Takeshita Demons Read Online Free Page B

of like
mosquito bites, but all in a line."
    "Oh, yeah. I did see something like that.
I thought they were mozzy bites. She was itching
a lot."
    "Yes, that's it." Cait had seen them too! I could
have hugged her, but just then the lock on our door
clicked open.
    "Hello?" said a voice behind the door, but it
wasn't Mum's.
    "Hello?" I echoed, stepping back as the door
swung wider. Who was this? Where was Mum?
    "Miku!" The voice sounded pleased. "What are
you doing home so early? And it's Cait, isn't it?
Come in, come in. You must be freezing." It was
my neighbour, Mrs Williams, the one with the cute
son and the noisy scooter. She looked a bit frazzled,
with bits of brown hair sticking up out of place and
no make-up. "I came as soon as I could. Your poor
mother."
    My poor mother? What was going on?

    Cait and I kicked off our shoes and scuffed our
way into a pair of slippers each.
    "What about my mum? Where's Kazu?"
    "He's right here, on the sofa," said Mrs Williams,
walking ahead of us down the hall. "Still sick, the
poor little blighter. I guess your mum will take him to
the doctor's when she gets back."
    "Gets back from where?" I asked. I rushed past
Mrs Williams into the living room, scared of what
I might find.
    But I found Kazu sitting happily on the sofa,
just like Mrs Williams had said. I tried to gather him
in my arms, but he whinged and pushed me away,
more interested in watching the TV. So that, at least,
was normal.
    "Your teacher didn't tell you?" Mrs Williams
waddled into the living room with Cait following
close behind.
    "Tell me what?"
    "I left a message with the school. They must've
forgotten. Your mother's in the hospital, dear. She
was putting out the rubbish and she slipped on some
ice. It's been so unusually cold..."
    The news made me shiver. "But..."
    "Don't worry, dear." Mrs Williams patted me
on the shoulder. "It's nothing too serious. She'll be back tomorrow, I expect. She's asked me to look after
Kazu till your father gets back."

    Back tomorrow? But that could be too late!
I realised I'd been counting on Mum. She might not
believe in cedar leaves or amazaki-baba, but she
couldn't just stand back and do nothing if I told her
our supply teacher was a nukekubi. She would have
to make a plan. She would know what to do. She was
Japanese after all.
    "Can I get you a cup of something warm, dears?"
Mrs Williams asked, hovering while I scrubbed my
hands together with anxiety and the cold.
    What to do? We couldn't count on Mum. That
meant we were alone till Dad got back. We were going
to need a plan of our own.
    "Um, no thanks," I said, thinking fast. "We've got
homework. They sent us home early cos of the snow,
but we've still got heaps of work."
    "Ah." Mrs Williams looked relieved. I guess
she wanted to hang out with us about as much as
we wanted to hang out with her. "Well, have fun.
I'll let you know when your father calls."
    I nodded. Cait and I zoomed up the stairs as fast
as our slippers would climb, heading straight for
my bedroom. We burst through the door and I made
sure to close it behind us.

    "What?" Cait had run out of patience. She sat
down and glared at me. "I don't want to do
homework. Will you just tell me what's going on?"
    At last we were safe, and alone. I sat
cross-legged on one end of my bed, kicking off
my slippers. "Are you ready for something truly
strange?"
    "OK," she said, looking wary. "Try me. What's
so weird about Mrs Okuda's neck?"
    And so I told her. About the Red Cross woman,
disappeared or invisible at our door. The icy breeze
that had swept into our house. My brother's strange
coughing. The meaning of the marks we'd seen on
Mrs Okuda's neck. But I didn't stop there. I told
her about the way a nukekubi could leave its body
to fly screaming through the night, searching for
human flesh. And I told her of my darkest fear:
that something had found us, travelled all the way
from Japan, to wreak evil upon me and my family.