Prewritten Fiction #4

“What do you mean, your hole?” Owaki was skeptical, and his face showed it.

“There was one of these that was identical to me. My silhouette, it framed it perfectly!”

“The cameras were pretty far off, don’t you think? You could easily have mistaken it for-” He raised an eyebrow.

“No! I know that the hole was based off me!” She gestured violently to herself.

“The researchers say these holes are thousands of years old. You heard them yourself. It’s rather silly to think that one of these is based off you. And to be so exact, well, that’s impossible.”

“Not quite.” A gently lilting voice sounded from behind Owaki. He turned to face a gaunt man, perhaps a few years older than him. His wiry frame bore nothing but skin upon itself. “I saw my own hole on TV. I know what you’re feeling. It’s unbelievable, how many people came here not to see this place for themselves, but because they saw their hole. I was asking around while I searched for mine.”

“Who are you, that makes you such an authority?” Owaki was not so easily trumped, meeting this newcomer with indignation.

“I’m just Nakagaki. But the reason I can back your friend up is this.” He gestured grandly behind him, to the wall. His finger pointed at one of the carvings which, Owaki had to admit, bore striking resemblance to him. But the idea was still foreign to him, that these holes could have been carved for specific people. Nakagaki read this doubt on his face. “I don’t blame you for not believing me. But, just watch this!”

Nakagaki quickly unbuttoned his shirt, revealing the bones of his rib cage beneath, poking out from the skin, and threw the garment off to the side. His jeans came off just as quickly, and suffered similar fate; he spared Yoshida the embarrassment of looking away, sparing his underwear. He strode confidently up to his hole.

He fit perfectly. There was not a gap of air to be seen; there was no break between stone and flesh. Then he started to sink into the hole. Owaki dashed forward, but could not get any grip on the man’s skin to pull him back. “Come back! That’s dangerous! You don’t know where it leads!” Soon, Owaki could not touch the man at all. He was gone into the darkness.

“Did you see that?” Owaki turned to Yoshida, who stood, unmoving. He shouted this time, “Did you see that? Someone just went into that hole! Help! I don’t think he can get out himself.”

“Get the research team! They have a probe!”

“Call a rescue team!”

“Someone get rope!” A sense of panic began to fill the crowd, and dread filled those who had come looking for their own holes.

Just five minutes later, after the research team had put their thirty-meter optic probe into Nakagaki’s hole, he was gone. The team could find no trace of him.

Prewritten Fiction #3

Apologies for the delay. It's been an eventful last few days.

Here's part three.

They found an old trail, replete with fresh prints no older than a few hours. It was a clear descent, with low-hanging branches and ill-placed bushes shoved cruelly out of the way. Even with their heavy loads, the two had no problem getting down. Suddenly, Owaki bumped into Yoshida, who had frozen. They were at the bottom, and Yoshida stared ahead, mouth open.

“Hey, let me see.” Owaki lightly pushed past Yoshida. He nearly fell.

Beyond the hundreds upon hundreds of people gathered at the fault, there lay massive carvings in the wall. They resembled shadows, cast from nonexistent floating figures, plastered all over the fault. Scattered among adult shapes were the bodies of children, and some which were just blots on the wall from this distance.

“Are those…babies?” Yoshida  came to the conclusion simultaneously with Owaki.

“I think so.” Owaki felt a strange sense of revulsion; he was unable to determine why, however. “Let’s move closer.”

As Owaki and Yoshida pushed through the crowd, the occasional flash from a camera or cellphone leaving spots in their eyes, the shapes became clearer. They were cleanly cut into the walls, with no excess cracks or malformations in the shapes. Each figure was a drawing in negative space. Owaki stopped at the edge of the crowd, yet felt a compulsion to keep moving forward, to embrace the wall, to….enter. He clamped his hand on Yoshida’s shoulder, preventing her from advancing further, and rooted himself in place. The gravel of the valley was uncomfortable beneath his feet.

“It’s just like on TV…” Owaki murmured.

“Except so much stronger. I feel…no, I need to…” Yoshida agreed.

“No, stay here.”

The two stood in awed silence for a spell, before Yoshida remarked, “It’s a wonder that these were so cleanly preserved. Underground, for who knows how long.”

“Look at the other face of the fault; there’s not a single marking there.”

“Makes you wonder how anything like this could happen.”

“We could ask them, they look like they might know something.” Owaki pointed to a group of white-clad researchers examining the holes with an array of expensive-looking equipment.

The researchers were feeding optic cable into one of the holes nearer to the ground. Owaki was careful not to disturb any of the equipment as he moved closer for a better view. A small monitor displayed the interior of the hole, lit up by a small light at the end of the cable. The stone surface of the hole was totally smooth, unmarred by loose rocks or dirt, and maintained the same shape until it bled into darkness.

“Sir, that’s the end of the cable.” One researcher reported to the eldest of the group.

“Well, order more, we must find out what lays at the end. The hole seems to curve into Amigara mountain.” He adjusted his thick glasses, looking at the cable in a futile attempt to elongate it.

“Sir, the test results are back!” Another young man ran to the group. “The sample we took says that the hole is thousands of years old!”

“Could it be man-made?” The head researcher voiced his thoughts aloud.

“That seems as impossible as it being a natural formation.”

“I keep telling you! Aliens!” Another researcher piped in.

“Shut it, Suzuki. Those don’t exist.”

“Well then, how were they made?”

“Perhaps they were dug out from the inside…” By now the researchers and some from the crowd were voicing their thoughts as they came. Owaki tensed up at the thought of being trapped in the mountain, forced to dig his way out.

“Well then, where’s the entrance?”

“It’s been a long time, erosion and soil accumulation could easily have sealed it up.”

“Well then, what sort of people could have made these holes? And why? They must have had some sort of purpose.”

“Perhaps as a way to remember the dead? These could be old burial chambers.”

“There would be many more child tombs, then. Infant mortality rates were very high thousands of years back.”

“Yeah, so what do…” The voice trailed off as Owaki hurried to follow Yoshida. She had set off, climbing a mound of fallen rocks, head turning back and forth, scanning the wall. She was searching for something.

“Yoshida, is everything alright?”

“I saw it on TV.”

“What? What do you mean, you saw it? What did you see?”

“My hole.”

Prewritten Fiction #2

The Enigma of Amigara Fault, Part 2

Owaki sighed, resting his hands on his knees. He was more out of shape than he had expected. His heart was racing from the exertion of hiking for just a few hours. He dropped his day pack to the ground, and brought out a map of the area. It was several years old, but he bought it for half the price of a new one. Am I still on Amigara Mountain? He scanned the area for some landmark he could make use of, but found none. I better not be lost…I’m miles away from the nearest village, and those were all hit hard by the quake.

Crunch…crunch…crunch…

Owaki looked up from his map, and spied a young woman, long black hair splayed over her hiking gear, slowly ascending the slope. A light blouse and blue jeans weighed her down with every step; the jeans were a bad choice to hike in, given the summer heat.

“Hey!” Owaki ran over to the woman, his pack left resting on the ground. “I’m Owaki.” He extended his hand.

“I’m Yoshida.” She paused, unsure about Owaki’s forwardness. He realized this, and felt his face redden a little.

“I’m sorry. I assumed you were looking for the fault, and that I should introduce myself, since that’s where I’m headed too. You don’t see many women hikers around alone, and I just…sorry.”

Yoshida brushed it off. “Grab your stuff, we can talk and keep moving.” She fidgeted a little, wanting to start off again. It wasn’t long before Owaki was back, bent a little at the weight of his pack. Was this tent really necessary to bring? Just the sleeping bag could have sufficed…

“I saw the coverage on TV yesterday.” Yoshida started. “It unsettled me, but I couldn’t stop thinking that I needed to come here, to see this for myself.”

“How strange! I got the same feeling, and I just couldn’t shake it. It’ll be good to have company at the fault.” He smiled as he and Yoshida picked their way through uneven rubble, disturbed by the recent quake.

“Company…”

“Hm? Is something wrong?”

“No, I’m alright. Let’s keep going.” Owaki had stopped, but at Yoshida’s urging, continued to move forward, feet landing at odd angles on the various rocks.

The sun was low in the sky when Owaki heard something. The sound of people – low voices, muttering, chatting. He looked to Yoshida, and a nod from her confirmed that he wasn’t just hearing things. They continued forward, and found themselves at the top of a steep hill. The rocky side of the face was nearly vertical, with a few outcroppings where one could safely stand. At the bottom of the fault – this must be the Amigara fault! – hundreds of people sat and stood around.

“It’d be dangerous to go down this way.”

“Yeah, let’s find another path.” Yoshida agreed. “At least we’ve found the fault. It’s really in the middle of nowhere.”

Prewritten Fiction #1

12:20 PM
Back after a long, unplanned hiatus involving staples, my lung, and a hospital. For the next few posts, I'm going to be writing fiction. Or at least, transcribing fiction.

Basically, the gist of this is that, rather than taking something completely new, I'll find a movie, or a cartoon, and make video text. They'll have to be terribly short scenes though.

First up, The Enigma of Amigara Fault, by Junji Ito. It's a short story in manga form. Off to writing!

1:00 PM
This will probably be broken up into parts over the next few days. This means I get to write more!

1:30 PM - This portion of the writing is complete! Next installment tomorrow.

Owaki could feel the rumbling from his fourth floor apartment. It was a gentle rumble of an earthquake far away, the type Japan was used to experiencing. Okawi continued to watch the news, sure that he was safe, and that nothing fragile needed to be moved.

Sometime later, he woke up. He must have dozed off on the couch. That had been happening more and more often these days. There was really nothing to do in the summer, while classes were out. His friends were all out of the city, touring Tokyo, or enjoying the mountainous countryside. A few of the lucky ones were overseas, in Europe, or the United States. Okawi was left here in the stifling heat, jobless and without classes to go to. It was too hot outside for all but the street vendors and the tourists.

Okawi laid on the couch for another spell, letting the droning voice of the newscaster fade into white noise. “…the earthquake at Amigara Mountain has caused quite the stir. The mountain appears to have-”

Click.

The remote fell with a quiet thump onto the carpeted floor, its job complete. Presently, a pair of bare feet joined it, slowly shuffling towards the laminated tiles of the kitchen. Okawi began to prepare himself some ramen. As the stove began to heat the room further, Okawi slipped a few ice cubes into his mouth, and slicked back his short hair with some water from the sink. The heat was oppressive, and the fans did little to liberate the young student. Okawi shuffled back to the couch as he waited for his noodles to cook.

Click.

“…and now we go to our reporter on the scene, Aizawa Ohba. What have the teams found at the Amigara fault, Ohba?”

“Well, Yoshida, the earthquake has uncovered two things. First, the natural landscape here is beautiful. The split peaks of the mountain promise an exhilarating hike to the top and an astonishing view from the top.”

“Why is that?”

“The earthquake split the mountain in two, and created a fault leading deep down. Even hikers who have previously gone up the trails of Amigara Mountain should find a new experience in store.”

“Ohba, you mentioned the teams found a second thing?”

“Yes, and that second thing is quite the discovery. In the newly created wall, there are thousands upon thousands of holes.”

“Holes?”

“Human-shaped holes. We have been unable to get a read as to how deep these holes are, but they appear to go deep into the mountain.”

“Wow, that’s creepy. Thank you, Ohba. And now we go to Seto Tamura, our cameraman on scene, to provide us a view of these strange holes.” Owaki snorted. This was probably just the prank of some kids with too much time on their hands. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he knew this was not true. Owaki continued watching.

The screen switched to a shot of the mountainside. There they were. They were only small holes from this distance, without any real form or shape. The helicopter carrying the camera began to fly in closer, and at the same time, Owaki began to lean forward. His eyes widened as thousands of shapes materialized on the fault’s face. Human shapes. Short, tall, fat, thin. All types, and thousands of them.

“Wow, isn’t that a sight. Investigative teams are due to come in tomorrow to figure out just when these holes were made, who made them, and for what purpose. This is Yoshida, signing off.”

Click.

Owaki laid back down. It would be quite the trip to go out to the fault. Besides, he needed something to do. He felt a sort of….calling from the mountain. His boots hadn’t been out of the closet for years, either. He was sure they would appreciate the fresh air.