A Tempest - Short Horror Story

Inspired by an Onyrō, a Vengeful Spirit

This short horror story is a bit of backstory for Nari, the Onyrō, in my upcoming graphic novel, The Killing Stone. However, it’s a standalone spooky fiction piece about what can happen when you leave your rage unchecked.

A Tempest

Bon had just turned sixteen and should be attending high school, but his father had decided he would remain home and become a fisherman like all his ancestors before them. He insisted Bon’s skills and mind were better suited for the sea than the classroom. Bon’s mother had put it in harsher words—Bon was too simple to excel at school, mumbling something about how his name mocked her every day. Bon scowled as he steered his family’s old fishing boat out of the harbor toward the small collection of islands off the southern shores of Ōtsuki. This should be his freshman year, but instead he was trapped, smelling of bait and sea water, stuck in this sleepy rural town, a dead-end course already charted for him.

His face still stung from where his mother had slapped his face this morning, right after he had called his father a few choice names. He gently touched the red mark on his cheek, his anger burning even brighter. He wished his parents dead for what they had done to him. They kept him here to rot. They hadn’t sent him to the city for high school like they had his older sister. They chose her future over his, once again, and oh, how she had gloated when she had departed for the train station last week, gleefully giggling at his misfortune as she promised to write him about all the new things she would be doing. He hated her the most.

Bon, lost in his sorrow and anger, sped past his normal fishing spots off the shores of one of the larger islands, the wind blowing his hot tears off his cheeks. His heart sat like a plum pit in his stomach as he glared at the line of fishing poles and the large net at the front of the boat. Maybe his father could force him to be a fisherman, but he couldn’t make Bon excel at it. Bon swore he would never bring a fish home, no matter how many beatings it might get him. His failure would teach his selfish parents an important lesson.

Photo by Chris Flexen on Unsplash

A rock scratching against the bottom of his boat jerked him forward, forcing him out of his pity party. He slowed the vessel down and lifted up the motor as he maneuvered away from the rocks. Ahead of him was a tiny, rocky island he had never seen before. This surprised him for he thought he had explored all the islands off the coast. However, this one was very small, barely an island and easy to miss in the vast ocean. The idea of exploring a new island peeled one layer of his gloom away, at least for a moment.

This island did not have a normal shore, just high rocky walls. The slick black rock of the island was hallowed out and formed a sea cave. The waves crashed against the southern side, but the entrance was sheltered, its waterway calm. As he maneuvered the boat around the rocks, he discovered a clear path right into the cave’s entrance. Once inside, Bon spotted a strange and beautiful wooden dock, waiting for him. He whispered a prayer, keeping his eyes on the lantern hanging next to the dock glowing a warm golden light, beckoning him to come closer.

After his boat was secured, he stepped off the wooden dock onto the slick smooth rock of the sea cave’s floor. The golden light that reflected off the lapping waves cooled and became bluer like moonlight. A dark shadow crept across the rock and blocked out every last bit of sun in the small cavern. Bon began fumbling with the boat’s ropes, desperate to leave.

Photo by Simon Wijers on Unsplash

He froze when a path materialized near the deck, cutting the darkness like moonlight as it led toward a chamber in the back of the cave. Bon hesitated before securing the rope back to the deck. He believed in ghosts, especially ones tied to the sea. He knew they were lonely and desperate and would drag you to a watery grave if you weren’t careful.

He also wanted to know what was in that chamber even if it was a spirit, so he took a hesitant step forward and then another. With each step, he became less afraid of what might dwell in this cave and angrier about what his parents had done to him. The angrier he grew, the colder and darker the cave became. Bon glanced back to the place he had left his boat. An eerie wind blew from the chamber past him, and the path disappeared, and the lantern went dark, obscuring his boat and the dock. He turned back toward the chamber’s entrance, forcing himself toward it. When he stepped through the stone threshold into the chamber, his anger became a tempest that threatened to consume him. He had never felt anything like it. It was freezing and burning him all at once. An unnatural wail circled the chamber on a whistling wind, making Bon’s feelings rage uncontrollable and frenetic. He slammed his hands against his ears and howled back, releasing just a small bit of the energy building inside of him.

The chamber went quiet. Even the crashing of waves against the rock could no longer be heard. He slowly removed his hands from his ears and lifted his dark brown eyes.

Before him, there were five simple stone shrines, set up as points of a pentagram. Each shrine was made of five smooth rocks stacked atop one another. The lines they created shone dimly, illuminating the place.

Bon gasped and his hand flew to his mouth. Staring back at him, standing in the center of this pentagram was a pale, beautiful young woman with black silky hair that nearly touched the stone floor. Water dripped from the tips of her hair and slid down her ankles and arms. Her large eyes reflected the bluish-white light glowing up from the lines on the floor. Her lips curved ever-so-slightly.

She did not move toward him, only stared from her spot in the center of the shrines. He took a wary step toward the handmade shrine in front of him. “What are you doing here?”

“You are not the only one trapped and angry,” she responded.

“How would you know that I’m angry?” He studied her. His voice trembled as he tried to contain his turbulent rage.

She released an eerie and broken laugh as the veins on her face and arm began bulging and darkening. He stepped back upon seeing her full form, trembling at the spectral creature creeping toward him. She continued toward him, leaving wet footprints behind her. Her eyes were also bulging a bit. He backed away, his own veins raising as she moved closer. “Stop! What are you doing to me?”

She tilted her head. “Your rage is doing that to both of us.”

The horrible thoughts he was having about his family and what he wished would happen to him just kept getting darker. She smiled, revealing her monstrous mouth of teeth. “Have they really done something so terrible to deserve those awful things?”

“I don’t want—”

“Yes, you do. I can feel how badly you want them to suffer. I have felt that way. I do feel that way right now. I have someone I want to suffer too.” With each word, she took another soggy step toward Bon, until her bare toes lined up next to the shrine between them.

“W-what are you?”

“That’s a rude question. I am a young woman. My name is Nari. What are you?”

“I’m Bon, a fisher—” His rage rose up into his throat, stopping the word from leaving his mouth.

“You’re no fisherman, Bon. You’re a boy whose father won’t let you leave him. My father did the same to me. No one helped me, but I could help you.”

“How could you help me?”

“My father drowned me out on these waters because I wanted to make my own life without him. He was a selfish and cruel man who got exactly what he deserved. I destroyed him and everyone associated with him. I’ve wiped whole areas of this region out with tsunamis and disease. Your parents… and your sister won’t be much trouble.”

“You’re a spirit. An Onryō…”

Bon stumbled back, fearful. An Onryō was a very dangerous spirit filled with wrath who could do great harm. His father always said he wasted his time reading ghost stories, but he had always been fascinated by yōkai and was glad of it now. He examined her and the shrines again, realization dawning. “This is a ghost net, and it actually caught you.”

“Yes.” The girl looked annoyed but pleased with his knowledge. “A local man lured me here and trapped me using these shrines.”

Bon stepped back, examining the shrine in front of him. “And you can’t step outside the pentagram they create. I can’t believe geomancy actually works.”

“It is a very old and powerful divination but simple enough to counteract.”

“If you are human,” Bon added.

“Correct. It will be nothing for you to free me. Just take apart the shrine between us. Once you do that, I will help you with your family.”

Bon hesitated, knowing that this spirit was not to be trusted but then felt his rage build up again as Nari stepped closer. A powerful force took over as he approached the shrine. He was nearly blinded by the growing anger inside of him. He dismantled the shrine, rock by rock, and kicked the pieces away in a fury. The room went black as the glowing pentagram disappeared.

He could see nothing. The briny scent of the sea intensified and filled up the room as wet footsteps sounded in the dark, getting closer and closer to Bon.

Nari’s pale face emerged out of the darkness, crunching the few pebbles that remained of the dismantled shrine. She licked her black lips as she slinked the rest of the way to him. Her wet hair brushed his arm and smelled like the ocean first thing in the morning. Her cool cheek touched his when she whispered, “you aren’t nearly angry enough.”

She moved past him. He turned, cheeks flushed. “What does that mean?” He stumbled after Nari. The darkness that blocked the sun was pulling back into her as she got closer to the water. “You don’t really want me to do those awful things to your family.”

He felt his veins bulge again and the rage build. “I do want you to do those things! You owe me. I freed you.”

Nari flipped around and her face transformed to its most terrifying version. “By letting you live, I am granting you a great favor! My debt is paid. Do not push it, mortal!”

Her eyes grew to four times their normal size, throbbing and changing from fish to human eye. Her mouth opened to reveal several rows of teeth that led to a blackhole of a mouth. Her scream sounded like a thousand angry ancestors wailing for justice. She smelled primordial and sulphury. Her hair flew up and twirled around him, pulling him toward her mouth.

He screamed and began sobbing as he faced the abyss of her wrath and power. Her hair wrapped around his face and squeezed his chest. He couldn’t take a breath for what felt like minutes.

Her hair released him, and he fell to the ground, coughing. Her face went back to her most human and tranquil form. He struggled to breathe, gazing up at this sad, beautiful woman. “Leave your anger with me when you leave this place, or it will destroy you.”

He scrambled toward the dock and his boat. He didn’t dare turn back as he untied his boat and pushed off the dock. As his boat exited the mouth of the cave, he finally stole a glance backwards. Nari was gone.

As he maneuvered his way back through the rocky waters, the ghostly island faded until it was nothing more than a memory. Blinking, he tried to will it back into existence, but the place was gone, only waves remained. Bon tried to steady his shaky hands as he turned back toward home. After passing several of the larger islands, he spotted a pale head with long black hair emerge and then disappear back underneath the water, swimming toward his island. As she swam, the waves increased in size and the skies darkened. Thunder rumbled, and lightning cracked. A powerful storm was forming as all the boats rushed off the water. Bon struggled through the rough waters into the harbor, just beating the typhoon home. He searched the water for Nari, but she did not emerge again. Bon began to accept that his unchecked anger had unleashed a raging tempest upon his small rural town. He knew he should feel guilty, but he couldn’t. He loved a good storm.

Wicked Tree Press Update:

Many, many years later, Nari will end up as a student at Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters. She is a very different spirit by then and will need to help Shel and team track down another deadly and powerful yōkai, Tamamo-no-Mae.

Be sure to follow the pre-launch page for The Killing Stone so not to miss her story.

Also, for those of you attending L.A. Comic Con, Wicked Tree Press will be in Artist Alley at K20. Please stop by to chat and to pick up a book and a fun freebie.