The Girl from the Well

? ? ?

Callie jerks awake, suddenly aware of someone bending over her, and briefly she panics, attempting to struggle free.

“She’s awake!” someone says.

“Callie-san!” another person cries out, and dimly, Callie recalls knowing this voice.

“Callie-san. This is Kagura. Do you remember? Are you all right?”

Blinding light assails her vision when she opens her eyes, and Callie groans. She feels several people lifting her and setting her back down on something that feels softer and warmer than the hard ground she had been curled up on only moments before. She opens her eyes again, blinking rapidly. The light no longer hurts as much, but instead of the wooden walls and altar, she sees only tall trees around her, the sun peeking in through the canopy. She hears the louder sounds of rushing water, and she sees the area now filled with strangers dressed in pristine white. They are coming to take me away to Remney’s, too, she thinks, and suppresses the hysterical giggles threatening to burst through her lips.

“Callie-san,” Kagura says again, and Callie latches on to the familiarity of her voice, the genuine worry in her tone. “These are medical personnel from Mutsu. They’re going to put you inside their ambulance and bring you to the hospital, so you can be treated for your injuries. Do you understand me?”

Callie’s side feels stiff and numb, but she also feels something prodding at her side, trying to stanch the blood. She can see Kagura bending over her, looking pale and exhausted. The miko’s face has been cut badly, and her left eye is black and swollen.

“Tark,” Callie mumbles. “Where is Tark?”

Another head appears beside Kagura’s. It is the boy himself, looking just as worn and tired, but alert. Save for his bruises and his bandaged neck, he shows no other signs of injury.

“Callie,” he gasps out.

But Callie only smiles at him, relieved to see he is all right. “What about the others? Obaasan and Saya and Amaya?”

“Saya has a broken arm and leg, and she has a bad concussion, but the doctors think she will be all right. But for the others…” At this Kagura pauses and sadly shakes her head.

“I am sorry,” Callie whispers. Tarquin squeezes her hand.

“It is done. Chiyo’s spirit has been appeased, and that is what they would have wanted. I can only hope their spirits, too, are finally at rest.”

“Like fireflies,” Callie whispers.

“This is all my fault,” Tarquin says. On his arms and chest, all traces of the binding seals have disappeared.

“You are as much a victim as any of us, Tarquin-kun. Perhaps even more so…”

A male voice interrupts, talking in Japanese and sounding apologetic. The voices fade out, and Callie now feels herself being lifted into a small white van, where more people she does not know gather around her, issuing commands to one another. A small mask is inserted over her nose and mouth, and she takes a deep, grateful breath. She lifts her head, looking out the van’s doors, and sees Kagura and Tarquin standing side by side, looking anxiously back at her. Tarquin says something to the miko, who nods. He runs toward the van. “Can I ride with her?” he asks. “She’s my cousin…”

After a hurried discussion, they allow him inside the ambulance. He holds Callie’s hand as she drifts in and out of consciousness, as the van speeds along the small, unused road leading back into the city. Sometimes, when Callie comes to and remembers herself, she glances up at Tarquin, who is smiling encouragingly back, telling her in between the murmurs of the attendants and the squealing of sirens that things will be all right and that his father is going to kill him for all the trouble he’d caused, and she smiles at the reversal in their positions.

Why didn’t you go? she wants to ask me, but there is a marked change in the air, and she no longer feels my presence. For the first time since arriving in Japan, she does not feel the burden of spirits around them.