah yeah i would assume that yeah like uh she's not actually gone she's uh well yeah i could see that i guess i'm curious i think you can go a couple different ways i don't know i'd be bought in i could also see a thing of uh him attaching himself to uh kadami the caterpillar just because the mom is gone or something he's like he's just attached himself to that awkwardly yeah and he just said he was talking to his mom as a lie yeah to not come off as weirder than he already is i also like the idea that if this is the second mother he's had that's gotten got by the caterpillars uh the dad's waking up from bed like oh not again yeah just going off to the caterpillar god yeah every time oh boy here we go with that voice he's singing like he's singing was there's there's a song i'm trying to think of a country song about losing a girl to like a guy i can't remember it but just in my head it's being replaced with caterpillar god the guy that steals all the women an officer came by shortly after the call his barrel-shaped chest protruded out of his dark blue uniform he had dry scabby lips and screamed for chapstick my uncle talked with him while i waited in the kitchen washing the ink off of the wet cloth i idly wondered if i should wake soda but decided not to the officer came in and asked me questions one after the other 100 sodas and a uh good care anyways how do you feel about your uncle's girlfriend has she ever acted differently around you has she ever told you about any secret i answered him as best as i could what uh what what'd you say about soda a second ago he's like i was gonna wake soda but i decided not to i'm like that is gonna be in a cocoon oh yeah yeah that kid he's up there like billion percent okay that's all i'm saying boy he smacked his chaps lips together and finalized his notes about he and his uncle in a cocoon his physical description and the gym bae she was wearing given the circumstances we aren't able to conduct a search for an adult who just doesn't wish to be home i could hold on to the information you've given me for the time being if you have not heard anything for at least 24 hours or have any reason to fear for her safety we can provide more assistance please get it but please keep us informed he bowed and returned to the park to cruiser we watched him drive off uncle horry looked at me he bowed and returned to the park to cruise her we watched him drive off uncle horry looked at me get some sleep yuki i'm sure she'll get some sleep yuki i'm sure she'll get some sleep yuki i'm sure she'll turn up in the morning i nodded to him and turn up in the morning i nodded to him and turn up in the morning i nodded to him and went to bed where i laid for hours staring went to bed where i laid for hours staring went to bed where i laid for hours staring at the ceiling as exhausted as i was my at the ceiling as exhausted as i was my at the ceiling as exhausted as i was my mind had no intention of resting i called mind had no intention of resting i called mind had no intention of resting i called my father who answered groggily i told my father who answered groggily i told my father who answered groggily i told him what had happened and how scared i him what had happened and how scared i him what had happened and how scared i was was was he promised to cut his okado exhibition he promised to cut his okado exhibition he promised to cut his okado exhibition short and said get me the day after short and said get me the day after short and said get me the day after tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow 24 hours never felt farther i was scared 24 hours never felt farther i was scared 24 hours never felt farther i was scared not quite sure what to do with myself not quite sure what to do with myself not quite sure what to do with myself why did he know written on her arm what why did he know written on her arm what why did he know written on her arm what was wrong with her eyes was wrong with her eyes was wrong with her eyes what was happening in this house what was happening in this house what was happening in this house next morning the cold breeze from the next morning the cold breeze from the next morning the cold breeze from the day before and brought an overcast gray day before and brought an overcast gray day before and brought an overcast gray sky sky sky hori was making oolong tea alone in the hori was making oolong tea alone in the hori was making oolong tea alone in the kitchen kitchen kitchen he didn't say too much he didn't say too much he didn't say too much his look of exhausted defeat said enough his look of exhausted defeat said enough his look of exhausted defeat said enough sleep must have been scarce for him also sleep must have been scarce for him also sleep must have been scarce for him also soda was in the backyard seated in the soda was in the backyard seated in the soda was in the backyard seated in the garden garden garden his elbow was lifted and pointed outward his elbow was lifted and pointed outward his elbow was lifted and pointed outward as though striking an invisible person as though striking an invisible person as though striking an invisible person oh fun he was giggling and talking out oh fun he was giggling and talking out oh fun he was giggling and talking out loud loud loud a jaunty ear-to-ear grin radiating from a jaunty ear-to-ear grin radiating from a jaunty ear-to-ear grin radiating from his face his face his face i thought he was talking to himself at i thought he was talking to himself at i thought he was talking to himself at first before spying the glass terrarium first before spying the glass terrarium first before spying the glass terrarium in his lap and the caterpillars four in his lap and the caterpillars four in his lap and the caterpillars four spindles crawling across his arm i can't spindles crawling across his arm i can't spindles crawling across his arm i can't believe it believe it believe it i just can't believe it kadami i just can't believe it kadami i just can't believe it kadami we didn't hear from hina that day we didn't hear from hina that day we didn't hear from hina that day nothing but silence through the morning nothing but silence through the morning nothing but silence through the morning noon and evening noon and evening noon and evening all we could do was wait while the pale all we could do was wait while the pale all we could do was wait while the pale clouds wafted over us clouds wafted over us clouds wafted over us despite this so does upbeat attitude despite this so does upbeat attitude despite this so does upbeat attitude never left him never left him never left him he was joking smiling and perkier than he was joking smiling and perkier than he was joking smiling and perkier than usual usual usual i'd never seen his spirits higher it i'd never seen his spirits higher it i'd never seen his spirits higher it wasn't right and it also didn't seem wasn't right and it also didn't seem wasn't right and it also didn't seem real real real he was hiding something and for both he was hiding something and for both he was hiding something and for both hori and hina's sake hori and hina's sake hori and hina's sake i had to find out what it was before i had to find out what it was before i had to find out what it was before tomorrow around sundown hori left for tomorrow around sundown hori left for tomorrow around sundown hori left for another drive around the neighborhood another drive around the neighborhood another drive around the neighborhood another attempt to find her another attempt to find her another attempt to find her it was now or never just as i was about it was now or never just as i was about it was now or never just as i was about to tap on soda's door i heard him to tap on soda's door i heard him to tap on soda's door i heard him talking on the other side talking on the other side talking on the other side i pressed my ear to the frame and i pressed my ear to the frame and i pressed my ear to the frame and listened intensively listened intensively listened intensively don't understand it's okay now your don't understand it's okay now your don't understand it's okay now your burden i heard the word complicated burden i heard the word complicated burden i heard the word complicated there was a bang on the table i don't there was a bang on the table i don't there was a bang on the table i don't care care care but this is for you so why can't you do but this is for you so why can't you do but this is for you so why can't you do this for me this for me this for me you need to be here dad needs you here you need to be here dad needs you here you need to be here dad needs you here more distorted words more complicated his more distorted words more complicated his more distorted words more complicated his voice rose to a volley of incoherent screams. There was another loud thump and muffled sobbing. No more talking. The discussion must have been over. I creaked to open the door, slid inside, and gently closed it. The room was dark and the laptop's white, void screen once again blinded me. Curled up on the bed, where the light couldn't reach, was a vaguely outlined body. A desk chair lay on the floor, probably thrown there. Was that your mother? I mean, obviously, so does a freak, but I love the idea of this kid, like, in a very personal fight with his mom. It's like, I don't care, I love you, you said you'd never leave me! And then, like, your cousin comes in, so is that like your mom? It's fucking heartbreaking. It'd be crazy. Also, too, if he's, like, talking to a bug, and you think it's a Skype call, also just creepy, but so sad. Yeah. I'm talking to a bug. Mom can't come home. That was definitely me as a kid. No answer. I scooped up the desk chair and placed myself next to him. You know, whenever I was upset, my mom would tell me to cheer up before my face got stuck that way. The dark lump that was my cousin didn't move. His stifled sniffling sounded in the sheets. Come on, just talk to me, okay? I did everything right. Everything right. Everything the woman said to do, and it still isn't working. She said it would, so why isn't it? I rolled the caster wheels closer, reminding myself of one of those psychiatrists you see on TV. What woman? The woman in my dreams. He sat and rolled over to face me. His eyes were wide and drenched with tears. Blotches flaked off his wet pupils. She came because I brought Kadami here. That's how you let her in. Through the camera. Caterpillars. She said Hina would leave and mom would come back. She's real, Yuki. I've seen her. I didn't like the seriousness in his voice. I also don't like a lot of other things about what he just said. The look in his eyes was both real and terrifying. Sure, there was living in your own world where bugs had voices and their own personalities. But this was different. This was the real world where real people went missing. This is a dream. This is the real world where you had. But from that creepy place. The hang one too. Listen, if you know what happened to Hina or where she is, you have to tell me. Abruptly, in a whirlwind of speed, he leaped out of bed and paced around. Words in flaky dried ink were written down in his right arm. Hina Notori. Curse. There you go. Yeah, so he drew the curse and her name on his arm. I see. He drew the curse and her name on his arm. Yes, I have to help, and you're going to have to move. Before even realizing it, I had fired into a sprint. The day's muscles in my legs were pumping like steam-powered machinery. I was scared, absolutely terrified. But it didn't matter. I was moving. My mother's idiom rang off the walls of my skull, guided by her voice. Fear is only as deep as the mind allows. I swung the tactical flashlight. Its toothed head met Hina's face and splattered a caterpillar on her neck into a blue-green paste. Her neck swung back with a loud grunt. Although she stumbled a bit, her fingers still clenched Soda's hair. Three bloody wheels opened on her still-smiling face. Put her back! Soda yelled, batting at Hina with a small fist. Put Kadami back! All rationality was gone. Maybe he was right. Perhaps everything would turn back to normal. The terrarium was lying on its side. I ran towards it and shined the flashlight in. The caterpillar was crawling along the tipped black soil. I tucked the flashlight into my jacket pocket and cupped the small thing in my hands. I couldn't believe what I was doing. The feeling of its small, grubby legs tickling my palms and shivers at my spine. As I ran for the gate, Hina swayed in my direction. Her fingers unhooked from Soda's hair. She curled herself at me with a shocking burst of speed. I started up the slope, doing everything in my power to ignore the harsh, throaty sounds behind me and the tickling sensation between my palms. A hand locked around my ankle. I tumbled forward into the dirt. When I looked back, Hina's eyes were no longer rolling. They were dead set on me. Her arm rose, displaying the rust-coated spike. I screamed, trying to kick my free leg at her, but my awkward position on the slope made it difficult. She struck with the spike. I forced my body to roll to the side. My ankle, her hand still clamped around it, popped. Sparks flew as the train spike struck one of the stone steps. Tight, searing pain resonated from my ankle up to my leg. She made a guttural, cackling sound and hoisted the spike again. But this time, Soda was behind her. Glass terrarium held over his head. He mashed it over her, sending a fine spray of glass and grime everywhere. Her grip slackened, just enough for me to escape. I pushed off my elbows and got back to my feet. I trekked the rest of the way up to the hill, fighting through the sharp pain in my ankle. The sculpture was waiting for me below the lonesome, rotting tree. Its frozen grimace matched Hina's perfectly. Only this time, there wasn't a single caterpillar on its filmy green skin. Hina tromped up the hill as I staggered at the sculpture. I wasn't sure what to expect. Does it even do anything? A horrible, guttural scream came out of her as I forced the caterpillar between the sculpture's realistic teeth and into its coppery gullet. The train spike slipped from Hina's hands. She took a few weak steps and fell limply to the ground like a filthy ragdoll. The numerous caterpillars she was wearing all toppled off of her, curled into unmoving objects. I'm still not sure if he was apologizing to Hina or me. We left her behind with the sculptures and the caterpillars who worshipped it no more. Just as we staggered out of the trail's entryway, we saw Hori in the parking area, speaking to the same barrel-chested officer as before, most likely because of my message. He quickly spied us and dashed from the officer to meet us halfway. He pulled us into a tight embrace. What happened? Is everything all right? I'm so sorry I didn't answer your calls. The officer followed shortly after. My cousin and I looked at each other with the same addled uncertainty. The aftermath of everything left our minds haggard and broken. Even I wasn't sure what exactly the truth of what happened was. We found her in the forest. Soda said quietly to the man with chapped lips, a tear trailing down his cheek. I know where she is, but I can take you there. An ambulance and a few other officers arrived at the scene. Both Soda and his father accompanied them back into the woods while I stayed with one of the EMTs to have my ankle treated. They gave me some ice and wrapped it in an elastic brace. After some time, everyone returned. Hori was wearing a face I'd never seen before. A dazed, foggy stare, like a ghost trying to remember how to feel. They asked him to remove us from the scene and to return home for the night. Dazed, foggy stare, like a ghost trying to remember how to feel. pierced my heart with its rusted spike when the sun rose again I started packing my things now and then I'd eye the window expecting to see my father's car pull up at any moment I heard someone crying downstairs the kitchen was empty but the crying came from the connecting hallway or he was standing there facing the wall his face buried in his forearm I could tell he was doing his best to stifle the sounds but failing miserably there had to be something I could do but what an idea struck I hobbled to the purple kettle when he came into the kitchen a cup of oolong tea was waiting for him on the table he looked at me puzzled at first but then he gave me a subtle smile I watched as he picked up the drink blew on the steaming liquid sipped it he suddenly winced it's probably the poor taste sorry I'm sort of a lousy tea maker no no he said waving his hand fingers at me it just caught me off it just caught me off guard how familiar that taste was it's it's perfect it had eventually pulled into the driveway fortunately I was able to give Soto a proper goodbye through his locked bedroom door it was later released that Hina Otori was found dead at the scene but according to pathology reports her time of death was the night she disappeared the same night she walked out the front door the next day the next time I saw Soto was at the memorial service for Hina for the most part he disregarded me every so often granting me a passive glance it wasn't until the end that he pulled me aside and started talking everything was gone he said in a rattled trembling voice there's no gate there's no sculpture only Hina and the weapon where did everything go Yuki was it because of the adults I brought is the woman somehow is the woman somewhere else now looking for someone else to let her out of the sculpture I didn't have any answers for him how could I have we both felt crazy we probably were both crazy but there was no denying the horrors I witnessed that night they were real sickeningly real something tried to stop us from returning to that sculpture the nightmares that followed were constant almost every night that place haunted me Tori Gate choked with slime mold the rotten puss bleeding trees the woman burying her open mouth grimace the place where the caterpillars went to die without my mother's idiom the fear of falling back asleep would have caused me to collapse mentally but progressively the nightmares became less and less frequent I guess even bad dreams can grow bored of their host even now when one manages to claw its way back up and wakes me in a cold sweat I always pull myself back it became increasingly difficult for me to keep in contact with Soda he seldom returned my messages Hori mentioned to me that his son had been seeing a therapist on a regular basis most likely to help him cope with the dark guilt on his shoulders reshaping it making it easier to chew up regardless he'd have to live with it the ungodly force that he had conjured and used to rip Hori's new love away he'd have to live with it all for the sake of keeping his father from moving on I've changed a lot since the last time I saw Soda but how much didn't strike me until recently I was typing a last minute essay trying to beat my midnight deadline something fluttered in my peripheral a large moth had flown in through the window two intricately patterned eyed spots on its wings resembled skulls its black and brown body was robust I didn't know until later that it was a problem and moth taking an interest in the light from my computer monitor it whiffled over and landed on the screen it was so close that I reached my finger out touched its feathery antenna it was kind of cute and that is the end of where the caterpillars die very interesting story uh two people who have lost like an important motherly figure in their life i don't know why i put importantly it's their mom motherly figure but it's kind of interesting uh the lengths one will go in order to bring that love or like basically that family back together and how even our protagonist i feel like wanted to do the same but was able to refrain from like giving in to that temptation as well yeah i think it's interesting how they both lose mothers and one of and one of them isn't even physical he can still talk to her she's just not around and his solution is to kill a woman uh and conjure up this ancient evil as a means of making it happen um and then sure he's guilty for it at the time of the funeral but he still kills someone to get back his still living mother versus our protagonist whose mom died but because of his mother's teachings and like not giving in to fear and then she's like oh my god i'm gonna kill her and then she's like oh my god i'm gonna kill her and then she's like oh my god i'm gonna kill her and then she's like oh my god i'm gonna kill her and then she's like oh my god i'm gonna kill her and then she's like oh my god i'm gonna kill her he was able to be the better person than soda coming out the other side of it um i think that's a pretty cool little thing and i also like the note how earlier in the story we have soda who is refusing to let on the fact that his mom's gone so he stays trapped in the past uh he uses the caterpillars and uh begins to talk to them and make friends with them and then eventually uses them to try to kill a woman try to get his mom back and then you're years later when our protagonist sees him again or yuki sees him again soda still hasn't let it go and he's still kind of trapped there whereas yuki learns from this doesn't do it and at the end of the story he encounters a moth so it went like there's that line from soda earlier what kind of caterpillar would never want to fly that would be soda and yuki is the one who sees the moth sees the transformation and becomes better from yeah the tragedy he went through yeah who wouldn't want to move on who who would want to like sit here and like linger in this kind of uh this hell you know and it's it's weird too because soda and yuki i mean they're they're only 13 years old so soda coming to this conclusion isn't i wouldn't say i don't think he understood the repercussions of that maliciousness it's weird if you and i don't know if you feel the same but if you like if you age him up to like 17 it feels so much more nefarious doesn't it oh yeah absolutely i mean there's a innocence goes a long way here and a lack of recognition of how heavy the stuff you're doing is you know uh i think that saved soda a lot from just being a monster because he did kill a woman you know yes yes yes yes yes no no you know you can't definitely uh innocent person died in the story but it's it's always interesting when it comes from maybe like a weird kid somebody was just like you you never really know how deep the intentions were uh um not necessarily like obviously i mean he meant to kill her but i guess it's just like at what point does the uh age factor and stuff come in i don't know it's just an interesting thought it's like oh he was 17 then it becomes even creepier but you just i mean i guess what i'm saying i just feel bad for the fucking kid feel bad for him did something that he has to live with now for the rest of time um i do wish that yuki had more of a struggle with that like having to really swallow that idea that his mom is gone and then he has to uh you know live with that it felt like he was very grounded which is fine but you know i just more of the temptation of the caterpillars or more of those things would have been fun um to maybe be explored in a longer story but i mean i like that you know one of them chose the wrong path and one of them chose the right path i think that's always a fun a fun dynamic i think this was a i mean like obviously the caterpillars are kind of like a on the surface it is a basic setup of very simple story you know character going through loss someone can't get over it but it uses that narrative to tell an interesting story about like these caterpillars and i thought the whole part with it possessing her like the it sounds like she's literally full of caterpillars gargling and shit yeah yeah yeah so i think that's a really creepy visual and i thought it used the simplicity of the story to its strength to kind of get this across i thought i thought it was good i really enjoyed it yeah i thought it was fun i think that i would have liked more moments with more creepy things happening more mystery around like the sigils and stuff i think like especially when you're going to something like japanese uh you know uh mythology or folklore or anything like that i think uh there's just so much there's so much you can pull from it would have been fun to dabble on that which i'm guessing that he chose this to be japanese maybe because of that statue i'm sure that statue exists in some kind of like urban legend or something i would imagine um which is why he chose it to be like a japanese story versus like it just being like something more american or something uh just because the guy's name is michael page i would assume that he's just uh i assume he's not from japan i guess is what i'm saying um but yeah a lot of cool stuff uh visually a lot of fun uh and you know his other story too uh what was it called the man who ate ghost or something or what was it called the man who ate ghost yeah that's story was great too really fun punchy short stories that i think uh you know i really want to check out the uh angels burned story too that just that title is fucking crazy but really like this one really fun nice little time yep uh so again michael page has a ton of other stories and and so far he's two for two so if you'd like to read more of his stuff we'll have it linked in the description please show him some love he certainly deserves it yeah thank you so much guys for listening on apple podcast or spotify consider giving us a nice rating and to all of our beautiful patrons out there thank you so much for supporting the channel and if you're looking for some extra content feel free to head over there at patreon.com slash creepcast until next time guys we will see you in the next one bye bye and also bye bye bug boy yeah see you in the next one so i know i kind of set up the bug boy thing a little bit by talking about bugs and him doing the voice but still from a professional sense from a interpersonal sense from any sense this podcast has the level to which he's the voice you you