The worst blizzard in a decade, and on today of all days.
Tyler forced his way down the narrow mountain road toward the train station. Or whatever was left of the road, that is. It had only been snowing since lunchtime, but by now, it was already well past his boot ankles.
Growing up in Chicago, he was used to the snow, and he knew that Northern Japan got more than its fair share of it, but there was something about struggling through a storm like that all alone that made him feel uneasy. He didn’t quite know if it was being so far away from home, the last bits of sunlight dimming on the horizon, or that he hadn’t seen a single car since he left the hot spring for the station, but this walk made him feel lost. Alone.
He reached the station and pulled on the handle. It didn’t budge, so he knocked on the door. When nobody came, he banged on the glass with his fist. A gust of wind wailed and pushed into his stomach, nearly knocking him over. Even with his thick parka, the cold made its way through and seeped itself into his skin. He shivered and pulled his hood as tight as he could over his face to protect his eyes and face. His fingers were growing numb.
Tyler looked inside. No lights were on except for one small flickering lamp on the ceiling and the dim red fluorescence from the vending machine. He banged on the door harder and louder this time. This can’t be happening, he thought. The possibility that the door might be frozen shut started to set in his mind. He shouted and slammed his fist over and over as hard as he could, hoping he could at least break the glass if there was nobody inside who could help him.
Then, a man rounded the corner from the inside and opened the door. Tyler barreled his way inside. He caught his breath and rubbed his hands together for warmth.
The man had a tired, if not annoyed, expression, like Tyler had just woken him up from a nap and he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. He had a rat-like face, accompanied by wet, wiry hair and grey whiskeys of a mustache. He smelled like cigarettes and hobbled with a slight hunch. The same kind Tyler had seen in countless overworked men on the train since getting to Japan six months ago.
The man uttered something in Japanese. When he clocked Tyler’s confused face, he made a ‘pushing’ motion with his hands and pointed to the door. I was supposed to push the door…Tyler realized. Embarrassed, Tyler bowed his head low. “Sumimasen,” he said frantically before rushing to the vending machine.
He immediately ordered a hot coffee from the vending machine. When he picked it up, it was cold to the touch. No warming up yet, apparently.
The man took his place behind the ticket counter and rested his head in his palm. Tyler collapsed into the first chair he found. His fingers and toes tingled as warm blood returned to them. He checked his phone. 18 percent. Thank God I got into the building.
A text from Angela. “Hey babe, Alec and I are heading to O’Hare tomorrow. How is your brother even WORSE of a travel planner than you are? He’s been driving me crazy lol can’t wait to tell you all about it when I land at Haneda in a couple days! See you so soon.”
He wished he was more excited to be with his girlfriend again. He hadn’t seen her since he left Chicago, which felt like an eternity ago. With this storm and the inevitability of having to split his attention between her and the work he would have to do in Tokyo, however, it stressed him out more than anything.
Tyler considered spending his new-found isolation grading papers, but he couldn’t think of anything less appealing than trying to work in that old, musty building. Even if it did get his mind off of trying to figure out how he was going to explain to Angela that he planned on renewing his contract in Japan – away from her – for another six months.
He shook the thought away and let his attention drift to the news channel playing on the old TV. He couldn’t understand the reporter, but he didn’t need to.
Fukunaga Hiroko, the young lawyer from nearby Nagano who went missing on a hike in the Hida mountains nine days ago, was all anyone in Tyler’s small town of Obuse could talk about. The picture of that happy, round-faced young woman in her blue Adidas quarter-zip that her boyfriend posted on Instagram – the last known photo of her to exist – projected on the TV screen was slapped on the front of the local newspaper every day for the past week.
As grateful as Tyler was to be working in Japan, it was moments like these that made him wish he got to live in a town with enough going on where one missing woman didn’t get the Watergate news cycle. People got shot back home in Chicago all the time, and nobody seemed to care for more than an hour or two.
Tyler found a train schedule posted on the wall and walked over to it. The man behind the counter watched him with a scowl. He saw there was a train leaving for Nagano in 13 minutes. Perfect. From there he could transfer to the bullet train to Tokyo, and he could get a full night’s sleep and some change before his girlfriend and brother arrived.
Then, the man behind the counter shouted, “Densha ga…” pointing to the train schedule. Then, he crossed his arms in an “x” shape. “Arimasen.” There are no trains…
That couldn’t be right. Tyler approached the counter. He typed “When are the trains running again,” into Google Translate and showed it to the man. The man looked out the window, seeing how violently the snow was falling now and winced.
“Doko ni ikitainda,” the man asked.
“Nagano. Then Tokyo.”
“Nagano…Ashita,” he replied. Tomorrow.
“Ashita? No, I need to get to Tokyo tonight! Tokyo…Konban,” Tyler said, pointing to the ground for emphasis. “Can I get a taxi? Takushi ka?”
“Muzukashii ne…” the man hissed. It would be difficult. Tyler had lived in Japan long enough to know that was as good as a blanket no.
Tyler groaned, and a sense of dread started to wrap itself around him. He felt a little ashamed sleeping overnight in the station like some dirty vagabond, but at this point, he wasn’t sure what other options he had. He scanned the station for an outlet and dragged his feet over to the bench closest to it.
The old thing creaked under him as he sat down. He set his belongings down: a backpack and a few gifts he was bringing for people in Tokyo. A new Seiko watch for his brother, and some Korean cosmetics his friend Rachel, another English teacher he met in his new-arrival orientation in Tokyo six months ago, mentioned that she wanted.
He plugged his phone in and attempted to settle in for what might be a long night.
His phone vibrated. “I saw how much snow you’ve been getting. Thinking of you and please text me soon so I know you’re okay <3 Tokyo can’t come soon enough,” Angela texted. Rather than answering the text, he scrolled through his texts until he found his chain with Rachel.
“Hey,” He started to type. “Super excited to see you again, but this snowstorm is really delaying me getting to Tokyo. Might not quite make it tonight, but your present and I will try to make it ASAP.”
She responded instantly. “Bummer dude, I was really looking forward to seeing you. Any chance you’re free tomorrow night? Our first round is on me for all your effort getting here.”
Tyler was about to say yes, and he thought about Angela flying into Tokyo from Chicago that night. “Maybe. I hope so but I’ll keep you posted.” He said, an uneasy feeling in his stomach. Everything between Tyler and Rachel had been platonic, but in all of Tyler’s stories to Angela about his new friends and adventures since starting to work as an English teacher in Japan, he had always made an active effort to avoid bringing her up.
He considered just telling Rachel that she should join him, Angela, and his brother for drinks when they arrived. Then again, he was really looking forward to the possibility of getting some alone time with Rachel. Probably more than he should.
The lamp hanging from the ceiling buzzed, flickered, and went out for an agonizing couple of seconds before coming back on. Tyler’s heart jumped when he thought that old building might be losing power. The attendant just looked up from his book for a moment and then looked back down.
Tyler made a pillow out of his coat and lay down on the bench. He listened to static on the TV. The creaking of the old walls and rattling of the window frames as the wind pounded against them. He shivered and huddled his arms against his torso.
He tried to drift off to the passing of the ticking clock. An hour passed. Then two.
“Any update?” Rachel texted.
Rachel followed up, this time with a picture of her and a group of other young women at a chic, neon-lit bar. “The roomies and I are out in Ginza right now. Come meet us if you make it back tonight,” she said.
He knew he should stay. Wait out the storm till the morning and leave for Tokyo then. Miss his risky evening plans and focus on seeing his girlfriend. Still, as he looked at the pictures, and noticed Rachel’s smoky eyes and the tight black dress she wore, he felt an undeniable pull to let his instincts take the lead.
So, he grabbed his belongings and ran out in the cold. “Kiken,” the attendant called out behind him. Danger.
Tyler could barely open the door to leave with a pile of snow blocking it and the storm trying to slam it shut. He wasn’t entirely sure what his plan was. Maybe it was just to try to hail a cab or hitch a ride from someone passing by. There had to be someone eventually, right? All he knew was that some strange feeling demanded he leave the station no matter what.
He wandered out into the snow, realizing that the road had completely disappeared under a frozen sheet. Not that he’d be able to see it anyway – the moonlight was the only thing that was guiding him. That and his bizarre urge pulling him into the storm. It wasn’t just a claustrophobic desire to leave, or even to see that Rachel before his girlfriend was the wiser. It was something more. Something primal that he couldn’t put his finger on.
Tyler ventured further, losing sight of the station completely now. Fresh snow had already filled his zigzagging footprints. He slowly began to realize he was lost. Yet he had no desire to turn back. He was determined to find a way out, and he ran faster now.
The pull on him grew stronger and stronger. It warmed every inch of his body to the point where the freezing cold no longer bothered him, and the wind turned from a howl to a soothing lullaby.
Then, he saw something.
His vision was blurred by the flurries of snow surrounding him and kicking up into his eyes, but he was sure that there was something there among the snow.
It was white and no more than 100 feet in the distance. It moved. Not by the storm raging around it, but despite it. Against it. Whatever it was, it seemed to be alive, moving on its own accord in a way that seemed to Tyler somehow both aimless and deliberate.
The thing stopped, and it stood perfectly still. Tyler had no reason other than his intuition to tell him so, but in that moment, he was sure this thing was now watching him too.
He gazed at it, locked in a helpless trance. He watched it sway in the wind and as it stared back at him, and he felt something begin to stir in his gut. It wasn’t just his curiosity. He now felt himself being driven toward whatever was standing out in the snow. It was the same feeling that compelled him to leave the station for this winter night’s embrace. Tyler couldn’t say why, only that whatever was out there wanted him closer, and that he, without a second thought, would oblige.
As he got closer and closer, he realized this was no thing, but a woman. A woman with obsidian black hair and a round face standing just over five feet tall.
His mind instantly went to the woman who had disappeared.
Tyler broke out of his trance and ran toward her as fast as he could move through the layers of snow and razor-sharp chill in the air. He called out to her to get her attention, but she didn’t answer.
“Hiroko? Is that you,” he asked. She cocked her head in silence, as if she didn’t understand. “Hiroko,” he said again, pointing in her face this time.
No, this couldn’t be her. She didn’t look like anyone Tyler had ever seen. She had this ethereal and haunting beauty, like a character from a storybook or an old movie star. Like something ripped out of the past that couldn’t exist in the present. Yet, she stood right before him.
Her lips were subtle in size but sharp and bright crimson. Her eyes were deep and black. Despite her thin clothing and the bitter weather, she seemed completely unaffected, if not gleeful to be dancing with the snow.
She carried a bundle wrapped in blue fabric and wore nothing but a thin white kimono. “Are you alright? Daijyoubu desu ka,” Tyler asked. Other than a smile, she didn’t reply. Pressing the bundle into her chest, she reached a small, delicate hand out to him. Unsure what else to do, Tyler reached out and held it. He was shocked at how warm to the touch it was. Whoever this was, she must not have been out in this storm for very long.
“We should get you inside,” Tyler said hurriedly. She just kept smiling at him, rubbing her thumb against his fingers as she held them now. Her expression was blank and motionless. “Inside,” he repeated, pointing to the train station in the distance now, hoping to overcome their language barrier. “You’ll freeze to death out here.”
The woman’s expression shifted slightly, like she could understand what Tyler was saying. Yet, she only smiled and showed no indication that she would budge. She let go of Tyler, and with both hands, offered him the bundle she was holding.
It was heavier than he expected. Probably close to 10 pounds. As he examined it, he noticed the artificial fleece it was lined with. And the Adidas logo, stained red. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew she wanted him to open it.
Inside, eyes shut, perfectly still, was a baby.
Tyler’s heart began to race. His body began to shake. He put his hand to the child’s forehead. It was cold as ice. He couldn’t form the words to speak and ask the woman in front of him what was happening, what she wanted, or, as Tyler was beginning to dread, whether this child was even alive or not.
His intuition told him to check the baby’s heartbeat, but as he tried to move his hand from the baby’s back to its chest, he realized he couldn’t. His hands were completely frozen in place. He screamed and tried to shake the child from his hands, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Please,” Tyler begged. “Don’t just stand there! Can we get you inside, please? Is this your child? Is he okay? Just answer me, please! What is going on?” The more Tyler pleaded, the more the woman’s unresponsiveness began to fuel his sense of danger. He shut his eyes and opened them again, hoping he was stuck in some freakish dream, and that he would be back in that station.
He began to feel the bite of the cold creeping into his skin again. He wanted to run, but he had no idea where he would go, and he desperately needed to understand what this woman wanted from him.
Then, she wrapped a warm, tender hand behind Tyler’s neck and kissed him.
Tyler’s fear and anxiety began to melt away at the touch of her soft, red lips. Her tongue slid across his, and he let himself slip away into this moment he couldn’t fathom with this strange person he fathomed even less.
He closed his eyes and sank deeper and deeper into his passion. His thoughts and senses began to abandon him completely. Her hands slid up his shirt and clawed their way down his chest. It tickled at first, until he felt her long red nails curl their way into his skin and begin to peel. He could feel a trail of blood following them.
He wanted to tell her to stop, but no sound left his lips as he did. He wanted to take a step back, but his legs, just like his hands, were now completely stiff. She kissed his neck, and each touch of her lips felt like ice. The coldness spread throughout his body. Numbing him like novocaine and locking every joint and muscle in place. Yet, despite being fully aware of that, all he could think about was his pleasure and wanting to take just one more kiss from this strange woman in the snow.
Tyler collapsed onto his back, and the woman lay down next to him in the snow. The more she kissed him, the more the world around him seemed to disappear. Everything turned to black, and the cold became more and more agonizing. The air in his lungs seemed to freeze over, and he struggled to breathe.
After a moment, somehow, he was warmer. So warm. So at ease. Like a blanket was wrapping around him. There was no need to struggle. He didn’t have the energy for that anyway. He smiled as everything collapsed into darkness.
As the world, silent now, spun and drifted away now, the woman laughed.
#
The police arrived at that remote train station two days later. With a second disappearance in a week, people were starting to ask questions, and the governor needed answers.
They showed the lanky station attendant a picture of a tall, young American man in a Chicago Cubs hat and asked if he had ever seen him before. The attendant just took a drag of his cigarette and said no.
It was all so bizarre. The American’s friends knew he was leaving for Tokyo that night, but he hadn’t arrived there, or even to his first scheduled stop in Nagano.
There were no personal belongings or clues to be found anywhere between the victim’s apartment to the station. As far as the detective could tell, this young American had simply vanished.
The detective thanked the attendant for his time and bowed before leaving the station. The attendant bowed back, smiling as he reached into his pocket and ran his bony fingers over his new Seiko watch.
The End