“ Help me, Brother!”
Across a fire-blackened landscape, the cry echoes. He scans the charred surroundings, trying to locate the source, but the sound comes from everywhere at once.
“ Help me, Brother! They are killing me!”
“ Where are you?” he cries. “I can’t see! It’s too dark!”
Flames crackle to life before him, drenching the scene in lurid, crimson light. A ring of shadows twists around the figure of a man whose blood-spattered face he knows as well as his own.
“ Little Brother…”
He stands frozen, hands by his sides. The shadows howl in triumph. They engulf their victim, pulling him down.
“ Why do you not help me?” his brother screams as he falls. “Why are you letting them kill me?”
The shadows twist and heave, devouring their prey.
He steps backward and tumbles over the edge of a cliff…
Sadaiyo Sakehera jerked awake then sat upright, drenched in sweat.
“Goddess’ tits,” he whispered. Curled beside him in their bed, his wife Misune stirred but did not wake.
I remember!
Shaking with reaction from the flood of images in his head, he slipped out of bed and crouched on the floor beside the hearth. The fire had burnt down to a pile of glowing coals. Pushing a stray lock of hair from his face, he took a deep breath to slow his galloping heart.
He stared into the red light, but his eyes focused inward.
I remember all of it, just as the old man said I would! Goddess…What have I done?
What will I do now?
Sadaiyo crawled back into bed and pressed himself against his sleeping wife. He thought of his parents and how they would recoil in horror if they learned the truth.
They must never know. No one can ever know!
Will you haunt my dreams from now on, Little Brother?
Damn you!